A Wizard’s Secret

On the wide avenue, a horse carriage was going forward at a leisurely pace.

Two men and a girl sat in the carriage. Of the two men, one was wearing a neat, form-fitting outfit, and carried a greatsword on his back. He had a burly physique with a faint, oppressive aura surrounding his body.

In contrast, the other man had on a long, loose robe. He was slender with black hair and blue eyes and looked extremely young. This man was Merlin and he had just left Prakash City.

Merlin had departed from Prakash City alone, going toward the Kurdish Mountains according to the directions on the map. Along the way, he had met this pair of man and girl by coincidence.

The burly man was called Capace. His hair was tied up in a small ponytail. On the other hand, the girl with a tall and slender physique was Catherine. They were siblings who had met Merlin on the road, and Catherine had invited Merlin into their carriage.

“Mr. Merlin, where are you preparing to go?”

Ever since Merlin had boarded the carriage, Catherine had struck up an extremely warm and friendly conversation with Merlin. It could be seen that she was quite vivacious but lacking in experience when it came to handling matters as she did not possess the necessary vigilance toward strangers.

On the other hand, Catherine’s older brother, Capace, was extremely alert. However, he had failed at dissuading Catherine, so he could only agree to let Merlin into their carriage.

Hearing Catherine’s question, Merlin pondered deeply for a while. He did not withhold information deliberately, and said in a cold tone, “I’m going to the Kurdish Mountains.”

The Kurdish Mountains were vast. Some rare, wild beasts appeared there often, and their fur was extremely popular with the upper-level aristocrats. Hence, adventurers would enter the mountains frequently to hunt for these rare wild beasts so that they could exchange them for great amounts of gold.

Catherine looked at Merlin from top to bottom, sizing him up then said doubtfully, “You’re going to the Kurdish Mountains? By the looks of you, you don’t seem like an adventurer.”

Indeed – with an appearance like Merlin who was wearing a long, loose robe and had a body build that could not be deemed stalwart, he just did not look like an adventurer who would go through the rigors of living in the wild. In addition, he even looked frail, and had not a single weapon on him.

Merlin did not reply immediately. He smiled, giving Capace and Catherine a very meaningful look before saying in a soft voice, “You guys don’t look like adventurers either.”

Catherine’s face turned slightly red. Following which, she spoke in a low voice, “We’re not adventurers, indeed. I’ll let you in on a secret. We heard that there’s a powerful spell casters’ organization in the Kurdish Mountains, so we wish to look for them. If we’re lucky enough to find them, perhaps we can become mysterious and powerful Spell Casters!”

Seeing the excitement on Catherine’s face, Merlin’s eyes narrowed slightly. He spoke without a shift in his expression, “Oh? There are Spell Casters in the Kurdish Mountains?”

“Of course there are, we heard about them personally…”

“Cough… Catherine, it’s very stuffy inside the carriage. Let’s get down and take a break.”

Catherine had immediately answered without thinking. Nevertheless, the look on Capace’s face changed. Sitting next to her, he hurriedly nudged Catherine and deflected the topic of the conversation.

An understanding dawned upon Merlin. Capace still had a certain level of vigilance, but the words spoken by Catherine earlier had already leaked out a wealth of information.

“I feel very stifled as well. Let’s get down and rest first.”

Merlin did not continue asking questions. He took the lead by getting off the horse carriage first.

Capace pulled Catherine to a secluded area, and spoke to her in a low voice, “Catherine, we’ve secretly snuck out this time, so it’s imperative that we be very cautious in all things and not cause any new problems. It’s enough that you’ve let a stranger into the carriage. Why did you talk about us looking for the Spell Casters as well?”

Capace was evidently very upset about what Catherine had done.

Catherine stuck her tongue out and said in a soft voice, “I felt too excited earlier, so I forgot, but I’ll take note. Capace, you’ve seen Mr. Merlin, don’t you think he’s rather strange? He’s definitely not an adventurer. Who knows, he might be like us, wanting to find the spell casters’ organization in the Kurdish Mountains and become a Spell Caster.”

