NOVPUB
Chapter 50: 017: Newcomers’ Dinner
The brilliant light made Lynch squint slightly, and by the time his vision recovered, he was already standing in the banquet hall.
The ceiling towered high into the heavens, adorned with countless glittering stars. These stars were not stationary but rotated gently, emitting a soft and mysterious glow, as if the entirety of the universe’s secrets were condensed beneath this starry sky.
The walls were made of semi-transparent magic crystals, offering a view of the garden outside where exotic flowers and magical creatures danced gracefully under the moonlight, as if they, too, were singing in celebration of the feast.
A long dining table covered with a white tablecloth stretched ahead, laden with an array of exotic delicacies: gigantic crabs caught from the deep sea, each claw over half a meter long; thin slices of blazing stag meat; and the hallucinatory mushroom soup loved by all wizards...
Luxury delicacies that Lynch had only seen in books before were now available in abundance, tantalizingly tempting to the palate. For someone like Lynch, who had initially felt little enthusiasm for attending—
Lynch wasn’t particularly interested in banquets, finding them a waste of time and bothersome due to their complex social expectations.
But seeing all this food... well, it seemed not so bad after all.
"Jessica, are you here?"
At that moment, a young girl approached, appearing around fifteen or sixteen years old, bearing a slight resemblance to Jessica, her face adorned with carefully applied makeup.
"Cousin Susan, I was just planning to look for you!" Jessica released Lynch’s arm and stepped forward, starting introductions for both sides.
"Everyone, this is my distant cousin Susan; she discovered her wizard talent a few years before I did."
"Susan, this is my companion Lynch, and over there is Kane."
Susan greeted Kane with a graceful smile, then fixed her gaze on Lynch, speaking with interest, "Lynch Valen, I don’t need Jessica to introduce you; everyone’s been talking about you."
Lynch replied, "It’s a pleasure to meet you."
"Hehe."
The girl covered her mouth and giggled for a while before extending a bold invitation, "You’re quite an intriguing gentleman. May I have the honor of dancing with you when the music starts later?"
Lynch hesitated, "But I don’t really know how to..."
Susan, however, didn’t leave him any room to decline: "Then it’s settled. And while we’re at it, I’d love to hear the legendary story of how you defeated the Black Wizard Apprentice."
"Well then, I’ll see you later."
With that, she pulled Jessica and went off in another direction.
What on earth...
Lynch felt as though the world had transformed overnight. Back at the Shadow Tower, he had been nothing but the invisible man—a mere dot in the shadows. An ignoble birth, average aptitude, and scant impression among his fellow apprentices.
Apprentices rarely invited him to gatherings, and his name was absent from their conversations. The only time he ever drew any chatter was as the unlucky fool whose experimental materials had been swapped upon entering the Tower, thus missing out on monumental opportunities, or the fortunate novice who pleased a wizard with Parker’s peculiar creation during a previous assessment.
But now, the moment he stepped into the banquet hall, he noticed multiple gazes trailing him. His knight training endowed him with keen hearing, allowing him to catch fragments of hushed discussions about him.
"Is this the hero who defeated the Black Wizard Apprentice? The bearer of the Warrior Feather?"
"His facial features are well-defined, and those gray eyes..."
"Why? Interested in him even at this age?"
"Why not? He’s the bearer of the Warrior Feather!"
"I heard he used to be a peasant."
A noblewoman like Susan would never have spared him so much as a glance before, let alone invited him to dance. Jessica had spoken less than ten sentences to him in the past three years at the Tower, but now she could casually link arms with him.
Countless subtle changes made Lynch realize the world indeed felt somewhat different.
"Where should we go next, Lynch?"
At that moment, Kane approached. He hailed from a shoemaker’s family in the Lorent Kingdom. Though his upbringing wasn’t as lowly as Lynch’s, he was still from the modest lower-middle class and appeared uneasy at this unfamiliar scene.
Lynch said, "I’m going to grab something to eat. Want to join me?"
"Ah, rushing to eat right after entering doesn’t seem great. If someone catches us looking uncivilized, we’ll be ridiculed." Kane hesitated.
Lynch said, "Well, I’m going then."
