"A gathering of the Trinate royal family?" Colin asked aloud.
"Um..." Hawthorne's face flashed with a trace of subtle embarrassment, and he paused and explained:
"To be precise, it was a gathering of businessmen hosted by the royal family. The main guests invited were major businessmen from all over Fabados.
But the host is a member of the royal family...usually, either a prince or a princess."
Colin's attitude was gentler than he expected.
But the more this happened, the more he couldn't handle it as well as he could with those business partners.
The rhythm of the words cannot be controlled freely in my own hands.
Colin nodded slightly and listened patiently to Hawthorne's words, then shook his head and declined:
"Sorry, I'm not interested in parties."
"Your Excellency Nader, at the same time as every gathering, there will also be a small auction." Hawthorne seemed to have expected it, and he quickly continued:
"I learned from it that among the items in this auction, there is a token of the Lanti School in Meredith City.
With it, you can join the real wizard school."
'I see.'
At this moment Colin finally realized.
No wonder Hawthorn was sure to come over and invite him to some party.
It turned out that he thought he was a wandering wizard.
For wandering wizards, a token that allows them to join a wizarding school is naturally very tempting.
However, for him, a wizard who had already joined the second-tier school in Neustadt - the Tin Sage School, the so-called Lanti School's token seemed a bit lackluster.
However, Hawthorne's purpose... Colin's mind turned and he speculated——
I'm afraid... you want to take advantage of the situation, or to form a good relationship?
After all, if he went to attend the auction, he would definitely participate through Hawthorne's channels.
Naturally, it will be labeled as the Hawthorne force.
Other than that, there shouldn't be much.
The party itself shouldn't be risky...Hawthorn doesn't seem like a fool.
Colin mused to himself, he didn't feel anything at all.
If he was a wandering wizard, this might be a win-win situation.
It's a pity... he is not a wandering wizard and has no such needs.
"Sorry, I have no intention of joining the school."
So Colin looked at Hawthorn, declined again, and then paused and said:
"Is there anything else Mr. Hawthorne has to do? If not, I have something else to do later..."
When Hawthorn heard his words, his expression was obviously stunned.
He didn't expect that Colin in front of him had no interest in the tokens that would allow him to join the school...
Could it be that there is already a token?
"The Lanti School is one of the top 100 schools in Meredith City, and it is famous for its loose conditions for joining." Hawthorne emphasized again unwillingly.
As for Colin already being a member of the school... he had thought about this possibility, but in the end he felt it was unlikely.
Whether it is Colin's attitude towards others or Colin's behavior when he came to Nanao, he was more like a wandering wizard.
Those sects of wizards have always been superior.
Even the mildest among them can only feel arrogance in their gentle attitude.
It will never be as natural as Colin.
He speculated that the greater possibility was that Colin already had a token to join the school, or that he really did not intend to join the school.
"Feel sorry."
After listening to Hawthorne's words, Colin put away his smile and calmly shook his head again.
The rejection has been very obvious.
When Hawthorn saw this, his heart trembled. After sighing secretly, he left decisively:
"Since Mr. Colin has no such idea, I won't disturb you any more."
"Um."
After Hawthorne left, Colin stood up and went to the study window, quietly looking down at Hawthorne walking out of the door of the villa, walking through the small courtyard, and then leaving.
Hawthorn is a man who knows how to advance and retreat, and he doesn't get entangled too much.
If this trip was for vacation, he would have the leisure to follow Hawthorne to see what the party held by the world's royal family was like.
It should all be about increasing your knowledge and experiencing the local customs.
However, time is still too precious for him now.
The war was still going on, and he didn't have so much time to waste elsewhere.
Withdrawing his gaze, Colin silently walked towards the meditation room.
The knight has successfully advanced all the way, and there is no need to spend so much time on Yin Guang Breathing Technique for the time being.
There is no need to wait for the body transformation to be completed. Now he has exceeded the requirements for strengthening the foundation of the body.
What he needs to do is to strengthen the connection between the strengthened body and the soul...
