Chapter 524 – Small Auction

Mo Lan shook her head. “I don’t know either, but we can do a quick divination.”

Her Mana had been surging rapidly lately, already approaching twenty thousand.

At this level of Mana, as long as the divination didn’t involve matters concerning Beyond Peak powerhouses, there were basically no issues.

She tried using the Clairvoyance Spell, and an image appeared in her mind. “It’s a witch with auburn hair, wearing a red dress, sitting at a bar counter drinking. Her magical familiar seems to be an emerald-feathered nightingale.”

“There really is a witch in Horne City!” Sylph said in surprise.

“She’s probably hiding her identity, or consigning the Dawn Society Trial Invitation under someone else’s name,” Vasida said. “I wonder if we’ll run into her at the auction tonight.”

“Even if we do, we can’t reveal ourselves as witches to her,” Lilith reminded them.

“But we can add her as a Communication Card friend!” Mo Lan said. “If she’s already obtained the Dawn Society Invitation ‘openly and legitimately.'”

Although she could use the Book of Cards’ function to collect the communication information of all contract holders, she had only turned this function into the Otherworld Information Filtering Card, using it on non-human races — and even then, only in secret.

For witch contract holders, she chose to respect their communication privacy, except in emergencies.

So even though she could immediately pull all the witches into a group chat, she hadn’t taken action.

However, the Witch Council had already set up a council group chat and had begun sending group enrollment numbers to the witches.

Besides adding friends within the group, the only ways were to add friends face-to-face, know the other person’s Communication Card number, or have a mutual contact share their profile card.

Mo Lan’s Communication Card currently only had her Academy classmates, the Sorceresses, Madam Amisha, the Witch Council witches, and Mama Shanna and Grandma Dayla added.

The more witches on her friend list, the better!

The four of them were already official members of the Dawn Society. By switching their Witch Communication Cards to the Dawn Society’s basic skin, they could openly use them in public.

If anyone asked, they could even promote the Dawn Society a bit.

*

A little past nine at night, Mo Lan, Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph changed into mage robes and headed to the tavern beneath the inn.

The moment she stepped into the tavern, Mo Lan felt a sense of familiarity.

When she saw the bar counter, she recognized it immediately — it was the same bar counter she had seen in her Clairvoyance Spell earlier today.

Was that witch here?

“Instructor! Look at that lady — there’s a little bird on her shoulder. Is that a magical beast?” Vasida pointed toward the corner of the tavern, her voice tinged with excitement.

Lilith and Sylph followed Vasida’s gesture and looked over.

Auburn hair, an emerald-feathered nightingale — wasn’t this the witch from Mo Lan’s prophecy?

Between witches, when they were this close to each other, they could feel a kinship rooted in their bloodline.

Before Mo Lan could respond, a tavern waiter had already stepped forward to answer Vasida’s question. “That’s an emerald-feathered nightingale. It’s our boss’s magical beast. When it sings, it’s more enchanting than the finest bard. The Nightingale Tavern is famous because of it. Our boss is a powerful advanced mage!”

“An advanced mage?”

As if sensing someone watching her, the lady in the corner who had been teasing the little bird looked up. Her fingertip paused for just a moment before she seamlessly switched to a professional smile and walked over, greeting Mo Lan with the etiquette of a fellow mage of equal standing. “I heard that an advanced mage arrived at our Nightingale Inn today. That must be you!”

“Hello! I’m Moira,” Mo Lan said. “These are my three Apprentices — Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph.”

“Greetings, Senior!” Lilith, Sylph, and Vasida were clever enough to give the witch the mage salute of a junior greeting a senior, playing the part of apprentices whose instructor happened to know an advanced mage.

“Hello! I’m Zelina Hernans, the owner of this inn and tavern. I’m also a bartender — would you like to try my signature drinks?” Zelina appeared calm on the surface, but inside she was bursting with excitement.

Oh my! There was no doubt — these were four newly born Sorceresses!

Although they had introduced themselves using Mage Empire language names, translating all four names made it obvious — they were clearly the Sorceresses’ names. One might be a coincidence, but four couldn’t possibly be.

She had heard that these Sorceresses had only graduated a little over a year ago, yet they had already come up with such a brilliant idea.

The Dawn Society… it had instantly eased her worries about the Wilds after losing 《Fireworks Magic》.

But she couldn’t interfere with the Elder Sorceresses’ affairs, much less put them at risk of exposing their identities. So all she could do was greet them as she would any rare advanced mage visiting Horne City.

“Sure!” Mo Lan and her three companions followed Zelina to the bar counter.

“Starry Blaze — may your path in Magic be as vast as the starry sky and as vibrant as roaring flames.”

Four drinks swirling with deep blue and fiery red were pushed before them.

Before they could exchange more than a few words, the auction began.

Their attention had to shift to the auction.

Zelina leaned against the bar counter, pretending to have no interest in the auction, while actually racking her brain over how to reasonably get acquainted with the Sorceresses during the event. It wasn’t until she heard the auctioneer, standing on a table, produce a card that she straightened up slightly.

“This magic card should be familiar to our old friends. The Nightingale Lady, who was the first to acquire this card, used it to obtain a Green Phantom Fruit. After consuming it, she successfully advanced to advanced mage. This batch of invitation cards was also put up by her — ten in total. As usual, we’ll start the bidding low. The starting price for the first card…”

Hearing this, Mo Lan turned to look at Zelina. “You’ve also joined the Dawn Society?”

“‘Also’?”

As expected of a fellow witch hiding her identity while living in a human city — Zelina’s act was completely flawless.

“I’m also a member of the Dawn Society,” Mo Lan said.

Noticing the people around them eavesdropping, Zelina continued the performance. “You just arrived in Horne City today, didn’t you, Moira? May I ask where you obtained the Dawn Society Invitation? Mine was originally put forward by a mysterious individual who refused to show their face.”

“Lance City. I joined the Dawn Society in Lance City,” Mo Lan said.

“Lance City?” Zelina looked thoughtful.

Mo Lan seized the opportunity. “Since we’re both Society members, let’s add each other as communication friends! By the way, have you redeemed a Communication Card yet?”

Zelina, who had long since redeemed a Communication Card, blinked in surprise. “Communication Card? I only just became an official member. I don’t think I’ve heard of that?”

“It’s normal that you haven’t heard of it. Not all resource cards appear on the trial mission resource list — new cards are occasionally added to the shop. The Communication Card is one of those. You should check it out right away. Redeeming this card is absolutely worth it!” Mo Lan said.