biography of lvan

People always feel that places they've never been to are terribly far away. They are constantly wondering how much farther the journey is and when they will be able to arrive. However, for places they've visited before, they don't have such feelings at all.

Ivan was walking alone on the forest path leading to Baron Lipper's villa.

Unlike the first time, this time he came on horseback, just like those upper-class nobles. This was also in accordance with Mr. Juan's instructions. After all, for a thief, being able to find a place according to a map is the most basic ability. Moreover, although Ivan had already learned to ride a horse, he had never attempted a long-distance ride before. Riding a horse for an hour or two and covering a distance of thirty or forty kilometers can hardly be regarded as horseback traveling. When taking a long ride, how to conserve the horse's strength and adjust one's own level of fatigue? These are skills that can't be mastered simply by taking a horse for a short ride in the morning.

Ivan slowed down the horse's pace and touched its neck with his right hand. It was slightly damp but hadn't started sweating yet. It seemed that he had controlled it quite well.

It would take half a day to travel from Avila to Piton by carriage, but it was much faster on horseback. Especially when the rider was just a short, not fully grown boy and the horse was a purebred with an excellent bloodline and quality. For such a combination, the distance of a hundred or so li from Avila to Piton was no big deal.

Riding this horse instead of the pony he was used to was also Mr. Juan's idea. Ivan understood this to some extent. Those upper-class nobles usually took carriages only when they needed to travel long distances. For shorter trips, they would go on horseback. Unlike the luxurious decoration of carriages, what mattered in horseback riding was whether the horse had a pure and excellent bloodline.

A purebred horse of good bloodline could even be sold for five thousand gold francs. And the pure bloodlines of many fine horses were strictly controlled by one or several families. Sometimes, these horses could serve as a more reliable indication of identity than their family crests. Those families would never sell such purebred horses.

In fact, many experts who were familiar with horses could tell at a glance, from the physical features of a purebred horse, which country, which region, and which family it belonged to. That's because these purebred horses were really quite rare, and their pedigrees were much simpler than those of the long-established noble families.

The horse Ivan was riding was precisely a purebred horse that belonged to a prominent family in Otto and was never for sale. This four-year-old colt was the second generation of the purebred horses of that bloodline. Stealing four male and four female purebred foals was once one of Mr. Juan's most remarkable achievements in his younger days. What's more interesting was that even the family itself hadn't realized that the purebred horses of their family had spread to the common people.

With just these horses and some other simple arrangements, the most stubborn members of the Senate recognized Mr. Juan's noble bloodline and acknowledged that he was a collateral branch of a prominent noble family in Otto. In fact, if Mr. Juan were willing to give a pair of these horses to a duke, that influential figure in the Senate would even be willing to petition His Majesty the King to grant Mr. Juan a baronetcy. However, Mr. Juan clearly didn't care whether it was a lordship or a barony. As long as he had a noble title, it was already of great help to him.

Today, for some unknown reason, Mr. Juan asked Ivan to ride this purebred horse to the banquet.

Walking on the forest path, although this was the main road connecting Piton and Luxembourg, the thick forest covered it so densely that the road, which was wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side, could well be described as a small path.

After traveling five or six li, there was a fork in the road. Turning there and going another ten li or so would lead to the baron's villa.

Just at that moment, suddenly there was a rumble of thunder. Lightning bolts streaked across the sky, illuminating everything in the forest. Before Ivan could react, big raindrops started to patter down, hitting the thick canopy of the forest. Although he wasn't getting wet for the moment, Ivan knew that the rain would reach him sooner or later.

There were still ten li to the villa. If he hurried, maybe he could reach there before getting completely soaked.

Thinking of this, Ivan spurred his horse, and the purebred horse beneath him galloped forward like the wind. Obviously, hearing the thunder, this fine horse also knew what was going to happen. A noble steed like it didn't want to be covered in dust and fallen leaves all over its body.

Suddenly, another bolt of lightning streaked across. Ivan instinctively felt that this lightning was quite close to the ground. Subconsciously, he slowed down.

