Louis and the de Leon family took two copies of the brochure for him and Carlos, they then took a teleportation circle back to the area that the mass-teleportation circle took place in, which was unwittingly called the TelePort. Since they had no reason to stay in Acies overnight, they would take a teleportation circle back to their territory.
Carlos and Louis would stay at the temporary residence of Leonor. The reason for this was that while servants were not directly allowed in the academy, Leonor would live in a house nearby so that Carlos and Arthur could use him to contact the rest of the family any time.
“Louis, Carlos, don’t forget to call us every day!” Arthur said.
“Yes, and make sure to tell me if anyone is bullying you, we’ll send them a very strongly worded letter.” Diana added, as if anyone would bully the son of a duke.
“Good bye big bros! Big bro Louis, you can probably use your paintbrush as a sword, so don’t despair.” Lucia said her farewells while trying to cheer Louis up.
“See you around, tell me what you’ve learned in a month.” Paul softly spoke; he wasn't that sad he knew they would be visiting the two monthly.
Louis had to put on airs and act a little sad, so it wouldn’t be suspicious. He enjoyed conversing with the de Leon family, but it wasn’t to the point where he loved them. a few years of separation was nothing to him. Of course, if it wasn’t much trouble, he would slaughter anyone who dare causes trouble.
The habit of mercilessly slaughtering your enemies and their 9 generations was not that popular in this world, but Louis did not care.
After saying their goodbyes, Louis and Carlos were alone, both with a bittersweet expression on their face.
The difference was one was a front, and one was not.
The atmosphere was interrupted by a middle-aged man butler, Louis’ personal servant, and their current caretaker.
“Milord, young lord, please follow me to the villa. All your possessions and belongings should be there to take into the academy.”
Louis nodded, but Carlos voiced out a complaint.
“Why do you call Louis ‘milord’, but me ‘young lord’?”
Leonor took no offense in the complaint, and flatly replied.
“Milord is my master, so it would be weird to call him ‘young lord.’” In truth, Leonor simply thought of Louis as more capable than Carlos.
The three walked down the streets, not bothering to take a metal carriage since Leonor’s house was only about 4 kilometers from the TelePort.
They walked at a brisk pace that was comparable to a sprint of the average human.
Midway through the trip, Leonor spotted a familiar auburn-haired girl in a green dress with a crown prince in front of a restaurant.
No, it was not Ellysa, but the commoner girl he bumped into.
It seems she was apologizing for a spilled drink; it was strange to Louis how her head had not flown off yet.
‘Huh, maybe I could use that girl as a flag, I do have to get close to her,” Louis mused, he couldn’t recall someone who bumped into people of high-standing by accident. Well, he knew a few, but all of them involved a fistfight afterwards. And from what he could see, there was no fistfight that leveled a city block or two that happened.
There was also the chance of her doing this on purpose, but there were many, much better ways for a young woman to approach a young master.
Carlos also gave the situation a glance, but ultimately ignored it.
Not too interested in the two, Louis simply walked past them, the rest of the trip was as uneventful as two sons of a duke and their butler walking the street could be.
They then approached a luxurious 2-floor villa. The inside was very spacious, complete with all the luxuries of a modern home such as temperature control, a set of communication pearls, and a pantry that preserved food longer than it usually lasts.
“Welcome to our humble abode.” Leonor took out a communication pearl, informing Arthur about their safe trip.
Louis was the first one to speak “What of the magic crystals, gold and magical ingredients?”
Leonor answered.
“You are free to take it milord; the head of the household expects you and young lord to be able to sort that out. We have mana crystals worth a large building, 20,000 points of gold and the most volatile of the magical ingredients will only start expiring after a year.”
“Twenty thousand… I’m quite sure we could buy a chunk of a city with that. Well, a less developed city, but a city nonetheless.” Carlos said a look of shock on his face.
Louis chuckled
“Father overdid it again. I guess it’s time to invest in some promising businesses.”
It was clear that they would not be running out of gold or magic crystals.
“Huh? You’re not going to make one yourself?” Carlos asked in shock.
Louis shook his head.
“Why should I waste time and money on making my own when I can buy a stock of an already existing and promising one? Of course, you need to have a good eye for things, but remember my dealings with the alchemy industry?”
