Starting with the sentries on the frontier

Chapter 89 Picking up the child

"Thank you very much for the invitation. I will consider it, but I don't plan to change jobs for the time being."

Zag answered politely.

Leila sighed and said, "Okay, okay, then come find me anytime if you change your mind!"

Zag nodded: "I will."

Although he didn't get news of the unscrupulous alchemist being caught, he had a general idea of ​​the situation. At least it seemed that the Golden Palace and the Association weren't just sitting idly by in the kingdom.

So he bid farewell to Lyra and went to the temple of Meretra.

This was Mrs. Marsh's request, asking him to bring David's two children home so he could feed the two growing little ones over the weekend.

According to Mrs. Marsh, feeding three is the same as feeding five—

That's right, Zag's status has plummeted, now only behind Snowball and Helford. If you add Lilia and Andrew, he might only be ranked fifth.

However, Mrs. Marsh is right. David gave him such a generous gift, so it would be unreasonable not to treat Lilia and Andrew well.

Soon, when Zag arrived at the temple of Meretra, many believers had already come to pray.

Weekends are the busiest time at the temple, especially among middle-class citizens who love to come during this period, causing chaos at the church school next to the temple.

It took Zag a lot of effort to find the snobbish monk named Colin, who was chatting enthusiastically with a portly businessman, and he offered to take Lilia and Andrew away for a day.

Brother Colin was quite easy to talk to. He understood Zag's purpose and immediately nodded, only emphasizing, "But you have to leave an address so I can confirm exactly where they went."

As he spoke, he casually picked up a brochure about the Temple of Meretra, handed a quill pen from the table to Zag, indicating that the address should be written on the back, and then called to the nun not far away, "Go and bring those two children over! Tell them their uncle has come to pick them up for a holiday celebration! It's those two siblings who just arrived!"

The nun acknowledged and left, while Zag took the quill and wrote as he spoke, "Of course, the address is on Domino Street, the zip code is EP2 0DS, it's the house that Brother Peter introduced to me."

Brother Colin's social skills were clearly top-notch. While listening intently to Zag's words, he turned back to chat with the merchant while Zag wrote down the address: "This is terrible. I'm so sorry to hear this, but I will perform a private prayer ceremony for you. Rest assured, the Mother Goddess will bless you."

The merchant, being quite perceptive, bid farewell at the opportune moment. Brother Colin then continued speaking to Zag, "Brother Peter, ah... Domino Street, I know that place. That house has been empty for quite some time; its former owner was a devout follower of Mother Earth... I didn't expect you to rent it. It's not far from here!"

He was really multitasking, overhearing the address Zag mentioned!

Zag nodded: "Yes, it's not far from here, so you can rest assured about their safety."

Brother Colin laughed at Zag's words, saying, "Hahaha, of course I'm relieved, after all, they were brought by you... Come with me, I'll take you to meet them. I think they're adapting quite well here, except for that girl, who's a bit older and has no foundation, so she's finding it a bit difficult to learn. But her spirituality is quite good; I even suggest she go to the Golden Palace to study after completing her basic church school education!"

Zag was somewhat surprised: "Lilia's spirituality is actually that high?"

David was absolutely right!

However, he was indeed happy for Lilia. Although it was unrealistic for David to send Lilia to study at the Golden Palace given his financial situation, at least David's Gory forging techniques and weapon enchanting finally had a true successor.

"Yes, quite impressive. The monks and nuns at the church school were also very surprised. Her spirituality ranks among the top ten of the students in the past five years. She is definitely a promising candidate for a novice mage!"

Perhaps because his spirituality was so high that Ms. Rowan had gotten used to praising him, he found the phrase "a promising candidate for a novice mage" less appealing after comparing it to the "promising to become a legendary archmage" statement he had already heard.

How is this any different from insulting my child, saying they're only good enough for a first-tier university?

I aspire to be like Tsinghua and Peking University... no, I aspire to be like academicians!

However, still concerned for David, he inquired, "Ah, that's good. Uh, besides the Golden Palace, is there nowhere else to learn magic? You know, Holland is too far from the Eastern Territory, and given the financial situation of these two children's families, it would be difficult for them to afford to study at the Golden Palace."

"To be honest, although there are the Dawn Mage Tower and the Tower of Solitude in the kingdom, neither of these places directly accepts apprentices, and... I really don't recommend going there, especially the Dawn Mage Tower. Going there will corrupt your mind; it's full of traitors from Northor!"

"If I had to choose, the Seastone Magic Academy in the North would be better, since it's tuition-free. But... you know, although the North has a good relationship with the Kingdom now, it's not the Kingdom after all. There are Northers there, but they're not the mainstream, so there might be some discrimination..."

"And I've heard that apprentices at the Seastone Magic Academy have to confront the occult directly, and the graduation requirement is to independently solve a level 4 incident! The longest delay in graduation can be thirty years! It's simply dangerous and absurd!"

Brother Colin's words were heavily biased, but he did provide a lot of useful information. Zag quickly expressed his gratitude: "Thank you very much, this is the first time I've ever heard of the Seastone Magic Academy!"

"The Northern Magic Academy is a magic academy built only thirty years ago. It's one of two magic academies personally approved by the Queen of the North. The other one is actually the Frost Mage Tower, which doesn't accept apprentices from ordinary people. Only the Seastone Magic Academy not only doesn't charge tuition, but it also doesn't restrict the apprentices' identities, including nationality and race, even if you're a filthy half-goat." He emphasized, "Honestly, although you can learn magic there, I really don't recommend going. Just imagine, a place that even accepts half-goats, how chaotic it must be! Mother Goddess, I can't even imagine!"

He did know about the half-goat people; they were a race persecuted by the beast disease.

Legend has it that during the Great Calamity, a tribe in the south prayed to Dirac for protection. Dirac granted them the ability to survive in the Dark Realm and withstand its pollution, at the cost of their feet turning into goat hooves and their heads growing goat horns, hence the name "half-goat people".

Or rather, it was Dirichlet who cursed all the people of this tribe to be half-demons, which is why they were able to survive in the pollution and exhibit sheep-like characteristics—in fact, those are the marks of some kind of demon race that humans have misunderstood as stereotypes, such as succubi, but for some reason, Dirichlet imposed this stereotype on this tribe.

Of course, because of this curse, the half-goat people had long since broken ties with Dirichlet. They were now followers of Camus, since no one wanted to suffer in Dirichlet's endless hunting grounds after death.

However, the act of praying to Dirik for protection led to discrimination against the entire tribe, especially in the eyes of the Northrends, who considered the half-goat people to be cowards who groveled before the demons—simply because Dirik was not among the Nine Holy Spirits.

"The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the demons are the demons"—this statement is an ironclad law in the eyes of the Norse.

Furthermore, the petite stature and succubus-like bestial features of half-goat women made them a primary commodity in the slave trade. If a well-known Nightingale Club displayed half-goat women as its signboard, it would surely attract a large following of local "gentlemen."

Yes, the victims, because of the cruel treatment they received from the perpetrators, were instead vilified and viewed as "filthy." Even the monks of the Meritla Church, whose doctrine calls for indiscriminate love for all people, think so, which is truly tragic.

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【Seastone Magic Academy】: A magic school in the Northern Region (Kingdom of Friggia), which does not charge tuition fees and is open to all races.

It is said that the attrition rate of students is very high, and graduating late is actually the best situation. Among students who graduate normally, two or three out of every ten will die because of their graduation projects.