World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 158 The Hughes Family
Lin An stepped into a transparent world, where countless points of light flickered with each breath.

Looking around, he saw that there were no mystics in this classroom, or even in the entire school building. Although it was 2038, the effects of Joshua's previous policies had not yet faded, and the awakened people were still a minority.

Lin An quickly shifted his attention to his mother and saw the light in her eyes.

Compared to the college students, she displayed dazzling brilliance, like a shooting star, almost as powerful as the aura of a mysterious figure.

There was no "New" label next to her glowing spot...

wrong.

It's happened again?

Lin An tentatively touched upon her mother's mysterious tree-like diagram with her consciousness, and it spread out like a spider web. As a professor of folklore, she had the potential to awaken all sorts of archetypes.

The data was delayed by a few seconds.

Is it just my imagination due to my emotional fluctuations?
This was the first time Lin An had encountered such a situation. Previously, his world consisted of only two different points of light: one was an ordinary person who could trigger the tree diagram, and the other was a mysterious person, a black-and-white situation.

Even Jericho and the four native gods couldn't hide the mystery's identity from Lin An's clairvoyance.

Since there's a tree diagram, the mother must be... an ordinary person, right?
With a mix of doubt and unease, Lin An returned to reality and continued listening to the lecture.

Putting aside prejudices, his mother is a respectable professor of folklore. Without her sending Lin An links to papers to his email inbox day after day for more than a decade, he wouldn't be where he is today.

When class ended, Adria answered a few students' questions while tidying up her computer and lecture notes, neatly placing them into the compartment of her briefcase.

"Professor Hughes, can we take a picture with you?" a student asked, revealing his true intentions.

"If this were Disneyland, you could."

Adria picked up her briefcase, ignoring the student who had made a fool of himself, and followed a young man in a hoodie. The two walked side by side and disappeared around the corner.

"Xiao An, have you had lunch yet?"

"No."

"Please come ahead; the university's staff lounge is just ahead."

Twenty minutes later, Lin An sat in the bright and clean university cafeteria, opposite Adria, who was cutting her spaghetti bolognese into pieces with a knife and fork.

She had a dignified appearance, fair skin, and delicate, well-proportioned features. She was clearly over forty years old, yet her face was wrinkle-free, and all her clothing and accessories appeared harmonious and restrained.

“I didn’t know you went back to Dietrich,” Adria said to Lin An. “You shouldn’t have chosen to attend today’s class; it was too basic, only suitable for beginners… Anyway, let’s not talk about that. Do you still have contact with Lin Hainan? How is he?”

"I'm remarried, and my child is old enough to run errands." Lin An said, sipping his bitter black coffee.

“Ah.” Adria’s face showed neither shock nor grief. She fell into thought, her tone calm and serene. “Don’t pay attention to the nonsense of those relatives. Your father could not possibly betray a happy family.”

"The words 'happiness' and 'family' are irrelevant to us, aren't they?"

Adria stopped eating and stared at Lin An, her gaze revealing no emotion, or perhaps no emotion at all.

“You don’t look like Lin Hainan. In fact, you look more like me, except for the color of your eyes. I’m honored by that.”

“I don’t think so,” Lin An said.

After a brief silence, Adria smiled faintly and said, "Do you dislike me because I've never had any emotional connection with you throughout your upbringing?"

"Dislike? I basically know nothing about you."

"The first few years of a person's life are when they establish interpersonal relationships; psychologists have repeatedly confirmed this. Only children who receive love and care from a young age can adapt to society, but I left you to live alone after weaning, so you must have some complaints."

"I don't care." A sudden surge of fear rose within Lin An.

Each time they met, Adria would take the initiative to start a conversation, but these conversations were based on mysticism and academic papers, rather than sensitive old stories.

This mother is different from the ones before.

Sure enough, Adria said in a melodious voice, "It does matter, it has in the past and it will continue in the future. Although for me, my career comes first, it always has. But, Annie, I'm glad we're together again. Now, perhaps I can help you."

Lin An froze, and he looked up.

The slanting light from the window shone on Adria's black hair, and her blue eyes were indescribably beautiful. He just looked at her, not daring to make a sound, afraid that any movement would disturb this perfect and peaceful moment.

Unfortunately, Adria was oblivious and continued talking.

“I am extremely happy now, a happiness I never dared to hope for. Not long ago, an organization called the St. Anilov Foundation contacted me, hoping to use my network and social influence to help their logistics department carry out promotion and popular science education.”

Like a thunderbolt from the blue, Lin An finally understood the whole story.

It turns out that my mother was one of the collaborators that the foundation's logistics department had recently contacted!

She learned about my work at the foundation from those people!

"Facing the department captain, the advisor of 'Comers,' the mysterious one! Lin An of the Dragon Kingdom, is this you? I admit you make me proud. Your achievements make me so happy, as if you were something I own."

