The next day, Luke rose early and leisurely practiced Vitality Arts in the courtyard. The morning wind was still a little chilly, but he considered it harmless enough.
Since he had not had any nighttime activities last night, he was full of energy now and in excellent condition.
Behind him, Katarina, who was sweeping the courtyard, spared a glance in his direction and sighed quietly to herself.
This really was retirement living.
She had seen this scene more times than she could count, yet she still could not get used to it.
Maybe this slow-paced life was not bad, but she had never especially liked it.
After finishing one set of Vitality Arts, Luke was about ready to start making breakfast.
He timed it very precisely. By the time Lux, Kahina, Sona, Quinn, Poppy, and the others arrived, breakfast was basically ready.
After breakfast, Kahina had to report to the knight squad.
"Yurna, get the carriage ready."
Luke began making plans to go out.
Katarina, Frey, and Poppy stayed home, while he and Quinn took Lux and Sona out with them.
A dozen or so minutes later, after watching the carriage recede into the distance, Katarina turned back around, lay down in the rocking chair out of boredom, and began sunbathing.
Inside the carriage, Luke sat quietly, while Sona and Quinn sat across from him.
Beside him, Lux kept lifting the carriage curtain now and then, peering outside. After a while, she could not help asking, "So where are we going later?"
Luke answered casually, "You'll know once we get there."
Lux nodded, growing even more curious. She realized the carriage was heading out of the capital.
Time passed minute by minute. After a while, there was no one else around except their moving carriage.
After taking a turn, the carriage moved onto a quiet little path overgrown with wild grass, one that would be impossible to notice without looking carefully.
Along the way, there were many trees, much grass, and plenty of stone walls. The scenery barely changed in front, behind, or on either side, making it easy for someone to lose their sense of direction.
This made Lux even more curious about where they were going next.
Or rather, at this very moment, she already had a faint guess in her heart.
The carriage could not go much farther inside, because the road was no longer suited for a larger vehicle.
So the carriage stopped.
"We still have to walk a little farther."
Quinn was the first to get off the carriage. After Luke, Lux, and Sona got down as well, they looked around their surroundings.
Following Quinn, they walked for about another half an hour. By the time Lux had been led around this maze-like mountain forest until she was almost dizzy, the group passed through an even narrower trail. There were mountain crevices on both sides, and the empty space between them was only wide enough for one person to pass through.
After walking forward like this, Quinn brushed aside the shrubs blocking their view, revealing an open area behind them.
Lux looked over and suddenly had the feeling of clouds and mist parting before her eyes.
Here, several buildings had actually been constructed, like a small camp. She could see a full set of living tools neatly arranged around the place, as well as several unfinished structures.
Although they were all simple constructions, the place carried a sense of vitality and steady growth.
In the camp, there were about thirty or forty unfamiliar faces. At this moment, all of them happened to look over at the same time.
"Lady Quinn!"
One woman with light yellowish hair immediately came forward after seeing Quinn. When she saw Luke and the others behind Quinn, she paused slightly.
"This is Prince Luke, whom I mentioned to you before. This is Miss Crownguard, and this is Sona. You should all know them."
Quinn immediately stepped aside and introduced them one by one.
At this moment, the rest of the people in the camp had also gathered around. Their slightly timid gazes toward Luke and the others carried a bit of curiosity as well.
The light-haired woman looked at Luke and immediately bowed seriously and respectfully. "Greetings, Your Highness. My name is Julie. Thank you so much for being willing to take us in."
"No need to be so polite. From now on, let's all look after each other."
Luke smiled at her, his smile dazzling.
That instantly eased the mindset of the others, who had been cowering a little because of his status as a prince.
The mere fact that someone as important as His Highness the prince and Miss Crownguard would appear here was shocking enough.
Even though Quinn had already mentioned Luke to them, after seeing him in person, everyone still felt a subconscious fear.
After all, the gap in status between them was almost visible to the naked eye.
