First Move, Checkmate: How Will You Respond?

Victor sat in the carriage waiting for the servant’s notification, but all he could hear was Veega’s low raspy voice.

“Are you interested in that dead volcano?”

The one-eyed crow was preening its shiny feathers again. Its body was perhaps too fat, as its beak could no longer reach the back.

Victor glanced at Veega.

“How did you find out?”

Veega lifted his head confidently and said,

“Otherwise you wouldn’t have come to see this fiancée.”

Victor didn’t bother to respond, which was tantamount to acquiescing.

Before long, Victor was still patient, but Veega couldn’t stand it first.

“Why hasn’t anyone come to call us in yet?”

The sound of pages flipping stopped, and Victor closed his spellbook, saying lightly,

“Imagine, if you were a very beautiful woman, home alone, and someone wanted to see you late at night, and this person was your fiancé, what would you do?”

Veega tilted his head and thought for a while, croaking, “Dress up beautifully, and meet him in the most elegant posture?”

“I see, she’s seen you come, and deliberately got dressed up! And you are also very patient waiting for her.”

“Wrong. She would only feel like something is wrong with this kind of person, and find him annoying.”

Victor flatly denied it, but obviously, the crow was a little dissatisfied.

“Why? I’ve seen in those books that this is how it’s written. Don’t you understand women?”

“It’s you who doesn’t understand Gwen.”

Victor turned his head and looked towards the courtyard gate of the Delin family.

This holy knight has never considered herself a ‘woman’.

Well, Victor didn’t really understand the current Gwen either.

However, he believed that at this time, Gwen should hate him.

After all, no woman would like a man who frowns all day, holds grudges, and does bad things.

The relationship as engaged couples was probably the stain of Gwen the knight’s life until the end.

So after Victor died, she never married for the rest of her life.

“Get ready, we’re going in.”

He reminded the crow on his shoulder in a low voice. The crow quickly straightened up and took on a ‘I’m just a pet’ look, standing lazily motionless on his shoulder.

After a while, the maid came to the carriage and respectfully told him that Miss Gwen was ready and invited him in.

Victor got out of the carriage, led through the gate by the maid, and brought to the meeting hall.

As soon as he entered, he saw Gwen.

She was sitting on a soft sofa, not dressed up, wrapped in a tightly wrapped bathrobe, without exposing an inch of skin.

It looked like she had just gotten out of the bath.

But she didn’t need to dress up either. In Victor’s eyes, even with no makeup on, her exquisite perfect face was enough to captivate any man.

“What are you doing here so late?”

Gwen’s tone was neither warm nor cold, with a hint of aloofness.

Victor sat down unceremoniously across from her and went straight to the point in a flat tone, “I heard you’re going on a mission and won’t be back for half a month.”

Gwen was not curious about where he had heard it from, and nodded honestly, “Yes, leaving in a week.”

“Can I come with you?”

Gwen: “……”

Upon hearing these words, her reaction was a bit … subtle.

First somewhat puzzled, then frowning, as if to reconfirm.

Finally, she leaned back, and her face gradually revealed an incredulous expression.

Gwen put her hand on her forehead, lowered her head, and asked again,

“Repeat what you just said.”

“Can I come with you.”

Victor repeated it without the slightest hesitation.

“Hmm…”

Gwen let out a light breath, she always felt that the other person had damaged his brain.

“What’s your reason?”

“Without a proper reason, I can’t take you with me.”

Victor: “I’m very familiar with the terrain of the surrounding mountain ranges, including the weaknesses of the magic creatures distributed around. With me, the round trip will only take you seven days.”

Hearing his words, Gwen didn’t even lift her eyes, not knowing whether she was weighing Victor’s value or simply ignoring him altogether.

Victor wanted to say something more to increase his worth in Gwen’s eyes, but Gwen preempted him and blocked his mouth.

“What I want is the truth.”

Victor’s eyes turned a little cold as he looked at Gwen and said slowly, “…You used your abilities on me.”

As a knight born with justice, Gwen Delin has shown her unique talents since childhood.

She possesses a righteous heart.

As long as she wants, she can clearly discern whether the other person is lying or not.

Gwen can freely control this ability, so she does not use her abilities unnecessarily.

However, she did not believe in herself this time.

