EFB Chapter 11 The Lucky Ones: The Puppet Show "The Sun King"
Chapter 11 The Lucky Ones: The Puppet Show "The Sun King"
It's time for another day off.
Early in the morning, the three of them squeezed onto a public carriage bound for Modo City.
Detz leaned against the car wall, his eyes half-closed, not gazing excitedly at the scenery outside the window as he had the previous times.
Both he and Rackham had a new dark blue tattoo on their forearms.
The lines are fine and dense, like some kind of thorny vine wrapped around the skin, extending from the wrist all the way to the elbow.
The entire carriage was filled with a silent and oppressive atmosphere.
After a bumpy ride, the three arrived at the lecture hall.
The lecture hall seemed a bit emptier than last time. Su En and his two companions still sat in the sixth row from the bottom, a position that seemed to have become their default, fixed seat.
The noise in the classroom suddenly quieted down.
A tall, slender witch named Poppy entered through a side door.
She wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on her nose, and her golden-brown hair was neatly coiled at the back of her head.
His face was thin and his lips, pressed into a thin line, gave off an aura that kept strangers at bay.
Pope walked straight to the center of the podium without looking to the side, raised his hand and made a sweeping motion in the air. A silver-white rune light shone above the podium and condensed into a line of Hermesian characters.
"Zero-level sorcery - Light Spell".
Her voice was cold and clear: "I am Poppy Prescott, in charge of today's witchcraft theory class."
"What is the essence of witchcraft? Before we officially begin the course, I believe many of you have a vague but widespread understanding of it, which is mental power."
"But that's not the case."
Suen raised her eyebrows slightly.
Poppy the wizard raised his right hand and made a loose clenching motion in front of him.
A soft white light, about the size of a fist and as bright as a candle, appeared in her palm.
"Light spell, the most basic zero-level sorcery."
Her fingers tightened slightly, and the ball of light trembled and began to slowly expand.
It went from the size of a fist to the size of a bowl, and then to the size of a bucket.
The brightness changed from a candle to a lamp, and then to the dazzling midday sun.
The apprentices in the first few rows of the classroom instinctively raised their hands to cover their eyes.
The faces of the apprentices in the front row changed.
Poppy withdrew his hand, and the white light instantly went out.
"No matter how much mental effort is invested, its essence remains unchanged; it only serves to illuminate."
She turned around, raised her hand and made a vague gesture in the air, and a blurry image appeared.
In the image, a complex witchcraft model unfolds in the air, with dozens of lines interwoven to form a three-dimensional, two-layered structure, with a fist-sized glowing rune embedded at its core.
"First-Circle Spell: Blazing White Radiance".
Poppy raised his arm above his head, made a loose grasping motion, and a white light, like a meteor, crashed down on a golem.
boom!
The radiation of the white light suddenly surged, and a palm-sized gash was torn open in the golem's chest.
Stone chips flew everywhere, and the edges of the crack showed the dark red color characteristic of being scorched. A deeper scorch mark spread upwards from the crack, reaching the golem's shoulder, leaving fine cracks along the way.
The classroom was completely silent.
"When the structure of the magic model changes, the power changes dramatically while the mental energy consumption remains the same. This tells us that the essence of magic is runes."
"To be precise, it is the rules themselves that are recorded and expressed using runes."
She stopped abruptly at this point, turned around, and walked to the edge of the podium.
"My purpose in comparing these two spells is not to remind you to study Hermes diligently. Hermes is an essential tool for studying runes, and I don't need to waste time elaborating on that. What I hope to teach you in this lesson is to learn to question and seek the truth."
Poppy raised his voice slightly, "In the current wizarding civilization, more than 90 percent of the knowledge comes from the archaeology and exploration of ruins, and it was only through the organization of the pioneers that a complete system was formed."
"This means that knowledge can be flawed, and our understanding can also be misled."
"The essence of witchcraft lies in learning to question authority and the status quo, and in researching and seeking the truth behind power!"
The classroom fell silent for a few seconds.
Suen's gaze fell on the two contrasting rune models, his pupils contracting slightly.
The analysis and understanding of witchcraft models is inherently a complex process.
But Poppy the Wizard did not merely offer a superficial explanation of the meaning of a particular rune; instead, he attempted to teach his apprentices a way of thinking about pursuing truth through examples.
This knowledge is something that cannot be understood from books.
Questioning and seeking the truth...
Suen withdrew her gaze and wrote this line in her notebook.
After the bell rang, the three of them followed the crowd out of the lecture hall.
"I'm going to the market in the trade zone."
Suen spoke up, then asked the two if they wanted to travel together.
"Perfect timing, I also want to check out the store owned by the Goddess of Fortune."
Suen glanced at Deitz; the deduction and learning of extraordinary knowledge must be written on papyrus and spiritual ink.
He had 5 magic stone coins left, just enough to buy one set.
