Chapter 152: Trouble

Mavis thought about this and prepared to take Hugh’s magic stones to the trading district in Holy Circle City to buy new clothes.
Just as she was about to set off, she looked down at her own clothes and realized she could not go out wearing this.
"Lend me one of your robes!" Mavis set her sights on Hugh’s robe.
"Wait, don't rush. There are some things we need to discuss!" Hugh regulated his emotions and motioned for Mavis to sit down.
Seeing Hugh like this, Mavis knew something was probably wrong, so she obediently sat down facing him.
"The reincarnation ritual is already complete. You..."
"I choose to submit!" Before Hugh could finish, Mavis very wisely stated her stance.
Hugh held the origin of her soul, and she relied on his bloodline for continuous advancement. Besides, Hugh’s potential alone was far greater than Samuel's. Following Hugh was not a bad deal at all.
"You can merge my soul origin with your soul so that you can control my life and death at any time!" Mavis was choosing to completely and utterly surrender to Hugh.
"Hmm!" Hugh had originally intended to do this, but hearing these words come straight from Mavis's mouth made him feel slightly surprised.
"People from Holy Circle City have already arrived!" This was the reason Hugh wanted to talk to Mavis.
"Ah? So soon? They didn't discover anything, did they?" Mavis was startled upon hearing this. She had not expected so many things to happen here while she was undergoing the reincarnation ritual.
"They don't have conclusive evidence yet, so they haven't done anything to me, but they are already suspicious. We need to speed things up!" Hugh wanted to reap his benefits in Holy Circle City and leave immediately to avoid any complications arising from prolonged delay.
"What do you need me to do?" Mavis looked at Hugh with a solemn expression. She knew this matter was of great importance, and now it was time for her to cooperate.
"The guard squad has found out that Gut and the others are not in Holy Circle City, but I told them that you have already returned!" Hugh pointed at Mavis in front of him. The "you" in Hugh's words naturally referred to Ma Fan, whose body had already been possessed.

"You mean, let me actively expose my own information to throw them off?" Mavis guessed Hugh's intention instantly. This method might not be the best, but it was the most effective one right now.
"Yes! You must understand, if we are discovered, the two of us might end up trapped in Holy Circle City for the rest of our lives!" Hugh knew this venture came with high risks and high rewards. Whether it succeeded depended entirely on how well Mavis acted.
"Don't worry. I absorbed a part of this Ma Fan's soul and have some of her memories. I won't let them find out!" Mavis agreed without hesitation. She was now bound to Hugh—their fortunes were tied together.
"What about your current strength, and the traces of the reincarnation ritual..." Once Hugh learned that Mavis also possessed Ma Fan's memories, he felt much more at ease, provided no one could tell that Ma Fan's body had been taken over by Mavis.
"There's no need to worry about that. My current strength is at the rank-one wizard level, but my soul is relatively strong, so I can even put up a fight against semi-elementalized wizards. Furthermore, I am Ma Fan right now. The energy core of that dream spirit erases any traces left by the reincarnation ritual. Even if a rank-three wizard came right now, they wouldn't be able to tell anything is amiss!" Mavis had great confidence in the effects of the reincarnation ritual and the energy core of the dream spirit.
"Alright! Go straight to Gut's shop. We haven't seen each other these past few days. Also, you should know Ma Fan's personality—don't slip up!" With that, Hugh tossed a pile of magic stones to Mavis, signaling that she could leave.
"Rest assured, I guarantee I won't slip up!" Holding the magic stones and having pilfered one of Hugh's robes on the side, Mavis happily skipped out of the villa.
"Tsk, in the end I still have to do it myself!" Watching Mavis leave, Hugh suddenly remembered that the materials he had prepared for Mavis to brew the dragon potion were still in the laboratory. Now that Mavis had left, the chore fell back onto him.
With no other choice, since the matter with the Silver Roses was not yet settled, Hugh had to brew it himself.
On the surface, Holy Circle City appeared calm, but underneath currents were surging wildly, completely stirred up by a piece of news.
Every wizard in Holy Circle City now knew that the previous large-scale recruitment by various wizard organizations in the city was actually to have them defend against a rank-three deep-sea demon whale.
A single stone stirred up a thousand ripples. This very news thoroughly ignited Holy Circle City, and many wizards who learned the truth cursed furiously.
The woman Hugh had met earlier was even more pleasantly surprised upon seeing this. The more chaotic Holy Circle City became, the more favorable it would be for their operation.
The woman secretly sent people to use large-scale offensive wizardry within Holy Circle City. Now the city was in complete chaos, and the authorities had no choice but to dispatch guards to suppress the rioters.
Hugh knew nothing of all this, remaining single-mindedly focused on brewing potions inside his laboratory.

Inside Jelin's villa, which stood right next to Hugh's, the roots at the bottom of the plant Jelin had entrusted Hugh to look after began to spread continuously toward the bottom of the villa, all the way to the middle of a pool of blood-red water.
The root tendrils began to spread endlessly until they covered the entire pool.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, they began to draw the bloodwater from the pool. Inside the villa, the small sapling, which had originally been only a little over a person's height, began to grow crimson vines that spread throughout the entire building.
The tendrils absorbed the bloodwater at a rapid pace, yet the bottom of the pool seemed bottomless, continuously supplying the tendrils with liquid.
"Hmm? Did something go wrong?" Stepping out of the laboratory, Hugh finally sensed that something was amiss outside.
When Hugh walked out, he saw the guards of Holy Circle City escorting wizards one by one, along with carriages. Many guards even had their bodies broken in two, with organs and blood spilled all over the ground.
"Heh! Have the schemes of Holy Circle City's wizard organizations been exposed?" Upon seeing this situation, Hugh immediately understood what was going on.
With so many wizards being arrested, it must mean that the wizard organizations' previous large-scale recruitment had come to light, and some wizards who refused to be cannon fodder had started to resist.
"He's here too!" Hugh looked around and found that Peka, who had left his villa not long ago, was also here dealing with the incident.
Peka's expression was very ugly, looking as though he was extremely angry.
"Hey!" Seeing that Peka had noticed him, Hugh waved and greeted him.
"Captain, Ma Fan has been found!" Peka was in a terrible mood. Just as he wanted to approach upon seeing Hugh, he heard Harry's voice calling out to him.
Ignoring Hugh and instructing the people nearby, Peka left the area to find Harry and get the details.