Secret?

Bang!

The young boy's back was ruthlessly pressed against a hard brick wall. The cold wind didn't make the boy shiver as much as the pairs of cold eyes looking at him.

"Give me," a tall skinny man with a gloomy face ordered while clenching the boy's shoulder.

"No!" the boy shouted and tried to struggle, but he was mercilessly beaten by different pairs of fists, three men took their time tormenting and torturing him until he was completely bloodied.

The tall skinny man took a small bag that was hidden in the boy's clothes and began to walk away with the others as if nothing happened.

The boy's vitality began to wither away and his eyes were slowly losing their fire. The cold wind began to reach his marrow and his whole body began to freeze into death.

Suddenly, however, a green light descended from the cloudy night sky above and began to warmly heal his wounds and heat his body.

After about a minute, the boy's body was completely healed and his fuzzy consciousness began to return to the surface of his mind.

He looked around without understanding what just happened, he thought that would be the day he died.

"Well, what a fate," a young voice attracted his attention and made him look to the sky above his head.

A young boy a few years older than him was looking down at him with a complex expression, he was stepping on a floating tree's branch and looking at him with a strange expression. It was Wu Xue.

"W-What!" the young boy shouted in fear, "A mage!"

Wu Xue jumped from the branch and fell softly on his feet beside the young boy, "What is your name?"

The young boy was completely out of his mind out of fear and didn't answer.

Wu Xue slapped his face while casting a calming spell on him, "Come back to your senses! Your savior is asking your name!"

"I- I-" the young boy tried hard and finally managed to say, "I'm Carl, Sir!"

"I need a guide in this city, are you willing to be hired by me?" Wu Xue offered and threw a small piece of gold to Carl.

Carl was so scared he almost peed on himself, he looked at all sides as if afraid of someone else seeing the gold and said, "This is too much for me, I can't receive it, I will die!"

Wu Xue understood his worries and nodded, "It's good that your fear overwhelms your greed, you can survive longer this way." He then took the gold back from Carl.

"Well then, what about food? Are you willing to be my guide for food?" Wu Xue asked, "I saw you being beaten to the brink of death because you didn't want to hand over the little food you had."

"I... I am, please hire me!" Carl knelt on the ground and pleaded.

"Why are you pleading? I said I want to hire you," Wu Xur made a gesture with his hand and a strong wind forcefully made Carl get up from the ground, "I need a place to stay in this city, do you understand?"

Carl nodded and pointed forward, "There's a great and famous inn in this direction, it's called Honey Wine Inn, but..."

"Is it expensive?" Wu Xue asked.

"Yes!" Carl nodded hurriedly, "Very expensive!"

"Just lead me there," Wu Xue said and secretly cast an invisibility spell on Carl.

Carl then guided him through the busy streets of Cliff City's streets towards the inn.

Cliff City, despite its name, had nothing to do with cliffs. But there was once a family there surnamed Cliff, they were the founders of the city but didn't exist anymore in Wu Xue's time.

The city was located in a mountain range, just like Lighting City, but it was much bigger and spanned several mountain peaks. It was full of marvels and incredible architecture, the population was much bigger than Lighting City's as well.

After a few minutes of walking, the duo arrived at Honey Wine Inn, it was a large and tall building with many floors, and it was decorated with colorful and vibrant flowers.

They entered the inn without any problem and Wu Xue was quickly greeted by a waitress.

"How can I help you, little lord?" the waitress was a middle-aged woman with sharp eyes. She noticed Wu Xue's "noble aura" and was quick to decide he was a potential rich client.

The one surprised at that moment was Carl, since he would usually be stared at with cold eyes when he went close to such places. But everyone was seemingly ignoring his presence at that time as if he was invisible.

"Arrange me two rooms of the best," Wu Xue said with a calm demeanor, "I want the best of the best, don't ask too many questions." He then took a great gold bar from his pocket as if doing magic and gave it to the waitress.

"Is it enough as payment?"

"Enough, enough!" the waitress nodded hurriedly, "I will order for two high-class rooms to be prepared. One for the little lord and another for..."

"I just said you shouldn't ask questions," Wu Xue smiled at her, "Just prepare the food and send one banquet for each room, understand?"

The waitress nodded repeatedly, her eyes sparkled as the gold in her hands.

Carl was shocked by both the gold and Wu Xue's extravagance.

The waitress then led Wu Xue and unknowingly also led Carl to their rooms.

"I paid for this room for you to stay, rest well for tomorrow we have lots to do," Wu Xue muttered to Carl and dispelled the invisibility spell, scaring the waitress so much she almost fell on the ground.

Fortunately, they were already in front of their rooms and no one except them was in the corridor.

"For me?" Carl was dumbfounded.

"Do you think I paid for another room just to show how rich I am?" Wu Xue chuckled.

Carl nodded without much hesitation.

Wu Xue laughed out loud, not caring about it, "Just go inside and take a nice bath. Soon, good food will be served to you."

Wu Xue then looked at the waitress, "Can you please prepare a few sets of nice clothes for my friend? His clothes are a bit worn out."

Carl's clothes were basically rags, life in the streets was not easy and he had no spare energy to try and get new clothes.

The waitress took a deep breath and nodded, "As you wish, my lord." She changed the form she addressed him since she judged him to be either a Defiant or a full-fledged mage.

"Can I take a few measures, little friend?" the waitress approached Carl and asked.

Carl nodded without much thought but felt a bit uncomfortable thinking his bad scent was probably making the waitress feel disgusted.

