Chapter 1 The Autumn Moon

The clear autumn moon shone through the French windows, casting light into the room. Outside, red maples were faintly visible in the night.

Lan Qi closed his eyes, taking a moment to rest in the tranquil evening.

The journey from the Kingdom of Polson had been long, and he was finally beginning to settle down within the Kriti Empire.

He had no plans or amusements for the evening.

The only thing to do was to confirm some information and prepare for the work of the next few days.

There was no need to guess or worry about tomorrow just yet.

Predicting his time in the Kriti Empire was difficult; perhaps even the Goddess of Fate hadn't written the script for his destiny.

Only one thing was certain.

"From now on, I am High Priest Loren, disguised as Landry. One day, I will scare those bastards to death."

Lan Qi slowly got up, walked to the window, and opened the curtains, feeling the warmth of the moonlight and the caress of the night breeze.

Knowing that Loren had fallen into the trap of the three War Gods indirectly because he went to the Kingdom of Polson to pick him up, Lan Qi felt particularly bad.

Whether it was the Third War God, Garnet Gariat, the Seventh War God, Carnelian Philip, or the Eleventh War God, Emerald Simonro, Lan Qi felt that their victory was dishonorable. If it hadn't been a three-on-one fight, how could Loren have lost to them?

Chirp, chirp.

A canary perched on a branch outside the window, tilting its head and curiously observing Lan Qi.

"You are welcome to bring your friends to my yard for dinner tomorrow."

Lan Qi smiled slightly, waved to it, and closed the curtains again.

No matter where he was, his animal friends would not leave him.

"It's time to start preparing."

He took a deep breath, turned and walked towards the study, his eyes becoming firm.

There, mountains of textbooks and materials were waiting for him to study.

It would probably take at least another half hour for Talia and Cat Boss to finish dinner.

The lazy time before dinner had passed, and he shouldered a heavy responsibility, ready to write a new chapter in this unknown land.

He sat down at the desk.

Lan Qi picked up the magic device tablet that Secretary Nera had given him earlier and checked the information that could be accessed through the professor's faculty permissions.

Before long, his gaze stopped on a photo and personal information on the crystal screen.

There was indeed a student in the first grade of the Saint Kriti Monastery with the same surname as Landry.

Her name was Elsa Washington.

She was born in an ancient castle in the Niksaxend border area of northwestern Kriti Empire. Her family was once a prominent noble family.

With the changes of the times, the Washington family gradually declined. Fortunately, she received a good education in the countryside when she was a child, learning the family's magical skills and magic engineering. At the age of fourteen, she was sent to a girls' boarding magic school in Brilda, the capital, for further study.

Judging from the photo, she and her brother had indeed inherited the family's bloodline. Like her brother, her features were attractive and delicate, and her temperament was similar, but she was obviously younger than her brother.

Elsa seemed to have lived in Brilda for several years without returning to the border. She studied in the capital starting from high school and then entered the Saint Kriti Monastery with excellent grades.

Judging from the previous grouping and topics, she seemed to be more familiar with commoner students. After all, given the economic conditions of their Washington family, accommodation and other aspects were of ordinary standards. It could even be said that the cost of traveling back and forth from the capital to her old home on the border was extremely high, and there was a clear difference between them and the real nobles of the capital.

The Kriti Empire's territory was far larger than that of other kingdoms. Even if it was only within the country, the actual distance might far exceed the cross-border travel between kingdom alliances.

As a result, Landry had not been to the imperial capital for so long.

Seeing this, Lan Qi put down the magic device in his hand and began to think on the office chair.

The Landry siblings had not seen each other for too long.

Landry, as he was pretending to be, shouldn't have any major flaws.

But he was not the real Landry after all. He didn't have Landry's memories, and he didn't know about Landry's past or his childhood in his hometown.

So, in the Saint Kriti Monastery, it would be best to maintain a certain distance from Landry's sister on the grounds of avoiding suspicion between professor and student.

Of course, if he was too distant from her, it might arouse the suspicion of Headmaster Violet.

As long as he didn't talk to her about the past and tried to avoid topics in that area, it would be fine. At worst, Talia could cover for him and judge the truth of Landry's sister's words.

