The Sorcerer's Handbook

Evelyn Belldet?!

The crowd believed it instantly. Just moments ago, they had been battered by estate defenses like volcanic eruptions, the mist of the artificial Sea of Knowledge, and the floating golden droplets of the River of Flowing Gold. Even the Sacred Realm sorcerers had not been spared. Since this was the Belldet's territory, it was entirely within reason that they possessed the power to suppress everyone here. Besides...

Rein and the others strained to turn their heads toward Evelyn, who stood by the railing in the distance, watching from afar. Under the fading glow of the fireworks, she stared expressionlessly at the group of "guests," offering no response. She looked like a homeowner coldly watching a pack of stray dogs from behind a locked gate.

Rein trembled all over. "Belldet..."

Desperate thoughts like standing up, gathering mana, casting Miracles, and activating spirits surfaced in his mind. However, they were crushed almost as quickly as they appeared.

What remained were only fear, shame, and panic. Even his anger flickered and vanished in an instant, leaving him completely unable to form any actionable intent. Their mana hadn't been sealed, and their physical movements hadn't been restricted, yet their thoughts were being directly dominated at their very source.

Control Class!

Rein had never expected that his first real encounter with Belldet's Control Class would end in such a complete and utter defeat. It was clear that Belldet was extremely displeased with their intrusion and had used absolute domination to punish these trespassers on her private estate.

"You..." He tried to choose his words carefully, but he couldn't even form a proper threat. The moment a curse surfaced in his mind, it was snuffed out. "The Mercury family... we entered Belldet territory without permission. On behalf of my family, I beg for your forgiveness. Please... please spare us, Lady Belldet."

Juventus was no different. As a Sacred Realm sorcerer and a high-ranking figure in his family, he could now only wriggle like a worm on the lawn. With his eyes wide and teeth clenched, he forced out the words, "The Kessriel family... offers its most sincere apology to Belldet!"

Reminded by his words, the others quickly followed suit, each apology louder and more formal than the last.

"I represent the Vastonio family and hereby offer our profound reflection! We will remember Belldet's mercy, respect Belldet's dignity, and will certainly make proper compensation for Belldet's losses in the future!"

"The Roland family will remember this lesson! We are willing to spare no cost to earn Belldet's friendship, even if it means going bankrupt. All we ask is that Belldet extends an olive branch to us!"

Their words became sweeter and sweeter, but judging by their twisted expressions, every sentence could be translated as, Go ahead and kill me now, otherwise I will go home and send someone to slaughter your entire family.

Like the Mind Class, the Control Class revolved around the three elements of thought, will, and emotion. What Rein and the others were currently experiencing was Thought Control. Their very cognition was being distorted and suppressed, leaving them unable to move a finger. Even the spirits within their souls could no longer receive commands.

For the victims, this was a terrifying experience. They could clearly feel their own thoughts being violently crushed and erased, as if something was stirring inside their brains. As a result, their apologies were entirely sincere. All they wanted was to escape this humiliating, puppet-like state as quickly as possible.

However, facing the surrender of Sacred Realm sorcerers and major financial families, Evelyn showed no reaction at all. Her coldness tonight remained entirely unbroken.

"Ahem!" Ashe coughed, gesturing for Lys and the others to stay calm. He then turned and bowed deeply toward Evelyn. "Lady Blue Rose, may I ask if you will accept the apologies of these rude intruders? Or would you prefer your loyal servants to punish them on your behalf and trample their remaining dignity?"

Blue Rose? Who is Blue Rose? You're speaking as if we share some special, private relationship... I don't even know you! And I didn't do this. I never intended to control everyone so brutally! You've all misunderstood. The real culprit is Iger Perskin!

Evelyn had a thousand things she wanted to scream, but the Thought Control cast upon her was the most absolute among the crowd. It dominated not just her actions, but her speech, her facial expressions, and even the slightest twitch of her eyebrows. She couldn't even force herself to faint; the moment such an impulse formed, it was instantly erased.

She was like a puppet monarch entirely at the mercy of a grand vizier. Her minister dictated her every gesture, expression, and breath. To the onlookers, she appeared as a tyrant, leaving them completely oblivious to the invisible puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes.

At this moment, the only emotions she could sustain were burning rage toward Iger and bitter regret over her own blindness.

She should have seen it sooner. When Rusty Crow declared the Four Pillars Cult's new doctrine as "increase desires, grant needs," she should have connected the dots. That very phrase was the core principle of the Belldet Control Class!

