Susan, the farmer's wife who had scratched her arm!
Luo Wei's eyes flickered slightly as she stood up and walked to the window in the outer room.
A wet, dark red trail remained in the middle of the street, flanked by clear wheel tracks and hoofprints, along with damp soil and rotten cabbage leaves. It must have been dragged here from the vegetable market.
Without doubt, the temple's execution cart would make one or two more rounds around the city, dragging the corpse through every street.
It was a bloody and barbaric execution that had scared away all pedestrians from the street.
No one wanted to be splattered with the flesh of the condemned, turning the usually bustling Academy Street into dead silence.
"Has the temple gone mad?" Luo Wei heard someone discussing below.
"Why didn't they announce it beforehand? That blood drop almost splashed on my face!"
"Shouldn't blasphemers be burned to death? Why did they sentence her to be drawn and quartered?"
She also found it strange. Blasphemy cases were usually punished by burning at the stake. Drawing and quartering was typically reserved for those guilty of treason.
Luo Wei sent her maid to gather information, but the maid returned with news that surprised everyone.
"The temple priests posted an announcement stating that the condemned was guilty of blasphemy - she had blasphemed against the Dark God."
Because she had blasphemed against the Dark God rather than the true gods, she couldn't be punished according to the normal blasphemy protocols, hence the drawing and quartering instead.
Luo Wei: "Wasn't her previous crime about believing in the Dark God? How did it change to blaspheming against the Dark God?"
"Indeed," Barton also wondered, "and since when did we have a crime of blaspheming against the Dark God?"
The maid lowered her voice: "The condemned touched the Dark God's envoy on the Day of Descent, which was disrespectful to the Dark God."
"The temple says that the Dark God is still a god, and must not be treated lightly, or it will anger Him and bring endless disasters to everyone."
What ironic words.
Luo Wei understood now. The temple couldn't catch the Dark God's envoy and feared retaliation, so they quickly executed Susan who had scratched the envoy.
It seemed the temple had finally believed her disguised identity.
When leaving the dessert shop, Luo Wei turned back for a look.
The mud and blood in front of the door had been washed clean by the shop staff, but several suspicious dark red spots remained on the wall, with flies buzzing around them.
This world reeked of foul odors everywhere, nurturing swarms of flies and maggots hungry for blood.
After nightfall, the annoying buzzing of flies even followed her into her dreams, constantly ringing in her ears.
Half asleep, Luo Wei pulled the quilt over her head.
The flies buzzed for most of the night before finally quieting down.
The next morning when she woke up, Luo Wei's first task was to check the doors and windows.
Since learning that Kael was using ravens to monitor her, she had been keeping her dormitory doors and windows tightly shut every day, making it impossible for even a fly to get in.
The cloth strips in the door and window gaps hadn't been disturbed, and the strands of hair tied to the handles weren't broken either. Where had that fly come from?
After searching everywhere without results, Luo Wei's gaze fell on the pile of metal pieces on the table.
The magic patterns had faded and could no longer gather earth elements - the Infernal Arachne had ruthlessly abandoned it.
She pulled open the drawer, but it wasn't there either.
She searched every corner of the floor, still nothing.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Finally, Luo Wei looked at her soft bed, with the unmade quilt that could be hiding anything.
She walked over and shook the quilt, and sure enough, a large furry spider fell out.
"Didn't I tell you that little spiders aren't allowed on the bed?"
Luo Wei picked up the quilt to lecture the disobedient Infernal Arachne.
The spider stared at her with its black, round, shiny eyes for a moment, then suddenly jumped high onto the pillow and tried to burrow underneath it.
"You dare hide!"
Luo Wei dropped the quilt and removed the pillow, confronting the spider who showed no recognition of its mistake and was tilting its head cutely.
The spider raised its two front legs asking for a hug, while Luo Wei raised her palm.
No, she couldn't hit it.
One slap would either kill it or get her killed by its poison.
"Little spider," Luo Wei lowered her hand, "look, you live here and I don't even charge you rent. Shouldn't you work to pay your way?"
"Other jumping spiders work hard catching mosquitoes and insects all day long, keeping their homes completely free of mosquitoes and flies. You're so much bigger, but your work performance isn't very good!"
The Infernal Arachne glanced at her with its big eyes, moved its legs, and swiftly turned around, presenting its furry bottom to her.
Angry?
Luo Wei was surprised - this little creature could actually understand what she was saying.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop criticizing you."
"Turn around, I'll give you a name."
The Infernal Arachne actually turned back, looking at her with watery big eyes.
Strange, Luo Wei thought, she could actually see expectation in those black spider eyes.
"How about... Lucas?" she suggested in a consulting tone.
The Infernal Arachne waved its appendages, looking puffy with anger.
"Don't like it? But Lucas sounds so nice! Don't you know how cute Lucas is!"
The Infernal Arachne didn't want to hear more, covering its face with its feather-like legs and preparing to escape.
"Change, change, I'll give you another name."
Luo Wei, watching its rejecting back, suddenly realized something: "You're not... a girl, are you?"
The Infernal Arachne stopped.
It really was a female spider!
No wonder she didn't like the name "Lucas" - that's a boy's name.
"Little spider, how about Nicole? Nicole?"
The Infernal Arachne hopped up and down, raising its paws and spinning in circles, its furry head tilting back and forth like an excited puppy.
"Nicole, you must work hard catching insects from now on~"
Nicole stared with her round black eyes and waved her appendages.
With a little pest control guard in the bedroom, surely there wouldn't be flies buzzing around her ears tonight.
After finishing her morning routine, Luo Wei headed out - today was Magic Incantation class, and she needed to get to the classroom early.
Fire spells had already been completed, and Professor Moses was now teaching water spells. Low-level water spells only included Water Escape and Water Dragon techniques - as long as one could condense water, the magic was halfway successful.
When they became intermediate magic apprentices, they would learn the upgraded version of water spells - freezing spells, which would greatly enhance their magical attack power.
"Kayelerila Yema..."
"Kayenu..."
Professor Moses broke down the long incantation into several segments, teaching them one by one. The students followed her pronunciation, each with their own unique interpretation.
Some pronounced it "Kaineu," others "Galeli," their heavy accents nearly throwing off even Luo Wei.
"Kawajilila..." Even Jane beside her had gone off-key, not getting a single word right in the incantation.
At the podium, Professor Moses's pressure was building.
"Stop."
She walked down from the podium and started calling on students from the first row, making them recite one by one.
After all students had recited, Professor Moses divided them into many small groups, having students who had mastered the incantation guide those who kept making mistakes.
Most of those with accents were commoners.
Professor Moses assigned three commoner students to Luo Wei.
"Mi-Miss Luo Wei..."
"Ruth, Jack, Bin."
Luo Wei called out each of their names gently and said, "Don't be nervous, I'll recite once, and you just follow along."
"Kayelerila Yema..."
"Kayenulin..."
"Alright, I can tell where you're going wrong."
Luo Wei patiently corrected them one by one.
"Ruth, you keep pronouncing 'le' as 'nu', follow me: 'Kayelerili'."
"Kayenuli."
"It's 'le', not 'nu', 'lerili'."
"Nuli."
"It's le..."
...
By the end of class, Luo Wei was mentally and physically exhausted.
There was no help for it - this was the only magic school in the Western Continent willing to accept commoners. The class gathered students from all corners of the world, almost everyone had an accent, making communication extremely difficult.
"""