"You said they wanted to steal your cutting magic."
"It was the vice president’s son from the guild; I’ve heard the vice president returned to the Mage Tower recently."
Things cannot always progress smoothly, and after the turmoil in the imperial city subsided, upon hearing the news of Rowena, the vice president furiously listed her crimes, broke into the royal court, and accused her of her sins before the new cabinet, demanding that she be burned publicly at the Imperial City Square.
A significant number of people within the guild supported this notion.
After the new cabinet rejected the proposal, the vice president angrily left the imperial city, taking his followers back to the Mage Tower, and on the night of his departure, he stormed into Rowena’s temporary residence, threatening her not to rejoice too early, vowing that sooner or later he would personally send her to the execution platform.
"I understand; it’s full of your enemies here, are you scared?"
"You’re kidding. I’m not afraid of anything, and if he dares to confront me, I’ll slice him with a spell!... I’m just giving you a heads-up, preparing you mentally. Walking with me, they’re certainly not going to treat you kindly either!"
Rowena was agitated like a startled small animal, on the verge of hissing.
As a practical fighter, she was never intimidated by those bookworms always holed up in the Ivory Tower; her cutting magic was meant for killing.
Ethan suddenly asked, "What else happened that night?"
The unexpected question plunged Rowena into silence; her eyes darkened, and she lowered her head.
There were only Ethan and Rowena here; Lindong should have already sneaked into the library within the Mage Tower.
All these years, she had kept these secrets hidden in her heart, and when the Astrology Guild issued a warrant and the Kingdom Army surrounded her, she simply couldn’t be bothered to defend herself.
This was never a world of reason.
"Villagers said Dad was a member of the Guard Team, quite beloved in the area."
This faintly confirmed Ethan’s premonition.
Rowena’s parents were killed in a fight against invading bandits, such events occurred daily at the empire’s border; Ximu Town had also endured multiple defensive counter-attacks.
Rowena’s tone was somber, as if unwilling to recount too detailed a process, "Before killing the leader of the bandits, he begged me for mercy, confessed the people who hired them, it was a branch manager from the Imperial Reserve, my father affected their business, so he was killed, I should have been killed as well, but they suddenly changed their mind."
She paused before saying, "Maybe they thought leaving me clueless forever with only striving to sell myself to the Astrology Guild would be more amusing."
The only surprise was her talent in magic exceeding everyone’s expectations.
She still remembered the astonished look on her mentor’s face when she announced she had created the cutting magic.
"At that time, I really respected my mentor, thinking that my brilliance would be recognized, granting me the opportunity for the Tier Four exams."
Rowena considered it the most humiliating Chapter of her life. For more chapters visit novęlfire.net
She prided herself on being a shrewd negotiator with anyone; every time she remembered being treated like a mule, feeling grateful, and believing she wasn’t working hard enough, she felt the urge to sever ties with that naive past self.
If it wasn’t for the bandit leader’s tearful pleading, revealing all his knowledge in one breath, Rowena felt that her overly naive self might have handed over the cutting magic to the guild, buying into the lie of, "We’ll let your junior advance this time, the teacher will surely recommend you to the guild next year."
She thought that might have been the most reasonable moment in the bandit leader’s life.
When his blood was about to run dry, about to die, he finally decided to be reasonable.
Rowena squeezed out a faint smile and said, "Actually, the mentor was right to worry. The day I went to see him, I had prepared many scrolls of cutting magic; their plan was probably to make me a lifelong dutiful Tier Three Mage."
If she were just an ordinary Tier Three Mage, even if one day she uncovered the truth, and tried to resist the Astrology Guild, she’d only be kicked to death like a stray dog on the roadside.
Rowena remembered the mentor’s attitude became quickly agitated; once faced with her rejection, he immediately turned hostile.
The mentor and those in the guild had long been prepared for the second scenario.
"Rowena betrayed the guild, and even attempted to murder the mentor; they had no choice but to execute this traitor – had I died that day, you might have learned my name in such a manner."
Rowena shrugged; later she came to accept the rules, "I’ve told you these things only, don’t inform Lindong and them, I dislike people viewing me with a pitying gaze."
Expressing these sentiments, she felt considerably relieved.
Unawares, the two had ascended to the topmost floor of the Mage Tower, standing before the doorway named the Stargazing Room.
Greyish light shimmered around the door, with magical power flowing inside.
This was the closest place to Kadela, the God of Trickery; the Great Mage masters believed they might hear echoes left by the Divine Spirit when meditating here.
Only every appointed scholar possesses the right of meditation in the Stargazing Room.
Ethan knocked on the door; there was no response from within.
"Maybe the scholar is still meditating now."
Rowena suggested, and she directly pushed open the door of the Stargazing Room.