Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 636 - 589 The Origin of Spellbreaker

By the lakeside of Naslan, the Dragon Priest and the master of Naslan made contact.

Mr. Scholar, with that bronze mask on, though his face couldn’t be seen, Lyle could guess his mood. Beatrice was like someone who had been through a severe illness, her pale face bearing two heavy dark circles, and her weight almost completely resting on Lyle’s arm, as if she were an invalid propped up by a walking stick. Despite trembling all over, she still managed to pull a smile that resembled a cry, greeting Mr. Scholar.

"Are you alright, child?"

"No... it’s nothing, teacher, just insomnia combined with a bad cold, feels like there’s a huge stone pressing on my chest, limbs weak... with Lyle here, I can still barely hang on to life..."

Mr. Scholar covered his face, realizing what was happening when it wasn’t Helena who greeted him but Beatrice.

"Really?"

"Eek!!!" Beatrice interpreted the slightly questioning tone as interrogation; her body shook even more frequently and she clutched Lyle’s arm tighter, almost hanging her entire body on him.

Lyle felt helpless inside; indeed, a vampire pretending to be sick doesn’t work at all.

"Lyle?" Mr. Scholar turned the question over to Lyle because Beatrice was already struggling to speak, half hiding her body behind him, as if Mr. Scholar were some man-eating demon.

Lyle glanced sideways at Beatrice, the usually arrogant and capricious third sister’s face clinging to his shoulder and looking up at him pitifully—if vampires could shed tears, she definitely would have squeezed some out.

"Mr. Scholar, Beatrice won’t be of any help for what comes next. It’s better if I just take you around Naslan alone."

"That may be best." Mr. Scholar looked back at Beatrice and sighed. "Child, you go back and ’rest well,’ I shall borrow Lyle for a while."

"Of course, teacher! Goodbye, teacher!" Beatrice, like one granted amnesty, opened her wings and flew back to the castle, frail no more.

Lyle and Mr. Scholar watched her swift retreat and shared a look.

"Mr. Scholar, what in the world did you do to Beatrice back in the day?"

"I have no clue; in terms of teaching, I should still count as a decent professor."

The two began strolling along the riverbank, and their conversation unfolded from Beatrice’s education.

"When the Specter transformation triggered by Helena was engulfing Naslan, I was deeply engaged in academic study. By the time I went to help, it was already irreversible. But what truly angered me was Beatrice’s sneaking around to turn herself into a vampire—that happened after I arrived in Naslan. I could have stopped it."

"Perhaps the guilt towards their father let me take my anger out on Beatrice, and I became much stricter in her teaching."

"During the rebuilding of Naslan, I went through the mad times of Helena, soothed Alianna, and struggled together with Beatrice to find ways to control the vampiric urges; those were exceedingly difficult days."

Lyle looked at Mr. Scholar.

"Thank you, teacher."

Mr. Scholar responded gently.

"Coming from you, it seems fitting now to say that."

Lyle scratched his cheek, feeling uneasy inside. Seeing as Mr. Scholar treated the three sisters as his own, that made him practically Lyle’s half father-in-law.

"Teacher, about, well, my affairs with the three sisters, aren’t you concerned at all?" For instance, about happiness and such.

"Of course I worry, but it’s you I worry about. Can you bear their emotions? They say it’s the graveyard of love, and in your case, that’s as dead as it gets. Non-human values, the charming that twists hearts, the burden of love... Must be hard, isn’t it?"

"I enjoy it."

"Your adaptability is your strength, a major strength."

The silhouette of a massive dragon had already emerged from behind the castle. Named Hill, the Twilight Dragon was playing in the water, flicking its tail to splash the other dragons. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"I remember Beatrice’s bloodlust. We thought of many ways to suppress it, back when we hadn’t linked her talents with alcohol. It’s probably the thousands of attempts that left her with psychological scars."

"What did you try?"

"Like changes in intelligence during the Bloodthirsty State, I once locked Beatrice in a room and made her solve twenty Advanced Magic Research Exercises while in extreme hunger. Beatrice is smart, her ability to take on new subjects is strong."

"...Did she solve them?"

"Took her a month."

"She was hungry for a month?"

"I was with her the whole time, fulfilling her dietary needs with Mana Potions. Her body was healthy, but the feeling of hunger was always there... The attempt to suppress the bloodlust with wisdom failed."

Wasn’t that an excessively harsh arrangement? Doing homework while terribly hungry, Mr. Scholar... As expected, the Liches’ values had indeed become distorted, yet they were unaware of it. Poor Beatrice.

"Through researching vampires’ Bloodthirsty State and their ability to absorb magic, I wrote several academic papers and created another career path for mages."

"Spellbreakers. They are extremely sensitive to the flow of magic and casting techniques, even that magic within someone else’s body. They disrupt the enemy’s Spell Models and can even extract magic from another person’s body, just like vampires draining an enemy’s blood. With Beatrice as the prototype, I trained a group of Mage Slayers. I originally planned for her to become a little boss among the Spellbreakers, but she preferred to be a tavern owner. As long as she’s happy, that’s not so bad."

"What about creatures with no magic?"

"Powerful beings generally contain some magic, even if they don’t, my student. Drawing blood is not much harder than extracting magic... In my vision, the perfect Spellbreaker would be a vampire. They would merge their bloodlust with their thirst for magic, satisfying themselves by drawing their enemy’s magic and blood... But I worry about the psychological state of such mages. The fulfillment from power and the void created by its absence may cause severe mental distortions. And so, the Spellbreakers I cultivate now are mages born with a high capacity for magic. They do not feel satisfied or hungry after merely drinking a cup of tea."

The surrounding temperature had dropped significantly, and white frost was forming on the grass. Despite the brilliant sunlight, Lyle could not feel the warmth. Staring into the sky, one would notice murky Specters, as Naslan’s ghosts occupied the heavens like flocks of birds. Several female statues were positioned along the inscribed runes at just the right spots, with the Dragon Priest communicating with Helena’s statue, while Alianna coordinated the Specter tombs.

"Puppy!!" Hill’s call was the first to ring out. She climbed out of the water, drenching Lyle in big splashes as she rushed toward him.

Lyle shrugged, giving Mr. Scholar a resigned smile, as if to say he was used to it.

Boom!

At Mr. Scholar’s side, where Lyle had been standing, the ground was scraped away. Lyle himself was now held in the claws of the Twilight Dragon, retracting the tendrils that had surged from his body to cushion the impact. He waved from the dragon’s grip to signal he was unharmed. Giddy with her toy, Hill happily ran back to the side of the massive dragon.

Alianna calmed the restless herd with a look of dissatisfaction towards Mr. Scholar.

"Teacher, she’s too rough with Lyle. Can’t you keep your dragon in check?"

Mr. Scholar bowed his head to Alianna in apology.

"My companion is quite indulgent with her, which is indeed not the best way to educate. But that’s why we’re seeking help from Naslan."

"The Dragon Priest seeks Naslan’s aid, to help Hill repair her soul."