Chapter 476: A Scholar Specializing in Magic

Chapter 476: Chapter 421: A Scholar Specializing in Magic

The relatively smooth and pleasant conversation came to an end.

Starting today, Lion·Ma Ma would live out his golden years in his room, reminiscing about his past and youth. The City Lord’s hall now belonged to ‘Princess Sophia’ and Leech.

Having learned from past mistakes, Leech would keep a firm grip on Mama City. It wasn’t that he was possessive of a small desert city—apart from the horses, there was nothing here that tempted him. He was doing this mainly to avoid trouble.

He didn’t want a repeat of the trouble that had flared up in his own backyard at Longship Castle, which could entangle many of his well-laid plans.

Leech was unwilling to be held back in the future war against the Half-Beastmen. The forces here had to be consolidated.

“Keep an eye on those Mercenaries,” Leech said to Lisu. “They will be an indispensable force in the coming war.”

He didn’t ask Lisu Muma to emphasize her identity. Everyone had their own conclusion about her being Princess Sophia.

“War?”

She was taken aback.

‘Hasn’t the war already ended?’

As if seeing right through her, Leech shook his head and said, “Today’s events don’t qualify as a war. At best, it was… entertainment.”

If the Half-Beastman army were this easy to deal with, why would he be so tense and vigilant? He would have just led his troops to wipe them out.

The enemy had two hundred Extraordinary individuals, a Hall-level powerhouse, and a fearless army of short Half-Beastmen. The pressure was immense.

After Lisu Muma left, Leech had his trusted subordinates take over various aspects of Mama City. The most important tasks were to verify the number of warhorses and the city’s population.

The people of Mama City could seamlessly transform from merchants into desert bandits, which meant they would make excellent Cavalry and could play a significant role in the war.

When night fell, the disarmed Mercenaries lined up outside for their meals.

They were all discussing amongst themselves.

Their fate could be imprisonment, the gallows, or even release without charge. There were over three thousand of them; surely Baron Porcupine wouldn’t be crazy enough to kill them all.

That’s right, Baron Porcupine. Everyone knew Baron Porcupine was the real master behind the scenes.

Lisu Muma is Princess Sophia? Ha! You actually believed that? How cute. You should go roll dung balls with the beetles.

…

At the dinner table.

Everyone else was busy. Post-battle accounting and reorganization weren’t difficult, but adding over three thousand prisoners to the mix made things troublesome.

And rumor had it that another thousand-plus “prisoners” were on their way.

Tonight, only Baron Leech, who had come to help, received an invitation from Princess Sophia to join her for dinner… or so it was said publicly.

At the table, Lisu Muma kept stealing glances at Leech out of the corner of her eye. She was relieved to find that Leech had no intention of starting anything with her from beginning to end, completely ignoring her beauty.

She had a wild streak in her, like an untamable mustang. A political exchange might force her into a harness, but a man who couldn’t conquer her spirit could never hope to ride her.

For a fleeting moment, this Knight who had descended from the heavens did make her heart race. However, deep down, she was still unwilling to be traded away like an object.

When Lisu Muma saw the elven girl, Bai Lu, she understood that Baron Leech was definitely not a man to be swayed by feminine wiles. If he wasn’t interested in a woman as exquisitely beautiful as Bai Lu—a beauty that even took her own breath away—how could he possibly be interested in her?

Yet, when her own charms proved ineffective, a different feeling subconsciously surfaced within her, though the emotion was fleeting.

She thought to herself, ‘Should I get rid of those maids?’

They ate in peace. Leech occasionally asked about the situation in Mama City, with most of his questions being about scholars.

Talented people and scholars were the primary targets Leech intended to poach.

Lisu nodded. “A scholar did indeed arrive in Mama City this year. She claims to be skilled in Magic, but she never uses it publicly. She lives in the red-walled house outside the castle.”

Lords showed an almost unimaginable tolerance for scholars.

Leech found this easy to understand by putting himself in their shoes. He also had a high tolerance for scholars; after all, they were high-level intellectuals. The value they could create was something tens of thousands of serfs could never produce.

“A scholar specializing in Magic?”

He knew many scholars, but one who claimed to be skilled in Magic… not a single one!

There was Toma the scholar, who dabbled in things like Magic and alchemy. Although his alchemy skills were terrible, his true profession was scholarly research.

Betty was originally an apprentice, but she had gone down the path of researching explosions and never looked back.

Vic, a herbology apprentice Leech had poached from Three-fork River Castle, knew nothing about Magic.

Then there were the Taven Scholars from Iron Stone City, and others.

Everyone has their specialty, but there had never been a scholar who specialized in Magic. To this day, Leech still hadn’t found anyone truly skilled in Magic to communicate with.

This had been a constant regret of his.

The ability to detect lairs and see red, yellow, and green dots came from Leech Clarence himself—it was an ability his predecessor possessed before his death.

His high talent for Magic was likely his true golden finger after transmigrating. He had always believed this to be the case.

“When does she usually rest?” Leech asked. “If possible, I’d like to visit her as soon as I can.”

Lisu didn’t expect Leech to be so interested in the scholar. She said, “I can have someone inquire for you right now. I’ve heard she rests very late and sometimes keeps irregular hours, so you don’t necessarily have to see her during the day.”

“Is that so? Thank you so much.”

Leech wiped his hands. He still wasn’t quite used to eating with his hands.

However, watching an exquisite and beautiful girl eat with her hands, like a little kitten, was quite pleasing to the eye.

Especially when she was intently sucking her fingers.

After dinner, Leech took up residence in Mama City. He didn’t seize the bedroom belonging to Lion·Ma Ma—not because of the old-man smell and the dizzying stench of urine wafting from the chamber pot, but because he had no desire to fight an elderly person for their room. Respecting one’s elders is a virtue.

There were many other rooms for him to choose from. Leech picked one that was sufficiently spacious and south-facing, so the sun could warm the entire room.

While the castle’s male and female servants were tidying his room and changing the bedding, he headed to the Mama City dungeons.

Every lord consciously built a dungeon in their territory, and Mama City was no exception. This greatly facilitated Leech’s plans.

The dungeon had no Soldiers guarding it because Mama City hadn’t taken any prisoners in a very long time. The utterly vicious Ma Ma family’s way of dealing with enemies was to slit their throats. With everyone dead, how could there be any prisoners?

This was probably also the reason why no one came to their aid when Mama City was under siege.

To be honest, if the Wild Boar Mercenary Corps hadn’t suddenly targeted Leech and tried to drive him out of the desert, he wouldn’t have wanted to be Mama City’s savior. Aside from being good at fighting, killing, and raising horses, this group of unscrupulous desert bandits had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.