Raindrops dripped through the gaps in the leaves onto Ivan's body and face. The dust that had been on the leaves flowed down with the rain, from his cheeks into the collar of his clothes, and then trickled down his back. The rain was heavier and more urgent than Ivan had expected.

Just at that moment, Ivan suddenly noticed a fallen tree lying across the road ahead. One side of it was completely charred, and the blackened marks indicated that it was the handiwork of the lightning bolt just now.

The whole road was blocked tightly. Even the areas beside the road that could have been used to bypass the obstacle were also stuffed densely with broken branches. Obviously, it wouldn't be something that could be cleared up in a short while.

The rain in the sky was getting heavier and heavier. Ivan was already soaked through from head to toe. He wondered whether he should go back to the city of Piton. But he didn't have a penny on him. What could he do even if he went back to the city?Or perhaps he could go back to the fork in the road just now.

He remembered that there should be another path leading deep into the woods. Maybe he could reach Baron Lipper's villa from there.

Even if that wasn't the case, if he could find a household, that would be good too. Since they also lived in the woods, they should know something about the baron's family and probably wouldn't turn him away.

Thinking of this, Ivan turned his horse around and galloped away quickly.

Galloping on a horse in the rain was definitely not an enjoyable thing. His hair had already been soaked and was sticking messily to his forehead. The rainwater flowed into his eyes, blurring his vision. As for his clothes, they had already been drenched by the rain and were clinging to his skin, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

These cold drops of water also brought a bone-chilling coldness.

Ivan urged his horse on and was speeding along the path deep in the woods.

From time to time, a swirling leaf would hit his face, stinging painfully.

Whether the road was easy to travel on or whether the horse was tired was no longer something that concerned Ivan.

The only thing Ivan cared about was whether there was a place to take shelter from the rain.

Just when Ivan was feeling extremely miserable because of this sudden downpour, the outline of a villa gradually came into view ahead.

Ivan couldn't think too much at that moment. He spurred his horse beneath him and rushed towards the villa.

When he got closer, Ivan looked up and saw that the villa was rather peculiar.

In the middle of the villa was a tall tower that rose above the tree crowns. It was the most conspicuous part of the villa.

Looking more carefully, the three-story villa seemed to be integrated with the surrounding trees. The trees formed a circular arch that covered the whole building tightly. Not a single drop of rainwater had seeped in here.

Ivan tied his horse to a nearby tree and then walked forward and carefully knocked on the door.

"Who is it? What's the matter?" A very old voice came from inside the door.

"My name is Ivan, Ivan Juan. I'm just a passerby. Because the rain is too heavy, I'm looking for a place to take shelter from the rain. If it's not appropriate for you to let me into the room, then please let me wait here, the only clean place, until the rain stops. Is that okay?" When he said the last sentence, Ivan's voice trembled a little. He hugged himself with his arms, curled up into a ball, and shivered in the cold wind.

"It must be very cold outside. Come in." The old voice rang out again.

The door opened silently by itself.

Ivan opened his eyes wide and stared in amazement at everything inside the door.

It was like a whole different world.

Although from the outside, the villa looked like it had three floors, but once inside, there was actually only one room.

It was a huge room. In the middle stood a hollow glass column that reached straight up to the top of the tall tower. Ivan wasn't even sure if it was definitely glass, because he had never seen glass that could emit a soft blue light faintly.

Besides that, the most conspicuous things were the four large tables filled with all kinds of experimental apparatuses.

Those large tables were even longer and bigger than the dining table in Juan's manor, but the materials and craftsmanship used were clearly in a different league.

These four tables were made by splicing together five-inch-thick oak planks, with an extremely sturdy and solid structure. The things placed on the tables were things that Ivan had never seen before.

Long-shaped, round, spiral, spherical... all kinds of oddly shaped glass flasks filled two of the tables anyway.

Inside those flasks and beakers were things of red, green and other colors being boiled, and Ivan didn't know what they were.

