The black sun hangs high

Chapter 6 Night Owls

Although Putrin still liked to visit Ernst's old house whenever he had the chance, he actually had his own place to live, so after walking two intersections together, Hugh parted ways with his friend.

The pungent smell in the air was still noticeable, and many people who had been drinking and were walking at night covered their noses. Some even vomited due to the stench.

"The sound I heard earlier came from this direction, yes, right on my way home."

Intuition and logic told Hugh that any unusual phenomena that had recently occurred in Seren could reveal future developments.

He became more alert and began to move quickly along the shadows of the buildings beside the road, but he hadn't gone far when he saw roadblocks and swaying figures.

Several enormous magic crystal lamps were placed on both sides of the road, their bright light covering the surface. Beside them, police officers from the city of Seren were busy at work, and standing beside them were two mages dressed in the standard robes of the Law Council; judging from their figures, they should be a man and a woman.

As Hugh walked in the darkness, he suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold, as if someone was watching him. The feeling was so strong that he couldn't ignore it.

After glancing at the two mages standing in the middle of the road, Hugh stepped out of the shadows with unsteady steps. He tugged at his beer-soaked clothes and then called out to the officers, "Hey! Gentlemen, what's going on here?"

The monks remained silent, while the police officers were less than friendly. One of them immediately snapped, "This is none of your business, get out of here!"

“But this is the way home, sir… I live in Ernst’s old house!”

"Oh, it's you."

The officers immediately realized what was going on. Although they didn't know Hugh, they all knew that the unfortunate illegitimate son living in Ernst's old house was always adding "color" to their leisure time. Therefore, their initially stern attitude softened immediately.

"Mr. Ernst, please take a detour. There has been some unexpected trouble here."

The officer raised his lighting device, a long, cylindrical metal instrument filled with magical crystalline minerals. Combined with symbols and patterns engraved on the metal tube, it could emit light using magic.

If he could, Hugh would prefer to call it a "flashlight".

The officer pointed to a side road: "Take Mrs. Small Road, it's not much further!"

Hugh nodded, shouted his thanks, and then, with his somewhat disordered steps, disappeared from the sight of the police officers and mages, just like those who had actually been drinking.

He should have quickened his pace and walked like a normal person, but the chill on his back did not disappear, so Hugh cautiously maintained his somewhat unsteady steps.

And so, a young man, drunk and returning home late at night, walked alone on this secluded path.

A public water fountain by the roadside saved his life.

Under that cold "gaze," the young figure rushed to the pool. He struggled to scoop up the icy water with his hands, drank a couple of mouthfuls, and then barely managed to wash his face.

This made him look even more disheveled, but the chill in the water finally brought him back to his senses, so he continued walking forward.

That inexplicable sense of tension disappeared.

Hugh continued forward, his back already drenched in cold sweat, and the enormous gear that had been slowly turning in his mental world finally came to a stop.

He was almost certain that he had just been targeted.

There will inevitably be a connection between different magical powers. Obviously, the magical inscription I experienced was not perfect, and some of the leaked traces could easily attract the attention of other professional mages.

Fortunately, the two members of the Legislative Affairs Commission did not stop him from questioning her.

In Vaan, any spellcaster who can control magic but is not registered with the Legal Committee will be directly marked as a "wild mage" by the Legal Committee. The Legal Committee's style of behavior has always been extremely domineering. You either join or become the target of bounties and control, without exception.

"I have no way of explaining the source of my magic to the law committee right now... Ugh, the trouble is just getting worse."

As Hugh was thinking, he couldn't help but turn his head to look at the buildings on his left.

This alley, named after the famous businesswoman "Mrs. Small," is actually a cluster of general stores. Both sides of the alley are lined with shops of all sizes, most of which sell daily necessities and groceries. As a result, they close early and the shop owners are mostly well-off, so they don't live in their shops.

The pungent smell was already very strong.

Hughes judged that he was now very, very close to the place where the loud noise came from, and it was very likely that the place was behind these shops, only a few dozen steps away from him.

He stood quietly by the roadside for a while, straining his ears to listen, but he couldn't hear a sound at all.

"Strange... The streets were cordoned off, but no one was at the scene dealing with the situation?"

Hugh narrowed his eyes. Just as he was about to investigate further, a series of loud noises suddenly came from the shop next door. It sounded like something was darting and crawling rapidly in the dark and crashing into the empty boxes and cabinets.

Hugh quickly took two steps back.

The streetlights were dim, and the few magic crystal lamps embedded in the walls were very old. Their dim yellow light made the night seem even more murky and deep.

It was quiet all around. At that moment, Hugh could only hear the sound of his own heart pounding.

The sounds from the other side of the wall ceased, but this sudden silence was all the more terrifying.

Hugh shifted his leg slightly, his boots scraping against the cobblestones on the street. However, with this movement, another loud noise came from the general store.

This time, Hugh heard it very clearly.

The source of the sound was moving in its direction.

The streets then fell silent once more.

The feeling was incredibly eerie. Hugh felt as if the wall in front of him had become a mirror, and behind the mirror was a shadow that mimicked his movements, instantly "responding" to any action he took. "What on earth is this thing?"

Hughes thought quickly, and the magical gears hidden in his mental world began to turn once again. He raised his right hand slightly, aiming it at the direction from which the sound came, and the only magic engraved in his body was ready to be unleashed.

