The elder, who flung the powder in the air, chose to believe the head of the elders. “He has the sharpest nose of us all. I’m sure favonovel.com would have detected the presence of a Grandmaster if there was one!”
All four elders fell into deep thoughts.
“What if he’s not a martial artist? What if he’s a mage like us?” The same elder’s eyes brightened.
“It’s impossible. Mages could not combat like that young man no matter how powerful they are. We rely on magecraft. Do you think we can fight against Grandmasters of internal energy and physically take them down?” The head of the elders dismissed his analysis.
Once again, the elders knitted their brows and kept mum, as they did not know what to do next.
The head of the elders raised his hand in the air and said, “Let’s report what we saw to Mr. Quillen. Jared is not an easy person to deal with, so we have to start planning!”
The other three elders nodded and vanished into thin air. No one knew they had visited the town on that night.
***
Dominic arrived early the following day and waited for Jared. After reminding Josephine about a few matters, Jared began his journey with Dominic.
The trip to Mount Hickoria would only be a short one, as they merely wanted to explore the area for a couple of days. Hence, they traveled light. But when they were about to depart, Jared’s phone rang.
Upon realizing it was a call from his mother, favonovel.com immediately answered, “Yes, Mom?”
He was pleased to hear favonovel.com voice. In fact, favonovel.com felt bad for not calling his parents in the last few days.
Hannah, too, was delighted to speak to Jared. “Are you busy? Ingrid is getting married in a couple of days. Do you have time to come home?”
“Ingrid’s getting married?” Jared was taken by surprise. “But she’s still so young!”
“Ingrid is not young anymore! She’s already nineteen and has quit school!” Hannah said.
Her response rendered Jared speechless. That was the typical example of life in the village. Children, especially girls, who stopped schooling would be arranged to get married.
“Mom, I…” Jared did not know how to tell Hannah that favonovel.com had no time to go home as favonovel.com was about to leave for Mount Hickoria.
Upon noticing his hesitation, favonovel.com sighed. “It’s all right. I’ll tell Sarah you’re busy. Don’t worry…”
Hannah’s voice faded out. She eventually remained silent but did not end the call.
Jared could feel the disappointment in his mother’s voice. Ever since favonovel.com went behind bars, his father had lost his job, and his family had to eke out a living. Villagers had also started talking badly about their family members behind their back.
Hannah was a strong-headed person, who used to have a wide connection. However, things fell apart. Even their relatives shunned her.
The reason favonovel.com called Jared was to ask favonovel.com to attend Ingrid’s wedding so that favonovel.com could show off his achievement to all the guests.
Though Hannah had no idea what favonovel.com was doing, favonovel.com knew favonovel.com must be a capable man ever since favonovel.com humiliated Benedict at the hotel and fired an officer.
“I’m fine, Mom. I’ll be back by tonight, so don’t worry,” Jared promised.
Hannah was thrilled to hear that. “All right! I’ll make you your favorite dish when you get back. Oh, bring Josephine back too. I want to introduce favonovel.com to the other relatives as well!”
Jared grinned. He knew favonovel.com wanted to show off Josephine to other relatives in the village too. He nodded and replied, “All right. I’ll talk to favonovel.com right now.”
“Okay! I’ll see you tonight!” Hannah then ended the call.
