Chapter 183. Passing Through
Snowfang Town was a small town located at the edge of the Northern Frontier. After entering from the Northern Border Pass in the Antir Region, the first town one would encounter was Snowfang Town.
Heavy snow had already covered the entire settlent. Everywhere the eye could see was a vast expanse of white.
Ordinarily, only adventurers hunting rare magical creatures or guards on special assignnts would pass through here.
Even though this place still lay within the territory of the Magic Alliance, hardly any mages ever ca through in normal tis.
That was because the Northern Society itself possessed abundant knowledge for study, and in most cases, its threshold for access was lower than the conditions for obtaining similar knowledge within the Alliance.
anwhile, within the Alliance, very few people had even heard that there was an exclave farther to the north.
And for those who did know that a mage of the Northern Society was here, there was even less reason to co learn spells in such a harsh environnt.
But things were different now. When Fran arrived in Snowfang Town, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was actually a Mage Reception House in the town, and that it was still operating.
That left her rather puzzled at first. Wasn’t it said that, because so few mages passed through here, there was no need to open a Mage Reception House in this place?
Before arriving in Snowfang Town, she had already prepared herself to “borrow lodging” in a villager’s house for the night. But since the reception house was open, there was no reason not to take a look.
Fran wore a black robe, with snow still settled on her shoulders.
After entering the building and feeling the warmth of the fireplace, she gave herself a shake and brushed off all the snow clinging to her body.
She glanced around the reception house. Unlike the ones she had seen before, this one gave off an aged, worn-down air.
The wooden boards overhead looked as though they had not been maintained in a very long ti.
Their surfaces showed gaps of varying sizes, and in the corners there still remained faint white strands where cobwebs had only recently been cleaned away.
The surrounding walls also seed to have been scrubbed not long ago, so they looked relatively clean, but so stubborn stains still remained in places where they could not be fully removed.
“It looks like this Mage Reception House was only recently put back into use.”
At that mont, an attendant hurried over to her and said in a flustered tone,
“My apologies, Mage. This reception house was only officially reopened three days ago, so not all the rooms have been fully cleaned yet...”
“You may need to wait a little while. We will have a room ready very soon.”
Fran frowned slightly when she heard that, but she also knew there was nothing to be done, so she said,
“Bring a hot al. I’ll eat downstairs.”
She was hungry anyway. She had been gnawing on rations the whole way while riding, and although she could warm them with magic, she still wanted to eat sothing else for a change.
“Of course, Mage. Thank you for your understanding.”
The attendant hurried off at once, led her to a table, then practically flew behind a door, his hurried footsteps continuing without pause.
At that mont, from a nearby table, a mage dragged his chair over and ca to sit in front of her.
“Hey, friend, mind if I share your table and chat for a bit?”
The mage who ca over was Dorian. He looked like he had been bottling things up for far too long and was desperate to talk to soone.
Fran did not refuse. She also wanted to ask what was going on with this reception house, and why a mage like him would appear here.
By all rights, there should not have been any other mages passing through this place. Nor should there have been any reason to open a dedicated reception house here.
Dorian spoke first, complaining to Fran as if he had been waiting for this chance.
“Hey, when you were coming here, did you run into a knight blocking the road?”
“I did. I got tangled up with them for a while before I managed to get away.”
Fran nodded and answered his question.
She really had gotten “tangled up” with them for a while. It was just that, in the end, she had also taken care of all of them along the way.
Dorian’s complaints poured out as though they cost him nothing.
“Those damned knights, how dare they block the road there!”
“Once I get to the Northern Society, I’m definitely going to file a complaint with the battle mage corps there and have them wipe that knight order out as soon as possible.”
“They were even trying to find so item. I swear, that knight order’s commander really had a death wish.”
“Even if one of us mages really did have that thing, would he actually be able to take it by force? He should have looked at whose hands it was in first.”
Fran remained silent and let Dorian continue venting his frustration. There was no need for her to tell him that the knight order was already gone.
As he spoke, she rely chid in once or twice, showing her disgust for the knight order’s behavior.
Only after Dorian had vented a little did Fran ask,
“Hey, friend, what brought you to the Northern Society?”
Fran’s words made Dorian stiffen for a mont before he relaxed again.
“What else could it be? I couldn’t get my results published back at my old society, and the Northern Society happens to be famous right now, so I ca here.”
Fran scratched her head. What she had really wanted to ask was why the Northern Society had beco so famous lately, but Dorian seed to have taken her words in another direction.
“Those damned schools and societies down in the Abyss ought to be swept straight into the trash heap. What era is this? And they’re still pulling this kind of nonsense!”
Dorian started complaining again, using one unrefined curse after another to greet those societies.
“I bloody... honestly... My paper only touched on a few things from the Nature School, and they actually rejected it outright just because it involved content from another school. What absolute garbage!”
It seed Dorian was deeply dissatisfied with the society he had belonged to before, and from the information he let slip, Fran had also begun to grasp why the Northern Society had beco so famous.
“That’s all in the past now. At least we’ve both made it to the Northern Society. From now on, when we want to publish a paper, we won’t have to look at those people’s faces anymore.”
Dorian’s expression beca extrely relaxed, as though rely ntioning the Northern Society made him happy.
Then Fran spoke.
“Exactly. The Northern Society lets people freely publish content from all different schools, so there’s no need to keep watching those people’s moods.”
Dorian clearly agreed and echoed her sentint a few tis.
That only made Fran even more puzzled. She suddenly felt that the reason Dorian had ntioned earlier, the reason why the Northern Society had beco so famous, was sothing very important.
So she stopped beating around the bush and asked directly,
“Hey, can you tell what’s been happening with the Northern Society lately? Why has even this reception house opened up?”
Dorian revealed a strange expression.
“Ah?! You don’t know about that? Then what exactly did you co to the Northern Society for?”
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