After they reached Karachi Port through the tower's teleportation formation and cautiously emerged from the fantastical building crawling with full-fledged Mages, William finally couldn't hold back anymore and asked Adam, "Adam, what you're wearing — is that...?"
Before Adam could answer, the devil couldn't wait to come tumbling out of his mind, sneering, "Last time gave my master such a fright that he'd strap full-fledged-rank magic items to his own teeth if he could..."
Adam kicked it savagely aside and said four words with a perfectly straight face: "Better safe than sorry."
William felt a twinge in his teeth. Ophelia's armor and greatsword looked top-grade at a glance; Cristel was a full-fledged Mage's disciple and would hardly lack for impressive gear either. It seemed he was the only poor one now.
Adam didn't give him time to nurse his gloom. He asked point-blank, "If you have nothing else to take care of, we head for Karachi Port right now and take a ship to Madeira Island."
No one spoke. William was sunk in silent misery, Ophelia met it with cold indifference, and Cristel stared blankly into space. Only the devil, refusing to give up, popped out again — this place looked countless times more prosperous than the academy at a glance, and it interested him greatly: "Master, I..."
Adam ignored it and climbed into a small hovercar with the other three, heading for the port.
The mandatory missions the academy handed down to contract apprentices came with no pay; such missions were an apprentice's duty. The academy did, however, give the person in charge a budget, and every legitimate expense during the mission could be paid from it. Anything over budget could be reimbursed on application, and all supplies obtained in the course of the mission — apart from whatever the academy required — belonged to the apprentices themselves.
This time the four did not return to Madeira Island aboard the vast Mordo Academy, but on a much smaller, much faster vessel. Compared with the three-month voyage out, getting back to Madeira took only half a month.
"Two gentlemen, two ladies, I hope you have a pleasant voyage. But I must remind you — no elemental magic experiments aboard this ship."
The captain of this ship was actually a mage apprentice, though the four of them only ever saw him that once, when they boarded.
Adam stayed in his cabin the whole way, refining and improving his meditation method, and during that time he exchanged not a single word with William and the others. William once considered knocking on Adam's door to ask how the mission was to be arranged, but in the end he dropped the idea; everything could wait until they landed and he had seen his father and learned the actual situation.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. At noon that day the four arrived at Madeira Island and set foot in Southern Seaport City.
The devil, unable to stay quiet, popped out again, took an exaggerated breath, then put on a look of imminent suffocation. "An energy desert! Master, were you really born in such a barren place?"
A trace of struggle showed through Ophelia's perpetual coldness, while Cristel said outright, "Yes, barren. But it's our homeland. Adam, when the mission is over, could you give me some time? I'd like to go to Northland and see my family."
Adam would of course never refuse such a request. He agreed, and then asked Ophelia, "And you, Miss Ophelia?"
Ophelia nodded at Adam. It was the only interaction between the two of them on the whole trip.
Ever since the situation had slipped beyond control and he had asked Moldo Tower for aid, the Duke had posted his men at the port to wait day and night. The moment William stepped off the ship, a servant came scrambling and tumbling to his feet and burst out excitedly, "Young Master William, you're finally back! I'll go tell the Duke at once, he'll be so happy." And without waiting for William to react, he went scrambling and tumbling off toward the city.
William smiled wryly at Adam and the others. "Since it's come to this, let's rest up at my home first, and let my father fill you in on this Church of the Supreme God."
Once they agreed, the group set off for the Duke's mansion. Adam's memory still held the proud manner of the locals he had seen when he first came to Southern Seaport City, but now that pride had been replaced by a jittery unease, and even the bustling streets looked somewhat deserted.
"William?"
William's expression turned grave. "This isn't normal. Southern Seaport City can't compare with Karachi Port, but it is absolutely the busiest city on Madeira Island. It could never be this empty. Something must have happened."
They quickened their pace and soon reached the Duke's mansion, where Adam found that the Duke was not the only one waiting outside — there were many people he had never seen before, and the Duke himself was not in good shape.
The instant William saw the Duke, his face changed drastically. He lunged forward, wanting to embrace him, yet had no idea where to put his hands, because the Duke was covered in wounds and had even permanently lost his left arm.
