Chapter 569 - A Dragon
Chapter 569 A Dragon
This male cat-human looked rather miserable. The wounds on his body were bleeding hard.
The people who threw him to the street were on top of the building on the right side of the street.
They were a few male human beings, who were pointing at the male cat-human and laughing.
The male cat-human struggled to raise his head while he vomited blood.
Maromatha let out a cry and examined him, only to find that he was dying. She immediately cast Minor Healing on him.
However, it didn’t really work.
After all, this cat-human was too gravely wounded.
Besides, not everybody had a full Intelligence growth like Roland did. Also, not everybody had carefully studied every spell that they knew.
Therefore, Roland was good at the spells of all schools, whereas Maromatha was not even as good at spatial spells as Roland was, not to mention those in other schools.
In addition, her level was far lower than Roland’s too. It was only natural that her Minor Healing didn’t work.
Maromatha tried to save this male cat-human, but his face was gradually turning pale. He would probably bleed to death before his wounds completely closed.
Beads of sweat dripped from the black cat’s forehead.
She was somewhat desperate to find that she couldn’t save her compatriot.
At this moment, Roland stepped up and said, “Let me.”
He snapped his fingers and cast Minor Healing too, but the mass of light that Roland summoned was brighter and purer.
The male cat-human’s wounds healed at a high speed. His bleeding stopped in three seconds, and he looked a lot better.
Maromatha was greatly relieved to see that the male cat-human was no longer in danger. Then, she looked at Roland in surprise and slightly nodded. “Thank you for your help.”
Roland lightly waved his hand. Maromatha helped the male cat-human sit down on one side of the street. She then looked up at the few human beings on the top of the building. Her face was rather cold.
This was a populated city, and the street was quite crowded.
Seeing that drama was going on, many passersby surrounded the area and whispered to each other.
The few men on the building were apparently ordinary people, but they weren’t frightened at all in the presence of the cat-girl Mage.
They even looked at the cat-girl cockily.
Maromatha raised her head and asked coldly, “Why did you oppress my compatriot?”
“We didn’t oppress him!” The few men laughed, and one of them said, “He owes us a huge debt that he can’t repay. We asked him whether he was willing to die or sell his wife to us. He chose to die, so we granted his wish.”
The cat-girl quickly looked at the male cat-human who was leaning against the wall. He guiltily moved his eyes away. “That’s still not a reason to force someone to die.”
“Miss Cat, your compatriot is neither willing to repay his debt nor sell his wife. There isn’t a third option here, is there?” one of the men said helplessly, shrugging. The other men on the top of the building all laughed hard.
The passersby pointed their fingers and whispered too.
Roland looked around and saw their expressions and behavior. He was deep in thought.
The vulpera prince sneered and looked at the cat-girl with obvious mockery on his face.
The way that those men addressed her was quite sarcastic by itself.
The black cat was very cold. She was furious, but she couldn’t lose her temper because she could tell that her compatriot really owed them money.
She thought for a moment and said, “If you need the money for a good reason…”
But she was interrupted halfway through her sentence.
The men on the building shouted, “Miss Cat, you can’t talk sense into him. He has a gambling problem. He borrowed high-interest loans from us as well as others. His family won’t have a good life even if he lives. If you’re really hoping to help him, either pay the debt for him, or just let him die.”
The black cat was stunned. The male cat-human kept his head lowered, not daring to look the black cat in the eye. In the end, the black cat heaved a long sigh and asked, “How much money do you owe?”
“One gold coin, 36 silver coins, and forty bronze coins,” the men on the top of the building shouted.
The black cat shivered.
Too much. The money was too much for her.
She was a reasonably strong and registered Mage, but it was universally known that being a Mage was costly.
Hearing the number, Marilyn glanced at Roland. Seeing that he had no intent to help, she kept silent.
The black cat helplessly closed her eyes. A moment later, she asked Roland, “Sir, can I borrow fifty silver coins?”.
Of course… Roland didn’t say anything but simply took out a gold coin from the system Backpack and gave it to her. Roland didn’t want to help the male cat-human; he’s always hated gamblers.
However, the black cat was more or less a friend anyway, and he had to help her now that she requested it.
The two matters should be considered separately.
Looking at Roland gratefully, Maromatha took another fifty silver coins out of her portable space and gave them to the male cat-human. “Repay your debt with this. Buy some meat with the rest of the money so that your health will improve.”
The male cat-human looked at the coins in his hand with glittering eyes. He bowed at the black cat and threw most of the coins to the top of the building.
