"Boss Cat, calm down. Tell me where you are," Lanqi asked rapidly, pressing the communication magic card against his cheek with both hands.
The connection was atrocious.
He couldn't tell what specific message Boss Cat was trying to convey.
Still, he could hear the distress signal woven into Boss Cat's voice.
"Lan... meow... dan... hur..."
What came through was still along those lines.
Lanqi looked at Talia, whose face was equally full of question marks.
It seemed that not only could they barely hear Boss Cat, but Boss Cat couldn't hear Lanqi's instructions either.
*Ding-dong! Bang, bang!*
Beyond the communication magic, the doorbell downstairs rang, accompanied by heavy pounding on the door.
Someone seemed to have sought him out right at this moment, impatient and indifferent to the fact that he was a professor at Saint Creti Monastery.
Logically speaking, Professor Landry had only arrived at Saint Creti Monastery a week ago, and Secretary Naila had concealed his address details. Aside from Secretary Naila and a select few academy insiders, no one was supposed to know where he lived.
Under normal circumstances, Lanqi would have opened the door and had a pleasant chat even if it were an insurance salesperson.
Now, however, he had no attention to spare. Whoever was outside was secondary; Boss Cat and Elsa were what truly mattered.
"Emp... box... al... alley... meow..."
Boss Cat's IQ seemed to be creeping upward; even without hearing Lanqi's directions, it had realized it needed to say something useful.
"Why are you looking at me? I can't understand what Boss Cat is saying either," Talia said, suddenly finding Lanqi insufferable. She wasn't a cat; how could she understand Boss Cat any better than he did?
If anything, this guy inexplicably made animal friends wherever he went—he could chat with little birds on the balcony. Talia truly couldn't fathom how Lanqi could understand animal speech in the first place.
"Splendid. Bad connection, yet it still manages to squeeze out a 'meow.'"
Lanqi was genuinely unable to decompress Boss Cat's zip-file speech.
The audio remained patchy and intermittent, making it difficult to decipher Boss Cat's meaning. Lanqi had no choice but to hold the magic card to his ear as he hurried downstairs.
The doorbell continued ringing nonstop. For the first time, Lanqi found riddles and listening comprehension exams so agonizingly difficult.
In a storybook about another world he had read in his spare time, the heroine spoke only one word at a time, yet the male lead inexplicably understood her and replied with just a single word, leaving the readers baffled every time.
How Lanqi wished he possessed that male lead's ability right now.
Yet that was only a pleasant fairy tale found in fiction, having nothing to do with this world; there was no point trying to force fictional stories onto reality.
"Lanqi, look on the bright side. Boss Cat's verbal tic is as clear as ever."
Talia returned into Lanqi's body, heading downstairs with him.
Sensing the anxiety in Lanqi's heart, she attempted to soothe him.
Though Lanqi appeared as calm as ever on the surface, Talia, who could read his inner thoughts, knew all too well that his heart was beating faster now than when she had pinned him against the wall moments ago.
"..."
Lanqi nodded.
Boss Cat was an eighth-tier existence after all. If it truly unleashed a massive eighth-tier spell in Brierda, the entire city-state would go on high alert. The fact that all remained calm outside meant Boss Cat was merely hiding in the shadows, using communication magic to contact him without having played a single trump card.
In accordance with Lanqi's instructions, unless there was no other choice, it was best for Boss Cat not to cast any spells at all; its tier was too high, and its magic was far too flamboyant.
Boss Cat understood well that it should avoid exposing itself as much as possible, and the best solution was undoubtedly to summon Lanqi over. With his identity as Professor Landry, a sixth-tier professor, Lanqi had immense flexibility in adjusting the upper and lower limits of his intervention.
Arriving at the entryway on the ground floor, Lanqi grasped the doorknob and turned it. He was heading out anyway, so he might as well see who was looking for him at such an hour.
Night had completely draped over the courtyard, cool moonlight spilling across the lawn and cloaking everything in a sheer silver veil.
Outside, a girl with purple hair and green eyes held her hand raised, poised to pound on the door again. She wore a black spaghetti-strap dress. A touch of impatience marked her delicate features, while her spirited eyes gave her a boyish, dashing air.
The moment the door opened, she checked her hand, narrowly avoiding slapping Professor Landry.
"Student Ursula?"
Lanqi hadn't expected his uninvited guest to be Ursula Roland, a student from his class.
He had a deep impression of this marquis's daughter, who was also the younger sister of Marquis Ryan, the Ninth War God, Amethyst Seat.
