Over at the camp, Marquis Ember sent off a small portion of her troops on the three magic airships to scout and monitor the entire Red Goblin Mountains from the air.
At the same time, she waited for the survey team to arrive and give her an update on the situation.
“I was expecting the survey team to be present when we arrived, but it seems like they don’t even have an outpost,” Helia casually commented.
“Lord Helia must be joking. The survey team belongs to another inquisitor, and their numbers are not high or their strength. Stretching their forces thin to monitor the borders of the Red Goblin Mountains leaves them vulnerable. They would only die in a direct clash with the doggies in the mountains,” Ember explained coolly.
“Ah… You’re right, Marquis Ember. I have spoken thoughtlessly,” Helia replied with a wry smile.
“That being said, Inquisitor Rosedriah most likely did set up an outpost. However, it wouldn’t be here; it should be somewhere to the west of the Red Goblin Mountains. After all, she did bring her forces from the western side to assist me,” Ember added.
“Anyhow, her survey team should have already received the signal from the magic airships. Although Inquisitor Rosedriah won’t be coming as she needs to maintain command of the survey team, she should have sent someone closer to our side.” .
As they waited some time, Astoria suddenly started moving, intending to enter the mountains.
“Where are you going, Headmaster Astoria?” Ember quickly asked.
“I can’t just sit around here and wait. I will join the mercenaries and wipe out the goblins occupying the mountains to clear us a path to the core region,” Astoria stated decisively while holding up her greatsword.
“Your our main fighting force against the wolf-men, Headmaster Astoria. If you exhaust your strength in eliminating pests, there’ll be a greater danger when we face the wolf-men,” Helia knitted her brows and said, “I don’t really understand. Please expel my doubts, Headmaster Astoria.”
“You seem to be more interested in recovering Vaan Raphna’s body than eliminating the wolf-men for the safety and security of the kingdom. We don’t even know if they have Vaan Raphna’s body or if they know where they sent his body.”
“I haven’t read everything in the Book of Solomon Raphna. Perhaps the person was truly amazing and invaluable, but that was when he was alive. Now that he is dead, the knowledge he left behind is more important than his body.”
“I don’t understand why you are going so far for his body,” Helia voiced her doubt.
Ember also glanced at Astoria with similar doubts sprouting in her heart. She wondered if Astoria really fell in love with Vaan Raphna, which in and of itself seemed ridiculous.
After all, Headmaster Astoria had survived the gruesome Holy War against the demons of Gehenna and had lived for over three hundred years without being in any relationship.
No matter how great Vaan Raphna was when he was alive, it would be strange for Headmaster Astoria to fall for him when they had never interacted.
Recovering Vaan Raphna’s body was a must, but Headmaster Astoria had already shown them beyond simple respect for the person.
“Maybe it is as Marquis Ember said before. Maybe I am in love.”
“But that’s ridiculous.”
“Perhaps. I don’t really understand it myself,” Astoria uttered blankly before she added, “But it’s hard not to feel touched after reading Teacher Raphna’s notes.”
“What do you mean, Headmaster Astoria?” Ember and Helia furrowed their brows.
“People who read Teacher Raphna’s notes would only notice how profound his magic knowledge or how advanced his research was. But only I can see past that… because his research notes are directly related to me.”
“There are two main types of light-attribute magic: offensive and healing. Everyone should know that I have no offensive magic capability as a healing-type light-attribute specialist, which is why I picked up the sword.”
“However, no-attribute magic can be used by every witch regardless of their attribute specialty. Of course, you can all think it was just a coincidence that Teacher Raphna delved into no-attribute magic research extensively, and not for my sake.”
“But no-attribute magic research was just the start. If you had read further, you’d see that the following magic theories focused on the application of healing-type light-attribute magic and physical body improvement.”
“Now that you mentioned that, Headmaster Astoria, it does sound like Vaan Raphna’s research notes were related to you,” Ember inputted, seemingly half convinced. But then she added, “But if you think about it from Vaan Raphna’s perspective, he could have just been researching your path to find a way to improve his own physical body.”
“That’s also true,” Astoria gave a half smile.
Of course, her final piece of certainty was the last part of Teacher Raphna’s notes. It was about an advancement path for High Witches, which she had written in a thesis but ultimately abandoned because she thought it wouldn’t work.
However, Teacher Raphna found it, researched it, and expanded on it enough to convince her that her idea had been right all along and just lacked depth.
Alas, the notes ended there. It was still incomplete.
If anyone else had achieved as much as Teacher Raphna did but without his intellectual talents, they would have dedicated half a century of their life to it.
And when Astoria thought about someone dedicating half a century’s worth of magic research for her sake, she would naturally feel moved by it.
Nevertheless, she didn’t need to discuss this further with Marquis Ember and Lord Helia as it felt personal.
…
Sometime later, a member of the survey team finally arrived after locating their camp.
“My deepest apologies for making you wait, Grand Inquisitor!” the survey team member, an Early-stage Senior Witch with long black hair, quickly knelt in front of Ember Killian.
“There’s no need for that,” Ember dismissed the person’s words with a wave of her hand and coolly said, “Just give me an update on the situation. Has there been any strange movements in the Red Goblin Mountains in the past two days?”
“Reporting to the Grand Inquisitor, the survey team had indeed discovered something strange in the mountains,” the black-haired Senior Witch replied.
“Oh?” Ember’s eyes flickered with seriousness before she demanded, “Continue.”
“Yes, Grand Inquisitor!”