Just as Lan Qi was considering this, there were two light knocks on the open door of the study.

"What, thinking about me?"

Talia's voice sounded from the entrance of the study.

Lan Qi turned around and saw Talia holding a tray, bringing a glass of juice to the second floor.

She came over and put the juice on Lan Qi's desk.

"I'm thinking that if I meet Landry's sister at school in the next few days, I'll probably have to rely on you to help me judge the truth."

Lan Qi looked at the juice, not reaching out to touch it for a moment, but slightly turning his eyes to observe Talia with a little uncertainty.

Talia would bring him tea and water.

Why was he having such a dream?

"Don't drink coffee and tea at night. I squeezed this composite juice with fresh fruits and vegetables."

Talia said.

She saw Lan Qi's concentration and hard work when he worked.

She felt that in the Kriti Empire, she might not be able to help him much except for taking care of Lan Qi's life. Mostly, Lan Qi might only use her eighth-tier power at critical moments.

"Oh, oh."

Lan Qi came back to his senses, picked up the glass and took a sip, his eyes looking out the window facing the desk.

The branches and leaves swayed gently in the cool autumn breeze, making rustling sounds.

Occasionally, one or two fiery red maple leaves fell with the wind, reflecting dark shadows in the moonlight.

Night fell, and the insects chirped, bringing the faint sound of the stream from the distant Great Monastery.

Most of the time, he was the one taking care of others, so he found the feeling of being taken care of rare.

"It's an addictive taste."

Lan Qi put down the glass that he had unknowingly emptied and said to Talia.

It was sweet with just the right amount of sourness, and it was also mixed with the freshness of vegetables.

Although she didn't ask him for an evaluation, it was definitely the right thing to express praise when receiving such great food.

"Then I'll use this recipe again next time. The vegetables and fruits produced by the Saint Kriti Monastery's own farmland are of really good quality."

Talia's expression didn't change, but her tone was a little lighter.

"Is it different from Hatton's side?"

Lan Qi asked her.

"It's different. I can tell at a glance. The vegetables in the Saint Kriti Monastery are very unique. If most of the ingredients that can be bought in the Ikerite store are blue precious quality, the vegetables and fruits in the Saint Kriti Monastery may be purple rare grade, and they will be better for making magic dishes."

Talia analyzed seriously.

Lan Qi saw Talia's serious look when she mentioned food, and he subconsciously wanted to laugh a little, but he felt that it was a good thing that she could eat well. Her happiness was pure, as if it could infect the people around her.

"What are you thinking about?"

Talia noticed the expression on Lan Qi's face as he stared at her, but she couldn't tell that he was thinking about anything in his heart, just like he was simply staring at her in a daze, so she stopped talking and asked him.

"It's nothing. I just think that next time in the Shadow World, with you taking care of Hibernia, no matter how dangerous it is, I can rest assured. At least she will be in a good mood."

Lan Qi sighed with a smile.

"Of course, she likes me the most, followed by male moms."

Talia said with a slightly proud expression.

She also sat on another chair in the study in a slightly leisurely manner and chatted with Lan Qi.

Dinner would take a while to be ready, but Cat Boss could keep an eye on the stove over there.

"By the way, how is your research on Landry's identity going?"

Talia suddenly remembered the business and cast a temporary barrier to isolate detection, asking Lan Qi.

"His personal luggage is just what's in the suitcase. I've seen it all. Basically, he plans to buy new daily necessities when he comes to Brilda, the capital. The only thing that's a little special is his magic cards."

Lan Qi took out a stack of magic cards and replied.

These were all Landry's magic cards.

His own combat power should not be weak, but he encountered Unity, the top sixth-tier assassin of the Allied Forces, who was too strong. Once the crispy mage types of the same tier were attacked by her, they would easily be killed.

And Landry's best attribute should be [Appraisal].

Most of the reconnaissance magic and see-through magic were [Appraisal] attributes. Prana was very good at this, and it was also Prana's sub-attribute. It often gained a great intelligence advantage in combat, and it was equally convenient for use in scientific research and life professions.

