Roland helplessly glared at the catgirl who teased him. He then walked to the yard and told the servants that they could take a break outside of the manor.

  So, even if anything bad happened, they wouldn’t be afflicted.

  Roland wanted the catgirl to go too, but she simply lay on the wall of the manor and gazed at Roland while shouting, “Master, I want to see how you can pick up ten gold coins. I’ll be vigilant. Just don’t kick me away, okay?”


  Cats were curious animals, and so were catgirls.

  Roland thought for a moment and said, “Then keep a distance from me and don’t come close.”


  The catgirl lay on the wall and nodded quickly.

  The catgirl wouldn’t have been interested if it were a regular experiment.

  But this was about money. If ten gold coins could be picked up easily with a spell, her master wouldn’t be short of money in the future. Could she then ask for an allowance from him?

  She was truly curious.

  Because of her curiosity, the perky catgirl held back the urge to play outside and chose to wait with Roland patiently.

  After casting Lesser Benediction, Roland vaguely felt that it was working. However, he couldn’t exactly tell with his mental power how it was working.

  He waited patiently, and time went by.

  Five minutes passed.

  Ten minutes passed.

  Half an hour passed…… The catgirl was already yawning on the wall.

  When she was about to fall asleep, her ears suddenly pricked, and she raised her head and looked at the door.

  A magic apprentice was knocking at the door with a box in his hand. Stunned, the catgirl jumped off from the high wall agilely and opened the door for the magic apprentice.

  Roland approached too.

  Upon seeing Roland, the magic apprentice slightly bowed and, while raising the bright gray box in his hands, said, “Mr. Roland, this is a bonus from the Council of Elders for offering the model of the blue fireball and restricting and guiding the students.”


  “Thank you.”


  The average-looking magic apprentice bowed again and left.

  Holding the box, Roland slowly opened it.

  The catgirl had already run to Roland’s side at some point.

  Inside the box were some gold coins and several parchments. “Wow. It’s really ten gold coins!” Marilyn exclaimed.

  Roland, on the other hand, paid attention to other things.

  He put the box down on the ground and took out a few magic model graphs. They were all level-three spells, but they weren’t evoking magic but Mental Brutalization in the school of Illusion, Anti-Evil Barrier in the school of Abjuration, and Summon Skeleton Archers in the school of Soul.

  In the end, he finally grabbed the ten gold coins.

  The ten gold coins were still emitting feeble magic waves.

  He confirmed that it was his Benediction.

  Also, the magic power was vaporizing quickly and could barely be felt after ten seconds.

  The ten gold coins were truly a result of his Benediction.

  Did it mean that, without Lesser Benediction, the bonus would’ve only been the three spell models?

  Huh?

  Interesting

  It seemed that the random causes initiated by Benediction weren’t all negative.

  Considering the water that the catgirl just brought back, the odds of Lesser Benediction triggering a negative event might not be as big as he thought!

  But of course, he had only conducted two experiments, which were still too few. He needed a few more experiments.

  Roland returned to the courtyard, put the box into the system Backpack, and then cast Lesser Benediction again.

  He closed his hands, and a white ball of light shivered between them.

  What kind of wish should he make?

  While Roland was considering, Marilyn looked at Roland and the glittering ball in his hall. Then, she shouted with glowing eyes. “I want ten gold coins too!”


  Roland didn’t see it coming, but the light ball in his hands disappeared.

  The spell had been activated.

  So, somebody else could make a wish through this spell too?

  Roland wrote down this feature.

  Then, he frowned and stared at the catgirl gravely, before he said, “The divination spells are mysterious. It’s hard to predict how they’ll work. Now that you’ve made a wish, you’d better stay at home. I’ll ensure your safety.”


  “I don’t need that.”


  The moment he said that, the catgirl disappeared.

  With Swift Steps and Stealth, she vanished into nothingness in the blink of an eye.

  Caught unprepared, Roland failed to catch the catgirl even though he realized that she was escaping

  Charging at the enemy and fleeing were completely different things for a Rogue.

  One needed a target if they wanted to attack, so their movement could be predicted. That was why Rogues were usually at a disadvantage when they revealed themselves in battle.

  However, for a stealth class, the ability to escape meant that they were free to escape to any direction they wanted. Also, they could go stealth or run under acceleration.

  Therefore, it was barely possible to catch a Rogue who was determined to flee. It was also why the Rogues were the class with the lowest average deaths. Seeing that the catgirl disappeared, Roland subconsciously blinked in her direction. He flashed out of the manor in the blink of an eye, but the kitten was already nowhere to be seen.

