Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Koyl had of course drunk Mint Wine before.

Although his life hadn’t been easy in the past, after becoming Ruth’s student—especially after breaking through the 5th Ring—this kind of pinnacle enjoyment for mortals was something he could obtain quite easily.

Of course, the Mint Wine Gilbert brought out was probably of even higher quality... At this point, any clan that could still keep its noble status would not have a short lineage.

Time always allowed people to pursue perfection in things that supposedly didn’t matter.

So Koyl laughed straightforwardly. ”It’s my honor to taste a treasured product of the Hainarson Clan.”

Hilbert’s hand that was pouring the wine paused despite himself. ”What are you trying to do?

My wine may not be that precious, but I can’t feed it to trouble, can I?”

Koyl smilingly walked up onto the dais, took the stemmed Crystal Cup in one hand, and sat lightly down on the single small sofa opposite Gilbert. ”Relax, I’m just here to build a bit of rapport. Even if I do have some ideas, they have nothing to do with you personally.

This wine, I can still drink.”

He held the Crystal Cup, took a long gulp straight down, then grinned and asked, ”Can I have a refill?

It tastes even better than what I used to drink at teacher’s place!”

”Only the top-grade Mint Wine of the Hainarson Clan gets sent to me.” Hilbert tilted his head slightly. ”At teacher’s place, how could he possibly bring out the very best stuff for all the students to drink?

Mint Wine may not count as a rare treasure, but it isn’t cheap either.”

Whatever the item, once the quantity went up, its value could no longer be calculated by single-unit price.

Even if the top Mint Wine backing Hainarson tasted a bit inferior to the very best in Ruth’s hands, it would certainly be far better than the common stock.

”Which is why...” Koyl watched Gilbert topping up his glass, smiling as his eyes narrowed slightly. ”I don’t intend to forever sit in the crowd, enjoying the most basic treatment.

If Aislin and Oliva can get something, why can’t I?

The only things they have over me are time and affection, isn’t that right?”

Hilbert gave him a casual glance. ”What does that have to do with me?

Just because I don’t get along with Aislin doesn’t mean I’ll help her enemies.”

”I’d never go against that one.” Koyl said cleanly and crisply. ”Even if lately it looks like that woman has gone back to normal.

But I’ll never believe what happened on the road was just her going crazy again.

On the contrary, I feel that the way she is now is what truly counts as crazy.”

In those eyes that were always slightly narrowed, a sharp glint flashed... The old Aislin had indeed loved flirting and stringing people along, but she had never damaged Ruth’s interests for the sake of those pretty boys.

Otherwise, if she let those pretty boys cheat her out of house and home, why would she suddenly wake up at the very end... Human greed has no limit.

For someone like Aislin, who always got duped, how many resources could she realistically keep in her hands?

For a Mid-Lower Rank Mage, first getting to touch the day-to-day resources of an Eighth Ring Mage would feel unimaginably wealthy... Yet as they enjoyed more and more, when they discovered that Aislin was actually the poorest of the Eighth Ring Mages, they would inevitably feel unwilling.

And as the one who managed Ruth’s Magic Tower warehouse, with even some access to his private stash, if Aislin allowed herself the slightest bit of greed... Temptation only took an instant; courting death naturally did too.

But Aislin, once she fell in love, always gave people the illusion that they could do whatever they wanted to her, so there would always be someone who forgot past lessons and felt they could become the number one in Aislin’s heart. It wasn’t all that surprising, really.

After all, the gaps between this woman’s bouts of love-brain were quite long... long enough for the newcomers to grow into the stage where they refused to believe in evil.

Koyl had never imagined he would one day see Aislin associating with an inevitable enemy of Ruth’s.

That Rosero from Sia Tower.

If she were the normal Aislin, there’s no way she would be like she was now, leading a Ninth Ring Sia Tower White Robe up and down to tour Ruth’s Main Tower, even explaining the roles of the Subsidiary Towers quite clearly.

The first time he discovered this, Koyl almost thought he’d been hexed.

Coupled with Aislin’s strange behavior on the way to Sia Tower... Koyl felt he’d finally gotten his chance.

Of course, what he wanted was Ruth’s regard and promotion, not becoming enemies with Aislin, who had clearly become one of Sia Tower’s people.