On the other two tables were placed all kinds of small and unique objects. There were flying dragons with skeletons made of feathers, crude and rather funny-looking puppets made of leather, silk threads and small wooden sticks, and also elves made by piecing together leaves and flowers...

Ivan couldn't tell the use or origin of each thing placed here.

The walls around the villa were clearly huge cabinets for storing various materials. Countless drawers made this strange room look like a giant beehive. On each drawer was a label with the name of the material written on it.

The huge cabinets were built all the way up to the ceiling. To make it convenient to access these materials, a series of staircases were built along the walls. The incline of the staircases was very gentle, so they seemed very long.

In this room, the only relatively normal thing was a rocking chair, an ordinary rocking chair that couldn't be more ordinary.

Ivan looked around but couldn't find the owner of the room. Where on earth was the old man who had spoken just now?

As if answering Ivan's question, the old voice came from the top of the tower: "It's been a long time since I had a guest visit me, little one. If you're interested, you can come up here."

"Generous old sir, it's my great honor to be able to see you. Then how can I get up there?" Ivan asked, looking at the staircase that only led to the roof.

"Ah, look at me. I'm old and tend to get muddled. Child, just step inside the middle column." The owner of the house said with a smile.

Ivan followed the instructions and walked into the transparent column in the middle of the room. Now he was certain that it was definitely not glass.

Glass was hard and cold and would break with a single knock.

However, this column was more like it was made of jelly. It felt soft to the touch and gave off a slight warmth.

On the side of the column facing the door, there was a gap that was a little over a person's height and about two feet wide.

Ivan walked into the gap and stood in the middle of the column.

Just when he was wondering and guessing what was going to happen, suddenly he felt his body being lifted up by an unknown force.

Ivan felt himself gradually leaving the ground, the tables, the rocking chair, and those cabinets. Everything was slowly moving away from him.

Seeing this situation, Ivan felt both nervous and uneasy in his heart. He had never experienced such a feeling before, a feeling like flying in the air.

Ivan opened his eyes wide, trying to figure out what exactly was carrying him floating up into the air. But he could see nothing, no frames, no hooks... nothing at all.

Ivan rose higher and higher. Just when he was immersed in the uneasiness and joy of flying, suddenly his eyes lit up.

The scenery around him changed all at once.

What lay before his eyes was an endless forest. The dark green tree crowns were like surging waves, stretching as far as the eye could see.

In the sky, dark clouds were rolling, and from time to time, an angry bolt of lightning would flash, and where the lightning struck, a raging fire would immediately burst out.

However, the rain was so heavy that as soon as the flames reached the tree crowns and before they could set the thick foliage on fire like a torch, the pouring rain had already wiped out everything that could have burned down the entire forest.

"Nice scenery, isn't it, little one?" The old voice came from behind.

Ivan snapped out of his daze. He took a step back and looked back.

Behind him stood an old man with a long beard.

The old man was wearing a tall and pointed wide-brimmed hat on his head and a reddish-brown robe.

The snow-white long beard and the deep wrinkles covering the old man's face all indicated that he was the oldest person Ivan had ever seen.

The old man's wrinkles were completely different from Mr. Juan's.

Mr. Juan's wrinkles were due to years of being weather-beaten, but for the old man in front of him, the wrinkles were like spider webs covering all the skin exposed to the air, and each one of them was a mark carved by time.

Although Ivan didn't know much about this mysterious old man, he had already secretly guessed the old man's identity.

A magician! This old man must be a magician!

Although Ivan had never seen a magician before this.

In fact, he hadn't heard anyone around him say that they had ever seen a magician either.

Magicians were really too rare.

However, the descriptions of magicians had long been deeply engraved in everyone's heart.

A strangely shaped pointed hat, a loose wizard's robe, a magic wand in hand, and a large cauldron - that was the image of a magician in legends.

Except for not having a magic wand in his hand, the old man in front of him fit the image of a magician in legends in every other aspect.

