Chapter 2 A Foreign Worker’s Knowledge of the Red Dragon

It was about ten o’clock in the morning, before the sun had fully risen, and the canal was full of small boats carrying stone and timber. Workers were reinforcing the canal’s embankments, and Jess slipped over a wooden bridge that had been improvised for work.

Ahead is the Mage District, this slice of Storm City located in the southwest is the most well-preserved area besides the Dwarf District and the East End, and from afar, you can see the Wizard’s Sanctuary, where the game’s Storm City Portal is located.

The spires of the towers peeked out of the trees and eaves of the houses and high into the sky, echoing the spires of the Cathedral of Light, still under construction and restoration at the north end of the city, and the high towers of the Stormwind Fortress where the royal family was located, in the direction of the docks.

Citizens rumored that the mage district was not destroyed because the mages left behind countless terrible curses and magical traps to stop the orcs and ogres from charging in and burning and smashing.

But in Jace’s opinion, if those mages had such strong mana to be able to set up a boundary that prevented the ogre legions from entering, Storm City would not have fallen.

The leader of that ogre tribe that sacked Stormwind City was named Kougaar, he was not a savage ogre in the general impression, as early as in Draenor he showed his intelligence and mastered a lot of magic and even prophecy.

Such an ogre wise man would surely not have spared such a treasure trove of historical knowledge and magical implements, and it must have been his orders to keep the place as intact as possible that allowed the patch to be largely spared.

Jace breezed through the shade of trees and alleys shaded by eaves, skirting a few quaint stores and dwellings to see the grassy area that led straight to the front of the rotating steps of the Wizard’s Sanctuary.

The smell of earth, the aroma of paper always lingers around, and the dreary, humid weather sets off the campus-like atmosphere.

Along the way, every now and then some mage-like young men in pale purple or blue robes gave sideways glances to the place, and Jace looked at what he was wearing, a linen shirt with a pair of pants rolled up to the leg, completely indistinguishable from those workers outside repairing the bridge, indeed out of place with those around him in such a collegiate atmosphere.

However, he didn’t find anything unnatural about it, did everyone here wear silk clothes and hold magic or rune tomes in their hands when they first walked in?

Asking a couple of apprentices reading by the side of the road, he learned of Eden Marin’s residence, only to find, upon arrival, that several young men of about the same age were already standing at the door.

These guys were all dressed smartly, all bookish, and looked like they hadn’t done much work.

In comparison, he had reddened his skin and had noticeably heavier hand lines from the sun even in this relatively humid area due to his long hours of working around the trade area and the church square, either out and about in the Aelwyn Forest.

Coupled with a lean figure, a figure that is more palatable in the 21st century is not well received here.

Generally speaking most of the people who were able to enter a magic school to study were from excellent families who didn’t worry about food and clothing.

Magical learning is not an avenue that can produce results in a short period of time, and families generally prefer to have their children learn abilities that have more visible benefits.

Not to mention, most of the magical establishments in the League were influenced by the connections and investments of nobles and merchants, which interfered with the chances of those of ordinary families getting into them, as Jace had learned all too well during his time in Lordaeron.

When he was very young, he planned to enter the King’s Arcane Academy in the King’s City of Lordaeron as an apprentice, and his parents were willing to support it, but this magical institution seemed from its name that it wasn’t meant for a peon like him, and several times he was met with a closed door.

As for the magical city of Dalaran …… far away on the southern shores of Lake Lordanmir, even though Dalaran is willing to accept all humans and elves with an interest in magic, by the time Jace reaches the age of enrollment, the Gates of Darkness have already opened.

There are rumors that Orc warships have approached the Hillsblade Hills, and that some of the pioneers have felt their way into the vast forests south of Dalaran.

With his father recalled and his mother needing to look after the farm, a child in his early teens traveling the long distance alone, all the way across the entire Silver Pine Forest from the Tirisfal woodlands to reach Tirisfal, was afraid that three heads wouldn’t be enough to chop off.

By the time the war is over, he’ll be almost 18.

Approaching the door of Mage Marin’s house, he vaguely heard talking coming from the door and tried to listen closely to what was being talked about to make some preparations ahead of time but couldn’t hear anything.

