Sorcerer's Handbook-Chapter 538: Coveting

Stars Kingdom, Swordflower College.

“Huh? Doesn’t she really like those particular dishes? I see her getting the same ones every time she goes to the Dining Hall.”

“Sonya always chooses those dishes because they’re the most cost-effective. The taste, nutrition, price, and energy are all impeccable-even our Swords Sect often opts for them. But since you have plenty of living expenses and don’t eat much, you might not have noticed the prices. However, Sonya doesn’t seem to be short on money recently, yet she still goes for those dishes. It shows that she’s not much driven by culinary cravings.”

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“I see… Next question, the places Sonya frequents these days-besides her dorm, the training building, the library, and the Meditation Building, she doesn’t seem to go anywhere else, right? Ever since she became a sorcerer, she hasn’t attended any social gatherings.”

When Lois returned to the dorm, she found Adelle and Engulite in a serious discussion about someone else’s private matters. She couldn’t help but ask, “What are you doing?”

“Researching Sonya,” Adelle replied.

“I know you’re researching Sonya, but what’s there to research?” Lois placed her backpack on the desk, looking puzzled, “If you want to know something, why not just ask her when she gets back?”

“No way, I can’t let the Stretch Paw Club President know that I’m researching her,” Adelle said. “I’m doing something bad.”

“How could you be doing something bad? You’re not that kind of person.”

“Lois!” Adelle felt deeply touched. “I never expected you to have such faith in my character!”

“It’s not your character I believe in; it’s your intelligence. You gave up cheating on the final exam because it was too bothersome. I honestly can’t imagine you doing anything bad,” Lois sat down and said. “I think your maximum evil act would be buying cream puffs and using a straw to suck out the cream in advance.”

“Lois, you don’t know me well enough,” Adelle huffed. “If I bought cream puffs, there’s no way I’d stop at just sucking out the cream. At most, I’d leave one for each of you!”

Lois: “Alright, alright, Engulite, you take over.”

“Adelle’s family wants her to gather intelligence on Sonya, like her connections, eating habits, and places she frequents,” Engulite said calmly. “In short, they’re trying to figure out Sonya’s secrets.”

Lois paused with her backpack half-open.

“…What?”

“I can’t help it,” Adelle complained. “When I went home, my mother pulled me into a room and started talking about how bad things were and how my father’s career and noble title could advance-all complicated-sounding issues. I finally escaped to hang out with Frey, and everything was fine at first, but when we were stargazing together, he suddenly started talking about Sonya-bringing up another woman on a date is a big deduction!”

“The root of the problem isn’t your parents or fiancé,” Lois said. “I remember your father holds a shield peerage, and your fiancé’s family is lance peerage. Your family hasn’t produced a sanctuary sorcerer in ages, so they wouldn’t dare covet the secrets of a sanctuary sorcerer… Your family is just a pawn; the real players here are the inner court nobility.”

Stars nobility is also known as the guard palace nobility because there are two entirely different systems: the inner court nobility and the guard palace nobility.

Inner court nobility is divided into dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts, while guard palace nobility is divided into armor, bow, lance, shield, and sword peerages. The two not only have different noble title systems but also vastly different roles: members of the Court, the legislative assembly, and the House of Nobles are only selected from among the inner court nobility, whereas the Government Affairs Department, law enforcement officials, and city magistrates mostly come from the guard palace nobility.

Simply put, the guard palace nobility forms the national civil service system, executing the Empress’s orders, while the inner court nobility forms the Council cabinet, acting as advisors to the Empress. Although it isn’t explicitly stated, inner court nobility cannot serve as government officials, and vice versa.

If inner court nobility genuinely wants to engage in administration, they must forfeit their noble title inheritance and, like commoners, pass various exams to become the lowest rank, a sword peerage, and start on the government official path.

Although the inner court nobility is hereditary, they can be demoted. The House of Nobles has its own complex calculation system; simply put, if inner court nobility underperforms, they may be transferred directly to the guard palace nobility.

Overall, the inner court nobility holds a higher social status than the guard palace nobility. However, for those with political ideals who aspire to wield power, the guard palace nobility is the only answer. ɽἁ𝐍Ȯ₿ЕS̈

The shield peerage and lance peerage that Lois mentioned are two ranks within the guard palace nobility. One major difference between the guard palace and the inner court nobility is that the latter is quite difficult to advance in rank-often, generations hold the same noble title. In contrast, no matter what noble title the previous generation held, the next generation in the guard palace nobility always starts from the sword peerage.

Therefore, a guard palace noble title doesn’t represent your family background but rather your personal rank-within the government official system, promotion usually equates to a noble title upgrade. Even if your parents are commoners, becoming a city magistrate means you will at least have an armor peerage; conversely, even if your parents hold an armor peerage, if you’re an ordinary operator, you’ll only have a sword peerage. The primary significance of a noble title is related to the convenience you enjoy, the permissions you unlock, and your post-retirement benefits.