This is also the final step in strengthening the foundation of the body.
What you also need to do, of course, is meditate and improve your wizard level.
When all these are completed, it will be the time for him to return to the city of Neuinstadt.
…
On the banks of the Lebo River.
Hawthorn walked out of Villa No. 5. Although his face was as calm as water, his steps were no longer as brisk as before.
"grown ups?"
The personal guard of the great knight came forward and asked in a low voice.
Beside him, there were two young people standing at this time, a man and a woman.
"Dad! Why did you ask me to come here? I made an appointment with Karl to go hunting today!"
Among the two, the younger boy complained with some dissatisfaction.
"Father." The girl next to him, about fifteen or sixteen years old, greeted softly, with a calm temperament.
Hawthorn glanced at his son and said nothing more.
He just turned around and looked at his daughter beside him and responded softly.
The young man on the other side immediately calmed down after glancing at Hawthorne, and quickly shut up, daring not to say anything more.
According to his experience, his father may be in a bad mood now, so he would rather not take the initiative to get into trouble!
Hawthorne took the lead and walked forward.
He originally called this pair of children, hoping to take the opportunity to introduce them to the Nader wizard... and maybe even become his disciple.
For a real estate developer like him, although he can occasionally learn about the appearance of school tokens, he only knows about them.
It is extremely difficult to obtain it.
In other words, even if you can spend your fortune and lose everything in exchange for one, you probably won't be able to keep it.
So if he could get a wandering wizard as his teacher, it would already be a good choice in his mind.
Unfortunately, his attitude towards Colin has obviously reached a critical point.
If you make unnecessary demands again, it will turn a good thing into a bad thing, and the goodwill accumulated before will be wiped out.
So in the end, he didn't bring it up again.
"pity……"
"It seems that we have to find other hope for this gathering, otherwise..."
Hawthorn turned his head and looked at the Lebo River, feeling a little disappointed and sighing softly.
Wealth is just the icing on the cake for power.
But strength is to wealth what branches are to leaves, and cannot be lacking.
Otherwise, it will surely wither and wither.
…
At the same time, in Neustadt.
There are also people who are sighing.
It's Ahi from the Hitos family.
However, unlike Hawthorne's sigh, Axi's sigh was cold and deadly.
"You mean that all the 'shadows' except you have been eliminated by Atbold?"
In the study, Axi sighed and then asked slowly.
The black mist on the surface of the black figure in front of him vibrated regularly for a moment, sending a certain message to him.
"If that's the case, then why are you coming back?"
A smile appeared on Aki's face, but he spoke cold words.
After saying that, he turned around and walked to the window.
At the same time, the black mist on the black figure facing him behind him suddenly shrank as if it came to life, squeezing the black figure and making a creaking sound.
The shadow desperately tried to control the black mist that had been commanded like an arm in the past, but it was in vain.
After a moment, dark red blood spurted out from the gaps in the black mist, forming several blood pillars.
It looks like a juicy fruit has been squeezed hard and the juice is splashing everywhere.
"What a disgusting scene."
At some point, Axi turned his head. He was leaning against the window, and the sun was shining from behind him, hiding his expression in the shadows, making it difficult to see clearly.
thump.
After a while, the black mist gradually dissipated, seemingly due to the death of the host, and the shadow that had turned into minced meat lost its support and fell heavily to the ground.
Through the sunlight shining in from the window, one could vaguely make out the ball of minced meat on the carpet, which seemed to be that of a naked human woman.
Some black traces of transformation can still be faintly seen on the partially intact skin.
Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the mouth and nose on the woman's head, which are tightly sewn together with dense black silk threads, making it look oozing and disgusting.
But Aki on the side was completely unaware and didn't care at all about the dark red blood splashing everywhere.
"Where did you hide the loader?"
He just leaned against the window quietly and continued to murmur silently.
He seems to be talking to himself, but also seems to be talking to someone.
After a while, Axi straightened up with a stern look on his face.
He doesn't plan to wait any longer, he wants to go and deal with Atbold himself and find that thing!
