Harvesting
“Alright, if there’s nothing else, you are dismissed!”
Leylin looked at George, who appeared to have something to say but kept stopping himself, and then at Bessita and the others who kept silent. He could feel his enthusiasm waning.
Ever since he advanced to become an official Magus, he seemed to be in a different world compared to his original social circles.
Even though his old acquaintances were right in front of him, they felt incredibly unfamiliar, as if hundreds of thousands of years had passed.
“Understood!”
The acolytes under him bowed and quickly retreated.
Even George and Bessita left the hall cautiously after bowing.
Bessita, who was the last to leave, gave Leylin an incomprehensible look and quickly withdrew.
……
In the dark hours of the night, after completing one round of Kemoyin’s Pupil meditation technique, Leylin was lying in bed resting. Suddenly, he opened his eyes.
Immediately after, a soft knocking came from outside.
“Come in! The door’s not locked!” Leylin got up and spoke indifferently.
The door creaked open, and a human figure dressed in a grey cloak walked in.
“Bessita! What can I do for you?” Leylin glanced at this girl with silvery white hair, his eyes giving off a mischievous aura.
“Lord Leylin, please forgive Bessita for her previous offences!”
Bessita’s voice was mild and gentle as she spoke softly. Following which, she removed the cloak that she was wearing and revealed a stark naked body that was underneath it.
Bessita’s body had matured from the time he had last seen her. Her body was extremely voluptuous and with exquisite snow-white skin; it seemed as if water would gush forward when the skin was pinched.
Bessita looked at Leylin as she slowly knelt down. In her ruby red eyes, there seemed to be a fawning look earnestly seeking forgiveness.
One might wonder about the feeling of having a beautiful and stunning girl kneeling in front of you, stark naked, for your forgiveness, in the wee hours of the night.
Right now Leylin had experienced it for himself.
However, his expression was serene, as if Bessita’s seductive and delicate body was but a broken skeleton in his eyes.
Leylin looked over this intelligent, but also shrewd girl.
“You are smart, but at times, you’re too smart for your own good!”
He raised his right hand and caressed Bessita’s face, and then trailed it down to her breasts.
“You’re trying to seduce me? Just with these two lumps of flesh?”
Leylin’s right hand wantonly rubbed at Bessita’s soft breasts. The girl moaned, her expression filled with pain.
Bessita suddenly felt an immense sense of dread attack her.
Her might as a level 3 acolyte was nothing to Leylin. What she did have confidence in, however, was her striking beauty.
However, looking at Leylin’s icy gaze, she suddenly felt that all she had just done was shameless and laughable.
Leylin’s cold eyes left her feeling suffocated.
Her body continuously trembled as cold sweat dripped down. With the passing of time, Bessita’s body became flushed and her face pale. It was as if she could die from the lack of air at any given moment.
“However! Rejoice! To commemorate the previous ‘me’, I have decided to give you a chance!”
Just as when Bessita was about to faint, Leylin spoke softly.
Only then did she recollect herself, and she panted heavily. Previously, it was as if a giant hand was choking her. The feeling of being suffocated disappeared when Leylin spoke.
Bessita took in the fresh air in large gulps with teardrops on the verge of flowing.
There had never been a time where being able to breathe freely was something she considered a blessing.
“Come with me!”
Leylin shook his head and opened the door to a partitioned room.
Bessita trembled and picked up her cloak, which was on the floor, and covered her delicate, naked body.
She had been able to entice Leylin without feeling apprehensive, but now, all she felt was shame. Such a strange feeling made her turn beet red, wishing there was a hole that would swallow her up.
After going through the door to another room, Bessita found that she had come to a secret room that was entirely sealed.
It was a small room, and one could see traces of the bricks on the walls.
In the middle of the secret room, there was a cumbersome metal desk that was similar to that of an experimentation table. Fixed on the four corners of the table were handcuffs and legcuffs.
Looking at this metal desk, Bessita’s face turned pale.
She wanted to retreat, yet she did not dare to. Then she realised that oddities were hanging on chamber walls.
For example, there was a short cudgel that was littered with small beads on its surface. There was also a large syringe filled with various glass pearls within, with a suction pad and handle and other strange add-ons.
Bessita’s heart sank like a weighted rock.
Of course she was aware that many official Magi had strange fetishes.
She had even heard of a story where a professor in her academy ate a girl while she was still alive after having finished toying with her.
