The black sun hangs high

Chapter 200 Planning and Change

Hughes was very satisfied with Valery's performance.

Hughes didn’t actually want to torment a kind and responsible person with words and emotions, but in such moments, it was indeed a very effective and relatively low-cost method.

He had to ensure that the monk Valery would maintain his trust and help him move forward with what was to come.

The horrific scene in Seren didn't need much exaggeration or embellishment from Hugh; his factual description was enough to convey the horror. Valery, as a magic scholar on the Legal Council, was even more convinced of this after hearing the account of the Dark Abyss's offspring. Based on his own magical knowledge, Valery immediately realized that the extremely terrifying possibility described by Hugh was real.

If those mud-like monsters have already acquired intelligence close to that of humans, then sooner or later they will be able to learn and master everything that humans possess.

Under such circumstances, Merlinle's blockade was tantamount to buying time for these monsters so that they could continue to hunt the city's survivors and constantly digest the memories and knowledge of those victims.

Furthermore, these monsters are inherently filled with magic, which makes it possible for them to "control" magic.

This series of conjectures terrified Valery.

What terrified him was not the monster's potential for growth, but the attitude of the outside world.

Valery did not lie to Hugh and the other man. Merlin had indeed obtained samples of these monsters a long time ago and had begun research on them. Logically, they should have reached preliminary conclusions long ago, but Merlin remained silent until now.

This means that the research on this monster by the Legal Affairs Commission scholars has stalled, or perhaps the worst-case scenario has occurred.

In other words, Mellinger and others could not find any effective solutions.

“Valerian, I have hunted them many times… I have even had face-to-face conversations with them. I know these monsters better than anyone else.”

Just when Valery was feeling pain and despair, Hughes gave him a timely boost: "They are terrible and are constantly growing, but they are not necessarily invincible. At least for now, they are still in the process of clumsily learning from and imitating humans, so we still have a chance."

Hugh's words brought a renewed light to Valery's eyes, but he maintained the rigor expected of a mage, raising his hand to write in the air: "Then what do you think I should do? According to the current instructions of the Law Council, the ritual site needs to be inspected multiple times a day in batches, and no mage has the authority to dismantle the ritual site."

Hughes smiled and replied, “I can assure you that Merlinler and the others do not want to avoid these hidden dangers, but given the current war context, they are destined to be unable to mobilize a large number of people to enter Seren City, nor can they afford the potential losses that such a decision may cause.”

“Valery the Mage, I hope you can seriously consider whether there are other trustworthy people around you who are also concerned about the city of Seren… If so, you might try to reveal some of the things I told you, or even try to pass these messages on…”

"transfer?"

“Yes, the city of Seren needs more than just the attention of Merlinle and others… Wotel, Delan, and the nearby duchies—we need more impetus to resolve the problems of Seren.”

……

The exchange between Hugh and Valery lasted for more than an hour, during which they wrote so many magical characters in the air that they even formed a light magical cloud near the city gate.

These magical clouds naturally attracted the covetous eyes of two Dark Abyss offspring, so Hugh took the opportunity to demonstrate his incredibly skilled hunting techniques to Valery at the city gate.

Of course, he used general magic this time, and he had to use fire magic to burn these Dark Abyss offspring to ashes.

Although he missed out on some of the Dark Abyss offspring's power essence as a result, Hugh's performance dispelled Valery's doubts and made his previous words more credible.

During their further conversation, Valery gave Hugh a pleasant surprise.

When Valery asked Hughes if he should deliver letters to people he trusted, Hughes tried to say the name "Frey Meyer".

Valery was extremely surprised when he saw the name. After asking Hughes carefully, he learned that the young mage from Saint Steer had heard of the pen name "Mayer" before and had even read his articles published in the newspaper.

Based on this relationship, cooperation between the two seemed to become smoother and more natural.

The two sides agreed to meet again at the south gate at noon five days later.

Valery then left behind all the supplies he had brought, and took with him the important information that Hugh had told him, as well as the letter that he needed to send to "Frey Meyer".

After this unusual meeting, Felix slowly stood up from the side, looking somewhat confused and disappointed.

"You hope to expose the city's devastation to the outside world through the mage Valery, so that Seren may return to the public eye?"

Felix's face was full of confusion: "Can such a measure really bring hope to the city of Seren? If the war outside really turns out the way you say it, then the Legal Committee probably won't have time to care about us, right?"

“Felix, the transmission and publication of information is merely a formality.”

Hugh replied, "The key is that we can use this method to directly expose the hidden dangers represented by Seren to everyone."

"They may not solve the problems of Seren, but they must understand the consequences of allowing those monsters to devour the entire city's inhabitants and letting them slowly learn..."

At this point, he chuckled softly: "Humans are always like this. When faced with different paths, they always try to choose the one that seems easier to take in the short term and is more advantageous to themselves. To put it nicely, it's called seeking advantage and avoiding harm; to put it bluntly... it's shortsightedness."

“This is a very common problem, and it exists in all kinds of people, including the royal families of Walter and Delan, the nobles, and of course, ourselves… What we need to do now is to take a rather extreme approach and artificially eliminate one of the options for them.” As he spoke, Hughes snapped his fingers, and after the raging rat emerged from the magical mist, Hughes pointed to the trailer loaded with various supplies that Valery had used magic to push through the city gate before leaving.

