Chapter 283: Welcome Back
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
In the early morning, in a fancy hotel in Nolan district.
Lucien had sent Leo to the room next door to sleep quite a while ago, and he also told Leo not to panic and just continue to sleep if he heard some weird noise from Lucien"s room that night.
After running into Natasha, Lucien was sure that, as a princess and a radiant knight, as long as he did not hide himself on purpose from her, it would not be too big of a trouble for Natasha to find him in Aalto.
Holding a gla.s.s of red wine in his hand, Lucien sat cozily in the couch. He did not drink the wine, but just swirled it in the gla.s.s, staring at the red ripples. His mind was filled with thoughts and memories.
The wine, Berne, was produced in the chateau of Felicia"s family. In most cases, only the family"s guests could enjoy it. But this hotel was closely connected to the Hayne family, so the hotel was able to store a few bottles here and promote the wine as a main feature of the hotel.
Knock, knock… Someone knocked the window from outside.
Lucien smiled and turned around. Just as what he expected, Natasha, wearing a long purple dress, was standing on the balcony, followed by, as usual, Camil, in her black dress.
Natasha was indeed a radiant knight. Although Lucien was expecting her to visit tonight, he still failed to notice her arrival in advance.
Putting down the gla.s.s, Lucien walked to the window and opened it.
"Evening, Lucien," greeted Natasha casually. "Do you want to take a walk with me to enjoy the fantastic silver moon tonight?"
Lucien laughed, "Natasha, come on…"
A simple joke pulled them together as close as they used to be a few years ago.
Maybe due to the power of a radiant knight, Natasha still looked the same, twenty-something. However, maybe from her facial expression, or maybe her behavior, Lucien felt that she became much calmer and maturer.
"You haven"t changed much…" said Lucien.
"You"ve become quite mature, like a real gentleman now…" said Natasha at the same time.
The two good friends looked at each other and laughed together.
"Good evening, Lady Camil." Lucien then nodded to Camil politely, who was following Natasha like a shadow all the time.
After seeing the power of Count Witte, Lucien knew how horrible Camil"s power, the Blue Tide, could be.
Camil just nodded to be politely, but did not say anything. She was quiet all the time.
Taking a few steps forward with her long legs, Natasha sat down in the couch casually like she was in her own palace, War Gallery. She lifted her purple brow slightly and said, "Although this doesn"t look bad, I prefer your original look. Black eyes and black hair… That works better for me."
"Why do you always treat me like a lady?" Lucien also joked. When he first arrived in this world, his look was already not bad. After the following years and after experiencing this much, Lucien had become more elegant and calm. His Blessing, Moonlight, also contributed to his appearance. However, of course, Lucien"s appearance was nothing compared to Rhine and those who were already born good looking.
Natasha grinned and she said in a proud manner, "Since I left the abbey, I was expecting you to come back soon, or at least in two or three months. I was worried that you could not find me, so I estimated the possible time that a traveller from Tiran Province might arrive at Aalto and go through the city gate. So I have been visiting the manor outside of the city every day at the time I estimated to see if I could run into you. And also, it would be convenient for you to know this as part of my daily routine. But I directly sensed the familiarity in the air today, haha! See? My plan"s perfect!"
She was obviously very proud.
"Yes, a perfect plan. On my way back, I was worrying about how I could find you…" Lucien told Natasha his concern honestly, and then he smiled. "Now, all problems have been solved by our smart, brilliant princess!"
Lucien now sat close to Natasha. He saw the dream-like color of Natasha"s eyes, the mix of silver and purple. Her eyes were deep and attractive, like a swirl that could pull people in. After the three years in the abbey, she had got a very good control of her Blessing power.
Hearing the compliment, Natasha was quite satisfied. Then she started to ask Lucien to share more of his adventure in Allyn, Holm and other places with her.
Because Natasha knew about the collapse of the Magic Lock called Grand Cross, she was definitely aware of the existence of the World of Souls. However, she probably only regarded it as another dimension for the dead, like most other people who knew the World of Souls did. Therefore, Lucien only hid the important parts related to the ultimate secret of the World of Souls, and shared the rest of his adventure honestly with Natasha, bit by bit, either mentioned in the letters or not.
Natasha was a good listener. She knew when to listen and when to interact. Lucien was encouraged and their conversation did not finish until midnight.
At this time, Natasha put on a strange look and asked, "Haven"t you been in any romantic relations.h.i.+ps? Come on, Lucien… In Allyn, you don"t have to hide anymore. What a pity!"