In other words, it was a sense of distance.
"This place is…"
At this moment, Lux, who had been looking around the whole time, had already noticed many things. She blurted out, "A mage camp?"
She had noticed the staves, but what truly convinced her was that the magic aura lingering in this space was far denser than anywhere else they had passed along the way.
On top of that, there were traces of magic having been used here, not long ago.
And in the eyes of the people across from her, she saw a familiar look, exactly the same as the one Luca and Giselle had shown.
"Yes, Miss Crownguard."
Julie answered Lux and explained, "This really is a mage camp. Including me, there are thirteen mages here in total. The others are our families. In order to avoid the Mageseekers' pursuit, we had been living without a fixed home. A month and a half ago, Lady Quinn found us and provided this place for us."
Lux listened with a slightly dazed expression. In the end, her gaze turned toward Luke. "So you had already started doing this…"
A feeling she could not quite explain suddenly began pulsing in her heart.
Before she had gone to Luke yesterday, he had already begun preparing all of this.
Sona looked around as well, surprise visible in her gaze.
At this moment, Quinn said, "His Highness actually started preparing this last year. Eventually, he found this place, somewhere hidden by the terrain and not easily discovered."
Lux could not help saying, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Luke smiled. "Would telling you early or late have made a difference?"
Lux thought about it. "It seems not."
Whether she had learned about it earlier or only now, her feelings seemed to be the same.
"No need to dwell on that. Actually, I haven't done much." Luke walked forward, studying the surrounding environment. "Quinn is the one who has truly worked the hardest. She arranged everything from beginning to end."
After returning to the capital last year, he had begun instructing Quinn to find a hidden location, as well as to take in some kindhearted mages who had no fixed place to live.
After layer upon layer of investigation, Quinn had eventually found the people before them.
All of them had clean backgrounds. Their only problem was that, by chance, they had awakened magic and become what others called magic-tainted.
They had fled from place to place along the way. During this period, Quinn had not only traveled around the capital, but had also visited several towns near the capital.
One could imagine how much effort she had put in all this time.
That much could be seen from the gratitude and respect in the eyes of the people here whenever they looked at Quinn.
Even with Luke and the others present, the people around them were actually still more willing to trust Quinn.
At this moment, Lux looked at Julie. "So for more than a month, all of you have been staying here?"
"Yes. Because we have to prepare food and living supplies for so many people, we regularly send those who are not magic-tainted to the capital to buy things. It is all thanks to the financial support from His Highness and Lady Quinn."
Julie answered.
"Magic-tainted…"
Lux murmured to herself, then said, "Magic-tainted is something defined by the Mageseekers. To us, it is only the awakening of our own talent."
Julie caught the key word in what she said. "Us?"
"Yes." Lux looked at her and nodded softly. "To be honest, I'm actually a mage too."
She raised her hand, and a faint light flashed at her fingertips as magic lingered around them.
Seeing this, Quinn, Yurna, and Sona, who were waiting nearby, were not surprised.
Even though Lux had never brought it up herself, it was not difficult to discover from daily life and from knowing her well.
Not to mention, Sona had known from the beginning that Lux was a mage.
However, the group across from them were extremely surprised.
No one had expected Miss Crownguard to be a mage as well.
"This…"
Julie still had not recovered even now, and for a moment, she could not get the words out.
A beautiful smile appeared on Lux's face. "Looks like I've found my people. I hope you won't mind me joining you."
Julie hurriedly waved her hand. "Of course we won't, Miss Crownguard. I never thought… this… Welcome."
The others actually felt somewhat overwhelmed by the honor as well. If it were just an ordinary person joining them, that would be one thing.
But after learning that Lux was joining because she was also a mage, they suddenly felt much more at ease.
The way they looked at her also became a little warmer.
"There's someone else joining today too."
Only then did Luke continue speaking.
Then Sona stepped forward and gave everyone a slight nod in greeting.
