Chapter 69
"Cut my miracle, cut my miracle..."
Igor paced back and forth in the room, unconsciously biting his nails, and couldn't help asking: "Are you sure you can use the Miracle Slash without arcane energy output?"
"I'm not sure," Ashe said calmly. "And I definitely can't do it now. I'm still missing a key spirit to form the Miracle Slash."
"Then how did you—"
"I told you, I have secret ways of obtaining spirits. I don't know when I'll find that key spirit, but it's just a matter of time."
Igor opened his mouth but then closed it again.
Since Ashe didn't elaborate, Igor naturally couldn't guess what that so-called "secret channel" was. But he didn't doubt the authenticity of this matter much.
Because of the Balance spirit.
If Ashe had the Balance spirit a few days ago, he wouldn't have been unilaterally bound by Igor's contract spirit back then.
Although it was also possible that Ashe was just pretending to be weak to catch Igor off guard, Igor was the one who provoked him first that time. How could Ashe have set a trap targeting Igor specifically?
Compared to believing in this conspiracy theory that only existed in probability, Igor was more willing to believe in Ashe's potential.
It wasn't because Igor was naive, optimistic and cute, but because Ashe had already demonstrated miracle after miracle with his own hands.
In the fight with Igor, he went from a complete martial arts novice to a skilled fighter in just minutes;
In the deathmatch with Valcas, he went from not even being able to hold a sword properly to a master swordsman in minutes;
During the Blood Moon Tribunal, he was somehow immune to the searing pain of the Purgatorial Flame, even though he was the death row inmate with the deepest sins.
Plus the sudden appearance of the Balance spirit, Igor felt he had no reason to doubt Ashe, even if the "secret channel" Ashe mentioned sounded preposterous under the prison's surveillance. In this world of mages, miracles were the most common inevitability.
Moreover, Ashe Heath was the leader of the Four Pillars heretical cult...
Igor's expression was constantly changing. He gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, "Screw it!"
"But we can't escape with just the two of us. I have to recruit a few more people."
"Of course," Ashe smiled. "The reason I came to you first was because you must know the profiles of other death row inmates. After all, I'm not familiar with this place and need a cunning 'local' to help assemble the team."
"Thank you for the compliment. As a con artist, information is my weapon." Igor bowed elegantly.
"So who should we look for?"
"I already have a preliminary plan. Assuming you can remove the chip limit with the Miracle Slash, we need three types of people: a vanguard focused on assault, a destroyer focused on sustained damage, and a support focused on mobility and healing."
"That sounds like you need professionals with very specific skills. Can we find people like that?"
"Are you kidding me?" Igor laughed.
"Villains, murderers, black market smugglers, aren't these three types of people everywhere in Shattered Lake Prison?"
Cailleach, Saint Empire.
Ingritt curiously observed the view of the villa district outside the car window, Adele excitedly touched the decorative leather inside the car, and Iris hurriedly pressed Adele's hand down in embarrassment, making small talk: "Thanks for inviting us to the tea party, Felix."
"Don't thank me," Felix frowned as he drove. "It was Sonya who strongly requested to bring along her roommates, so I had to invite you..."
His words were impolite, showing that Felix was in a very bad mood now, unable to even maintain basic noble etiquette. Adele didn't even dare touch things randomly anymore.
Iris had no interest in continuing to rub salt in the wound. She secretly observed Sonya in the passenger seat, wondering what their relationship was.
At noon today, Sonya suddenly came to them saying that Felix was inviting them to a tea party at his villa.
Tea parties were very common student activities. The usual form was a few students eating snacks and drinking black tea at a scenic spot, while gossiping and spreading rumors. Many campus rumors originated from tea parties.
Iris had participated in quite a few tea parties herself, and had even specifically held them to badmouth Sonya — a tea party would be worthless without slander.
So she found it very strange that Sonya wanted to have a tea party with her. From the nature of tea parties, she knew they were intimate circles for gossiping and rumor-mongering. Iris didn't think her relationship with Sonya had reached the intimate level where they could badmouth people behind their backs together.
Even if Sonya wanted to bring friends to a tea party, she and Ingritt had been so close these days that inviting just her would be enough. Why drag Iris and Adele along?
