Throne of Magical Arcana - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Deep into the night

Since time traveling occurred, it was not that unacceptable to have a library in one’s brain. However, Lucien was still confused about the fact that a large portion of the books was unable to be opened and the contents couldn’t be seen.

He tried to calm himself down and to prevent emotion fluctuations to distract him and make the library hard to be “touched”. Lucien quickly scanned through the books, and recorded in his mind about which ones could be opened and which ones couldn’t .

“Historical documents are all abled to be opened.”

“Same with Economic principles.”

“As well as Art books.”

“For Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, some of the books can be opened and some not.”

“Is that because of the universe’s natural rules is different, causing those books to be disabled? But when I’m recalling these knowledges, I can at least memorize the college level stuff without being disabled.”

Most of the accessible books of those types were middle and high school level, but the college level comprehensive library wouldn’t be having much of those sources, but a few textbooks and corresponding materials for reference.

Lots of pictures, Lucien realized that after he flipped through a small part of the books, but he wasn’t sure, and didn’t know why either.

Just barely recovering from sickness, Lucien’s body was still very weak, as well as his mental condition; continuously reading books consumed his remaining consciousness, and he couldn’t access the library anymore.

Forcing himself back onto the bed, Lucien fell asleep. Only by improving his physical condition and restoring his health could Lucien be prepared for tomorrow. He didn’t forget that there was only one loaf of bread left, survival is always the first priority.

When he almost fell asleep, squeaks and a sharp noise of biting wood blew into Lucien’s ear, waking him up from the dream of tasty food and a comfortable king-sized bed.

“Mice?”

With strong drowsiness, Lucien unconsciously turned his body, trying to continue sleeping, but the noise of mouse grinding its teeth on the rock became larger and larger. As Lucien was a sensitive person especially during night time, he turned back and forth on the bed and couldn’t fall asleep at all.

He waited for a long time, but the grinding sound didn’t stop, Lucien tried to use the blanket to cover his ears, but the sounds penetrated through the blanket from every corner, Lucien just simply couldn’t fall asleep.

“What a damned fucking life is that!” Lucien cursed as he became outraged, feeling that he was gonna have psychasthenia: he was eating the most disgusting, sawdust-like black beard; wearing the worst, skin-irritating flax clothes; sleeping under a cold, thin blanket that no one knows what it was made of; even when he was sleeping, which he expects to temporarily forget all of those awful things, was now being disturbed. SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK there’s like thousands of mice down there.

Lucien bit his teeth angrily, and tried to find the direction where the sounds came from, I can’t fall asleep now anyways, I’d rather go find them, kill several and scare the rest of them away. He secretly swore to himself:

“I need to get rid of such life ASAP!”

Listening intently, Lucien tried to distinguish the direction where the bite noise comes from.

Zzzzzzzz…Zzzzzzzz….W000000…W00000

Once he concentrated his mind, Lucien immediately realized that the sound is not from mice, but in fact, a constant charnel haunted crying.

W00000…W00000

Deep into the peaceful night, there was  not the sound of mice or grinding teeth, but only the desolate and dismal crying.

Lucien’s heart beaten acutely, blood rushed into his brain and sharpened his senses. He could almost hear the sound of the cool night wind blowing through the door slot, and the crying, just like an ethereal song, swaying between the edge of fantasy and reality.

Lucien jumped out of bed, and subconsciously opened the crate, he held the remaining loaf of black breadstick, as a tool of self-defense; whatever happens, in terms of hardness, it was enough to knock out a thief.

THUMP THUMP THUMP…W0000…THUMP THUMP THUMP….W0000…

Lucien wondered about what the thump sounds truly was , but quickly realizes that it’s his heartbeat, which shaking so consumingly that the sound is like right next to his ear.

The eerie wind blew through, Lucien was gripping the breadstick, but couldn’t stop fear from emerging in his mind, “This is a world of actual magic and divine arts, what if it’s really a specter wraith?”

Thanks to the experience of traveling, plus witnessing the divine art and an alive human being burnt to death during the daytime, Lucien lost the control of his body under such horrifying circumstance. Although his mind has gone blank and is excessively tense, Lucien tried to slow down his breath and force himself to be self-possessed.

Slowly moving his steps toward the door, Lucien looked for the origin of the crying.

The crying was filled with dreariness, and it became so noticeable under the background of a tranquil midnight.Yet, the neighbors around all were lost in their dreams and no one gave any response to the crying.

“Sounds like the crying is from below the walls on the right,” the more Lucien approached the door, the crying became clearer, “wait a second, on the right side of my house, isn’t that the place where that witch lives?”

Lucien was surprised at what he just realized, “her house is already burnt down by the church! But what if there is a secret cellar or backroom, with her ghost or something is else hidden there?”

Lucien read many novels, as soon as the thinks about the possibility of a secret room, words like “adventures”, “treasures” and “sorcery notes” popped up in his brain, some bits of greediness rising in his mind.

Woooooo…Woooooo…

The crying suddenly became more thrilling, and Lucien shivered and suddenly sobered up, “even if there’s treasures or magic note underneath, it’s under the protection of that crying ghost or something else.”

