Everyone present remained quiet, staring at the stranger with great alertness, and some of them even started to check their surroundings, worrying that they might had been ambushed by the church.
In the cold stare of the sorcerers and apprentices, under the gaze of some bloodthirsty eyes, with the sound of Fatty’s teeth rattling out of fear, Lucien calmly took out his invitation and explained, "I am a guest invited by Viscount Carendia".
Seeing that Lucien stayed rather calm, the mummy-like old man’s face eased a little bit. Another apprentice took Lucien’s invitation and unfolded it for him.
The symbol of a tall black hat on the invitation was a bit tilted with some sense of humor. The old man who took the leading role glanced at the other sorcerers around, "This invitation was not sent by me."
The other sorcerers looked at the invitation held by the apprentice and also denied.
The muscles of the old man’s face pulled when he was speaking, "Although your invitation is not from somebody else, but we still can not make sure that it was sent by the viscount. To ensure the safety of everyone here, I think we should wait until Viscount Carendia and his steward, Nied, show up. You agree?"
"Sounds fair enough." Lucien remained polite.
"You can call me Cessy, by the way. I’m 4th circle sorcerer," said the old man. He did not want to offend this mysterious attendee imprudently before figuring out his true identity, just in case that he was even more powerful than him.
"Mr. Cessy. I understand your concern and I don’t mind waiting here at all." Lucien nodded, "You can call me Professor."
"Good." The old man, a necromancer, asked, "Then, Mr. Professor, are you a sorcerer… or an apprentice?"
Through their conversation and Lucien's attitude, Cessy started to become a little bit convinced that Lucien was really a guest of the viscount.
"A sorcerer," Lucien answered shortly.
The apprentices whom Lucien was talking to were pretty surprised to know that Professor was actually a real sorcerer, since his attitude was way nicer than most of the other arrogant and cold sorcerers who were gathering together on their own on the other side.
"Hope we can exchange some ideas over the meeting." Cessy’s attitude toward Lucien eased a little further.
"In fact, I’m not a necromancer," said Lucien honestly.
Although Lucien indeed had roughly read the Book of Necromancy, and had some ideas about the structure of human body, he knew that he could not rely on his own understanding and his previous knowledge of this branch of magic.
And by the way, according to the Book of Necromancy, regardless of practicing meditation or studying necromancer spells, long-time staying with rotten corpses was often required, and it was easy for the person practicing it to be infected with some terrible toxins or something filthy. Apart from making breakthroughs to move to higher circles in order to resist to the possible infection, only a few kinds of potions could be used to tackle the problem. So, with Astrology and Elements in his hand, Lucien right now did not want to take the risk to focus on necromantic spells but just copied the structures of a couple of the not-that-disgusting ones, intending to analyze them.
Cessy’s mummy-like face looked surprised, "Then why are you here? The Feast of Death… is for necromancers."
The other attendees also found it strange.
Before Lucien answered Cessy’s question, the heavy gate of the old castle slowly opened, and the steward of the castle, Nied, showed up, still dressing decently and behaving in an elegant manner.
"Mr. Professor’s indeed a special guest invited by the lord," explained Nied seriously.
"Then we’re assured now." Representing the other sorcerers and apprentices, Cessy responded.
Nied slightly nodded and continued, "Mr. Professor also came from the headquarter of the Congress of Magic, and he’s a powerful sorcerer."
"The congress… powerful…" Often being dull and cold, although the steward’s words were pretty surprising, the necromancers and apprentices were only whispering to each other, peeking at Lucien carefully.
"Why there’s another sorcerer here from the headquarter of the Congress of Magic tonight?" Cessy immediately noticed the word Nied used—"also".
"Mr. Professor’s attendance was out of expectation, and he’s just dropping by." Although the steward’s words were quite hard to believe, what Nied was saying was true, "And Mr. Professor’s power is widely recognized. He ranks no. 359 on the Church’s Cleansing List."
"What? Cleansing List?!" Even the gloomy necromancers could not stay calm anymore. Even though not all of them knew who were all the people on the list, everyone present was aware of the fact that anyone who was on the list, without exception, had the same power as a senior-rank and was capable of affecting or even destroying a whole nation.
With regards to tracking the powerful sorcerers, the Church had been enjoying quite a good reputation all throughout history.
The necromancers and apprentices started to be awed by Lucien, and some of the necromancers felt concerned that they just surrounded the powerful sorcerer in a rude manner. They were guessing that, as a sorcerer on the list, Professor should at least be a senior-rank mage.
Cessy paused a bit and took Nied’s words, "Mr. Professor, please forgive us for being rude to you earlier. We have been yearning for the headquarter of the Congress of Magic."
Cessy believe that Professor and Felipe, the one who initiated the Feast of Death, didn’t get along very well, and their conflict was very likely to involve the internal struggle between different factions of the congress. So, he mindfully mentioned the congress as a whole instead of taking a standpoint supporting either side.
