Chapter 108: The Castle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hank arrived right on schedule and he politely expressed his apologies. He made a bunch of excuses, but it only caused Xiao Lin and Song Junlang to further suspect it was an act of revenge.
However, there was no way to do anything about it for now; this was still New Washington: American territory. Song Junlang had said before that the Dawn Academy’s territory was at least two or three months away.
The super-potion was a medication that was just produced by the American academy. It would allow anyone below Black-iron rank who was still not used to the environment in the New World to avoid harm from any of the foreign viruses and microorganisms there. The price for it was extremely high, since it would allow for those people who were not specialized in combat, such as alchemists and enchanters to be able to live there. Their skills were far behind others, especially in the beginning, but these people would often gain early entry into the New World, since they were much more valuable than combatants.
Every academy had poured in a lot of manpower into the development of the super-potion, and the Royal British Academy was the first one to successfully manufacture it. However, the drawbacks of this medicine were very obvious: it was only effective for a limited time. According to Hank, they had bought an improved version this time that would last for a whole week.
The light-blue medicine was contained in a very small test tube. Its smell was faint, and had a sliver of sweetness. Xiao Lin gulped it down and smacked his lips while asking for another bottle, claiming to not have tasted it, but Hank ignored him.
He was looking forward to seeing the accessory that was custom made for him, but Xiao Lin was quite disappointed when he saw the actual object. They said it was an accessory, but it was actually just a pin to be placed on his shirt. The pin had a grey jewel the size of a grain of rice on it.
When Xiao Lin wore it, a light suddenly shone from the grey jewel that enveloped Xiao Lin’s entire body. It was like an invisible veil that stopped some of the influence of gravity.
Hank self-indulgently bragged about how complicated the manufacturing process for this accessory was. It was rare that they would spend so many resources and so much effort on a new foreign student.
However, Song Junlang touched the pin and immediately said, “Isn’t this pin a perishable object. The quality of the jewel is disastrous; it’s obviously never been purified. Can this thing even last half a month? This thing could be done by anyone that knows alchemy; isn’t this just a magic jewel with a small anti-gravity array attached to it? How hard could that be?”
Hank awkwardly coughed. “Professor Brown has been waiting. Let’s hurry up and leave.”
Xiao Lin said it was not a problem. He practically did not sleep last night, but after drinking the super-potion and putting on the anti-gravity pin, he felt much better. He suddenly felt a lot more awake as well.
Hank led the way, but Song Junlang was stopped from following. Hank smiled softly but resolutely said, “I’m very sorry, Department Head Song, but other than Professor Brown’s team, no one else is allowed to follow.”
Song Junlang was left alone, and Xiao Lin followed Hank through the residential district and right into the most central district of the city: the castle district.
The castle had been repaired and renovated many times, but it still maintained the general style and feel of the Thunder Kingdom–strange and seemingly random corridors, a courtyard that was full of vibrant flowers and plants, and a majestic and luxurious palace. Xiao Lin stopped in his tracks to admire the scenes a few times, only continuing his walk when Hank called for him.
The castle was about as big as a small village, but only the outer buildings were used by Judge Academy. The buildings further inside were in obvious disrepair, which indicated that no one had used them for a long time–a big contrast from the beautiful sights outside.
Xiao Lin was a bit apprehensive when he noticed that Hank was walking toward the deepest part of the castle. The buildings there were in horrible shape. The further inside they went, the more desolate the scenery became. If the outside was spring, then the deepest part of the castle was winter; they were completely different environments. Even the flowers there had all withered.
“We’re here!”
Hank finally stopped in front of one of the courtyards. The rusted metal gate was already impossible to shut, and there were two guards stationed outside wearing silver armor. The two of them were stopped, and Hank went up and exchanged a few words. After that one of them produced a few sheets of paper. On them were Xiao Lin’s picture and some details. The guard compared Xiao Lin with the photo a few times, and after verifying that everything was in order, pa.s.sed the last empty page to Xiao Lin.
“Press your fingers to it for fingerprint verification; it’s just regular security protocol,” Hank whispered to Xiao Lin.
Xiao Lin pressed his thumb down and his thumbprint magically appeared on the paper. The whole paper rapidly turned blue.
The guard nodded to Hank, then burned away the piece of paper.
“Does that mean it went through fine?” Xiao Lin looked in wonder.
Hank explained, “Fingerprint verification. That paper had your fingerprint that Dawn Academy provided stored in it. If the verification was correct, then it would turn blue, otherwise it would be red.”
After everything went smoothly, Xiao Lin was allowed into the courtyard, but Hank was stopped outside. He exchanged a few quick words with Xiao Lin, asking him to remember to wait for someone to come get him in the evening, because if Hank was not leading him, Xiao Lin would find it very hard to get around the heavily-guarded castle.
In the ruined courtyard, other than a few large and leafless trees, there was not a shred of green. The wild gra.s.s on the ground was as high as half a person. There was a small palace in the middle of the courtyard. Its walls were black and grey, and the original color could no longer be ascertained. There was a small path leading toward the palace where the wild gra.s.s had been cut clean, but the path had a lot of marks on it that were obviously left behind by explosions. These were probably all left behind by the war many years ago.
The palace entrance was not completely shut. After hesitating for a bit, Xiao Lin pushed the door open and entered. The door made a heavy grating sound, which caused a slight chill in the grey, desolate courtyard.
The inside of the palace was much more s.p.a.cious than he thought, or rather, all the previous decorations and objects had already been stripped away. On the clean flooring that was recently built, a few hundred stone plates were wildly strewn around. Each stone plate was almost two meters long, and were all incomplete. Most of them were smashed, and the more severe ones were even grinded to dust.
Beside the stone plates, around eight or nine people were either squatting or standing. Some of them seemed to be very focused on ascertaining something from the stone plates. The others were trying to rearrange the broken pieces, and some of them were even chatting in low voices.
The sound of the door being pushed focused everyone’s attention onto Xiao Lin. A few of them were in a confused daze. A dark-skinned man nearby stood up and spoke in some foreign language to Xiao Lin. Seeing his confused expression, he switched to a few different languages, even using Normese.
Xiao Lin really wanted to tell him he knew English and Normese, but he did not really have time to digest it. However, the man seemed to lack patience, and grabbed Xiao Lin’s shoulder before shouting some words upstairs. After a few minutes, an old man walked down, accompanied by a blond woman.