Chapter 3, Cut with Sound

 After dinner, Seake continued to work. Miss Hana asked Seake to go to the backyard to dig up the Dicu grass tubers she had planted before. Seake wanted to go back to his room to get a thick coat, but Hana glared at him and said coldly, "If you go back, you'll end up like XiaoBa and won't come downstairs!" She only threw a sweater at Seake and drove him out into the snow.

 Seake was shivering in the cold wind. Hana didn't send him here during the day and only called him to the backyard after the sunset. There was no lighting here at night, and he couldn't see anything. At this rate, he would soon become like XiaoBa. He took two steps in the snow and felt that this was not good, so he drew out his sacrificial knife. He couldn't find a sacrifice here, so he had to poke his own finger with the tip of the knife and draw out a drop of blood. This spell did not require a large sacrifice.

 He recited in the language of Soni: "Emerge from the volcano, with burning flames isolated by cold ice, and descend upon me."

 The head and tail of this spell were originally high-temperature attack spells, but Seake added a cold defense spell in the middle, and the combined effect was quite satisfactory. Seake suddenly felt warm as if he was soaking in hot water.

 Seake exhaled and knew that he couldn't maintain this state for too long, or he might start sweating. He used the remaining magical energy to cast another spell: Light.

 The tip of the sacrificial knife lit up, and a small ball of light appeared, illuminating the dark backyard. Seake only then saw that there was a pond right beside his foot and almost fell into it. That would have instantly turned him into the second XiaoBa.

 First, he dug a hole in the ground and buried the two blue line frogs for hibernation. Then, he used the light to find the Dicu grass Hana had mentioned.

 The ground was frozen and very hard. The small shovel Hana gave him couldn't handle it, so Seake had to use the sacrificial knife to dig. The light on the tip of the knife went out, but Seake relied on his sense of touch to dig up all the tubers and put them in a burlap bag.

 When he was digging, Seake had a strange feeling, as if the surface of the tubers was uneven, beyond the normal range of distortion. He went back to the house and opened the burlap bag under the light.

 It was awesome. All these tubers had grown into the shape of human faces! They opened their mouths and wrinkled their faces into a knot, seeming to be crying out in various pains. Seake remembered that Dicu grass was a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves withered in winter, leaving only the tubers buried in the soil for overwintering. It was best to dig them out at this time to make medicine with the best effect. The surface of the tubers was smooth and roughly spherical, with occasional deformities, but they would never grow into human faces!

 Seake immediately tied up the mouth of the burlap bag and carried the bag of Dicu grass pretending to be human heads back to his workshop. Hana had originally asked him to come back and cut the tubers into pieces, but seeing these strange-looking tubers, Seake was unsure if obeying the order would have any aftermath.

 ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

 He threw the bag onto the workbench, walked through the door leading to Hana's lounge and found that she wasn't there. Then Seake continued on to the door connecting Hana's lounge with the public office.

 He stopped before the door and heard muffled voices coming from the other side.

 One was Hana's voice, the other was a man's voice Seake had never heard before. The man's voice was strange. He had a male tone, but he sounded like a woman speaking, and his voice fluctuated.

 Seake heard the sound of the pillows being hit, making him feel more like it was a woman.

 "I can't stand this life anymore!" said the low voice, gripping his throat. "How much longer is it going to take?"

 Hana's voice came through: "Have patience, sir. This is not an easy task. As for the cost part, we still need-"

 The truth was revealed. The strange magic materials were the result of Hana falsely reporting the expenses, and she was now defrauding her benefactor.

 Seake turned back to the workshop, opened the bag and decided to cut up all these mutant dictyophora indusiata into small fragments. That way, when Hana cast her spell, she wouldn't know that these things had human faces.

 Although Seake had made up his mind, he hesitated when he actually started cutting. He put on thick leather gloves to prevent these things from biting him, grasped the vegetable knife tightly, and sliced through it.

 Instead of hearing the sound of a clean cut, he heard moans like "Ah" and "Mmm".

 This thing does not bite; it moans instead!

 Seake held back his desire to escape, and as he cut further, he discovered that the direction and strength of his cut affected the voice. So he began to try different cutting methods. Whether it was in chunks, thin slices, or studying the response of the bulb. Once it was thoroughly cut into small fragments, these bulbs would no longer make any noise.

 Seake was so focused on observing the mutants that he only noticed someone had entered the room when the door leading to the backyard was opened.

 The person walked in, closing the door silently, and took off a thick hat, revealing a small and delicate face with soft and shiny long hair. Seake saw that this petite girl was about eighteen years old and stood up straight with a very elegant posture. She was wearing a very expensive fur coat. If Seake looked like an intruder to this mansion, this person would be known as someone from the owner's family.

 Her makeup was appropriate and her handbag exuded the style of a lady. But there was a hint of restlessness in her eyes, suggesting that she was not as well-behaved as she appeared.

 The girl seemed surprised to see Seake here and asked, "Where is XiaoBa?"

 "He's dead," Seake replied in a tone of complete surrender.

 "Is he still reading books all night long? If Hana finds out, she'll deduct his salary."

 "I don't think that's the reason."

 "Okay, can you tell him to come and see me when it's convenient? Just say that Gino is looking for him."

 "Uh, I'm not able to talk to him. I don't think he would be willing to come and see you."

 Named Gino, the girl said, "Don't worry about Hana's orders."

 "Not for this reason." Seake really didn't know how to make Gino understand XiaoBa's situation. Anyway, he wouldn't show up here. Seake said while cutting the mutants with a knife again.

 Hearing the noise, Gino's face turned red. Meanwhile, the door leading to the backyard was pushed open violently. Valru rushed in angrily and headed straight towards Seake, throwing a fist at him, "What have you done to Miss?"

