Surviving The Fourth Calamity

As he expected, Nanali had been noticed.

Staring at the entrance to the underground passage that had already been bypassed several times, Russell pinched his chin and thought for a while.

Logically, he should notify Aislin directly, but his intuition told him something wasn’t quite right.

How to put it...the entrance was indeed very secretive and couldn’t be opened without a certain token, but Russell really didn’t think that once someone noticed it, it wouldn’t eventually be discovered.

Maybe it couldn’t be opened, but it wouldn’t be lost.

Russell sat cross-legged silently on the floor, contemplating what he would do if he found someone suspicious and then an unopened secret passage nearby.

First, he would see who is related to this person.

Then, figure out a way to alert them and make them inspect that secret passage...if that happens, one could even turn the tables and take control.

Perhaps it could create a trap to kill the enemy.

Russell pondered for a while, suddenly stood up, turned around, and walked into the hall. The monitoring room and control room were not in the same place.

Actually, he also didn’t quite understand why the most important control room was located at the hall’s desk.

Gilbert’s thinking was indeed somewhat erratically brilliant.

Russell pulled open the drawer, pressed the side panel, quickly found the control hub of the underground passage, and located the chain of arrays connected with the outer circle passage. He deftly cut it in half, then made a couple of adjustments...next to the half that no longer connected to the Side Tower, a new chain appeared. Once connected, the originally green array quickly turned yellow-white.

This color indicated that the passage would be monitored in the future but was no longer under array control.

From now on, Russell could only choose whether or not to shut down the monitoring...the path, once abandoned, could never be reclaimed.

He was indeed hesitant, but compared to the possibility of being dragged down by this mess, Russell believed that Gilbert would more likely agree with his approach...that person obviously hated these trivial troubles.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t really hide in the secret room and never come out.

He wasn’t really ignorant of the outside matters...Russell was not foolish; he had figured out many things long ago.

Following that, for the half that remained connected to the Side Tower, he added a thin and long yellow chain. After pulsing in sync with the original part, it slowly fused together and finally turned green.

Russell nodded in satisfaction and began to adjust several other array chains: this time, a warning signal was set.

All entrance points displayed the message that the outer circle entrance was deactivated.

Russell patted his robe, ruffled his messy hair, and hummed a tune as he walked out the door...if even this couldn’t prevent Aislin and Nanali from being exposed, then it was just their fate.

After all, no one would be harmed; at most, some hidden conflicts would be brought to the surface...well, let them fight if they must!

Early or late, a fight is a fight.

As someone who just advanced, a poor child who didn’t even dare to show his face, he wasn’t capable of bearing such significant responsibilities.

Russell turned to glance out of the window, just as he prepared to tidy up the desk, suddenly paused again.

He pinched his chin, pondered for a while, walked to the drawer, and found the array chain for the secret passage known to Nanali between West’s Apprentice Tower and the library. He deftly tapped twice...the long chain suddenly sprouted a small circle.

It looked a bit abrupt, and the light spot was flickering and the color was almost ethereal.

This was a backup secret room.

Though he had long pondered how Felis would meet his misfortunes, it was his own business...in this cruel world, everyone had to struggle on their own.

Who didn’t have burdens?

Even those who could become mages: all the favoritism and smiles they had received since childhood, these were both their driving force and the weight pressing on them.

For most people, this weight was sweet; even if love consisted of countless flavors, it was still love.

A mage could lie to the outside world, but if they even lied to themselves in their Mental Sea, that Mental Sea would become chaotic.

Therefore, most mages preferred to repay such love...there would always be someone who naturally felt entitled to everything he received, but even such people would leave enough money to settle past ties for their family.

After all, it was a customary rule; to live in the mundane world, one had to abide by it regardless of reluctance.

But some people, really, even with abundant ability and perseverance, couldn’t withstand a burden that wasn’t a package but steel thorns tightly wound around them.

Every step left them scarred and bleeding all over.

Unless one day these thorns could be completely destroyed, it was really hard to live a decent life.

Felis’s fate was sealed when his brainless mother chose to have a child with someone outside of the Hainarson Clan’s Archmage Ruth faction.

Although Russell could understand that among the mages the lady could hook, Rolando was the best choice. After all, in Dark Enigma Town, there were just two mages whose talents allowed entry to the Inner Tower, and Nicholson was openly on poor terms with Ruth.

Ruth from his family, not to mention only interested in magic, even if he did have a bit of cunning, he wouldn’t target the wife of his faction’s Gilbert family...not because of some peer camaraderie, Russell had come to deeply understand how troublesome his family’s leader was through recent experiences.

Someone Aislin had to handle with caution would surely require others to be even more careful.

And for the outskirts mage whom Felis’s mother had contact with...how to say, if there really was a talented son, that person would seize the child even if it meant breaking up with the Hainarson Clan.

This concerned the future of one’s own family, and no one would hesitate.

So that lady, in her indecision, opted for Rolando, who appeared to be in the neutral Kamente Tower faction.

Moreover, this mage already had a legitimately born son with decent talent, so in normal cases, he wouldn’t compete with her for the child.

Unfortunately, all her careful calculations failed because she used her eyes to observe rather than her brain.

Even without knowing those messy relationships, Russell thought, if Carpenter were in the same situation...needing a talented son to prove her bloodline wasn’t the problem, but rather her husband...she would definitely choose an outskirts mage, calculated carefully but completely understood.

She honestly didn’t plan to break away from her own family, so she naturally chose someone she could suppress, not someone who suppressed her!

Russell thought of this and felt that Aunt Carpenter really had a short-sighted vision.

Ultimately, not only did it become difficult for herself...Russell was sure that Felis’s mother must be having a hard time now.

Even if she didn’t care about her son, someone like Ulrich would never easily forgive someone who brought trouble to himself.

Family punishment would be enough for her...even if Carpenter’s mother had some feelings for her sister when she realized that one of Rolando’s purposes in taking Felis was to counter Carpenter, she would definitely make the right choice.

Their reliance was only on Carpenter.

These people should understand if any big problem occurred due to their trivial issues affecting Carpenter, Russell would turn against them rather than continue to treat them as family.

Russell curled his lips: Felis, this guy, was really destined for misfortune from birth.

But he vaguely felt that without the standard runes and the recovery of Gilbert, Felis’s misfortune might have been slightly lessened: for example, that potion which wasn’t great but very expensive probably wouldn’t have been fed to Felis.

Russell also thought perhaps he was overthinking, but...his ’Gilbert’ teacher, during teaching, always vaguely advised that if something made him uneasy, it must be resolved.

Peace of mind wasn’t for others, but for oneself.

Russell felt that doing a little something to ease his mind and reassure Carpenter couldn’t be wrong.

He gently took out an ultra-thin translucent strip of paper the size of his ring finger, took a special pen, drew a map on it, then stamped it with a small seal.

Folding the strip into a small black dot, Russell pursed his lips: the rest would depend on whether Felis had that destiny.