BXBX NOVEL Chapter 485: Arrangement
Chapter 485: Arrangement
Never in their wildest imagination had they thought that someone from the Howlett Family would find an inheritance left behind by the most vile villain in the history of this town, Morven the Malevolent.
It took a long time for the kids to calm their astonishment. Art\'s lips opened and closed several times, struggling to find the words to speak.
Ultimately, he asked, "So the Howlett Family patriarch found the secret inheritance just like that? What happened afterward?"
Mayor Hobbs heaved a deep sigh and began, "The Patriarch of the Howlett Family was the strongest amongst us... He was someone on the verge of advancing to the Mana Liquefaction Rank-"
"Wait a minute!" Aiden interrupted the mayor. "So the members of the Howlett Family were local residents? Then why were they alienated and made to stay in the Weeping Woods?"
"They were not alienated!" Mayor Hobbs spoke in a passionate tone, "He had chosen to live within the dark woods of his own accord and guard the seal placed by our ancestor, Magus Stratford!"
"Did he... do that out of his sense of duty?" Eleiney asked softly.
Mayor Hobbs nodded with a bitter smile. "The will of our ancestor lives on through us, deeply ingrained in our blood."
The next moment, his expression turned resolute as he added, "However, this is not a burden. This is our glorious purpose!"
The three young Magi didn\'t know how to react to that. To outsiders like them, such a way of thinking would definitely seem very foolish, but to the local townsfolk, it was a matter of great honor.
Mayor Hobbs continued, "The Howlett Family fulfilled their duties by guarding the seal for decades. But somewhere down the line, a few years ago, the Patriarch\'s behavior started to change. It wasn\'t noticeable at first, but when we did find out... it was already too late."
"Too late for what?" Art asked nervously.
"When the Patriarch uncovered the secret inheritance left behind by Morven, he was consumed by evil and darkness. One night, about half a year ago, he called me and the four town council members to his house, saying that he had an important matter to talk about," Mayor Hobbs began.
"Us five thought nothing of it and went to his estate deep in the Weeping Woods. It was then that we realized that we had walked into a trap. The moment we entered his manor, he attacked us, planning to kill us!"
"Why did he wish to kill you? What about his family?" Eleiney asked with nervous breaths.
"Perhaps he was extremely confident in taking us five down all on his own, or perhaps he had already turned maniacal after coming in contact with Morven\'s inheritance, he told us everything about his plan," said the mayor with a disheartened look on his face.
"He mentioned that he would finish what Morven started all those centuries ago. He would enslave all the residents of the town and experiment on them in order to reach greater heights in his path as a Magus.
"However, the only thing stopping him from achieving his goals were me and the four council members. That is why he lured us into his manor. It was all so that he could get rid of his greatest obstacles."
The old mayor\'s eyes reddened as he recalled the memories of that night. Meanwhile, the children held their breaths in trepidation, eager to know what transpired after.
"As someone who was a Neural Stage Magus like us, he was very powerful, no doubt. But he had overestimated his abilities. In the end, me and the council members had managed to take him down."
He paused a few seconds, his lips quivering. "We didn\'t want to kill him... but we were left with no other choice. But he was so consumed by madness and evil that in his dying moments, he was able to summon half a dozen werewolves from inside the grand seal."
"So that\'s where the werewolves came from!" Aiden was thunderstruck.
But then he thought of something else and couldn\'t help but ask, "What about his family? What happened to them?"
Mayor Hobbs\'s shoulders slouched and he spoke with great sadness, "They were the first ones that the Patriarch experimented on..."
The three young Magi simultaneously sucked in a breath of cold air. They couldn\'t believe that the Patriarch of the Howlett Family had fallen so low that he would kill his own family for his goals.
"This secret inheritance... could it perhaps be an arrangement made by Morven the Malevolent to get someone to unseal him?" Art made a guess.
"That is what we believe as well, but we can\'t be sure." Mayor Hobbs nodded. "We didn\'t have enough time to investigate the Howlett Manor before the werewolves emerged and chased after us."
He paused for a moment, his eyes flashing with lingering fear. "I still remember that night vividly. The council members and I thought that we would really die.
"But for some strange reason, the werewolves never left the area of the Weeping Woods. It\'s like they couldn\'t leave the forest..."
"Couldn\'t leave the forest?" Eleiney mumbled. "That\'s right! Even in the last wolf tide, I had never seen any werewolf step out of the Weeping Woods.
"Could this perhaps be an arrangement made by Magus Stratford, preventing those foul creatures from leaving the forest and attacking the town?"
"I would like to believe so," said the old mayor with hopeful eyes. "But ever since the night that the Howlett Family\'s patriarch died, the werewolves that he summoned, have been manipulating the wolf tide into attacking our town every night of the full moons."
There was a mystical correlation between the twin moons and eveything that was happening to the town of Stratford, but neither the mayor, nor the three young Magi could tell what it was.
After speaking to the old mayor, a lot of things had been made clear for Art, Aiden, and Eleiney. However, one thing that they didn\'t quite understand was why the mayor had
diclosed this to them in first place.
"Why?" Eleiney asked, "Why tell us all this?"
"Because out of all the mercenaries and Magi that we hired," said the old mayor with a grateful smile, "you are the only one who cared enough to know the truth."