C192: Dream camouflage (2)
-Heathcliff?
Julia, who heard the name, put her index finger on her chin as if to recall something.
– Not at all.
Julia shook her head.
-It’s not a common name, but I can’t think of a person right away just by his name. It’s someone in your memory in the first place, and I don’t know.
“Oh, you’re right.”
-You have a strange, stupid side, don’t you?
“Hehe.”
Julia sighed at Rene’s awkward smile. It wasn’t a compliment.
Julia got up from the bed.
“Oh, are you going?”
-I have to go. Look at my condition.
At Julia’s words, Rene was able to notice the changes that had occurred to her.
“Is your body getting blurry?”
-I guess that name was the trigger. You used to be on the border between dream and reality, but now you’re trying to wake up from your dream.
It was all through dream magic that they could talk like this. Now that Rene woke up from her dream, Julia could no longer maintain this state.
A person who wakes up from a dream cannot have a dream conversation.
-I’m going to go now. It was a pretty interesting story. Although it has nothing to do with me, I hope you find your memory sometime.
“Oh, look, Julia Plumhart.”
-Just call me by my name comfortably. I don’t really like being called with my last name.
“Can I talk to you again later?”
Julia looked a little ridiculous at the words and said with a smile.
-No.
“Why?”
-It’s purely because of my whim that we talked today. I don’t really want to be close to anyone.
“Still…”
-If you really want to talk to me, draw my interest with your dream. Then maybe I’ll come back again like today.
She didn’t want Rene to talk to her in the classroom pretending to be close.
-Good luck, then.
Julia disappeared like a mirage with the words. At the same time, Rene’s vague energy disappeared and she regained her complete reason.
Talking to Julia a little while ago seemed like a dream.
‘No, it was not a dream.’
Obviously, the memory of talking to Julia remained clear along with the words Julia told her.
‘The name in the dream.’
Heathcliff.
Was that person related to her lost memory?
‘But…Where and how do I find that person?’
The night went deeper and deeper while she was struggling with unattainable worries.
* * *
“It’s turning.”
No matter how much Alex thought it was too much to imagine and he grabbed his head.
“The blood of a prosperous family. Leader, how did you eat it?”
“I was curious about that, too.”
“Did you have a headache because of your natural ability?”
The members knew that Rudger had a chronic disease in his own right.
At that, Rudger nodded.
“I have a constitution that is terribly easily excited and I’ve always been listening to strange voices. Not even the other blood relatives could do that.”
“……and in a God-believing country, there is no greater talent than that but an excellent talent is sometimes too toxic.”
“I hid it as much as I could, but I ended up getting caught.”
They understood why other royal family members tried to kill Rudger.
Seridan asked.
“If you get discovered, what will happen?”
“They’ll send assassins again or use other means.”
“Other means?”
“Bretus Holy Land has closed its borders for nearly 20 years. What do you think the reason is?”
“What’s wrong with your family?”
“My biological father and the emperor of the time was not very healthy. Since then, there has been an internal struggle over the right to inherit the throne.”
But they didn’t want to make it known, so they locked up the country and took care of it with the intention of avoiding damaging the nation’s image.
“But the Holy Land of Bretus is back in action.”
The door that has been locked for the past 20 years has been opened and that means one thing.
“The battle for succession ended and the next success has been decided.”
When Rudger’s real identity is discovered one day what will happen to him depends purely on the choice of the next success, that’s why he had to prepare.
* * *
The weekend has passed and the weekdays have returned.
Theon’s morning started early and employees came out from dawn to sweep fallen leaves, clean the streets, and organize their luggage.
It was the time when early summer passed and summer completely started, so sweat flowed down the working people’s foreheads.
As soon as the morning sun rises, Theon’s day begins. Students sleeping in the dormitory wake up and teachers prepare to go to work.
It was the same for Rudger.
Rudger, who went to work early in the morning in his office even though there was no class, was diligently reading a paper on magic with rimless glasses.
One of the privileges granted to Theon’s teacher was the right to read magic papers from the Old Tower, the New Tower, and academic societies more quickly.
‘It’s nice to be able to subscribe to magic papers quickly every month.’
The Tower and the Magic Society have been widely known to the world for their research through journals published every month.
Previously, journals’ papers were only intended to boast of their knowledge, but recently, the pattern has changed a lot.
