Knight and Wand

Chapter 351 Magic Apprentice and the Alliance City

In the open space in the center of the town, the crowd gathered like ants, and the noisy sound was buzzing. People looked at the black-robed knights standing neatly in the center of the square with curiosity and fear.

Most of the knights from Castle Avalon wore gorgeous winged helmets, held long-handled weapons in their hands, and stood silently on both sides of the legendary Baron Leon.

Although the mayor diligently brought a beautiful high-back chair for the sudden visit of the lord, people saw that the lord did not sit on it. Instead, he let a handsome knight in a gray and white robe with a red eagle emblem hang the strange-looking "iron ball frame" and "helmet" on the back of the chair.

Soon, at the call of the mayor, the town militia who were responsible for maintaining order gathered all the children, both boys and girls, aged between ten and sixteen in and outside the town.

Many people even saw that the mayor's third son, who seemed to be already eighteen or nineteen years old, had shaved his beard and was squeezed into the queue by the mayor.

People didn't say anything, but this also proved that no matter whether the lord suddenly came to the town to select attendants or recruit servants, gathering everyone together was obviously some kind of good thing that even the mayor was eager to do.

However, in this border town with a population of less than a thousand, there are only about eighty children of this age.

However, the 100 places that were called seemed to only require that children of this age group be given priority, and there were no restrictions on the candidates who could be added later. Even the old witch doctor in the town who didn't have all his teeth had the opportunity to be ranked behind the children. Apart from that, the dozen or so vacant places were almost all taken up by young people from wealthy families in the town.

If the lord had not required that children of a certain age be given priority, ordinary tenant farmers would probably not have had the opportunity to get in line.

Tekatu, dressed in coarse linen, stood in the dusty square, his bright eyes revealing undisguised excitement.

His eyes fell on the knights in winged helmets wearing plate armor. Those knights who seemed to be made of steel were so majestic that he dared not look directly at them.

Seeing the heroes sung by the bards, Tekatu was filled with envy and excitement.

The young man began to imagine how majestic he would look if he could wear this armor and ride on a tall horse one day.

"The lord has ordered that everyone should come forward one by one in order!" the mayor shouted to the queue.

As he shouted, the rich child in the front row of the line saw him waving, immediately swallowed his throat, lowered his head, and walked timidly towards the chair.

People saw the knight with the red eagle emblem's fingertips glow with magical light, drawing bright lines floating in the air. He gently comforted the boy, "Sit on it, don't be nervous, relax."

The crowd was filled with amazement at the magical sight.

The inverted round helmet lowered and pressed on the boy's head. The grooves on the metal surface soon gave off a faint hazy glow.

The handsome blond knight then shook his head, raised his round helmet and looked towards the queue.

".Next."

The rich boy who was deliberately dressed up was pulled up by the mayor in frustration and walked back to his disappointed family in the crowd.

The queue slowly moved forward, and the second child continued to repeat.

The boys and girls at the back looked nervous and looked around curiously, wondering what the knight with the light in his hand was doing to the person sitting on it.

Tekatu also tilted his head and looked at the scene in front of him. He looked at the light in the blond knight's hand and suddenly remembered the magic in the story. His heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

The young man looked at the emblem on the handsome blond knight again, and the name of the magic knight, Eagle of Avalon, flashed through his mind.

Tekatu took a deep breath, and his divergent imagination vaguely perceived something. He tried to calm himself, but his wildly beating heart betrayed his inexplicable excitement.

The process ahead was like some kind of ritual, and went on quickly. Each child came forward in turn, and then left dejectedly one by one.

Dozens of people of the same age sat on the chair one after another, but still no one showed any sign of being noticed by the Lord Knight. Finally, it was his turn, and Tekatu's palms were sweating.

He walked over and sat on the chair with great trepidation. Tekatu carefully peeked at the handsome appearance of the Hippogriff Knight at the side. Seeing him pushing his round helmet towards him, Tekatu quickly withdrew his gaze and looked at the tall lord who was almost at hand on the other side.

The handsome Baron, indeed, was just as the legend said, with hair and eyes as black as night.

Her appearance was really special, but her smile was particularly heartwarming and made people feel good about her. Tekatu couldn't help but relax with emotion, closed his eyes, and began to pray to the gods. However, after seeing so many losers, he no longer dared to have too many random hopes in his heart.

The sun was still shining brightly in the square, and for Tekatu, time seemed to stand still at this moment.

Until a slight exclamation made him open his eyes.

The young man saw the burly lord bending down and seemed to say something with great joy.

But Tekatu could not understand Feru.

