My older sister is a villainous rich girl

That would only put him in a difficult position.

"Perhaps pretending that all of this has nothing to do with me is indeed what I should do, but it is something I am unwilling to do." There are many things that Ge Li cannot change, but she also has a stubbornness that is hard for others to shake. Once she has made up her mind, nothing can change it.

Tasia looked at her quietly, as if she had thought of many things, or as if she hadn't thought of anything at all at that moment.

Before Geli could feel displeased, Tasia withdrew her gaze.

“If I weren’t the one you were talking to, you would probably be used by the Vatican as leverage to blackmail Wayne by coming to their door now.”

“That’s why I came here specifically to see you. I know you already knew our secret. Besides, even if you knew everything all along, you still didn’t choose to turn against him, did you?” Goethe stared into her eyes without flinching. “May I know your reason, Your Holiness?”

For some reason, Tasia felt a little like laughing, but after this period of training, her composure had improved a lot, and she was able to maintain a cold expression from beginning to end.

"Miss Ge Li, in what capacity are you speaking to me?"

Before she could answer, Tasia removed the barrier she had created with light magic.

“My old friend, Miss Golly Edgeworth, will be staying at the Holy See for a while as a novice monk. She still has many questions about her life and needs guidance.” As she finished speaking, a group of members of the Holy See’s Inquisition, clad in large black cloaks, immediately appeared in the temple.

"Tasia, you!"

It was as if Ge Li was seeing Tasia for the first time.

"If I were you, I would be more humble and apprehensive about my happy and peaceful life, and try not to do anything beyond my control."

His Holiness the Pope's decision left no room for retreat, leaving only a cold, indifferent figure behind him.

……

"She went on a pilgrimage to the Vatican and decided to stay and study for a while... What does this mean?" Wayne read the sentence in the letter over and over again, finding it quite perplexing, but still couldn't make heads or tails of it.

At this moment, it was clear that no one could answer his question.

However, there was no coded message in Ge Li's personal letter indicating that he was in danger, so even though Wayne didn't understand, he could only put the matter aside for the time being.

Putting aside the fact that very few people know the truth about her relationship with him, given his secret cooperation with Elfman and his relationship with Tasia, the Vatican should not dare to threaten him with Gothia.

On the other hand, in Stuart, Wayne's factory has already started production at top speed and the first batch of magic wands can be delivered today.

The two hundred magic wands, each about the length of a forearm, were made of ironwood and engraved with intricate magical runes, making them quite extraordinary at first glance. Wayne ordered them to be packed at the bottom of twenty boxes of ordinary wooden toys, with the middle filled with straw.

To avoid suspicion from the Crown Prince's faction, Wayne's armory has always claimed to be just an ordinary wooden toy factory, occasionally taking on some custom furniture jobs, which is the same business he did back in Lornes.

The only unusual thing is that the factory has extremely strict security management and refuses all outsiders entry.

"Young master, the goods are ready."

"Okay, let's go."

One after another, horse-drawn carriages loaded with goods slowly drove out of the factory and headed out of the city.

The guards at the northeast gate were people the Third Prince had arranged long ago. They only glanced at the goods on the top shelf before hastily letting them out of the royal city.

Because of the thriving commerce of the Kingdom of Stuart, merchants from all over the world would bring their caravans to the capital to trade goods. Although Wayne's six carriages and his escort of up to thirty people occasionally attracted attention on the road, it was not unusual.

They planned to use the guise of delivering goods to travel to another earldom near the capital, where the third prince had secretly raised a private army under the earl's name, of which two hundred were all magicians.

Even in Lornes, this is an absolute grand gesture. The Stuart princes are all so ambitious; no wonder they have the confidence to vie for the throne.

Wayne's fingers tapped unconsciously on the carriage window, pondering that Prince William's deployment of two hundred mages near the capital couldn't have been merely for show. Once these two hundred mages were fully equipped with their magic wands, their strength would increase considerably, making it likely that storming the palace wouldn't be too difficult.