"Don’t worry about it. In fact, if you couldn’t identify a stranger among the attendees, I’d be very disappointed." Seeing that all the people present started to respect him a lot since they misunderstood that he was a powerful, senior-rank sorcerer, Lucien instantly took the opportunity and started to pretend that he was really someone important by maintaining the big man's tone.
"Mr. Professor, my lord wants to meet you in the study first, and Mr. Felipe’s there as well." said Nied. Then he turned to Cessy and the other sorcerers, "Soon there’ll be waiters guiding you into the hall, Mr. Cessy."
Although Lucien really did not want to have a close talk with Mr. Felipe, he had no way to refuse the offer. So, he had no choice but to follow Nied through the terrifying darkness of the castle all the way to the study.
Watching Professor’s figure gradually disappearing in the darkness, Fatty burst out an exclamation, "Wow… Cool! Cleansing List."
"I wish one day I’d be on the list, too," said Wine out of great admiration.
Somehow, being on the Church’s Cleansing List, in many necromancers’ and even apprentices’ eyes, was a great goal to brag their achievement and power.
In the study, the viscount in red shirt and black coat and another man witnessed everything that happened on the lawn downstairs from the window.
"Not very aggressive… Mr. Professor." Seeing that Lucien was not aggravated by the necromancers, the viscount commented with a glass of wine in his hand, looking rather relaxed.
The man standing beside the viscount had black hair and pupils. His nose was straight and high and his lips were thin. He was definitely handsome, but his face looked rather pale, as if he was sick. Wearing a black shirt with gigot sleeves, the man was covered with a long, black coat, which was not common to see in inland countries. The man responded to the viscount’s comment in a gloomy and serious tone, "The church’s comment on Professor is ‘extremely cunning and very dangerous’, you cannot easily judge him based on his one single reaction."
"I know. The fact that the Will of Elements or Holm Royal Magic Academy sent Professor here obviously means that they’re confident that Professor is capable enough of confronting you, Mr. Felipe." Viscount Carendia took an outsider’s standpoint and said casually, "I suggest you be careful first before you want to take any action, or you’ll be in great risk. It’s not easy, for sure."
Felipe looked back at his entourage, and then sipped his red wine, "the Will of Elements is certainly not clear about my current power, but I also have no idea how powerful the mysterious Professor is. I wonder who’s this Professor? Larry, Timothy or Ulysses? "
These names were of people he knew and were of the same level as him, but belonged to the Will of Elements or Holm Royal Magic Academy. However, none of them conformed to the identity information they had on Professor. So, he shook his head slightly and continued, "Professor… Professor… It seems he was pretty proud of his arcana level… So his magic level is possibly not much higher than that of his arcana… might even be the same."
Felipe stopped here, but two shivering clusters of pale flame appeared in his eyes.
Sipping his wine, the viscount changed the topic, "I heard that the musician, Lucien Evans, is in Djibouti right now. Ha… the princess must be very concerned about her sweet little lover traveling along this far, or she would not send Professor to Djibouti to secretly protect her toy boy. And your Feast of Death happens to be held during the same time. What a coincidence!"
"It’s not a surprise, and I’m sure it’s not a coincidence. Firstly, based on the relationship that Natasha has with that one, asking Professor to do her a favor is not difficult. Professor must have somehow directed Lucien Evans to take this way toward Djibouti, so he could take care of both his tasks at the same time. Otherwise, how would the great musician want to visit this remote and poor place? Kidding…"
Lucien had no idea which floor the study was on. The darkness of the castle devoured everything.
There were three people in the familiar study. Apart from the viscount, there was a pale-looking young man, and a tall and strong middle-aged man.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Professor. I’m Felipe." Felipe’s smile was gloomy and sophisticated. His eyes had pale flames inside and stared straight at Lucien.
All of a sudden, Lucien was terrified by Felipe’s aggressive aura. He felt cold and greatly threatened. The last time he had the same feeling was when Camil was looking at him after activating her Blessing.
Lucien quickly concluded that, even if Felipe was not of senior rank yet, he was definitely very close to that level. However, Lucien was not sure why Felipe would be this hostile toward him.
The only possible answer was that the Will of Elements or Holm Royal Magic Academy did not get along well with the faction that he represented in the congress.
At that point Lucien finally realized that the ring given by Natasha, the one he was wearing when he first met the viscount, did him a great favor, but and also dragged him into a very difficult situation.
Lucien tried his best to stay calm. After all, it was not the first time that he pretended to be someone important and powerful. He was also aware that the only possible reason that Felipe did not directly attack him was that he was also hesitant and felt uncertain about his power because of the rumors about Professor!
With his brain remaining cool and after catching this key point, Lucien smiled politely, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Felipe. I have long heard of your name."