"Beautiful"

I can feel a slight warmth coming from my neck when I hear her say that. Bloody hell. Mind your manner, young lady. We don't even know each other, and you are already flirting with me. I give her a small smile and say.

"Thank you, my lady. "

When she hears my words, her face becomes red like a tomato. A few seconds later, she quickly says.

"I'm sorry for my behavior, heir Gwyndolin."

"Don't mention it, heiress Silvanna. I don't mind it. Your words flatter me."

I hold my frown when I see her hesitant to say something.

"Is there something wrong, my lady?"

"I'm sorry, heir Gwyndolin."

"Hmmm? Why?"

"I used my talent on you."

"Oh? That was you?"

I can feel it. It was a feeling like someone was spying on me. It was the same feeling when someone managed to get my status in Second Life. It was like a cold wind passed by. So it was her, huh? If I equip all of my gear from Second Life, she will get a backlash from attempting to do it.

"Eh? You notice?"

"Yes. I don't know how but I notice it. I think people with enough connection to magic can feel it."

I leave the part that I know because of my previous life.

"Ah."

I can see her eyes light up at the revelation before her expression changes into a panic. Is she using them quite often? She must be very lucky so far. All of her targets either did not have good mana sensing or did not have a talent that let them detect them.

"You are really lucky, my lady. I suggest not using it this close. Use it from a distance and secretly. A crowded area is a good start because the target will not know where it comes from."

"Ara~ You sound like you know your stuff, heir Gwyndolin."

I look at the lady of the house and smile at her.

"Well, I can do the same thing as her."

"Really? Is it your talent?"

"Part of it."

"Part of it? Can we see it?"

I look at Lord Adrian and nod my head.

"Sure."

"Please wait a moment."

I look at the young lady and let her say more.

"Use it on me. I see your talent and it is fair for you to see mine."

But I already know about it, though. You already said that you have the talent to guess someone's talent. Oh well.

"[Scan Stats]"

[Scan Stats] is a high-level spell that I can use to see the complete spell of someone. It is a great spying spell because it can show players' full stats and can only be blocked by an item with an anti-divination effect.

Why is it a good thing? An item with an anti-divination effect is expensive and can only be bought by a high-level player. However, if someone has that item? You need to be careful because the backlash is quite punishing. The harshest one is losing seventy-five percent of their HP and revealing their location for twenty-four hours in-game time.

A second after I use the spell, knowledge appears inside my head. I know how much it takes to kill her, how much mana she has, how powerful her physical strength and what kind of talent she has. That is new.

In Second Life, it only shows a panel that I can read. The details get shorter than when I used the spell in Second Life.

"What do you find?"

I look at the young lady in front of me and say.

"You have something called [Aura Reading] , a talent that lets you guess someone's talent and how powerful they are by the shape of their aura and how they work. Not only the shape of an aura, but you can also see how dense and how much mana someone has."

She looked at me with wide eyes before slowly nodding her head.

"That is accurate. I had never heard of something like this before. Can I know how you do that? If you don't mind, of course."

"Hmmm, I cannot tell you the details but it came with my second talent, [Astrologian]."

"[Astrologian].... Is it something related to the stars and that twelve shape?"

"Twelve shapes?"

Does she mean the Zodiac? She can see them, huh? Fascinating.

"Yes. It was a group of stars making some sort of shape. I remember a bull, lion, and scorpion among the twelve shapes."

"Yes. That twelfth shape is related to my talent."

"I see. Thank you for your trust, heir Gwyndolin. I will make sure not to tell anybody about your talent. I swear it in the name of my family."

"You don't need to do that, but I appreciate it."

I smile at her, and she smiles back at me.

"Ahem!"

I look at Lord Adrian, who is smiling at us.

"Dear, I think it is time for you to officially introduce yourself. We need to start the feast, you know?"

"Ah, I'm sorry father."

Silvanna smiled at her father before bowing at me.

"My name is Silvanna Baxter, the heiress of the Baxter family. It is a pleasure to meet you, young lord."

"My name is Gwyndolin Alexander Cunningham, the pleasure is mine, young lady. Thank you for receiving me in your abode."

Lord Adrian smiles at us and says.

"Good! With the pleasantry out of the way, let's eat! A cold food lose their deliciousness."

When Silvanna and lady Yuliana take a seat, Lord Adrian takes some food to his plate, and the others follow suit. While eating his food, Lord Adrian looks at me and says,

"Can I ask what you will do after this?"

"Hmmm? There is nothing else to do but continue our journey. However, I feel it will not be as long as when we are exploring the southern border."

"Hmmm, you are right. The northern part did not have as bad of a situation as the southern border. There are still a lot of void cracks happening but not as bad as the one in the south. Anyway, what I want to ask is the route you will take."

"Our route? I think we will go further north, to the border village before visiting the city."

"Hmmm, if you take that route, can I give you a recommendation?"

"Of course."

"After you visit the northernmost village, can you go to the village southwest of that village? It is a village located under a mountain in the southwest of the northernmost village."

"I don't really mind visiting that village but can I ask why?"

"I received news that the villagers started to get sick and it was spreading. I sent a letter three days ago and the village chief has yet to answer me back."

"Is the sickness spreading out of the village? What kind of sickness? Can you tell me? Tell me the symptoms."

There is a chance of a pandemic happening, and I never heard of it. I don't want it to spread, and we must take care of it immediately.

"I don't think it has spread just yet but I don't know for sure."

"Then I will quickly go there and check. We are just getting out of a disaster because of a poison in our water, I don't want something to happen to our people."

"And you are correct, heir Gwyndolin. If there is something I can do for you, please tell me. I will use all of my power to help you."

~Sometimes later~

I get out of the lord's mansion a few hours later, and when I get out of the mansion, I can see Sonia sitting on the ground looking at the sky alone.

"Sonia, what are you doing?"

"Papa!"

She quickly ran to me and hugged me tightly. I frown a little when I see her behavior.

"Sonia? What happened?"

"Disgusting."

"Eh? Am I disgusting? Am I smelly?"

"No. Papa is good."

"Then?"

"The air… it changes. It stinks."

I quickly look at the air and try to feel if there is something wrong. When I feel nothing, I know that it is only something she can feel. Homunculus is a creature of magic, and they have a trait that lets them know if something is wrong in the air.

"It stinks?"

"En. It smells like corpses."

And that rings an alarm inside my head. I take a deep breath and summon all of my gear from my guild base. When I equip them, I can feel it. I can feel there is something wrong in the area. Seven cards start to float around me and shine as I am about to cast a spell.

"[Zodiac: Virgo]!"

One of my cards flies to the sky and shines brightly. A second later, a figure of a beautiful woman appeared in the sky. The woman pressed her hands together as if offering a prayer.

[Zodiac: Virgo] is a high-tier cleansing spell that removes any debuff in a large area and gradually heals any allies within the range. What makes this spell different from [Canis Major: Sirius] is that this spell can even remove a powerful debuff from the boss and a special debuff from a unique class.

In Second Life, the range is fifty meters, but it increases drastically. The range now is a couple of kilometers.

I can feel the effect of my spell immediately. The air gets cleaner, and I can see Sonia smile at me.

I nod my head and see the Baxter family run toward me with worried expressions.

"Heir Gwyndolin! What happened?"

"It looks like the so-called sickness is already spreading."

"So-called?"

"Yes. It was not a sickness but rather a curse and it is spreading here."

16.2k words / 20k words

LuxVonDeux

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