Chapter 340: A Grant Gift

Kamail and Pittman arrived even earlier than Gawain had expected—on the very next day, a thunderous crack echoed through the courtyard of Granburg. The servants busy cleaning were startled into panic by a massive, spherical ball of lightning that suddenly appeared midair. Hearing the commotion, Gawain and Lady Ropeni, who had been discussing matters inside the castle, hurried outside. They saw arcs of arcane energy flickering and weaving across the courtyard floor, converging at a single point where a glowing, vaguely humanoid arcane spirit hovered silently.

And alongside it, an old man with a wild, frizzy afro.

The floating arcane spirit glanced down at Pittman’s shock-blackened, bristling hair and buzzed out in a resonant voice, “See? I told you, lightning teleportation is much faster than your summoned forest spirit deer—and it’s perfectly safe.”

Pittman, his face smudged with soot, blinked and opened his mouth to utter a heartfelt word: “…Ptooey…” (exhaling a puff of black smoke)

Lady Ropeni stood beside Gawain, dumbfounded as she stared at the two humanoid figures—one dark, one radiant—before her. She knew Gawain had sent his personal guards to summon help, but she hadn’t expected them to arrive so quickly, nor had she imagined the kind of people who would come. The arcane energy radiating from Kamail, a newly advanced mid-level mage herself, shone like a brilliant beacon. This powerful magical being made the lady secretly uneasy. She glanced at Gawain with a mixture of doubt and awe. “Your Grace, who exactly are these…?”

“Kamail, my arcane advisor. Pittman, my druid advisor,” Gawain replied casually, stepping forward. “I thought you’d take a couple of days to get here. Didn’t Amber come with you?”

“After hearing the situation here, I decided we couldn’t afford any delay,” Kamail said. “As for Miss Amber… I had planned to bring her along, but she ran off during the first lightning teleport. Her shadow powers are too strong—I couldn’t track her.”

Pittman wore an expression of utter despair. “She just took off on her own… and to think I once cared for her…”

Gawain understood perfectly. Amber’s reaction was entirely predictable—he wasn’t surprised that the so-called “Elf’s Shame” had slipped away from Kamail’s teleportation. That girl had invested all her skill points into running and lockpicking. How could a straightforward scientist—even a capable one—catch her?

“Don’t worry,” Gawain smiled reassuringly at the slightly tense Lady Ropeni. “Kamail is a powerful archmage, though his current form is due to a failed magical experiment. Pittman is an excellent druid—his complexion is just from a recent smoke bath.” He revealed Kamail’s public identity, though he usually kept the fact that Kamail was a thousand-year-old Gondor archmage under wraps to avoid drawing too much attention. “Now, let’s check on Patty and that magical device. Pittman, you should wash your face first.”

Lady Ropeni seemed to come back to herself, casting a long, thoughtful look at the glowing, mysterious archmage. Suddenly, a realization dawned on her:

Everyone said that Duke Gawain Cecil, risen from the grave, was all show and no substance, his family’s fortunes squandered by descendants. But now it seemed the famed founding hero truly had a hidden ace up his sleeve. This powerful archmage might be the secret strength the Cecil family had kept concealed all along.

So this is what a great family looks like… Even after a century of decline, when the time is right, they can still unveil astonishing hidden power.

“No matter the outcome, the Grant family will always be grateful for your help,” Lady Ropeni said sincerely, bowing her head.

Cecil’s strength remained intact—that was truly good news.

Outside Patty’s door, Kamail hesitated briefly and looked at Gawain. “If I go in like this, will I scare the child?”

“I already gave her a heads-up. She won’t be,” Gawain smiled gently. “Besides, she’ll probably be excited—Patty rarely gets to see anything new outside the castle. Her curiosity is stronger than most children’s.”

Lady Ropeni opened the door to a bright bedroom with large windows and a skylight. Little Patty sat quietly in a chair in the center, listening to a maid read her a story while basking in the sunlight.

They heard the door open. The maid gasped softly upon seeing Kamail, and Patty stared blankly at the newcomer for a long moment. Noticing Gawain entering with him, she finally opened her mouth wide in surprise: “Wow!”

Gawain smiled and approached. “Patty, I brought a doctor.”

