Chapter 4: Two Lives
1938 Words
Leading a group comprised of armed guards and medical staffs, General Fair greeted them. Then, upon he and the general’s daughter, Magenta, had disembarked from his back, Magnum immediately rushed to the lake beside the headquarters to wash himself.
“My apology to your friend on my daughter’s behalf,” the general said, glancing to Magnum after the medical staffs and the guards ushered his daughter away. “And thank you, for bringing her back.”
“I appreciate the sentiment and I do not want to spoil it but, that’s not why I accepted the task,” he replied.
The general nodded, “Of course.” Then with a gesture, one of the remaining guards responded to move forward and hand over a case to him. “As agreed, the Amylian Steel. All hundred pounds of it.”
Wanda took the case, scanned it, felt its weight. Certain that nothing’s amiss, he saluted to the general and bid him and his men farewell.
“Wait!” However, the general expectedly stopped him. “Is there a chance that we could extend your service? We could really use someone of your skills. You can name your price.”
“We don’t do long terms.” He then saluted to him again, “Take care, general. We might see each other again.”
To his signal, Magnum immediately jumped out of the water and the next minute, they are jumping into the dimensional stem.
“Did he pitch?” Magnum asked.
“It’s to be expected,” he said.
Both sides are aiming to gain the war’s favour and having a Wanderer by their side could provide that. However, Wanderers are all raised to make their trainings and cultivation as their utmost priorities. Therefore, they rarely concern themselves with the existing inter-dimensional conflicts. After all, war and peace for them are nothing more than just phases of the passing time.
Neither is eternal.
They come and they go. That’s all there is to both.
Only the Mana and the concept of combat are eternal.
[OPEN! PORTAL!]
Finally, after leaving the range covered by Atilla’s detection, he roused and combined three capsules, a combination which generated a portal.
This combination is unique. The product is neither for combat nor for travel convenience but entirely for granting access to an specific location in the Galactic Tree in which through standard transportation means, including the back channel, would be entirely inaccessible due to its current status as a ruined world.
The place is called the Radiance Grave, a massive sequoia floating in the middle of a void and the remnant of this ruined realm of Mal.
Magnum entered the tree’s trunk, accessing it through a decent but barely noticeable gap. Inside, a combination of a training ground, a library, a smithy, and an armoury revealed itself. This place is their base or ‘haven’ as how they, the Wanderers, generally addressed it.
Jumping off of Magnum’s back, his armour set shone, peeled from his body and absorbed into one of his capsules. He then stretched his neck and removed the dark goggles wrapped around his head, freeing his pale pair of eyes that emits no light while Magnum shrunk himself to the size of a sparrow before jumping onto the top of his head.
“Disregarding the puking, that was a nice quick grab,” Magnum remarked, his voice high-pitched now due to his current size.
Absolutely! Amylian Steel is a rare and highly sought metal especially among the Wanderers. As a weapon and armour, it is light and highly tolerant to damage with integrity that can last for decades. Receiving a hundred pounds of pure Amylian ingots for a simple rescue job is a massive win.
“So, what are you gonna forge with it?” Magnum asked next.
“I’m gonna reinforce my armour first then I’ll attempt a blade for that sword again,” was his reply. “But that’s for later. There’s that meeting with those old farts tomorrow so we need to return to our ‘parallels’ today.”
“You have to compensate me for being puked at,” Magnum demanded. “First thing we do, we eat a lot of goblin spare ribs.”
“That can be arranged,” he assured him.
Following that, Magnum returned to his normal size however, his form this time around is not of his blue, organic form. Instead, his appearance is a Dragon made entirely of jade. Wanda, on the other hand, sat cross-legged on the floor and interlaced his fingers right above his navel before closing his eyes. Magnum then proceeds to wrap him with his wings and his jade body melts, encapsulating Wanda’s whole frame. Ultimately, Magnum had morphed into a huge cluster of spiky jades with him contained inside it.
At this point, his and Magnum’s consciousness experienced the sensation of being catapulted at lightspeed before it totally went blank.
◆◆◆◆◆◆
When his consciousness returned, his world is still in darkness. Whether in this or as Wanda, the blindness is an unchangeable reality as it was a price he paid to obtain a certain power.
However, in terms of his surrounding’s condition, it vastly differs. In his haven, it is rough and tough but here, everything, starting from this hidden chamber up to the rest of his estate, is neat, organized, and luxurious in an extent.
Of course, that’s to be expected since his identity right now is that of Lugiel Zolrath, the 7th Young Master of Clan Fawkes.