It’s evident that the names of the five guard palace peerages originate from melee weapons warfare, with the shield superior to the sword, the lance stronger than the shield, and the bow having an advantage, while the armor is the most crucial. Adelle’s family is of shield peerage, and her fiancé’s family is lance peerage, making them well-matched.

Guard palace nobility doesn’t fear “dropping a rank,” but the inner court nobility is different. The House of Nobles has a stringent indicator for them: the cultivation of sorcerers. For each sorcerer cultivated, they earn a certain number of points, differing for silver, gold, sanctuary, and legend sorcerers. Simply put, a duke needs to cultivate a sanctuary sorcerer every thirty years to maintain their title (generation-after-generation sanctuary), while a viscount can relax this to 120 years (a sanctuary every four generations).

Although it’s possible to meet these indicators by recruiting sanctuary sorcerers, this is often challenging, as sanctuary sorcerers can become nobility themselves and may not align with you. Additionally, if you’re aiming to secure a sanctuary sorcerer, so are dukes and marquises, making competition fierce. Hence, counts and viscounts who anticipate a downgrade often voluntarily shift to guard palace nobility to avoid wasting their lives in the Council.

This is why Lois is so certain that Adelle’s family is just an intermediary. Guard palace nobility has little desire for sanctuaries, with an attitude of “we can live just fine without them.” Only the inner court nobility seeks the secrets to achieving sanctuary status, as it truly affects class stability.

“Ugh, I’m under pressure that’s just not right for my age,” Adelle sighed. “The taste of maturity is really quite bitter.”

“Stop pretending,” Lois said as she gave Adelle a playful smack on the head and took her notebook. “The things you’ve written here, if you posted them to the Stretch Paw Club, people would just dismiss them as trivial gossip about Sonya! And this note about her underwear brand-cross it out. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Sanctuary.”

“Why? You can’t just jump to conclusions!”

“I’m using the same brand. She’s copying me.”

“But your size-“

Smack!

Adelle, rubbing her sore head, grabbed her notebook back and exclaimed, “Then why don’t you take a guess at what Sonya’s secret is!”

“Why should I bother guessing with you all…,” Lois sighed, moving her chair closer to seriously analyze the situation. “The most striking thing about Sonya right now is just how quickly she achieved Sanctuary status.”

“From when she summoned her first spirit in April to the Meteor Trial five days ago, it’s only been a little over seventy days. If we start counting from the day she demonstrated her two-wings capability at the Friendly Match, she went from one-winged to two-wings in just over twenty days. That means she took only fifty days to time travel across the Time Continent and reach the Distant Sky Domain.”

“But the Time Continent isn’t the same as the Sea of Knowledge. The Sea of Knowledge has the Whirlpool as a shortcut, allowing sorcerers with extraordinary talent to rapidly achieve the silver wing and Sect Realm transformations, but the Time Continent doesn’t have such a mechanism.”

“The Stars recorded the fastest breakthrough from two-wings to three-wings as the ‘hundred-day Sanctuary’ by legendary sorcerer Magus five hundred years ago. But this was based on Magus mastering the Movement Miracle, along with his soul energy being twice that of an average sorcerer, effectively giving him twice the exploration time.”

“Sonya not only broke his record but cut the time down to half,” Lois sighed. “It’s only natural that everyone suspects she has mastered a powerful Exploration Miracle.”

In the world of sorcerers, talent doesn’t explain everything.

After all, no matter how high your talent is, it can only help you break through the Sect Realm and remove the concept of a plateau from your dictionary. However, spellforce is a hard metric directly tied to exploration time, much like pregnancy-if it takes a genius one year, but you manage it in six months, everyone will marvel at your exceptional gift; if you do it in one hundred days, people will think you’re extraordinary but might still accept it; but if you need only fifty days and still look like any normal person, who wouldn’t believe there’s a miracle involved?

“But most Exploration Miracles are used to repair soul damage and negate the costs of death,” Engulite mused. “Speaking of which, Sonya did recover surprisingly quickly after her few Virtual Realm deaths.”

Lois nodded. “I had a faint suspicion back then, but I never expected she was hiding such a trump card… To condense the Golden Wing within fifty days, she must either have mastered a miracle that allows safe and rapid movement in the Virtual Realm, or she has a way to increase her spellforce absorption rate. Either way, it’s something inner court nobility dream of.”

Some might wonder why saving a few years on condensing the Golden Wing matters. Does saving this time mean you can break through to become a sanctuary sorcerer?

But let’s not forget that there’s a golden period for learning, between the ages of 20 and 30, which is the best window for sorcerers to make breakthroughs. The sooner you condense the Golden Wing, the more spellforce you can use to train your spirit, increasing your chances of breaking through the Sect Realm. Moreover, while the punishment for Virtual Realm deaths isn’t severe enough to hinder actions, it does impede a sorcerer’s ability to focus and hone their skills.

