While Faber was responsible for leading the remaining wizards in a brief inspection of Golden Barley City, the focal point was Colin's residence and similar areas, to see if any peculiar traces could be found.
"Um," nodded Faber and then shook his head, "Found nothing."
Colin paused momentarily as he shut the door, suddenly realizing what this new Third Rank Wizard had been up to, and felt a slight shock.
Thankfully, he had anticipated such a situation; the six Frost Shadows were still hundreds of miles away in a certain wilderness, not brought into the Roon Kingdom.
Buzi, unsurprisingly, nodded and then added, "I've also cleared Colin of any suspicions. It seems Gerna and Bale were just unlucky."
Hearing this, Colin outside the door finally relaxed and left the Wizard Tower with Welber.
Back in the room, Buzi continued speaking.
"I've checked, Colin is indeed just a First Rank Advanced Wizard, he hasn't hidden his strength."
"I've also rather figured out the whole event. It should have gone like this—on the 19th of May, Yanan Calendar, Colin left Neustadt City first, followed closely by Gerna and Bale for some unknown reasons.
Then in a wilderness forest in Fapu Kingdom, they suddenly attacked Colin. After that, Gerna and Bale headed back towards Neustadt City, where they unfortunately encountered the Frost Phantom and died."
Faber nodded in agreement. Though there were still some doubts, all evidence pointed to this conclusion, so he had no reason not to believe that this was the truth.
"However, he can't explain why Gerna and Bale were targeting him…" Yifu, who was nearby, subconsciously raised another doubt.
"I think... perhaps that should be asked of Gerna and Bale themselves." Buzi smiled, patiently continuing, "I've also confirmed that Colin didn't know either Gerna or Bale."
Faber's expression darkened; he didn't care why Gerna and Bale had targeted Colin.
Those two wizards were already dead, and dwelling on it was pointless.
He was more worried about the Frost Phantom… This creature that hadn't been seen for a while; had it truly already left Neustadt City?
Although he had just told Buzi that even if the Frost Phantom ran to the ends of the earth, the Law Enforcement Team would eradicate it,
the reality was that once the Frost Phantom chose to leave Neustadt City, finding it again in the vast world would be no easy task.
"Was the wizard from your Hidosh Family who died named Gerna?" Faber suddenly asked Buzi.
"Yes, Gerna Hidosh, Second Rank Intermediate Wizard," Buzi answered. "Is there something, Lord Faber?"
Seemingly recalling something, Faber nodded slightly, looked up at the puzzled Buzi and said,
"I had seen this wizard before... right at the first discovery of the Frost Monster's traces within the city."
"If I remember correctly, Gerna had killed an insane wizard who attacked him, and in that crazed wizard's basement, we first discovered such frost traces."
Buzi raised his eyebrows, "There was also this matter, so now it seems… Gerna's death by the hands of the Frost Monster might not be coincidental."
"Perhaps," Faber sighed, then said to Buzi, "Due to a busy schedule, I won't return with you to Neustadt City; I'm leaving first."
"Alright." Buzi nodded.
Whoosh!
Faber also nodded at him, then his figure suddenly vanished from the spot.
To return to Neustadt City as quickly as possible, he planned to use a combination of teleportation and flying.
"Let's go as well," Buzi finally turned back to the wizards behind him and also left the Roon Kingdom.
......
Grain Spike District.
This simply named district was actually one of the most luxurious residential areas in Golden Barley City.
The properties here were massively sprawling, yet the buildings were few and spaced apart, with an astonishingly large area dedicated to greenery, each standalone villa separated by at least a hundred meters.
On the wide avenue of the district, Welber was accompanying Colin as they walked towards the villa he had just purchased.
When Buzi and his companion arrived, Colin had just finished some property purchasing procedures and was adding some supplies to his home with Welber's help.
Now that Buzi and the others had left, he needed to continue handling this matter.
Welber looked at Colin next to him, hesitated several times but couldn't help saying,
"Lord Colin, I really didn't expect that your attackers would be two Second Rank Wizards from the Pureblood Families!"
"Those were Second Rank Wizards, and yet you survived in their hands!"
There was a tone of awe in Welber's voice, but he quickly realized his phrasing might be problematic and hastily added,
"I mean, your strength is remarkable, being able to survive at the hands of two Second Rank Wizards... You know, the strongest wizard in Roon Kingdom, Lord Erwin, is only Second Rank himself."
"I didn't expect it either, I can only say it was good luck... Is Erwin the only Second Rank Wizard in Roon Kingdom?"
"Yes." Welber nodded instinctively. "I have been in Roon Kingdom for a year, and apart from Lord Erwin, the rest of us wizards from School backgrounds are all First Rank, mostly First Rank Advanced, with a few being First Rank Intermediate."
"Isn't Lord Erwin from a School?" Colin raised an eyebrow.
"No." Welber shook his head. "Lord Erwin is a member of the Roon Royal Family."
Colin nodded.
Erwin was the openly appointed Second Rank Wizard who managed all the stationed wizards—although, up until now, he had not met Erwin in person.
The two walked through the forest-like streets for five minutes and finally arrived at Colin's newly purchased mansion.
Excluding the basement, the mansion had only three floors, but each floor was a staggering near three-hundred square meters, and this did not even include the enormous yard attached to the mansion.
At the moment, there were some carriages parked outside the mansion, and workers were moving some items inside.
"It's a shame, the mansion next to mine has already been bought, otherwise, we might have been neighbors," Welber sighed as he walked inside.
The luxurious nature of Grain Street determined that those living here were among the top echelon of Roon Kingdom, including the stationed wizards like themselves.
According to Welber, over half of the wizards in Roon Kingdom owned properties here.
As for why Colin chose this location, it was mainly to keep a low profile.
To ordinary people, living in such a mansion was undoubtedly a very conspicuous act.
But for Colin today, choosing to live in an ordinary house would be the more noticeable deed.
In fact, initially, Colin planned to find a secluded place in Golden Barley to live in, to practice witchcraft and conduct some research conveniently.
But as a stationed wizard, his residence could not be far from Golden Barley City, and given that Golden Barley was the bustling capital of Roon Kingdom with a great population density.
So, after much consideration, this high-end district turned out to be the 'quieter' option.
Other places were simply too crowded.
Living in such an area, it might be possible that a misfire from practicing in the basement could end up in the neighbor's basement, and with even worse luck, possibly even the neighbor next to that one.
Of course, even now, the basement of these high-end mansions in Grain Street could only endure some ordinary witchcraft research.
To withstand the daily witchcraft practice of a Second Rank Wizard was still too much of a stretch, and he needed to find some solutions.
Perhaps… practice outside the city every day?
Colin pondered silently.
With practice comes improvement, although Golden Paper's effects were strong, they did bring him some inconveniences in a sense.
After all, the practice recognized by Golden Paper always required full effort.
If he had to point out a flaw in Golden Paper, then perhaps this was it.
But upon closer consideration, lacking a suitable place for practice wasn't really a flaw of Golden Paper, but a flaw of his own…