Victor was not so angry, rather he was somewhat expectant of this.

Because this proved how much Gwen hated him.

While talking to him, Gwen would even use her righteous heart to assess if he was lying.

“I don’t trust you.”

Gwen was very straightforward, without any further explanation.

Suddenly, Victor smiled relievedly.

He thought for a while, then said again:

“There is a kind of magic creature in Mount Vesuvius that produces a unique crystal on its body. I need that stuff to make magic tools.”

After speaking, Victor’s eyes showed a strong desire.

[First Order Magic: Self Hypnosis]

Effect: Hypnotize oneself, randomly increase any ability by 1 level for a period of time.

Dealing with Gwen’s righteous heart was simple, he just needed to tell the truth.

Even if this truth was made up on the spot, as long as Victor believed it himself, it was the truth.

A mage also has his own means, which is a flexible morale and a wise mind.

Gwen finally looked up at Victor.

“It seems you do know about that volcano, otherwise you wouldn’t say that.”

“In order to achieve your goals, you can even use the Royal Knights as your escort.”

“As expected of you, the selfish Victor.”

Victor smiled and nodded, for the first time in a long while not putting on a poker face.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Gwen would never doubt Victor’s selfish motives, because that’s the kind of person he was.

She also knew that in order to achieve his goals, Victor would only cling to her even more.

Since that was the case, it was better to just agree.

“I will apply for an accompanying mage. You can come see me that day.”

Seeing Gwen agree, Victor smiled and reciprocated, “Thank you for selflessly helping even a selfish person like me, Sir Gwen.”

“I’ll get everything arranged this week. No need to send me off.”

After speaking, Victor got up and left.

Gwen nodded and saw him off.

But in her mind, Victor’s flattering smile just now lingered for a long time.

Victor, has he ever smiled like that?

Back in the carriage, Victor leaned back calmly in his seat, his jet black eyes staring absently somewhere.

“Are you angry?”

Veega asked in puzzlement.

“What makes you think that?”

Veega: “Just a hunch after seeing your poker face for so long.”

“If you didn’t have too much emotion, you wouldn’t smile brightly like a daisy.”

Angry?

Hearing its words, Victor thought about it briefly.

Perhaps the education ingrained in him wanted him to be a good person, but being called so selfish by the other’s self-righteousness.

And he could only pretend to be what the other thought he was, in order to gain her approval.

Not angry enough for that.

It just made him feel nauseous.

…..

These days, Victor taught at the academy during the day and studied magic potions in the basement at night.

As long as there were enough materials, he could make a hundred bottles a day, all of which could be sold by Lia.

Lia said that when the store renovation was completed, these potions would go on the shelves, and for now only this one potion would be sold.

They had to establish the store’s reputation first before considering purchasing other magic items.

Of course, Victor knew that once this consumable went on sale, it would definitely cause a rush.

So he told Lia not to sell out all at once, limited to fifty bottles per day.

Starvation marketing.

Lia understood it immediately as a merchant herself.

At the academy, Victor was also not idle. On the one hand, he was thinking about lecture topics, on the other hand, he had made a decision.

Every time he gave a lecture, he would have Hennie sit in.

Under the pretext of gaining experience.

Erica came to his office every night, often with many questions to ask, and more and more frequently.

Although Victor felt somewhat annoyed, Veega tirelessly answered them one by one.

In order not to let Veega keep chirping in his head, he had no choice but to relay everything to Erica.

It also allowed him to cram magic knowledge from Veega.

After secretly learning from Veega, he realized that Erica was really a genius.

He couldn’t understand Veega’s crude and complex content at all, but Erica understood it after one teaching.

Even at this point, she seemed to have countless questions waiting to be asked and answered.

Victor couldn’t help feeling a little emotional.

With Erica’s talent and diligence, who else could be first in the exams if not her?

Everything was going smoothly, and soon it was the sixth day agreed upon with Gwen.

Hennie followed quietly behind Victor. Today she would still sit in on Professor Victor’s class.

She also didn’t quite understand why Professor Victor asked her to sit in. After all, it was a curriculum she had written herself.

Not until the two of them walked to the door did she finally understand Professor Victor’s intention these past few days.

“Today, I want you to go in yourself and use your knowledge to teach a class for these students.”

Hennie: “???”