Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 97: Earl Drake’s Hounds

CH97 Earl Drake’s Hounds

***

When Alex entered the office with the knight, he was immediately caught off guard by what he saw.

It wasn’t the elegant, book-filled study he had expected—a place of opulence designed to display the superiority of a noble’s taste.

Instead, in true Fury fashion, the so-called ”office” resembled a military command and control room.

What first drew Alex’s attention was the large magical table near the centre of the room, glowing faintly with arcane light.

A three-dimensional image of a continental map was being projected above it, revealing a complex and unfamiliar geography.

The table reminded him of the COMET smart tables his company had developed for his country’s Department of Defence. As one of the company’s lead engineers—though his contribution to the project had been peripheral—he had still been privy to the full range of its capabilities.

[A.N: COMET – Command and Control Multi-touch Enabled Technology.]

Short of this table’s projection method, he could see that both products had similar functions.

’Maybe I should get myself one of these,’ he mused.

Finally, he turned his attention to the map.

One of the basic courses Alex had been forced to master under Merlin’s hellish curriculum was the geography of the Arun Continent and the greater Pangea Plane. Merlin’s demands were nothing short of insane: Alex had to be able to locate any point on the Arun Continent from a blank topographical map—with no reference markings whatsoever.

Thanks to his ocular Eidetic Memory ability, he had memorised the continent’s layout with perfect accuracy. Even without it, Alex was confident he could identify most regions of the Pangea Plane in his sleep.

And this map?

This wasn’t anywhere on the Pangea Plane.

Only after coming to that conclusion did he bother to examine the people in the room.

While the knight who had brought him over leaned in to whisper something into Earl Drake’s ear, Alex scanned the four other people present.

The first was a man standing to the Earl’s left. His hair and beard were streaked with grey, and he wore a sharply tailored military uniform. It resembled those of the Royal Mage Corps, albeit with a slightly different colour scheme.

The man’s grey hair wasn’t a Fury trait—it was age. Alex guessed he was in his late fifties, but aside from the greying strands, the man’s body still looked like that of a vigorous forty-year-old—or even younger.

Through Spirit Sight, Alex observed a faint blue-purple aura. The mana’s nature made it clear: the man was a Lightning Mage.

Then his eyes shifted to the woman on Earl Drake’s right—and Alex blinked several times.

She had long, luxurious black hair that nearly reached her knees. But that wasn’t what drew his attention. It was her figure.

Her curves were exaggerated to a ludicrous degree. Her bosom was massive—easily the size of two of Alex’s heads—and yet somehow they defied gravity, perking straight out from her torso. Her waist was so slim that Alex estimated he could wrap the length of his forearm around it. Her hips were wide, her backside devastating, and her thighs... thicc.

’That’s not possible,’ Alex thought flatly, eyes narrowing.

His brow furrowed. Something about her felt off—deeply off.

”Hmm?” Earl Drake finally noticed the beads of sweat forming on the youth’s brow.

He turned to the woman beside him.

”Stop fooling around, Diana.”

Diana laughed—a melodious, hypnotic sound that seemed to carry a charming effect. Alex’s condition worsened immediately. His breath quickened, and blood rushed to the dragon stirring between his legs.

His instincts as a man began to cloud his judgement.

Diana blinked innocently. ”Master, your son seems far more dangerous than you let on. Look, I think he’s about to pounce on me. What am I supposed to do if he does?”

”If you think you can get him into your bed without your abilities and spells, do whatever you want,” Earl Drake said offhandedly. ”But for now, let him go. We have more important things to discuss.”

”Yes, sir!” Diana chimed, seemingly delighted.

She was just about to release Alex from her grasp when something unexpected happened.

Alex inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. In the very next moment, the lustful glaze in his eyes cleared away.

A subtle shimmer flickered across his eyes—almost imperceptible.

Suddenly, Diana found herself staring at a man who looked... stunning. The ambient lightning around him seemed to frame him, casting a radiant glow that made him stand out, as though the very world had decided to highlight him in her vision.

She broke into bell-like laughter.

”Break!” she cried.

The lightning mage standing to Earl Drake’s left glanced at Alex with mild surprise.

”Master, master! I really want him,” Diana said, her voice brimming with fascination. ”Can you believe it? He broke through my illusion and redirected it back at me.”

Earl Drake showed no outward reaction. He simply gave a nonchalant nod.

”I’ve already told you my stance.”

”Okay.” Diana turned to Alex and licked her lips, her eyes gleaming with predator-like amusement.

Alex’s body shivered instinctively.

She was a rare breed of mage—an Illusion Mage. From the very moment he had entered the room, she had cast an illusion on him.

The exaggerated goddess-like appearance he’d seen before? Nothing but an illusion.

However, it wasn’t far from the truth either.

In reality, Diana was breathtaking—an angelic face paired with a devil’s figure that could make any man falter.

Alex silently ranked her as the second most beautiful woman he had encountered, just below Zora—likely due to obvious personal biases.

She was even more of a enchantress than Seraphina... or, at least, more than Seraphina had ever allowed herself to be.

’No... not an enchantress. A seductress. Definitely a seductress,’ Alex corrected himself mentally.

He had nearly made a fool of himself.

Luckily, the spell matrix hidden in her illusion became visible when Diana laughed, amplifying the spell’s effect. With the help of his OmniRune Core, Alex had been able to hijack the illusion and reflect it back at her.

Unbeknownst to him, something had stirred within his Truth-Seeker Eyes while he was under the illusion’s influence. Whatever it was, the process had halted once he rebounded the spell.

What exactly had occurred—only time would tell.

For now, Alex was unaware of the deeper change brewing within him. What he was aware of, however, was the pressure building under Diana’s burning gaze.

The stunning woman in her late twenties was now winking at him and blowing him kisses.

Under normal circumstances, Alex would have felt flattered—maybe even thrilled. But he could tell this was just one of Diana’s quirks. She didn’t truly mean any of it.

Just as he was starting to feel flustered, the woman standing beside Diana calmly raised her hand—and knocked her on the head.

***