"Are you a magician?" Ivan said with a trembling voice. He wasn't trembling out of fear but rather out of excitement and agitation.

Indeed, it was extremely rare for an ordinary person to see a magician with their own eyes.

The number of these people with magical powers was so scarce, and most of them didn't like to show themselves in public. According to legends, these magicians devoted themselves to their magical research all day long and never talked to outsiders.

"Yes, I'm a magician. Or, to be more precise, I'm an alchemist," the old man said with a smile. "I can see that you're soaked through and must be very uncomfortable."

With that, the old man took out a handful of silvery-white powder from his sleeve, casually tossed it, and sprinkled the powder over Ivan.

Ivan was extremely nervous, and his body even trembled a little. He didn't know what this magician was going to do and whether such an action would harm him.

Ivan's worry was absolutely reasonable. In those legends, magicians were strange fellows who often liked to turn the hapless characters in stories into frogs or squirrels or something like that.

Ivan prayed secretly that the one he met wouldn't be that kind of eccentric and dangerous person.

Just when he was feeling fearful and uneasy in his heart, countless bubbles emerged from his body. There were more and more of them, and eventually, they enveloped Ivan completely in a mass of foam.

Ivan could clearly feel these bubbles drilling into his clothes, sucking up the rainwater stuck to the clothes. The bubbles that had absorbed enough water merged into a few larger ones and then went on to absorb more water.

Soon, Ivan felt completely dry.

The bubbles slowly drifted down onto the floor and piled up in a ring shape, with Ivan standing in the middle of the ring.

"How wonderful! You're truly a great magician," Ivan exclaimed.

"Drying off the rainwater is considered great? Hahaha, I can't accept your praise," the old man said with a laugh.

Ivan stepped out of the pile of bubbles and asked, "Great magician, for you, this might be nothing remarkable. But for us ordinary people, it's definitely an incredibly great feat."

"I used to be an ordinary person too. All magicians were once ordinary people. You can also become a magician. Would you like to learn this magical knowledge?" the old man asked.

"Really? That's wonderful! I never thought that one day I would be lucky enough to become a disciple of a magician," Ivan said excitedly. He really had never had such an idea before because it was almost impossible to meet a magician, let alone be favored by these supposedly most selective people in legends and be taken as a disciple.

However, after the excitement passed, Ivan suddenly thought of Mr. Juan, Audrey, and Herbert's elusive skills. He didn't want to deceive this old magician who thought so highly of him.

Ivan said uneasily, "But I have work that I must complete. I don't know if you've heard of Lord Kewell Egrete Juan? He's a commoner noble and also the leader of the Thieves' Guild in the south of Franc. Although I don't know what my real task is, Mr. Juan has spent a huge price for this task, and I don't think he'll be willing to let me quit easily."

"Juan?" The old magician was obviously taken aback and frowned. "You're a good kid. You actually told me all this. You could have learned magic from me for a while before telling me these things, but you didn't. That's very good!

"I know something about Mr. Juan. I can even say that we once cooperated. At that time, he wasn't a noble yet. Can you tell me what he wants you to do? Although you surely don't know all the details yet, you must know some clues at least.

"Tell me. Maybe I can help you. Juan knows me. He's aware of my power. Just as I also know Juan. The two of us can reach an agreement that suits both sides."

"I've never really been clear about the specific situation. Mr. Juan just wants to train me to become a noble, a noble named Ivan Ester," Ivan said.

"Ivan Ester? Ivan Ester. That name sounds a bit familiar." The old magician kept repeating the name, frowning tightly and thinking hard. After a long while, he suddenly realized, "I know what Juan is up to. It shouldn't be him alone who planned all this. There's also Porridge Lipper. There must be Porridge Lipper. Hahaha, they're all old friends."

Ivan was completely bewildered listening beside him. He didn't know why the old magician would mention Mr. Porridge Lipper. But since the old magician knew that Mr. Juan and Mr. Porridge Lipper, who were from two completely different social circles, had once been old friends, then the old magician must have known something.