Tidying Up
"Anna, Greem, Fraser, you three come to my study room together after dinner!"
Seeing that his subordinates did not have any objections, Leylin nodded his head and said, "For now, everyone please enjoy yourself!"
The group nodded their heads, returned to their positions, and sat down. The sound of clanging cutlery continuously rang.
Ever since Leylin had issued his orders, the hall was much more silent than before. Although the dinner was sumptuous, the masses seemed to have something weighing down on their hearts.
After dinner, Leylin received the trio which knew of his magician identity.
Greem and Fraser wore leather armour, which looked extremely imposing. Anna still wore a low cut blouse, and appeared even more seductive.
"You guys know that I am a magician. Right now, I am about to embark on a journey, and due to some reasons, I can only keep you guys here...."
Leylin sat behind the desk, speaking solemnly to the three of them.
"The orders outside earlier were only for the others to see. From now onwards, Greem and Fraser, you must treat Anna the same way you treat me, do you understand?
"We understand!" Greem and Fraser nodded their heads. Compared to the rest, they knew how terrifying this master of theirs was and had no objections towards Leylin's orders.
After sending Greem and Fraser away, the room was only left with Anna and Leylin.
"Young...Young Master!" Tears welled up in Anna's eyes.
"The Mandara Flower's essence on your body, I have already created an antidote for it. Also, take these!" Towards his own women, Leylin was much gentler.
Saying so, Leylin handed over some potions and a parchment paper over to Anna.
"This is...." Anna opened the parchment paper to have a look, and she became startled.
"These are letters of authority. You will be managing all of my establishments in Extreme Night City. Furthermore, if I don't return within ten years, all of these will be transferred over to your name!"
Leylin crossed his fingers, "Furthermore, Murphy and Viscount Jackson are witnesses to these procedures! If you meet with any trouble in the future, you can seek their aid!"
These worldly possessions, Leylin could have as many as he wanted. Naturally he would not mind giving them to Anna as a backup plan for himself.
Moreover, even if he played this chess piece wrongly, there wasn't much to be regretful about.
After all, right now, Leylin was only an acolyte in the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy. According to the academy's rules, acolytes are not allowed to bring their followers or maids into the academy compounds.
Since these are things which he had to eventually let go of, naturally, Leylin's heart did not ache for them.
"Also, this is the desert scorpion sting, which is a tool specially used to control Greem and Fraser. You must keep them well...."
Leylin handed over a red box to Anna.
"No!" Anna bit her lips, before finally pouncing forward and hugging both of Leylin's legs. "Young Master, don't chase Anna away! Anna wants to be by Young Master's side no matter what she has to do, alright?"
The young lady held onto Leylin's legs and tears as bright as pearls slid off of her beautiful face.
Her warm and mildly shuddering body wrapped itself around Leylin's legs. One could see that Anna had mustered extreme courage to speak these words.
Leylin looked at Anna with a touch of gentleness in his eyes. He reached his right hand out and stroked the young lady's hair and back.
"I'm very sorry Anna. The place I have to go is extremely dangerous for you...."
"But...." Anna lifted her face filled with tears as if wanting to say something else.
"Don't mess around, listen!" Suddenly, Leylin's face hardened.
Seeing her master act this way, the deeply ingrained pain and suffering for disobeying a master's orders surfaced in her mind. After all, Anna had undergone slave training. Although these were the methods of the slave traders, it was etched right into Anna's soul itself.
"Yes, Young Master!" Anna stopped her crying and kept the scroll and box. She only looked at Leylin, the same way as a cat that had been abandoned by its owner.
Seeing the girl act like this, Leylin withdrew a few potions from his robes and handed it to her. After all, he was not a stone-hearted person.
"This is a recovery potion, which can quickly heal physical wounds. Keep this well!"
"Also, this purple potion is an attack type potion. If there comes a day when you encounter a danger that not even Greem nor Fraser can handle, throw this out at it. Do you understand me?"
Leylin pointed at the purple potion and instructed Anna.
"Anna understands!" Her eyes turned red. She knew that she could not disobey her master's orders, so she kept the potion well.
"Sigh...."
Looking at her leaving figure, Leylin sighed suddenly.
Although he had made many preparations, he knew that after a dozen odd years, this faction that he had left would most lightly disappear into thin air.
However, he had no regrets. These were all regular humans without any aptitude for becoming a magician. They would be of limited use to him in the future.
Most likely, the only use of this small faction to him would be to act as a cover for him to hide from people, and even then, it wasn't very secure at all.
In the end, entrusting everything to Anna was not a bad choice.