It wasn't for her status, either; she was genuinely gifted, standing indisputably at the very top among the first-years in both magic engineering and practical magic.
"Elsa is missing," Ursula said urgently, her face grim.
"Hmm?"
Lanqi kept the communication magic card—which still crackled with occasional meows—pressed to his ear, but his gaze focused on Ursula.
"As her brother, don't you care about your sister at all?"
Ursula rolled her eyes, Landry's seemingly dazed demeanor fueling her irritation.
She had originally planned to bail on Elsa for the play they'd agreed on tonight, making up an excuse so Elsa could watch it with the brother she longed to see.
Yet this Landry had decisively rejected his sister's invitation for the sake of work.
With Elsa's soft-as-cotton personality, she naturally wouldn't press the matter any further.
Now, upon arriving at Landry's home, he still looked like work consumed his entire brain—as if he'd worked himself stupid, having just come down from the lit study on the second floor.
"My oversight. Please tell me exactly what happened."
Lanqi stepped outside directly, the door clicking shut on its hinges behind him, and asked Ursula as he stood in the courtyard.
He didn't mind her attitude at all. Ursula was casual and freewheeling in class anyway, and as a professor, he was accustomed to different students' ways. What mattered right now was whether Ursula possessed any information regarding Elsa and Boss Cat.
"Elsa and I agreed to have dinner together tonight and see a play's premiere, but when the appointed time came, she hadn't arrived at my dorm. She is never late; even if something unexpected comes up, she always informs me. I checked her dorm next door and found nobody, then contacted her with a short-range communication magical device, only to discover she wasn't on school grounds at all," Ursula said, frowning.
She had told Elsa she must come.
Because she hadn't told Elsa that she actually intended to bring her along to persuade Professor Landry to set aside his work and watch the play.
Ursula had planned to drag Landry out one way or another today so he could spend time with Elsa; had she told Elsa, Elsa never would have agreed.
Yet Elsa never returned to Saint Creti Monastery.
The more Ursula thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
"If you had just agreed to go out with Elsa, none of this would have happened."
Deeply dissatisfied with his behavior, Ursula narrowed her emerald eyes, her tone dripping with disdain and disgust. "How important is your career ambition anyway? Is it more important than your sister?"
Elsa's afternoon schedule today had been simple: go to the Pantheon to pray to the goddess for a while, as usual, and then return to school. There was no reason for her to vanish out of nowhere.
Thus, Ursula had immediately sought out the most accessible faculty member—
Landry.
She had rubbed the other teachers the wrong way to varying degrees, and they wouldn't necessarily jump to help, but this guy was that girl's brother.
Besides, she had already planned to come find him today anyway.
"My spirit cat is with Elsa, but the signal is very poor. Can you figure out where Elsa might be?"
Having listened to the whole story, Lanqi nodded calmly and asked Ursula.
He held the Ultra-Long-Range Communication Program up to her ear.
"!"
Ursula looked confused at first, but did not refuse. At Lanqi's explanation, her eyes quickly lit up.
She listened intently to the static and the faint kitten-like meows coming from the communication magic.
"My cat repeatedly mentioned words like 'box' and 'alley' just now. Do you know where there are containers and alleys?" Lanqi asked softly beside her, trying not to disrupt her listening.
Boss Cat's other words were far too abstract; only these two could be reasonably deduced as nouns.
"She goes to the Brierda Pantheon to pray every weekend. Looking at her route back to the monastery, a place with shipping containers and alleys, and leaning toward dangerous..." Ursula pinched the bridge of her nose, lost in thought as she murmured. "That would probably only be the harbor district in southeastern Brierda. That's the turf of the Brierda Mafia."
Her brow smoothed as she looked at Lanqi, arriving at her conclusion.
Even though she felt Elsa's path would never stray all the way to the harbor under normal circumstances, judging from Landry's description, that was the only plausible location.
Otherwise, carrying a fifth-tier spirit beast within the city, she couldn't possibly be in danger.
The only explanation was that someone had used a spatial magic tool to forcibly transport Elsa into the Mafia's gray zone.
Like divination magic, spatial magic was not only exceptionally rare, but also bound by severe limitations.
Teleportation magic, for instance, either had an extremely short range, consumed immense energy, or required the target to be of a very low tier.
"Are you sure?" Lanqi asked, retrieving the communication magic card and gazing at Ursula.
After all, he was a newcomer who had just arrived in the Creti Empire. No matter how well he studied maps, he couldn't have seen every landmark in a megacity like Brierda.
Yet to Ursula, it was all vivid and familiar.
