Divergent Warlock[1]
Laura wouldn’t have thought that Green would actually make such a proposal. She was surprised, her face becoming pure red. This condition was just too sudden and beyond her expectations.
Although the culture here on the Ark Continent wasn’t like that of Ancient China where women paid attention to the three obediences and four virtues[2], they still had their own set of rules. There was some equality between men and women. For example, in a large clan, it wasn’t only the men that could obtain the inheritance, but the women as well.
The context of marriage was also relatively free. Just take a look at Ryan[3] Purcell who didn’t like Zhao Hai. He could propose an engagement, then she would let her clan find a way to break off the engagement. This kind of setting was normal[4].
However, the present situation, where someone is suddenly offering a condition of marriage to a girl such a Laura, could easily make the girl extremely shy. Others might have forgotten this.
Green watched Laura’s reaction, smiled, and said, “Miss Laura, please don’t worry. The Young Master of our clan is less than 20 years old and is at a comparable age with Miss Laura. Furthermore, he is an aristocrat, so he is absolutely not unworthy of Miss Laura.”
Zhao Hai forced a smile while saying, “Grandpa Green, don’t say such things. Miss Laura, please don’t be offended, but my identity will bring you too much trouble. Even our alliance with the Purcell clan wouldn’t be enough to save me. I will kindly ask Miss to not delve further.”
Laura was actually shocked as she wouldn’t have thought that Zhao Hai would say such things. His identity would bring her too much trouble? Suddenly, she thought of when Zhao Hai spoke Green’s title.
In the previous visits Laura had, Zhao Hai had always called Green by the name of Ringer[5]. On the continent, Ringer was a common name, so it was nothing special. As such, Laura hasn’t cared about it before.
Zhao Hai, however, had been anxious and had addressed him by the name of Green. Although it wasn’t anything special, after thinking of Zhao Hai’s status and Green’s strength, Laura suddenly thought of a clan.
Laura stared at Zhao Hai and said, “Is it possible that Mister’s surname is Buda? And the Sir beside you is the Spiritwind Battle General Green? This isn’t right, didn’t Mister drink the Water of Nothingness? How can you use magic?”
Zhao Hai and Green were both startled. They hadn’t thought that Laura was so unexpectedly smart that she had guessed their identity with just a name as her clue.
The two looked at each other and smiled bitterly. Green removed his helmet that hid his face and tossed it aside. Looking at Laura, he smiled and said, “Miss Laura really deserves to be called Heaven’s Lovely Daughter[6]. You are really smart. With just a word from the Young Master, you had actually correctly guessed our identity. Ah, this is great.”
Zhao Hai had also removed the cap of his magic robe. With a forced smile, he said, “I never would have thought that I would be the one revealing flaws. Miss Laura, I’ll re-introduce myself. I am called Zhao Hai Buda, formerly Adam Buda. This is my Head Steward, Green Buda. My maidservant here, who is the granddaughter of Grandpa Green, is Meg Buda. And the person who had prepared food for you back when you visited several times is Meg’s grandmother, Meirin Buda.”
Zhao Hai stood up while introducing everyone to Laura. Green also gave his greetings to Laura. Laura was shocked as she watched them.
She hadn’t really thought that she had guessed it correctly. This place was actually of the Buda clan. Who would have thought that the Buda clan, exiled to the Black Waste, would suddenly re-appear here. Looking at them, they appeared to be so free.
Laura looked at Zhao Hai who still wore his magic robe. After removing his hat, Zhao Hai had lost his mysterious presence. Yet, Laura felt that Zhao Hai was more appealing this way.
Being mysterious could attract a woman, but being such an extremely mystical man wouldn’t be to the liking of women because they wouldn’t have a sense of security. While Laura was attracted to the mystery of Zhao Hai, she actually liked Zhao Hai’s disposition more than that mysteriousness.
Zhao Hai’s character. After their several meetings, Laura had some understanding of it. Zhao Hai was just too mysterious though, thus, Laura didn’t want to delve deeper into a relationship.
Now she finally saw Zhao Hai’s appearance. Zhao Hai wasn’t that tall. If he stood beside Laura, he would be seen as obviously smaller than her[7]. His face looked quiet, even somewhat weak and thin looking. Adding on his disposition as an otaku bookworm, and he had a refined and somewhat gentle appearance. However, Laura could also feel an optimistic perseverance from Zhao Hai’s presence. This was what Laura appreciated the most.
After Laura returned a greeting to Zhao Hai, they sat back down. Zhao Hai looked at Laura, smiled, and said, “Now you know, Miss Laura, why I don’t wish to meet with the Purcell clan, right? Moreover, if my identity were to be known by outsiders, then I won’t only be able to defend myself. Even Miss Laura would be involved. Therefore, we can only hide here.”
Laura sternly replied, “Mister has thought all of this thoroughly. However, Mister saved my life, thus, I am not afraid of involvement. If there is no Mister, then there would be no Laura today. I’m asking Mister to not say no to this.”
Zhao Hai shook his head. “Miss might be wondering how I can use black magic when it is a fact that I drank the Water of Nothingness. To tell you the truth, although I have drunk the Water of Nothingness, I had another ability. I am a Divergent Warlock.”
Divergent Warlocks were a group of mysterious people who, on the continent, were known as the occupation with the least combatants. No one knows the origin of these Divergent Warlocks, nor how they cultivated. There was no way to learn Divergent techniques, and its qualifications weren’t affected by bloodline. Since there was no known cultivation method necessary for it, then along with an incomplete system, it made people fear that slaves might also become Divergent Warlocks.
