Supreme Magus novel Chapter 1721

"Also, I'm a living being and I don't want a bunch of Royal Forgemasters putting their hands on me, tinkering with my mother's legacy in order to replicate it." Solus said.

Locrias opened his mouth to reply, but he could see their point. The Royal Court would always be a vipers' nest and the thought of what the wrong people might do with a tower sent shivers down his spine.

Lith and Locrias appeared on the site where Lark's corpse had been arranged like a scarecrow. To forever delete that image, his heirs had built a statue of him, depicting Lark while he painted.

Jadon had given instructions to the sculptor so that the statue wore Lark's old monocle, replacing the silk string with a metal wire to make sure that he wouldn't lose it ever again.

Seeing the serene expression of the statue reminded Lith of his old friend, stinging at his heart.

'I swear that I'll find whoever killed you and I'll make them pay. Locrias?' His arrival had scared the gardeners and alerted the guards, but the moment they recognized Lith they returned to their daily routine.

The Demon was hidden in the shadow under Lith's Archmage robe so no one saw him.

'He is not here.' Locrias shared with Lith his sight, allowing him to see that Hilya, Lark's former kitchen head, was among the lingering souls.

Then they moved to Distar, where Brinja was overjoyed seeing him. She asked Lith to give a full check-up to both her and the baby.

"Did anything strange happen here? Many vaults of the Kingdom have been robbed and with its two academies, the Distar Marquisate is among the most well-armed regions.

"I would be surprised if whoever is behind the Doppelgangers didn't send a few of them after you." Lith gladly took a cup of tea with her yet discovering that Mirim's soul had moved on as well left a bittersweet feeling in his mouth.

"I would be surprised if they did, instead." Brinja shrugged. "Thanks to the White Griffon's healers the impostors have a hard time around these parts. Manohar has already found a simple way to recognize a Doppelganger."

She pricked her finger with a needle until a drop of blood came out.

"No one gets in and out without doing this, not even the delivery guys. Doppelgangers have no organs hence they have no blood either. As for my noble guests, they come from my personal Gate and there is no way to fool the magical imprint.

"My mother had the tokens she gave to trusted people like you enchanted so that in case of death of their owner, they self-destruct. On top of that, the network of Warp Gates allows the authorities to investigate the moment something strange happens.

"There is no way to create here the unrest necessary to pull tricks without the Royal Constables noticing. My people are pissed off because of the food rationing, but thanks to our own cultivated fields and the mild climate, my Marquisate is self-sufficient.

"Even if the famine gets worse, it can't threaten our livelihood."

Lith sent Locrias to investigate the house while they conversed, just to be safe. The Captain had no problem moving unnoticed despite the great number of servants because he used them to move around, passing from one shadow to another.

'The security is excellent and the arrays have been changed since my last visit. Whatever knowledge the copycat had of house Distar is now useless.' Locrias reported Lith, proud of how the Kingdom took care of its own.

With nothing left to do, Lith went back to the mana geyser before picking up the kids. The tower would be too far away to sustain Solus completely, but it would still lessen the burden on her body thanks to the flow of world energy fueling the power core.

'I know these little runts for years, yet for them, this is the first time we meet. Be patient and make friends with them.' She thought to herself.