Chapter Ninety-Five: Endless Trouble to Come

It was not long before Peter Clark came in. Seeing that the golden force field around Hilly had not yet been withdrawn, Peter cried out in delight, “Father! You’ve advanced to a gold wizard! Wonderful—now let’s see how those old geezers dare compete with you for the dean’s seat!”

Hilly Clark turned around, already transformed into the image of a handsome middle-aged man with a full beard. In a deep, hoarse voice, he said, “Your son is grown now. Can’t you at least act a little more dignified? What is all this shouting about? Besides, I have no interest in some petty dean’s seat.”

Peter had not expected that moments after he had just given his own son a scolding, he would be on the receiving end of one from his father. When he heard Hilly’s final words, he still asked in astonishment, “Father, what do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is that I no longer intend to compete for any dean’s seat. I have far more important things to do now, and I will be gone for a very long time!” To Peter, Hilly’s words struck like a bolt from the blue. He had been counting on his father becoming dean so that his own standing would rise with it. He had even imagined, one day, becoming the next-next dean. He had never expected that at the crucial moment, his father would suddenly lay down the burden and walk away.

Seeing the puzzled look on his son’s face, Hilly patiently consoled him. “Your gaze must not be confined to the tiny Grimm Academy, nor even to this continent called Doran. If you can step outside and look around, you’ll discover that you are merely a frog at the bottom of a well, ignorant of how vast the world truly is. There are still many things in this world far more important than a mere dean’s seat.”

Hilly’s explanation did not satisfy Peter. He even could not help raising his voice at his father. “I go to the library plenty, and I know the world is vast. But isn’t it only with enough power that one can gain a broader vision? And to have enough power, one must command enough resources to support cultivation. To command enough resources, one must have enough authority and status.”

Seeing that his son had already formed his own views, Hilly offered no further explanation. He only said, “Perhaps you are right. But things have already taken a turn into an unforeseeable fork in the road. I must leave, and that cannot be changed! Still, before I go, I can grant you one wish. Don’t you want power and influence? I can place the Clark family in your hands!”

At first Peter had been deeply displeased that Hilly was determined to abandon the dean’s seat and leave. He had even wanted to persuade him further, to change his father’s mind. But the words that followed made him overjoyed, and he hurriedly lowered his head to hide the expression on his face.

Although his father Hilly was not the head of the family, because he was the clan’s most powerful wizard and also the vice dean of Grimm Academy, his word in the family was virtually law. Calling him the family’s supreme patriarch would not be an exaggeration. If his father gave the word and placed the entire family under his control, then the matter was almost certain.

Then Hilly Clark continued, “I know you do not get along with your stepmother, and I also know she has her own little schemes. Now that I am placing the family in your hands, I only hope that, for my sake, you will leave mother and son a way to survive.”

Peter jerked his head up and stared at his father. “You said mother and son—so you already knew!”

Hilly smiled and shook his head. “If you could know, why couldn’t I? You are all still too young to understand the methods of a high-ranking wizard at all. Do you think I would be foolish enough not to detect the physical state of the woman who had been intimate with me?”

Peter realized that he truly knew far too little about his father. Unable to help himself, he asked, “Then you weren’t angry?”

Thinking he would not be able to see his son for a long time, Hilly’s words also became much more talkative. He laughed. “I was young then, how could I not be angry? So I secretly added a little something to the abortion potion she bought...”

As he said this, a strange smile appeared on Hilly’s face, making Peter shiver all over.

Hilly went on, “I didn’t expect it to produce such a strange magical reaction. So I carefully monitored the data, cautiously adjusted the cultivation method, and in the end spent ten years of painstaking effort to raise a freak! I deliberately found an opportunity to go out. The moment she gave birth to little Erdi, I thought to myself: although that boy still carries the inherited traces of another man in his body, his life is indeed the crystallization of my own labor!”

The more Hilly spoke, the more fervent his tone became. But when he saw the constipated expression on his son’s face, he finally lost the desire to continue. His tone abruptly shifted, and he asked, “What is that expression on your face?”

Peter answered cautiously, “It’s nothing. I just wanted to ask whether, when my mother was carrying me, you did anything strange to her.” As he spoke, he even shuddered a little unnaturally.

Unexpectedly, Hilly answered seriously, “I was too young then, and my magical experience was not yet that rich, so I didn’t do any experiments on you. Otherwise your magical talent wouldn’t be quite so poor now.”

Peter was left speechless. He suddenly felt that his father giving up the dean’s position might well be a blessing for the students of the academy.

Hilly was not a man given to dragging things out. Very soon he took out a letter and said to Peter, “I will name a few elders of the clan. You must remember them well. Take this letter to them, and they will certainly support you unconditionally.”

Then he produced a scepter and placed it in Peter’s hand. “This is the power of a three-star society under my control. It is the token of the president. I have already instructed the members of the society clearly. From now on, you are their new president.”

Finally, he took out a second letter by itself. “This one is for the current clan head. With his support as well, I think you will be able to fully command the entire family. Do your best—I do not want to come back and find myself cleaning up the mess you left behind!”

Peter was overjoyed by his father’s arrangements and beat his chest to promise that he would never disappoint him.

Even so, Hilly still felt somewhat uneasy. In the end, he gave Peter another alchemical amulet capable of withstanding a strike from a silver wizard.

Once everything had been arranged, and Peter was preparing to take his leave, Hilly suddenly called him back. With an unprecedentedly grave tone, he said, “I am going on this journey into an uncertain future. There is one thing you must remember well! In the safe within my magical laboratory, there is an ancestral object I have kept there. You must protect it carefully. Under no circumstances must it be lost.”

“And furthermore, none of the descendants of Hilly Clark may ever touch that thing, no matter what. Otherwise the consequences will be endless!”

By the end, Hilly’s voice had become stern and severe.