Although Lan Qi was not very good at appraisal magic, he had Talia, an eighth-tier spirit, so his appraisal ability would not be bad, and he could simulate Landry's appraisal magic to a certain extent.

Because of Landry's excellent information-gathering ability, he was not too afraid of intelligence warfare and fancy enemies. His magic card choices were basically high-output elemental magic and some defense and recovery magic, taking the path of an all-around mage.

"His card combinations have a very high cost performance and flexibility, but what I didn't expect is that he is willing to hold a pink sacred-grade communication magic card, even though he almost only has purple rare combat magic cards..."

Lan Qi took out a pink translucent card from this stack of radiant magic cards. This was a sacred-grade communication magic that he had never seen before.

[Ultra-Long-Range Communication Program - 7]

[Category: Spell Card]

[Grade: Pink Sacred]

[Tier: 6]

[Effect: Compared to ordinary ultra-long-range communication magic, the communication distance and anti-interference are stronger.]

[Note: Justice of the Empire, summon everyone to the judgment stand.]

"I've seen a lot of ultra-long-range communication magic, but this is the first time I've seen a pink sacred-grade one."

Talia looked at the magic card from the side and also felt that pink sacred-grade communication magic was too extravagant.

Using this card might eliminate many transit stations and directly consume high mana for communication. Correspondingly, it would never be cheap, or rather, its process was a mystery.

If it could be mass-produced, it would definitely become a special military item, but obviously, there was almost no possibility of mass production of pink sacred-grade items.

"This communication magic card actually rang once for a message. It will only turn into a prompt sound in my ear, but I have been busy all afternoon and haven't paid attention to this communication card."

After Lan Qi disguised himself as Landry, he immediately bound his key magic cards to avoid omissions.

This card was undoubtedly the most important core of them.

In addition to being able to carry out instant communication, communication magic cards can also send messages and leave messages.

Now there was finally space to study this card with Talia.

"Take a look."

Talia said.

Lan Qi nodded, lightly touching the magic card with his fingertip to activate it.

Breathing-like pink ripples began to ripple on the translucent card body, and information gradually poured into their minds.

[Truth (No. 2): Are you in Brilda?]

Only one such message appeared before their eyes, visible only to them.

Lan Qi & Talia: "?"

They looked at each other, both not understanding what this meant.

As Talia, who inherited the characteristics of the Poet of Great Love, it was normal to be able to share Lan Qi's magic cards. What she was confused about was the content of the message Landry received itself.

If she remembered correctly, in the words Landry told Lan Qi in the train compartment, he did not have any acquaintances in Brilda, the capital of the empire.

Talia was also very sure that this was the truth because she was listening on Lan Qi's body.

But looking at this message, Landry had not yet arrived in Brilda, the capital, and there was a mysterious contact asking him.

"Doesn't he have some secrets about not coming to Brilda...?"

Talia narrowed her eyes and asked Lan Qi.

"I don't know."

Lan Qi shook his head.

Now they both suddenly felt that this guy Landry was a little strange!

Landry Washington seemed to have more secrets than the two of them had imagined, but Landry's disguise was equally exquisite, making them not see it at all before!

This identity he picked up was not ordinary.

Compared to the special commissioner of the Demon King's Castle in the Corridor of Purgatory, Landry's secrets were only more, not less, and might even be more dangerous.

Lan Qi quickly checked the contact's information and found that there were no other remarks.

"Try sending a message back to the other party."

Talia also checked the communication magic card for Lan Qi and confirmed that there was no other hidden information, she said.

"I'll try."

Lan Qi nodded, began to enter information, and then sent it.

[Justice (No. 7): Just arrived.]

Such information appeared in the communication magic card.

Lan Qi and Talia had initially determined one thing.

In Landry's mysterious communication magic card, the contact did not use a real name remark, only a title.

Landry's title was "Justice", and the person talking to him was titled "Truth".

Looking closely, this communication magic card could also mark remarks for contacts. "No. 2" seemed to be the default remark for "Truth". Landry did not modify it.

And they finally understood what the "-7" suffix at the end of Landry's [Ultra-Long-Range Communication Program] meant.

(End of this chapter)