As Adria spoke, her entire face suddenly fell off and shattered into a pile of fragments.

Of course, this was just Lin An's hallucination. In reality, Adria showed no extra expression and began eating the sliced ​​meat sauce noodles. "Are you alright, Lin An?"

“If you could continue to treat me as a forwarding assistant,” Lin An said expressionlessly, “I might feel better.”

More and more people gradually filled the restaurant. They whispered among themselves, looking at Lin An with envious eyes, wondering what he had done to deserve sharing a table with the aloof Professor Hughes.

Unbeknownst to them, Lin An at that moment wished he could smash the woman's face with a fork.

“Indeed, aside from our physical relationship, we can’t be considered mother and child,” Adria said with a smile. “The past is the past, and it’s no longer relevant. Here and now, we are finally equals. That’s what really matters.”

Taking a deep breath, Lin An understood that Adria was genuinely indifferent and did not intend to provoke him.

Compared to the epic adventure of "Comers" and the endless unknowns of another planet, my insignificant personal emotions are nothing.

He thought silently, and his mood calmed down.

After all, Lin An had long since given up on expecting to receive normal familial affection from her.

For 21 years, the mother and son had spoken less than Lin An had with his three companions on the journey. Almost all of her emotional feedback to Lin An was negative, and all of it combined was less loving than the kiss from Thunderbird.

The memories dispelled Lin An's panic, and he interrupted Adria's rambling.

"Mother, I look forward to working together in the future. I've come to you today to ask you a few questions."

"Oh?"

“I looked up the history of the Hughes family on the Internet. It is said that his ancestor was the son of Radu, the younger brother of the Grand Prince of Wallachia. He later surrendered to the Ottoman Empire and disappeared in the following centuries.”

"When they reappeared, the family had established a network of relationships with nobles in various countries, especially the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where they acted as mercenaries in the Balkans."

"They acquired a great deal of wealth and inherited their ancestors' lands in Romania after World War I, where they lived a peaceful life ever since. No matter what changes occurred in the country's political system, they never left that town."

“This is all the information available on the market,” Lin An said. “It may not be accurate, and there are signs that it has been deliberately altered or deleted. So I want to ask you if you know any more inside information.”

Adria continued rolling up her meat sauce noodles.

“I don’t know either, because I’ve never met anyone in the Hughes family. Shortly after I was born, they sent me to adoptive parents in Italy with the same surname and gave me a large sum of money for raising me—similar to your upbringing.”

She said with relief, as if she had hoped Lin An would empathize with her.

“They cut off all contact with me after that. Until six months ago, a litigant came to me, saying that all the heirs of the Hughes family had died unnatural deaths over the past few decades, making me the last legitimate heir.”

"After arriving in that peaceful little town, the plaintiff took me to the Hughes family's castle and took stock of the property I could inherit. He said that the family had run out of money and that most of their land and property would be taken away by the bank."

"If you're interested, I've heard quite a few rumors about the Hughes family from the townspeople. Oh, I even wrote them down as material for my thesis." Adria tapped her phone screen. "I've sent them to your email."

"What kind of person was my great-grandfather?" Lin An asked while checking his emails.

"A witty, humorous, and philanthropic nobleman—more like a country gentleman than a duke in these times. He was very knowledgeable, with a keen interest in astronomy, archaeology, and theology, and an avid collector of antiques and ancient books."

Adria was lost in her memories.

"Even so, the locals gave your great-grandfather a nickname, 'The Last Vampire'; he lived to be 147 years old."

"When did he die?"

"three years ago."

"Dying of old age?"

"Yes. I visited his grave at the local church."

Lin An frowned slightly. As the author of "The Complete Book of Magic", how could this member of a family, who was suspected of being a member of a noble family, have died a year before "Comers" arrived?
Was he really not murdered?
“Mother, I have another question,” Lin An said, expressing his doubts. “Why did you send me my great-grandfather’s inheritance ahead of time? And why only those few copies of the ‘Complete Book of Magic’?”

“Because you’ll find it very interesting.” Adria smiled. “Isn’t this what I’ve always been doing? Constantly sharing my interests with you until we stand at the same level of knowledge?”

Looking at his mother's seemingly genuine expression, Lin An became even more puzzled.

Through conversation, he discovered that his mother was an ordinary person who knew nothing about her family and even needed the foundation to tell her about "Comers".

Over the past few decades, the Hughes family has been wiped out by accidents...

Could it be that my great-grandfather deliberately sent my mother abroad to preserve our bloodline?

Is it a power struggle between aristocratic families, or simply a worldly dispute?

"Professor Hughes!"

Suddenly, a pleasant voice interrupted their conversation.

“Oh, Miss Wood,” Adria stood up. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Thank you HAL2000, お友20200823065651411, and 打糍粑 for the monthly tickets, and thank you all for the recommendation tickets and subscriptions.

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(End of this chapter)