Chapter 29: Master and Servant?

An Luo walked into Meieruita’s dormitory.

It was very dark inside.

Meieruita had only casually lit a single candle, and the flickering flame made the shadows dance as well. The gray-black stone walls were filled with layers of shadows.

It looked just like the scene of a horror movie.

An Luo glanced at Meieruita, then at himself, before turning his gaze to John, who still hadn’t woken up.

For some inexplicable reason, he felt like he and Meieruita resembled believers of some evil cult, about to sacrifice an innocent person’s blood to please the evil god they worshipped.

An Luo: “……”

When Meieruita asked him about it, he explained, adding by the way:

“There are still quite a few evil gods in this world.”

Meieruita’s movements to wake John came to a halt.

“Evil gods?”

“Yeah, wizards with weak wills can be tempted and become their followers.”

“What about me?”

“Pretending to infiltrate, looking like you’ve been tempted, then capturing the evil god directly during the descent ritual and bringing it back to the lab for slicing.”

An Luo: “But that’s later in the plot.”

Meieruita said faintly, “What about him then?”

He lifted his chin, the gesture clearly pointing at John: “What happens if he encounters an evil god?”

“I don’t know.” An Luo replied, “In the setting, he… uh, already left by then.”

Meieruita looked at the still-unconscious John, the corner of his lips curving up slightly.

Even though they had signed a contract, and An Luo shouldn’t be able to lie, Meieruita still harbored some doubts.

Their current contract was just a tool made by a high-level wizard apprentice—who could guarantee it had no flaws?

Although An Luo seemed utterly convinced of the contract’s reliability, as if even he, as the author, believed in it, Meieruita had even less reason to doubt.

But An Luo’s knowledge of this world was limited to the plot.

Even the plot he himself wrote, he couldn’t fully control every detail.

“What are evil gods like?” Meieruita asked. “I only know about the deities in the churches.”

“Don’t deities have a division between righteous and evil?”

An Luo: “No.”

He wrote dark, twisted, and grim stories, so how could there be truly gentle, loving gods that saved all beings?

They didn’t exist.

“They’re all evil gods.”

“What about the goddess in the churches then?”

An Luo: “She doesn’t exist at all.”

“No matter.” Meieruita said, “I don’t worship Her anyway.”

John’s eyelids trembled slightly, and the two of them immediately fell silent.

When he opened his eyes, he was still a bit dazed. The first thing he saw was Meieruita, who was closest to him.

His pale face, in the dim light, looked like the vampire adults often used to scare children. He gazed over expressionlessly, his gray-green eyes calm as a stagnant pond, more like a vampire eyeing a meal that turned his stomach.

John jumped in fright.

His memories flooded back, and he instantly recalled what had happened before he passed out.

His lips trembled as he was about to say something when his gaze shifted and landed on An Luo, half-hidden behind Meieruita.

Although his true face had already been seen, An Luo still wore his disguise out of concern for being spotted when leaving—a white metal mask that reflected the light.

“Don’t be nervous.” He said, “We won’t hurt you.”

An Luo took out the contract scroll. “I’m very sorry, but I hope you’ll sign a contract with me to guarantee you won’t leak my secret to anyone else.”

He no longer pretended to have a hoarse voice. Since John already knew, there was no need to keep up the act.

The unfamiliar voice stunned John for a moment.

For some reason, it brought a sense of closeness.

It was strange.

It reminded him of praying in the church as a child, sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, the white marble statue of the goddess gazing down with a gentle smile.

“What’s wrong?” An Luo asked.

“Nothing.” That inexplicable sense of closeness made John subconsciously relax. “Alright, I’ll sign the contract.”

In truth, even without signing, he wouldn’t have leaked the secret anyway.

John read through the terms on the contract and signed his name.

An Luo signed after him.

“Don’t come looking for me anymore.” An Luo said, “Sorry.”

Sorry, buddy, it’s all because of me dragging you down.

Stay away from me from now on, so you don’t get targeted by the protagonist again.

John wasn’t stupid. He looked at An Luo a few times, sighed, and although he seemed hesitant to speak, he didn’t ask anything more and stood up to leave.

An Luo watched his back, hoping in his heart that he could survive the five years in the Wizard Tower.

Once Meieruita took down the wizards and rose to power, he would basically release all the apprentices in the Wizard Tower.

As long as John stayed away from An Luo, Meieruita wouldn’t target him specifically.

“Let’s go.” Meieruita blew out the candle. “Back.”

A few days later, the reply and money from the Lanrian Family arrived.

An Luo took out a bag of gold coins as payment for the wizard apprentice handling the mailing.

“Thanks.” He said in a hoarse voice.

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome.” The wizard apprentice in charge of mailing was named Pangzi, a play on “fatty.”

An Luo hadn’t put much thought into naming his tool characters.

Pangzi lived up to his name, looking like the picture of easygoing prosperity—fair-skinned and plump, he chuckled as he accepted the gold coins from An Luo.

