There was a drawing of a huge array about a hundred meters across on barren open ground. There were plenty of stars shining in the sky above. But the array itself didn't need any starlight to make its presence known. That's because the runic inscriptions it was made of were exuding a distinct milky white light.
A middle-aged man was sitting atop a platform made of the inscribed stone, which was placed over the array eye. He had his eyes closed and was seen regulating his breathing in a particular pattern.
The man wasn't alone in his surroundings though. An older man in his 50s and a young woman waited outside the array for the ranker sitting atop the runic stone platform to finish his work.
"How long is this going to take, Sybill? We've been here for a few days now."
Cybill seemed to have been irked by the man-in-his-50s' comment. She looked at him annoyingly before replying:
"It was you that came to us asking for help, Arthur. A bit of patience can take you a long way. It's not easy for Garvin either, you know. What you are seeing right now is him working his ass off for the rewards you promised us.
I understand that you want to keep your mouth shut about it. But since you started asking questions, I might as well return the favour. What is your obsession with Osan Woods' Butcher anyway? Why are you going to such extensive lengths to find him?"
Garvin chuckled. But Cybill could tell the range of emotions Arthur was feeling right now wasn't anywhere near to joy. It was also his leaked out mana signature that attested to her womanly instincts.
"Hahaha! Let's just say he has stolen something that I worked on for years on end. I spent so many resources on that project of mine that half of my wealth has vanished. But I never tried to cut costs on it even once. It was meant to be inherited by my son, after all.
The guy turned all my efforts and plans to create something magnificent into shit. Why shouldn't I hunt him? I will take away from him what is rightfully mine.
If that is not possible, then I'll imprison his ass and make him my slave for the rest of his sorry life. I'll then kill him in the most painful way possible after taking away everything he snatched from me."
Arthur flashed a maniacal grin after he concluded what he was saying. This was the first time in a long time that he had expressed what he truly felt. He had been quiet about the whole thing for months now. Fuming from the insides.
Cybill's questions finally allowed Arthur to express what he truly felt about the Osan Woods' Butcher. And he felt rather satisfied after doing it. Like a huge boulder had been lifted off of his shoulders.
Arthur also knew that Garvin and Cybil were a trusted pair. They were the rankers who had dedicated their lives to the study of magic. In a way, he could relate to them. And trust them to keep this affair limited to them.
He had also been planning something monumental ever since he explored a certain Ranker's Purgatory. And this ambitious project of his had dragged him into the most fundamental studies of magic that no ordinary rankers had access to.
The years passed by. The more Arthur learned, the more he realized how little he knew about mana, magic, and the mysteries of the world he was living in. His exploration into that Ranker's Purgatory and the studies that followed had allowed him to see ranker's journey in a different light.
But that study also made Arthur realize that it was too late for him to change his path. For him to pursue the long-lost path of magic, he had to regress in his ranks and turn all his life's work to zero before he could go on.
It wasn't something Arthur was willing to do. He thought hard but finally decided against it. And yet he couldn't let what he had studied and found so far go to waste. So he came up with the plan to let his son take his place.
But all his plans were foiled by the wretched OWB. He had gathered into one single project all of Arthur's wishes, resources, and hard work. And the result of that project was obtained by a man who came out of nowhere.
And the most infuriating thing about the incident was that Arthur couldn't find the guy even after employing all his covert and overt tactics. He had used the kingdom's channels at his disposal to hunt the OWB officially, placing a hefty bounty on him.
Arthur's anti-OWB campaign had been working great. The latter had been linked with a lot of falsified crimes by now. Arthur labelled him a cultist without knowing anything about it to turn the public sentiments against the butcher.
Arthur had also put Jaime's panel on the task of finding Osan Woods's Butcher under the guise of the panel caring about their students' welfare. Plus, he had hired a lot of external help anonymously to get even a shred of a clue regarding the butcher's identity.
But all his efforts had yielded no results. The exceptional third-party rangers he had hired would go round and round in the Osan Woods following the butcher's trails and end up at the same place they started from.
The various leading historians he had hired only gave him vague descriptions about Osan Woods' butcher being a rankless entity and other minute details that didn't make sense.
Arthur spent restless days and sleepless nights trying to track and know about the butcher in any way he could. But the usual methods didn't seem to work.
Thus, Arthur had to seek the couple's help despite his initial reluctance. This was because Garvin and Cybill Karr were well-known figures in Edinburgh. And he wanted to keep his project away from the limelight if he could help it.
But Arthur was forced to realize something by the illusive butcher. The latter had a powerful backer. So his ruse to downplay his cards would be futile, no matter if he decides to use them or not.
So Arthur had to knock on Garvin's door and ask for help. The nerd was happy to do so under the condition of promising rewards, of course.
Arthur was furious and about to lose his shit after Garvin listed the things he wanted from him. But Garvin Karr, the genius array master, was his best bet to find or get a clue about the butcher's identity.
So he had to give in to Garvin's wishes in the end. This was what dragged him to the barren place. Now he was waiting patiently, or at least trying to wait patiently for the array master to fulfil his end of the promise.
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AN: Garvin and Cybill Karr had been mentioned briefly in chapter 66.