Even if a sorcerer dies only three or four times a year (which is actually quite low), they still nearly waste half of their lives, and the golden ten years fly by quickly. Those inner court nobles who wield Exploration Miracles dramatically reduce the consequences of death for sorcerers, which is why their probability of producing sanctuary sorcerers far exceeds ordinary families.

Now, with the emergence of a miracle that potentially accelerates the condensation of spellforce, how could inner court nobility not covet it? How could they resist employing some means to acquire such a secret?

However…

“Even if they want it badly, they can at most exert pressure on Adelle’s family to make her probe Sonya’s secret,” Engulite remarked with a chuckle. “Sonya now has the ability to protect her own secrets.”

If Sonya were still a two-wings sorcerer, even if the Stars nobility couldn’t break the law, they’d still find ways to manipulate a two-wings sorcerer within the confines of the rules. For example, Adelle’s parents, being two-wings sorcerers but also government officials, are under pressure they can’t refuse.

But the issue is, Sonya is already a sanctuary sorcerer.

Even though she hasn’t yet constructed her sanctuary, it’s only a matter of time. A sanctuary sorcerer is equivalent to nobility, at a level where most tactics are ineffective. Unless the Empress were to personally intervene, even the five Dukes couldn’t make Sonya bow.

“Yeah,” Lois nodded slightly. “She’s not like us anymore.”

“Hey, hey, aren’t you here to help me? Come on, help me think of what else I can write, so I can finish my assignment,” Adelle urged, biting on her pen.

“Adelle, why do you seem so unconcerned?”

“What do you mean unconcerned? If I didn’t care, I’d already be lying in bed watching Delarose’s new drama.”

“I mean, you don’t seem worried about being caught between your family and Sonya,” Lois pointed out. “On one hand, you’re not planning to hide Sonya’s intelligence, and on the other, you just want to fulfill your obligation to your family… I thought in this situation you’d either secretly gather Sonya’s private information or feel wronged for being pressured by your family.”

“Because worrying doesn’t help, it just keeps me from peacefully watching my shows,” Adelle replied. “And I’m no good at collecting private information. My stealth skills are so poor Sonya would definitely notice me right away.”

“As for being pressured by my family… Okay, I do feel a bit upset. I finally get to visit home and both my parents and Frey want me to betray a friend. But Sonya is my friend, not theirs, so it’s understandable. Besides that, they’re still my loving parents and the fiancé I’ve grown up with. Any upset feelings I have dissipate quickly.”

“Moreover, they know who I am; if there were any other option, they wouldn’t have come to me. They must be under pressures I know nothing about, which is why they troubled their most adorable daughter and fiancée. How could I blame them?”

“So I need to be diligent with my writing. That way, I can complete my assignment, and they can fulfill theirs too.”

Lois couldn’t help but glance at Engulite, who shrugged and continued helping Adelle with her assignment.

No wonder Engulite, who normally acts aloof, is willing to help…

“But you’re really in a tough spot. If Sonya finds out, who knows what she’ll do to get back at you. Last time when you borrowed her Wooden Sword and swung it around recklessly, you screamed so loud that people in the next building heard you.”

Adelle clasped her hands together in a pleading gesture. “Lois, please don’t say anything! Engulite already promised me she wouldn’t spill the beans!”

Lois didn’t interrupt them any further and went back to tidying up her place. She hadn’t been back for days, and dust had already settled on her desk.

After the College League ended, Swordflower College took a five-day break, followed by a two-month ‘sorcerers’ self-training period,’ also known as summer vacation. Students could choose to train at home or return to school. Any student with ambition would return to school since the training facilities there were unmatched compared to home.

So, Adelle must have returned half for escapism and half out of obligation. After all, she’d be binge-watching shows anywhere, and the bed at home is definitely more comfortable than the dorm bed.

Originally, Lois was planning to stay home; she had lined up lots of social activities for her summer vacation. But after being inspired by Sonya and Engulite, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a water sorcerer.

Besides, she had her own reason to come back.

As the luminous star set in the west, Adelle put down her pen and stretched. “I’m so tired!”

Engulite replied, “I’ve been doing all the talking. Why are you tired?”

“Writing is exhausting!” Adelle declared, getting up. “Let’s get something to eat! Lois, are we going to the Dining Hall or eating out tonight?”

“You go ahead,” Lois said, still focused on her book. “I indulged too much while I was home and need to watch my weight a bit. I’ll just have some fruit for dinner.”

“I think you need to eat more if you want to catch up to Sonya-I mean in size, you can’t hit me! Engulite, let’s go!”

Engulite glanced at Lois and then followed Adelle out.