The next day, as they resumed their journey, Chris seemed very happy, always with a faint smile on his lips.
Rody thought that Chris must have relieved his heart by expressing his feelings, hence the sunny, radiant expression. However, Chris being happy was much better than him sulking, and Rody certainly didn't have the leisure to comfort this crybaby all the time.
Racing along the road, a few days later, Rody and Chris arrived at the edge of the Kamarlon Empire, at Minnesota La Forest and Mirror Lake.
Although Mirror Lake is neither the largest nor the deepest lake in the world, it is one of the top ten famous lakes. Fed by three tributaries, it harbors the continent's marvelous aquatic species, including the world's only freshwater mermaids. Most mermaids live in lakes and seas, but besides Mirror Lake, there are no other freshwater mermaids.
In addition to freshwater mermaids, Mirror Lake is also known for producing the world's largest pearls and freshwater scallops.
Due to its proximity to Minnesota La Forest, which has the largest wolf pack in the world, Mirror Lake only has a small town on one side. People live on the alluvial peninsula at the lake's edge, fishing in Mirror Lake and the three tributaries for generations.
The locals revere Mirror Lake, considering it a divine gift, and never dare to fish in it.
The mermaids, on the other hand, exchange pearls and scallops for items they need from humans, such as magic crystals and gems. Although the population of the small town by Mirror Lake is less than three thousand, there are over a dozen major companies with branches here, and over a hundred itinerant traders, making it a highly developed commercial area. The standard of living here is much higher than in ordinary towns. In the small town of Mirror Lake, one can see leisurely elderly people fishing in the river and basking in the sun everywhere, and people dancing joyfully to music.
Rody and Chris needed to cross Mirror Lake and Minnesota La Forest and then travel a long distance to reach the Lei Yin Mist Land.
Although the horses blessed with light magic could perform three kinds of magic—levitation, feather fall, and sky soaring, enabling short-distance flying over rivers and streams—it was effortless for them. Yet, Rody and Chris, captivated by the beauty of the small town by Mirror Lake, decided to rest early and stay there for a night.
"Hey, let's go see the mermaids!" Chris was excited, eager to see the biggest local attraction.
"Isn't it said that freshwater mermaids only come out to sing on full moon nights? Now, with the sun shining and clear skies, not even a single fish is surfacing, let's forget it!" Rody, engrossed in the magic notebook of the beautiful female tutor, didn't pay much attention to Chris.
"Then let's go to the lake and pick up pearls and scallops," Chris insisted on dragging him along.
"Oh my, it's the time when the Minnesota La giant wolves are preparing their dinner. Let's just stay safely in the city and enjoy the beautiful sunset. Besides, with your attractive looks, didn't you see how many girls were throwing flirtatious glances at you just now? If you go out, the girls might divide you up before the giant wolves even get a chance!" Rody was preparing to write his own magic notebook, to deepen his memory of magic and understand it from multiple perspectives, so he didn't want to waste time going out.
"You're just jealous! Besides, you also got plenty of flirtatious glances! Stingy!" Chris huffed back to his room.
"The world has become peaceful now," Rody laughed, knowing that Chris wouldn't be angry for more than half an hour.
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As night fell, Rody was pondering how to start writing his own magic notebook when suddenly, a mournful lament drifted from afar. The language was unclear, but one could feel a deep sadness that welled up in the heart and spread through the body, bringing tears to the eyes.
Rody keenly felt that this was not just a song, but a kind of mental magic.
The singer was using her song to cast her mental magic, making listeners feel sorrow and grief. If Rody were to cast such mental magic, he could achieve this effect too, but only on a single individual or a small group of people, not like this, transmitting it across the wilderness through singing.
The sad song brought Rody a kind of enlightening realization. He had always hoped his mental magic could spread further and affect a larger area.
Especially in battles between armies, if he could only influence a few hundred or a thousand people, it would be insufficient.
If there were a kind of mental magic that could affect tens of thousands, even a hundred thousand people, then the army under Rody's command would truly become invincible. Otherwise, he could only rely on small surprise attacks against the enemy and could not annihilate the enemy on the main battlefield to truly decide the battle and dominate the campaign.
Now, Rody knew how to achieve this effect.
That is through singing.
Yes, like the Silver-Eyed Singer, using singing to transmit to a larger environment, affecting more soldiers... Of course, not singing with the mouth, but singing with mental power.
