He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Luth seemed a little unreliable, he didn’t even have a ticket to enter the opera house.

“You all call this place the ‘Palace of Knowledge’. Why do you still need tickets? What about those who really came to see the opera?”

Luth said with a natural expression: “Let them go. If they are civilians, use some disruptive magic to let them leave on their own. If they are magicians, it’s up to them whether they want to stay or not.

“Moreover, tickets are strictly controlled, and generally do not spread to the hands of civilians.”

“Is that why you don’t have a ticket?”

“Young man,” Luth bumped his shoulder, “don’t question the wisdom of the elders.”

Then Luth handed him a clown suit and said naturally, “Let’s follow the circus and blend in.”

Chi Lang:  …

All right, such a refreshingly unconventional approach.

The Zefnar Opera House was built on the border of the inner city and the outer city.

A fountain was built at its front entrance, and the spring water was wafting out from the fountain mouth, like a flower in full bloom. It was already dark when they got to the Opera House, but it wasn’t dark here.

The magicians used illumination spells on both sides of the road, and from a distance, it looked like two rivers of stars were flowing.

The scent of flowers was blowing in and out, and the wind was warm, with a unique summer feeling of drunkenness.

There were about three floors in the Opera House, the ground floor was narrower than the first floor, it was carved with some patterns on the outer wall, and two windows were opened on the second floor.

Chi Lang could already hear the faint sound of music, he glanced at the front door with nostalgia, and reluctantly sneaked in with Luth through a small door.

Luth seemed to be familiar with this kind of thing. After entering the opera house, he took Chi Lang directly to the circus.

Chi Lang had an ominous premonition: “We don’t need to… come on stage to perform, right?”

Luth raised his face painted with a slightly comical white-faced clown face, and said, “What are you thinking? Follow me.”

Luth was clearly very familiar with the structure of the place, and even knew how to evade the guards on duty, and even showed flexibility that was not suitable for his age.

The more Chi Lang followed him, the more he felt something was wrong: “Actually, we don’t need to dress up like this, right? You know how to avoid the guards.”

Luth was very impatient: “Young man, can’t you be a little childish? Don’t you think this is fun? When I was young, I really did clown show on stage in order to blend in.”

Luth pushed open a door in thought.

As soon as the door opened, Chi Lang felt as if he had entered a new world.

The ground was covered with herbs, some of which were still stained with dirt, and among the herbs were some dirty stones. There were several magicians in robes sitting in the room, and they didn’t show any surprise when they saw them coming in.

“Luth, did you bring anything?” said one of them.

“No, I want to buy some things from the dwarves and the others…” Luth looked into the room, “You guys have a bad harvest this time.”

“Yeah, we originally went to hunt Bogdo beasts, but we didn’t meet many after being there for a week. Later, we were caught by the Magic Association, saying that the number of Bogdo beasts is too small now and they are not allowed to be hunted until they multiply. We also paid a fine, a loss,” another person complained.

Chi Lang listened to this conversation and silently looked away. It turns out that sustainable development exists in every world.

There was a musket on the table.

Chi Lang walked over and took a closer look. The musket looked similar to the flintlock gun that Luth made, but with a larger muzzle. He asked Luth and the two magicians, “Can I pick it up and look at it?”

After getting permission, Chi Lang took a closer look at the gun. It still had a gunpowder pool, but looking in from the muzzle, you could see… many lines sloping downward, which at first glance looked like it was spinning.

‘Rifling,’ Chi Lang thought.

His heart skipped a beat, and he asked Luth, “Is this musket for sale? How much?”

Luth also came over: “This is James’ thing, but this thing is slower than my gun’s reloading speed, so it’s useless.”

“I want to buy it and study it.” Chi Lang was aware of the loading speed of the rifling gun, he just wanted to buy this gun to try to see if he could make the rifling, and, if “mechanical time” could shorten the loading time of the rifling gun.

If you don’t have enough money, save some more and buy it later.

“Come out with me, I’ll take you to find James,” Luth beckoned.

When he walked out of the room again, the corridor had completely changed.

An animal with three heads was running down the hallway, followed by an old lady on crutches.

While greeting the old lady, Luth said to Chi Lang, “That is the master of the summoning department, the summons can exist for a long time, so even if they encounter magic shielding, there is no need to be afraid.”

There were people in uniforms moving things in the corridor, Luth said: “That’s going to go to the hall to lay a magic array. Even in the state of magic shielding, some magic array can be driven.”

Chi Lang: “You are prepared… too well. Have you encountered many troubles from church people?”

Luth: “It’s just a few times. I hate this kind of people who have no strength and still want to share the benefits.”

“There’s still a lot that I haven’t said. For example, those with deep pockets in the elemental department can use blank scrolls to store their own magic… For those who do research like me, we can only defend ourselves with a gun.”

Chi Lang was a little strange: “Since the church can come up with something similar to magic shielding, why can’t you make something similar to magic shielding? That way you can fight close to each other, and everyone has a good fight.”

Luth rolled his eyes at him.

“No,” Luth’s tone was somewhat contemptuous. “Their power comes from their faith in gods. Is there any way to block their faith? Unless—

“The gods have fallen.” Luth smiled. “So that’s the difference between us and them. Magicians put their power on their knowledge, and they put their faith on the gods.”

Chi Lang felt that even though Luth was wearing this funny clown costume, he had an indescribable pride and self-satisfaction when he said this.

“Here it is, let me help you find James.”

They walked to a small hall. There were a lot of people here. Most of them were wearing magic robes, and there were a few people in light armor… Hey, knights in light armor?

“That’s not a knight,” Luth patted Chi Lang’s head. “It’s a few young magicians. These young people are not bad, and their swordsmanship is also good. They should perform well when the magic is blocked.”

Chi Lang’s eyes twitched, and he pointed at the people: “Why do magicians still learn swordsmanship? Use clumsy magic to trick the enemy into getting close, and then use superior swordsmanship to defeat them?”

This dirty trick?

“Young man,” Luth’s catchphrase came up again, “there is no rule that swordsmanship can only be learned by knights, if you want to learn it, you can learn it. Maybe you can find a way to use magic in swordsmanship.”

“Hey, James is that old man, go and find him.” Luth pointed to the left, there sat an old man who was much rounder than Luth, but he didn’t have much hair either.

Chi Lang turned sideways, ready to walk over.

“Mr. Luth,” Chi Lang heard the voice behind him, “I almost didn’t recognize you in this costume. Did you come to the ‘Palace of Knowledge’ this time to buy or sell something? I still remember that your last magic potion worked very well.”

The person’s words were very euphemistic, he didn’t say anything about Luth’s dress, and his voice was also very pleasant and gentle. If it was the usual, Chi Lang would definitely turn around to see who this sacred person was, he could actually recognize that it was Luth through the clown suit.

However, the voice was very, very familiar, and Chi Lang froze for a moment.

“Oh!” Then Luth called out a name that Chi Lang was very familiar with, and then Luth said happily, “You brought the gloves? Then we don’t have to worry about people from the church making trouble.”

Gloves?

Chi Lang turned his face slightly.

Sheffield was wearing a black tuxedo with a pair of white gloves in his hands. After listening to Luth’s words, he smiled lightly and slowly put the gloves on.

His movements were slow and deliberate, and his expression seemed casual.

He walked over to the table. On the table was a longsword with a cross-shaped handguard.

With a bang, the sword was pulled out, and a halo shone on the body of the sword.

Sheffield clenched the sword tightly and said with a smile: “You trust me so much, which makes me feel a little uneasy. I haven’t touched it much recently.”