Chapter 196: Preparation

'Now, let's move on to the current problem.' Charles stood up, took the black cane, and started walking towards the wooden door.

Within a few seconds, he opened the door with a click and walked outside.

At that moment, hundreds of nobles and mages stood in the reception hall and were furiously shouting at Bella!

Once they noticed his presence, all of them turned their gazes towards his direction and looked at him angrily.

They were certainly infuriated by his earlier action and came here for answers.

'Talking won't do.' He muttered.

A moment later, hundreds of invisible strings came out from Charles's right hand, spread out in an instant, and started entangling their necks one by one.

"If you want to live, get the hell out of here." Charles's voice turned abnormally cold, causing everyone to stiffen up.

Without waiting for their reply, he closed his eyes, dismissed his [Sleight of Mystery Hand] skill, and focused on the [Foresight] skill.

At that moment, a few images appeared in his mind.

In those images, he saw three people stood outside this auction building!

One was a black-robed man with a red-lined white mask on his face.

The next one was a silver-haired woman in a red frock coat. She had a square face, sky-blue eyes, and a bulging chest.

The last one was a white-haired old man in his late eighties.

His face was filled with wrinkles, and he had pupil-less white eyes, a pale face, and wore a plain white robe.

But there was one thing that caught Charles's attention most.

It was the goat skull symbol engraved on their dresses.

'Divine Order members!' He instantly identified their origin and frowned.

'Why would they come for me? Is it the stalking Divine's doing?... The 'Divine' didn't want me to become a Rank-4 Mystic?' Such thought crossed his mind.

But soon, he shook his head.

'There are three persons in the vision, and all of them seemed to be Rank-4 Mystics. Can I able to battle against them? If I couldn't, wouldn't all my plans go down?... Wait... The 'Divine' knew about my disguise long ago, but it seemed to have no plan on killing me. If it wants me dead, it could have sent these guys to the mansion two days ago...'

'Then, why is it sending three Rank-4 Mystics? Or, is it changed my mind after my sudden Rank-up? Or, did the 'Divine' want to injure me and suppress my growth? Or, is a third party behind this scheme?' Questions whirled in his mind.

'They will be here within 8 minutes.' A deep frown appeared on his forehead.

'I don't care about others' schemes. I will go all out and take everyone by surprise.' A cold expression appeared on his face.

He then turned his gaze towards Jessie and spoke in his mind.

'Mr. Runeth, enchant her luck to the maximum.'

'Are you sure? If I did that, she would be unlucky for the next two months.' An old man's voice echoed in Charles's head.

'It's better than dying now, right? I can't protect her while battling Rank-4 Mystics... If Divine Order members are making their move on me, they will also target these kids... The other three are in a safer place, but she is not.' He responded while taking out the Starfall Codex Magic Book.

At that moment, the Holem's Crown let out a deep sigh, used its 'Luck' skill, and enchanted her luck.

Meanwhile, Charles flipped the pages and finally stopped at the last page.

Then, he let out a deep sigh and spoke in a cold tone.

"Things are going to get messy here, lass. Go to our mansion and protect Rhea. Someone might target her using this chaos."

Upon hearing those words, Jessie's emerald-green eyes widened, and soon she nodded her head.

She then went to the office room, locked it from inside, removed her long black gown, and changed her cloth into a normal black shirt and pants.

Then, she also took out a brown leather jacket and wore it over her shirt.

Following that, she stored her clothes in her void pouch and walked out of the room.

At that moment, she saw that her Teacher was chanting in weird language and went more serious.

'It seems I need to go faster.' She held her dagger with that thought in her mind and ran towards the entrance in a hurry.

On the other hand, the nobles, Mages, and Merchants also started walking out of the building one by one and left the auction house.

By the time Charles ended the chanting, only Bella, Mira, the auctioneer lady, and few other red-suited young girls stood in the reception hall.

A thin layer of sunshine layer enveloped Charles's body and soon disappeared.

He soon glanced at Bella and others and furrowed his brows.

"Why are you still here?"

Upon hearing his words, Bella pointed her fingers at the office room and spoke.

"We can hide in the underground basement, My Lord."

"Oh?" Charles nodded his head and started walking towards the entrance.

At that moment, Bella gestured other attentions to go inside the office room and started following after Charles.

"You want to watch the battle? You might die." Charles continued to walk towards the entrance door and warned her.

"I'm a Rank-3 [Spatial Mage] and also have a unique danger sensing skill, My Lord. As long as I sense any danger, I will escape." Bella said with a smile and took out a short sword from her space ring.

Meanwhile, Charles opened the entrance door, walked out of the building, and soon appeared at the building entrance.

Due to his early warning, even those two gatekeepers got scared and had long left their guarding job.

Only a chained dog sat in the corner while growling at him.

Shaking his head, Charles opened the Starfall Codex book, flipped the pages, and soon stopped it at the 18th page.

Unlike other ones, no spell incantation appeared on this page.

Instead, only a few weird red magic circles and runal words appeared on it.

'It's a one-time Incarnation summoning ritual circle.' The Holem's Crown answered in his head.

'Is it the 'Incarnation' of the one who created this magic book?' Charles couldn't help but show a wary look at the weird magic circle page.

'I think so. But your soul power is lacking. Once you use this summoning circle, you might die.' The Holem's Crown gave a warning.

'It's useless then.' Charles shook his head in disappointment before storing the magic book and tapped the Black cane's heel on the concrete floor.

The next instant, the black cane began to shrink quickly and soon transformed into a reddish gem-embedded bracelet.

Meanwhile, he swiftly caught the bracelet, wore it in his hand, and cast a [Needle of Ember] spell.

A small reddish needle-like flame appeared in front of him.

Then, he cast [Sleight of Mystery Hand] skill, moved tens of invisible strings towards the needle, and made the [Needle of Ember] spell into an invisible one!

'This method consumes too much mental energy, and I can't manage to move the invisible Needle spell at its peak speed... But it is perfect for an assassination.' He nodded inwardly and then took out the Ember Pistol from his space ring.

Then, he used another invisible string, made the pistol invisible, and hid it next to him.

Once everything was over, he let out a deep sigh and looked up at the gloomy dark sky.

Even though it was still morning, dark clouds shrouded the blue sky and gave off the feeling of unease.