"After a month of hard work, we finally found a seedling before leaving. I had no hope at all." Leon sighed to Akao who also smiled.

As he spoke, he helped up the trembling local boy and looked at the light on the detector that had reached the measurement standard with great surprise.

Active thinking, up to standard, excellent.

Mental strength floating range, up to standard, average.

Magic element density: meets the standard, but poor.

Magic adaptability: up to standard, good.
Add to that the ratio of approximately three parts purple light and seven parts white light, and this boy is a standard natural magic qualified person.

A while ago, not only did they mobilize a large number of troops, they screened several thousand people around Castle Avalon.

It took almost a month to patrol the territory, and we visited at least three or four towns and villages every day. He, Corvis, and even little Brandon as a magic substitute took turns driving the detector. We screened at least tens of thousands of people, but we were almost numb with disappointment.

Leon experienced it himself, how torturous it would be if you played a game tens of thousands of times but didn't even see a blue light.

No wonder the Warlock Society has only had so many apprentices and a handful of qualified warlocks over the past few hundred years.

Now I have a portable detector, so I can test wherever I go.

If it were fixed large equipment like the one in the northern fortress, the efficiency would be many times lower.

If the gifted person himself has not accidentally awakened an abnormal ability that can be detected by others, simply relying on blindly picking people from the crowd to test is almost harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

If I hadn't come to select this skinny and inconspicuous boy, he would have spent his whole life working in the fields, and no one would have known that he actually had the opportunity to master magic and have another life. "What's your name?" Leon asked in Uriah, looking at the stunned boy.

"My lord, my name is Tekatu." The boy lowered his head in awe and wanted to kneel down, but Leon's strong hands held him firmly and he could not kneel.

The young man's body trembled patiently. He had already realized from the Baron's smile that his situation was different from those of his peers who had been eliminated before.

"Well, Tekatu, you are now eligible to go to Castle Avalon to study magic. You may not understand what this means, but it means that you and your family will definitely have a better life in the future. Are you willing to accept this opportunity?" Leon invited patiently.

"Of course! My lord, I'm so honored!" Tekatu was so excited that he almost fainted and almost shouted out loud.

Leon was not surprised by the child's answer. The book said that there were very few people with dull minds who were gifted in mastering magic, because it was difficult for conscious individuals with insufficient brain computing power to drive magic power to create spells.

He patted Tekatu's shoulder and then called over Little Gold Coin, who was wearing the academy's uniform robes and holding a simple wooden wand.

"His name is 'Brandon Ron', probably two years older than you. He will be your 'senior brother' from now on. He is also from the Kantardar region. When you go to Avalon Castle, he will take you to class to learn some basic knowledge."

After Leon finished speaking, he asked Brandon to take the extremely excited little Tekatu to change into cleaner clothes, and then turned his attention back to the screening work of Corvis.

Unfortunately, there were no more surprises among the dozens of children who followed, including the dozen or so adults who filled the quotas.

Watching the mayor disbanding the lost crowd, Leon couldn't help but think of the advice given by the Holy Lake Priest when he suddenly came to see him after the screening work in the Avalon Castle area was completed.

Seeing that he was searching for spellcasters on a large scale, the other party came to suggest that it would be best to establish a "Law Ring" organization like the Holy Sun Church to monitor the spiritual realm of spellcasters.

The priest himself was a Circle of Magic monk who had undergone many years of tests of faith. He was willing to help Avalon College in this regard, or to avoid suspicion, he could contact the nearest Serian Diocese and ask the church to send consultants to help Avalon Castle build the Circle of Magic.

Although the Holy Lake Priest himself is also a spellcaster, and the Holy Lake Sect is still a nearly heretical faith sect in the eyes of the Holy Sun Church, the attitude of the Holy Lake Priest towards wild mages who are not from the "Magic Ring" is very consistent with that of the Holy Sun Church, and they are extremely vigilant.

With the disaster caused by Master Atias and his previous record of causing chaos in Orland, Leon did consider the advice of the Holy Lake Priest.

But in that other destiny, the memory of his experience in managing the Northern Warlock Society also made Leon hesitate. If it was managed properly, it seemed that there was no need to be so extreme in the attitude towards mages. At least in that destiny, the Warlock Society was not as rebellious as it is now.

Moreover, at least for now, it seems that this worry is premature. Even if we count the seedling discovered today, the academy currently has only two apprentices, two wild mages of Kantadar who are half studying and half teaching, plus himself and Corvis who have inherited the knowledge of Gulorelit, a total of only six members.

Leon shook his head secretly. He hoped to use years of education and guidance to shape the minds of the mages under his command in the future.

