A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 506 Treating the symptoms but not the root cause

A day in the village isn't enough to accomplish much; Luo Xia simply shut down the surrounding hideouts.

After the mill caught fire, some people pretended to come and help put it out, but the fire spread so quickly that even though the mill was right next to a stream in a neighboring village, they couldn't salvage anything. All that was left were the empty cellar entrance and the collapsed rubble walls. As for the people, they were completely unrecognizable.

Some say the outsider had run away because of a problem, while others say it was just an accident and he probably died inside.

To reassure the village chief, Rorschach performed another purification before dawn. While everyone else slept, a blue light washed over the village and then swept across the fields.

The worst pollution has been completely destroyed, thanks to Rorschach's own efforts.

Of course, those who went to the mill at night couldn't sleep a wink. The unease kept them awake, their minds filled with images of the fire engulfing the mill. When they witnessed the blue light seeping into the house like water, they were so frightened that they rolled out of bed and began to crawl on their hands and knees, praying haphazardly, until everything returned to calm and the sky gradually brightened at cockcrow.

"So let's go, let's leave here." Rorschach suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of how to persuade old Merkle: "In Byrne, where I work, land can be bought and sold freely, and cultivated freely. As long as you have money, you can buy as much land as you want, provided that it is not left uncultivated."

Seeing that old Merkle remained silent, Rorschach patiently continued, "In the north of Byrne, there are excellent wines, and other places each have their own beers. My magic tower also has magical alchemical brewing jars that can turn grain into fine wine in a day."

Old Merkle finally couldn't sit still any longer: "Good heavens! Aren't we father and son? Why didn't you say so sooner!" He "angrily" began packing his things: "Old woman, Angel, let's go! Let that stupid idiot who only knows how to fight come to Byrne and find our family himself!"

"Village chief, you...you should come with us too." Both the original Luo Xia and the current Luo Xia had received help from the village chief, and Luo Xia was very grateful to him.

The village chief hadn't slept all night and wasn't as energetic as the young men and old Merkle. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, "You guys go ahead. I'll wait for my son to come back in the village."

Rorschach remembered that the village chief and his son shared the same name: "You can write to little Melson."

The village chief was silent for a moment: "He won't receive the letters."

The room fell silent for a moment, and old Merson closed his eyes as if falling asleep: "I keep thinking, if I had given him my precious leather armor back then, would he not have died? I regret it. It was just a mage's relic; it was nothing compared to my son."

"So you later gave it to Franz."

The village chief nodded: "You absolutely must protect him. Don't let him end up like poor little Merson. I only received a notice and a few silver coins; he hasn't even returned home yet, and he doesn't have any clothes."

Luo Xia didn't know how to comfort the old man: "I tricked Franz into going to military school, he's safe now."

"That's good, that's good. He has a capable older brother."

Merkle was utterly shocked. He took old Melson's drooping hands and said, "You didn't even tell us that we'd be family from now on, and that we'd go to Byrne together."

Ultimately, the old village chief declined the invitation, but Merkle asked him to move into the estate before leaving. The village chief still refused, but promised that the Merkle family would help take care of the yard, which gave Merkle the opportunity to slip the key into the village chief's hand.

In addition to money, Rorschach also gave him some healing potions, a metal badge with his own emblem, and a bottle of alchemical potion.

"Since you insist on staying to guard the village, I won't force you. If anything unexpected or disastrous happens to the village, you can throw this badge into the potion, and I'll know. It's much faster than writing a letter."

"Okay, thank you."

"I am the one who should thank you." Rorschach glanced at the old man. Although old Merson might be younger than Cano, he was just an ordinary person. The injuries he suffered in his youth and the hard work he did later had made him look much older.

Luo Xia gazed into those kind, tenacious, but aged and cloudy eyes for a long time, sighed deeply, and solemnly bid farewell to the old village chief.

From then on, the Merkle family quietly moved away from the small village where Rorschach was born.

Rorschach and the others traveled by airship to Byrne. With him in charge, they weren't worried about anything going wrong with the aircraft, whose accident rate had been soaring year after year. They landed smoothly at the newly built Lanster Transportation Hub.

He asked Andre to help settle the old Merkle family, then turned and entered the guild, disappearing into the teleportation array.

"I didn't expect you to make a surprise visit." Alexander von Humboldt was specifically asked to meet with the uninvited guest.

Luo Xia pulled out the contaminated wheat seeds, along with some samples left over from when they raided the city's illegal operation; these included drugs and mutated pieces of meat.

"It seems that the process of the Mother Goddess invading reality has restarted, and perhaps it has never stopped. The efforts of Valuwa and the Lord of Order last year only temporarily cleared away some of the pollution, and now that the war has begun, new organizations have been resurrected." Rorschach's concerns were not without reason.

Humboldt also shared what he knew: "The main grain-producing areas within the Empire are generally normal, but the research teams sent out this year have indeed found and brought back a lot of Mother Goddess pollutants from various places. There were even small teams that were attacked by cultists, right when you invited me."

No wonder Humboldt was busy during the harvest season; he was dealing with cult-related matters.

Rorschach thought for a moment before speaking: "If the Order continues to target food supplies, and the Mother Goddess's past incarnations do indeed have relevant authority, then with the requisition of military provisions, the entire empire will likely face problems. Moreover, the situation in Valois might be the same."

"The Forest Tower is already communicating with the Imperial Army and the Royal Family. If it's a centralized supply of military rations, an additional check and purification measure can be added to address the Mother Goddess's contamination. The Empire's anti-magic devices are very powerful; they can even dispel rudimentary divinity."

The young high priest was not entirely satisfied with this measure: "But it's only a temporary solution; many more people will still be contaminated. It would be best if the guild could also take action."

"Yes, you can write a detailed report with me, and I will submit it to the Senate. If we can reach the astral plane and enter the symbolic plane, in addition to monitoring the Tree of Truth, we might also be able to detect the activities of the gods on a macroscopic level, and thus gain some insight into the level of activity of the Mother Goddess."

"Then the pace needs to be accelerated. Besides the guilds, secular organizations should also cooperate, since protecting civilians is their primary responsibility." Seeing Humboldt's hesitant expression after speaking, Rorschach couldn't help but ask, "Is there something wrong with what I said?"

"Yes, very much so." Master Humboldt said yes, but kept shaking his head: "You don't know, there's a view in the Imperial Council that anti-magic devices can be installed in all the major cities of the Empire, and the current emperor obviously supports it."

"The war has concentrated the garrison mages on the front lines, leaving them unable to voice any opposition. The only obstacle to this plan is the mages belonging to the guild, which means us."

He glanced at Rorschach and added, "Originally, there were many technical difficulties in the long-term operation of the anti-magic device, but these have been resolved one by one, especially with the emergence of a company called 'Basif Energy,' which seems to be able to solve the fundamental power supply problem."

"Heh heh, actually I think it's impressive that the Empire has such boldness." Rorschach seemed oblivious to Humboldt's unspoken message: "Shouldn't we be making progress and finding a way to break the anti-magic device?"

"Easy for you to say. The Moncado Fortress incident is obvious to all. All the pollution caused by the activation of the Mother Goddess after the five devices were activated simultaneously was completely wiped out."

"The gods at present are either dead but not yet dead, or still in a state of chaos and ignorance, and it's not impossible to suppress their blind power. We are living, thinking beings, and we will always find a way to break through," Rorschach said firmly.

After speaking, he didn't linger. He handed over the collected samples and evidence to the archmage and took his leave. Words were useless; Rorschach immediately teleported back to his magic tower to begin his experiments.

(End of this chapter)