‘These days, they try to compete with each other.’
That pattern began after the Tower was divided into the Old Tower and the New Tower.
The New Tower has published numerous papers with the discovery and development of new magic. On the contrary, the Old Tower was so intoxicated with the glory of the past that it laughed at the actions of the New Tower.
No matter what anyone says, the Old Tower is still an object of envy to the wizards and they thought that the New Tower was not even close to their feet.
‘But that’s an old saying now.’
The actions of the New Tower quickly became popular and newspapers in each county were busy praising their actions while criticizing the Old Tower.
Especially from the moment when most of the artifacts and magic development articles blew up, most of the countries started to support the New Tower.
The Old Tower was treated like the setting sun, not the great legacy of the past.
‘Like that it became a chicken race of wizards that even the Old Tower had to take part in.’
An unexpected participant in the competition that was expected to take place just between the two organizations emerged.
It was the small and medium-sized schools that responded to the competition between the Old and New towers.
Originally, the schools were like dots in the magic world. Because they were sharpening and polishing their own magic, they had little interaction and sometimes treated each other as if they were enemies.
Then, the schools formed a coalition because they didn’t want to be affected by the Tower progress.
As a result, the <School Association> was born.
The magic world was divided into three large organizations: the Old Tower, the New Tower, and the School Association.
‘It’s nice to see competition and improvement, unlike when the Tower almost monopolized everything in the past.’
That’s why all kinds of novel papers come out through the journal.
In the past, they would have been busy hiding them, but now that they’re competing, they can’t do that anymore.
Of course, most of the papers seem difficult to apply to reality but it’s okay to have something like this.
Challenges start with not being afraid of failure.
‘That’s probably why letters keep piling up on my desk.’
One side of the desk in his office was full of letters, especially since at the festival, many people saw the [source code] magic used by Rudger.
‘It’s annoying to read all of this.’
Just then, the door opened and Sedina, his assistant, entered.
“Teacher, here are today’s letters.”
Sedina puts a bunch of letters from her arms on the desk.
“…….”
As the amount of letters piled up nearly tripled, Rudger took off his glasses and rubbed his forehead.
“Sedina Rosen.”
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
“Didn’t I tell you to filter out all the rest except for the letters that seemed important?”
“Yes, I did.”
“But what the hell is this?”
“That’s about it because it’s filtered out.”
Rudger skimmed through the letters that were only visible on the surface. The seals enclosed in the letter stood out, not only the nobles of the empire but also the invitations from other kingdoms.
‘It’s starting.’
I guess it was very impressive to see him during the duel that day.
Most of the contents of the invitations were like, “Please visit this side because there will be a party,” and such contents written in the aristocratic style.
“Oh, here are some letters that you have to pay special attention to.”
“I see.”
Rudger examined the seal enclosed in the letter.
‘An invitation to the Tower.’
Even the invitations of the Old and New towers came at the same time.
“This is another headache.”
“Is it an invitation to “Mysterious Night”?
“Yes.”
<Mysterious Night (Geheimnis Nacht)>
It is an annual event where wizards from all over the world gather together.
It’s a kind of festival, but it’s hard to think of it like Theon’s magic festival. Even though the Wizards are much better than they used to be, there are still many freaks like those who have gone beyond the desire for magic to madness.
And since such people come together in one place there will be many fights in the dark in order to obtain magic.
“It seems that my name value has risen as well. The invitations are coming.”
“That’s not true. If they didn’t invite teacher , who would they invite?”
Sedina spoke defensively, but for Rudger it was just a nuisance.
‘It’s true that I like magic.’
Although his job as a magic teacher is just a superficial job on the surface of his status, Rudger is actually an authentic wizard who explores magic deeply.
Of course, he had been steadily reading the Magic Papers for a long time, and he was also very interested in the groundbreaking magic developed by other wizards.
‘But this invitation is a problem.’
The invitations came from the Old Tower, the New Tower, and the School Association, respectively.
This was the problem.
‘Because the result differs depending on what invitation I accept.’
In a situation where there are currently three separate organizations, the Old Tower, the New Tower, and the School Association, it would be a fool’s errand to choose one.
The moment you choose one, you’ll be treated as a VIP.
‘At the same time, the other side will turn into an enemy and try to bite me.’