“I’m only a common person who just recovers from deadly illness, and I’ve completely no idea about the wraith’ abilities are weaknesses, how am I able to deal with them?”

“I may be hunted, killed or even possessed!”

Lucien considered his own circumstance after he cleared his mind, and became even more afraid, If I was puzzled by my greediness and blinded by the “adventure”, I would just go down there rashly and very probably bury my life there.

“But I also can’t just simply wait there, who knows that if the wraith will come up here.” Lucien quickly weighed the situation and start thinking of possible solutions.

All of the sudden, an idea came up, Lucien found a source of power where he could borrow from. He cautiously approached the door-side, still afraid that a wraith may appear at his back or in front, and black breadstick was already soaked by his sweat.

Opening the wooden door bit by bit, Lucien’s forehead was covered by his cold sweats.

The wooden door was half opened, it was a deep night out there, cold winds blowing.

Lucien stepped out of the door and saw a distant, shimmering light.

Looking toward different directions, Lucien found no wraiths, and as soon as he got outside the house, the ghost crying became vague and hard to hear. Relieved for a little bit, he took a deep breath, and another, and started yelling loudly:

“Ghost! Ghost is killing people!!!”

The yelling was loud enough to surprise Lucien himself, “I didn’t imagine my voice to be so loud.”

“Wof Wof Wof”, wild dogs began barking in response.

Hearing all these, Lucien hastily rushed toward the direction of the Adrien’s Cathedral, we’d rather choose professions for stuff like purifying wraiths!

Also, as the neighbor of the witch, it’s very likely that I’m still under the church’s speculation. If it was the previous “Lucien”, there won’t be any problem, but I have the secret of traveling, the church may discover anomalies if I’m not paying enough attention. This time if I go ask for the help from the church, especially on stuff about the witch, I can wash away my suspicion, therefore gain some trust and worry less about the speculation.

Lucien also considered the case that if the church members will kill and frame him to pocket the witch’s legacy, therefore he yelled to his neighbors to wake everyone up.

Being in a hurry, Lucien could only think of several important aspects, but not reaching every aspect of the matter.

Adrien’s Cathedral was not far away, soon Lucien sees the building shined by the yellowish candlelight.

There are two guards in silver hauberks standing at the entrance of the church, as soon as they saw Lucien running toward them, one of them raised his arm to stop the intruder, the other semi-drew his sword, ready to strike Lucien. People were especially insecure during midnight.

“What are you doing here?” The guard who stopped Lucien asked.

Without the need to pretend, Lucien responded with a nervous voice, “There’s ghost, I, I heard the crying of the ghost, just from the house of the witch who was burnt today!”

The guard also looked worried after hearing this, he didn’t suspect Lucien’s intent, a trainee squire shouldn’t be judge anything under such circumstance, he ordered Lucien to stay out there, under control of the other guard; and he himself walked into the church to report the situation to tonight’s vigil pastor. The clinking of the armor became distant and disappeared.

Several minutes later, a young pastor dressed in white robes walked out of the church together with the guard.

Blonde hair and rawboned cheek, there is a special rhythm when he was walking, demonstrating his elegance, “Thou art talking to past’r Benjamin, bid me about that apparition again.”

In front of pastor Benjamin, the two guard stood firm and quiet, afraid that the clinking of their armor would disturb the reverend Benjamin from his inquiries.

Lucien provided an unsolicited description about how he found the ghost crying, how he thinks of the church, and how he dealt with it, in a sincere and respectful voice.

Benjamin gave soft smile after he heard all these, “Valorous, what thee didst is not wrong, thy piety to the L’rd helps theta ov’rcome the feareth.”

He comforted Lucien, and turned to the guards: “Thomson, calleth Cary, Paul and the four of them, that beldam is just an apprentice magician, th’re is nay needeth to disturb the bishop.”

“Aye, Sir.” Thompson didn’t say anything more, pastor Benjamin is the formal priest, though just the first-order, it’s absolutely enough against a magic apprentice’s trap and informal spells; difference between the two is even larger than the gap between a formal knight and high-order squire, just like formal priest versus high-order apprentice priest——either in terms of social status or actual strength.

Benjamin asked Lucien a few more questions, acquires his name and background, until the other four guards equipped with the same kind of silver mail armors as Thompson does, but they possessed a sense of being far stronger and pressuring.

There was a large mass of crowd assembled out there, distant from the witch’s burnt-down house, candlelights looking like starlights, accompanying the silver moon in the sky.

Until now Lucien realized that the moon in this world was silver-colored.

The anxious talks halted when Benjamin arrives, the crowd now looked much more relieved , they surrounded the pastor and started whispering to each other.

“I didn’t hear the sound of ghost or anything like that.”

“No matter what, it’s better if the pastor can do another purification here.”

Lucien listened carefully, and finds that he can still hear the distant crying, but why can’t others hear that?

Benjamin showed no difference, he turned to Lucien, “the wraith is still th’re.”

Apparently, he also heard the crying.

The four guards nodded in response to that, saying that they also heard the sound.