It was already four in the morning, but Claude didn't feel sleepy at all.
He was mentally exhausted. The thirteenth day was the same as the eleventh. Two pages of recipes were filled to the brim. Claude had to go up to the roof and rest for half an hour before he finished copying the last page.
Fortunately, he was more familiar with ancient Hertz than before. Claude didn't need to look at the dictionary to understand most of the ancient Hertz words, which saved him a lot of time to decipher.
There was no longer any moonlight shining on the roof. Perhaps it was because it was covered by the clouds or it was nearing dawn, but the sky was dark and there was no longer any silver light shining down from the sky.
Claude was prepared to pull an all-nighter.
A sixteen-year-old was at the age where he was full of energy. It didn't matter if he didn't sleep for the whole day. He could just sneak a nap during class.
Not many instructors would pay attention to him sitting in the last row anyway. As long as the bad students didn't affect the students in front of them, the instructors would be satisfied if they could maintain order in class.
There were only pages sixteen and seventeen left in the recipe book. Claude decided to rest for a while and copy those two pages when he wasn't too tired. He wanted to see if the diary would bring him an unexpected outcome.
If it wasn't for his extraordinary mental power that allowed him to discover the secret of the recipe book, nobody would've known about this secret in history.
It turned out that the founder of the Amsran dynasty, Regus O 'Hill, wasn't just a stonemason leader as described in history books. Not only was he a descendant of a silver-silver magus noble, he was also the biggest magic stone supplier to the Association of Magic.
He used that to gather manpower, improve firearms, train troops, and even secretly organized the Brotherhood to attack magi.
It was obvious that Regus O 'Hill had been preparing for war against the magi for a long time.
He had successfully seized the opportunity when the mages were trapped in Kempeth Plane, unable to return. He had incited the anger of the low-ranked black iron mages towards the silver-ranked magic nobles who held authority and were unwilling to die in Kempeth Plane. He had used them to plot to capture the holy land of magic in the eyes of the mages — St. Perth City.
Even though there were still two more pages that he hadn't deciphered, Claude could already guess the ending.
It had to have been a success. Otherwise, the history books wouldn't have said that the evil magi were banished to Higros Island, far away from Freia.
However, he didn't know what would happen to the two magi who helped Regus O 'Hill, the owner of the diary and the cookbook, the four-ring rune magus and Tawari.
There was already a hint of light in the sky. Looking at the time scale on the glass hourglass on the table, it was almost five in the morning.
Claude got up from the bed and shook his head. He felt relaxed enough to continue copying.
He turned on the oil lamp and focused his attention on the sixteenth page of the recipe.
— —
Nomartin Calendar 3341, August 26th, sunny.
— —
That's not right … Claude was already very familiar with the date written in ancient Hez, especially the letters that represented numbers. As those letters weren't much different from the Hebraic letters, he was able to translate them in his mind when he copied the first line.
He remembered that he had just translated the diary of the thirteenth day, and the date marked on it was … the 23rd of August, 3341 of the Nomad Calendar. How did it suddenly become the 26th day?
What happened to the 24th and 25th in between?
Claude checked the thirteen pages he had already translated and looked at the dates to make sure he hadn't missed anything.
He found it rather strange. Why was it two days later all of a sudden?
Could it be that someone tore two pages of the recipe?
But when he checked the recipe carefully, he didn't find anything. There weren't any signs of the two pages being torn off at all.
Forget it, I'll just copy it down and decipher it. Perhaps the diary will give me some hints.
— — —
Nomartin Calendar 3341, August 26th, sunny.
I'll be leaving for St. Perth the next day.
He had been staying in the camp for the past three days. With the baron and Tawari's help, he finally managed to brew seven barrels of explosive gunpowder. He brought them to a mountainous area fifty kilometers away from Goldwater Dew Town to test them out.
The effects were great. It far exceeded the power of the ninth-ring forbidden spell, Annihilation.
I believe that ninth-ring archmagi have to consider their mana, experience, hand seals, incantations, casting distance, and other external factors when casting Annihilation.
As for the explosive magical crystal gunpowder, as long as the standard amount of gunpowder was fixed and the magical crystal and runes were used to fully unleash the explosive power of the gunpowder, there would be no need to worry about the difference in power like the forbidden spells cast by the Ninth Ring Archmages.
A huge crater was left in a small hill after the explosion. Everyone who saw it had ashen faces. I didn't think the explosion would be this powerful.
The only downside is that mana can't be injected more than ten meters away from the runes. Also, the explosive powder only lasts for fifteen seconds. While Tawari, a battlemage, should be able to get the user to retreat to a safe distance of a hundred meters, it'll be a problem for me.
I'll be leaving for St. Perth the next day.
I don't know if I'll be able to return.
But I have to do what I promised.
I've decided to leave this diary here.