The wooden door was slammed open, jolting Jace, and inside a young man stepped out with a look of disappointment on his face, as if the interview hadn’t gone too well.

“Next.” The low voice of a middle-aged man came from inside.

Jace glanced back at the people next to him, the other waiters were staring at him too, no one responded to Marin’s call.

“Where are the people?”

“Yes, Mr. Marin.”

Jace stared at the few cowards who were watching his hilarity and answered, turning to walk inside and shut the door behind him.

“Please call me Master Marin.”

Eden Marin looked up as he spoke, he looked to be about forty or fifty years old, with a full head of brownish gray hair that was already showing signs of going bald, and a deliberately leftover beard that hitched all the way down to his chest, making him look a bit unkempt.

“Yes, Master Marin.” Jace shouted respectfully before sitting on his butt on the stool next to him.

Marin glanced at him, twirled the griffin’s long-feathered pen in his hand, and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Jace Sesso.”

“I’ve never heard that last name.”

“I’m from out of town, from Lordaeron.”

“But you don’t sound like someone from the royal city of Minethil either.”

“My mother is from Burrell, and I’ve lived with her most of my life.”

“What town?”

“Briar, a town north of Lordaeron.”

“Ah …… Burrell, Burrell, your pronunciation doesn’t sound too good to me. I know Burrell, a beautiful place where the town center is fixed up like a chapel, impressive.”

Jace could tell that Eden Marin didn’t care about some chapel-like town center building or whether or not Burrell was beautiful, and that he was basically just being polite out of his own habitual politeness when he said those things with a blank face.

“Where did you graduate from? The Arcane Academy in Minethil, or the University in Stantholm? Have you ever been to Dalaran?”

“I …… cough.” Jace cleared his throat and said, “I’ve only studied at the Church School in Lordaeron.”

“Ah.”

Marin put down the pen in his hand, rested his hands on the table, and looked at Jace.

Jess was already familiar with this attitude, and this interview hung in the balance.

“So why did you apply for this assistant position, you don’t quite fit the bill.”

“For the money.” Jess said.

“Very honest, Sey ……,” Marin glanced at the notebook, “Mr. Sesso.”

“But I would prefer that the person I am applying for has some of the most basic academic knowledge, so that communication will be easier, because working for me will inevitably involve some more complicated situations …… I am not discriminating against your resume, after all, you must have given a lot for the reconstruction of Stormwind City. For that I must offer my deepest respect.”

“You might try asking me a few questions, Maestro.” Jace said, “I think I’m up to the task.”

“Okay.” The mage’s eyes slanted toward a bookcase not far away, then said, “Talk to me about ‘Kenrito’, you should know what ‘Kenrito’ is.”

“Talk from what?”

“Casual talk, or rather, an introduction to the concept of ‘Kenrito’.”

After saying that Eden Marin leaned back in her chair like she was ready to see what was going on.

“Understood.” Jace took a deep breath and said, “Kenrito is Dalaran’s council of mages, run by a council of six, and is one of the most powerful elite groups of wizards in the world. Historically Kenrito used to be an organization that stayed away from common politics, but later became the ruling group of Dalaran. Kenrito has maintained a friendly alliance with Silvermoon City in Quel’thalas for over 2,000 years, and there have been elven members among the Council of Six such as Kael’thas Sunseeker, the Blood Elf’s ……”

“Wait.”

Marin interrupted Jace’s long rant, frowning and pondering something for a moment.

“Prince Kael’thas is no longer a member of Kenrito’s Council of Six? When was this? And what is a Blood Elf, are you trying to say, Sindorei? Sin does mean blood, blood in the Saras language, and Sindorei originally meant descendant of noble blood, and of course, is able to be translated as blood elf, but we are not allowed to interpret it that way. In fact, I don’t know from which translator’s work you read this statement ……”

Jace realized that he had accidentally said something that hadn’t happened by now, and thankfully the old mage had already muddled the matter himself.

“Speaking of which, has Kenrito been around for over two thousand years? I didn’t realize Kenrito existed when Dalaran was founded.” Marin stood up and walked over to the bookcase, pulling out a purple leather book with the markings of the Eye of Arcana and flipping through it.

“Well …… Kenrito is indeed an organization that was formed in the early days of Dalaran’s founding.”

