Sorcerer’s Handbook

Freya lingered outside the door, listening to the sizzling sound of hot oil from within, her hand resting on the doorknob but never turning it.

It wasn’t until the sound of the neighbor’s door suggested they might be coming out that she mustered the courage to push the door open.

“Welcome back, dinner’s ready.”

The usual greeting met Freya’s hesitation, “I’m back.”

“Watching ‘College Moon’ or ‘Death Trace’ tonight?” Ashe placed the dishes on the long table and set up the Knowledge Screen for tonight’s entertainment.

‘College Moon’ was a light-hearted comedy about campus life, featuring a goblin with poor academic performance. However, upon consuming Moon Sugar, he could enter an extremely intelligent ‘Moon Mode’. In this state, his performance in exams was nearly unbeatable, even securing the top spot in the national entrance exam and gaining admission to the most prestigious institution in the Blood Moon Kingdom.

But the Moon Sugar came with many side effects, causing his personality to fluctuate drastically: from erratic to reliable, from abstinent to lascivious, from gentle to violent.

In order to conceal his poor student identity, the goblin had to combat these side effects while actively engaging in college life, thus unfolding a campus story filled with laughter, anger, and mockery.

To be fair, this series was well made, with a brisk pace and one laugh after another, filled with all sorts of satire and teasing about college life. Even in Ashe’s eyes, it was a gem of a show.

That is if you could overlook the subtle trend it was creating towards the legalization of Moon Sugar.

After Kaimon City declared Moon Sugar legal, other cities also began actively pushing for similar legislation. ‘College Moon’s’ explosive popularity was undoubtedly aided by various interest groups behind the scenes; it could even be considered a promotional drama for Moon Sugar, aimed at changing the public’s negative perception and positioning it as a daily consumer product.

Not to mention, the only brand of Moon Sugar featured in the show was ‘Snow White’, a name even Ashe was quite familiar with, clearly indicating who the biggest sponsor of the show was.

“Death Trace” is a fantasy drama about a protagonist who is killed by a friend, but at the moment of death, the protagonist’s soul swaps with the friend’s. The friend’s soul dies in the protagonist’s body, and the protagonist takes over the friend’s body to continue living. In order to figure out why they were murdered, the protagonist assumes the identities of different people, peeling back layers of the mystery, experiencing death after death, foiling the villain’s plans again and again, and unraveling the enigmas in a very fast-paced suspense series.

Ashe glanced at the spoilers and discovered that the antagonist was a Cult organization.

Looking at it from all angles, he found that although the Cult was not named Four Pillars, it looked like the Four Pillars, moved like the Four Pillars, and even sounded like the Four Pillars—it was clearly the Four Pillars Cult!

That aside, he was taken aback to see someone in the Shadow Drama reviews asking if it was “based on the true story of Ashe Heath.” Ashe simply posed as an impartial observer and vehemently denied it—after all, the drama had started airing before he was even caught!

“Let’s watch ‘College Moon’,” Freya suggested.

Ashe had no objections and watched the show with relish, laughing and occasionally reaching over to pet Little String, who responded with a disgruntled meow before continuing to eat her cat food.

However, Freya’s attention was not on the Shadow Drama or the food; beneath her charming and seductive beauty, she was brewing a complex mix of emotions.

Adra was right.

Ashe was a dangerous man, something Freya had long been aware of. What she hadn’t anticipated was just how ‘malevolent’ he was on the inside—nothing was more evil than binding a free Soul.

Even Prison was only a restraint on the body.

Freya couldn’t help but recall the research she had read a few days earlier while writing a paper on Socialized Rearing: “The blood relationship between the progenitor and the progeny is the furthest distance from freedom, and cutting off all innate connections is the foundation of personal freedom… All dependent relationships between people are a rebellion against freedom.”

In addition to this, the moral education she had received over the past decade also surfaced in her mind.

“Human nature is the most difficult color to depict; today he may be a good person, but tomorrow he could become a criminal devoid of humanity. When you trust someone with all your heart, it means they have the power to hurt you at will.”

“Don’t have any expectations of others; others are hell.”

“Trust only yourself, be responsible for only yourself, live for yourself, die for yourself.”

“The best kind of equality is where I can’t take advantage of you, and you can’t take advantage of me, a complete and unrelated equality. Only when people are unrelated can there be room to breathe freely.”

