Chapter 118: The Mentor’s Arrival

Klein.

As this name left the butler’s mouth, the fingers Lia held her pen with froze in mid-air.

The rustling sound of pen on paper, which had been the only sound in the study, vanished completely with her pause.

All the newly appointed accountants held their breath, looking in terror at the young Eldest Miss in the primary seat.

Her expression didn’t change, but her entire aura seemed to stagnate in an instant.

‘Klein… why would he come here?’

Countless thoughts flashed through Lia’s mind in a split second.

Joy, surprise, and a sense of reassurance she hadn’t even noticed herself.

His appearance meant that all potential troubles would no longer be troubles, but it also meant her original step-by-step plan would be completely disrupted.

She quickly suppressed the surging thoughts in her mind and regained control of her body.

“Continue familiarizing yourselves with the reports; practice on your own.”

Lia set down her pen and stood up from behind the mountain of ledgers, her voice betraying no emotion as she walked straight out of the room.

The butler followed behind, his footsteps frantic; he almost had to run to keep up.

Passing through the long corridor, Lia arrived at the main hall of the mansion.

The doors were wide open, allowing the cold winter wind to pour in; a tall silhouette stood in the hall with its back turned.

He wore simple black robes, and just by standing there, the aura he emitted caused the temperature of the entire hall to drop by several degrees.

Klein stood with his hands behind his back, examining a landscape painting on the wall with a condescending scrutiny in his eyes.

Hearing footsteps, he turned around, his icy-blue eyes accurately capturing Lia’s figure.

“Klein.”

Lia stopped a few paces away.

“Mm.”

Klein gave a soft response, his gaze skimming over her face before falling on the butler behind her, who didn’t even dare to breathe, then finally returning to her.

“Adèle went home for the holidays; it was quite dull in the Mage Tower.”

“So, I took on a task that requires me to stay in Leo City for a while.”

Lia looked at him; he carried only a simple travel bag, set casually by his feet.

This appearance made him look less like he was on a mission and more like he was out for a casual stroll.

‘A task?’ A sliver of doubt flashed through Lia’s mind.

Tasks from the Mages’ Association usually had clear instructions and time limits; what task in Leo City could require an Eighth-Circle Great Mage to come personally? Especially at such a coincidental timing.

She didn’t expose him, only following his lead: “In that case, stay here; my home is quite spacious anyway.”

She then turned to the butler behind her and ordered: “Go and call everyone to the main hall.”

The butler jerked, immediately bowing to take the order, and left almost at a scramble.

Soon, all the servants in the Farrien estate, including the new accountants, gathered in the main hall, trembling with fear.

They kept their heads low, not daring to look forward, only feeling a pressure that made their very souls shudder.

Lia stood beside Klein, her gaze sweeping across the crowd.

“This is the Great Mage Klein.”

Her voice carried clearly into everyone’s ears.

“My… mentor from the capital. In the coming days, he will be staying at the mansion. His words carry the same weight as my orders.”

Great Mage.

These two words were like an invisible sledgehammer, slamming hard against the hearts of every servant.

Some of them even began to shake uncontrollably.

Their new master’s background was far more profound than any limit they could have imagined.

At the back of the crowd, a figure swayed violently.

Rowden Farrien had been invited out of his room.

His face was haggard, his eyes bloodshot; for the past few days, he had locked himself in his room, hardly eating or drinking.

Now forced to stand here, his gaze was both venomous and hollow.

When he clearly saw the man standing beside Lia, all the blood in his body froze in an instant.

It was Great Mage Klein.

The man he only dared to look at from afar back in the capital.

The existence whose name alone was enough to make a Fifth-Circle Mage like Mathis bow and scrape as if facing a god.

Why was he here?

Rowden’s mind went blank.

Lia didn’t look at the crowd again; she said to Klein: “I’ll take you to your room.”

Klein naturally stepped forward to follow behind her.

As they turned around, Rowden saw Klein’s gaze fall upon the top of Lia’s head.

Those icy-blue eyes no longer held the coldness and indifference he showed others; it was an extremely focused gaze, carrying an imperceptible hint of… composure.

That was not the gaze of a mentor toward a student; it was more like someone looking over a precious object that belonged to them.

Rowden’s heart squeezed violently.

He suddenly understood.

He understood everything.

He had been wrong from the very beginning.

Terribly wrong.

He thought Lia’s reliance was her status as Great Mage Klein’s apprentice.

That was just a status, a title.

As long as Lia graduated or made some mistake and was expelled, that title would vanish like smoke.

But now, he saw.

It couldn’t just be a title.

Why would an Eighth-Circle Great Mage travel thousands of miles to a border town for a student’s holiday and family matters?

For a task?

That excuse might fool others, but it couldn’t fool a man like him who had spent half his life in the commercial world.

A bone-chilling cold rose from his feet, spreading through his entire body in an instant.

The scene before him began to warp, and his ears buzzed.

He watched the backs of Lia and Klein walking toward the second floor; in his eyes, those two figures grew infinitely tall, becoming two mountain peaks he could never surpass in his lifetime.

Rowden’s legs gave out, and he collapsed backward.

The surrounding servants let out stifled cries of alarm, scrambling to catch him.

As for Lia, she didn’t look back at him once from start to finish as she climbed the stairs.

Lia took Klein to the guest room next to hers.

This was the best room in the mansion besides the master bedroom, with ample light and plenty of space.

“You’ll stay here for now. How is it?” Lia asked.

Klein walked into the room, surveyed it once, and stopped in front of the desk.

“Too gaudy,” he commented.

Lia looked at the expensive but garish decorations in the room; they were all according to Rowden’s taste.

“Since you don’t like it, I’ll have someone change it later.”

Klein didn’t pursue the topic; he turned around and looked at Lia.

“You seem to have encountered some other troubles.”

“Just some leftover family issues,” Lia said simply.

“Do you need me to step in?” Klein asked.

“No need,” Lia shook her head. “I can solve them myself.”

Klein glanced at her but didn’t press further.

He walked to the window and looked out at the view of Leo City.

“I looked closely at that uncle of yours just now; he seemed a bit familiar. A few years ago, it seems he went to the capital, wanting to use an introduction to meet me.”

Lia was a bit surprised.

“I refused him,” Klein’s tone was flat. “I didn’t like the scent he carried.”

“Later, he wrote a letter saying the Eldest Miss of his family had great ambitions and wanted to graduate under me to revitalize the family.”

“Seeing as what he said was actually true, I agreed.”

“As for what happened after that, even you didn’t know.”

After finishing, he spoke no more, simply staring quietly out the window.

Lia didn’t speak again either; silence fell over the room.

The silence wasn’t awkward; instead, it held a strange sort of harmony.

After a moment, Lia spoke.

“Do you really have a task?”

Klein turned his head, his blue eyes looking at her.

“Do I need to report the tasks I take from the Mages’ Association to you?”

Lia was momentarily speechless.

She rolled her eyes and turned toward the door: “I have matters to attend to; you should rest first.”

At the door, she stopped and turned back to add: “At dinner time, the butler will come to call you.”

After saying that, she left the room, leaving Klein alone.

Klein placed his simple travel bag on the floor.

He walked to the window again, his gaze passing over the rooftops of Leo City and toward the rolling mountains in the distance.

“A task?”

He had indeed taken a task.

A task that only he knew of, and whose content only he had decided.