There were all sorts of strange and unusual abilities that Divergent Warlocks were said to possess. Some cannot be used in battle, while some enhanced their battle capabilities. If black magicians were known as people the continent didn’t want to provoke, then Divergent Warlocks were people that even black magicians didn’t want to provoke.
At the beginning, Zhao Hai didn’t know about the existence of Divergent Warlocks. It was only after some time that he finally found out about those Divergent Warlocks. To put it bluntly, they were like the mutants in the X-Men movie he’d watched back on Earth. Some people had different abilities and were called mutants.
On Earth, mutants and abilities existed only in legends. These legends, however, were real here on the Ark Continent. They really existed and were considered occupations that had its own identity and status.
Divergent Warlocks were different from black magicians because while the common aristocrats didn’t like to invite black magicians, Divergent Warlocks were actually people the aristocrats liked to invite.
Strictly speaking, the Space capability of Zhao Hai was a Divergent technique, but this Divergent technique was really a bit too strange. Zhao Hai didn’t know where the Space came from, except that he knew that the Space was related to the farm games of his past. His understanding of the Space made it different than that of other Divergent techniques of the Divergent Warlocks.
Laura felt relieved after hearing Zhao Hai’s explanation. The occupation known as Divergent Warlock wasn’t subject to any medicinal restrictions. Thus, the Water of Nothingness wouldn’t have any effect on Divergent techniques.
Laura hadn’t seen a Divergent Warlock before since they were few in number. Therefore, she looked at Zhao Hai curiously. “Does Mister’s Divergent technique work the same as black magic?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “My Divergent technique is somewhat strange, therefore, explaining it in such a short time wouldn’t be enough. I won’t be able to elaborate it to you. Also, Miss Laura doesn’t need to call me Mister. Instead, call me Zhao Hai from now on.”
Laura smile and replied, “I will call you Mister since I have been accustomed to do so anyway. Oh, right. Mister, if you had an ancient magic tool, then why didn’t you use it when your clan was being exterminated? The last time Sir Green went to the Purcell clan, hadn’t you used one? Do you still have that ancient magic tool?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “I didn’t have any ancient magic tool. If I did have such a thing, then I wouldn’t be in this situation. What you’re talking about is just part of my Divergent technique.”
Laura held her breath. Although she hadn’t seen a Divergent Warlock before, she knew that there were many different types. Some of them had a very high potential, even reaching a Rank Nine expert’s strength. Some of these Divergent Warlocks, however, didn’t have much use, such as the ability to study skin or the ability to read when their eyes closed. Those things were absolutely useless and didn’t have any battle efficiency[8].
Zhao Hai wouldn’t speak of how many abilities his divergent technique had since even having just this ability was already sufficient to cause envy. It was equal to owning an ancient magic tool.
But Laura still wanted to confirm things. Therefore, she continued to question Zhao Hai. “Mister, do you mean to say that your ability is like an ancient magic tool that can transfer a human. Such as, you can transfer them here to Stony Mountain?”
Zhao Hai smiled again and replied, “The ability isn’t as easy as you say and, in fact, has a great limitation. First, the person to be transferred should be trusted by me. Second, he needs a medium so that I can transfer him[9]. If it were really easy, then I wouldn’t need to be here?”
Laura smiled while nodding, then blushed. After she listened to Zhao Hai tell her that the person must be someone he trusted, she thought that the person couldn’t be anyone but people close to him. She couldn’t help but think about Green’s words.
Green, who cut a wise and fine figure[10], looked at Laura’s reaction and knew what she was thinking. He couldn’t help but smile as he told Laura, “Miss Laura, our identity is extremely sensitive. I do hope that Miss can give the Young Master some assurance that you’ll keep it a secret.”
Laura smiled after hearing what Green said. She looked at Green’s expression and couldn’t help but blush. Laura soon calmed down. She was different from common girls and said, “Sir Green, rest assured, I know what I should do.”
“Miss Laura is too polite. Please don’t call me Sir Green, but just call me Green. Or maybe, it would be even better if you call me Grandpa Green as that is what the Young Master calls me,” Green replied with a smile.
Laura’s face became even more red. Quietly, she replied, “This Laura is impolite. From now on, I’ll call you Grandpa Green.” Though she said this, her voice was very low.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
-Please support the author if you love this novel.
-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] 异术士 – Yì shùshì. Different/Distinct/dissimilar/alien/foreign. Warlock. Yea, Divergent was a nice one. Diverges from the common way. ↩
[2] No explanation from me, just… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Obediences_and_Four_Virtues ↩
[3] 瑞恩 – Ruì ēn. Ryan. More gender neutral names. ↩
[4] And yet, Laura’s fear of being married off is completely inconsistent with this…Author should have added “Unless the family is the vampire Markey Dell clan who are annoying kids that would spend everything to get that one collector’s trading card they want.” ↩
[5] 林格 – Lín gé. Basically the backward version of Green (格林), except this doesn’t work well in English. No, I have no idea if this name was ever actually used… maybe we missed it? ↩
[6] 天之娇女 – Tiān zhī jiāo nǚ. I did my best. ↩
[7] Not something bad considering she’s a warrior… time to photoshop Taylor Swift’s face to a female bodybuilder… ↩
[8] Useless? I would love to read with my eyes closed. Lessens the strain and makes it possible to read in the dark (probably). And studying skin is a good excuse to be pervy… ↩
[9] Basically, the first part is kinda BS because he can transfer animals and such in anyways. I doubt he requires “permission” if the person is weak enough. The permission is probably for strong people though. The second part is not even a limitation. I swear he can just wave a hand and transfer people in an area. He is probably talking about the Ghost Cane and Transfer Points though… ↩
[10] Don’t ask. Second time this phrase has happened. Third time will get an explanation if I can get one. ↩