Sending an invitation so early was to somehow occupy a person in advance and to quickly recognize who were their enemies.
Sedina said to Rudger, who was agonizing.
“Oh, by the way, there’s a letter and a gift.”
“A gift?”
Simply sending an invitation letter would make people disappointed, that’s why those who have great power will do their best to recruit talented people.
Sedina entered her office and soon brought the gifts.
The first thing Rudger checked was a gift from the Old Tower.
“Oh, my.”
In the small book was a bracelet but Rudger could tell what the bracelet was like at once. It’s an artifact created by Gehenner, a meister from the tower.
‘Gehenner’s golden bracelet.’
He remembered it because it was so famous in the artifact industry.
Meisters do their best to engrave one imprint, so the speed of making artifacts is remarkably slow and the same was true for Gehenner’s golden bracelet.
It was a special artifact that the Meister spent a month working on and a special piece since only 12 would be made in a year.
‘Even if it were released on the market, it would boast a considerable price.’
They gave him a big present.
‘It’s authentic, considering it even has its own number.’
The effects of the golden bracelet are various. First of all, defense magic and attack magic are basically embedded, and in the absence of a cane, mana cohesion is increased to help use magic more easily.
However, the biggest effect would be that “location tracking” is also possible in case of an unexpected situation.
Rudger smirked.
‘I can see clearly what’s inside. Trying to tie the leash on the pretext of a gift.’
He knew they were already on bad terms, but he still didn’t expect them to send him such a blatant gift.
‘It’s like a gift from the Old Tower that symbolizes oppression.’
On the contrary, the gift from the New Tower was a little unique. They sent prototypes of various artifacts they newly developed.
Rather than a gift for him, it was clearly conveyed that they wanted to be evaluated for the things they made.
‘It’s a place full of freedom and this gift fits the New Tower style.’
Rudger looked at several artifacts. Of course, instructions for each artifact were enclosed, so there was no need to worry about what kind of artifact it was.
Among them, there was one artifact that caught Rudger’s attention.
‘Is this an artifact with the memory storming effect?’
One of the interesting papers Rudger recently encountered was about mana and memory. Mana has a memory, and by reading that mana, you can even find out the wizard’s past.
It was a really interesting article.
‘It’s amazing that it didn’t just stop at nonsense, but they raised it to the level where it can actually be commercialized.’
Since ancient times, there has been great difficulty in finding out the culprits because there is no clear evidence left in cases caused by magic.
However, this artifact would be of great help in dealing with such unsolved cases.
‘This is going to be a little dangerous for me, too.’
There were also quite a few useful artifacts such as “artifacts that peel fruit well” and “artifacts that made steel soft.”
‘They really made all sorts of things.’
He didn’t know what the nerds thought.
Rudger shook his head and checked the gift from the School Association.
The School Association was formed by combining large and small groups of dots (magic schools) that do not belong to the Tower.
The gifts they sent were very simple compared to the ones before but they were effective.
‘Is it an elixir?’
The translucent tablet in a small box that looked like a beautiful bead was definitely an elixir. Unlike mana drugs that restore depleted mana, this item increases the total amount of mana.
Rudger gave up halfway because elixirs were not something he could get just because he had money.
‘I never thought I’d get it at a place like this. It’s nice to be famous.’
At that time, Sedina, who was still watching the situation, carefully opened her mouth.
“Sir, what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“The gifts.”
“Oh.”
Sedina was now asking Rudger which one to choose.
He received invitations and gifts from three organizations that have equal power to each other so he had to think carefully about which to choose.
“Sedina, what do you think?”
“Well, do you mean me? How could I…….?”
“I can hear your opinion.”
“You also listen to your subordinates’ opinions. As expected of Sir First Order…….”
Sedina got emotional at his words but since he saw it so many times he just waited for her to answer.
“I think the old tower would be better. They still have great authority so they would be useful.”
Rudger nodded as if Sedina’s opinion was convincing.
“But that’s not enough.”
“What? Then, is the gift of the New Tower better? Looking at the recent growth trend, there is definitely a possibility that it will surpass the Old Tower in the future…….”
“No. That’s not what I’m talking about. Why do I think you should choose only one gift?”
For a moment, Sedina opened her eyes wide as if she heard something wrong but she didn’t misheard.
“Can’t I just get everything?”