The mailing position was one only veteran apprentices could hold, and it came with plenty of perks. No matter who received a package, they had to share a bit with Pangzi.

From money on down to cheap daily necessities, Pangzi treated them all the same—never too much, never too little.

He also never tampered with the items.

Thus, his reputation was excellent.

And he held the position steadily.

An Luo returned to the dormitory and opened the letter. Besides greetings, the Lanrian Family’s reply inquired about Lan Lian’s learning progress.

Ordinary people knew nothing of the Wizard Tower’s brutality and thought Lan Lian was directly apprenticed to a wizard.

Lan Lian hadn’t denied it to boost his own image.

“Here, the money’s arrived.”

An Luo was halfway through reading the letter when Meieruita returned.

He shifted aside a bit to show off the wealth on the table. “Half is yours.”

Meieruita said flatly, “No need, keep it yourself.”

Seeing An Luo about to ask more, Meieruita added, “When I need it, I’ll ask you for it.”

“Alright.” An Luo put the gold coins into the box Lan Lian used for valuables and locked it.

In the blink of an eye, it was time to pay the monthly fee for the wizard apprentice identity again.

“Give me your credential.”

At the beginning of each month, all tasks updated, and the Task Reception Area was packed with people, jostling shoulder to shoulder.

An Luo had just prepared to squeeze in when Meieruita grabbed his wrist and reminded him in a low voice, “Your injury.”

An Luo: “……”

He had almost forgotten—his current disguise was that of a burn victim, a pitiful survivor struggling to stay alive.

Moreover, Lan Lian was a noble himself, too dignified to shove into crowds.

Meieruita was thoughtful.

An Luo obediently handed over his wizard apprentice credential.

Suddenly, a fierce argument broke out in front of the Task Reception Area, seemingly over snatching a particular task.

Meieruita, unsurprised, glanced up. “You head back to the dormitory and wait for me.”

Having learned in advance from An Luo about the malice veteran apprentices held toward promising newcomers, Meieruita had cleverly disguised himself to appear utterly non-threatening.

Through deliberate effort, the way he lowered his head to speak to An Luo looked, in others’ eyes, like a tamed servant.

After taking the apprentice credential from An Luo, he slowly made his way to the very end of the line, showing no intention of competing.

The gazes of the veteran apprentices in the hall lingered on Meieruita for a moment before indifferently shifting away.

Truly talented apprentices with potential for promotion had high spirits and wouldn’t stoop to subservience.

Meieruita had originally been one of their key targets—not only for his high talent, but because he had previously completed an advanced task and survived.

He seemed very likely to advance to mid-level apprentice.

But after that, his talent appeared damaged. He was always sickly and had become the servant of his former master, Lan Lian, who had once plotted against him.

That air of innate submission couldn’t be faked.

They had tested him a few times before. Although Meieruita could still complete mid-level tasks, it didn’t seem like he had completely lost hope.

But when they snatched the materials he had spent a long time gathering, Meieruita, though visibly reluctant, still yielded.

Afterward, there was no retaliation—or rather, no ability to retaliate.

He even went out of his way to avoid these veteran apprentices.

It seemed his damaged talent had thoroughly crushed his edge and pride.

The veterans felt satisfied while secretly mocking the master-servant duo of Lan Lian and Meieruita as a pair of sickly weaklings.

They probably wouldn’t last long in the Wizard Tower.

Thus, they no longer focused on Meieruita, turning their attention to other promising new apprentices instead.

Especially one named Evans, whose talent was exceptional. In a short time, he had already mastered three witchcraft spells.

He clashed head-on with the veterans, winning some and losing some.

He had become their prime target for full blockade.

Meieruita stood calmly in place, showing no interest whatsoever in the commotion ahead.

He kept his head down, his face mostly hidden under his hood, appearing utterly dejected and frustrated. In reality, his mind was constructing further improvements to the fireball spell.

To maintain the disguise perfectly, Meieruita hadn’t redeemed any new witchcraft books. Instead, he refined the fireball spell he had already improved.

Even when someone cut in line ahead, he said nothing.

Such trivialities meant nothing to him.

At the Task Reception Area up front, the veteran apprentices and the rising star Evans battled it out, ending with Evans’s victory.

He strutted past the queuing wizard apprentices in triumph, and everyone in line couldn’t help but look up at him, their eyes filled with envy and admiration.

If only I could be as strong as him, strong enough that even the veterans can’t touch me.

Meieruita lifted his eyes along with the crowd for a glance.

But his gaze held no emotion, no trace of yearning or envy.

In a brief look, he lowered his head again, focusing on building the new model in his mind.

A veteran apprentice left in the hall saw Meieruita finally take a low-level task and a mid-level one that relied mostly on time grinding, and their last shred of suspicion vanished.

No need to bother anymore.

To them, Meieruita was no longer a threat at all.

Every batch of new apprentices had a few standouts.

But few survived to this point, let alone advanced to mid-level.

The remaining ones gradually blended into the masses.

Meieruita was just one of those who had become mediocre.