Capace remained in deep thought for a while then admonished Catherine, “It doesn’t matter if Mr. Merlin is an adventurer, this has nothing to do with us. We’ve run away from home quietly just because we’ve heard that there’s a spell casters’ organization in the Kurdish Mountains. Finding the organization is still a problem. So, don’t create issues where there’s none. We’ll separate from that Mr. Merlin when we reach the Kurdish Mountains.”

Catherine could only nod. However, Capace was still rather worried, and exhorted, “Catherine, don’t speak with Mr. Merlin anymore after we get back to the carriage later to prevent you from exposing our identities accidentally.”

Although Catherine was somewhat reluctant, she did not dare to argue with Capace because she had done wrong mere moments ago. She could only nod and promised him helplessly. Then, they returned to the carriage.

A few days later, the carriage slowly came to a halt. There was no more road before them, only stretches of a thick and dense forest. They had finally arrived at the Kurdish Mountains.

Merlin and the others got down from the carriage. Capace and Catherine’s excitement was very evident. After a few moments, Capace said to Merlin, “Mr. Merlin, we’ve important matters to attend to in the Kurdish Mountains, so we’ll be leaving first now.”

Merlin nodded. Following which, Capace pulled Catherine along and quickly darted into the lush and thick mountain forest.

Seeing Capace and Catherine’s disappearing backs, Merlin shook his head. Earlier, he had already discerned that their Mind Powers were at very ordinary levels. This showed that they did not possess the qualities of a Spell Caster.

He did not know how these two people had gotten wind of the news that there was a spell casters’ organization in the Kurdish Mountains. It was actually extremely dangerous for them to come to the Mountains so hastily.

However, judging by how Capace looked, he seemed to have achieved the level of a Third-level Elemental Swordsman where there had been a faint aura emanating from his body. Perhaps they had only dared to come looking for the spell casters’ organization in the Kurdish Mountains because he wielded some power of self-protection.

Merlin did not think too much about his encounter with these two extremely interesting characters on his journey. Subsequently, he gently caressed the ink black ring on his hand and frowned. “The Kurdish Mountains are so vast, where on earth is the Dark Magic Region?”

There were no instructions on the ink black ring, keepsake of the Dark Magic Region. As a result, Merlin could only enter the mountains first and conduct his search slowly, hoping for some changes to appear on the ring in his hand.

According to the conjecture of the black-robed old man, the keepsake in Merlin’s possession now was crucial if he wished to find the Dark Magic Region. Perhaps the clues were on the ink black ring.

Merlin quickly went into the thick forest. He did not linger on the peripheral of the mountains. Instead, he went directly toward the deep parts of the Kurdish Mountains. From what he could surmise, if the Dark Magic Region was truly within these Mountains, it would definitely not be built on the outside but would be deep in the mountains, where few people went.

…

“Swoosh!”

Two robust figures dashed out from behind a big tree. Astonishingly, they were Capace and Catherine, who had entered the dense forest mere moments ago.

Capace glanced behind him and gave a soft sigh of relief. “Merlin didn’t follow us. Looks like I was a little too careful.”

Capace was worried that Merlin would trail them. That was why they had taken this extra precaution.

“Alright, let’s go a little faster. Wizard Pario said that we don’t have qualitied of a Spell Caster. Hmph! I think he’s just not capable enough so he’s unable to help us become Spell Casters, that’s all. Rumor has it that the spell casters’ organization is incomparably powerful. Even Wizard Pario speaks of them in an extremely envious manner. We must find this spell casters’ organization and become great and mighty Spell Casters!”

Catherine brandished her small fists, full of high fighting spirit.

A complicated look flashed through Capace’s eyes and he said in a low voice, “Wizard Pario has mentioned that there’s a powerful spell casters’ organization in the Kurdish Mountains called the Dark Magic Region! The only thing we don’t know is the actual location. However, based on the various mystical incidents we’ve heard about happened in the Kurdish Mountains, and all of them seem to happen deep in the mountains. Perhaps the Dark Magic Region is in the deeper parts of the mountains. We’ll go in and try our luck.”

Thus, the two of them, Capace and Catherine, walked deeper into the mountains.