"what are you doing here?"

A sudden sound broke the terrible stalemate. The instant the sound rang out, Hugh heard a series of commotions coming from inside the shop. The things hidden in the darkness, like beasts that had sensed a threat, instantly moved away from the wall and retreated back into the darkness.

Hughes turned his head and saw a figure holding a magic lantern.

In the dim light, the flowing, elegant robes of the Legal Affairs Committee draped over the body, highlighting the lines of the figure with exceptional clarity.

"Madam...I...I heard some noises in here, maybe there's a thief?"

Hugh's skin was already pale, and water droplets from washing his face were still clinging to it. His right hand, which was about to release magic, casually pointed towards the shop where the sound was coming from. He now looked like an exemplary citizen actively reporting an anomaly.

The figure approached, and the gradually raised magic lantern illuminated a delicate yet unusually cold face.

At that moment, Hugh felt that needle-like chill once again, as if countless eyes were watching him.

"Hmm, is that you?"

Her indifferent gaze swept over Hugh's pale face. Perhaps it was because the young man in front of her looked somewhat disheveled, or perhaps it was because Hugh's clothes reeked of alcohol, but the female mage did not continue forward. Instead, she stopped a few steps away, hung her magic lantern at her waist, and then grasped a spellbook with intricate patterns on its cover.

An exquisite badge carved from crystal minerals dangled from the book. Hugh glanced at it briefly and saw that it seemed to depict a lake with rippling waves.

Clearly, standing before Hugh was a young and exceptionally skilled "lake-level" spellcaster.

It is excellent in every respect.

“I’ve heard those people talk about you, Mr. Ernst, haven’t you?”

As she spoke, the female mage's indifferent gaze took on a scrutinizing quality. She carefully examined Hugh from head to toe, from his hair to his clothes to the manuscripts he carried with him, not missing a single detail.

Then she turned to the shop next door: "Alright, that's all for you... Please go back and rest, Mr. Ernst. Perhaps one of my colleagues will come to visit you tomorrow to ask you some questions. Don't be nervous, it's just a routine procedure."

"Okay...okay, I understand. Please be careful, ma'am."

Hugh lowered his head slightly: "The sounds in here are strange; they don't sound like the shop owner's dog..."

"Ah."

The female mage didn't seem to care much about Hugh's well-intentioned reminder. She shook her head slightly, signaling Hugh to leave quickly, and then walked to the wall and slightly raised the spellbook in her hand.

Although Hugh was eager to see what a Lake-level mage, considered a backbone of the Law Council, looked like when casting spells, reason made him choose to back down at this moment. So he quickly turned around and left the somewhat narrow "Mrs. Small" shopping street with slightly unsteady steps.

The chill that had been pressing down on his back lasted for a long time, until Hughes could see the familiar old house, at which point the strange feeling slowly disappeared.

Just like during the day, after entering the old house, Hugh locked the courtyard, doors, and windows, ensuring that no one else could enter except for Putrin, who also had a key.

The bedroom door was still lying in the hallway. Hugh had a lot of effort to drag it to the storage room. For the time being, he could only use a curtain instead of a door.

As he changed his clothes and sheets, everything he saw and heard on his way home kept flashing through Hugh's mind. He didn't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but the target was already fixed there, and it wouldn't change in the slightest because of his personal will.

"Something must have happened in the city to make those lazy police officers take action in the middle of the night, and even to have two spellcasters of the Lake level or above appear. This is enough to show how serious the matter is."

After taking care of everything, Hugh dragged his tired body to bed. The small wooden box that had previously held the twenty silver coins was now empty, a tangible reminder that he was in a wondrous world where invisible forces could influence matter.

"Perhaps I should explore the world of dreams more. I still know nothing about its secrets. Maybe I can find some cheaper 'exchange' conditions there. Right now, any new discovery or improvement is important to me."

With this thought in mind, Hugh quickly cleared his mind, turned off the magic light in his bedroom, and once again plunged himself into the embrace of darkness.

……

The office, filled with traces of the past, appeared before Hugh once again.

He sat at his own "workstation," his gaze sweeping over the drawer he had opened with twenty silver coins. After taking a deep breath, he stood up and began to "inspect" the corridor that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

As he approached, the black text sealing various devices, furniture, and containers appeared and disappeared repeatedly, revealing one harsh and bizarre condition after another to Hugh.

As he examined the conditions, he began to categorize them in his mind.

"It seems that the conditions here can be roughly divided into three categories..."

"The first type is the more basic material type, which includes more specific monetary or collectible requirements, such as a specific number of gold coins, a set of jewelry, or a certain number of a certain gemstone. The value fluctuations in this type are extremely exaggerated, ranging from dozens of gold coins to hundreds of top-grade crystal ores. However, in fact, this is the easiest type of target to achieve."

"The second type is more inclined towards achievements and status. Although the conditions here are mostly proposed in the form of specific things, they are all similar to proof of a certain title or a symbol that can represent a specific social status, such as a badge proving the level of a mage or a collection directly issued by the kingdom to nobles to prove their identity."

"And the third type..."

Hugh stopped in front of a "water dispenser," his expression turning somewhat strange, because the black mist enveloping the dispenser created a rather bizarre situation.

"The bodily fluids of a Corrupting Flying Dragon? Putting that stuff in a water dispenser... are you serious?"

(End of this chapter)