Dealings that he had all set up as their mysterious benefactor, of course he made sure to pass it off as a kid being bedazzled by a rising industry.
He also had some achievements in other branches of magic, but they were lesser.
“Ugh, ok. Just watch me, I’ll make it as big as General Alchemy!” Carlos retorted.
Louis was actually hoping Carlos would do that, and then he would control another powerful organization.
Carlos and Louis took a bath together, talking about their experiences on the day of the entrance ceremony, afterwards they changed into more casual clothes.
“Leonor, since it’s still the afternoon I’ll go outside and familiarize myself with the city.” Carlos spoke.
Leonor nodded, and proceeded to take 20 minutes casting a physical ward, elemental ward and a poison ward on Carlos. The spells were low-leveled, but Leonor used sizable crystals for the wards, making Carlos well protected against most sudden attacks.
Leonor specialized in the Warding category of magic.
“Give me a strand of your hair; call me in the communication pearl if you run into any trouble. I will ask the mage I hired to teleport me to your location using your hair as a medium.”
“Is this really necessary?” Carlos questioned, reluctantly pulling out a strand of hair and giving it to Leonor.
“It’s standard protocol, young lord.” Leonor spoke, bowing.
While the capital was a very safe place due to the sheer concentration of powerful being living in the city, the Great Leyline made it slightly dangerous.
With great mana comes a great amount of monsters made out of said mana. Sometimes, a stray monster would get inside the city despite all the wards designed to not make it happen. It was a low chance, and the monster would immediately be put down, but noble families would not take chances.
Carlos sighed, defeated. He nodded and walked out into the city streets.
“Leonor, I will be in my room.” Louis spoke, and he headed upstairs into his room.
Leonor wordlessly nodded; he had nothing to say to his master.
Louis walked up a flight of stairs, heading towards a door with his name on a plaque.
He opened the door, and immediately spotted something odd about a section of the floor.
It seemed to be a sort of long-lasting illusion magic that made people glance over it, it would not work on Louis though.
He reached into it, and plucked out a crystal, he originally thought It was a mana crystal, but it contained something different, something that he was very familiar with.
World energy.
‘Dear heavens, what is this?”
Wait.
Why would Louis say the phrase, ‘dear heavens’? He hated the heavens.
He deactivated his flag.
‘I’ve been getting too clumsy ever since I came to this world.”
That was the disadvantage of his flags; overuse leads to the flag merging with his very self. Although it would slow down a lot if he actively suppressed it, the changes would still be visible. If he overuses a flag, his personality, appearance and eventually even aspects of the world would warp relative to the flag.
That’s why he couldn’t keep a ‘luck flag’ active at all times.
Brushing aside the sudden interruption, he observed the strange crystal which he dubbed a ‘world crystal’.
The world crystal pretty much looked like a normal mana crystal, in fact, the only way one would be able to immediately tell it wasn’t a mana crystal like Louis was if one was very familiar with World Energy, or if one was very familiar with mana,
If a mage used it for a regular spell, Louis theorizes the mage will mentally break down; an ordinary human brain can’t handle the energy of the world.
‘Huh, a paper note?’ There was a small note made out of paper stuck to the world crystal, with equally small handwriting that was surprisingly legible.
“A gift, consider joining us~”
Louis could not tell if this was a gift or a threat. From the people that he interacted with that day, Louis deduced that it was Llamiryl or her friend that was most likely to have sneaked this in.
First they had his interest, but now they had his attention. Not, the good kind either.
‘At worst, I’d have to kill her and everyone related to her.’
If people could harness the energy of the world into a crystal form, then they were obviously a big threat to Louis. This was the only world he had for millions of kilometers – he had checked.
‘I would rather not have to live in the sun, thank you.’
He was not the type to act first and think later though; there were many reasons that the dark elf could possess such a crystal; the possibility Louis thought of was merely one of many going through his head.
For now, he needed to investigate this mystery, and for that he would use General Alchemy.
It was afternoon, but that didn’t matter to Louis, he didn’t need the cover of the night to move freely.
‘I hope it’s in the drawer, or I’ll have to spend a few hours doing alchemy.’
Louis approached a wooden drawer at his bedside; it had a convenient lamp that would usually powered by mana crystals, but Acies’s nature allowed it to be powered all the time.
