Once Dorien began hearing the knocks on the door and the celebrations in the hallways outside his office, he realized that it was likely another wizard, so he deduced that Apolo wouldn't be entering unexpectedly. Ignoring the person knocking on the door for attention, Dorien rose from his seat and made his way to the shelf where he had stored the ledger. Without much searching, he picked up the little book and carried it back to his desk.
—Gosh, what a racket this young man is causing outside!— Dorian smiled with joy, thinking that Apolo had brought all his servants into the castle to celebrate his enrollment as a wizard.
Trying to ignore the celebrations outside, Dorien sat at his desk and wasted no time in opening the ledger. Immediately, the wizard started searching for a particular page as if impatience for an answer was taking hold of him. He flipped through the pages eagerly until his celestial blue eyes suddenly lit up. He had found what he was looking for!
—Let's see the tales of these poor devils...— Dorian murmured with a curiosity-filled smile on his face as he looked at a page in the ledger titled:
> "Magicians of Greed."
Dorian searched through his desk drawers, opening several as if he couldn't exactly remember where he had put what he was looking for. However, the gleaming eyes of the wizard soon gave away that he had found what he needed. From one of the drawers filled with miscellaneous objects, Dorian retrieved a black quill. Initially, the quill's appearance was quite ordinary, but anyone observant enough would notice that the quill was slowly contorting on its own as if it were alive.
On the ledger's page, only the four magicians' names were visible. However, when Dorian waved his hand over the ledger, the page went completely blank as if it had never been used. Seeing the blank page, the wizard took the black quill from his desk, dipped it in ink, and wrote slowly:
"Ledger, ledger, I'm a curious wizard seeking details: Could you help me?"
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Instantly, the ledger's page filled again, but now another column of information appeared beside the column with the names.
— Deo from White Town: murdered in White Town, Echo from the Red Swamps: murdered in the Red Swamps, Thais from the Valley: murdered in the valley, and Helena from Small Village: murdered in the Black Forest—Dorian murmured calmly, but his calm demeanor started to fade as he realized there was a significant problem in these records, and worry began to fill his face.
—All were murdered. It would be strange if it were a coincidence...— Dorian muttered to himself as he searched for a possible answer —Helena, an acolyte who managed to become a magician. All the others died where they were born, except for her. More importantly, why did greed lead her to the lonely Black Forest, and how did this magician become associated with Apolo to corrupt that boy's destiny?
With more questions than answers, Dorian searched his desk drawers again until he pulled out a rolled-up parchment that looked somewhat ordinary compared to the strange objects filling these drawers. The wizard proceeded to unroll the parchment and read its contents carefully, as if trying to find information between the lines of text.
> "Dear Minister of Magic,
>
> Today I received a letter from the king of the Black Forest, requesting my assistance in helping one of his grandchildren become a wizard. At first, I was pleased with the news that another of these brutes was finally being enticed onto the civilized path of magic. However, as I continued to read the letter, much to my chagrin, the situation is not as straightforward as it seems.
>
> Apparently, the young prospective wizard is under the curse of a magical object: a peculiar little bronze ring capable of inducing obsession to the extent that the young man forgets to eat regularly and is prone to losing his sanity easily. The situation has become so dire that the rest of his family fears for the young man's life.
>
> Given that the ring has corrupted the mind of the aspiring wizard, the king of the Black Forest knows that he cannot remove it without killing him. As a result, he has decided to push him into becoming a wizard and pass the problem into my hands, or rather, into your hands!
>
> Therefore, I implore you to resolve this issue and prevent the young man from perishing. The last thing I need in my busy life is for these barbarians to think we can't handle a mere magical object.
>
> Sincerely, The King of White Town"