The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 112: The Flyers

Dong! Dong! Dong!

At the sound of six o'clock, Lumián flipped over and sat up, drawing open the curtains.

Soft light flooded the room, bringing life back to the environment that had been dead silent throughout the night.

Lumián rubbed his face and quickly freshened up, taking care of his personal matters.

He changed his clothes, left the Golden Rooster Hotel, and took a roundabout path to Whitecoat Street, entering the safe house he had rented.

Lumián immediately began flipping through Aurore's witchcraft notes, hoping that with the new information, he could uncover any previously overlooked issues.

Aurore's witchcraft notes mainly contained three types of content:

1. General occult knowledge, including the names of all pathways, details on certain Sequences, the basics of ritual magic, the roles of symbolic elements, the pronunciation and meaning of several supernatural languages, and more.

2. Specific applications of occult knowledge and personal abilities, with plenty of reflections, recorded or purchased spells, methods of curse prevention, and so on.

3. Miscellaneous, fragmented, and rather strange knowledge and lore, some of which came from the Hidden Sage's teachings, and some from exchanges between members of the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society.

These three types of content were not categorized in separate notebooks, but rather jotted down in the order Aurore had acquired them, mixed together chronologically.

For Lumián, the second type was the most challenging, with spells like "Illumination," "Weed Removal," "Exorcism," "Soul Summoning," "Lightning," "Wind Generation," and "Force Hand." Each was more difficult to understand than the last, given that he had yet to fully grasp the basic occult knowledge and lacked the extraordinary abilities needed to cast the spells.

In comparison, after becoming a "Mendicant Monk," his comprehension, learning, and mastery of ritual magic had become much easier.

Lumián also noted that his sister had not written down fundamental rules like the Law of Conservation of Extraordinary Characteristics. However, this was understandable, as such laws were few in number and easy to remember, making them difficult to forget and unnecessary to document.

After spending almost the entire morning flipping through the notes, Lumián didn't find anything particularly suspicious, but he did accumulate a pile of questions he needed to consult others about.

He let out a slow breath, folded the few sheets of paper containing his queries, stuffed them into his pocket, and left the safe house.

On his way to Market Avenue, Lumián passed several voting stations. Police officers in uniforms and heavily armed gendarmes were doing their best to maintain order, allowing the long lines of people to cast their ballots one by one into wooden boxes.

Although Lumián had received a new identity from Gardner Martin, transforming him into Charles Dubois, a man who had lived in the market district for nearly two years and thus earned the right to vote, he hadn't bothered to register and didn't want to get involved in the parliamentary elections.

As he walked a bit further, a newsboy ran by, throwing a stack of white papers into the air.

Lumián noticed many pedestrians picking up the papers and reading them attentively. He bent down to pick up one near his feet.

The white paper had a few lines of simple, easy-to-understand Intisian:

"Hugues Artois is a traitor. Years ago, during the war with the Kingdom of Ruen, he abandoned his troops and fled, causing many fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons never to return.