The few men collected the money without counting it, and one of them said to the black cat, “The black cat is truly your people’s fortune bringer. Whenever your compatriots who are in trouble meet her, they can always count on her to get them out of it.”
“Cut the crap and get the hell out of here.”
The few men laughed and left. The male cat-human looked at Maromatha and said, “Thank you, my lady.”
“Don’t gamble anymore.”
The male cat-human nodded and left after expressing his gratitude. He even looked back every few steps, as if he were reluctant to leave them.
Because the drama was over, the passersby soon dispersed.
The black cat looked a lot more relaxed, if not happy.
Although she had lost a fortune, she had saved a compatriot and his family, which was a good thing. But at this moment, the vulpera prince laughed aloud.
The black cat’s smile was frozen. She rounded on the vulpera prince and demanded, “What are you laughing at?”
“Your stupidity, your self-affection, and your unawareness when you were manipulated.”
“What do you mean?”
The black cat glared at the vulpera prince, having no idea what he was talking about.
Roland heaved a sigh and said, “That cat-human and those human beings were accomplices.” “Huh? How is that possible?” Maromatha was stunned at first, and then she sneered. “Did you not see how badly he was wounded? He could’ve been killed by the fall.”
“Indeed, he could’ve. He did owe them money.” Roland nodded. “But it does not mean he couldn’t conspire with his creditors and let you pay off the debt for him. He couldn’t afford the debt anyway, and he was almost cornered to his death, so he might as well take a chance. If it worked, he didn’t need to pay a debt anymore, and you might save him in the end! Their acting was all too obvious. You were probably the only one who didn’t see it. Even Marilyn noticed something.” How could that be!
The black cat couldn’t have been more suspicious.
She wouldn’t have been convinced if the vulpera was the only one saying that.
But since Roland said the same, she thought that it was probably the truth.
She bit her lip softly.
It had been her lifelong principle to help her compatriots, but if she were “manipulated” in such a way, even she wouldn’t be too happy about it.
“The lucky black cat.” The vulpera chuckled and said, “You are a celebrity in this city. Everybody calls you that to your face, but secretly, we call you the idiotic black cat. As far as I know, you did help a lot of cat-humans at first, but the good deeds you did later were mostly the tricks of your compatriots.”
It was a heavy blow to the black cat.
She felt that the world was swirling, and she could barely stand steadily.
She had been trying to help her people for years, and this was what she got?
Looking at the black cat who seemed entranced, Roland cast Sobering on her. It was a level-two spell that could take care of minor mental problems and might be handy in daily life.
Thanks to Sobering, the black cat was in much better spirits. She heaved a sigh. “Fine, then. Mr. Roland, I’ll take you to put the vulpera in prison first.”
The vulpera prince chuckled and didn’t say anything.
In fact, the vulpera prince’s life was not at risk. He was the prince of his people, after all, and as a noble, he could be exchanged for a decent ransom. People like him wouldn’t be killed easily unless they did something too outrageous.
The vulpera was a traitor of the Spatial Magic Tower, but he only stole something and didn’t kill anyone; the consequences weren’t too grave. So, he wouldn’t be executed, and the vulpera clan could free him as long as they paid enough ransom.
Nevertheless, it would be humiliating for the vulpera clan.
So, the vulpera prince didn’t want to be caught and had been trying to escape.
Unlike the Red Magic Tower, the Spatial Magic Tower’s campus was rather spaced out.
The facilities such as the library, the classrooms, and the dormitories were far away from each other.
It was the Spatial Magic Tower’s unique layout that was meant to force the students to use teleportation more often in life as exercises.
The Council of Elders of the Spatial Magic Tower was at the center of the city. After the black cat took Roland and the others in, an elder soon greeted them.
The elder was very slim and only about 1.6 meters tall, so he appeared very small.
He looked at the black cat and said, “I thought you wouldn’t arrive for another dozen days. You were rather fast.”
“We came in a straight line without any detours. That’s why we were so fast,” explained the black cat.
“It doesn’t matter. Everything is fine as long as the prisoner is here.” The elder waved his right hand and summoned two guards who dragged the vulpera prince away. “Roland from the Red Magic Tower, your remarkable performance in the meeting last time left a deep impression on me. I did not ask you to escort the prisoner back here because nobody else could do the job.”
“You want me to do something for you, right?” Roland sighed.
“Yes.” This elder pushed four spell models to Roland. “These are the agreed-upon rewards. The Spatial Magic Tower has been caught in some trouble recently, and we need a strong expert who’s unafraid of death to take care of it.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“A dragon!” said the elder helplessly. “It’s a white dragon. We need a Mage powerful in evocation to help us!”
Roland: ?