This Necromancer Just Wants to Plant Trees - Chapter 114 (Patreon)

"Do you have something to discuss with Reiga, Sophia?" Matthew asked somewhat awkwardly.

Sophia clasped her hands behind her back, nodded slightly, and then said with a hint of embarrassment, "I originally wanted to discuss something with my father, but since he's not here, can I talk to you, Matthew?"

"It won't take too much of your time," Matthew coughed heavily.

He shot an apologetic look at the irate goat and then sought help from Lawrence.

To his surprise, this time, Lawrence smiled and said, "I suddenly remembered something very important. Sorry, I'll be leaving first."

With that, he left the office without even looking back.

"Baa!"

The irritable goat stamped its hooves on the floor.

Sophia glanced at Matthew and said with a slightly reddened face, "Now, it's just the two of us."

Matthew felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.

He hurriedly said, "I also have something..."

However, Sophia interrupted him. She boldly took Matthew's hand and her eyes sparkled, "Won't you take me to your office? My father never allowed me to come here."

"Baa!!!" The goat's agitation roared.

It leaped onto the office desk, its horns lowered, ready to charge toward Matthew.

Matthew quickly pushed Sophia away and said, "I have many confidential documents in my office, sorry, Sophia, I can't take you for a visit. Besides, this isn't a place for you to stay. You should listen to your father."

Upon hearing this, the goat slightly raised its horns.

After being pushed away, Sophia looked a bit bewildered. However, she didn't vent her frustration on Matthew but directed it toward the goat that was itching for a fight.

"Matthew!"

"This sheep is too noisy! Can you get rid of it?"

The goat immediately froze in place, several meters away.

Matthew could feel the icy stare coming from it.

"My little princess, Lady Dusong is looking for you all over the place. Don't wander around here; this is a place for men."

Just in the nick of time, Lady Wesley emerged from some corner.

She firmly grasped Sophia's arm, ignoring her pouting lips as if they could hold a wine jug, and forcibly led her out.

Matthew glanced at the corridor outside.

Lawrence gave him a thumbs-up.

"Listen, Reiga, that was just a misunderstanding. I appreciate your sacrifice in teaching me the transformation magic. I will repay you in the future, but for now, please don't act recklessly, okay? I believe we can have a friendship where we stand side by side."

Matthew nervously cautioned a few times.

Under the goat's deadly gaze.

He forced open the "Malicious Transformation" spell.

With a single swish, Reiga returned to his original form.

However, instead of pouncing on Matthew immediately, he went into the room behind the office.

"Matthew, I have a little problem here. Can you come help me?"

Reiga's voice came from the room.

It sounded quite calm.

Matthew took a deep breath of relief and cautiously approached the door of that room. But the next moment, he was frightened out of his wits.

He saw Reiga, dressed in pajamas, suddenly draw a large sword from the wall. He approached Matthew with a blank expression.

"Come closer, let me swing it just once!"

"Just once, I promise not to use it a second time!"

Two days later.

Matthew, accompanied by 177, arrived on the 14th floor of the Cauldron House. Here, along with the 15th and 16th floors, were special offices of the Seven Saints Union.

The Union's efficiency was unexpectedly high.

Matthew received the permit for the "Death Wasteland" ritual yesterday, and his application for joining had been approved a day earlier.

Today, he was here to register.

"The counter for new member registration is right in front. Generally, Union members only need to visit this place twice in their lifetime - once for registration when they join and the other time to cancel after their death."

177 warmly explained, "Of course, if you intend to defect from the Union and rejoin later, you may have more opportunities to come here."

Matthew smiled. "Are you nervous?"

177 asked with concern.

Matthew nodded slightly. "A little."

177 said with great enthusiasm, "In fact, you don't need to be nervous at all. After all, I'm the big boss of Union B1 here, and with me around, not many people will dare to give you a hard time."

"Let's go; let's meet the gnome who has a brighter posterior than his eyes."

As they were talking, 177 led Matthew to the registration counter. At this moment, there was no one at the counter, only a mechanical gnome dressed in a suit and thick glasses, busily working.