“Don’t misunderstand, this isn’t mine, but a gift left behind by the previous Magus…”
Leylin fetched a unique binding instrumentation made with cotton and metal chains from the wall. “But I realised that his hobbies are quite similar to my own, in the past…”
Here, Leylin was naturally referring to that unfortunate idiot who had died and allowed Leylin to take over his body.
Leylin didn’t like Bessita since she had been taking advantage of him before. Hence, he was planning to teach her a lesson she wouldn’t forget.
The previous Leylin had suffered a great deal at the hands of others, and had eventually died.
Leylin believed that since he had taken over everything that belonged to the previous Leylin, it might be his duty to take revenge on his behalf. It wasn’t anything that difficult anyway.
“These items here have been modified and are exactly what ‘I’ liked.”
Leylin glanced at Bessita who was in front of him; a malicious smirk was on his face...
After Leylin willfully vented his feelings, he seemed to be completely fine the next morning and handled matters in the fort.
Bessita, however, struggled as she emerged from the secret room the second night.
Her face was completely pale and her bones seemed to have no feeling in them. The scent of blood was strong on her, and Bessita stayed in bed for a whole week before she could force herself to walk.
If this had happened before, acolytes would have expressed their disapproval and complained.
But now, even if Bessita were to be absent for seven days, they could only tolerate her behaviour. After all, not every acolyte could have relations with an official Magus, right?
She suffered repercussions after that incident, and every time she looked at Leylin, both her legs would involuntarily shake as if she had seen a devil.
Of course, Leylin didn’t care about that.
Once he had used all the methods that he had gleaned from the previous Leylin’s memories on Bessita, he never approached her again.
The reason for what he did to her wasn’t because of some perverted desire or hobby. He simply wanted to punish her and take revenge for the original Leylin Farlier.
Hence, after heartily venting his anger, all matters regarding Bessita had been forgotten.
Leylin was currently patrolling the sea of Black Mandara Flowers.
These black flowers had petals that were the size of a palm. Atop were blue spots that were like stars, and in the night they would even give off milky white rays of light.
The Black Mandara Flower was a subdivision of the Mandara Flower. Their petals were an extremely precious resource for acolytes and even official Magi who specialized in negative energy.
In the external world, a Black Mandara Flower petal could sell for a staggering price of over 1,000 magic crystals!
And here, what Leylin had in front of him was a whole sea of these flowers!
“The resources in the Eternal River Plains’ secret plane are so bountiful that it makes one’s hair stand erect!” Leylin exclaimed even though it was not the first time he had seen them.
A pity that above this sea of Black Mandara Flowers there was a surveillance spell. Before he decided to turn his back on the light Magi, he had to temporarily restrain any notions of seizing the flowers for himself.
In addition to the surveillance spell, there were intricate probing spell formations at every entrance to the secret plane . The question of how to secretly transport these resources out was a very troublesome problem.
Now he could understand why the Four Seasons Garden wanted to erect a fort in this area.
Occupying a strategic location was just one aspect, but Four Seasons Garden could also not give up this huge sea of flowers.
Although the Eternal River Plains’ secret plane was extremely vast and had bountiful resources, this sea of Black Mandara Flowers was extremely valuable even amongst the other resources in here.
If not for this terrible location, the Four Seasons Garden may have most likely sent a large army to defend this area.
“Lord! Our task every day is to try harvest as many of these Black Mandara Flowers and transport them away before the enemy arrives!”
Beside the sea of flowers, an acolyte trailed behind Leylin and explained the concrete details.
“Ennea Rings bless us! As those damned dark Magi discovered several large-scale resource areas, skirmishes arose as a result. We will most likely be facing a large amount of dark Magi forces… There are still some dark Magi and acolytes who try to break through the defenses every once in a while to steal the resources. Furthermore, we also have to guard against certain light Magi…”
This acolyte smiled wryly.
“I understand! Anyway, our mission is to harvest all these flowers as soon as we can and fend off wandering Magi and acolytes. If we are in a situation of distress, we have to send a signal. Is that right?”
Leylin asked indifferently.
“Yes, that’s about it!” The acolyte’s smile turned even more bitter.
Such a tactic was plainly inviting Leylin and his party to dance at the edges of a sword and use their lives in exchange for resources.
“I got it!” Leylin spoke solemnly after a moment of silence.