"Um… When I first arrived in Allyn, I had no idea what arcana was and I was… busy. Yup… Very busy… so no time for pursuing ladies…" said Lucien a bit embarra.s.sedly. "Maybe… in the future…"
Natasha reached out her right hand and rubbed her chin. The strange look remained on her face, "That"s not right… Girls in Allyn… They"re even more beautiful than the girls here. You"re the winner of Holm Crown prize, and you"re good-looking, and powerful… So there"s only one answer to this — you like men!?"
Natasha just let her imagination fly.
"That"s impossible! I"m really, really busy! Like… super busy!" Lucien immediately denied, "I mean… I do have a few ladies trying to be close to me in Allyn, but I had no feeling toward them. I"m not that kind of person following every single lady he meets! I put quality before quant.i.ty!"
Natasha patted on Lucien"s shoulder and said, "It"s okay. I understand…"
"I"m not…" Lucien tried to clarify this, but he knew that probably Natasha had already had a whole touching love story developed in her mind.
Natasha laughed in a cunning way like a fox which successfully got a chick. Then, she quickly changed the topic, "Why some important sorcerer would ask you to send the letter to the Dark Mountain Range… It"s such a waste of time, and, of course, it"s dangerous. A legendary archmage could easily use stars as pedals doing s.p.a.ce leaps, and get to the Dark Mountain Range from Allyn using a very short period of time…"
Natasha had a very close relations.h.i.+p with the grand arcanist Hathaway. Sometimes, she even knew more than Lucien.
"I"m not sure either. Maybe there are reasons… Say, Nightmare King refuses to see sorcerers above middle rank in order to avoid modern arcana theory impact…" Lucien guessed.
Natasha frowned, then she said, "It"s hard to say. But don"t worry, Lucien. I"m sure the Congress wouldn"t send you, a promising young sorcerer, to die in the Dark Mountain Range. Also, no legendary archmage would go to this much trouble just to kill you… There"s no reason."
Then she looked up at the clock and smiled, "It"s almost five now! I forgot to welcome you officially, Lucien!"
So Natasha stood up and grinned, "Welcome back, my knight!"
Lucien also smiled and held Natasha"s right hand. He gently left a kiss on Natasha"s hand and said, "It"s great to see you again, Your Majesty."
After becoming a radiant knight, her power became more internal, and her hands became softer.
Then, Natasha said to Lucien, "Did you forget to ask me anything, my knight?"
"Oh, right…" Lucien rubbed his forehead, "I was about to ask at the very beginning… Did the Church learned my ident.i.ty as a sorcerer? How"s John, Joel, Iven and Elena doing?"
Natasha made a surprised look and said, "Wow, that"s a lot of information required… Where shall I start… Well, according to what I know, after you won the prize, your appearance, age and your power level have been recorded by the Church. However, the series of following experiments brought the Church to great impact and put them under a lot of pressure, so you haven"t been put on the Cleansing List. Violet Duchy, for now, hasn"t got any information about you."
She got to know Miller experiment from Lucien"s letter. Natasha also felt very confused for a long time, but before the Church revised the theory, Natasha had calmed herself down and it seemed that she kept being the same devout.
Then, Natasha said to Lucien seriously, "I"m sorry, Lucien. I made a mistake."
"What?" Lucien was confused.
"The reason I suggested you to keep the ident.i.ty as a musician was that I hoped you could have a proper excuse for traveling through the continent. I did not expect you to win such a prize this soon. Now, the ident.i.ty as a musician has become your burden. So, find a chance, say, after a splendid concert… to let your musician ident.i.ty die. It"s better than telling people who care about you that you ended up missing during your trips…"
"I understand, Natasha. I"m okay with letting this ident.i.ty die personally, but if I do so, uncle Joe, aunt Alisa, and John and Iven… They"d be very sad," said Lucien. "Also, in the future when I am included in the Cleansing List, the Church will still be able to link the sorcerer to the musician, which"s still not a good thing to the family…"
"I did not say you must lie to your relatives, Lucien." Natasha smiled, "As you said, yes, sooner or later, the Church will find this out, and indeed the people you care would be brought into big trouble. I"d suggest that you directly tell your families the fact that you"re a sorcerer and ask them to move to Holm with you. If they could accept both the fact and your invitation, that"s the best result, but if they did not want to leave, I can watch them until you leave Aalto again. Later, I"ll ask them to report this to the Church and make it look like they are cutting off with you. Under my help, I can a.s.sure you that they won"t be affected that much because of you in the future if they decide to stay in Aalto."
When Natasha was talking, she was so calm that she looked just like a grand d.u.c.h.ess.
"That"s quite cruel…" sighed Lucien.
"You know… Sometimes cruelty can also be a kind of mercy," replied Natasha.
"You sound like a philosopher." Lucien tried to play a joke.
Natasha also slightly sighed and put on a bitter smile, "Every person who"s lost their love is a philosopher."