Matthew took a glance and saw a pile of screws, metal sheets, and glowing magic crystals scattered on the counter behind him.

"Hey! Old man! We're here to get things done!"

177 banged his fist on the counter.

Matthew was surprised to see that the counter only sank a little instead of collapsing entirely. "What kind of high-strength material is this?"

Curiosity overwhelmed Matthew.

The mechanical gnome behind the counter pushed up his glasses and emitted a wry smile. "It's you, this rude dog!"

177 was furious. "Who are you calling rude?"

The gnome said in a refined manner, "I called you a dog."

In anger, 177 said, "I've never heard of such a rule."

David, the mechanical gnome, politely explained, "I just added it."

177 rolled his eyes and suddenly pointed at Matthew. "He's not a staff member, why is he allowed to enter?"

David elegantly adjusted his clothing. "Because he's A1."

"In the history of the Union, there are very few people who joined and were immediately ranked A1."

Upon hearing this, 177 was completely stunned.

...

"I'm terribly sorry for making you wait. Mr. 177 and I have had an unpleasant history, so it's inevitable that things might get a bit rocky when we meet," David politely apologized on their way.

Matthew waved his hand, showing his curiosity. "No worries. I'm just curious about what happened between you two."

David calmly narrated, "He dismantled my wife."

"Ah?" Matthew was full of question marks.

"Mr. 177 is an extremely unloved guy, probably because I used to show affection in front of him frequently. He held a grudge against me. Then one day, when my wife left the League's territory while running errands for me, she didn't return for a long time. When I found her, she was already in pieces. All this happened within the confines of the Crucible House. I was devastated. But 177 insisted that he had nothing to do with it, and he didn't know who killed my wife. I couldn't believe his claims. You see, he is a Taling!"

"In the Crucible House, apart from the three levels of the League, it's the realm of the Talings. There's nothing that happens there that he wouldn't know. His excuse afterward was like saying the magic crystal at the crime scene suddenly malfunctioned. Although the League managed to piece my wife back together in the end, I always felt that she was different. For this reason, six months later, my wife and I separated. Mr. 177 was naturally delighted. From then on, I was alone, fulfilling his wish. But trying to make me show him a friendly face again is a bit too much for me."

After listening to David's story, although Matthew couldn't discern the truth, he politely said, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have asked so much."

A brilliant smile appeared on David's face. "A1 can ask anything. Serving someone like you is our mission as Mechanical Gnomes created for, and answering your questions brings us joy. So please, don't be too formal."

Saying this, David led Matthew through a door adorned with stars, and a slight sensation of temporal distortion enveloped them. The scene before their eyes changed. They arrived in a bustling little square.

Overhead were vivid portraits of renowned mages, and beneath their feet, the flames of a blazing inferno and demon-like hands seemed to reach out from the fire, as if trying to pull people on the floor into it.

"It's said that this design improves work efficiency," David pointed at the inferno scene underfoot, introducing it to Matthew. Then he asked, "Do you have magic photos?"

Matthew shook his head. He had long been settled in Rolling Stone Town, with minimal exposure to the mage society. Magic photos he had only seen in the League Journal, a kind of advanced application of magical industrial technology, similar to a hologram.

"Well, then, let's take a picture first," David said, leading Matthew towards a crowded area.

There were several lower-ranked mechanical gnomes in the hall, originally busy talking to other mages. But when they saw David passing by, they all stopped their work and greeted him.

Matthew followed him smoothly.

"Why are there so many people today?" David asked a short and stout gnome at the front of the room.

The gnome replied, "Today is the pre-registration day for senior students from the Southern Mage Academy, and they are about to graduate."

"I see, I forgot," David slapped his forehead.

He guided Matthew to continue and reached a room with a long queue outside. Matthew curiously glanced around; it was his first time seeing so many mages, even if they were apprentices. The quantity was astonishing. These mage apprentices ranged in age from as young as eleven or twelve to as old as thirty, all waiting in the same queue, which gave an odd feeling.