He nodded, shook the book in his hand, and asked, “Have you read this book, The History of Kenrito and Dalaran?”

“I’ve read some of it.” Jace said firmly, even though this was the first time he’d heard of the book.

Marin put the book back down, coughed then walked back to his desk, sat down and contemplated for a moment, then immediately asked, “Tell me about dragons, Dragons, I’m interested in dragons. Like, do you think dragons are real? Or are they just legends that the orcs put out to deter the Alliance’s armies and bluff their way through?”

“Of course dragons exist.” Jace said, “A lot of people have mentioned red dragons burning and pillaging along the shores of the Hillsbrad Hills.”

“You’re from Lordaeron, aren’t you, and have you seen the Red Dragon in person?” Marin asked, “Did you follow the refugees from Stormwind City here?”

Jace replied, “I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, just the wreckage of some of the ships burned by the Red Dragon.”

“Red dragons are evil and rabid.” Marin nodded, “Best not to see it with your own eyes.”

As a traveler familiar with the backstory, Jace of course knew that while the Red Dragon was a fearsome magical beast, it was also a guardian of life, and the Red Dragon’s leader, Queen Alexstasa, was the protector of all living beings in all of Azeroth.

The reason why the noble red dragon became a slave and riding beast of the orcs was because Alexstasa was captured by the demonic spirits of the orcs who had captured all the dragon king’s mana with their ancient evil magical artifacts.

The orcs used the queen’s pain to drive all the red dragons to fight for the orcs, and to this day the Red Dragon Queen is still suppressed by this horrific artifact in the depths of the wetlands of the far east, in the cursed and abandoned dwarven city of Grimbalto.

Jace knew this well, of course, but he wasn’t sure what Marin meant by that statement; did he really think the red dragon was evil, or was he deliberately testing himself to see how well he knew the dragons?

“Uh, Master.”

Jace spoke tentatively, and Marin’s eyes widened a little and his lips parted slightly as if in anticipation of something, which made Jace sure of his judgment.

“There seems to be other reasons for red dragons to fight for orcs, after all there were very few cases of red dragons actively going out and attacking human, or elven towns before the Dark Gate …… They stayed out of the world most of the time.”

“So, Mr. Sesso, what do you think the Red Dragon’s violence has to do with?” Marin eagerly pursued the question, and his excitement could already be felt between the statements.

The Demon’s Soul shouldn’t be something an ordinary citizen should know about, and even many of the elite mages in Kenrito are convinced that it’s nothing more than an ancient legend.

Jace could never utter such exaggerated forbidden knowledge, he just shook his head.

The mage wrote something in his notebook and then said, “Mr. Sesso, thank you very much for visiting, we’ve been talking for quite some time now, so let’s stop here.”

Until he left the door of Eden Marin’s house, Jace felt a trance.

If he told that mage about his further knowledge of the red dragon, maybe getting this assistant would be the nail in the coffin. But for that, he would have to take a considerable risk of letting others know that he possessed some knowledge that would have been impossible to obtain at this status and age.

It would be fine if a normal friend, or an ordinary passerby knew about it, after all, most people knew a little bit of blackmailed countryside legend, and unusual people wouldn’t find it strange, but the other party was a mage.

Jace took a long breath, don’t be too flashy at the moment, it wouldn’t do any good if people knew he could see the future.

When he thought about it, he was a little worried that the Bronze Dragons who managed time would suddenly appear beside him and crush him with some strange magic.

After making sure that he hadn’t triggered any timestream crises, he slipped around the mage area for a while, the garden setting and quiet atmosphere easing his mood a bit.

As for this interview, the conversation didn’t touch on the job offer, or what the job entailed, or talk much about the competency aspect of Jace, odds are it went yellow.

One can only relax and just not crave too much for things that don’t belong to you.

Since I’m here, I might as well find another place to ask if there’s any work to do, I can always find a resume, even if it’s an hourly job, and now he’s not picking in this situation.

Two tailors’ stores, on hearing that they were not here to buy clothes but to look for work, immediately pulled their faces down and drove the people out of the door, and the owner of one of them, who was still from County Durham, had an attitude even worse than that of Duncan’s, and did not at all give a living to his fellow countrymen.

That’s when the sign of a tavern in the alley caught his attention.

“Lambs to the slaughter”.