Chapter 410: Adrian Meets The Elder

Feeling happy about his hiring choices, he finally walked out of the underground prison area and headed back home.

The moment Adrian walked back into his mansion, he felt a little uneasy. It was almost like someone was looking at him but he couldn’t see anyone.

He looked around the empty hallway. Then he saw Aria running out of her room and sprinting down the stairs. She looked extremely alert, and when she saw Adrian, she immediately ran over.

But contrary to his expectations, she did not hug him.

Usually, whenever she ran towards him, she would always jump into his arms. But this time she didn’t. She just ran over, grabbed his hand tightly, and started pulling him toward the front doors.

Adrian felt a little curious. Seeing a reaction this different from her usual self made him frown.

"Aria, tell me what is going on."

"Papa, there is someone near us," Aria whispered sharply. "And they are very strong. Probably a sixth-circle mage."

There was no playfulness in her voice, and Adrian could tell that she was completely serious.

Hearing this, Adrian frowned but continued to follow her lead.

Just as they exited the mansion, they saw a man in long robes standing in the courtyard.

It didn’t look like the witch or wizard robes Adrian had seen back on Earth from famous movie franchises. This one looked a lot more normal. It was basically like an oversized shirt with multiple buttons, where the back side of the shirt was extremely long while the front side was slightly shorter. It was more like a trench coat but in the form of a robe.

It looked alright, but Adrian really didn’t like the way it looked. It was pretty weird atleast to Adrian. It was hard to imagine that a supposedly powerful sixth circle mage was wearing something that looked as crappy as this.

He could just tell that this man was the one Aria was talking about. Adrian had never seen him before in his entire life. This person was definitely not a character in the original novel he had read.

The mage in front smiled warmly at both of them.

"Well, it is surprising that both of you could sense me."

Aria immediately looked up at Adrian, clearly shocked that the Adrian had also sensed the mage. Adrian just kept his eyes completely locked onto the mage.

"Why don’t we head inside and talk?" the mage asked smoothly. "I am not here to fight anyone. I am just here to request your help for a certain matter. We will provide you rewards even if you fail, but if you do succeed in the mission that we give you, you will receive incredible rewards."

Adrian just looked at him.

He thought about it for a while.

"Okay, fine. Let’s go in."

They turned around and Aria followed right behind them. As they walked up the main stairs, she looked up at Adrian and tugged his sleeve.

"Papa, can I come with you?"

Adrian looked down at her. He didn’t really see an issue with that initially. She was a child, yes, but she was also a genius. As long as the talks didn’t go terribly, he didn’t mind having her there.

But then he remembered the power gap. If this guy really was a sixth-circle mage and he suddenly decided to ambush them, Adrian did not want her to get caught in the crossfire and get hurt.

He took a deep breath and patted her head.

"Just stay outside this time. I will tell you everything later."

Aria just frowned. She glared at the back of the mage for a second, and then ran off towards her own room without saying another word.

Adrian let out a wry smile before walking into his study and closing the door.

Adrian sat down on the large chair behind his desk. He did not want to leave the guy standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, so he used Dungeon Link to pull a simple wooden chair from his dungeon and dropped it onto the floor right across from him.

The mage looked at the chair and smiled.

"I do not sense any movement in mana. I guess it is something related to a blessing since you did not actually cast anything. A really good ability, I must say."

He sat down and made himself comfortable.

"I am one of the elders of the Magic Tower," the man said. "I am pretty sure that you have never heard of it, but the Magic Tower has been in connection with the Crestwall Empire, the Ironhold Kingdom, and every other kingdom on this continent for a very long time."

The Elder leaned back slightly.

"Since you are the lord of this new territory, we know exactly how much power you hold. Even though you have not declared yourself an emperor yet, you could technically be considered the one with the second highest amount of land under your name. That is assuming you take over the Ironhold Kingdom, of course." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

He looked around the study casually.

"When it comes to trade and economy, I believe that with your history and your access to the ports connected to the Avarice Kingdom, you should be able to do a lot. Maybe even surpass the Crestwall Empire when it comes to yearly profits."

Adrian just looked at him without saying anything for a few seconds.

"Tell me what you want," Adrian said flatly. "Tell me about this so-called mission, and tell me what rewards you can give me."

The Elder chuckled.

"Straight to business aren’t you? I like people like you. A lot of nobles like wasting time with useless formalities and stuff, so this is good."

The mage crossed his legs.

"We want around six to ten knights. We do not care for mages for this task, but we need knights. Specifically the strongest ones that you have."

Adrian raised an eyebrow before nodding, silently prompting him to continue.