"I need to go buy some papyrus," Suen said.
"Then let's go together," Rackham unusually chimed in.
The trade zone was still bustling with people.
The shops selling extraordinary materials had all sorts of signs hanging outside, and the air was filled with the mixed smells of potion ingredients, spices, and leather.
The strange plant hanging by the door was still being sold, but the items for sale had changed from wands to spellbooks, and the slogan had changed from "All for only 199" to "All for only 99".
Suen stopped at a magic shop and chose the cheapest papyrus and spiritual ink.
While waiting on the side, Deitz's gaze drifted toward the busiest shop on the street.
A huge signboard catches the eye: The Shop of the Goddess of Fortune.
A long queue stretched out at the entrance, mostly made up of new students dressed in various apprentice robes, with a few young men who looked like intermediate apprentices mixed in among them.
The relief of the goddess of fortune on the signboard gives customers a mysterious smile, holding a scale of fate in one hand and pointing to the door with the other.
Suen followed Detz into the shop, where a huge turntable came into view, divided into 60 small squares, with the twelve constellations prominently displayed, and the words "Grand Prize" marked below.
"One magic stone coin for one draw, two coins for three draws is the most cost-effective."
Detz muttered the price list next to the counter, took out two magic stone coins from his pocket, and dropped them into the coin slot with a clinking sound.
A moment later, the turntable started, the pointer spun continuously on the disc, and Deitz's heart spun along with it, a rare expression appearing on his face.
"I've won! I've won!"
He prayed quietly, asking the goddess of fate to favor him.
As the pointer swept across the squares, Deitz watched helplessly as rewards slipped through his fingers, his fists clenching even tighter involuntarily.
Suddenly, Rackham, standing beside him, grabbed Deitz with trembling hands.
"It's a hit! It's a hit!"
"Reward: Intermediate-level sorcery artifact - Thomas Meteorite Wand"
As the pointer stopped, a short staff about 20 inches long fell out from the exit below.
The staff is made of a dark black stone, with irregular small patterns on the surface, and a faint orange-red light like lava slowly creeping inside.
The wand fell to the ground with a dull thud.
"Thomas's Meteorite Magic Wand?"
When someone uttered the name, the people around them erupted in uproar.
"A wand imbued with the first-circle sorcery [Summon Meteor]? A masterpiece from the youth of Alchemist Master Thomas! It's said someone once offered 2000 magic stones for it..."
Detz gripped the magic wand, his fingers trembling slightly uncontrollably.
His breathing became more and more rapid, adrenaline surged through his veins, and his face turned red at a visible speed.
"I won!!"
"I won!"
Suen pressed down hard on his shoulder from behind and gave him a warning look.
"Put it away and let's go!"
Overly excited, Detz managed to regain his senses for a moment before quickly tucking his wand into his clothes, tightening his apprentice robes, and following Suen out of the shop with his head down.
Rackham waited by the wall outside the door. When he looked up, he saw the expression on Deitz's face. He was about to ask a question when Suen stopped him first.
"Let's talk about it after we leave the market."
The three of them walked through the crowd, left the East Third District, and headed towards the bus stop.
Even when encountering patrolling guards along the way, they dared not relax their vigilance in the slightest.
Suen slowed down only when he arrived at the gates of the High Tower Wizard Council.
Detz could no longer contain himself. He pulled the Thomas Meteorite Magic Wand from his pocket and examined it closely in the sunlight.
"2000 magic stone coins, I've never seen so much money in my entire life."
Suen looked at the magical artifact and couldn't help but envy Deitz's good fortune, but his previous experience instinctively made him wary.
Are there really wizards who are so friendly and generous to new students?
He shook his head, deciding not to offer any advice so as not to spoil Deitz's enjoyment.
"Let's go back to the boarding point first, it's getting late."
However, at this moment, the theater directly opposite the boarding point caught Suen's attention.
A sign hangs above the entrance hall: The Theater of Mourning.
Suen's gaze fell on a large poster on the left side of the entrance: Tonight's performance is the puppet show "The Sun King".
Below the poster are several oddly dressed dolls that look exactly like real people.
One of the dolls' faces immediately caught Suen's attention.
He recognized the face.
During the registration process, Welch's apprentice, who was in charge of recruitment, pointed to the tent of the Horror Circus. At the front of the line was a young girl in a scarlet dress with delicate features and an outstanding temperament, which left a deep impression on Suen.
At that moment, that face appeared on the doll's face, leaving only a frozen, empty smile.
Welch's words suddenly echoed in Suen's ears.
"If I'm lucky, I might see you on stage at the Theater of Mourning in three months. Of course, as a puppet."
It has only been less than two months.
Suen stood still for two seconds.
Beside the mascot, a clown appeared, holding a bunch of balloons and beckoning to passersby.
He didn't look a second time and turned to walk towards the carriage.