Chapter 43: Unless

The first thing that returned was the sensation of pain.

Luo Lan felt as if every bone in his body was about to shatter, accompanied by the searing burn of a mana circuit overload caused by using that tenth-tier spell.

Then came his other senses. Amidst the stale scent of the air, he caught a faint, familiar fragrance.

He opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a shattered stained-glass window. Moonlight filtered through the jagged glass, falling upon a woman standing by the window with her back to him.

Her long golden hair fell like a waterfall. Her hands were clasped behind her back as she silently watched the deep night outside.

Ophelia? Why was she here?

Memories from before he lost consciousness began to resurface. Luo Lan’s heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly raised a hand to brush his cheek. There was no trace of a mask.

Hearing the rustling behind her, Ophelia slowly turned around.

The moonlight was at her back, casting her face into shadows that made it difficult to see clearly. Only her amber eyes glowed, like two deep pools that reflected no emotion.

The young woman walked toward Luo Lan, her footsteps eliciting creaks from the old wooden floor. She stared at him, yet remained silent.

Disturbed dust drifted quietly in the moonlight.

Luo Lan propped himself up to sit straighter and looked up at Ophelia.

“You’re finally awake?” Ophelia spoke flatly, her gaze sweeping over his dust-covered clothes and the tears in the fabric. “Do you have anything you want to say right now?”

Seeing him stand up in silence, Ophelia’s brow furrowed slightly.

“Why were you in this area tonight? And what happened to those injuries on your body?”

“That… is a bit complicated to explain.” Luo Lan took a light breath of cold air. “Rather, why are you here?”

“Heh,” Ophelia sneered. “I asked you first, didn’t I? Is there any logic in questioning someone else without answering their questions?”

After saying that, she added another line.

“Is this how you treat your savior?”

Hearing Ophelia’s words, Luo Lan felt a momentary pang of guilt and averted his gaze.

“I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I went out for a stroll. I didn’t expect such bad luck—meeting some thugs on the street. That’s pretty much it.”

Ophelia listened quietly, her face expressionless, though her gaze turned a bit colder.

“A stroll? Thugs? As someone who passed the same entrance test for Altras Academy as I did, and even got into the highest-level Radiance Class, you were actually injured this badly by thugs? I think you’d be better off finding those thugs and giving them your spot in the academy.”

Luo Lan merely shrugged and gave her a dry smile.

“What can I do? Valgard is full of hidden masters. Who knows when a powerhouse might jump out from some random corner?”

Ophelia bit her lip hard, the moonlight flowing over her exquisite face.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to get any truth out of this guy for the time being. She took two quick steps forward, standing almost chest-to-chest with Luo Lan.

Ophelia stared into his eyes and asked in a very serious tone:

“Luo Lan, tell me. Does what happened in Valgard tonight have anything to do with you?”

The girl did her best to hide the worry in her heart, for she did not want any trouble to stain Clovie.

Ophelia’s warm breath brushed against Luo Lan. He subconsciously took a half-step back, his back hitting the wall.

This evasive maneuver seemed to make Ophelia’s gaze darken further.

“I don’t know what happened in the royal capital tonight. I’d actually like to ask you why an anti-magic field was suddenly activated in the city district, and why there are so many guards on the streets.”

Ophelia stared at him intensely for a moment, then let out a soft sigh.

“Tonight, a prison break occurred in Valgard. A group of high-profile criminals from the capital prison escaped by unknown means and are currently causing chaos across the city.”

“Huh?”

“Additionally, they launched several attacks targeting the nobility.”

At this, Luo Lan was stunned for a moment.

“…However, the noble district is safe because of the additional family guards stationed there. The targets of the attacks were mainly people who were out carousing late at night.”

Ophelia’s words sent ripples through Luo Lan’s mind.

If it were just a group of high-profile prisoners escaping, it would make sense to mobilize guards or even block off certain streets if they were powerful… but it shouldn’t have been enough to make that eccentric Dean personally come out to keep watch and activate a tenth-tier anti-magic field that covered almost the entire city.

The scale of that was simply too high.