Apart from the Mandara Flower's essence on Anna's body, all other restrictions on Anna's body had already been removed by Leylin. From now onward, Anna would be a free human.
"I hope that after having these things, you will be able to live a happier life!"
Leylin's eyes were unreadable.
If Anna was to land in the hands of another magician, she would at most be a tool for them to vent their pent up energy. After their interest wanes, she may very well be used in an experiment. Now that Anna had followed Leylin, not only was she free from her status as a slave, Leylin had even saved her from the poison of Mandara Flower's essence. He had even given her the manor and medicinal shop, so no matter what happens next, he would be free from all guilt!"
"The troublesome matters have all been resolved. What's left is to finally dispose of the experiment lab and underground cells thoroughly!"
Leylin thought and got up to go to the underground.
This was the forbidden area that he had demarcated. Anna and the two Knights would not dare come down here so easily.
Under the dim light from the torch, Leylin withdrew a crystal ball. An old person's figure could be seen within it. His expression was crazed, and even had terror in it.
"We meet again, Mister Roman!" Leylin smiled and gave his salutations. However, in Roman's eyes, this smile was more harrowing than the devil's.
"Don't... Don't come over!" Roman's expression twisted, and he fearfully backed up to the walls of the crystal ball behind him.
However, Leylin's acute senses picked out the resolution behind the expression of the frightened vengeful spirit.
"Let me tell you a piece of good news, and a piece of bad news!"
Leylin proficiently placed many tools beside the crystal ball, and let the vengeful spirit let out ear piercing screams as he spoke.
"The good news is that I am going to leave here for a while!" Before the vengeful spirit had any response, Leylin smiled and said, "And the bad news is that no matter where I go, you will be going along with me!"
"Oh! No! No! I beg of you...."
"Alright! So then, tell me everything you know!"
At the beginning, Roman naturally would not speak of anything. However after over a year of torture, he had already begun to cough out some information.
After the narration of the vengeful spirit, Leylin shook his head. "It seems like Mister Roman still harbours wishful thoughts, so let us continue...."
Following Leylin's statement, many hair-raising screams filled the lab, as if the howls of a person right before their death.
Although this vengeful spirit had showed signs of a mental breakdown half a month ago, it still managed to give misleading information to Leylin regarding the secrets he knew.
This vengeful spirit gave much information at once, and it was extremely complicated. However, with the A.I. Chip, Leylin was able to record all of its narration quickly, and sort it systematically.
The next few times, he discovered a problem.
Towards things which are pertaining to more general and common knowledge, Roman always handed them over easily. However, towards the crucial points and secrets, Roman glossed over them and hid much of the important information.
However, Leylin did not mind at all. It would give huge amounts of information each day. Along with the filtering and sorting of the A.I. Chip, he would still obtain plenty of information.
Moreover, with the continuous and prolonged torture and interrogating, Leylin believed that one day, this vengeful spirit would tell him everything, and pray for a fast death.
After the daily routine of 'questioning' was completed, Leylin went towards the other rooms underground.
In here, various blood-stained torture instruments were hung along the walls. On the floor, there were even a few corpses with wounds littered across their bodies, causing them to be almost indiscernible as a human body.
[Beep! The surrounding negative energy density is higher by 34.5%, which satisfies the most basic condition for a spirit body's existence. The target's physical body has undergone various suffering and tortures. Chance of spirit body appearing: 1.23%]
The A.I. Chip scanned the few corpses and reported the figures.
"Compared to the one-thousandth chance of a spirit body forming naturally, this proportion can be considered extremely high already!" Leylin stroked his chin, "If I were to be given more time, I would definitely be able to induce the formation of an artificial spirit body!"
The most efficient way to do research on souls was through the use of spirit bodies. This established theory was publicly accepted by all Dark Magi.
What Leylin had to do now was to continuously simulate the conditions of the outside world, and induce the forming of an artificial spirit body!
If this piece of news were to leak out, Leylin's reputation would be completely interlinked with savagery and ruthlessness, which would be bad for his future developments.
"Reputation is also a kind of benefit! Although I'm not afraid of how people view me, even Magi wish to have dealings with those who have good reputations, but not a fellow with a dredged reputation.
Leylin sucked in a lungful of air and sprinkled power on the corpses.
With hissing sounds, the corpses turned into yellow pus after corroding, and very soon, they disappeared.
"Although I have finally stopped my experiments, which is a little bit of a pity, it's not like I haven't obtained any results!" Leylin comforted himself, "At least, regarding the Lowian Academy Teachings' final step, the spirit awakening, I have already obtained sufficient data!"
As for the other ancient potion formula, Tears of Mary, Leylin still hadn't found any clues regarding it.