"Make way, kids!" David quickly arrived at the door of the room. In the dissatisfied gazes of the mage apprentices, he calmly said to the staff inside the room, "Take a photo of my man first."

"He's A1," he added.

The moment they heard the second sentence, all the glares of discontent, anger, and hatred turned into amazement, envy, and flattery.

A bold, golden-haired girl rushed out of the line and asked Matthew, "Hello, I'm Leslie. Can we have dinner together? I have a lot of questions to discuss with you."

She then opened her arms, adjusted her hair, and her exaggerated curves left faint marks on her mage robe as she did so.

"Sorry," Matthew said, about to move past her.

The girl persistently took another step closer. "Do you think I'm not attractive enough on my own? I can bring my best friend along with us. Just give me a chance. You're A1, and you have plenty of extra project resources. You only need to provide me with the minimum research resources, and my magic theory is solid. I won't disappoint you."

With that, she forcefully slipped a note into Matthew's hand.

Immediately, several boys and girls rushed over. Matthew hurriedly darted into the room under David's protection. While dodging, he caught a glimpse of the girl named Leslie, who was shielding him from the others. The mage apprentices complained:

"What are you doing, Leslie?"

"You attached yourself to A1 and blocked us. You're just a...!"

Leslie fiercely retorted, "What's wrong with being a...?"

"It's better than you bunch of indecisive losers!"

A red-haired girl pointed at her and said, "What kind of skill is it to exchange your body for magical resources?"

"Damn woman!" She took off her high heels and was about to strike Leslie.

As tempers flared, Leslie calmly said, "You all just heard, A1 and I were discussing—my best friend."

"If A1 contacts me, the real question now is, which of you would like to be my best friend?"

In a split second, the red-haired girl threw her high heels to the ground. She warmly embraced Leslie and said, "Oh, dear Leslie, I'm undoubtedly your best friend."

Leslie coldly stared at her. "Exchanging your body for magical resources? What kind of skill is that?"

The girl unflinchingly replied, "Only those who can't get resources even by exchanging their body would say something like that."

With the room's door closing, more and more girls huddled around Leslie, and the male apprentices could only watch this scene helplessly. Until a slim and graceful boy walked up to Leslie and asked with a smile, "Ms. Leslie, you don't mind if your best friend's biological gender is male, do you?"

Leslie showed a bewildered expression.

The next second, the boys exchanged glances, and then they all rushed forward!

The entire hall descended into chaos.

The floor of the small room was covered with intricate magic runes. With the guidance of two mechanical gnomes, who worked as staff, Matthew quickly completed the magic photo shooting.

Before long, David brought out the negatives and the developed photos.

"For A1, the photo service here is entirely free. However, if you'd like to get a suitable frame for your photo, well, you'll have to pay for the frame yourself," he explained. "As for other mages, taking the photo itself incurs a substantial fee."

He continued, "But before we distribute the new member benefits, I need to explain the rules of the Seven Saints League to you. As an A1-ranked member, you have higher privileges and status than most people, but there are still three things you cannot do."

"First, any matter defined as 'severely detrimental' in the League's Encyclopedia. You'll have to check the specific details in the soon-to-be-distributed new member benefits package, which includes the League's Encyclopedia."

"Second, leaking secrets, especially those that can be found with A1-level access, which fall under the League's Level 9 secrecy agreement. To the League, leaking secrets is a more severe offense than rebellion."

"Third, taking more than five lives within a year."

"Five lives?" Matthew furrowed his brows.

David nodded, saying, "Yes, up to five lives can be regarded as reasonable consumption for magical research. However, if you exceed five, even as A1, you might face consequences."

"In the beginning, 'try not to harm the innocent' was the basic requirement for every high-level mage in the League. But gradually, the higher-ups found that it's not realistic."

"After all, which mage doesn't kill?"

Hearing this, Matthew suddenly felt that the mages of the Seven Saints League had a slight resemblance to the gods of the Celestial Palace.

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