For most people, the Tribunal had always been a mysterious presence.

Even many powerful wizards only understood its superficial operational rules, while the underlying logic remained hidden.

The Old Witch admitted frankly that she, too, didn’t know the full story.

“While I don’t know why they decided to act, I do know that this group will sometimes help the weak unconditionally, and at other times, they might suddenly kill a powerful ally. At most, they restrain themselves a little when dealing with Iskaper and Sky City. Normally, they won’t act openly.”

Herman pressed his legs together and shrank his neck. “The more I hear, the scarier it sounds. Are we really going to treat a wizard wanted by the Tribunal?”

As soon as he said it, Herman regretted it.

Wasn’t that a direct challenge to Saul’s decision?

But before he could apologize, he heard Saul communicating with several consciousness bodies through the diary.

“My decision to treat Justin is, at its core, driven by a desire to understand the Tribunal more deeply.”

The consciousness bodies on the surface appeared unmoved, as though they had fallen silent due to Herman’s question.

Saul’s voice came from within the diary: “You all heard it too. The Tribunal’s execution orders and restriction orders are issued suddenly, and outsiders never know the reasons behind them. That alone is terrifying. If you don’t know the reasons, you can’t even avoid them intentionally. I don’t want to wake up one day and find I’ve suddenly been marked for elimination.”

Saul stood up and walked to the window. Through the thin mist, he could still see the figure standing by Lake Rhine.

“Besides, we’re not without ties to the Tribunal. There were traces of their involvement in the rebellion at Wizard Gorsa’s Tower. Mentor Gudo was a fugitive from Nephret at the time, and he had one of their local magic tools—the Soul-Shattering Goblet.”

He even said back then that the Tribunal forbids the resurrection of wizards below Third Rank. And what Mentor had been researching for years was exactly the kind of experiment the Tribunal prohibits. Anze led the rebellion, and several factions joined forces. It’s not impossible that the Tribunal was pulling strings behind the scenes.

“I don’t want to be constantly targeted, openly or covertly, every time I perform an experiment, and not even know the reason why.”

“I’ve decided to try treating Justin.” This time, Saul said it out loud.

And this time, no one raised any objections.

The Old Witch looked to her left, then to her right, starting to suspect that the people in front of her had secretly agreed on something without including her.

But she hadn’t sensed any magic fluctuations just now.

Her emotions were conflicted.

After making the decision, Saul felt much lighter inside.

He rested both hands on the window, still gazing outside. But now, his gaze had shifted from Justin’s silhouette to the distant horizon.

In his heart, he silently pondered: I wonder if Mentor knew that the rebellion at the Wizard Tower might’ve had the Tribunal’s hand behind it?

…

“Gorsa! Are you insane?!”

A Second Rank wizard had half his head smashed into the ground. His limbs were pinned by strange black shadows from Gorsa’s body, leaving him completely immobile.

He was still trying to threaten Gorsa, struggling to save himself. “Even if you’re from the Glare Family, laying a hand on someone from the Tribunal—you must have a death wish!”

Gorsa spoke calmly, without rush: “If you don’t say anything, and I don’t say anything, who will ever know?”

Just as he finished, the pinned Second Rank wizard’s eyes widened abruptly. A sound like a snapped string echoed inside his skull.

The unlucky wizard convulsed violently, the light in his eyes vanished instantly, and his whole body went limp.

Gorsa had killed a Tribunal Arbiter without hesitation!

“Mm. Now I can be sure—you won’t be talking.”

Gorsa stood up, and several tiny black dots crawled out from his shadow, sliding beneath the dead wizard’s skin.

Before long, the wizard’s skin suddenly swelled up like an inflated balloon. What followed was a horrifying tearing sound.

Then Gorsa leaned down and, with a light tug, peeled the Second Rank wizard’s entire skin off in one piece.

He muttered an incantation, cleansing the dust from the surface, and casually draped the skin over himself.

He didn’t morph into the dead wizard’s appearance—that would be too easy to see through.

Gorsa merely borrowed the man’s unique aura. With this disguise as a Tribunal Arbiter, he could now move freely through most of Nephret.

Then, he wrapped his face in white bandages—an outfit quite common on the continent of Nephret.

