Keli’s question made Doze fall silent again.

After a moment, he replied in a low, powerless voice, “Lady Keli, going to sea… is too dangerous for me.”

Seeing that Keli didn’t speak, he mustered courage to defend himself.

“Actually, it wasn’t just me. Almost all the third-level apprentices who came with Mentor Kaz chose to stay. When Mentor Kaz finally left, he only had one third-level apprentice and a few second-level apprentices with him.”

Keli sighed. This was each person’s own choice—she couldn’t interfere.

At this time, perhaps because the wagon had stopped for a while, the carriage curtains were lifted slightly, with several pairs of eyes secretly watching from behind.

Seeing this, Keli changed the topic. “What are you doing now? Working for Bayton Academy? Or have you joined some wizard organization?”

“I’m on my own now. Here, without joining an organization, I work directly for Caugust City. Those people behind are refugees I brought back from the Kema and Kenas border.”

Keli raised her eyebrows. “Abducting people from the Kema Duchy?”

Population was a major matter for any country. A second-level apprentice like Doze shouldn’t dare privately smuggle people.

“No, Lady Keli.” Doze naturally knew Keli came from a noble family in the Kema Duchy and quickly explained. “Kema and Kenas have had small-scale wars for years, so the number of refugees and slaves keeps growing. These are people I bought from there, already approved by local lords.”

Doze even showed Keli the permit documents he kept hidden.

Keli knew Grand Duke Kira didn’t want Kema’s population to continue decreasing, but she was powerless to stop border lords from trading in people.

But Keli didn’t understand, “What does Caugust City want so many refugees for?”

The nearby towns had already been emptied by Caugust. How were they still buying people?

“This… I don’t know either. I’m just responsible for delivering people to the outer city.” Doze continued with his head down.

“Forget it, I won’t think about it. The marquis position went to my brother anyway.” Keli pouted, not wanting to inquire further.

“Then I won’t delay your time. Go ahead with your work.”

After speaking, Keli flew back to the large rock where she had been meditating and sat with closed eyes.

Doze quickly bowed again.

Only then did he return to his wagon and continue his journey.

Keli’s location wasn’t far from Caugust’s outer city. After Doze continued his journey, he soon successfully passed through the outer city gates and entered the outer city.

After entering the outer city, he followed his usual route to an office, found a third-level apprentice, handed over the people in his wagon, and received a small bag of magic crystals.

But just before leaving, Doze suddenly remembered meeting Keli today.

That red-haired, freckled girl had grown into a graceful young woman. If not for the familiar mental power fluctuations, Doze wouldn’t have dared recognize her.

Although Keli’s mental power was familiar, its intensity almost made him unable to breathe.

Thinking that she had at least advanced to true wizard while he was still a second-level apprentice, Doze’s heart that had been cowering for years was suddenly awakened.

Gritting his teeth, he stopped the third-level apprentice who was about to leave.

“Senior, we’ve brought in so many people, but why don’t we see them appear in the outer city?”

Unexpectedly, the third-level apprentice’s face immediately darkened, and his originally kind smile disappeared.

“What, you’re curious? If you’re really particularly curious, I can have you escort them over.”

Doze’s heart jumped, immediately knowing these refugees’ destination must be complicated. He quickly smiled apologetically, “No, I was just asking casually. You go ahead with your work—I won’t disturb you.”

Doze left in fear.

The third-level apprentice remaining at the office snorted coldly, watching him leave.

After leaving, Doze thought for a moment, then ran to the trading center and used magic crystals he had saved over the days to buy a magic book.

Holding the expensive book that had passed through who knows how many hands, he thought silently, “I don’t seek to advance to true wizard, but third-level apprentice should be possible, right?”

…

Saul picked up a damaged book from the dust, carefully shaking off the dust on it.

This was a magic notebook.

It looked like it had weathered many storms.

Despite Saul’s careful handling, several pages still fell to the ground along with the dust.

After leaving the small building where Wizard Jonah had been, Saul didn’t immediately head to Bayton Academy but seemed to wander aimlessly around the academy like he wasn’t doing proper work.

Sometimes he would pick up books left by wizards like now, sometimes he would stay in a room for a while.

The book he found this time was a true wizard’s magic notebook. Hand-bound, very thick, but the magical markings on it had disappeared.

“Some experimental insights. I can take this back for the new people at the wizard tower to study.” Saul picked up the pages that had fallen to the ground, casually stuffed them back, then put the book in his storage device.

“It seems the disaster that erupted in the inner city had quite a large radiation range. These simple magic books and magical formations have all been ruined.” Penny was also flying around the room, helping Saul search for useful materials.

On the other side, Herman put down several glass bottles in his hands and turned to Saul helplessly, “Master, the materials here have all been polluted and deteriorated—they can’t be used.”

“That’s normal. Materials left outside generally don’t have very good protective measures. See if there are any secret chambers or such places. Physical secret chambers are hard to detect through mental power scanning.”

Herman nodded, then found a wall and phased through it.

His spirit body identity was very useful at times like this—physical facilities without magical power basically couldn’t stop him.

Saul continued searching through the original owner’s notes and books, but while searching, he found these things seemed to have traces of being disturbed.

The dust thickness on the bookshelves was uneven.

“Brother Saul, Brother Saul!” Penny flew to a corner, then suddenly flew back.

Saul thought Penny had made some new discovery, but instead heard her say excitedly, “I found living people again!”

“Oh?” Saul became interested. “Where?”

Penny said: “There are two people, and they’re consciously hiding their existence, which is why I discovered their dreams.”

“Being able to consciously hide their existence means they’re either wizards like Jonah but in better condition, or other intruders.”

Caugust’s inner city defenses were both strict and loose.

Relying entirely on magical formation protection without human intervention, once wizards like Saul found the method, they could exploit loopholes to get in.

“People interested in Caugust definitely aren’t just us. Maybe these people will know what happened in the inner city.”

Saul raised his hand to summon Herman, who was crashing around inside the house, then put away the Nightmare Butterfly and flew directly out of the room toward where Penny had discovered the living people.

Along the way, Saul deliberately restrained his magical power fluctuations, maintaining them around second rank.

His approach soon alerted the two targets.

But what slightly surprised Saul was that the first one to come out and ambush him was actually… a cat?

(End of Chapter)

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