Chapter 72: Conversation Over the Letter
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
In order to stay calm, Lucien firstly closed the door. Then he reached his left hand into the pocket and grabbed Ice Revenger. Carefully, he controlled the aura of the ring surrounding his own body, since Lucien speculated that the person leaving the letter should not know that he was a sorcerer, instead of a common young man.
The ice coldness from the ring cooled Lucien down. With great caution, Lucien opened the letter using his right hand.
This piece of paper was of no special material. It looked like the letter was printed instead of written, since every single letter on the paper was almost too neat.
"Dear Mr. Evans,
It is our great honor to have Mr. Joel and his family with us. As long as you are willing to do us a little favor, we will take good care of them here. When we get what we want, Mr. Joel and his family will be back safe and sound, and with a decent amount of money. It is a fair trade."
"Kidnap, I knew it!" Lucien lowered his voice and said to himself, "But what do they want from me?"
Soon after Lucien asked this question, the lines on the paper quickly faded and new black words appeared.
"Mr. Evans, as a music genius, your calmness is also impressive. Please let me repeat what I said just now—it is a fair deal, not a kidnap. Of course, when we talk about being fair, that means if you betray our agreement, you will never be able to see Joel and his family again."
"It is a supernatural power…" Lucien’s brain was working very fast. In order to have a bigger chance to save uncle Joel and his family, Lucien couldn’t let these people know the fact that he was a sorcerer as well. This was definitely not a trade, and kidnappers’ promises were never trustworthy. Therefore, Lucien made an immediate decision: instead of pa.s.sively following the kidnappers’ orders, he should have a careful plan and save uncle Joel and his family himself.
At the same time, buying time for planning was also very important. Taking a deep breath, Lucien talked to the piece of paper in a low voice, "What do you want me to do? How can I know they’re still alive?"
Several new lines appeared on the paper again:
"What we are asking is very simple, Mr. Evans. Use your talent and write more great music works to become Princess Natasha’s long-term music consultant. And we believe that this is also your goal, Mr. Evans. Aren’t we being really considerate? As for Joel and his family, as long as you are willing to work with us, we have no reason to kill them."
Many thoughts quickly pa.s.sed through Lucien’s mind:
"Were they targeting Princess Natasha, or other secrets in Ratacia Palace? I was just invited to be the princess’ temporary music consultant last night, and today these people kidnapped uncle Joel and his family, which was almost impossible, unless… unless one of them, or even all of them, were among the audience in the concert last night!"
"If I cannot make sure uncle Joel and his family are safe, I will not work with you. You can kill me," said Lucien decisively.
"Mr. Evans, I just want to clarify one thing. You are one of our plans, but not the only one. Unfortunately, you are not as important as you think."
Lucien sneered, "Then kill them, and kill me."
It looked like Lucien’s reaction surprised the kidnappers. After the last message disappeared from the paper, nothing new appeared for quite a while.
Lucien was extremely nervous. He was not sure if his answer would put uncle Joel and his family to death, but he had no other choice. Lucien must make sure they were still alive. Now it was time to be patient.
Finally, several lines emerged on the paper again:
"Every once in a while, we will send you a picture of Joel and his family. Starting from tomorrow. However, since you p.i.s.sed us off, we decided to send you one of Joel’s fingers tomorrow as well, to relieve your concern, Mr. Evans."
"b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" Grinding his teeth with hatred, Lucien said to the kidnappers, "Every time, the picture you send must contain completely date and time information, or I won’t be able to know if these are fake pictures that you make with your evil power." Lucien was hoping that he might be able to find some clues from the pictures.
"It won’t be a problem. Deal?" replied the kidnappers.
"Not until I see the picture tomorrow. " Lucien was pretending that he knew nothing about magic power, "But when I see uncle Joel and his family, I’ll keep my word. I swear."
"Your word means nothing." The lines showed up again, "We can see. And if you dare report to the princess, we will send Joel and his family to h.e.l.l in a second."
Lucien had no idea how the kidnappers could observe him secretly in the palace. He wanted to know more, since purpose often revealed motive, and motive was the key clue to find the enemies hiding behind this.
"What specifically do you want me to do? It can’t be just staying close to the princess," asked Lucien.
The writing became a bit hasty, "We’re more than happy to know the schedule of the princess and the grand duke, as well as other interesting things going on in Ratacia Palace. You just need to write what you know down on this piece of paper with a quill."
The kidnappers were very crafty, and their real motives remained blurry.
"I see," answered Lucien slowly.
"If you have any need, you’re welcome to ask us for help, Mr. Lucien. Hope we have a nice cooperation." The new lines were more illegible compared with the previous ones.
All the lines disappeared, and the letter returned to a piece of white paper.
Lucien removed his left hand from Ice Revenger and instantly felt the supernatural power disappear. Staring at the closed window with an expressionless face, Lucien slowly folded the piece of paper back and put it into the envelope. His heart was full of anger and hatred, and he already figured out who did this.
They were the heretics of Argent Horn.
With the help of Ice Revenger, when Lucien was opening the envelope, he sensed a tiny amount of supernatural power remained on the paper. When he was communicating with the kidnappers, Lucien was also doing his a.n.a.lysis of the power by comparing it with the different kinds of power he met before. Every time the letters appeared and disappeared, Lucien got one step closer to his conclusion: Firstly, the power was not magic; Secondly, the supernatural power was very similar to the power that Lucien felt from Cardinal Sard and pastor Benjamin. Although Lucien could not tell the specific differences between the magic power he followed and the powers empowered by either G.o.d or demons, he was quite sure that what he was facing now was the latter.
If Lucien’s observation and speculation were correct, Argent Horn was the most likely, or say, the only possible answer for now.
"It looks like there’s a bond between me and these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…" Lucien needed to control himself hard from tearing the paper to shreds with anger.
"The piece of white paper should be a magic item of apprentice level. Someone’s eavesdropping on me right now and the person needs to stay relatively close to me… probably, within a radius of a hundred meters… Still hard to find, though." Lucien thought to himself, "According to the time it took the kidnapper to reply, the person should be a bit above senior apprentice level."
Lucien was a bit encouraged, carrying the hope that he could save Joel and his family. He did not really trust the church, the princess, and the grand duke, since they would only focus on exterminating the heresy, instead of making sure the hostages were safe first. At the same time, Lucien never even considered for a second obeying the heretics’ order. He would never surrender to those untrustworthy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.
He knew what he was doing here.
Walking out of the door, Lucien headed for the n.o.ble district.