 Seeing Valru's stance, Seake thought he must have learned martial arts, but Seake had more combat experience than him. He reflexively dodged to the side, grabbed Valru's hand and pulled it forward, while pushing him backwards. The two of them turned half a circle, with Valru being pushed onto the work table and pressed down on his back.

 Seake breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately he had thrown the knife away in time. Valru did not want to kill him, but he had almost instinctively killed him.

 Because the situation was so urgent, Seake couldn't choose a good location, and Valru was pressed on top of the mutated dictyophora indusiata that had been cut. It cracked open, making a great "Ah" sound.

 "I didn't do anything!" Seake said. Now Valru should understand.

 Seake carefully let go of his hand and stepped back two steps. Valru straightened his clothes, still glaring at Seake, but apparently had no intention of taking another shot.

 Gino said to Valru, "I knew you'd be angry, so I asked you to wait outside."

 "This is the wizard's lair, it's dangerous. I can't wait outside. I still insist that you shouldn't be here," Valru said. When he said the word "wizard," he sounded like the tone of someone saying "pervert" or "robber."

 "But I haven't seen XiaoBa for four days!" Gino said. She turned to Seake and said, "Please tell XiaoBa that I'm looking for him."

 Then Gino led Valru out. The scene was as if a female hunter was leading a well-trained hunting dog.

 Seake scratched his head, picked up the knife and continued to cut the dictyophora indusiata.

 He couldn't speak with XiaoBa. The Brightest Wand had a time limit for wizards, to prevent older wizards from exploiting younger wizards and hindering the cultivation of talent in the next generation. If anyone violated the rules and exploited wizards, the punishment from the Brightest Wand would be quite severe. Even if Hana didn't want to, Seake had to leave work on time.

 When Hana let him off work, she said, "Get out of here and don't run around like a thief!"

 Seake had just moved here today, so any bad smell wasn't caused by him. Seake had no respect for Hana and didn't plan to listen to her.

 In the Dark Academy, patrolling one's own territory every day was a matter of life and death. He was always thinking about how to kill his classmates, and his classmates were also wholeheartedly thinking about how to kill him. After the destruction of the Dark Night Church, Seake was once on the national wanted list and had to flee in the wilderness, avoiding the chase of the Brightest Wand and the Holy Shield. Without knowing what kind of place he lived in, he couldn't relax.

 ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

 After work, Seake walked around the house stealthily. The candles looked more sinister the longer he looked at them. There were probably over a hundred candles on just the first floor, and they were nothing but ordinary candles. This rich family should be able to afford magic lamps, right? Even normal households have electric lights, yet this place uses candles. Otherwise, the Lightwand-certified magic smokeless candles are also available, with no fire hazard and less likely to be extinguished.

 In Seake's pocket was the receipt he had picked up today. Later, he flipped the paper over and saw many expensive specialized magical laboratory equipment such as rainbow light separators and tongue-shaped cutters, but he didn't see any of them in Hana's studio.

 Those equipment could make work much easier. If Hana had already deceived the investors into funding them, then why weren't the equipment displayed in her studio? Hana's studio only had basic primitive equipment, just as strange as using candles for lighting here.

 Seake walked and imagined the plan of the mansion in his mind. The layout of the first floor was very strange, with space cut up like a maze. Many room shapes were distorted hexagons or heptagons that could not be used and were only used to store junk. The second floor and above were banquet halls and the owner's rooms, which he couldn't go up to.

 Seake turned and turned and turned again, getting dizzy.

 He wandered along the corridor and besides the occasional maid hurrying by, he did not bump into anyone. They didn't question what Seake was doing, only looked at him coldly.

 Until Seake bumped into the girl who had arrived at the studio a little earlier in a long hallway. It may have been too dark and her appearance was different, but she seemed different from before. She was now in the house without a thick coat, wearing a long dress embroidered with pink roses, with very light fabric that drew beautiful curvaceous lines of her body. She now seemed a bit tense, with a touch of neuroticism that wasn't there before and a little less sharpness.

 She was taken aback when she saw Seake and clearly shrank back a bit, and then held a defensive stance and glared at Seake: Who are you? What are you doing here?

 For some reason, probably due to Seake's bad personality, he would want to retort if someone looked at him like that: What about you, all dressed up so late at night? Are you meeting a lover?

 The girl turned red at Seake's words. This flush was different from the daytime, not due to external stimuli, but due to internal thoughts from her heart, so it was more thorough. Seake hit the nail on the head.

 Now that he embarrassed himself, Seake hastily changed his tone to a humble one: I'm Seake Tregarth, a mage assistant hired by Miss Hana. I just arrived today. We met earlier, didn't we?

 No, I haven't met you. I'm Lino, the eldest daughter of this house. The girl regained her composure and straightened her back, telling Seake: You should have seen my sister. She's been running to the mage's studio lately, and everyone is talking about it.

 Um, do you all think it's terrible there?

 It's terrible! It's a malignant tumor in this house! You'd better be self-conscious. No one welcomes you here! Lino's eyebrows were slightly raised.

 It turned out that XiaoBa wasn't the only cause of Seake's pitiful dinner! In extreme sadness, Seake asked: Can you take care of XiaoBa's body? As the homeowner's daughter, you should be able to handle this situation.

 Why should I help him deal with it? I'm not related to him at all! Lino's eyebrows slanted down. She seemed to mistake Seake for XiaoBa's wife or a future wife, someone who should help with the aftermath, which made her very angry.

 Seake shrunk his neck and listened to her scolding.

 You'd better not mess with the candles. If my mother gets angry, not even Hana can save you. Wait to be kicked out!

 After that, she turned her head and left. Seake certainly did not follow her, lest he be kicked out even faster.