"Father, what happened? Who did this to you?!" William demanded, anxious and furious.
The Duke, however, broke into a heartfelt smile. He embraced William with his remaining right arm and pounded him hard on the back. "William, my son, welcome home." Then he released him and said to the three, "Miss Ophelia, you are as striking as ever. Adam, I remember you — welcome back. And this beautiful young lady..." The Duke could not recall Cristel's name.
"Cristel, Your Grace."
Cristel said it softly, with a properly composed smile.
Just then the strangers around the Duke stirred. A noblewoman burst out of the crowd and shrilled, "William, where is my son? Where has he gone?" Her voice set off a chain reaction, and in an instant similar questions were rising on every side.
The Duke cleared his throat. "Those questions can wait a little. The banquet is about to begin — I think we should first welcome these children home."
The Duke's prestige was high. The crowd was unwilling, but they obeyed and filed into the mansion. The banquet was lavish, yet everything tasted like nothing to them: William was worried about his father, and the others were worried about their children. At last, midway through the meal, the noblewoman was the first to put down her knife and fork and once more put her question to William.
William frowned and swallowed the steak in his mouth. "I'm sorry, Madam Richard — and everyone. Of the apprentices the Mage chose back then, only the four of us survived."
William's words set off an uproar. These noble families had sent the finest of their younger generation aboard with the highest of hopes, all so that one day they might return home accomplished and bring glory to their names. And now they were hearing that their children were dead.
"Impossible! Under a Mage's protection, who could harm my child? You must be lying to me — you're lying to me, aren't you?!" Madam Richard screamed hysterically, shot up from her seat and flung herself at William to demand answers.
William stepped back a pace and said calmly, "Madam Richard, please keep some dignity. My father told you at the time that the path of a Mage is full of danger. I regret the deaths of those brothers, but they left with the Mage only after you gave your consent."
Adam quietly finished his last bite of food, rose straight from his seat and walked out of the dining hall. Cristel and Ophelia did the same. Such a spectacle was too low-level for them; they had no interest in tangling with this pack of foolish nobles.
The noblewoman would not let it go. "How could my son die? He was so outstanding! Are you telling me he was worse than these two lowborn commoners?!" Losing all restraint, she turned her aim on Adam and Cristel. Few of the apprentices chosen back then had been commoners, and only three had ever won a Mage's praise — among them Adam and Cristel.
Faced with such trash talk, Adam didn't even deign to look at her. Even the once-sensitive Cristel could now face her former station calmly; once they became mage apprentices, everything about ordinary people ceased to matter to them.
William, though, was deeply displeased. Even if the two of them didn't care, they had come to the Duke's mansion as his guests, and he could not sit by while his honored guests were insulted.
William rose to his feet. Mana fluctuations surged around him, the temperature in the air climbed sharply, and a blur of roaring fire flickered before him. The noblewoman was driven back and nearly fell. William swept his gaze across the room and said in a low voice, "Everyone, I will say it once more: as nobles, keep some dignity. Otherwise my companions and I will not mind teaching you a lesson, so that you learn the price of offending your betters."
Duke Alfred watched his son and smiled with satisfaction. William had grown. Even if he himself died, House Alfred would stand unshaken.
Just as the crowd, cowed by William's pressure, fell silent one after another, another voice spoke up. "Master William, could you tell me why my child, Quentin Brown, died? After all, he was a genius even the Mage himself praised."
Quentin? William froze for a moment, and his flames faded with it. He had never met Quentin's father, which was why he hadn't recognized him just now, but he had never imagined that Quentin's commoner father could be entitled to attend a banquet like this — or that he would have come to bear the surname Brown.
Without meaning to, he lowered his head...
At that moment Adam, who had already reached the door, stopped and turned around. "I killed Quentin." Adam admitted the fact that he was the killer without the slightest hesitation; he was unwilling, and did not know how, to lie.
Quentin's father shot up from his seat, knocking his chair over. Forcing down a towering fury, he asked Adam, "My lord, may I ask why you killed my child?"
The Duke felt a headache coming on. He had not expected anything like this. In the past, Brown's attitude would not have been worth a moment's notice — but now...