Using some magic-suppression methods to restrict heavy criminals wasn’t incomprehensible, but a tenth-tier anti-magic field was a measure usually reserved for extreme threats or strategic-level dangers. What could possibly be worth such “generous” treatment?

Or rather, was the entire prison break just a cover? Had something even more serious happened tonight?

Recalling the plot of his first life, from the end of the Holy Rite until Clovie’s smooth entry into Altras Academy, there should have been a relatively peaceful period in Valgard to transition into the academy arc.

He didn’t remember any large-scale prison breaks, attacks on nobles, or the Dean himself overseeing the situation.

The night outside grew darker, yet the distant fires and clamor did not seem to fade.

“I should go back.”

Luo Lan stretched his aching shoulders and stepped toward the door. Although his steps were still a bit unsteady, he was much better than before.

Just as he was about to disappear into the shadows, Ophelia’s cold voice drifted from behind him.

“I suddenly remembered something. Since you went out for a stroll, why did you have your face covered with something?”

Luo Lan’s footsteps paused slightly.

“Is that so hard to understand?” The youth looked back at her. “Naturally, I wore a mask to hide my identity. After all, I just became famous during the Holy Rite.”

Ophelia gave a noncommittal snort. It wasn’t until Luo Lan’s silhouette had completely vanished that the calm on her face slowly peeled away, her amber eyes surging with complex thoughts.

Before Luo Lan had woken up, she had secretly checked his mana circuits.

The result was nearly identical to when she first met him in the carriage; his strength was still stuck around the fourth tier. Compared to the geniuses she knew, he could definitely not be called prominent.

However, Ophelia had captured two lingering traces of mana with completely different attributes within Luo Lan’s mana circuits.

One was Wind, and the other was Holy.

Under most circumstances, these two unrelated types of mana should never appear in the same person. Especially Holy mana—Luo Lan was not a member of the clergy, he had never been known to have any connection with the Holy Church, and he had never shown a natural affinity for the Holy element like she had.

Then where did this Holy mana come from?

Despite having no direct evidence, Ophelia’s intuition told her that Luo Lan and the guy who had forcibly kissed her in the alley were the same person.

Even though he had changed his voice, even though their clash hadn’t lasted long, and even though that night had been just as dark, too many coincidences pointed toward one person for Ophelia to deny her suspicion.

But if that was the truth, it brought up a new question—

Why did Luo Lan go to such great lengths to hide his true strength? The power that had completely suppressed her that night was absolutely not something a person with a mere fourth-tier mana circuit could achieve.

Unless…

Ophelia’s heartbeat couldn’t help but quicken as a subtle thought surfaced from the depths of her heart.

Although her logic told her it was indeed absurd, the thought was like a seed, taking root and sprouting in her mind…

If she had never heard of Occultists before, she probably would have been like many others, thinking that achieving such a thing under normal circumstances was nearly impossible.

But taking that as a premise and combining it with the residual mana in his circuits… many things seemed to make sense.

Ophelia clenched her hand as she stared in the direction where Luo Lan had disappeared.

—Luo Lan, just how many secrets are you hiding?

***

On the other side.

After leaving the clock tower, Luo Lan took countless detours to avoid the patrolling guards and the magical reconnaissance constructs gliding through the low sky.

By the time he sneaked back into the mansion’s backyard and climbed through his window, a faint trace of dawn was appearing on the horizon.

His tensed nerves finally relaxed. Fatigue flooded over Luo Lan like a tsunami. He briefly cleaned himself up and collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.

He slept until Elia knocked on the door to wake him for breakfast.

Luo Lan changed into clean casual clothes. He looked at his pale face and the faint dark circles under his eyes in the mirror, splashed his face with cold water, and then headed to the dining room.

Clovie was already sitting at the table, sipping milk. Elia was placing toasted bread and jam on the table. The atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious, seemingly unaffected by anything.

Just as Luo Lan sat down, the dining room door was pushed open violently from the outside. Yuna rushed in like a gust of wind.

“Something huge happened… Liadelin, the Grand Duke of Claudia and the Secretary of State of the Holy Church who came to attend the Holy Rite, was attacked last night!”