Chapter 340 — A Great Gift

Camille and Piyun arrived even earlier than Gaoyang had expected. The very next day, a thunderous crack rang out across the courtyard of Glan Castle. The servants sweeping the yard were sent into a panic by the enormous ball of lightning that had suddenly appeared in midair. Gaoyang and Viscountess Ropenny, who had been discussing matters inside the castle, rushed out at the sound, and there they saw the radiance of arcane energy coursing across the courtyard floor. At the heart of that surging power, suspended quietly in the air, floated an arcane spirit with a faint human outline.

And an old man with an explosion of frizzy hair.

The arcane spirit floating in the air glanced down at Piyun, whose hair was standing on end, and a buzzing sound issued from its energy-wreathed body: "See? I told you, lightning jump is much faster than that forest deer you summon. And it's perfectly safe."

Piyun's face was black as soot, his hair standing straight up. He blinked, opened his mouth, and uttered one weighty word: "...Bah..." (He spat out a puff of black smoke.)

Standing beside Gaoyang, Ropenny stared dumbstruck at the two humanoid creatures before her, one black and one white. The viscountess knew that Gaoyang had sent his personal guard back to his territory to summon someone, but first, she had not expected them to arrive so soon, and second, she had not expected them to be people like this... In the eyes of a mage who had only just broken through to the intermediate rank, the arcane energy surging around Camille was like a blazing lighthouse. This powerful magical creature filled the viscountess with quiet alarm, and she could not help but cast an uneasy, doubtful glance at Gaoyang. "Your Grace, this is..."

"Camille, my magical advisor. Piyun, my druid advisor," Gaoyang said, stepping forward. "I thought you two wouldn't arrive for another couple of days. Amber didn't come with you?"

"After hearing about the situation here, I decided the matter could not wait," Camille said. "As for Miss Amber... I did originally intend to bring her along, but she suddenly ran off during the first lightning jump. Her shadow powers are too strong. I could not catch her."

Piyun wore the expression of a man whose heart had died within him: "She just up and ran, right there on the spot... And after all the care I gave her back in the day..."

Gaoyang understood at once, and felt that Amber had performed entirely as expected. He was not in the least surprised that the disgrace of the elves could escape from Camille's lightning jump. That girl had poured every skill point of her life into running away and picking locks. How could a plain, honest scientific worker (even a very capable fighter) ever hope to catch her?

"There's no need for alarm. Camille is a powerful arcanist; it's only because a magical experiment failed that he was transformed into this form. And Piyun is an excellent druid—that complexion of his was just smoked on," Gaoyang said with a smile, putting the somewhat nervous Viscountess Ropenny at ease, and incidentally explaining Camille's public identity. The title of Grand Archmage of Gondor from a thousand years ago was impressive, but stating it outright would inevitably draw too much attention, so unless it was necessary, Gaoyang always applied a certain degree of disguise to Camille. "Now we can go examine Patty and that magical device. Of course, Piyun, you go wash your face first."

Only then did Ropenny seem to come back to herself. She gave the powerful, mysterious Grand Archmage wreathed in arcane radiance a deep look, and suddenly something dawned on her:

The world all said that Duke Gaoyang Cecil, risen from his coffin, was a man with nothing but a great name, his family fortunes squandered by his descendants. But now it seemed... this renowned founding hero truly did have hidden cards unknown to others. This powerful archmage might well be the strength the Cecil family had kept concealed...

So this was what a great family was like... Even after a century of decline, when the time was ripe, they could still produce hidden power enough to astonish anyone.

"Whatever the examination reveals, House Glan will forever be grateful for your help," Ropenny said, lowering her head earnestly.

Cecil was still strong. That was truly good news.

At Patty's door, Camille hesitated briefly, then looked at Gaoyang. "Going in like this—will it frighten the child?"

"I've already given her warning. It won't," Gaoyang said with a smile. "And she'll probably be thrilled. Patty rarely gets the chance to see anything new from outside the castle. Her curiosity burns brighter than most children's."

Ropenny opened the door. In the bright bedroom with its great windows and skylight, little Patty sat in a chair at the center of the room, listening to a maid read her a story while quietly basking in the sun.

They heard the door open. The maid could not suppress a low gasp at the sight of Camille, while Patty seemed a little stunned. She stared fixedly at Camille for a long while, and noting that Gaoyang had come into the room alongside him, she gaped a few seconds later: "Whoa!"

Gaoyang walked over with a smile. "Patty, I've brought a doctor."

"Uncle Gaoyang!" Patty beamed with delight, straining to raise her one remaining arm as if to wave hello. The attempt quickly failed, but she was still overjoyed. "You came!"

"...In the name of all the gods..." Piyun stared at the little girl strapped to the chair, and after a long while murmured, "It's a miracle she's even alive..."

"I didn't call you here to marvel at miracles," Gaoyang said, glancing at Piyun. "I called you here to heal her."

"I have already sought out the finest druids and priests of the Holy Light, but none of them could do anything," Viscountess Ropenny said quietly. "So even if she cannot be made well this time, I will accept it with equanimity."

"Honestly, my lord, this is very difficult," Piyun said, sizing up Patty's injuries and sensing the life force within her. "Given my druid rank..."

"You will do your utmost," Gaoyang said, patting Piyun on the shoulder, and on the last few words he placed deliberate weight and repeated them: "Your 'utmost.'"

Piyun looked at Gaoyang in silence, then after a few seconds smiled. "I probably can't make her healthy again, but... at least I can make her better than she is now."

As he spoke, he walked toward Patty, muttering under his breath: "Those bungling druids who left her in this state... not a shred of real skill among them."

"Camille, what I want you to examine is something else," Gaoyang said, turning to the ancient arcanist. "You've been studying those Ever-Sleeper magical arrays for some time now. I wonder whether you can tell anything from their creations."

Ropenny at once ordered the maid standing nervously by to fetch the peculiar magical device used when Patty slept.

When Camille saw the magical device, the arcane radiance around him visibly brightened, and he let out a sound of keen interest: "Interesting..."

A gravity spell and a hand of evocation drew the device from the maid's hands and set it rotating in midair. Camille observed every minute structural detail of the device with total concentration; in the two points of arcane fire that served as his eyes flickered the light of curiosity and the thirst for knowledge.

This magical device bore the hallmark of most magical items in this world: it was luxurious, expensive, its every detail encrusted with countless extra ornaments so that the whole thing seemed more like a work of art than an instrument. Given its shape, it looked almost like a small crown of peculiar design. The Camille of old would have felt nothing before such a device, but after embracing Gaoyang's philosophy of "cheap mass production and pragmatism," he had gradually come to see the engraving of countless functionless patterns on magical devices as a considerable waste.