With his hands clasped behind his back, Warren stood gazing silently at the white clouds drifting past the window for quite some time. Finally, he turned and walked to the study door, where he instructed the one-eyed swordsman: "Loban, keep close watch on Leo and that mage's movements from now on—especially where they go and what they purchase."
Because there was still a small possibility that Valentin had cooperation with them on other matters, Warren needed to confirm further, and this investigation was meant to rule out that possibility. Of course, if he truly couldn't be entirely certain, he wouldn't hesitate to burn through a few favors and write letters to the few Shahran Empire nobles he knew, asking them to keep an eye out for similar individuals.
The one-eyed swordsman Loban knelt on one knee in the knight-to-lord salute. "As you command, Young Master Warren."
Ever since the incident at the Tarant Tavern, where he had failed to perform his proper role, Loban had been plagued by unease. As the strongest of Warren's subordinates after Arorim and Rael—and the captain of the Scaled Armor Guard—he felt that Warren's gaze upon him had taken on a peculiar quality, as though the young master was considering promoting someone else or recruiting additional hands. As a result, he held himself to exacting standards of protocol, determined to rehabilitate his image in Young Master Warren's eyes in every possible way.
Besides, this sort of close surveillance wasn't dangerous. It didn't require leading the Scaled Armor Guard in a stealthy tail job on a mid-rank mage—that would be courting death—but rather conveying Young Master Warren's will to the bosses, gang leaders, smugglers, and information brokers of the Eastern Exile Lands. As long as Leo and that mage continued living in the Eastern Exile Lands, every move they made would be reported back through the people they encountered.
Amid the clinking of metal scale plates, Warren watched Loban depart with over a dozen scaled swordsmen, and his mood grew exceedingly pleasant. He imagined that arrogant young mage who had looked down on him being surrounded and killed by Great Knights and bishops in the Shahran Empire, and he walked over to the bar in his sitting room, pouring himself a glass of golden rum—something only those of truly high standing and status could savor.
He took a light sip of the amber-colored golden rum. The liquid turned into a scorching line of fire that traced down his throat all the way into his stomach, and Warren exhaled a rum-laced breath. He chuckled mockingly. "Actually, that mage is rather handsome. It would be a shame if he were killed. Hand him over to me, and in just one month I could train him into an obedient, submissive, yet fierce and fearless slave. Whether it's handsome men or beautiful women, no one can hold out for more than a month under my training."
Thinking of the boys and girls in the villa's secret chamber, stripped bare and wandering like soulless husks, Warren felt a wave of heat in his lower body. He set down the glass and prepared to go relieve himself—with the lash, thoroughly.
Halfway there, Warren felt a bit too warm. He turned to face the mirror, removing his black double-breasted formal coat while straightening his collar.
"Which one should I visit first?" Warren studied his reflection in the mirror—after half a glass of strong liquor, his face hadn't changed color. Below his unkempt black eyebrows lay a pair of pale blue eyes brimming with carnal desire and cruelty. Suddenly, behind him in the mirror, a stranger appeared without any warning. The man wore a brownish-red fitted coat, breeches, and black boots. His dark hair was neatly swept back. A refined, gentle face bore a faint smile, and his brown eyes were deep and captivating.
"Him! How is he here?!" Warren panicked and was about to spin around to attack whoever was behind him—regardless of whether anyone was actually there, regardless of whether he was drunk and hallucinating!
But his eyes were locked on the brown pupils of the young man in the mirror, as though there was a soul-devouring vortex spinning ceaselessly within them, and he simply could not look away!
At that moment, a faint blue light erupted from Warren's chest, filling the space before him with a soft, tranquil glow that cleared his head. He broke free from those soul-consuming eyes.
As the son of a Great Knight, and as the notorious leader of a human trafficking ring, Warren had his own precautions to go along with his arrogance. Having heard countless tales of mages' mysterious methods, he worried about being secretly controlled or subtly influenced in his business judgment through suggestion. So he had spent a great sum to acquire a "Unicorn Pendant," which could guard against low-level magic that affected the mind and brain—Charm Person, suggestion, and the like.
Who would have thought that he had still nearly been taken over today, with the pendant only activating at the very last moment? It was nothing like what that mage had claimed—that unless one was a high-rank mage with a lion's spirit, one wouldn't be affected at all.
"But having it is still better than nothing!"
Just as Warren was congratulating himself on winning the struggle against those bewitching eyes, the bizarre and arcane chanting behind him came to an end. An inconceivable force invaded his body, rendering him completely immobile.
Third-circle spell: Hold Person!
Warren's terrified gaze watched Lucian in the mirror draw closer and closer. He wanted to speak, wanted to scream, but found he couldn't even command his own lips.
Lucian stopped behind him, shook his head with a mild smile, and said: "Don't assume that possessing a magical item of comparable grade allows you to stand against a mage. And don't underestimate a mage's caution."
A versatile and unpredictable arsenal of means was the hallmark of a proper mage—pure destructive maniacs being the exception. As long as they weren't pushed to a danger level where they couldn't react, mages could always rely on all manner of strange magic to slip past one or two attacks that exceeded their own strength, let alone probe their way around layers of magical defenses.
As he spoke, Lucian used Mage Hand to remove the "Unicorn Pendant" from around Warren's neck, then employed the mental energy application techniques developed by the Arcane Council to forcibly wipe away Warren's imprints within it.
After the incident at the Tarant Tavern, Lucian hadn't felt at ease leaving such a vicious and scheming human trafficker unchecked. So before Leo had recovered, he had recited a first-circle spell and summoned an "Invisible Servant," sending it to shadow Warren from afar at a distance of a hundred meters—its speed and agility were more than adequate—and deduce Warren's intentions from his actions and those of his subordinates.
Rael being a mage had caught Lucian slightly off guard, but fortunately the Invisible Servant had strictly adhered to his instructions, hanging back at a hundred-meter distance without being detected. Then, when Rael let his guard down and activated the villa's guardian Magic Circle, the servant had slipped in alongside the scaled swordsmen and others, hiding inside Warren's study, where it witnessed Valentin's attendant arrive to deliver intelligence and collect payment.
It then quickly blended out of the villa with Loban and the others, and through the link between summoned creature and summoner, it found Lucian walking along the street.
After calmly hearing the Invisible Servant's report, Lucian immediately decided to eliminate the threat.
Thanks to the abundance of servants and subordinates constantly coming and going through the garden villa, and because Warren had never imagined that Lucian would discover him and come knocking so quickly, the mid-rank mage had slipped past the low-rank mage-level security arrangements with ease and found Warren. For his first move, he had deployed Charm Person—the knight variant—so that the unicorn pendant, operating on ordinary magical principles, had nearly failed to react in time!
Feeling his imprints within the unicorn pendant being destroyed by Lucian's overwhelming mental force like a hot knife through butter, Warren's face went deathly pale, and his eyes took on a look of desperate supplication. Being able to bend and flex was, after all, the hallmark of a truly great villain.
Lucian's brown eyes gazed into Warren's once more, growing deep and fathomless.