A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 186 The Secret is

Bearing the weight of a man, Rorschach took a difficult step before immediately remembering that he was also a mage, having just destroyed a tower and a living, intelligent being. He quickly cast [Featherfall] on the other party, making things much easier for Rorschach.

But he was not at ease for the time being.

Just before the entire tower collapsed, and before the falling rocks and rubble covered everything, Rorschach clearly saw the results of his spell. The cut surfaces of the half-elf's hand and body were initially completely cooked by the high temperature, but soon the pressure of the blood and the abdominal cavity caused bodily fluids and tissues to gush out from the cuts.

Even when dealing with three thugs in anger, Luo Xia would try to use the most common garbage disposal method, "landfill," to avoid seeing or worrying about them. Now, forced to witness his "victory," he kept replaying it in his mind.

Fortunately, it was only a momentary lapse in concentration; Mariano's last words made Rorschach realize the urgency of the situation.

He complained about his bad luck, how bad things always seemed to happen to him; yet he was also relieved that he had encountered an attacker, not Bart. These two emotions simultaneously dominated Rorschach's mind.

They found that Batrosia had used [Hand of the Mage] to catch a boy who had fallen from the top floor. After examination, he was found to be unconscious but uninjured.

"Hey, wake up!" Bart's assistant was slapped awake. He was still groggy, but after looking around, he immediately scrambled to his feet in shock from the ruins: "Where's the tower? What happened to that huge mage tower?"

"I'm Rorschach, Bart's good friend. The Mage Tower has been attacked! Take me to Bart!"

The assistant was still in shock when Rorschach shook him twice. Seeing the injured Mariano, he finally realized the seriousness of the situation and began to lead the way.

"Wilz Palace?" Although he had guessed it, it still put Rorschach in a difficult position. It meant crossing half the city, and it would be difficult to manage with an injured person in tow.

"Don't you know a spell like [Teleportation]?" The assistant hesitated before asking, seeing Rorschach still amidst the ruins. However, seeing that Rorschach still exuded a murderous aura from the battle, the assistant quickly replied after being glared at, "Never mind what I said."

Why bring up something you shouldn't talk about? Rorschach was annoyed and was preparing to head to the nearest guild first. As for the hospital, Mariano's injuries were beyond the current medical capabilities, and magic would obviously give him a greater chance of survival.

Just as they were about to leave, two pure white horses pulled the carriage. A window was opened a crack, and the woman inside, seeing the ruins, asked, "Am I too late?"

"No, you've come at the perfect time!"

Knowing that Rorschach had gotten out of the car to go to the town's mage tower, the collapse of the highest building in the city had caught her attention, so she quickly drove back to check on the situation.

Rorschach herself was unharmed, but she gained a severely wounded mage and a somewhat confused young boy (by her standards). The residents around the mage tower were also frightened by the commotion, but Elizabeth cast a spell, and a barrier enveloped the ruins, mentally driving ordinary people away from the area.

Ou Yeni carefully examined Mariano's wound, the blue light emanating from it rising and falling with the slight contractions of his chest. "Even treatment scrolls and medicine can't do any better."

After making this judgment, she had Mariano lean against the side of the seat, and Rorschach got into the car, then remembered something and hurriedly returned to the ruins.

He pried open the bricks and stones. The strong smell of rust assaulted his nostrils. After confirming that the rotting flesh between the stones was lifeless, he forced himself to retrieve the attacker's weapon, suppressing his nausea.

The scimitar was still intact, and he held it in his right hand. Soon it would strike Rorschach, sealing his fate like Mariano's. Fortunately, there was still time before rigor mortis set in, and he easily used [Mage's Hand] to retrieve the enchanted scimitar.

"Let's go to Wirz Palace."

"Lord Bart, you need to do this, please follow my steps." Bart was very annoyed. His etiquette teacher was an old man who was giving an emergency lesson because the wedding needed an opening dance. When Bart made a mistake, the old man's pointed leather shoes would step on his feet without hesitation.

It would be great if Amelia could be the teacher, but unfortunately she has other things to do.

"Master Bart! Something's happened! Master Bart! Your tower is gone!" The young assistant raced from the castle corridor to the ballroom. The servants of Wirtz Palace all recognized the boy. He ran and shouted, adding an apology as he passed by.

"Huh?" Bart was shocked, then overjoyed: Oh no, he didn't have to practice dancing anymore because the old man stepped on his foot! Then he realized what he meant: "What did you say?"

"Lord Rorschach and the mages of the Arcane Tower have arrived at the side hall. Please go quickly!"

Mariano's body was wiped clean by his servants, and he is now lying on a bed in a guest room in the palace. Rorschach and the mage Elizabeth have also been moved here, because the unconscious man is now the one who holds all the clues.

"Rorschach, are you alright?" Bart pushed open the door and rushed in, then saw a female mage dressed in exquisite black with a veil, presumably a representative from the Tower of Mystic Arts. Why was she with Rorschach?

The veil was something Elizabeth insisted on wearing before entering the palace.

Rorschach recounted what had happened to him, while the assistant's description was much more vague. "He was under a charm spell," the mage Elizabeth concluded regarding the assistant.

Before Rorschach could even explain how the mage tower collapsed, Bart immediately exclaimed indignantly, "It seems that the half-elf assassin failed in her mission and instead destroyed my tower to try and bury everything! Was she strapped with a bomb? Perhaps only dwarven-made explosives have that kind of power; maybe that's a clue."

Your idea is very advanced! But in the end, he couldn't hide the truth and mislead his friend at a crucial moment, so Rorschach confessed: "I knocked down the tower. During the last battle with the enemy, the power and range of the attack affected the building."

"what?"

"I can't help it! The tower doesn't even have a proper protective array!"

"What can we do with such a small budget!"

Seeing that the two were losing focus, Elizabeth quickly pointed out the key point: "Rorschach said that the man said you were in danger before he fainted, so we need to get more information as soon as possible."

Mariano's personal belongings and storage bags were cleared out while she was wiping her body. With a wave of her hand, the marks on the storage bags broke, and they could be opened without any further obstruction.

"Mariano González, a citizen of the Empire twelve years ago, a third-tier spellcaster, is actually a resident mage patrol examiner?" Bart was shocked when he saw this while holding the identity document. The examiner almost died in his own garrison just thinking about it made him break out in a cold sweat.

The storage bag also contained documents that were locked by magic. The mage Elizabeth Eugénie held these documents with distorted text and constantly flowing aura, and touched them with her finger to make them readable again.

Is this encryption made of paper? Seeing how relaxed Ou Yeni was, Luo Xia also picked up a paper. The scroll had obvious magical nodes on it, as seen in [Arcane Vision].

"If you break the node, this page of the file will self-destruct." Elizabeth stopped Rorschach from his impulsive attempt to crack the last page herself.

The key point was a handwritten list. Rorschach immediately saw "Mariano González," but he didn't recognize any of the names above him; they were all crossed out.

The last line contained the name of his friend, and upon closer inspection, the ink appeared to have been added recently.

"This was my predecessor in Würzburg, and as far as I know, he died accidentally after falling into the water while drunk!" Bart pointed to "Fan Miller" in the middle of the crossed-out list.

The other documents appear to have been compiled by Mariano himself, along with identity information retrieved using his privileges, recording the mages' birth dates and places of birth, ring ranks, spells they mastered, and their residences.

Whether the mage was dead or alive, Mariano circled their birthplace in the files, and they were all from the southern states or kingdoms of the empire!

Oh Mariano himself even came from south of the Holy Kingdom.

(End of this chapter)