Tuk-tuk-tuk——
But at this moment, there was a knock on the door.
"Master, your uncle is here."
The reformed maid outside the door whispered.
A hint of impatience flashed across Axi's face, he straightened up from the window, stepped over the minced meat on the ground, pushed the door open and walked out.
Walking down the spiral staircase, Aki's expression had become calm.
"Uncle Qiao Yins, why are you here?" A smile appeared on his face, and he said in surprise to the slightly wealthy middle-aged man in the living room.
However, Qiao Yins on the side was not in a hurry to respond. He stared at Axi's bloody soles and said coldly:
"Are you still studying those witchcrafts?"
"It's just some little tricks." Yaxi suppressed his smile, calmly walked to the sofa and sat down opposite Qiao Yins.
Qiao Yins looked at his appearance, and her cold expression suddenly turned melancholy.
"It has been more than sixty years, Axi." He whispered, "Plain Rudolph is dead, and what happened back then is over."
"Not yet." Axi shook his head calmly and leaned completely on the back of the sofa.
Qiao Yins was silent for a while and then said:
"The family hopes that you will stop targeting Atbald, focus on your own cultivation, and stop studying meaningless witchcraft...or you can take on some necessary work."
Yaxi sneered and continued:
"The family hopes? Atebold is just a dying cripple. Will the family take him seriously?
That's what you hope for, Uncle Joyce!"
"I am doing it for your own good, although an Atbald is nothing.
But this is after all a case of members of a fellow school sect fighting each other, and it would be a big taboo if they were discovered." Qiao Yins continued.
He looked at Axi and said in a deep voice:
"It's time for you to move on. Over the past sixty years, your cultivation has made almost no progress. Do you know how many younger generations have surpassed you?"
"Uncle Qiao Yins, you are twenty years older than me, so you are still on the same level as me." Yaxi choked back.
"..."
Qiao Yinsi's face froze, he lost the momentum of teaching, paused, and finally said in a deep voice:
"Anyway, you have to know, Aki, that level is the most important thing for a wizard."
"If you want to deal with Altbould, then go ahead, but remember, you must be fully prepared. Manager Field may be able to help you."
Yaxi watched Qiao Yins leave and did not get up to see him off. He just sat quietly on the sofa.
He doesn't like Joyce not only because of his controlling attitude.
It's even more because of his dead father...
but.
Qiao Yins has always made one mistake.
Aki sank his body deeply into the leather sofa and stared at the ceiling in trance.
It's not that he is unwilling to continue to improve his strength over the years.
But there is no way to improve the strength at all.
"Pu Lan...I obtained the secret technique of transformation back then, but you said you found nothing in the rooms you searched.
I believed it, and I shared my secret technique with you, but you said you found it disgusting and didn't want to practice it."
"But why, after this, you suddenly became Jin Yu?"
Axi's eyes were in trance, and his lips moved silently.
Hatred and ridicule spread out from every corner of his face.
"People later thought you were a genius since you were a child, but I am the only one who knows that you are not. Those are just false rumors. You are just an ordinary wizard no different from me."
"What a coincidence, the secret technique I obtained happened to be missing the most critical carrier.
If I had it, I wouldn't be in a situation where my qualifications have regressed, and I'm still at the second level now."
"If it exists, according to the secret technique -
I already have talents that are above level A!"
"Just like you, right? Pulan!"
Thinking of this, Yaxi already gritted his teeth and looked ferocious.
After a while, he regained his composure, slowly got up from the sofa and walked up the stairs.
When he passed the corner of the stairs, he stopped for a moment.
On the dark green wall here hangs a portrait of a beautiful high elf.
The artist's skills are excellent and the characters are drawn vividly.
Her blond hair is smooth, her facial features are exquisite, and her temperament is as tranquil as water.
'Octavier...'
Axi murmured, but he couldn't understand the meaning.
He turned around and continued walking upstairs.
As Joyce said, if you want to deal with Altbould, you must not be reckless, and you need to make some preparations.