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Chapter 537
🕑 Added 2025-07-23 02:00:05 +0000 UTCAnton liked the middle-aged mage's suggestion regarding the type of defensive array that he could put in his treasure room. He liked the fact that it was non-lethal. He didn’t want to kill people for mere gold coins or enchanted items since it was easy for him to get them. His enemies were the undead, not regular folks. Once the array’s sleeping spell captured any thieves, he could let Ormunda’s authorities handle them.
Besides, according to the butler, Mr. Jenkins, and the maid, Ronia, the first line of defense for the Rose Manor would be the Ormunda’s guards, who had regular patrol schedules in the area.
The Rose Manor was in a location occupied by some of the rich citizens, and most rich citizens in the kingdom were mages, so it was a given that it would be well-guarded. Still, any manor in that place worth its coins would have personal defensive spells to guard its treasure. That’s the reason why Anton was in the Mage Guild buying such an array.
Of course, Anton would just stick to purchasing a defensive spell for the treasure room and not for the entire manor. He felt that such a thing was not needed, and he could imagine that the cost of such a project would be prohibitively large.
“Twenty high-level mana stones are so high! Can I get it for 14 high-level mana stones?” Anton said to the middle-aged man.
The mage laughed.
“I didn’t expect you to haggle. Normally, we don’t do such a thing in the Mage Guild, but since you’re new here in Ormunda and you’re a promising young mage, we can set up the array in your home for 18 high-level mana stones.”
Anton accepted the deal and paid the man the 18 high-level mana stone price. Five mages followed him home to the Rose Manor. He didn’t expect that it would need that many wizards to set up the array. While they were in the carriage going to the manor, the wizards from the mage guild introduced themselves to Anton, and he did the same.
When they arrived at the Rose Manor, the butler, Mr. Jenkins, the head maid, Ms. Noria, Ronia, Ms. Orwells, and Torbin greeted him at the door. Thankfully, the other manor employees were not present. Anton remembered seeing a scene on the red streaming website about the nobility and saw that all the maids, footmen, and other servants were lining up to greet the lord of the manor. He knew that he would be uncomfortable being greeted like that.
“Welcome home, Anton,” The butler, Mr. Jenkins, simply said.
Anton saw that Raymond Jenkins was still uncomfortable calling him by his first name.
“Thank you. I’m here with the wizards from the Mage Guild who will set up the defensive array in the treasure room. Can you lead us there, Mr. Jenkins, Torbin?” Anton said.
Ms. Noria, Ms. Orwells, and Ronia did not follow them and went somewhere else. Once they arrived at the treasure room, the Mage Guild wizards busied themselves setting up the array. According to their leader, it would take only an hour for the array to be set up. Then the mages invited them to leave since the creation of the array was supposed to be a secret.
Anton and the others met up in Mr. Jenkins’s office.
“Is the spell those wizards are casting safe? How do we know that they wouldn’t leave a backdoor that will allow their friends to bypass it?” Torbin asked.
“Do you think that Ormunda would last thousands of years if something like that was allowed to be done blatantly? This is a kingdom of wizards, and the wizards had already thought of solutions to a simple problem like that. I’m quite sure that Anton signed a contract when he purchased the array, and that contract had a magical binding that will enforce the quality of the product. I have seen such contracts before and based on my understanding, the only way for the defensive array to be broken is if someone more powerful tries to break it,” Mr. Jenkins said scathingly.
Torbin just shrugged while mumbling that “he was just asking”.
“How much did the array cost?” Ronia asked, and everyone looked at Anton curiously.
They all gasped, except for Mr. Jenkins and Ms. Noria, when Anton told them that it cost 18 high-level mana stones.
“Are you planning to leave your magic items there?” Torbin asked.
“I will leave some chests full of gold coins and all of the magic items I gathered from the dungeon. They’re cluttering my spatial item. I don’t want to sell them because I think my father will need them. I will also let my father handle identifying them. The main reason I’m doing this is because I think it’s sad to have a manor with a treasure room without treasure.”
The comment made Ronia and Torbin roll their eyes at Anton. Ms. Orwells looked shocked at Ronia and Torbin’s behavior, but Mr. Jenkins and Ms. Noria remained composed.
At first, everyone wanted to report what happened during the last four days that Anton wasn’t present in the manor, but he told them that they would talk about it once the wizards were done setting up the defensive array in the treasure room.
After an hour, Anton and his employees, who were with him in the butler’s office, went to the treasure room to check the mages’ progress. When they arrived there, he saw that the wizards were done and were only waiting for him, so Anton could put his blood in the center of the array to activate the bloodline magic. Once he did it, the array started glowing, which, according to one of the wizards from the Mage Guild, signified that the array had been activated.
To open the array so Anton could enter, he and those who had his blood just needed to place their hands on the center of the array, which was located in the middle of the door. Anton could also assign a couple of non-relatives to open the array. Once the array was open, it would remain so until he or any of his relatives closed it. That meant that once it opened, anyone could enter.
Anton did ask about a defensive array that would allow those of his blood to enter and prevent others from doing so, and the wizard from the Mage Guild said that they had something like those, but it would cost a huge number of high-level mana stones.
After that, the butler led the wizards out of the manor. Once the wizards were gone, Anton waited for Mr. Jenkins to return, and once he did, Anton deactivated the array, and all of them entered the treasure room.
Once they were in the room, Anton told Ms. Orwells his requirement for the treasure room, which basically just tables and display cases for weapons and armor. Felicity Orwells then said that she would handle it and started measuring the treasure room.
Anton left Ms. Orwells, accompanied by Ms. Noria and Torbin, and returned to the butler’s office. He was followed by Mr. Jenkins and Ronia.
Once they arrived there, the butler and Ronia presented Anton with two notebooks that contained the expenses that the manor accrued while he was away. The butler’s notes were complete with projected expenses for up to two months, and Anton was highly impressed.
Ronia’s notes contained the expenses that Ms. Orwells spent on furnishing and decorating the Rose Manor. While Anton was reading the butler’s notes, Ms. Orwells, Noria, and Torbin returned from the treasure room, which remained open and would remain open until Anton activated the array.
Of course, Anton would only do so once he put the chests with coins and the magic items there.