Rusty Crow's ability to expand his cult to such an unprecedented scale came precisely from stealing the knowledge of the Control Class and applying it to his own organization. He might lack the blessing of the angelic ancestor, but he had the backing of the Four Pillar Deities. Their blessings were likely no weaker.

From the very beginning, Iger had never intended to betray the Funeral Agency. He had been after the Belldet Control Class all along! Even the Gospel had foreseen this!

Yet, Evelyn couldn't shake a deep, lingering confusion. She had repeatedly confirmed that Iger had no accomplices and that this was entirely his own doing... but how could a single man possibly pull this off?

Is he not afraid of losing the trust of his companions? And why are Annan and the others subtly cooperating with him? More importantly... how exactly did he seize the Belldet's highest authority, to the point where even I, the family leader, am being controlled in return? Have I become a mere stand-in? Is his true identity actually Iger Belldet?

This half-burned mess of confusion tormented the blue-haired girl, even making her suspect whether her father had once visited the Blood Moon Kingdom and left behind an illegitimate child among the veelas.

Evelyn remained silent, but Ashe simply continued speaking on his own. "Lady Blue Rose, we fully understand now. Your wish is their decree!"

With that, he returned to the Funeral Agency squad. Aside from little Pankey, who was casually chewing on his fingers, Alice, Annan, and Lys all looked up at him. Annan's eyes were bright, completely unsurprised by what had just transpired.

"You figured it out?" Ashe asked in a low voice.

"I'll repeat what I said before. We only share a consensus," Annan said with a smile. "Though I didn't expect Iger to play this on such a massive scale."

"Can someone please explain this?" Alice asked, sitting cross-legged on the coffin and scratching his head. "What exactly just happened? And what does consensus mean?"

Ashe explained, "Consensus is... why did the Lady bring us to Montphera in the first place?"

"Hmm? To escape Vanmura, and also..." Alice thought for a moment. "To prepare for the next rankings?"

"Because of the Family Rankings, we were captured by Evelyn the moment we arrived in Montphera. But even without that ranking, my status as a wanted criminal would have been enough leverage. Evelyn still would have offered us protection in exchange for keeping us here."

Ashe looked over at Annan. "In other words, before we even set foot in Montphera, the Lady had already foreseen everything that would happen. After all, she understands the Belldet family, and she understands Evelyn. She knew Evelyn would try to recruit us, and she knew Evelyn would eventually betray us."

"So why did she bring us here anyway?"

Lys answered, "To make us experience recruitment and betrayal firsthand!"

Ashe nodded. "More precisely, to make us step directly into Evelyn's scheme. The Lady deliberately chose not to discuss this with us, watching from the sidelines as we gradually became prey in Evelyn's eyes. But while our ignorance made us prey, that same ignorance served as our perfect disguise.

"In a world where the Gospel can detect any lie, only the truly ignorant are capable of deception. Iger may not have guessed that the third ranking would be the Schemer Rankings, but through the Lady's actions, he vaguely grasped the true purpose of this journey to Montphera. Hence, he actively stepped into Evelyn's trap, leveraging his own ignorance to deceive her in return."

Pretending to be deceived by Evelyn, only to turn around and deceive her instead?

Lys and Alice both stared at Annan blankly, their expressions practically screaming, Why make it so complicated? Are you just bored?

Annan shrugged. "It's not that I deliberately hid anything from you, but if you couldn't figure this out on your own, you wouldn't qualify to be recognized by the Schemer Rankings anyway."

"Actually, I never intended for you to deceive Evelyn. That was an extra challenge. In my original plan, as long as you could sense that I was hiding something, the Schemer Rankings would judge you as having the potential to be fraudsters. Clearly, only Iger fit the bill. Though I originally thought he would only scam them out of a bit of money. I didn't expect him to try and swallow the entire Belldet family whole..."

She spread her hands helplessly. "So, what does he need us to do now?"

Ashe pointed toward the group of sorcerers writhing on the ground behind them. "Exploit our authority and intimidate them."

Annan caught on instantly. "Brilliant... that way, all their hatred will be directed squarely at the Belldet family. Even if we escape, they'll only think the Belldets are hiding us!"

Alice stretched his arms. "That sounds like something I'm very good at. As long as we don't kill them, right?"

Lys scratched her head, hesitant. "I'm not really good at bullying people..."

Ashe pulled little Pankey over and handed him a toy. "Here, use this water gun as support. It will definitely leave a deep psychological scar on them."

"Does the Senheiser family need to join in too?" Annan asked.

