The black sun hangs high

Chapter 143 This is artillery fire!

It was a strange feeling to talk to Mayer.

He is actually quite young, only in his early thirties, but perhaps because of his speaking style, or because Meyer looks mature and composed, Hugh sometimes feels as if he is talking to an elder with a wealth of life experience.

But when Meyer uses some humorous and witty remarks, he becomes easygoing. When talking about the "works" that Hugh had written in the past, Meyer actually has quite a few insights. What surprised Hugh was that Meyer's views on those works were similar to those of Princess Sophia of Walter.

"The real reason why Mr. Hugh's works are so popular is that you never write stories about nobles, officials and politicians... In your stories, ordinary people living at the bottom of society are the protagonists."

Several medical students passed by and greeted the professor sitting on the bench. Meyer nodded in response, and then he said to Hugh: "They can see their own lives in it, they can see what they can understand and know... that's the most important thing."

"I might want to write something else in the future."

Mayer was clearly supportive: "That's great! Still the same old subject matter?"

"Probably not... but it's possible it's somewhat related? After all, there are still a lot of people who like to watch it."

"Very good, very good."

Having spent some time at Ernst Manor, Hugh had almost forgotten what it felt like to have genuine conversations with people, but his dialogue with Mayer greatly satisfied this spiritual need of his.

Hugh recalled Alfred's earlier description of Frey Meyer, so he asked, "By the way, since Professor Meyer is from St. Steel, why is he staying in Bolden now? If a full-scale war breaks out, perhaps the St. Steel army will need a physician like you?"

However, Meyer's next reply left Hughes speechless.

“I’m still on the Saint Steel royal family’s wanted list.”

"what?"

"Ten years ago, I lived in Saint-St., working as an alchemist, conducting research, and writing articles... Later, I was accidentally drawn into a case that was very serious and was considered a premeditated assassination attempt on the King of Saint-St.."

Hugh's eyebrows twitched twice.

He had a premonition that the other party was involved in something big, but he didn't expect it to be this big.

"So, you're still on the run?"

“Strictly speaking, this case was overturned three years ago, and the pursuit of me on the surface has ended.”

Meyer emphasized the word "on the surface," and Hugh immediately understood what he meant—that the Saint-St. royal family had not let him off easily, and even now that the case had been publicly overturned, Meyer was still on their blacklist.

This incidates that……

Even if Frey Meyer wasn't involved in the alleged assassination, he did things that the Saint Steel royal family found intolerable.

"So... what exactly did you do?"

"I didn't do anything special, I just tried to start a newspaper with those friends and published a few articles."

When asked about the incident, Meyer remained remarkably calm: “Our initial purpose in starting that newspaper was to fight for some meager rights for the miners of St. Steel, but later, the relationship between the miners and the royal family deteriorated completely, leading to several conflicts. As a result, our newspaper was shut down, and a significant number of our members were arrested… and then came the assassination attempt.”

"I see."

Hugh nodded with a sigh.

He had heard about the St. Steel workers from others more than once.

Saint Steel borders the vast northern snowfields. Although this cold country has countless rich crystal mines, it must rely on a large number of miners for continuous mining. It is no exaggeration to say that Saint Steel, this northern country, is actually a country built on countless crystal mines and the backs of miners.

However, the miners' endurance has clearly reached its limit, and the rulers of Saint Steel are well aware of this, which is why they are rushing to get involved in the war—only when external conflicts and battles are intense enough will the domestic threat be further reduced.

“The miners of St. Steel are not an isolated case; I think they represent only a phenomenon.”

Mayer leaned against the warm winter sun: "The so-called crystal mine is just a scene and a carrier. Farms, ranches, workshops... and perhaps other places in the future. With the further integration of steam and magic and the evolution of war, similar situations are likely to spread to more fields and eventually become a common phenomenon."

"It sounds like you're not optimistic about the development of steam technology?"

"No, on the contrary, I think the development of this technology is very important. Human weapons and tools should not be limited to the realm of magic. Although magic is equally important, judging from the history of the past few hundred years, the development of magic has come very close to the limits we can reach. Therefore, we need something new to break the deadlock."

Meyer stared at Hugh: "Humanity needs more possibilities, more stable, potentially innovative, and pioneering possibilities."

Hearing Meyer's words, Hugh frowned slightly. He pondered for two seconds, then raised his fingers to construct magic runes, setting up a basic magical ritual on the spot that could block out human voices.

After that, he asked, “Professor Mayer, I agree with the views you expressed in the newspaper and I admire your past actions, but now I would like to understand more clearly the reasons for your views… I have noticed that you are repeatedly emphasizing the concept of ‘humanity,’ which seems to have gone beyond the scope of our initial discussion.”

Upon hearing Hugh's question, Meyer sighed for the first time in front of Hugh.

“Mr. Hugh, when Major Alfred introduced you to me, he emphasized that you are the most special anomaly among all the nobles… This is not malicious slander or defamation; in my opinion, it is the highest praise he could give you.”

Meyer paused for a moment, his face frozen in the sunlight, as if in that instant he was engaged in endless thought and consideration.

After a brief silence, Mayer slowly said, "Mr. Hugh, I know you may have some experiences that are different from ordinary people, even from ordinary mages... But if I told you that the assassination of the king in Saint Steel has similarities to the tragedy in Seren City that you personally experienced, what would you think?"

……

Time passed slowly, and it was now close to noon.