Compared to the cold and aloof eldest prince, would the third prince William, who has been favored by his parents since childhood for his intelligence, be unable to resist directly forcing the abdication of the throne?

As Wayne was pondering his next move, the caravan entered a dense forest. It was as if a dark cloud had suddenly descended, dimming the sunlight and whipping up a fierce wind outside the carriage.

The horses stopped, swaying their heads and neighing anxiously and warily.

"Alert! Attack!" The guard captain reacted quickly.

The men Wayne brought this time were the core members of the Millistan Restoration forces. They had followed him from Lornes to Stuart and then revived, and were well-trained and not panicked in the face of the enemy.

Four mages quickly deployed shields from four directions, surrounding the carriage in the center.

The next second, a deluge of crossbow bolts rained down.

Seeing that the first wave of ranged attacks had no effect, the assassins who had been hiding in the dense forest by the roadside stopped concealing themselves and rushed out with their knives and spears, seemingly unfazed by the fact that there were mages protecting the caravan.

Wayne stepped down from the head carriage, his face looking rather grim.

These are definitely not ordinary bandits!

Putting aside the standard, mass-produced long-range crossbows, most mountain bandits would flee at the sight of a mage, yet these people launched an attack without fear, even with several mages present in the caravan.

His gaze locked onto one of the figures who appeared to be the leader, dressed in a grey-blue Stuart-style robe and wearing a black felt hat commonly seen on the heads of the royal city's inhabitants. He quickly noticed the magical fluctuations emanating from the other person.

"There's a mage on the other side too."

Chapter 770 The Earl's Guest

This was the first delivery of the magic wand, and Wayne took it very seriously, bringing half of his magicians with him. However, only twelve magicians were present, along with a dozen or so ordinary, well-trained knights.

It wasn't that he didn't value magical talent, but rather that the investment in training them was simply too great. A typical low-ranking noble might rarely even have a hired magical advisor. If it weren't for the foundation of the Duchy of Milistan, noble and powerful mages would never be willing to leave their homes and risk their lives for him.

Their caravan of thirty men was already quite large, and their superior weapons and armor were far beyond what ordinary caravans could match. But even with such strength, the opposing side clearly believed they still had a chance of winning.

Who are you?

The other party did not answer, but instead shot a huge fireball at Vayne. The rising fireball was as scorching as the sun, and the high temperature seemed to burn everything to ashes.

Wayne was almost laughing in anger. Despite having been careful to conceal his identity for the past few months, only wanting to work secretly, it seemed someone was still watching him. He just didn't know whether it was the eldest prince's men who received the news and wanted to rob the goods, or whether someone else had too big an appetite and wanted to double-cross him.

"Since that's the case, don't blame me for being ruthless."

He casually pulled out one of his magic wands, which he was carrying as a sample. The surrounding magical energy fluctuations visibly became more active and unstable, and even the air seemed to distort.

The blazing sun, about to set, suddenly froze in mid-air, as if an invisible giant had grasped the flames in its hand.

The mages who were maintaining the shield immediately switched from defense to offense.

“People often think that mastering magic is simply about studying the arrangement of elements, and that you can define a technique by randomly kneading them into various shapes and giving it different magical names.” Wayne pointed his magic wand at the gray-blue robed mage, and the fireball floating in the air instantly melted like lava. With the help of several wind mages behind him, it turned into a rain of fire that swept towards the attackers.

The fiery rain fell on the fully armed bandits, instantly igniting flames that turned their flesh and blood into firewood. Even their finest armor could not maintain their human form, and their chilling screams were so brief as to seem like an illusion.

"What...what kind of magic is this?" Some of the attackers who had narrowly escaped death were so panicked that they could no longer maintain their momentum, and there was even a bit of an awkward silence on the other side.

The magician in the grey-blue robe narrowed his eyes and quietly retreated.

"Kill them all, teach the people behind this a lesson, and leave the cleanup to our clients," Wayne announced the assassins' fate.