In terms of fame, Sona was certainly no less well known than Lux.
She was a famous music master in Demacia. Even though many people had never seen her before, they recognized her at a glance from her distinctive features.
After learning that Sona would be joining as well, the camp immediately boiled over with excitement.
In truth, before this, even though Quinn had taken them in, even though they had found such a hidden place, begun building a home, learned that His Highness the prince was backing them, and lived day after day without having to worry about food or shelter, every single one of them had always felt a trace of fear in their hearts.
They were afraid that one day the Mageseekers would suddenly barge in. They were afraid that their newly stabilized lives would once again be disrupted.
After all, even His Highness the prince was an important figure they could not meet face to face. One word from him might be enough to abandon them directly.
Until today, Lux and Sona joining made them feel as if they had found a true pillar to lean on.
And at this moment, Lux and Sona were naturally delighted as well.
No matter how high their status was, living as mages in this kind of environment would leave anyone feeling uneasy and frightened.
Watching new mages being thrown into prison every day would always give them the feeling that maybe tomorrow, the one locked up would be themselves.
Now, seeing so many mages appear before them was exactly as Lux had said.
It really did feel as though they had found their people.
Because of this, Lux and Sona blended into the camp much faster. Before long, they were treated as their own.
Lux chatted with them very happily, and under the sunlight, the smile blooming on her face came from the heart.
To be honest, before this, aside from Sona, she had never chatted with other mages like this.
Once upon a time, she too had hoped that there would be a group where everyone was a mage and where she would be accepted.
As for how the feeling was now, her heartbeat had been quickening the whole time.
Julie was the manager of the mage camp. Because her magical talent was relatively outstanding, and because she was actually almost thirty, she handled matters very calmly. She had also been among the first people Quinn had brought here.
She led Luke and the others on a tour of the mage camp.
"It is still a little simple right now, but I believe that as more and more of our fellow mages arrive, we will definitely be able to build this place into something better."
Julie imagined the future and laid out the blueprint in her mind.
She was the one who regarded this place most as home, so seeing the camp grow steadily better filled her with sincere happiness.
The camp was not large, so it only took ten minutes to walk around it.
Along the way, she also introduced some of the other mages.
There were two who left a relatively deep impression on Luke. One was named Emmaline. She possessed a special magical talent and could create refined magical marks.
Magical marks were a kind of spellcasting pattern carved through magic power. Usually, they had many functions, and the most commonly used type allowed the user to gain a temporary enhancement through the magical power stored within the mark.
After learning about them, Luke suddenly felt that the two patterns on his wrists seemed to be two demonic marks.
The only difference was that ordinary marks would disappear after being used.
His did not disappear. Even if the demonic power inside them was used up, they would recover on their own.
And as it happened, he also wanted to learn more about those two demonic marks. Perhaps through Emmaline, he could understand a few things.
However, Emmaline had only awakened her magic not long ago and was currently still in the stage of adapting to it, so there was no rush.
As for the other mage, his name was Klan. He was the son of a craftsman and also possessed a special magical talent.
His magical ability was enchanting weapons.
Ordinary weapons were what they were, whether in terms of damage or sharpness.
But after being magically enchanted, they would become more powerful, sharper, and more capable of unleashing great force.
In fact, through observation, Luke had noticed that Garen's greatsword seemed to be an enchanted weapon.
From this, one could see just how powerful a weapon enhanced through enchantment could be.
However, the same problem existed now. Klan was only fourteen, and his command of magic was not very practiced either.
As for the other mages, most of them were not especially familiar with their own magic either.
There was no helping it. Before this, the vast majority of them had lived ordinary day-to-day lives.
They had suddenly awakened magic, chosen to flee in a hurry, and had never had time to understand it, let alone study it systematically.
Even Lux, who possessed such formidable talent, had been very unskilled at controlling magic before this.
Overall, after walking around and seeing everything, Luke felt that this was probably a team with a promising future.
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