Heh~ Even Archmage Ruth had to tolerate, even indulge Aislin’s actions; a small fry like him could barely manage to play dumb in time!

Where would he find the courage to stand up for justice?

Whatever Oliva did, he’d just copy.

After Ruth chose him to be Controller of a Subsidiary Tower, Koyl considered many possible reasons... The reason that Female Mage was chosen was actually quite easy to figure out.

But as for him—though Koyl was very confident in his own abilities—over these years, in order not to attract the attention of that madwoman Aislin... he didn’t have Gilbert’s tricks... he’d always chosen to make his performance look about the same as most people’s.

Even if Ruth could see his cleverness, it wouldn’t be easy to believe his abilities truly matched the cunning he showed on the surface.

In the previous period, Koyl had been busy assisting Ruth in building the Great Magic Tower, so even though he was curious, he hadn’t had the time to think it over thoroughly.

Only these last few days, after even his own Subsidiary Tower had been successfully topped out and was just waiting for Archmage Ruth to inscribe the Magic Array, did Koyl finally have enough free time to carefully ponder what separated him from those senior and junior brothers who’d all failed.

They’d all started showing their capabilities at the same time, and to be honest, what they could do was more or less similar—so why had it ended up being him?

Then, while reviewing the tiniest differences between himself and those people, he suddenly thought of one thing: because he couldn’t bear to throw away the bit of rapport he’d finally built up with Gilbert, even after learning that this man definitely wouldn’t become Ruth’s heir, Koyl had still visited Gilbert in those first few days... bringing along quite a lot of Energy Baryte as gifts.

After all, for Gilbert, who could only use Puppets to construct his own territory, only Energy Baryte was truly practical.

No matter how he turned it over in his mind, Koyl felt this was the only explanation that made sense: even if it wasn’t because Ruth valued Gilbert very highly, it was still because that Archmage felt that not abandoning the Friendliness Value he’d already earned just because of some outward appearances was something worth praise.

Either way, he could not possibly cut off contact with Gilbert just because he’d already secured his status.

Like right now, at the very least he had permission to enter Gilbert’s territory... If it were someone else, daring to cross that length of wall around Gilbert’s domain would bring an immediate aerial strike from the Flying Eagle Puppet circling in the sky.

That was a Strange Object that could even throw Eighth Ring Aislin into a complete mess!

Moreover, Gilbert had equipped that eagle with a whole flock of bombing little birds circling around it.

If one came with hostility, it wouldn’t just be about getting paralyzed... Even if those sharp talons could be blocked by Defensive Spells, the self-destructing little birds with random attributes would still leave one scrambling.

No matter how well you prepared, you’d at least suffer some minor injuries.

To be honest, Gilbert’s hostility-detection threshold seemed to be that even a sliver of malice counted... but since he was clearly targeting Aislin, having a low threshold was perfectly normal.

Even with Ruth suppressing her, there was no way Aislin could feel no hostility at all toward Gilbert.

Even the Sia White Robe who’d gotten a bit too friendly with Aislin couldn’t possibly step into the internal strife among Ruth’s students again... especially after Rosero had suffered a loss right in front of Ruth once.

There was no helping it—Archmage Ruth had directly offered Rosero an apology at the time: though between the lines it was all about hoping Rosero wouldn’t hold any feelings over the foolishness of his students.

Now that Ruth had publicly linked Gilbert and Aislin together, Rosero instead couldn’t do anything... unless he wanted everyone to think he was using the excuse of helping Aislin to take revenge on Ruth’s beloved student Gilbert.

So, in Mage Gilbert’s field right now, besides Oliva, it seemed only he, Koyl, could move freely, even walking straight up to Gilbert’s Magic Tower’s front door.

This practically left Koyl flattered and overwhelmed!

So, he was definitely going to seize the opportunity and try his best to tighten his rapport with Gilbert.

-----------------

Hilbert looked at Koyl, whose expression didn’t change though his eyes kept darting about, and couldn’t help finding it somewhat amusing: this guy Koyl, though full of little schemes, was unexpectedly easy to read.

Besides, he really did need someone who could keep him better informed about what was going on outside.