The command had barely been given when Hugh sensed a strong sense of dissatisfaction in his magical connection with Sniggy. However, as Hugh's gaze swept over, Sniggy had no choice but to walk over dejectedly, his three tails nimbly coiling around and securing the trailer to his back.

Felix's gaze swept across Hugh's face. He noticed that when Hugh had said those words, his expression had become somewhat strange. He seemed to be smiling, but he also seemed to be gritting his teeth, as if the words were being squeezed out from between his teeth.

It looked somewhat ferocious.

So Felix cautiously asked, "You just said... 'extreme'?"

The next moment, Hugh's expression returned to normal, and he nodded: "Yes, 'extreme'."

He walked up behind the running rat, reached out and examined the supplies, explaining, "I believe that if a common problem occurs frequently and remains unresolved, it means that our understanding of 'general solutions' is no longer applicable... In such cases, we should adopt special methods for special situations."

"As I said to Valery before, there are really only two reasons why Melliner and the Legal Commission chose to blockade Seren and put things on hold."

Hughes held up a finger: "First, Merlinle and others believe they cannot resolve the situation here for the time being. Second, because of the current war... they cannot simultaneously mobilize a large number of manpower to deal with the city of Seren while maintaining the deployment of mages on the huge battlefront."

"So now we need to clearly tell everyone outside—"

At this point, Hugh suddenly raised his voice: "First of all, the residents of Seren are not willing to sit idly by and wait for death. We can find ways to save ourselves, but we must get the cooperation and support of the outside world."

"Secondly, we must warn the Legal Committee and the countries outside that if the problems in Seren City are not resolved, it will not be long before the hidden dangers here completely erupt. At that time, no one will be able to stay out of it, and everyone from the outside world will be completely involved... At that time, they will face a situation that is a hundred times or ten thousand times more troublesome than that in Seren City!"

From Hugh's words, Felix sensed an unusual madness. His lips moved slightly, but before he could speak, footsteps suddenly came from not far behind him. Felix immediately drew his gun and turned around, only to see that more than a dozen crystal guns were already aimed at him, Hugh, and the big rat behind them.

"Uh……"

Felix paused for a moment, then immediately stopped moving, his gaze drifting to the side.

Hugh remained calm, showing no sign of tension whatsoever. The giant magical rat he had summoned lay obediently on the ground, its green eyes darting around, also showing no sign of panic or nervousness.

Seeing this, Felix calmed down a bit, but faced with these dark gun barrels, he still slowly put his weapon on the ground, then raised his hand to indicate that he posed no threat.

Seeing that Felix had lowered his weapon, the men holding crystal guns all turned their gazes toward what was behind Felix.

Both the strangely large three-tailed rat and the young man standing next to the trailer rummaging through the supplies inside were more worthy of attention than Felix.

Such a large rat could only be some kind of special magical creature, while the young man holding the metal staff was clearly a mage.

As these people observed Hugh, Hugh was also confirming their identities.

In fact, Valery had already noticed their approach before he even left.

Without exception, these people were all dressed as soldiers, wearing the standard military overcoats of the city of Seren, but underneath they wore the dark blue uniforms unique to the army of the Kingdom of Delan. On the left breast of their overcoats, a somewhat crude "iris" emblem was outlined with waterproof magic paint.

It's easy to see that these people all came from Iris Street, which was managed by General Boots.

Hughes also noticed that these soldiers seemed to be Delans, or at least of Delan descent—their slightly curly hair and lighter hair color were typical features of plains descent.

In front of such a group of people, Felix, who has Saint Steel blood, and Hugh, who clearly has the status of a nobleman of Water, both seemed somewhat conspicuous.

Looking at the Iris Street soldiers standing ready for battle, Hugh sighed silently.

He was only one step away from acquiring the new ability of the Mirror Messenger. If circumstances allowed, he could even complete the last tiny "target" on his way back. But now it seems that plans have ultimately failed to keep up with changes.

Hugh's identity as a mage and his enormous, running rat ultimately instilled a great deal of fear in the soldiers of Iris Street.

At the same time, through quick observation and intuitive judgment, Hughes concluded that these guys were not the same as the members of the Tricolor Brotherhood.

Since they were not purely bandits and robbers, there was naturally room for communication and exchange between the two sides. The words that Hugh had deliberately raised his voice to say earlier were also aimed at these Iris Street soldiers—if General Boots and Iris Street really wanted to do something, then they would not have ignored what he had just said.

Just as Hugh had expected, the leading man approached him with a frown. He was tall and well-proportioned, and his every move exuded the air of a professional soldier. Hugh noticed that the man also had a standard revolver musket from the Delan army tucked into his waistband. As far as he knew, this should be a symbol of a Delan officer.

"I'm sorry to meet you like this, Your Excellency, Mage..."

Despite the situation, the man maintained basic manners. His gaze lingered on Hugh's face for a few seconds before a hint of surprise and doubt flashed in his eyes: "If I'm not mistaken, you seem to be a nobleman from the highlands? Uh, the Ernst family?"

"To be precise, he was an illegitimate child who was exiled by the Ernst family."

Hugh smiled and met the man's gaze twice. Then he raised his hand and gently patted the body of the scurrying rat beside him, saying slowly, "I used to live in that old house in Seren City, making a living by writing... You might have even read some of my writings."

(End of this chapter)