“Yehey, it’s good to be back here!” In the form of an actual sparrow now, Magnum cheerfully cheered, happy to return into this identity.
Despite the cost of losing his mighty form and clad the body of an inferior specie, the peace and comfort this life provide is enough for Magnum to disregard the blatant inconvenience.
Lugiel just smiled to his partner’s enthusiasm as he stood from the floor, unhooking himself from the meditating position this body maintained while frozen in the jade for nearly four days.
This is the entirety of his reality and identity. He is one soul and one consciousness maintaining two separate personas with Magnum serving as the gateway. One is the Wanderer, battle-ridden and feared. The other is the nineteen year old blind Young Master of Clan Fawkes. Wealthy, cultured, and respected but is openly known as a cripple.
Interchangeable lives with respective pros and cons.
Lugiel immediately headed to his armoire upon exiting the hidden chamber for a fresh set clothing and a blindfold to cover his eyes.
As the Head of the Alchemy Tower as well as being the Chief Alchemist himself, he can disappear for days under the claim of conducting experiments and therefore, allowing him to fulfil his creed as a Wanderer. However, given the magnitude of his status and the responsibilities he built around it in tandem with the authority and connections, the absence can’t be prolonged.
Immediately, he summoned the housemaids and instructed them to prepare a banquet for the evening. Aside from the dated Leaders Assembly tomorrow, he had also arranged his own assembly today with the Masters of the Alchemy Tower with his residence as the host.
The sun disappeared below the horizon and the dark night soon descended. The Masters of the Alchemy Tower then arrived into his residence one after another.
“Why did you summon us, Headmaster?” Upon the start of the meal, Master Raine, the Master of Logistics, immediately inquired.
Lugiel ceased feeding Magnum with the goblin spare ribs and pulled out a total of four parchments, one for each of the Masters, and handed it over to them. Then immediately, he spoke of the matter as they open their respective parchments. “As you all know, tomorrow is the first Leaders Assembly of the Clan since we took over the Tower and I’m sure that the succession candidates and those that support them will raise some bullshit claims to take the Tower from us.”
If people are asked to imagine the appearance of an Alchemist, the first to register to mind are long white bearded men that had neglected several aspects of their lives for the sake of their alchemic advancement, situational clichés like that. To be fair to them, more than a year ago, that was exactly what the people in charge of the Alchemy Tower looked like.
Unfortunately, they are also old and had reached the limit of their alchemic practices decades ago. Due to that, the Alchemy Tower was in a decline ever since to the point that the Clan was even importing potions and pills from external parties.
Then, he took over. The previous Headmaster, who is also his acting guardian and alchemy mentor, passes away while the other Masters, unwilling to carry the burden of managing the declining Alchemy Tower, retired.
With no other suitable candidate to take the responsibility and him, being the previous Headmaster’s protégé, the management of the Tower was ultimately entrusted to him.
There are no expectations and most, especially those from his family, had even ridiculed him saying that the useless Alchemy Tower just suits a useless cripple like him.
Unbeknown to them, before he created Lugiel Zolrath to be born into Clan Fawkes, he was already a several decades old human sub-specie for a Wanderer that had already ventured several nooks and crannies of the Galactic Tree. On top of that, his Wanderer Master was just as brilliant of a scholar as he is with his blade.
Hence, they were completely caught off-guard when by only three months after he and the new Masters had took over, they’d already established a stable mass production of alchemic products with 20% more potency compared to those imported by the Clan. Three months more and a stable network towards the northern Outer and Mid Branches were also established.
Now, after a year, the Alchemy Tower is even greater than its former peak prior to its decline and everyone in the Clan now covets to control it.
Lugiel was orphaned ten years ago after his House, the House Talene, led by his parents, stopped the worst wave the Grimlands suffered over the last five hundred years, making him and his House an unaffiliated in the Clan Master succession due to his father’s death. Since then, he was placed under the care of the Alchemy Tower which is also unaffiliated and unsupported due to its decline.
Now that the Tower is restored and had even reached a greater height, he wanted to keep the status quo the same but the other Houses and sectors that are still in the power struggle for the succession does not share his sentiment.
They will use every chance and every excuse to acquire control over the Tower.
“So,” Lugiel continued. “To force them to step back, we must thoroughly convince the Clan and the Clan Master that the Tower can only reach greater heights under our authority. I’ll accomplish it tomorrow through that.”
He indicated the parchments.
Reading the content of the parchment, the Masters’ eyes immediately rounded, simultaneously exclaiming, “Are you serious!?” “You can do this!?”
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