He opened one of the compartments of the drawer, and grabbed a vial of ‘facial cream’. Facial cream was a sort of fashion product that made the face smoother. That wasn’t what it actually was, however. This was Louis’ disguising cream.
‘Good thing there were Deceptive Snakes in this world, would have never gotten the stalk of grass I needed for this recipe. They call it Illusory Serpents right? I have to admit, that is a much better name.'
Louis first stripped off his clothes, and then rubbed the cream on his face, within a minute his skin started warping, his muscles straining and his bones creaking. The process was painful; but Leon was no stranger to pain.
After an extremely gruesome process, he now looked like a harmless old man. He took some baggy robes that fit him, making him look like a mage.
This was disguising cream, something that he would obviously never sell through General Alchemy or the black market. As far as he knew, the only way for someone to see through the disguise was that if they were equal to his realm.
So basically, no one.
He made himself invisible using qi, and walked out of the villa, Leonor would not enter his room unless there was some sort of emergency or commotion. Leonor would most likely call him via communication pearl if there was anyways.
After finding a good enough alleyway near the General Alchemy building, he made himself visible again, joining the large crowd on the streets.
The galloping of horses pulling metal carriages on the road at fast speeds could be heard and the telltale signs of low-level magics being cast for various menial tasks was evident. Acies was truly the capital of magical technology.
Looking to the left and to the right, Louis waited for a floating orb of light to turn from blue to red in order to cross the street. Once the orb of light turned red, the incoming traffic stopped, and Louis crossed the road along with the crowd.
He came across a building seemingly made out of steel, but he knew it was a magically forged material that allowed those inside to see out. There was a golden emblem at the entrance that represented a round, mystical pill. It was the “focus" of a potion in this world. It was not as impressive at the headquarters based in the Leon duchy, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Louis entered the building. The guards gave him a glance, and confirmed he was no threat. He approached the woman at the help desk. It was an elven woman, which wasn’t that rare in the capital since elves who wish to pursue a magical career ended up in Acies.
“I’d like to meet up with Rufus, I’m the representative sent by Worcestershire industries.”
The woman raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry sir but this is the desk for questions-.” The woman suddenly remembered orders from the higher ups, she was given access to the lift that lead to the top floor of the building. She was extremely shocked; apparently she was to let in the man who came from Worcestershire Industries.
Of course, said business didn’t exist, it was just a secret code.
“Ah, sorry sir, I’ll lead you to the skylift right now.” The woman immediately abandoned her post and led Louis into the skylift.
He really wanted to berate the woman for being so careless, but he didn’t want to waste his breath.
The skylift was a magical contraption that uses a spell to lift itself and up to 6 people to a certain distance, this lift had the capacity to go to the top floor of the building.
The woman nervously inserted a mana crystal into the slot for the top floor, and the skylift shot upwards, in about a minute, they reached the top floor of the building.
The woman handed the authentication plate to Louis, and went back to the first floor after Louis left the room. One needed authentication to head it, but not out.
Rufus was seated at a desk at the end of the room, going over some paperwork, the top floor was partly a personal workshop and partly an office. He wore clothes fitting of a wealthy merchant. His face could be quite handsome, but he was still bald. Not that alchemy couldn't fix his hair problem, he just liked being bald. There was no sign of Rufus being the thug he once was.
After spotting Louis, he immediately dropped what he was doing, literally. He did not expect his mysterious benefactor to come this early.
His mysterious benefactor came in many forms, sometimes he was an old man, sometimes he was a teenage boy, hell, and sometimes he was even a woman. Rufus had no idea what his or her original identity was, but he knew his benefactor had a penchant for conspicuous clothes and weird hairstyles.
He was in no position to question his benefactor anyways.
He stood up, clasped his hands in greeting, and bowed deeply.
‘Junior alchemist Rufus greets mysterious benefactor!”
Louis nodded, satisfied that his education on how to behave properly worked on Rufus. He enjoyed his identity as the mysterious benefactor, for he did not have to act and got the respect he deserved.
“You may raise your head, I’m here to make an inquiry and check on the base of operations.”
Rufus straightened his body, and immediately replied.
“Of course, what does this junior's benefactor wish to inquire?”