Furthermore, if all the important forces under his command were to fanatically believe in the Holy Sun and the Holy Prophet, and if there were any friction between Castle Avalon and the Church in the future, would the mages of the academy listen to Saint Hilarius or to himself as the dean?
Putting aside this unhurried concern, Leon met with Tekatu's parents and invited the farming family to settle in the town outside Castle Avalon, promising to allocate a relatively good piece of land to improve their lives.

Tekatu's parents naturally agreed with great joy.

Leon was itching to do something, fearing that some fish might have slipped through the net, so he took over from the tired Aka and took the instrument to measure Tekatu's parents separately.

However, just as the ancient research results in the magic book thousands of years ago concluded, magical talent has nothing to do with blood inheritance, the boy's parents are just two ordinary people with no magical qualifications, and every qualified person is a miracle of natural random combination at the moment of life birth.

After the screening, Leon immediately arranged for Brandon and several cavalrymen to escort the only magic apprentice and his family back to Castle Avalon. Then he led the knights around him out of the barony and headed southeast towards the Sobornitz area.

The large group of knights that set off earlier, led by Olivia, Azerien, and Lohak, were estimated to have arrived in Baldim County more than half a month ago. However, he and Corvis' group did not leave Glade County until today in order to search for magic apprentices in the territory.

The group rode at full speed without any delay, and it only took them a few days to reach the outskirts of "Finleytown" without any obstruction.

This city, which has been divided into the rule of Baron Ivan and serves as the headquarters of the Holy War Alliance, has no traces of the Undead War after two years of recuperation.

From afar, one can see the blue banner emblem hanging on the towering city wall above the city gate. It is a pattern of a griffin standing sideways with a sword of thorns in its claws.

This is the symbol of the Jihad Alliance that was jointly chosen after the war.

They rode forward, but before they got close to the city wall, a welcoming team emerged from the open gate of the Alliance City.

The leader was Baron Ivan. Although his face was still young, his eyes looked much more stable and experienced.

The Jihad Alliance formed after the war has a total of five supreme membership seats.

They are the "Marshal of the Holy War Army" which he still holds, the deputy commander-in-chief which Princess Ines holds, and the "Grand Commander-in-Chief".

Baron Iven of Chatet served as acting chief minister and "arbitrator".

There are also two "Consul" seats, held by Count Runaf of the Baldim family and Sir David, the representative of the Thornflower family army.

In order to rebuild the huge territory of Sobonitz, the affairs of the entire eastern territory of Kantadar are very heavy. After all, Leon and Ines still have other territorial affairs to deal with. Although they are not hands-off bosses, Leon often travels to Sobonitz by griffin to resolve disputes and difficult problems.

But in the past two years, many of the burdens of the coalition forces have ultimately been placed on the shoulders of Baron Ivan, who is stationed on the front line in Finleytown.

However, it was proved that it was the right decision to nominate him to act as the agent for the alliance's military and political affairs. After the Undead War ended and the huge inhuman threat was no longer there, after the division of the vast eastern territory of Kantadar, the surviving lords inevitably began to have their own thoughts.

The Mamor family was determined to head north, trying to use the power of the coalition forces to regain their old territory.

There were also signs that some former eastern nobles had contacts with King Casso of the Usato Kingdom. In addition, many nobles who had fled to the west returned to their old places and had conflicts and disputes with the post-war lords.

Although he could handle matters like these with his great reputation for ending the Undead Plague, he was, after all, an Orland lord and a Serrian. If he frequently intervened directly in the internal disputes of the Kantardars, his accumulated reputation would be consumed invisibly.

As for Count Runaf of Baldim County, to be honest, Leon didn't trust him that much. Although the local lord made great contributions, he neither showed enough leadership in the Undead War nor led the troops himself, so his reputation was mediocre.

As for Sir David, the young man was certainly brave in battle, but his ability in governing was far inferior to that of his brother. Moreover, David was absorbed in tracking down his father's whereabouts and had no intention of managing the alliance's affairs.

As a local noble of Kantadar, Baron Ivan's consistent conduct, courage, credibility, and most importantly, the friendship and comradeship that he can trust have become the best lubricant for handling the internal affairs of the alliance.

The two teams met, and Leon saw Olivia and others who had already arrived in Finley Town.

He rode his horse into the city, exchanging greetings with old comrades like Ivan, his eyes fixed on their waists, the sword he had given them - "Oath of Holy War".

The originally ordinary knight's sword is now one of the Alliance's holy relics that symbolizes victory in the Undead War.

This sword that canonized the first Knight of the Crusade is the most suitable ritual basis for summoning the heroes who sacrificed in the Battle of Rolandar.

(End of this chapter)