NEC Chapter 54: Again and Again and Again

To resolve the matter swiftly, Haisen Zircon summoned the deputy captain of Radiance City’s patrol team. “Quickly arrange manpower and head

To resolve the matter swiftly, Haisen Zircon summoned the deputy captain of Radiance City’s patrol team. “Quickly arrange manpower and head to Crescent Moon. Don’t let that little brat get away!”

“Don’t worry about the cost, just get this handled cleanly!”

Despite saying cost was no issue, Haisen’s finances were far from healthy. So, he resorted to misusing public resources, dispatching an Iron Badge elite warrior under the guise of official patrol business to Crescent Moon Federation, with the “side task” of hunting down Chen Mo.

The Iron Badge warrior first arrived at Black Crow Castle, where he confirmed Chen Mo’s characteristics before following his trail to Six-Leaf Grove.

Carrying the orders of the marquis’ eldest son, the warrior was anything but polite. “I’m tracking a necromancer apprentice who passed through here a month ago, the one with a skeleton. Call over your guide who dealt with him—the lord wants answers!”

Faced with the towering might of the Zircon Family, the centaur tribe had no desire to provoke them unnecessarily. So, young centaur Kaga was summoned.

It was supposed to be a routine questioning, but the Iron Badge warrior’s mouth was foul beyond measure.

“You actually helped him escape? Couldn’t you tell that guy’s a criminal? Is your brain half-formed or what?”

“You even got him a doctor? Were your parents a dimwit and a moron or something?”

“You little piece of trash, you should be grateful for the Zircon Family’s magnanimity. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even qualify to be roasted and eaten by me, I’d be afraid your stupidity would infect me…”

When he left, Kaga’s muscles were trembling with rage.

Kaga’s companions, snorting and stomping their hooves in fury, were equally incensed. But the centaur camp wouldn’t risk confronting a behemoth like the Zircon Family over mere verbal insults. At that moment, a mischievous centaur with dreadlocks gave Kaga an idea.

Soon, the Iron Badge warrior, planning to stay at the Brave Heart Inn, was told there were no rooms available.

“We’re terribly sorry, but the Brave Heart Inn cannot evict any registered guests. Please try again tomorrow.”

Given his status and temper, the Iron Badge warrior wasn’t about to sleep in a livestock shed. So, he chose to camp outdoors.

In the centaur camp, camping without keeping watch was a blatant provocation to these folks who skirted the edge of villainy. If they didn’t strip you bare, they’d lose face before the great Dawn. Worse still, the dreadlocked centaur had colluded with the shady innkeeper to slip a little something into the warrior’s food and water.

Non-toxic, no side effects, just a little boost to sleep quality—nothing anyone could pin on them.

By the next day, a man barely covering his privates with grass leaves fled the Six-Leaf camp in disgrace, his pale buttocks jiggling to the crowd’s mocking laughter as he vanished into the dense jungle.

Penniless, unable to afford an airship, and having lost all his travel funds, the mission was a failure, especially after making such a spectacle of himself.

Knowing Haisen’s temperament, the Iron Badge warrior chose to go incognito and wander the world.

The Zircon Family’s contact at Whitestone Outpost waited in vain for the first warrior. After some inquiries, the patrol deputy captain learned what happened.

The young master’s orders couldn’t be ignored, so he gritted his teeth and sent a second wave, a team of four elite warriors.

This time, they were cautious, keeping a low profile and speaking carefully. But having wasted too much time, they had to hurry. At Six-Leaf Grove, they chartered an airship, demanding an immediate departure.

The gnome piloting the ship shook his head so fast it blurred. “My lords, no flights in the rain, that’s the iron rule of our trade. We can’t go, really, we can’t!”

“Enough nonsense! We’re in a hurry. Your ship isn’t made of paper, what’s a little rain? If you don’t move now, the Greenspine Kingdom will charge you gnomes with delaying critical affairs and harboring fugitives!”

Under relentless threats, the gnomes, with mournful faces, launched the airship.

Does an airship fear rain? Not really. They’re built to withstand sun and storm alike. Even heavy rain is no issue, drainage ports let water flow right out.

It’s not like they’re sailing on the sea.

So why did the gnome trade have this rule? No one knew. The tradition was so old that the current generation of gnomes had forgotten its origin.

Then, the elf sentinels of the Gloomy Forest witnessed a breathtaking scene.

Amid a curtain of white rain, a jagged bolt of lightning, like twisted tree branches, tore through the sky. Its arc enveloped the airship, delivering a high-voltage shock therapy to every living thing aboard.

The airship’s gasbag was scorched and shattered, plummeting like a meteor of divine fire into the earth’s embrace.

Days later, the Zircon Family’s deputy captain received a scathing, furious letter from the gnomes’ Longlegs Mechanics Guild, protesting the loss of the airship and crew and demanding massive compensation.

The gnomes, though shady, were no pushovers. With their monopolistic ventures, they were a formidable force. This wandering tribe, scattered across the continent, profiting from trade, loans, and price manipulation, had faced slaughter in earlier years but survived by aligning with the Mistmoon Divine Court and worshipping the Seven-Eyed God. They were now a power to be reckoned with.

There’s a saying on the continent: never owe a gnome money, or the compounding interest will bleed you dry beyond what your flesh and blood can repay.

The deputy captain, already reeling from the loss, calculated that even Radiance City’s entire revenue for years wouldn’t cover the compensation.

Paying it would mean facing Haisen’s wrath, even if the mission succeeded.

Survival would be a luxury.

After consulting with his confidants, the deputy captain, before the news spread, took a few loyal men and set off as yet another “team to hunt the despicable thief,” bringing along next month’s city guard payroll.

They avoided Six-Leaf Grove and the Crescent Moon Federation entirely. No one knew where they went.

In short, one bounty, three waves of pursuers, each stronger and costlier than the last, and they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Chen Mo.

Haisen Zircon, the eldest son, had lost his composure more times than he could count.

Furious beyond endurance, Haisen dispatched his personal guard captain, Tikebot, a fourth-tier Black Armor Rider, leading a crack team of six ranked knights. They took a detour through Ironback Valley, the only path the elves permitted through the Gloomy Forest, battling endless forest beasts to enter the Crescent Moon Federation from the east.

Why not take an airship? Because the Zircon Family, still entangled in unpaid debts, had been blacklisted by the gnomes.

One way or another, the worldline of the Starry Continent quietly realigned, with streams from different directions converging toward that unassuming apprentice.

At that very moment, Chen Mo, at the preliminary mage tower, had reached the peak of his preparatory apprenticeship, on the cusp of a pivotal step in his mage journey—Spiritual Enlightenment.

Crossing this threshold would make him a formal mage apprentice, or a novice mage.

It was like graduating from kindergarten to elementary school.

And as everyone knew, Spiritual Enlightenment required a small trial.

Everyone was eagerly watching.

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