At that moment, Rody realized the method of singing with mental power.
Although he hadn't tried and created it yet, he was enlightened and felt that singing with mental power would be very feasible. The Silver-Eyed Singer was born mute, but the elders in the ruins of the God Realm said she could sing wonderful songs that moved all beings. Rody had always struggled to imagine what that kind of singing would be like, but now he understood.
The key was not the voice, but the mental power.
Although he couldn't clearly hear or understand the distant lament, he could feel the sorrow of the singer.
"Maybe, I can create a new kind of 'War Song', like the Silver-Eyed Singer, using mental power to sing, but adding human vocalization to enhance the effect... Hmm, like the war songs and drums of the orcs, but a bit different. My War Song could maybe utilize the shouts of all soldiers to stimulate and amplify it. Yes, I should temporarily gather everyone's mental power, to encourage our side and strike at the enemy." Rody got more and more excited as he thought about it, just as he was about to write down his first 'War Song', Chris burst in, interrupting his great creation.
"Rody, something's wrong," Chris said anxiously.
"What happened? Did someone steal our horses?" Rody asked in surprise.
"No, it's the mermaids... Didn't you hear it? That's the singing of the mermaids!" Once Chris mentioned it, Rody nodded, saying, "It's very touching and beautiful! I didn't know mermaids sang like this."
"You fool! That's not how mermaids usually sing! She's asking for help, it's a plea for help!" Chris was very annoyed.
"Can you understand it?" Rody was surprised at Chris's linguistic talent.
"It's a branch of the ancient Elven language, similar to what I chant. Stop talking, and come with me quickly, we need to save her!" Chris pulled Rody and rushed upstairs, but strangely, in the small town by Mirror Lake, people shut their doors at the sound of this singing, and no one was outside. All the singing and dancing men and women and street passersby vanished.
"Guests, don't meddle," the innkeeper whispered, "The army of the Redlands Kingdom, those executioners are hunting mermaids again. The gods will punish them, but you two guests, don't get involved."
"We'll have a look and be right back..." Chris pulled Rody and rushed forward towards Mirror Lake.
At first, Rody didn't care much, but as they got closer to Mirror Lake, the singing grew louder, and the mental impact stronger. Being a mental magician, Rody could barely resist being affected by the sadness. If it were an ordinary person, they would have been crying in deep sorrow by now. Nearing the lake, Rody also heard wailing and prayers, the kind of sorrow erupting from the bottom of the heart, impacting Rody's mind. But in the center of Mirror Lake, there was a huge warship with an army of over a thousand men, battling something.
Rody couldn't believe his eyes, was there really an army that could withstand such singing?
If there was such a powerful army, wouldn't his 'War Song' be useless? Or were these soldiers all steadfast magicians?
"They must have a treasure to resist or reduce the impact of mental magic, or perhaps a master of mental magic is casting spells, giving those guys mental resistance!" Chris's eyes were red. His mental defense was far inferior to Rody's, and understanding what the mermaids were singing about, he was nearly moved to tears.
"What can we do?" Rody didn't know the relationship between Chris and the mermaids. Starting a war with Redlands Kingdom was not his intention. Since he was a stranger to the mermaids, intervening and offending Redlands Kingdom would drag not only him into trouble but also General Fondsman who had high hopes for him, and even the Felic Principality. However, if Chris had a special relationship with the mermaids, he wouldn't mind having one more enemy like Redlands Kingdom.
He was willing to do anything for his friends, without any hesitation.
If it were just for the sake of justice, Rody wouldn't care. He would never expose the Felic Principality to war for some self-proclaimed noble justice, nor would he allow the hard-earned strength accumulated by generations at the Book Academy to be revealed to the world.
"We must save the mermaids; they are related to us, very much so," Chris said anxiously to Rody.
"Then let's go!" Rody heard it; Chris said 'we', not 'I'. It seemed that these freshwater mermaids were somehow related to him too. With this in mind, he couldn't just stand by idly.
"Change outfits!" Chris and Rody thought alike and decided to disguise themselves as righteous Temple Knights, letting the Temple take the blame.
"Maybe in this battle, I can try out my newly conceived 'War Song'!" Rody and Chris summoned their light magic horses, changed into silver holy armor, disguised themselves as Temple Knights, and rushed towards the warship in the center of the lake.