“Uncle Gawain!” Patty beamed, raising her one good arm as if to wave, though the attempt quickly failed. Still, she was happy. “You’re here!”

“…In the name of all the gods…” Pittman stared dumbfounded at the little girl strapped to the chair with belts. After a long moment, he muttered, “It’s a miracle she’s still alive…”

“I didn’t call you here to marvel at miracles,” Gawain shot Pittman a glance. “I want you to treat her.”

“I’ve already consulted the best druids and holy priests, but none could help,” Lady Ropeni said quietly. “So even if there’s no improvement this time, I will accept it.”

“To be honest, my lord, this is tricky,” Pittman said, examining Patty’s injuries and sensing her life force. “At my druid level…”

“Do your absolute best,” Gawain patted Pittman’s shoulder, emphasizing the last words. “Your ‘absolute best.’”

Pittman looked at Gawain silently for a few seconds, then smiled. “I probably can’t restore her fully, but… I can at least make her better than she is now.”

Muttering under his breath, he approached Patty. “Those lousy druids who kept her like this… clearly unskilled.”

“Kamail, I want you to examine something else,” Gawain turned to the ancient archmage. “You’ve studied the Sleeper’s magical arrays for some time. Can you glean anything from their creations?”

Lady Ropeni immediately ordered the nervous maid standing nearby to fetch the strange magical device used to put Patty to sleep.

Upon seeing the device, Kamail’s arcane glow brightened noticeably. “Interesting…” he murmured.

Using gravity magic and a telekinetic hand, the device was lifted from the maid’s hands and spun slowly in midair. Kamail studied every intricate detail with intense focus, his arcane eyes flickering with curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

The device bore the hallmarks of most magical items in this world: luxurious, expensive, and adorned with countless unnecessary decorations that made it more a work of art than a practical tool. Its shape resembled a peculiar little crown. If it had been the old Kamail, he might have been indifferent, but after embracing Gawain’s “cheap, mass-produced pragmatism,” he had come to see such ornamental flourishes as a waste.

With a gentle wave of his hand, a translucent outline of the “dream-entry device” appeared in the air beside it. This spectral copy bore the same shape but was far simpler and clearer, stripped of all the useless embellishments.

For easier study, Kamail duplicated the magical runes from the device after erasing the superfluous decorations.

Gawain watched Kamail’s work with some surprise and admiration. “That’s a handy ability…”

“Arcane energy has become an extension of my limbs. Shaping it is as easy as bending a finger,” Kamail buzzed proudly. This was perhaps the greatest gain since losing his human form.

Gawain regarded Kamail thoughtfully. “If you have the chance, you should study the principles of your own body. If your control over arcane energy can be replicated by magical runes, it could greatly benefit the development of our lands.”

Kamail seemed to pause—though without facial expressions, it was hard to tell—then said with a hint of sentiment, “Mr. Egg would be pleased to hear that. He often grumbled about being ‘studied’ back in the day. Seeing his old researchers get studied in turn might balance things out.”

Gawain could only laugh wryly. “His experience back then wasn’t exactly pleasant… Enough of that. Did you find anything? Is the device dangerous?”

“From the runes I’ve observed, there’s no harm. The crown’s materials contain no toxic substances,” Kamail said, enlarging the rune patterns and examining them from every angle. “And I’ve discovered some valuable… technology.”

“Oh?”

“The Sleeper’s brainwave connection technology, and a more efficient magical ‘oscillation’ structure,” Kamail said with a trace of joy. “Especially the latter—that’s exactly what we need right now!

“The magical arrays you gave me last time also had oscillation structures, but their efficiency was low and stability problematic. That made the arrays demanding to use—probably only mid-level or higher mages could control them. But this crown… its oscillation structure is intricately designed, with many auxiliary stabilizing runes at work. Though the design is cluttered due to lack of optimization, it undoubtedly performs better!”

Hearing this, Gawain felt it made perfect sense—

Daniel was a high-level mage, so his arrays naturally had high requirements. But Patty was just an ordinary little girl. The Sleeper’s custom-made “crown” for her had to be specially designed!

Gawain couldn’t help but smile. “We should thank the Sleeper who racked their brains to design this crown.”

“Yes,” Kamail’s tone held a smile too. “They truly prepared us a ‘grand gift’…”

(End of chapter)