Ashe glanced at her. "For drawing hatred, the Belldets alone are more than enough. Do you really want to drag the Senheiser family into this mess too?"

Only then did Annan realize her mistake. Just moments ago, the Senheisers had already drawn enough attention by insisting on protecting them. If they showed favoritism toward the Senheiser family now, wouldn't that be an open declaration that the Belldets, the Senheisers, and the Funeral Agency were all on the same side?

That wouldn't do. Directing the entire kingdom's hatred toward the Belldet family was more than enough. There was no need to spread the blame to the Senheisers.

As the members of the Funeral Agency walked toward the restrained sorcerers, Rein and the others immediately realized something was horribly wrong.

"What are you trying to do... ah!"

"You... I am a Sacred Realm sorcerer!"

"Guh..."

Originally, the Funeral Agency group hadn't intended to go too far. But this mob had been chasing, besieging, and threatening them all night, even attempting to split and imprison them just moments prior. If not for Iger's sudden betrayal, Ashe and the others would have already been torn to pieces.

They had held back from dealing lethal blows. However, fueled by resentment over how their owners had been treated, their spirits seemingly insisted on coming out on their own to "work overtime."

"This is what happens when you offend the Belldet family!"

"Scream! Wail! Repent!"

"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands~ clap clap~"

The scene gradually degenerated into something rather painful to watch. However, with healing Miracles active in the area, the sorcerers could always be patched back up as long as they didn't actually die, so Ashe simply let the chaos unfold.

After teaming up with his substitute to double-team and bully their pursuers at breakneck speed, Ashe felt thoroughly refreshed. He began scanning the area for new targets when his foot unexpectedly kicked something soft.

Looking down, he met the gaze of Quinna, who was lying flat on her back. Even pinned to the ground and unable to move, she remained as proud and aloof as ever, her eyes devoid of any trace of panic. In contrast, Ashe instinctively averted his gaze. This was supposed to be Annan's responsibility... right?

Ashe glanced over, only to see that Annan had completely bypassed Quinna. Instead, she was putting on a massive show of sternly disciplining her own aunt.

Suddenly, it clicked. Ashe immediately understood Annan's dilemma. No matter how much Annan usually gritted her teeth whenever her mother was mentioned, when faced with an actual opportunity to openly beat Quinna, she had hesitated and dumped the hot potato onto him instead.

What a troublesome mother-daughter pair.

"Ashe," Quinna said calmly, "do you actually dare lay a hand on me?"

"Of course I do!" Ashe snapped angrily, sitting himself directly down on her. "I've been fed up with you for a long time! Don't forget, according to the future rankings, you're nothing more than my maid!

"Take this for disrespecting me!"

Smack!

"This is for not calling me master!"

Smack!

"And this is for not wearing my ring!"

Smack!

Quinna watched as his hand slapped wildly back and forth in front of her eyes. The sheer wind from his swings blew her hair all over the place, yet not a single strike actually touched her nose. Behind Ashe, his substitute was furiously slapping its own thigh to mimic the sound of the blows.

"I am wearing it," Quinna said suddenly.

Ashe froze. Lowering his eyes, he saw that Quinna was indeed still wearing the Mist Spirit Ring. He had assumed the leaders would have discarded such an embarrassing future reward. After all, most of them were Sacred Realm sorcerers who had no practical use for the ring's effects, and wearing it was purely humiliating.

Just as Ashe looked away, lost in thought, Quinna suddenly bit down on his finger.

Ashe flinched in shock, bracing for a counterattack. However, perhaps because her mind was still suppressed, her bite was weak and powerless. It didn't hurt at all. Instead, Ashe felt like his finger was just being gently cradled in her mouth.

Noticing that Annan seemed to be glancing over, Ashe quickly pivoted into an ad-lib, raising his left hand threateningly. "How dare you bite my finger! Let go! You're courting death! Tonight, I'll show you who the real master is!"

Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!

His substitute slapped its own thigh even harder, putting on a thoroughly convincing acoustic performance.

Meanwhile, on the second-floor garden of the Belldet main residence, the door to Evelyn's office quietly swung open. A red-haired girl in a butler's uniform stepped inside.

Behind the desk sat the future rising star of the Four Pillars Cult, the Gospel-certified Number One Fraudster, the soon-to-be equal of the Corpse King Harvey, and the walking calamity himself, Iger Perskin. He was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, seemingly resting.

"Sorry, did I keep you waiting?" Anphel asked.

Iger shook his head. "No."

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