The assassin leader, who had originally intended to conceal his intentions, no longer had time to feign anything and turned to flee.

Damn it! How could the other side have such a powerful expert?! We clearly mobilized twice the manpower.

He no longer cared about the consequences of the failed assassination plot; his top priority was to survive!

But the next second he felt as if the world had turned upside down.

"Is this... gravity...?"

A magician who could have had a bright future closed his eyes forever as a roadside robber.

……

Count Toupos was a close advisor trusted by the Stuart royal family. Although his family's fiefdom was not large, it was very close to the royal city, as his family had served the king for generations.

Because his ancestors had been trusted by His Majesty the King for generations, Earl Toupos wanted to continue this fine tradition, so he set his sights on the third prince, William Stuart, who had shown intelligence and potential from a young age and was also quite favored by his parents.

With his support, the Third Prince's camp grew stronger day by day, and they relied on him more and more. But he did not feel complacent because of this; on the contrary, he became increasingly uneasy.

This unease was finally confirmed after news of the attack on the Laird Chamber of Commerce was received.

"What! Someone is actually so audacious!"

He couldn't tell whether he was angrier or more fearful.

This brazen attack by dozens of people is undoubtedly a sign of escalating conflict. The struggle that had been hidden beneath the surface can no longer be suppressed and will soon descend into a bloody confrontation.

Although he had gathered a group of mages, these mages could not protect him forever. Once they found his weakness, even with his strength, it would be difficult for him to deal with the dangerous situation.

“You don’t need to panic. I’ve dealt with them all without any losses. However, a band of this size cannot be organized by ordinary people. The real target of their raid on my caravan must be you,” Wayne said meaningfully. “You’d better be careful in the days to come.”

Tupos nodded with a stern face. "The goods have been delivered. If you don't mind, you can rest in the castle for a few more days. I will ask Prince William to come and discuss this with us."

He didn't know the young man's background, but Prince William trusted him greatly. In addition, the young man was able to obtain a magic wand that was theoretically only available to the Lorne military. Moreover, he easily killed the assassins who were robbing the goods. He had some suspicions in his mind.

Since the other party was unwilling to reveal their identity, he didn't mind pretending to be confused.

"Thank you for your kind offer, but I have many things to attend to at home, so I won't bother you any longer. Also, I would like to take a stroll through the towns under your count's jurisdiction before embarking on my return journey, as my merchant guild also needs to seek some business collaborations."

Tupos thought for a moment and said, "No problem, I can have my butler accompany you."

He tugged on the cord next to the chair, which triggered a soft ringing of a bell in the next room. A middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties or forties knocked on the door and entered, standing at attention.

"The steward will show that you are an important guest of mine. Although it is not 100% effective, most of the merchants here will give you convenience and preferential treatment because of me, their lord."

"That would be perfect."

Wayne promptly rose to take his leave, leaving the remaining time to the still busy Earl.

As the butler walked out of the reception room, Wayne looked around curiously, secretly comparing this place with several castles he had seen before.

The butler, however, assumed that he was amazed and envious of the castle's exquisite beauty, and said with no small amount of pride, "Mr. Laird, this castle embodies the hard work of several generations of my family. Every detail of the setting has been carefully considered, and it is truly a masterpiece even in the entire Kingdom of Stuart."

"Not bad, not bad." It is indeed much better than the shabby Sheri Castle, but it is still not as good as the Radiant Palace of Milstein, let alone the Royal Palace of Lornes, which spares no expense in pursuing extravagant art.

The butler was somewhat displeased with his nonchalant tone, but he didn't show it impolitely. He just thought it was the stubbornness of some young people who were unwilling to admit their lack of knowledge and losing face. Considering that he was an important guest... He had recently gotten used to dealing with those difficult magicians with all sorts of strange demands, so dealing with this one wouldn't be any different.

He understood perfectly what the Earl's intention was in arranging for him to accompany him.

While conveying the importance to this guest, be careful not to let them stumble into any forbidden areas or discover any secrets they shouldn't know.