Plus, this was Felix's tea party. Recalling the despicable rumors about this playboy, Iris subconsciously thought badly of Sonya — keywords like 'noble son', 'basement', 'imprisoning girls', 'abuse', 'sex slaves' flooded her mind.
However, before Iris could refuse, Sonya suggested they let their parents know they were attending Felix's tea party. If anything unexpected happened, it must be the misdeeds of the second son of Duke Vlozrada...
Such thoughtful concern made Iris somewhat confused. On the other hand, Ingritt saw some clues and asked Sonya if she needed them as witnesses. Sonya didn't say it outright, but promised there would definitely be benefits if they came to the tea party.
Benefits related to mages.
But if Felix had ulterior motives, it would spell trouble for them. That was why Sonya told them to inform their parents of their whereabouts.
The more Iris listened, the more it sounded like bait used to lure ignorant young girls. If it were anyone else, Iris would have refused for sure. But since it was Felix and Sonya, and they had reminded them to notify their parents, plus Iris still hoped to buy the Virtual World Telescope spirit from Sonya, she couldn't afford to offend Sonya too much.
Most importantly, Ingritt had agreed.
In her words: "In the world of mages, adventure means progress, caution means retreat. If I don't even dare take this little risk, I might as well go home and get married."
Perhaps it was a young girl's longing for adventure, or perhaps the hints of arranged marriage from her parents' recent visit home, or simply not wanting to chicken out in front of the person she hated most. In the end, Iris agreed to the tea party invitation.
As Iris's follower, Adele didn't think much before agreeing to come along too.
However, after getting in the car, Iris's raised guard gradually lowered. Not only because many students saw them get into Felix's silver car, but also because the car was heading towards Cailleach's villa district. There were surveillance Eyes all along the way, and it was impossible for anyone to commit crimes in the core area of Cailleach.
The silver car drove into a luxurious villa. Adele looked around and asked, "Where are the servants?"
"There are no servants," Felix said lightly. "Only when I'm away will housekeeping staff be hired to maintain the villa. Otherwise, no one else is here."
Adele foolishly asked again: "No servants? Then how do we have the tea party? Are we going to brew tea and make snacks ourselves?"
Iris showed an awkward expression and pulled her little follower aside to explain.
Felix walked ahead, leading them into the villa's great hall, then under everyone's contemptuous gaze, summoned a scantily clad single-winged beauty spirit.
As if triggering some mechanism, the fireplace suddenly opened, revealing a spiraling underground passage leading down.
Sonya complained: "Do you have to make it so creepy and scary? Do you usually have other hobbies too, like kidnapping girls, murdering them, dissecting corpses, skinning them?"
"Secrets are always associated with fear, darkness, and murder — not because secrets are inherently so, but because secrets are too weak and need to posture threateningly to protect themselves," Felix said impatiently. "Or do you want me to change the location to the school cafeteria at midnight?"
Sonya muttered something, then followed Felix into the spiral passage, with Ingritt close behind, wooden sword taken out of her sword bag. Iris and Adele looked at each other, hugged each other tightly, and nervously followed at the end.
Iris was starting to regret this a little.
Not that she was afraid of being harmed, she even believed she would benefit. But every gift came with a price — in exchange, she sensed that she would be tied to Sonya and Felix, becoming a community of shared interests and stakes.
She suddenly recalled what her merchant father once told her:
"Interests are the most stable relationships, secrets are the strongest constraints, accomplices are the most genuine friends."
After walking for about thirty seconds, they arrived at an underground training room.
Shockingly, instead of civilian gas lamps, the lighting system here was the artifact 'Daystar', illuminating the vast underground hall as bright as daylight. To think that even the training halls at Swordflower College only used one 'Daystar' for night lighting — the extravagance was evident from such details.
Upon arrival, Felix seemed to have shed burdens and masks. He uncorked a bottle of wine from the corner fridge and blew into it directly, his unhappy face saying: "I've fulfilled my promise and satisfied your request. Handle the rest yourself."
Ingritt stood at the stair entrance, holding back the two behind her, and asked: "Sonya, you can explain now, right?"
"No problem," Sonya smiled. "To put it simply —"
"Felix has a treasure and wants to split it fifty-fifty with me. But encountering something so good, how could I forget my dear roommates? So I brought you here to share this treasure!"
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