“Never let anyone plant a seed in your heart.”

Freya sneaked a glance at Ashe and noticed he was laughing so hard that food was about to spray out, with a streak of cream at the corner of his mouth. Facing this near-ogre-like table manners, Freya didn’t feel the slightest discomfort; instead, she felt an inexplicable urge—she wanted to lick that cream off with her tongue.

This is too terrifying, Bewitcher thought.

Adra was right; while she still had her wits about her, she needed to cut off this relationship quickly, to expel Ashe from her life.

Otherwise, she would not be able to maintain an ‘intact self’ but would fall into the role of an emotional slave, bound by nebulous relationships, completely losing her freedom of personality, becoming a vassal of social relations, and turning into an empty shell.

No wonder Ashe is the Cult Leader; if every disciple of the Four Pillars Cult is this kind of shameless person who tries to contaminate others, then indeed they must be severely dealt with.

No wonder she felt an aversion to Ashe, a desire to distance herself from him. The thought of being as closely attentive to Ashe’s every move in the future as she was now, to share his joy, to feel his sorrow, willing to give her all for him, filled her heart with… with…

…a tumultuous sense of anticipation?

No, Freya, you are a Bewitcher with an independent personality; you must not submit to the despicable tactics of the Cult Leader!

You have to muster the courage to kick him out of this apartment!

Without him, you can become better!

Say it after this meal!

Say it after washing the dishes!

Say it after finishing this assignment—

“I’m leaving tonight.”

Freya suddenly looked up, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going where a prison escapee belongs,” Ashe said as he put on his coat and mask. “Thank you for taking care of me these past few days. Although, I feel like I’ve been taking care of you more.”

“Is it so soon?” Freya was a bit flustered. “It’s not the seventh day yet…”

“While the deadline is seven days, I’ve already found the information I needed in the past few days, and there’s no need for me to stay any longer.” Ashe summoned the Sympathy Spirit. “You’re not a sorcerer, are you? Do you have a container to store a spirit?”

“I do, I do,” Freya hurried over to a cabinet. “I have a Fluorescence Sphere that can temporarily hold a spirit…”

Ashe waited for a while, watching as Freya rummaged through her things, still squatting there. He glanced over, reached out, and took out a transparent spherical container: “Is this it?”

“Ah, that’s the one.” Freya scratched her head in embarrassment. “Oh my, it was right here, how did I not see it?”

Ashe placed the Sympathy Spirit into the Fluorescence Sphere, disconnecting the link between himself and the spirit. The sphere immediately glowed softly, and then the Sympathy Spirit stretched languidly as if it had fallen asleep.

“Here.” Ashe handed the Fluorescence Sphere to Freya. “Our contract is complete.”

“Mhm.”

“After I leave, don’t expose my information. After all, you’ve been harboring an escaped prison escapee, which might bring trouble to you. I’ve tried to avoid the neighbors, but someone might have seen me. If anyone asks, just say I was someone you picked up from the tavern and, unexpectedly, I didn’t die after you were done with me.”

“Okay.”

Ashe crouched down to look at Little String, and gently rubbed its head: “Goodbye, don’t just endure the pain when you feel it, shout out loud, or no one will know.”

He stood up, looking at Freya, and smiled: “Well, I wish you happiness, Freya.”

Freya did not respond.

She looked down at Little String, as if the folded-ear cat had suddenly turned into a strange creature she did not recognize, unable to move her gaze away from the cat.

Ashe didn’t mind, he stepped past her towards the entryway.

“Will you come back?”

As Ashe was putting on his shoes, he said, “No, if nothing unexpected happens, I’ll do something big tonight. Coming back to see you would only cause you trouble.”

“Where will you live then?”

“I’ll be roughing it, might have to leave Kaimon City. I’ll find a way.”

“Sounds pretty rough.”

“It is. The dinner tonight was so lavish because I sense that I’ll be having a tough time for the next month. Consider it my last hurrah.”

As Ashe’s right hand touched the doorknob, his left was grasped by someone else.

He turned his head and saw Freya holding onto his wrist tightly.

Ashe felt a connection: “Do you want me to stay?”

“No,” Freya shook her head. “I don’t want you to continue staying in this apartment.”

“But I want to go with you.”

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