Following the plan they had agreed upon.
Claudia led the way, with Ronald following behind her.
Navigating through the pitch-black Mofan Street, weaving through streets and alleys without leaving the slums, the two arrived at a towering wall after about a quarter of an hour.
Meanwhile, they still received menacing glances.
But probably due to the local customs, since those thugs had attacked Ronald and Claudia earlier, others, despite their tempted looks, did not directly act.
However, upon seeing the direction the two were heading...
Those who knew a wall blocked their way somewhat understandingly wore mocking expressions.
Standing before this high wall.
Ronald looked at Claudia beside him, and the girl also looked at him.
Thus, they silently confronted each other for a few seconds.
Their silent battle of gazes finally concluded with Ronald’s defeat.
He honestly bent down, felt Claudia’s body press against his, and once again replicated the performance of wall-climbing he did at Wildering University.
It was still a relaxed process.
Taking Claudia over the wall, in this place that was entirely separated from Mofan Street, the scene suddenly opened up before them.
It was a fairly spacious square, with cold winter night wind permeating the air.
Not far ahead of Ronald and Claudia, there was a series of wooden high platforms arranged in the center of the square, with two straight, parallel beams standing on it, and the shiny blades hung on the crossbeam at the top of the wood.
—A standard guillotine.
Looking at the object before him, Ronald put down Claudia and instinctively touched his neck.
Perhaps for the ease of executions, these guillotines had devices at the top that allowed the exchange of hanging ropes, and they could even be used as gallows with little modification.
There was such a large-scale execution place?
Observing the execution site he was at, Ronald quietly asked Claudia, who had just descended behind him:
"Isa, is this... an execution site?"
"Yes," hearing Ronald’s inquiry, the girl briskly nodded and acknowledged, then gestured around as she introduced, "This is a site specifically for handling large batches of death row inmates."
"Basically, only during Penitence month, which is what we now call February, this place is responsible for processing a large number of last year’s death row inmates. Outside of this time, it is mostly completely sealed off as an ominous place."
"Here, even if we do something rather outrageous, no one will come to disturb us."
Ronald nodded thoughtfully:
"So that’s the case..."
Such places of mass death were usually not good places in most civilizations.
That nobody came around was only natural.
Moreover, according to Claudia, it was only open in February for a limited time, so being in January now, indeed they didn’t have to worry about anyone coming to disturb them.
In various senses, Claudia really did pick quite a nice place.
While Ronald was still surveying this open site, Claudia walked up to him and softly recited the incantation she was accustomed to using:
"Volume three, page two hundred and eighty-four, second entry."
"Ronald, you stay put for a moment, let me take a good look."
Waving her right hand through the air, Claudia immediately channeled her Magic Power onto Ronald, beginning to study the Reconnaissance Magic. Comments like "This curse power is quite interesting", "Pretty powerful, huh", and "Heh" spontaneously emerged.
After continuing for three or four minutes, Claudia, smiling, lifted her hands from Ronald’s body after various methods such as spell collision, Magic Power cleansing, and curse overwriting,
"Eliminating this tracking mark is no problem at all."
"I could even pull it off separately and play a little trick on it."
"But Ronald, the person you’ve angered is no simple matter."
"Even if it were a Tracking Spell left by an elite-level investigator, I’m confident I could have it removed quickly, but this one..."
At this point, Claudia revealed a somewhat nostalgic smile,
"The person you’ve crossed, they wouldn’t happen to be someone who possesses the original texts?"
Faced with Claudia’s slightly teasing inquiry, Ronald nodded helplessly,
"I’m not quite certain if they’ve used the original texts."
"However, considering my previous experience, the probability isn’t small."
Instead of complaining or grumbling at such a response, Claudia spread her hands cheerfully,
"Haha, that’s not bad at all."
"To fight against a real enemy who has the original texts is quite a rare social experience."
As soon as she finished speaking, Claudia’s movements became deliberate.
Just as she said, the girl manipulated Magic Power with exquisite finesse, peeling away a portion of curse power from Ronald.
An almost transparent white orb solidified into a small dot, firmly clenched in Claudia’s hand.
This was the Magic Power of the Reconnaissance Magic placed on Ronald.
Meanwhile, as Claudia was seriously engaged in her work,
A wry smile appeared on Ronald’s face.
He couldn’t help but recall the scene on the train facing Malcolm.
With only himself, that man had wiped out an elite force of the church at the cost of an eye. A controller of the original texts to such a degree was definitely not as easy to deal with as Claudia made it sound.
Thinking of Malcolm, an idea popped up in Ronald’s mind.
Claudia, while attempting to remove the Reconnaissance Magic, had displayed a vastly impressive reserve of knowledge.
Could he ask this companion for a little favor?
With that thought, Ronald straightforwardly took out the Array core he had retrieved that afternoon from the Elva family’s home, and then spoke out,
"Claudia, take a look at this thing and see if it’s possible to craft some kind of Spell equipment. If so, it might make things a lot easier for me in the coming fights."
Seeing Ronald’s action, Claudia immediately took an interest.
With one hand manipulating Magic Power, holding the orb of condensed Reconnaissance Magic, she also took the peculiar stone from Ronald’s hand.
After examining the item in her hand for a few seconds and then infusing her Magic Power into it, Claudia’s face broke into a very confident smile.
Her gaze swept over Ronald with interest.
Then, with quite a generous tone, she declared,