Chương 91: Letters

Adolin stared at the wall from which a few more pained cries echoed, while keeping an eye on the Count and the butler. Both of them looked toward the hole Eduard had made in the wall, but neither of them said anything or made a move against him. The Count even had a barely concealed smirk. It looked like the man was quite pleased with what he'd done, as if he had wanted to do something similar himself. A moment later, Nicholas walked toward the hole.

"Feel better?" the butler asked as he passed by. Adolin chuckled lightly.

"I guess?" The butler soon entered the hole, took out a potion, and disappeared deeper inside. The hole Eduard had made was both wide and deep. Adolin just shrugged. It probably wasn't something he should have done, but it did make him feel better about the whole situation Eduard had put him through. There was a small voice in the back of his mind telling him to do it again. He cleared his throat. That would be too much. He quickly banished the thought. He was a gentleman... whatever that meant.

It was something Luc had tried to teach him, but Adolin usually ignored him. There was no reason to waste time learning something so trivial. Adolin looked toward the Count; the smirk was gone, replaced by a serious expression. Ever since he'd woken the man up, he'd realized he had forgotten his name and had been referring to him simply as the Count. It was something like Al... but he didn't want to use the wrong name, so until he heard it again, he planned to keep calling him the Count.

He saw nothing wrong with that. It was the man's station and title. He glanced toward the knights lying on the ground. One of them was dead. He still checked his spark just in case, but there was nothing left. The other was still alive, and his spark was slowly growing brighter. The man had been given a few potions, and the wounds across his body were slowly closing. A few looked more serious than the others, but he would make a full recovery within an hour or so.

Overusing potions reduced their effectiveness quite severely until the body had enough time to reset. Even then, there would still be lingering effects after the body had purged every trace of the potion residue. The body developed a certain resistance to potions, making future healing slower. If someone constantly overused them, they could eventually become completely immune, causing potions to have no effect at all. That was quite rare, however.

Using that many potions in such a short period was almost impossible unless someone spent months fighting every waking hour of every day. There were ways to fix that, but they required a lot of expensive ingredients. Well, at least that was how it worked in his old world. Perhaps there were other methods available here. He stopped himself from following the random thoughts filling his head. It usually happened every time he left the Flow State.

It was some kind of side effect his mentor had told him about, but he had never seen it that way. It had always felt as if his brain was trying to make up for all the thoughts he'd lost while under the effects of the technique.

"So," Adolin said.

"What happens now?" The Count was quiet for a few moments before stretching his back.

"I'm not sure," the man said.

"It all depends on how the Emperor takes the whole situation." He glanced toward the hole in the wall.

"If my son's guess is correct, in a month or two, I'll march to the frontline." Adolin nodded.

"If his guess is wrong... I'm not sure what will happen. I'll probably have to prepare for another attack from the organization."

"That doesn't sound fun," Adolin said. The Count studied him.

"Your... scowl is gone?" Adolin just shrugged. There were quite a lot of thoughts on his mind, but he was still somehow glad about how everything had ended. It had allowed him to see a new side of himself... well, he wasn't sure what exactly he'd seen or what any of it meant. Ever since the Class Selection, he'd had doubts about the changes the blessing had mentioned. But now... even in the Flow State, he had still acted like his younger self would have.

When he'd received the title of Radiant Mage, it hadn't been exactly the same, as the experiences from his previous life had shaped everything he did now, but there was still a clear difference. For one, he'd left some of his enemies alive while in the Flow State, something he would never have done before. He had gone out of his way multiple times and risked his life to protect the civilians, even the soldiers.

That was definitely not something he would have done while under the technique, and yet he'd done it repeatedly throughout the battle. There were other little things as well, but there was no reason to think about them now. Soon, Nicholas and Eduard emerged from the hole. Eduard leaned on Nicholas as he limped toward them. They stopped a dozen steps away, and Eduard didn't make eye contact with Adolin even once. They stood there for a few moments before Eduard took a step away from Nicholas on his own, grimacing.

Maybe he should have started with that as soon as he'd found out what was happening, but it was already too late, so he pushed the thought aside. He still needed to collect payment for everything that had happened and leave the estate. A few minutes had already passed since the battle had ended. The Emperor would be arriving soon. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. He glanced at Eduard, and the man frowned before looking toward one of the approaching knights.

After a single look from Eduard, the knight turned and strode back toward the estate. They really exchanged an entire conversation with just a look, Adolin thought. He might have been wrong, so he decided to ask anyway.

"Compensation?" Adolin said to no one in particular. The Count glanced toward Eduard. Eduard nodded slowly.

"The knight is already on his way to retrieve it." Adolin smiled.

"The whole situation was much more than I signed up for." He wasn't exactly sure what he was asking for, but whatever they added to the compensation would be enough. Out of the twenty potions he had, he'd used nine during the battle, leaving him with eleven. It was still eleven more than he'd had before arriving at the estate, but the more mana potions he had, the more comfortable he felt. Nicholas seemed to be deep in thought, and after a few moments, he spoke.

