"You can stay here. This place is quite secluded. You should know that your current identity is that of a wild witch, not the young lady of the Walker family. It's not good for you to appear in front of others."
Horne instructed Annie on the matters she should pay attention to. He didn't want the potential companion he'd worked so hard to save to be captured and burned by the church before they even got to know each other well!
After handling all these matters, Horne left Enoch's cottage. Even though Annie had passed Horne's initial test, he still couldn't be sure that she was suitable to be a companion. He needed to observe her for a few more days.
Back at Douglas the Carpenter's shop, Horne had a brief discussion with Enoch about Annie.
They agreed to take turns to observe Annie's situation. If there were no changes after a few days, Horne would decide to teach Annie magic.
After talking to Enoch, Horne described Annie's situation in detail to old Douglas. At first, old Douglas didn't want to listen to Horne, but as Horne talked, his interest was piqued.
"According to what you said, I have a guess about her ability," old Douglas said confidently.
"What kind of guess? Tell me," Horne said as he handed a glass of water to old Douglas and sat upright, waiting for his teacher's guidance.
"The ability that this little girl awakened isn't to summon monsters as we previously thought," old Douglas said after taking a sip of water.
"Then what is it?" Horne was very confused. If it wasn't to summon monsters, then where did those monsters come from?
"Or rather, it's not the little girl who summoned the monsters, but the magic circle. All the little girl did was cast a spell, and the effect of this spell was to activate the magic circle."
Old Douglas finished the water in the glass in one gulp.
"Why do you say so?" Horne quickly refilled the glass with water.
"First of all, it's obvious that all those monsters are from another world. If they were summoned by the little girl, she couldn't possibly be unable to control them.
Secondly, if she could chant spells without a staff, she would have died long ago if it wasn't a simple spell."
"But if it's completely uncontrollable, then why don't those monsters harm Annie?" Horne raised another question.
"I'm not quite sure about that. But it's either that there are some rules we don't know about during the summoning process, or the little girl is the source of magic for those monsters to act in the world," old Douglas said as he put down the glass.
"I'm enlightened," Horne said as he bowed respectfully to old Douglas.
...
The death of a black - robed deacon was a big deal in Leon City. Most of the people living in the North District saw the sky - high flames that night.
Deacon Jose, who had a bright future and might have been promoted to a white - robed deacon in a year or two, died in this incident. Also, the daughter of the patriarch of a merchant family who had always respected the church passed away that night.
The church had identified the murderer of Deacon Jose as the Evil - faced Man who had defeated Deacon Reeves, a white - robed deacon, some time ago!
But this Evil - faced Man was very good at hiding. No one knew where he was or who he was!
The church had conducted a thorough search of Leon City, but they never found anyone with a face full of curse tools. They didn't even have any suspects.
Ayl, the patriarch of the Walker family, with snot running from his nose, told the deacons who came to investigate that his daughter and Deacon Jose were in love. Deacon Jose came to their house that night to meet his daughter, and his daughter committed suicide after learning of Jose's death.
He also showed the church people a charred corpse.
A few days later, the church posted another notice. The wanted person was still the familiar Evil - faced Man, but there were two more charges on it:
One was the cruel killing of the respected and helpful Deacon Jose and the innocent, kind, and beautiful Miss Annie Walker of the Walker family;
The second was that all the monsters that had been raging in the North District were summoned from hell by the Evil - faced Man, and his purpose was to make the people living in Leon City live in fear.
Except for the killing of Jose, none of these things were done by Horne. The church just liked to pin unrelated events on high - profile targets. Horne remembered that the previous notice also said he had cruelly killed someone.
After this incident, the relationship between the Walker family and the church became even closer. Now everyone in Leon City knew that Miss Annie and Deacon Jose had been killed together. How could the church treat the Walker family badly?
Unfortunately, Horne's wanted notices never stayed on the bulletin boards in Leon City for long. It hadn't even been a few days when another big event happened in Leon City. This was a real big deal. Different from the previous small troubles, if this matter wasn't handled well, it would really damage the foundation of Leon City!
The manor of the lord of Leon City had been massacred!
Except for the count's family who were on a trip, the entire manor had been brutally slaughtered. Everyone in the manor, from the count's relatives to the knights guarding the manor and the gardeners and servants, had their heads chopped off. The heads of more than two hundred people in the manor were piled up in the center of the manor, forming a pyramid of heads, and the remaining bodies were placed in a circle around this pyramid.
This was a gift for the Abyssal Demon,
The work of a wizard!
Even the chief priest of Leon City had been urgently mobilized. With the combined efforts of many clergy members, they had seriously injured the wizard, but unfortunately, they hadn't killed him. Instead, he had escaped.
At the horrific scene of the massacre caused by the wizard, more than two hundred headless corpses were left, and each corpse was incubating a bug. Just when the church was slack because they had seriously injured the wizard, more than two hundred bugs burst out of the corpses!
Each of these bugs was larger than an adult man. There were even thirty of them that had reached the first - level. The weakest ones were stronger than those summoned by Annie, and the most powerful one even killed a white - robed deacon!
After a tough battle, the Church of the North Wind God finally killed all these bugs! But they also paid a heavy price.
One white - robed deacon and eighteen black - robed deacons were killed!
They didn't feel any joy of victory because they deeply understood that as long as the wizard was alive, such battles would surely come again!
...
In a corner of the dark streets of Leon City, the injured wizard was licking his wounds. The chief priest of this city was unexpectedly difficult to deal with and had even injured him!
He originally slaughtered the lord's mansion to heal his injuries and regain his strength because he had been injured by a mysterious person last time, but now his injuries were even worse.
It didn't matter, though. He had obtained an important piece of information from this sacrifice!
His Majesty the Demon God had a favorite offering!
As long as he offered that sacrifice,
he would become even more powerful!
In the darkness, the wizard's toothless mouth split into a grin. He was very happy now!