The world could change as it pleased; he hadn’t cared about others ignoring him before, and he wouldn’t start adhering to so-called ’refinement and elegance’ just because of newfound attention now.
In this world, aside from magic and knowledge, nothing was worth changing himself over.
At the dining table, Lynch generously indulged himself.
The juicy crab meat exploded with the freshness of the ocean and the lingering notes of magic; thin slices of blazing stag meat kindled a fiery sensation within upon consumption; the curious mushroom soup, as strange as its appearance, painted the world in vibrant colors once swallowed...
"Such vulgarity—so many ladies, yet all he sees is food."
"A bumpkin remains a bumpkin. Even at the top, he’s still a bumpkin. In a setting like this, he doesn’t know to make connections and only stuffs his face. Foolish."
"Exactly. How many times in life does one get such a break? This is the perfect opportunity to leverage influence and connect with people who can open doors, introduce oneself to esteemed Inner Tower Apprentices, or even the pureblood Wizard Families. A wasted chance."
"Ugh, what a squander of the Warrior Feather."
The surface politeness stemmed from novelty; deep-seated biases wouldn’t change so easily, just as hardworking scholars who made their way to prestigious universities from small towns could not entirely escape labels such as "small-town exam machines." To some, they were still outsiders begging for scraps.
This was ultimately a world ruled by strength. Until Lynch wielded sufficient power, true respect would remain out of reach.
"Hey, is that cloak..." 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
"It’s one of the Tower Apprentices. Tower Apprentices are here!"
"Three leaves! That’s a High-level Apprentice!"
At that moment, murmurs erupted among the crowd as people surged toward the entrance, moving to greet an apparent VIP.
Lynch instinctively glanced in that direction and saw two apprentices stepping through the doorway.
They weren’t dressed in formal attire but wore the standard cloaks of Inner Tower Apprentices—a boy and a girl.
Lynch’s gaze first landed on the girl—she was breathtaking, like someone straight out of a fairytale.
Her delicate face bore smooth, soft lines, her slightly pointed chin crafted with masterful precision like a work of art. Her porcelain-like skin was exquisitely pale and fine, tinged with the faintest pink, as though a blush might spread with just a touch.
Her bright eyes shimmered like deep lakes brimming with vitality and curiosity. Her long lashes curved like tiny fans, each blink whispering enchanting tales. Her straight, refined nose added dimension to her features, while her rosy lips, hinting at a gentle smile, blossomed like spring flowers—a captivating charm.
"Beautiful..."
Though the girl appeared close to his age, "beautiful" didn’t feel entirely fitting. Yet the word sprang to Lynch’s mind instantly upon seeing her.
Given his mental maturity, ogling someone of her age was plainly inappropriate, so Lynch quickly turned his eyes toward the boy beside her.
In contrast to the girl, the boy appeared far more ordinary, with gray eyes like Lynch’s, a lean face with slightly prominent cheekbones, and unnaturally pale skin that seemed treated with something, though its texture was rough.
Yet the moment Lynch saw the boy, his gaze locked involuntarily.
Then...
His brow furrowed slightly.
At the same time, the boy, while mingling with the crowd, scanned the room as though seeking someone. When his eyes met Lynch’s, they halted.
"Excuse me for a moment."
With contrived politeness, the boy excused himself from those around him and strode purposefully toward Lynch.
The crowd instinctively parted, forming a natural path.
The music abruptly paused, and the murmuring conversations among the guests around the hall mysteriously faded, plunging the vast chamber into a hushed stillness.
"Tap, tap, tap!" Only the boy’s footsteps resonated softly.
One step...
Two steps...
The dozen or so paces vanished swiftly as the boy stood before Lynch.
He wore a warm yet insincere smile, as though Lynch was an old acquaintance: "Long time no see, Lynch."
Perhaps, mixed within that tone, his enthusiasm might not be entirely feigned, for he and Lynch indeed once knew each other very well.
Al Fredo—that was the boy’s name.
He and Lynch hailed from the same hometown, sharing the same humble origins as peasant children. They had grown up together, worked side by side, mischief and hardship shared alike—a bond closer than brothers, surpassing even the camaraderie with Subaru Karl and the others.
Until the day Al secretly swapped his experimental materials...
