“Elder, please lend a hand to help the Lidia family.”
Given the current situation of the family, only the person before them could save it, Carmel spoke and knelt down directly in front of him, so did Heidi, the two prostrated on the ground.
Ivan slightly frowned, waved his hand, and an invisible force coalesced, lifting both of them to their feet.
“I will ask you a few more questions.”
“Please ask.”
“Are all of your family members gathered in Thousand Lights City?” Ivan asked.
“Yes—yes.”
“You two must have gone through a lot of trouble to escape from Thousand Lights City, right?”
“Yes, most of the Lidia family learned Enchantment techniques, and we had a hand in many parts of that Formation. After discovering the truth, it was not easy for everyone to wait for an opportunity, only to be discovered by Monde.
In the end, we only had time to send the two of us out, while others were holding back that beast for us. I’m afraid—just afraid—”
Carmel answered, but by the end, it was too painful to continue speaking.
“I’m afraid many people may have already fallen victim. Before we parted, our grandmother told us to come to you,” Heidi continued.
“Deputy Dean Teresa, huh.” Ivan nodded slightly and fell into contemplation.
Heidi then realized her slip of the tongue; both siblings knew that their grandmother did not get along well with him, which could be described as mutual loathing, and mentioning her might have the opposite effect.
Suddenly, they didn’t know what to say and could only look at him anxiously.
“She probably didn’t send you here simply to ask for help,” Ivan said.
“Elder, please do not hold past grudges against us—” the siblings panicked upon hearing this.
“Enough,” Ivan interrupted, explaining bluntly, “Your grandmother’s intention is actually very simple. She wants you to seek refuge with me, to keep you from harm by Dean Watkin in the future. Once he gains more power, I am the only one among those you know who can offer you protection.”
“This—”
The siblings had been confused by the urgency of the situation but now, thinking more carefully, they realized their grandmother knew of their relationship with the elder, as well as the family’s, and it just so happened that the two of them had escaped. That must have been her intention.
With the elder’s protection, they could live well in the East Capital and might have a chance to restore the Lidia family one day.
To ask the elder to go to the Blood Plains would exhaust whatever remains of their past relationship, which clearly was not what the older generation like their grandmother wanted to see.
Realizing this, Carmel and Heidi were stupefied and somewhat at a loss.
“But—what about the Lidia family—what will happen to the Lidia family?” After a long pause, Carmel burst out.
Seeing he was about to act, Heidi beside him tried to hold her brother back, reaching out halfway but she couldn’t bring herself to do it and could only stand there despondently.
“You have spent quite some time getting here. To put it bluntly, do you even know if Thousand Lights City still exists by the time you make the return trip? Monde must have heard your grandmother’s words by now.”
Ivan certainly had no particular fondness for the Lidia family and naturally had no reason to go to great lengths to rescue them.
“Elder, aren’t you the elder of the Mongna Ant Land Cottage? There are many sorcerers from the academy there, please just take a look,” Heidi pleaded.
“Monde is still the dean of the academy, and all of you must have gone willingly; no one forced you,” Ivan said indifferently.
Back when the academy faced a major crisis, members of the Three Great Families were the first to flee, and many suddenly disappeared without a trace.
Now with a simple call from Monde, all of them returned to Thousand Lights City without exception. Who still kept the academy and its regulations in mind? It can only be said they brought it upon themselves.
“Elder, please make a trip to Thousand Lights City,” Carmel said, having composed himself, repeating his sister’s words with a serious expression.
“Are you certain?”
“Hmm.”
Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire
“Okay, then let’s make a trip.”
For Carmel’s sake, Ivan decided to set off early and drop by Thousand Lights City in the Blood Plains on the way to see what had happened to the Lidia family’s residence.
However, the affection among sorcerers was more distinct than that among ordinary people.
After this intervention, he would only offer the siblings occasional attention, not protection. This was Carmel’s own choice, and they had no one else to blame.
Soon, the Lanque set sail from the Rapid Wood Tower again and flew toward the outskirts of East Capital.
The airship had two small teams on board: one from the Abnormal Creature Monitoring Investigation Institute, and the other from the Black Prison, both of which Ivan had requested to join.
The former, needless to say, was directly under the Chanay Tower United Council, investigating abnormal creatures and generally publicizing their findings.
The Black Prison, also known as the “Abnormal Sorcerer Monitoring Investigation Institute,” was undoubtedly designed to focus on the sorcerers themselves, and many sorcerers didn’t even know such an organization existed. Those who did were certainly wary of it.
In fact, the Black Prison wielded more authority than the creature investigation institute, as it was directly under the Botta Supreme Council, which meant it had the highest reach.
For the Black Prison, the matter with the Lidia family fell well within its purview, otherwise, it would not have been so easy for Ivan, such a prominent scholar, to call upon them.
With the Black Prison stepping in, no matter the outcome, it would be considered an explanation given to Carmel and her brother.
“Clang.”
The door of the Lanque, tightly shut for a long time, opened from the inside, and Carmel and Heidi emerged.
At that moment, both their eyes showed unmistakable weariness mixed with a hint of excitement.
They had barely left East Capital when they were summoned by Agne, the warden of the Black Prison, to be interrogated for nearly half an hour, and no one knew what they had gone through inside.
“There’s no need to discuss matters of the Black Prison with me,” said Ivan as he saw the two approach, preemptively reminding them.
“Elder, thank you very much,” Carmel and Heidi bowed deeply to him.
They understood that without the elder stepping in, the Black Prison would probably have ignored the issues at the Blood Plains, and even if they did intervene, they would not have sent a Level 2 sorcerer to lead the team so quickly.
The involvement of the Black Prison meant they would not let the matter rest easily.
“It’s futile to say more. You need to be mentally prepared,” said Ivan, not optimistic about the situation in Thousand Lights City.
Upon hearing his words, they fell silent for a long time.
The Lanque soared swiftly through the sky.
In a blink of an eye, ten days passed, and the Lanque reached the vicinity of the Blood Plains, soon arriving at the residence of the Three Great Families—Thousand Lights City.
Thousand Lights City, referred to as the “Light of Thousand Towers” by the people of the three families, might be an exaggeration, but it also indirectly reflected the abundance of towering structures and the city’s prosperity.
“We’re too late!”
However, what lay before them was a Thousand Lights City that had completely crumbled into ruins, with bloodstains visible everywhere amongst the debris, some of which had already turned black, and the air was thick with an overpowering stench of decay.
This was an expected outcome; Monde could not leave unguarded against Ivan’s arrival.
“Dean Marichadon, please take a look at the residual magical formations to see if you can find anything useful,” commanded Warden Agne unceremoniously.
“Sure thing. Such a bloodline formation has never been recorded inside the Bloodline Array Formation Guild,” replied Ivan without refusal.
For the subsequent time, he simply examined the remnants of the formations, but clearly, they had been tampered with and revealed nothing valuable.
In other respects, they were investigated by the Black Prison and the Abnormal Creature Monitoring Investigation Institute, which he did not inquire about.
Looking at the once magnificent Three Great Families, now fallen to such a state, Ivan felt a touch of wistfulness in his heart.