“Tell me all of the transactions Llamiryl Urikalyn had with General Alchemy, and if possible, the black market as well.”
To Louis’ order, Rufus immediately took out a communication pearl, calling the organization’s accountant.
“No, no, there are no problems; I just need to know all of Llamiryl Urikalyn’s dealings with us.”
A mumbling could be heard from the crystal, one that Louis did not bother listening in to.
“Yes, THE third elven princess, who else would be surnamed Urikalyn in this country?”
Rufus waited for a while, since there wasn’t an efficient way to store information via magic, they still had to do it using the old pen and paper, the process was ultimately more efficient using certain magics for searching.
“Thank you.”
He then took out another communication pearl.
“Does Llamiryl Urikalyn have any transactions with Pablo?”
Pablo, a well known figure in the black-market, he sold dangerous alchemical compounds and has a bounty put on him by General Alchemy.
Pablo was a false figure that didn't exist, he was created by General Alchemy created to sell some of their more dangerous concoctions in the black market. Thanks to Louis, no one can discover any connection between “Pablo” and general alchemy.
“No? Are you sure? I can pay more than whatever she payed you.”
“There’s really nothing? That’s a shame then.”
Pablo crushed the communication pearl, and threw the dust in a garbage bin.
He turned to Louis, who was patiently waiting.
“Sorry for the wait, benefactor. This junior has discovered one transaction that miss Urikalyn had with General Alchemy. Three sweetening extracts, nothing else.”
‘Three sweetening extracts huh.”
The sweetening extracts were a failure that Rufus made when trying to make a potion that negated the taste of poison. He put too much sugar and it ended up as a sticky and sweet solution. It was marketed as a good alternative to honey, but nothing else.
Llamiryl couldn’t have used it for much.
Louis sighed, disappointed, Llamiryl and her friends obviously had false identities of their own, but it was worth a shot.
Rufus’ stomach rumbled a bit.
“Sorry for that, this junior hasn’t eaten lunch yet.”
“Ah, one second then.” Louis headed into the skylift room, after going out, he held a plate of roasted chicken and rice in front of Rufus.
“A small token of appreciation.” Louis said, pushing the plate onto Rufus’ hands.
“Mysterious benefactor… are you an elf…?”
Only the original elves could make food from thin air.
Louis knew this fact, and could maybe use it in a future situation where he had to act as one.
“Huh? No. Now stop dawdling around and give me the piece of stone I told you to take. Use any resources at your disposal to find out more about Llamiryl Urikalyn and her relations.”
Rufus nodded, immediately taking out a piece of stone that was picked up during the construction of their hidden base, it still contained the magical signature of the area, along with a fist-sized mana crystal.
He handed both to Louis, knowing that his benefactor would be leaving now, Rufus bowed and excused himself.
Teleport was one of the relatively high level spells Louis could cast. He had seen so many variations of teleportation spells that he could skillfully cast it. To recreate a spell from merely observing it enough times, it would be identified as monstrous talent by many.
Familiarizing himself with the magical signature of the stone, Louis raised the mana crystal to the height of his chest.
“ianuae magicae.” He chanted and crushed the crystal.
Watching Louis disappear in a flash of light, Rufus fell back to his chair, taking a bite out of the roasted chicken. He found it delicious.
“Hah, the mysterious benefactor might be a pain to talk to, but at least he’s generous.”
---
Louis appeared somewhere underground, in a large room full of the tools and materials he had requested from Rufus. The room could easily put even his father’s to shame.
He actually wanted the hidden base in space, but sadly humans can’t breathe in space, and he sometimes needed other personnel in the area.
The whole place was a kilometer underground, with magic allowing proper ventilation in the area, not that Louis needed it.
Heading inside a side room made of an extremely durable material rated against the trolls that lived in the mountain, Louis took out his soul weapon.
It was summoned in its ‘original form’ of a cutting board and kitchen knife. Louis did not know much about soul weapons as anyone he asked as Louis would say “you’d learn it at the academy” and it would be too suspicious as the mysterious benefactor.
He’d learn all of the secrets soon, but now he had to know how far he could take the basics.
He hadn’t tried fried phoenix and dragon marrow soup in a while.
w e a p o n i z e d f l a g.