"One hundred percent. I know every corner of Brierda inside and out. I'm the finest scout among the first-years," Ursula told him with certainty. "Go find Secretary Naila. The Mafia doesn't just have sixth-tier executives; they have a seventh-tier boss, and rumors say there's even a boss behind the scenes. You must never provoke them."
Ursula seized the sleeve of Lanqi's suit jacket near the elbow, urgently directing his next move.
Half the weight in her heart finally lifted. She felt immensely grateful that Landry had placed a contracted beast with Elsa; not only had it provided crucial clues, but with a powerful contracted beast protecting her, Elsa was at least far safer.
It seemed Elsa hadn't been duped by a scumbag brother after all; this brother had at least considered his sister's safety.
"Principal Violet is away. Give me coordinates—which spots in the harbor district have the highest concentration of shipping containers?" Lanqi explained plainly, naturally slipping free of Ursula's grasp.
Unless Principal Violet intervened personally, there was no way to resolve everything in an instant.
Aside from Principal Violet, Saint Creti Monastery currently had no other transcendent combatants of the seventh tier or higher. Leaving it to Secretary Naila would take too long; by then, Boss Cat might be forced into action.
"Calm down!"
In an instant, Ursula understood what Landry wanted to do.
This guy intended to barge into the Brierda Mafia's harbor by himself.
Even the outskirts of that massive mafia territory resembled an intricate maze, utterly unsuited for a solo infiltration.
Ursula knew Landry was no weakling—he was a full sixth-tier magic engineer who, through wit, could potentially defeat formidable opponents of the same tier, just as he had on the train *Brierda*.
Yet in the Brierda Mafia's own lair, he would shatter on impact; their numbers alone could overwhelm him!
"Trust me. I'm not going there to die," Lanqi said to her, looking down into Ursula's eyes word by word.
Those clear, azure eyes were utterly sincere, shining brightly in the night.
"..."
Ursula fell silent, her parted lips halting slowly.
Rarely had anyone looked at her like this.
As if truly seeing her.
Not only did he believe her, but he was also asking her to believe him.
Sometimes persuasion without justification was the most convincing kind, for the look in this man's eyes was not that of a reckless fool rushing to his death, but of someone with a clear grasp of his odds.
"We're going together. I'll guide you," Ursula said, her tone turning resolute.
Though it seemed like an endeavor with zero chance of survival, she had never feared anything; her fearless reputation at school was by no means an act.
She was convinced that Elsa's brother truly cared about Elsa, and that was enough—enough for her to put her trust in this man.
"..."
A hint of hesitation showed in Lanqi's eyes.
She was, after all, the young lady of the Roland marquisate and the sister of the Ninth War God. Getting her caught up in danger could invite immense trouble.
What was more, if Secretary Naila found out he had dragged a female student into Mafia territory, he would definitely get an earful; conduct of this nature was quite egregious.
"Take me with you. I can scent Elsa's trail," Ursula added concisely, returning the professor's gaze with equal intensity.
She was no reckless fool either!
*Tata, head to the harbor in the southeast,* Lanqi instructed in his mind.
It was a gray zone anyway, where combat below the seventh tier was fair game. Back in Palieu, the City of Flowers, he and Talia had fought countless underground matches in the Sacred Silver Vine Arena, so they knew very well how to pull their punches.
Common flight magic typically consisted of wind magic and psychokinesis. Talia was more adept at special types than elemental ones, and the levitation magic she employed belonged to the psychokinetic branch.
In an instant, grass whipped wildly across the lawn as Lanqi and Ursula's figures melted into the night sky.
"Thank you, Ursula," Lanqi said, turning his head midair.
"It would be hard for you to pinpoint her alone. With me around, you won't need to distract yourself too much protecting me, but you'll find her several times faster—I guarantee it!" Ursula replied, her lips curving in a satisfied smirk.
As the eldest daughter of the main branch of the Roland family, endowed with ancient gryphon blood, she possessed the potential for innate magic. Her forte in scouting magic meant her innate magic was also of the scouting attribute.
Not only could she scent Elsa's physical scent, but she could also scent the trace of her mana. In fact, as long as she locked onto a target, no matter what concealment magic was used, she was bound to track them down.
"You must prioritize your own safety," Lanqi urged.
He could not let another student fall into danger or be harmed just to protect Elsa.
"Got it! You'd better watch out for yourself first—the Mafia is far more dangerous than you think!" Ursula nodded, calling back in the open sky.
Though charging into the Mafia was the kind of thrilling endeavor she never imagined anyone's brother would take her on, at this moment, rather than fear, she felt a long-absent surge of excitement.
Chapter 738