  He couldn’t even find her with his net of mental power. She must’ve fled far away from this place.

  “She’s making progress rather fast.”


  Leaving aside her ability of attack, her ability to escape was already impressive enough to Roland. “I hope that nothing happens to her.”


  Roland was slightly worried about the kitten’s safety, but not too much.

  If she was so good at escaping that even he could barely catch her, the negative events caused by Lesser Benediction weren’t likely to hurt her.

  Roland returned to his manor and kept waiting.

  He could feel that his Lesser Benediction was working, but he couldn’t tell how or where the Lesser Benediction was taking effect.

  Also, it was impossible to use Lesser Benediction again until the last wish was fulfilled or had run out of time.

  After a wait of more than half an hour, Roland sensed that his Lesser Benediction had succeeded.

  “I hope Marilyn wasn’t hurt.” Roland heaved a soft sigh.

  He waited for the catgirl to come back, eager to find out how the wish was fulfilled by Lesser Benediction this time.

  After a moment, he heard wheels rolling on the road, getting closer and closer to his manor. The noise became louder and louder.

  Roland walked to the gate and saw the catgirl walking in the lead. Her head was lowered, and she was holding something in both hands. Behind the catgirl was a flat wagon followed by three men dressed in slaves’ clothes as well as a young Mage. Roland knew this Mage to be one of his classmates from the Ruby Class. His name was Kanye West. The carriage stopped before the gate. Roland keenly discovered that the atmosphere in the group wasn’t right.

  He walked close, and his pupils constricted.

  There were two blackened bodies on the wagon. However, from their faces that weren’t completely ruined, he was able to tell that they were both servants who worked in his manor.

  One of them was Susan, and the other was Tom, who was a gardener.

  Susan and Tom were among the most common civilian names

  There could be a dozen Susans or Toms in a random block or village.

  Roland didn’t look very happy. “What happened exactly?”


  The catgirl further lowered her head, not daring to look at Roland at all.

  Kanye the Mage stepped forward and bowed deeply, before he said in a bitter tone, “Sorry, Mr. Roland. I was doing magic experiments at home, when your servants and this cat lady passed by the wall of my manor. Out of everybody’s expectation, my fire experiment failed, and the powerful fiery magic power broke through two stone walls, blew up the external wall of my manor, and unfortunately hit your servants. This cat lady, on the other, was able to jump away and survive the disaster thanks to her quick reaction.”


  Roland turned around and looked at the cat girl. “Is that so?”


  The catgirl raised her head, her eyes filled with tears. She nodded timidly and then opened her hands.

  There were five gold coins in her hand.

  “The gold coins in the cat lady’s hands represent my sincerest apology and compensation, Mr. Roland.” Kanye seemed uneasy. “I know money can’t compare to lives at all, but it’s all the savings I have for this month.”


  Staring at Kanye’s eyes for a while, Roland moved his eyes away and looked at the bodies on the wagon, before he heaved a sigh.

  He knew what Kanye said was true. The man didn’t really want to kill the two servants, because it wasn’t necessary.

  In both the Red Magic Tower and other countries, civilians’ lives were all cheap.

  Even if they were accidentally killed, it would be fair enough if dozens of silver coins were paid as compensation.

  It was absolutely unnecessary to offer ten gold coins.

  Roland knew that Kanye feared that he would vent his fury on him, so he had paid all the money he had and even voluntarily came to apologize so that Roland wouldn’t be as furious.

  The man wasn’t the servants’ murderer; he and Marilyn were.

  Roland managed a smile. “Mr. Kanye, thank you for sending them back. I’m very grateful. You can go back now. This is not your fault. Don’t feel burdened.”


  Seeing that Roland wasn’t angry, Kanye was relieved. He bowed and then left.

  After Kanye and his servants left, Roland created three Hands of Magic and dragged the wagon into the manor.

  Closing the gate, the catgirl lowered her head and put the ten gold coins before Roland carefully.

  Her tail that was always raised high almost drooped to the ground.

  “The lives of two acquaintances in exchange for ten gold coins, are you happy with that?” Roland asked casually as he stared into the catgirl’s eyes.

  The catgirl shook her head so hard that teardrops flew from her eyes.

  Although she had been wandering about every day, she was very close to some servants in the manor, and Susan was one of them.

  Taking the ten gold coins from the catgirl, Roland said, “Don’t be so reckless in the future. Now, invite Susan’s and Tom’s families here. We need to talk about compensation with them.”


  The catgirl wiped her tears and left the manor.

  Roland, on the other hand, took a deep breath. He had to cease the experiments with Lesser Benediction now.

  Its negative effects were much graver than he anticipated.