"Because of the target we put on his back," the man said, "I recommend we lend him some guards for the foreseeable future." Adolin tilted his head. He didn't really need guards, as he was capable of defending himself. Even if he were attacked, he'd probably end up protecting the guards instead. Yet... Having guards do work for him sounded nice. No, better than nice. He could leave everything he didn't want to do to them.

"Yes," Adolin said.

"I would require some guards." The Count just shook his head and looked toward Eduard again. Eduard looked thoughtful for a moment.

"We can leave the men we've already assigned to him." Then he quickly added, "Blaise could be the first mage to learn the healing spells." Adolin glanced at him sideways.

"Of course... if the alliance is made." Since he already had to teach a few mages, adding one more wouldn't hurt. Besides, Blaise was quite good at following his orders, something Adolin appreciated, even though they hadn't interacted much. His compensation would arrive in a minute or two, so everything he needed to do here was already finished. He glanced down at his clothes... or rather, the lack of them. They had been reduced to rags. It was even worse than when he'd first woken up in this world.

Dareth had more clothes on than he currently did. His legs were mostly bare, the fabric burned and shredded. His shirt wasn't much better, and neither was anything else he could see. He would need to buy new clothes, but... could he really walk into a shop looking like this? He'd probably get chased out, just like the first time. Adolin glanced at Eduard, then back at his own body. Eduard simply nodded. Adolin was fairly certain Eduard had understood what he meant, so he would probably get another set of clothes.

He still needed to buy some before returning to his party. Maybe he could even get a mage's robe. It was what he had usually worn in his previous life.

"Now," Adolin said.

"I'd like some information regarding the organization." He looked toward the Count. The Count looked back at him and sighed.

"That's fair. Since," he glanced toward Eduard, "we've already made you a target of the organization, knowing more won't hurt."

"Pretty much," Adolin said. It didn't really change anything, except putting a target on his back a little earlier. He would have made enemies of the organization soon enough anyway. Everything he planned to do in the North would go against their plans, or at least that was his guess. Since the organization supported the corrupted, and he intended to bring healing magic to the mages of the North, it seemed inevitable that they would become enemies. The Count shook his head.

"A few months before I fell under the curse, during a Shade raid on a village in my territory, we arrested an individual and confiscated several letters. They were written in code, and my best cryptographer, Elis, wasn't available. I hoped the letters would help me uncover those behind Shade. At the very least, stop it within my territory." The Count looked at Adolin.

"You're familiar with Shade?" Adolin nodded.

"The mana-enhanced drug. I'm quite familiar with it, though I didn't know it had spread so far."

"It has," the Count said.

"The whole continent is infected by it. It has become worse than the plague."

"Let me guess," Adolin said.

"The organization is behind it?"

"Yes," the Count confirmed.

"Close enough. My money was on the corrupted, but I guess I was still partially right." The Count nodded and continued.

"After the raid, I was attacked multiple times, as was every officer present during it. Almost all of them are dead now." The Count paused for a moment and swallowed.

"At the time, I still didn't know the value of what I had discovered. A month after the raid, Captain Michael was found dead. His house had been robbed, and his entire family executed. At the time, I thought he'd crossed the wrong people, and that this was their revenge... well, at least that was one of my theories. Then more and more of the men who had been present during the raid were attacked or killed. Including me.

But it didn't matter who they sent after me; it never worked, as Maxime was my guard at the time."

"Maxime?" Adolin asked.

"A baron's son. A formidable warrior. He was the captain of my guard, almost as strong as Nicholas. Then Elis returned and started decoding the letters, though it was slow. It took him a week just to decode a few words, one of which was 'the organization.'" The Count exhaled.

"In short, I'd heard about the organization before, so after decoding some of the letters, I started searching for more information about them. I've already told you the gist of my research. It took Elis a few months to decode the first letter. It contained nothing important, only records of a few Shade shipments, but by the time it was decoded, those shipments had already been completed.

"While working on the first letter, Elis had managed to crack most of the code and started deciphering the others. Then the castle was raided, and both Elis and the letters were burned in his room."

"Did you get anything out of the letters?" Adolin asked. The Count nodded.

"A few things. The locations of safehouses throughout the Empire, several of which are in Mith. There were also two sets of coordinates in the Desert of Dread. One points north, near the border between the desert and the kingdom. The other is near the border of the lost territory, the Empire's border and the desert. The two locations are only a few dozen miles apart. I'm not sure what's there, but I think it's something important." The Count walked over to one of the nearby benches and sat down.

Adolin followed but remained standing.

"Is that why they want to kill you?" The Count remained silent for a few seconds before leaning back.

"I'm not sure. It could be that... or maybe it was something Elis didn't manage to decode in time. They have multiple reasons to want me dead, but the attack on the estate, the number of archmage-tier opponents they sent after me, and the fact that it happened this close to the capital make it clear there was something in those letters they didn't want anyone to know." The Count let out a chuckle.

"Or," he said, "the letters didn't contain anything important, and they simply wanted to deal with me because I started looking into them. Maybe the curse was all they originally planned, but then my son started talking to every noble willing to listen." His smile disappeared as soon as he finished speaking. Adolin cast a bubble around them to prevent anyone else from overhearing.

"Did you make copies?" The Count studied him for a few seconds.

"Yes."