The waitress then left to arrange both the food and the clothes, and Wu Xue and Carl entered their own rooms. Because of the successive shocks, she forgot to ask their names.

Inside a bathtub, Wu Xue relaxed his mind and body for a moment and tried to absorb the aura again but failed as always.

"Fortunately, my reserves of energy were exponentially higher than the norm, I shouldn't have problems for a few years..." he muttered, but there was concern in his face. He didn't want to waste too much time in search of a solution for that roadblock.

A maid knocked on the door of his room, it was the food he ordered. He ordered her to leave the food inside while he was still in the bathtub, there was a thin mobile wall separating him and her field of vision.

The maid obediently left the food and said, "If you have any other need, please feel free to contact us."

"Okay, you can go," Wu Xue said.

"Please excuse me," the maid then left.

Suddenly, a shout of surprise came from the room beside his, Wu Xue could imagine Carl's surprised expression when he saw the banquet being served to him.

"Alas, what a lucky fellow," Wu Xue sighed in wonder.

He might have saved Carl out of empathy, but he didn't offer to hire him as his guide on a whim. He once heard some of Edwards's maids talking about the missing nephew, who was called Carl.

Of course, he didn't know the boy's name after just meeting him, but he heard from the maids that the boy had short green hair and a small straight scar on his neck.

Carl had both of those, so when Wu Xue heard him saying his name, he was sure he was Julia's nephew.

Although not as deep as Edward's, he did create some friendships with his temporary teacher, she taught him a lot about that world's costumes and cultural festivities.

"Since it's fate, why not?" Wu Xue muttered after eating his fill, "I will send him to his aunt after a while."

Carl had the night of his life, he never ate so much delicious food and never slept so comfortably. When he awakened the next day, he felt so refreshed that he doubted if he was still dreaming.

"Carl, get up," Wu Xue's voice came to him as magic, it was a voice transmission, "Don't fret, I can transmit my voice directly to other people's minds."

Carl swallowed hard and asked with his mouth, "Can you hear me?"

"Yes. Now get up, we have a lot to do, have you forgotten?"

After that, both of them left the inn after a short breakfast. They began to wander the streets while Carl introduced various things to Wu Xue.

One thing Carl noticed, was that everyone on the streets treated them as air and sometimes almost slammed themselves into them. He began to believe they were in some sort of invisibility state.

"Is Sir doing this?" Carl asked after some hesitation, "Are we invisible?"

"Yes, it would be troublesome if people suddenly try to pick a fight with you, right?" Wu Xur smiled meaningfully.

Carl smiled bitterly and stayed silent, he understood that Wu Xue knew he was a little thief who repeatedly stole other's people pockets.

They spent the rest of that day wandering the main venues and places of Cliff City. Close to the end of the day, they both were in front of a huge gray castle located in the middle of the city, it was the Magical Realm of that place, also named DustWind Academy of Mysteries.

The highest building of the castle was a large and tall tower, close to a hundred meters high and with dozens of meters of radius. That tower was the main building and was sometimes called Magic Tower, every Magic Realm had one of those.

"This place is a restricted area, only those with enough status can come this close," Carl said nervously, "If not because I'm currently invisible, I would never come here."

"Don't chicken so early," Wu Xue chuckled, but eventually gave up entering the castle, he could sense some strong existences inside and one in particular could pose a threat to him.

"Let's go back to the inn," Wu Xue said, and Carl was immediately relieved.

'To think I would find someone this strong without even entering the capital,' Wu Xue thought, 'This Evergreen empire is as strong as Master Ru Meng said. I better be careful with my moves in this city.'

When they were about to reach the inn, Carl suddenly stopped and kneeled on the ground, "Please teach me magic!"

Wu Xue was caught by surprise and couldn't help but wonder if the boy had some loose screws, "Why should I?"

Don't mention that he didn't know magic at all, even if he knew there was no reason for him to teach Carl.

"I know a huge wonder!" Carl shouted, "I will tell you as long as you promise to at least consider teaching me."

Wu Xue twitched the corners of his mouth and said, "Okay. But if it's an ordinary thing rather than a 'huge wonder,' I will refuse."

Carl pointed in the direction of the huge tower on the horizon and said, "I know a huge secret of the Magic Tower's Director, I learned about it after coming in contact with a few pieces of torn paper.

"The Director is not alive! He is an undead!" Carl said with a trembling body, "A terrifying Lich, to be exact."

"A lich?" it was the first time Wu Xue heard about that term, "What is a lich?"

"A monster that feeds on human emotions!" Carl was surprised that Wu Xue didn't know about it, but explained, "They are originally human mages but they gave up humanity in exchange for an indefinite life span, they resemble cursed skeletons but retain their original souls."

"Oh, I heard about those," Wu Xue was talking about the cursed skeletons, "Aren't they skeletons of mages that died carrying huge rage?"

Carl nodded, "But those cursed skeletons were very weak compared to Liches! A Lich is one of the most powerful beings!"

"Oh?" a fighting spirit lit up in Wu Xue's eyes, "Can they destroy mountains?"

"According to legends, some of the strongest Liches could even destroy kingdoms in a single attack!" Carl said with huge fear.

"Are you sure those aren't tales to scare children?" Wu Xue asked with a frown.

"No way!" Carl shook his head, "The existence of Liches is open knowledge, you can learn about them in any library.

"Moreover, the Empire declared enmity to all Liches in their territory!"