Meyer was, after all, a professor at the college, and he had important courses and meetings to attend. So Hugh remained alone on the garden bench and began to seriously consider Frey Meyer and the information he was conveying to him.

"Hmm...child, this is a very special person!"

The voice came from Hugh's spiritual world. Since the Running Rats fell into a long slumber due to absorbing too much of the Earth Mother Goddess's power, the rat swarm formed by the wills of the Ernst family had temporarily taken over Sniggy's role. Moreover, these knowledgeable souls with rich life experience had also become Hugh's personal advisors.

Countess Alexandra is always very proactive when expressing her opinions: "I can sense that he has very lofty pursuits and ideals. Although I am not quite sure of his true thoughts, my intuition tells me that this is the case."

I don't think so!

Jacob's voice rang out, contradicting the Countess as always: "His ideas are dangerous!"

"Danger? Tell me about it."

“Saint Steel is the ‘Land of Crystal Mines.’ Without the mining of crystal mines, this country would immediately collapse. Yet the professor and his friends are trying to gather and unite the miners. This behavior is very subtle. If they are guided with care, those miners might become a force that overthrows the rule of a country… As for his thoughts and actions, they are simply incomprehensible!”

"You mean the things he did for the workers?"

"Of course!"

As a very old-fashioned Wotell nobleman, Jacob naturally expressed his opinion, while he was also surprised by Hugh's reaction: "Child, aren't you surprised by his thoughts?"

"It's alright, I've seen and heard of quite a few people like that before."

"Really? That's amazing."

Hughes offered no further explanation in response to the astonishment shown by Jacob and the other souls.

After all, that happened in another time and space. Perhaps in two different worlds, there may still be some people and events with similar trajectories, but it is not advisable to put the two together for discussion in such a crude way.

Unlike the focus of Jacob and other family wills, Hugh is now more concerned with something else that Meyer mentioned.

Meyer is one of the few people Hughes has met who believes there is another force behind this war.

The "pusher" he was referring to was the Black Sun Society.

“I don’t understand, Mr. Hugh. It’s something I still can’t figure out.”

Meyer said: "Instigating conflict, driving war... all of this should have a cause, either because of hatred or because of interests, but in my observation, there have been too many events in recent years that lack a reasonable cause. Even if I have some evidence to show that these things are driven by the same group of people, I still cannot understand why they do these things."

Hughes believed what Mayer said.

He was, after all, just a sociologist and alchemist, and knew nothing about evil magic or the ancient beings worshipped by the Black Sun Society. Human desires, emotions, ideals, and interests were utterly meaningless in the face of those lost ancient deities.

The existence that the Black Sun Society believes in is inherently chaotic, so trying to infer their behavior through human reason will naturally lead to misunderstandings.

Through Mayer's words, Hughes had a new perspective and speculation about the sudden attack launched by the army of the Kingdom of St. Steel along the Isa River—was the Black Sun Society secretly pushing and manipulating behind this abnormal behavior?
"If that's the case, then the situation in the Kingdom of Saint Steel is indeed not very optimistic... If a country's military command system is successfully infiltrated, then all the soldiers controlled and commanded by it will become extremely unstable."

The long, intense conversation and contemplation gave Hugh a headache, so he couldn't help but sigh. He then mobilized the magic within his body to soothe his mind.

Just then, a clear voice came from the side: "You're exhausted, aren't you? That's how it is when you discuss and chat with your mentor. He has so much energy, it's like he never gets tired!"

Hugh turned around and saw that Sally had somehow gotten behind him. He had been so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed her approach.

At this moment, the girl who used to work as a bartender in the beer hall of Seren was leaning against the back of the bench, her upper body bathed in the midday sun, a faint smile on her face.

Such a scenario is certainly wonderful.

At least it was enough to allow Hugh to temporarily forget the things weighing on his mind.

He then smiled and said, "What? The council is willing to release you as their assistant?"

"In fact, they don't need my help at all. Magic is so convenient; one person can do the work of five or six people."

As she spoke, Sally suddenly lowered her head, a very bold move, her face already close to Hugh's ear: "Besides, it's noon now, even mages need to eat lunch, right?"

Perhaps because the two were standing quite close, a rather refreshing scent wafted into Hugh's nostrils—it smelled like a potion made from magical plants and ordinary herbs.

"How does it taste? I mixed it myself; this is a trial version!"

"It's great. The herbal scent inside is very pleasant. Perhaps we could consider adding more."

Sally was pleased with Hugh's earnest attitude, but then she remembered something and quickly looked up and glanced around: "By the way, isn't Miss Veraine here?"

"She wanted to complete the first phase of her project before the army departed, so she is still in her laboratory until now."

Hughes could see the girl's innocent thoughts very clearly, so he suppressed a laugh and shook his head: "Where would you like to have lunch? It's on me today."

"Okay, then..."

As they were talking, Hugh suddenly felt a throbbing in his temples, and then his previously calm mental world was suddenly thrown into turmoil.

This is a sign that danger is approaching.

Hugh immediately stood up, and his heart, now imbued with the power of the "Walking Forest," began to beat faster, continuously sending a surge of magical energy throughout his body.

With the help of this rapidly operating magic, Hugh finally pinpointed the source of that dangerous premonition.

He raised his head and looked at the sky to the north of Borden.

Beneath a thin layer of mist, several black arcs appeared, trailing dangerous traces of magic, rapidly descending towards the city!
This is artillery fire!

(End of this chapter)