Most wizards in Nephret specialized in dark elements. Gorsa borrowed a bit of that aura and disguised himself as a Second Rank dark-element wizard. As he ventured deeper into the Evernight Empire, he also practiced his shadow manipulation skills.

Fully changed, Gorsa now walked openly and confidently through a small border town on the edge of the Evernight Empire.

The people in the city all appeared excited and stirred. Gorsa drew close to a group and listened in as they discussed an upcoming grand coronation to be held by the Evernight Empire.

“The Evernight Empire actually found a new royal bloodline?” Gorsa clapped his hands, his exposed eyes narrowing. “That saves me the trouble—I’ll go straight to that new emperor.”

“Red Sea Tree source… Bloodline of the Dark Night… Has the Tribunal intervened? Tch, as annoying as flies.”

While Gorsa cheerfully headed toward the Evernight capital, Saul was, for the first time, inviting a patient to reside in his Wizard Tower.

And true to his word, Justin immediately took out three dark-element spells for Saul to choose from.

Saul took the scrolls and unrolled them, reading brief introductions to the three Third Rank spells.

Feign Death, Healing Touch, and a summoning spell—Undead Lieutenant.

Saul immediately eliminated the Undead Lieutenant option.

He currently had four soul entities around him, each with their own will and autonomy—far beyond the capabilities of such sluggish undead creatures.

As for Feign Death and Healing Touch…

Saul didn’t hesitate long before choosing Healing Touch.

For one, he was sorely lacking in healing spells. The only healing spell he had was a First Rank light-injury treatment.

Feign Death, on the other hand, was too passive.

Though it had its merits—it could toughen one’s resilience in harsh environments and temporarily raise resistance against various elemental damages.

In the end, Saul chose Healing Touch.

This Third Rank spell, when used to heal others, could transfer the target’s vitality to the caster. However, there would be a certain loss of vitality during the transfer.

The exact rate of loss depended on the caster’s skill—at worst a ten-to-one loss, and at best nearly one-to-one.

Saul accepted Healing Touch. Though he was eager to start studying it, he curbed his curiosity and began explaining the precautions to Justin.

“Given how complex your condition is, we need to examine your body before starting formal treatment, so we can determine your current state and formulate a treatment plan.”

Justin had already agreed to fully comply with Saul’s instructions during the treatment, so he raised no objections.

“For the time being, you’ll stay on the third floor. Without permission, you may not enter any other areas. Otherwise, according to the contract we signed, I can terminate your treatment at any time.”

“No problem,” Justin agreed readily.

After listing all the precautions, Saul had Agu perform a basic examination on Justin, while he went down to the Wizard Tower’s first basement to consult with Camus about the treatment plan.

At that moment, the Old Witch—who was originally supposed to be watching over Justin—wandered in out of boredom.

“You brat, when are you going to clear out all the pollution from my body?” The Old Witch wore an expression of someone who’d been duped, glaring at Saul.

“If you can handle someone as complicated as Justin, then there’s no way you can’t clear out my pollution too!”

The more she spoke, the angrier she got. Her chest heaved with emotion. “And besides, that pollution was your doing!”

The Old Witch had suddenly grown smarter.

What was going on?

She clearly hadn’t modified her brain during her wizard-body reconstruction.

Saul held back a laugh and replied earnestly, “Back then, to protect myself, I mixed the pollution source into the base materials for your wizard-body reconstruction. Once your reconstruction was complete, the pollution source took deep root within you.

“If we were to try and clear it out completely now, it might damage the future potential of your perfect body.”

“The best option is to wait until your perfect body stabilizes, when there’s no need for further transformation—then I’ll help you eliminate all pollution.”

Having said that, Saul thoughtfully handed the decision back to the Old Witch. “So… what do you think? Sounds good?”

The Old Witch couldn’t quite put her finger on what was wrong, but she felt that everything was wrong. She didn’t respond to Saul, just muttered curses under her breath.

At that moment, Camus suddenly turned her head and said his first words to the Old Witch.

“Your problem isn’t just pollution.”

That one simple sentence made the Old Witch’s face go pale.

She spun around and stormed off, muttering to herself, “Who here doesn’t have some kind of problem?”

(End of Chapter)

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