Law of the Devil Chapter 64: The corpse hidden in the snow
“Okay, first is the ‘Magic Lake Monster’. It used magic to make all of the mercenaries incoherent and uncontrollably walk towards the middle of the ice to commit suicide. I couldn’t do anything to break that magic, but you, my dear Semel, just showed up and broke that effect! You not only showed me your strong side, but also impressed me greatly! From a simple gesture of your finger, you managed to crack the ice layer and wipe out that monster by slamming the ice against it! Not to mention, the monster’s nucleus now belongs to you! And finally….. You are saying you love me and calling me ‘Zack’, so what’s going on?”
Du Wei continued to feed into the bonfire as he casually talked.
Luckily no one sat next to him because all the mercenaries were busy bandaging their comrades or helping with camp setup. As for the mercenaries that had the misfortune of falling into the freezing water, they managed to survive thanks to Semel’s healing magic, but their bodies are still weak in comparison to those that didn’t.
“What?” Semel’s beautiful face looked confused as she stood there next to Du Wei: “I did such a thing? How come I don’t remember anything?”
Du Wei laughed as he looked at Semel with a complicated expression, “Look…You killed a very strong magical beast and saved a lot of people. Then you stood in front of me and fainted… Now that you have awakened, you are suddenly telling me ‘I didn’t do anything’. So, Semel, don’t look at me this way. If you really don’t know, then we have a problem! We need to figure out what’s happening with you!”
“……What?”
“Magic!” Du Wei suddenly jumped up and took a deep breath. He looked at Semel carefully, “You can use magic! And from my point of view…your magic is very strong! Extremely strong! But isn’t that a bit strange? You don’t even have a real body…you are only a shadow, an illusion! An illusion that can use magic! How is this possible?”
“And you also called me ‘Zack’…”—— Du Wei reminded himself again in his mind.
Only the real Semel – the real female astrology teacher – would use that tone when speaking!
“Do you feel anything, perhaps some strange feeling? Or in your memory, is there anything that can explain this, even a little bit?” Du Wei looked at Semel seriously.
“No.” Semel answered quickly and firmly. She shook her head, “I am the cloned memory of Semel, a magic creature sealed in the oil canvas painting. I am nothing more than a visual illusion related to Semel through her memories…… And I don’t know magic. I really don’t know any at all!”
Her pretty eyes looked innocent and confused with a bit of helpless mixed in-between.
With those eyes, Du Wei could not believe she was lying. She seems to be telling the truth…… Otherwise, she must be frighteningly good at telling lies.
Du Wei decided he would rather believe the former.
“Puff.”
A purple crystal-like object was thrown by Du Wei into the snow. “That’s the magic nucleus of the magic lake monster. It shouldn’t be a fake. I don’t have the ability to kill an adult magic lake monster, and yet, you killed it in front of me and got the monster nucleus from it.”
With a confused expression, Semel tried her best to remember what had transpired before, “I….I don’t know. I really can’t remember……”
At that moment, Dadaneier and Beinlich were approaching them.
Semel looked at Du Wei and sighed, then became invisible.
“Mr. Magician.” Beinlich looked serious from his expression. As he came up to Du Wei, the old guy gave him a proper salute: “Thank you so much for saving me and my people!”
Du Wei sighed but didn’t say anything. Although the deed wasn’t done by him, but he couldn’t think of anything to say, not to mention there’s no way he could reveal the truth… So, he had no choice but to take the credit.
Beinlich took out a leather pouch, and gave it to Du Wei: “Mr. Magician. I know this is not enough for a reward, but please accept it. At least it can show our appreciation! From now on, if you ever need anything, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group will always stand beside you!”
Then Beinlich opened the bag to reveal an a.s.sortment of colorful gemstones…. Every single one of these are magic nucleuses!
These are all of the harvests the Snow Wolf Mercenary group made during this trip! Although the leather of a magic monster could be sold for a nice price, the most valuable part of a creature lies in their magic nucleus! There were about thirty magic nucleuses in the pocket and the quality was in no way substandard.
This was the result of the hard work put in by the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group on this journey. They worked hard for the magic nucleus, and some even lost their lives in the process.
“No commander.” Du Wei surely couldn’t accept these things. First, these people weren’t saved by him. Even if they were saved by him, he still wouldn’t accept such a expensive gift. In his heart, Beinlich is his friend and thus: “I cannot such an expensive gift.”
“But you saved our lives!” Beinlich insisted, “Without you, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group would not even exist in this world anymore!”
Du Wei thought for a bit and changed his tone, “Ok, if I’m a magician, even if I think your things are expensive, it’s still not enough to buy a magician, right?”
“……” Beinlich felt weird. “That’s true. Although these spoils are all of their harvest from this journey, but it’s obviously still not enough for buying off a real Mage… Everyone knows that a magician carries a unique ident.i.ty on the Roland Continent. If one wanted to hire a magician, he knew this small mercenary group would never be able to pay for it!”
