Angor spent a night weighing the situation and decided to give up on Lucas’ secret.
For one, he couldn’t afford to waste too much time on this matter. And secondly, no matter how carefully he moved, the truth-finders would notice his involvement sooner or later, which meant great risk. Meanwhile, he didn’t see any noticeable reward to go with the risk.
It was like playing riddles with someone who was very good at mixing lies with truth, and he was getting tired of it.
An obviously better choice was to return to his job and recruit apprentices before heading to his next destination as soon as possible.
With this in mind, Angor tossed Lucas’ book to a corner of his storage and continued working on Empty Ballad while waiting for the test to begin.
He came to the entrance of Ross Mansion in the early morning and saw Count Ross as well as his wife and children waiting there in their formal attires.
He wasn’t sure why these people were doing this. It was really cold outside, and the countess was using a ball gown that fully exposed her shoulders.
He immediately received lots of respectful attention when showing up. Though he wasn’t going to exchange formalities at the moment. After nodding to Count Ross to show minimal manners, he took out his drawing tools and began applying the “spirit filter” at the door, which took him 20 minutes.
Once the entire rune was completed, it slowly melted into the ground.
This rune was usually used as a supplementary component in large-scale magic arrays, with the effect of adjusting spirit power output.
The rune alone did not have any useful effect. Using the spirit pressure against mortals might cause them to feel dizzy for a few days, but that was about it.
But in this case, it was enough to keep someone with low spirit levels away.
After finishing the rune, Angor returned inside the mansion to wait for potential candidates.
Neet saw him and followed up. But as soon as Neet stepped across the door, he felt as if someone kicked him in the forehead, which almost knocked him out.
Angor applied a simple spirit barrier around Neet and dragged him inside using Hand of Spell.
“You better use the side door to get in. I placed a ‘trap’ at the front door,” Angor spoke while pointing to another door usually used by house servants.
Neet rubbed his head. “That was... horrible. I think I’d have gone cold if not for your help, sir.”
“Those with decent spirit power can walk inside just fine,” Angor explained while walking further into the house. “So what are you guys doing out there in the morning?”
Neet shook his head and sighed. “It’s the king. He heard about your visit and sent a message that he’d take the princesses and princes here. My father demanded that we welcomed them at the door. Man, any longer and I’d freeze.”
Despite his complaint, Neet looked rather excited since it was a great honor for his family to address the king.
They arrived at the main hall, which had been turned into a large testing room after Count Ross heard about this matter.
“Did your father allow you to leave your duty yet?” Angor found a nice sofa and relaxed.
“He asked me to stay with you, sir.”
Obviously, Count Ross placed his son at Angor’s side so that they could further prove their “bond” with a wizard to the king.
Of course, Angor as a nobleman himself knew what Ross was trying to do here, but he wouldn’t point it out. It was unlikely for him to visit Ferran Land ever again, so it was quite pointless for the Ross Family to befriend him. Though he wouldn’t mind doing them a small favor by staying here for the visitors to see.
A moment later, the first group of candidates arrived. Their getup suggested that they came from the royal court.
After the king requested to meet up with Angor but was rejected, he sent his children into the mansion instead, most of whom were immediately driven out by Angor.
Neet received Angor’s voice transmission and explained to the confused king, “Mister Padt requires that you take the main entrance. Those who failed the initial test will not proceed any further.”
Several young princes quickly showed their offended looks. When one of the princes was going to curse Angor for being a disrespectful peasant, a seabird clad in metal armor suddenly descended from the sky and slammed him onto the ground while exerting a powerful aura for everyone to see.
The royalties, including the king, immediately felt their bodies turning stiff. They just realized that they were dealing with a deadly entity instead of a common citizen.
The door to the main hall was pushed open from the inside, followed by the 13th prince who showed up from the door. He was the only one who entered the mansion through the front entrance earlier, and at the same time, the quietest one.
The seabird lifted its aura and howled to the princes as a warning before it returned onto the eave of the house and stayed there like a statue.
The prince who was kicked to the ground earlier had already fainted, which meant he had no chance of entering the test now.
With a grim look, the king ordered his men to carry the disgraceful prince away and then looked at his 13th son, who was usually the most insignificant one among all of his children.
“I-I’m not talented, father.” The young prince shook his head in sadness.
The king sighed and spoke to his other children, “Now go, do as Sir Wizard requested. No tricks now.”
As the princes and princesses went for the entrance one after one, Neet glanced at his father, who looked a bit embarrassed for what just happened. Apparently, it was Count Ross who showed people the “back door”.
Neet went to his father and whispered, “You should know that Sir Wizard would notice that, Dad! We better not do something like that again.”
Count Ross nodded with a big frown. He just wanted to show his goodwill to the king, but it seemed his effort had the opposite outcome.
A moment later, a house servant came to them and reported that all the other royal members were taken down by the “spirit filter”.
The king stumbled a little upon hearing the grief and managed to keep steady with the help of his wife.
Neet told me that the test involved checking one’s willpower as well. Does this mean all of my children are weak-kneed cowards apart from one?!
“We... shall return now.” The old king took a moment to accept reality. “Mister Neet, pray convey my sincere apology to Sir Wizard. If he wishes anything done, do not hesitate to ask of me.”
Neet quickly nodded as he wasn’t expecting the king to be so modest. “I-I will, Your Majesty.”
After the king and his company departed, the barricades along the street were also removed, thus allowing other nobilities and the girls and sons of rich families to approach Ross Mansion.
There were too many people that Count Ross had to ask a team of his house knights to maintain order. The king also left several guards in the area to prevent potential chaos.
Angor’s two conditions successfully discouraged more than 99% of the city’s population from going for the test. In fact, the testing hall was left unused most of the time. There were many long periods when Angor did not receive a single one who passed the spirit filter at all, during which he gladly took some naps.
The game continued until midnight, at which time Angor still had not added another name to his recruitment list.
Neet announced that the test should continue tomorrow and sent the crowds away.
In the sky, Jebra was looking at the dispersing crowd below while a girl wearing a tassel dress—Haku—accompanied him.
“He’s indeed recruiting apprentices.” Haku “saw” what was happening using spirit feelers since she did not have eyesight.
“Just as I said.”
Jebra came to check on Angor because a strange feeling had been bugging him these days. He already started wondering what Angor’s intention was back at Yothur City.
He knew Angor had nothing to do with what they were going after because the “mysterious dimension” was about to open very soon, and Angor had no way of heading to the entrance at Devil’s Water, which was protected by Leviathan, in time. Even if Angor did, he was far from influential enough to cause any change of events.
Yet Jebra’s instinct convinced him of “visiting” Angor again. There was something in his mind that simply wouldn’t settle down until he confirmed that Angor was truly recruiting people in the city without doing anything fishy.