Chapter 4

Pound, pound, pound. The heavy door was pounded on violently. In the small thatched cottage, Green, who had been sleeping under an old quilt, was instantly startled awake. The cold and numbness in his feet made him draw in a sharp breath, but Green did not dare to delay, and he called out, "I'm coming."

Without caring about his feet, which were almost numb from the cold, Green quickly put on his old clothes, grabbed the leather coat that served as a second quilt, and opened the wooden door. The cold winter wind blew in, carrying ice chips, and Green's body shuddered. Outside the door, Old Ham was huddled in a dilapidated wooden cart, one hand holding a whip and the other a pipe, while the cart left two tracks in the bumpy snow.

"Hurry up, the road is bad today, and you'll be scolded if you're late," Old Ham said after taking a deep puff of his pipe.

"Okay, I understand," Green replied, closing the wooden door and quickly climbing onto the cart. This was a routine; ever since he started this stable job with Uncle Ham, he would hear this every day.

Ham didn't say much more. After taking another puff of his pipe, he fiercely whipped the old horse, which let out a low groan and pulled the cart forward through the bumpy snow. Green leaned against the broken cart railing, looked at the dark sky, and closed his eyes again. Based on past experience, it would take at least half an hour to reach the Viscount's mansion in the city, by which time it would be almost dawn.

Leaning against the cart, Green smelled the familiar tobacco and felt deep gratitude towards Old Ham.

Green had been an orphan since childhood, often wandering with other orphans in Bissel City, living a life of hunger and begging. One day, the childless Old Ham saw Green, who was quite lively, and, thinking of his own childless state, took Green back, chuckling, "When I die, these two thatched cottages and the old horse will be yours."

To be honest, these two rural cottages and the old cart weren't worth much, but they made Green feel deeply grateful to Old Ham, seeing him as a second father.

As for the job that Old Ham and Green relied on for a living, it involved arriving at the Viscount's mansion in Bissel City before dawn every morning, cleaning up the large amount of garbage left by the nobles after their all-night revelry, and then transporting it out of the city to dispose of it. They would then purchase all the supplies needed for the next night's revelry in the Viscount's territory.

This back-and-forth took up most of the day.

After about half an hour, the road became smoother, with stone paving. Green, who had been dozing on the cart, immediately woke up without Old Ham's reminder, knowing they had reached Bissel City and were about to arrive at the Viscount's mansion. He quickly brushed the snow off his body, tidying himself up.

Although often when Green and Old Ham arrived, the nobles who had partied all night at the Viscount's mansion had already dispersed, and even if there were a few stragglers, the high-ranking nobles wouldn't spare a glance at these lowly servants, making their appearance irrelevant. However, the old butler at the Viscount's mansion was a difficult person to deal with, often making things hard for Green, the lowly servant, and had more than once used the excuse of improper appearance to extort silver coins from Old Ham.

The two tall, muscular knight guards at the Viscount's mansion gate, who had been on duty all night, were already exhausted. They glanced at Old Ham and Green, who they knew well, and ignored them. Old Ham smiled apologetically, and Green jumped off the cart, head down, and entered the Viscount's mansion, heading straight for the luxurious hall that needed to be cleaned every day.

Green and Old Ham, who were usually listless, suddenly felt that the atmosphere today was different. At the entrance to the hall, the old butler had a stern face, his sharp, triangular eyes glaring at Green and Old Ham. He ran over to them and whispered, "Wait here, cover your ears, and close your eyes."

"Yes, yes," Green and Old Ham quickly replied.

Faint noises could be heard from inside the hall, though not clearly, but it was evident that a girl was making a commotion. Instinctively, Green and Old Ham knew it must be a person of high status.

After nearly half an hour, the sky was completely light, and Green and Old Ham, standing in the snow, were shivering and stamping their feet. The old butler, who had been waiting at the hall entrance, walked over with a stern face and growled, "If you can't take it, don't come tomorrow."

Green and Old Ham's faces changed. After several struggles, Old Ham took out a silver coin from his tattered clothes and handed it to the old butler, repeatedly smiling and saying, "I can take it, I can take it."

"Hmph." The old butler skillfully put the silver coin in his pocket and ignored them, waiting anxiously at the hall entrance, occasionally peering inside.

Green couldn't help but whisper, "Damn, he just took a cut from us a few days ago, and now he wants more!"

"Ah, forget it, just bear with it. There are plenty of people who want our job. The old butler would be happy if we left." Old Ham sighed. Being old and close to the end, he no longer had the fiery temper of a young man.

At that moment, a girl in luxurious noble attire, her delicate face streaked with tears, ran out of the hall, stopping beside Green and Old Ham, and shouted, "I only want my brother Alon. I won't go to the Lilith House, and I won't become a witch!" She then angrily threw a book and ran out of the Viscount's mansion.

"Rebellion! Rebellion! What are you two standing there for? Don't you go and chase her?" A fat nobleman, his face red with anger, roared at two armored knights beside him. To Green's surprise, the Viscount, who was usually high and mighty, was standing beside the fat nobleman, looking helpless and trying to persuade him.

"Hmph, what does she know? She's giving up the witch I spent a great deal to bring here just for a little lover? You know, in half a year...," the Viscount said, following the fat nobleman out of the mansion, not even glancing at Green and Old Ham. The old butler, equally in a hurry, followed them out, taking the two guards with him, disappearing into the snow.