If I really can't come back, then maybe someone will find out that my diary is hidden in this cookbook, and know everything that happened in the past …
My name is Landes Parrick. My home is in the southwest of Lake Balinga. There's a beautiful fishing village there called Whitestag.
My father is Kuryes Parrick, and my mother is Alusha Morris. I have two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger sister.
There's a mountain range on the other side of Whitestag called Egret. There's a magic tower there, Archmagus Loenk's Seven Rings Tower. I studied there for seven years and became a fourth-ring rune magus.
I'm saying this because I hope that if I really don't make it back, someone who can get their hands on this recipe book and read my diary will pay a visit to the magic tower when it's convenient.
Archmagus Loenk is dead, so I don't know who has the tower now.
But on the basement floor, the little room by the stone staircase, was my quarters in the Enchanted Tower.
I had made a hole in the back of the staircase, in which to hide my personal effects.
There was a square slab of bluestone that was close to the ground. As long as one pushed it hard, the bottom would tilt up, and the slate could be lifted up.
Hehe, I didn't use magic to hide anything, because in the magic tower, as long as I use magic, the owner will find out.
There was a stone box in the cave, and in it was my bag of sullivan's coins. There were thirty-five of them.
If you can get it, please give ten to my parents. That way, they can live out their old age in peace. My brothers can start a family and my sisters can have a decent dowry.
Take the remaining twenty-five Sullivans as my thanks.
There are also two of my diaries in the box and one of my notes from when I was learning magic. There are many of my magic designs and conjectures in it. If you need them, please don't hesitate.
I'm a poor magus with nothing of value. The only thing I have is that bag of shalim, and it's a reward from Loenk for completing the mission. I've been saving one or two shalim for five years …
— —
There were also two pages of recipes, but there was only one page in the diary. There was only a short paragraph on the 17th page. It seemed that the diary was really gone.
However, after translating it, he felt a chill run down his spine.
Was this the so-called arrangement of fate?
The secret of the recipe book hadn't been discovered by anyone in the past six hundred years. In the end, it returned to Whitestag and landed in his hands. It told him that the magus who wrote the diary was also a resident of Whitestag, but it was just a small fishing village 600 years ago.
He was going to explore Egret with his friends the next day, and he had always wanted to see the ruins of the magic tower there.
But the last page of the diary told him that the rune mage who wrote the diary was from the magic tower in Egret Continent, and that he had left something in the tower …
Even though the diary said that there were only two diaries, one magic notebook, and a bag of gold coins, it seemed that the owner was a poor magus.
But this kind of coincidence made people feel extremely strange, as if there was a pair of eyes watching the transmigrator, and casually fiddling with and manipulating his fate …
There was no more oil in the lamp. The flame on the oil lamp gradually dimmed and shrunk. When it was extinguished, a wisp of green smoke rose from the wick.
However, the sky was already bright and there was no longer a need for the lamp.
Claude rubbed his face. Whether or not it was fate, since the recipe book was in his hands and he found the diary, he had no choice but to search for the things left behind by the magus in Egret.
By the way, what was his name again?
Then he looked at the translated diary. Oh, Landes Parrick.
What he had to worry about was that after six hundred years, the magic tower had long collapsed and turned into ruins. He just didn't know if Landes's things were still there.
Claude didn't really care about the gold coins. What was more important were the two diaries and the magic notebook. If he could find them, he might be able to understand what magic was and whether he could learn it.
The bell of Wargod Hall rang and the clear sound reverberated in the air above Whitestag.
It was six in the morning and people began to appear on the streets. Soon, the clamor of carriages and the cries of vendors became louder and louder.
Claude was rather excited. He had originally thought that the recipe book was some sort of secret tome, like those martial arts manuals. He didn't think that it would only be the diary of a low-ranked rune magus after deciphering it.
Even though he was disappointed, the diary did record a scene from the war between the legendary Regus O 'Hill and the magi 500 years ago.
Not to mention, the diary was written by a magus.
It was a pity that Claude was the only one who could see the diary hidden in the cookbook. He couldn't take it out to the public, or it would cause a huge uproar in the field of history on Freia.
Of course, Claude wasn't stupid enough to take it out. Given the taboo against magic in Aueras, taking out the recipe book would be tantamount to walking right into a trap.
You can see the diary of a magus in the recipe book?
That's good. That means you're talented in magic and dangerous.
Even if you don't get arrested or punished, what awaits you in the future will be surveillance and the loss of your freedom.
What am I thinking …? He rubbed his face furiously again. My imagination tends to run wild when my imagination is too good. I'd better go downstairs and wash my face to clear my head. One more day and I'll be able to head to Egret tomorrow.
He had thought that the diary only recorded that period of history, but he didn't think that the last page would give him a huge clue.
Even though it was strange, since it was possible to transmigrate to a magical world, it wasn't all that surprising.