The Legendary Mage (Alavin)
Chapter 89

"Let's speak in the room first, and let's not alert the others," Lucan beckoned Alavin into the chamber. The estate was close by, and it would be troublesome if anyone within noticed.

Cobalt Strike would never willingly allow Alavin to return; he must have escaped by some means.

Everyone of the Mallister family was both shocked and overjoyed, scarcely believing their own eyes.

"Has the young lord returned?"

"Is this really our young lord?"

"He's grown so much!"

"My dear, let your Aunt Helna have a good look at you; you've grown so tall." The elderly woman, named Helna, was Alavin's mother's elder sister. She had suffered tragedy early on, losing both her husband and child. Since then, she had been living in the lord's keep, treating Alavin as if he were her own son.

Once dignified and graceful, now her head was crowned with white hair. In merely eight years, time had rendered her so aged.

Alavin could hardly believe his eyes, and tears began to blur his vision. "Aunt Helna, what has happened to you?"

"I'm quite well, quite well, strong as an ox," Helna said, clutching Alavin's hand tightly while gently caressing his cheek. "Let me look at you. Let me have a good look."

After her in-laws' misfortune, she took refuge in the lord's keep, considering it her home and the Mallisters her kin. But one night of upheaval changed everything her sister and brother-in-law's fates were unknown, the Mallisters suffered greatly, and over two hundred thousand townsfolk endured untold sorrows. She had seen it all, felt the grief and the pain, and also the helplessness. She even wondered if it was her own ill fortune that had brought such calamity upon the keep.

"Alavin, I missed you so much." Oda clung to Alavin, afraid it was all a dream.

"Young lord, how did you return?" Lucan asked with concern. If discovered, Cobalt Strike would not be lenient with Alavin.

"I joined the Cobalt Strike's hunting event at Griffin's Roost, hundreds of leagues from Azure Mountain. I slipped away when they weren't looking to come and see everyone, but I'll have to return soon." "You joined a hunting event?" Lucan remembered that at least a Novice Mage Stage VI was required for such an endeavor.

"I've reached Novice Mage Stage VI."

"What??" Everyone was stunned.

Lucan, invigorated, quickly examined Alavin. Just last year, he wasn't even a Novice Mage.

Helna and Oda were astonished; they knew the Cobalt Strike would never provide Alavin with Combat Magic, nor allow him to train, and he was not a Novice Mage just before the year's end. How had he suddenly reached Stage VI?

"Surely you haven't practiced any dark arts, breaking through by force?" Helna was once a Mage herself, though now her powers were dormant.

"Aunt Helna, rest assured, I wouldn't jest with my future."

"It is truly Stage VI; the young lordhas such a gift! The heavens are just, they have not forsaken the Mallister family!" Lucan was both shocked and elated, finding Alavin's aura very stable, and the Channel of Energy flowing smoothly, not like those 'hollow advancements' that used special methods.

Helna breathed a sigh of relief. "How did you achieve it?"

Alavin recounted his breakthrough and acquisition of Combat Magic, deliberately omitting the more perilous details, and sharing only the good news.

After hearing his tale, they were all excited. Oda embraced Alavin with tears clouding her eyes. Yet Alavin couldn't feel happy. "What you've told me over the years differs from reality."

Lucan would visit Alavin each year, assuring him that all was well at home, and that the Mallister family were specially cared for, working easy jobs in the mines. But only today did Alavin learn that they were serving as maids and servants in the estate's mines, enduring all manner of humiliation from the Cobalt Strike Protégés.

Lucan shook his head in regret. "It's my fault. We drove off the wolves only to invite the tigers. It wasn't this bad before; the women simply maintained the estate, and most men served in the guard. But then Vandill came with his grandson Grennan, who lorded over everyone and created hardships. Grennan reassigned the women's work, making them dancers and maids. Those who resisted faced the Protégés from the Cobalt Strike, who were sent to trouble the others in the mines."

"Alavin, don't worry; we can endure. Grennan dares not do anything too extreme," Oda comforted Alavin, not wanting her brother to worry for her.

"Isn't this extreme enough?" Alavin thought of the incidents in the courtyard, and though he considered himself even-tempered, he could hardly contain his anger now.

Helna took Alavin's hand, patting it gently. "We are atoning for our sins; a bit of suffering is nothing. It's been eight years, and we've made it through, haven't we? You've finally returned. Let's not dwell on the unhappy. Tell us about your time with the Cobalt Strike."

"Yes, tell us the joyful tales," the maids said, wiping away tears and forcing smiles.

Alavin managed a smile, controlling his emotions, and spoke of his experiences with the Cobalt Strike, sharing only the amusing stories.

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