In a moment, the courtyard was empty and silent.

Seeing no one around, Green instinctively wanted to pick up the book on the ground, but Old Ham stepped forward, tapped Green's hand with his pipe, and growled, "Do you want to die?"

Green winced in pain and whispered, "It should be fine, right? If someone asks, we can say we threw it away with the garbage. After all, it was the noble lady who threw it on the ground."

Old Ham thought for a moment, looked around to confirm no one was there, and nodded, tacitly agreeing. Green put the book in his clothes and then, as if nothing had happened, followed Old Ham to clean the hall. The hall, after the nobles' all-night revelry, was filled with a large amount of garbage, which they swept into the cart. No one asked about the book's whereabouts until they left, and Green didn't pay much attention.

After all, in the past, the garbage often contained items that the nobles didn't value but the servants were delighted to find.

The cart, loaded with a full load of garbage, slowly left Bissel City. Sitting on the cart, Green, who had no more sleepiness, suddenly remembered something and took out the book he had picked up.

Frowning, servants like Green, who worked for the nobles, generally couldn't read. However, because Old Ham had once been an apprentice accountant at a tavern, he had learned to read, and over the years, he had taught Green.

However, the reason Green was frowning was that the words on the book's cover were rarely used in daily life, and he found them unfamiliar. After much thought, Green finally recognized the words.

"‘Nasal Transformation and Odor Spectrum’? What is this?" Green stared, thinking it might be a novel by a bard, which was what the noble ladies and gentlemen often read, but he hadn't expected the noble lady to throw such a strange book.

Wait!

Green suddenly thought of something, his eyes wide with disbelief. Could this be a book of mysterious magic written by a wizard?

Wizards were a topic that only the nobles had the right to discuss. Ordinary people might never see a wizard, who was known for their mysterious and powerful magic, in their entire lives. Wizards were often rumored to commit mass killings of ordinary people, even eating children's eyes, and conducting evil magic experiments on ordinary people. However, because wizards could easily kill ordinary people and even knights, they were both revered and feared.

Even Green had often fantasized about what made these mysterious and great wizards so powerful. Why couldn't ordinary people master these powers? If he became a wizard and mastered these mysterious and great powers, he wouldn't have to endure the nobles' condescension. He could just get rid of anyone who called him a lowly person.

With a look of disbelief, Green quickly flipped through the book, "Nasal Transformation and Odor Spectrum," reading it word by word. Sometimes, when he encountered unfamiliar words, he had to think carefully or even skip them. Gradually, a sense of awe appeared on Green's face, as if he had opened the door to a whole new world!

Odors, as described in the book, are volatile molecules in the air that stimulate the biological olfactory system. The most pungent odors make up half of what a biological system can distinguish.

According to the "Odor Spectrum," a normal human can distinguish between 30 to 400 different odors, and occasionally, some people with special abilities can distinguish about 600 odors. However, compared to other organisms, this ability is pitifully low.

For example, the infant chicken, a type of chicken that can make sounds like a human baby, can distinguish at least 6,500 different odors according to experiments.

Another example is the shadow butterfly, a magical creature that can only survive by collecting odors, which can distinguish over 8,200 different odors...

The book mentions that the creature known to be able to capture the most odors in the air is the three-headed dog, a powerful creature that even many wizards dare not provoke. It can distinguish all 17,852 known odors in the air, an almost incomprehensible level.

"Nasal Transformation" describes how, based on a wizard's physical condition, they can use the sensitive olfactory systems of certain creatures to transform their own, achieving a perfect evolution of their sense of smell. The magical experiments mentioned involve many strange materials, and the most frequently used term in the book, which Green couldn't fully understand, was "cells"?

"Green, Green!" Old Ham called out twice before Green snapped out of his fascination with the magical book, hurriedly putting it away and helping Old Ham dump the garbage from the cart. After dumping all the garbage, Green and Old Ham began to purchase goods from the Viscount's territory, as they did every day, for the nobles' evening consumption.

It was not until evening that Old Ham and Green finished transporting all the goods to the Viscount's mansion in the city, and then they returned to the countryside with a few copper coins. On the cart, Green was still engrossed in reading "Nasal Transformation and Odor Spectrum."

Old Ham looked back at Green and sighed, "You, boy, you're really obsessed today. Is this book really that good?"

Green chuckled, not saying much, but his heart was filled with awe and longing for the mysterious world of wizards. Were there really moving mountains and rivers flowing from the sky in other worlds? What was the principle behind the wizards' powerful magic?

A series of questions floated in Green's mind, but no one could answer them.

"Ah, you're almost seventeen, right? Next year, I'll repair the house and see if I can find a suitable girl from nearby to be your wife. I hope to see my grandson before I die," Old Ham muttered.

Green, without lifting his head, mumbled, "What are you talking about? You'll live a long life, a thousand years, and rule the world."

"Ha ha..." Old Ham was amused by Green's words and continued to drive the cart back on the familiar road. (In the early chapters of the work, there will be a few modern terms that may affect the immersion, but this is to prepare for some deeper plots at the end. Additionally, this work has no story connection with "The Wizard World," and the structure, power system, and values are completely different. Do not confuse them. The first few chapters may have a similar feel, but once you reach the academy, you'll see the difference. However, don't skip these chapters, as they contain many plot points that are essential for understanding the later parts.)

Page flip AD starts

Page flip AD ends