“Don’t misunderstand.” Du Wei laughed immediately, “I am not saying it’s too little. But…Mr. Commander, I mean, out here I am not just a magician! You are not only a mercenary either. Do you know what I mean? Do you remember what we talked last night behind the snow? I treat you as my friend! Friends must help friends! When one sees his friend in danger, he must help him. This is logical, right? Please, keep your things; otherwise, it will be rude of me to take things from my friend!”
This bearded Commander looked at Du Wei with shock! Spreading his arms apart, he went up to close and gave Du Wei a heaping hug. After a second of overly joy, he suppressed his pa.s.sion and whispered, “My friend, Thank you! You are right my friend, Sorry! My behavior must have offended you, I take my words back!”
But this commander did have some smarts in that brain of his. He grabbed some magic nucleus from the pocket, around seven to eight magic nucleus and gave them to Du Wei. He tried to stop Du Wei and said, “Ok! This is not a reward! I am giving you this not because you saved our lives, but because my best friend is going to leave! This is a farewell present, a gift, not a reward. So you have to keep it!”
Du Wei laughed and loosened his hands, then he hugged Beinlich tightly. They laughed loudly on the snow.
“Anytime, anywhere, the Snow Wolf Mercenary group is willing to do anythings for friends!”
This was the promise from Beinlich at their farewell. Du Wei believed that this man who loved adventure would abide by his commitment.
As they left the Snow Wolf Mercenary group, the mercenaries gave their best weapon in appreciation.
The old Cyclops made some fried meat for Du Wei. And Commander Bein gave the last bottle of wine, which was made from the magic nucleus of a frame rhino, to them. The mercenaries gave their best two sword to Du Wei. Chester, the archer with eight fingers, gave his bow to Dadaneier.
If they were not worrying about the load, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group would’ve given them even more things.
Walking along the lakeside of the Big Circle Lake, there were two series of footprint left upon the snow. Dadaneier carried most of the luggage, and still walked in front of Du Wei.
According to what Beinlich said, by bypa.s.sing the Big Circle Lake and heading to the north, he had heard that there was someone who caught the golden eye python when he was young.
“Dadaneier.” Du Wei suddenly asked,”You seem very calm…I am talking about last night.”
Dadaneier laughed. He said seriously, “Harry, you have saved my life twice including last night! This cannot be settled by simply saying ‘thank you’! If I can stay alive this time after helping mistress, I will leave the Lister family. I, Dadaneier, would like to become the squire of Mr. Harry the Magician.”
“What are you talking about?” Du Wei was shocked.
“I would like to be your squire.” Dadaneier replied calmly, “I owe you two lives now, maybe even more…you are such a good person, Harry. I like you, and want to be your friend. Also, I think that since you are so great, I am afraid I cannot repay you for the grace. So, why don’t I become your a.s.sistant for life? You are a magician. Magicians should always have someone helping them. You need a servant…But unfortunately, I am not a magic student, so I could not be your servant… But I am a warrior! I can be your squire! I think I can do it well.”
In the Roland Continent, many magicians also hired warriors as their squires.
It was because although magicians had great power, their weakness was the close quarters combat! It was the truth that magicians were weak at close battle. So there were many magicians that hired warriors as their squires. When they were in battle, if the opponent stayed close to them, then the warrior could protect them. This was a sort of way of offsetting the weakness of the magicians.
Of course, only the famously strong people in the continent had the qualification to do that. This was because hiring great warriors was costly! Also, if they were hired, they won’t hire junior warriors, because if they did, it was useless. But those great warriors were always arrogant! If not working for the famously strong people in the continent, they were not willing to work for them.
So, when Dadaneier asked to become his squire, Du Wei was shocked.
Firstly, Du Wei thought that he didn’t have the qualification to hire squire. Many magicians, who were above level eight, still didn’t have this qualification!
Secondly, he thought that Dadaneier was too kind and he could not accept this kindness.
When he looked at Dadaneier’s resolute eyes, Du Wei sighed…… Never mind, when they returned, he could leave alone. As long as he didn’t know his real name, even Dadaneier wanted to repay him, he wouldn’t be able to find him.
They had been walking along the lake for two days. This lake was unexpectedly large. They still could not bypa.s.s this lake completely after a full two days of walking.
In the afternoon on that day, Dadaneier suddenly pulled Du Wei.
“Wait, Harry!” Dadaneier pulled Du Wei carefully aside and pointed at the snowdrift aside.
Du Wei was shocked. Dadaneier had already approached there, and then pulled out his knife and slightly stirred the snowdrift.
After stirring the snow mound, they saw a frozen hand!
Dadaneier looked serious as he kept on digging the snow mound apart. Then he found someone… Or to be more accurate, he found a corpse!
The corpse was a knight. The badge on his chest had made his ident.i.ty obvious. He was a level four knight! Dying under miserable circ.u.mstances, his body was cut in half by some sharp weapon! His face looked distorted, showing how painfully he had died. The body was frozen, even harder than
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