While Saul was busy everywhere recruiting people, Gorsa, who had left the Kema Duchy several years ago, finally set foot on this familiar land again.

After receiving Yura’s letter at the Sighing Wall, he decided to return for a trip. However, on the journey back, Gorsa didn’t use magic to travel, nor did he take convenient and fast airships. Instead, he walked alone, supporting himself with a wooden staff that reached his chest, slowly making his way back from the far north.

The towering Sighing Wall blocked the cold currents from the north. The Kema Duchy had just entered spring, and temperatures began rising sharply.

A person like Gorsa, completely shrouded in a gray, wide cloak, seemed very conspicuous.

Passersby on the road occasionally cast exploring glances, but they wouldn’t approach to ask anything, and no one even discussed it.

People with strange behavior might be eccentric in character, but they could also be wizards.

Ordinary people had no desire to interact with wizards unless absolutely necessary.

Gorsa walked alone on the road like this – calling it traveling was more like taking a stroll.

He wasn’t in a hurry; there were others who would be anxious for him.

On the second day after Gorsa entered Kema territory, a team of soldiers met him on the road.

The leader was a first-rank formal wizard, with a gorgeous carriage pulled by four fine horses stopped behind him.

“Lord Gorsa, Grand Duke Kira sent us to receive you.”

Gorsa glanced at the welcoming wizard and smiled slightly. “Kira wouldn’t send a carriage to receive me. Don’t you know I’m very good at traveling?”

The welcoming wizard quickly said ingratiatingly, “Lord Kira knows your health… mood might not be very good right now. Taking our carriage would be more comfortable.”

People who failed advancement would all have a period of weakness. Some would even directly enter a state of serious injury approaching mutation. This weakness period might last several months, or some people might experience it for several years.

In the wizard’s view, although Gorsa appeared normal on the surface, his body must have been injured. So saying the other party was in a bad mood was still protecting Gorsa’s dignity.

“No need,” Gorsa casually waved his hand and continued walking forward with his wooden staff. “Your speed isn’t as fast as mine.”

The opposing wizard’s mouth twitched, thinking: “If you weren’t refusing to use magic and insisting on traveling on foot, taking two months just to reach Kema’s border, would we need to go through such trouble to receive someone?”

But these words definitely couldn’t be said openly. The wizard remembered what someone had told him before departure, so he straightened his chest slightly, “Lord Gorsa, Grand Duke Kira asked me to remind you that some things have time limits.”

Gorsa suddenly raised his hand and pressed it on the other’s face. The latter immediately became so frightened he didn’t dare move.

With Gorsa applying slight downward pressure, the other’s knees went weak, directly squatting down and finally sitting on the ground.

At this time, Gorsa had already withdrawn his hand, wiping his palm on his cloak as if he had touched something dirty.

He lowered his eyes. “Tell Yura I will go, don’t be anxious. If her message truly has time limits, then without waiting for me to arrive, she will naturally come find me herself. So… don’t disturb my walk.”

The wizard sitting on the ground trembled continuously.

Previously, Gorsa had been restraining his magic power and mental energy, appearing no different from an ordinary person on the surface. This made him, who had never directly faced a third-rank wizard before, somewhat carried away, unconsciously beginning to imitate the expression of the superior who had told him these words.

But he also didn’t dare let his mission end in failure like this.

Therefore, despite still being unable to get up from the ground, he still asked with a trembling voice: “Lord, Lord Gorsa, when, when will you go to the capital?”

Gorsa stopped and half-turned to ask a question.

“Do you know why there’s only one wizard in your team?”

The wizard sprawled on the ground was stunned. For original chapters go to N0veI.Fiɾe.net

“Because they’re afraid of wasting, heh…”

Gorsa left behind a light laugh and continued forward.

The abandoned wizard thought blankly for a long time. Even when the soldiers behind him could no longer see Gorsa’s figure and came to help him up, he still hadn’t figured out what “afraid of wasting” meant.

It was a soldier who reminded him in a low voice, “Maybe when Grand Duke Kira sent us out, she never expected us to return alive.”

The helped-up wizard immediately glared at him.

The wizard couldn’t understand – if ordinary soldiers were pushed out as cannon fodder, that was normal, but he was a true wizard, and there weren’t many true wizards in the entire Kema Duchy!

How could Grand Duke Kira treat him as cannon fodder too?!

Gorsa paid no more attention to the wizard and soldiers left behind and continued forward.

He just kept walking like this. When tired, he would sit on roadside boulders to rest. When sleepy, he could jump onto a small tree sprouting green buds and sleep peacefully.

Along the way, he ate as he pleased – eating when he wanted to, and when he didn’t want to eat, he directly absorbed surrounding magic power to replenish energy.

Just like this, Gorsa leisurely walked to a small village outside Kema’s royal city. Once past the moat, he would be within the royal city’s range.

The people in the small village were mostly farmers currently tilling soil. There were actually few people in the village itself.

Just as Gorsa was about to walk straight through the small village, a brown little branch suddenly emerged from the muddy country road.

Like a new sprout responding to spring, except its growth speed was frighteningly fast.

The originally finger-thin branch grew to forearm thickness and one meter high in just a few breaths, then continued branching and extending, becoming like a small tree.

However, this small tree was bare, with no buds either, seemingly having no intention of sprouting leaves at all.

Gorsa’s steps paused, then he stepped forward and directly “snap” broke off a branch, holding it before his eyes for careful observation.

“Mmm, Inverted Tree. So this is… tree root.”

Gorsa put down the tree root, then discovered the bare little tree before him was actually withering and disappearing at an even faster speed.

Gorsa naturally knew the Inverted Tree was Bayton Academy’s treasure. Now that Bayton Academy was destroyed, the remaining personnel had basically scattered in all directions. The Inverted Tree had sealed itself at the old Bayton Academy site.

“Could it be that the Inverted Tree woke up and started running around everywhere?”

After all, Bayton Academy wasn’t close to here.

“If that tree really ran over here by itself, it should have already recovered to third-rank.” The corners of Gorsa’s mouth slightly raised, his facial expression finally showing slight change. He stared at the small hole left on the ground by the withered tree root, his eyes gradually brightening. “Finally encountered something interesting!”

Gorsa hadn’t considered the possibility that it was another Inverted Tree – that probability was even lower than the Inverted Tree uprooting itself and running away.

Now, he had already forgotten the invitation from Kira, or rather Yura, wholeheartedly wanting to see this Inverted Tree that could recover to third-rank without a keeper.

“It must contain interesting secrets.” Just as Gorsa was about to put his hand into the ground hole, a piece of parchment cut to thumb size suddenly jumped out from the hole opening.

Gorsa immediately changed from exploring to grabbing, then clearly saw the words on the parchment.

“Kira is imprisoned by Yura.”

(End of Chapter)

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