Chapter 8: The Unlucky Guy and the Lucky One

"The treasury of the Violet Citadel is guarded by an extremely rigorous security system, with elite mages of the Kirin Tor patrolling and monitoring it twenty-four hours a day."

Grand Magistrix Rommath was introducing the situation of the Violet Citadel in the central district of Dalaran to Arthas. As the center of power in the kingdom of magic, this ancient magical fortress concealed unimaginable treasures.

These treasures were not merely literal wealth in gold and silver, but also immensely powerful magical items, and even ancient artifacts collected by the mages of Dalaran from all corners of the world.

Following the corruption and death of the Guardian Medivh, his wizard tower, Karazhan, had become a coveted prize in the eyes of Dalaran.

They had even established an organization named the [Tear of the Violet Eye], nominally to monitor the situation of the tower, but in reality to cart away box after box of accumulated knowledge and wealth from the Guardian's wizard tower.

Do not assume that mages are universally noble souls; when confronted with potent, profound magical knowledge and infinitely powerful artifacts, they are far greedier than ordinary people.

Although the Kirin Tor Council had yet to fully explore the Guardian's tower—their activities restricted solely to the outer perimeter and lower levels of Karazhan, while the upper floors remained sealed beneath a terrible curse following Medivh's death that even elite mages dared not venture into blindly—

The careless and greedy adventurers permanently trapped within Karazhan served as the ultimate warning.

Yet, despite expending so much manpower and material resources, the Kirin Tor had managed to extract quite a few fine things from Karazhan. Aside from precious magical knowledge, the most notable were the treasures collected by Medivh himself.

Arthas's visit today was precisely to verify the safety of the cursed artifact housed within Dalaran's vault: [The Book of Medivh].

This grimoire had originally been nothing more than the Guardian Medivh's personal notes on certain magical insights, but after his utter corruption, the spells recorded within grew increasingly perilous with every page.

Furthermore, having been carried by the Guardian for a prolonged period, it had become saturated with his immense magical power, transforming the notes long ago into an artifact akin to a true grimoire.

In addition, the book recorded the astral coordinates of Azeroth and the methods for constructing the Dark Portal; should it fall into the wrong hands, it would effectively leave Azeroth completely exposed to the Void.

In the established timeline, it was the lich Kel'Thuzad—resurrected by Arthas—who utilized the knowledge recorded in the book, along with the ley-line energy of Dalaran, to summon Archimonde the Defiler.

This terrifying demon possessed a might rivaling the gods, and with a mere wave of his hand, he overturned the entirety of Dalaran. The panicked, fleeing mages were utterly powerless against the leader of the Burning Legion.

It was only after Archimonde departed that those fleeing mages cautiously crept back into the ruins, scavenging what remained of their wealth while plotting how to rebuild Dalaran.

"Can we go in and conduct a check and confirmation?"

***

Grand Magistrix Rommath shook his head. "I'm afraid not. That would require the consent of at least half of the Council of Six before anyone could enter the vault for an investigation."

Mograine was already dissatisfied with Dalaran's attitude. "What on earth can you tell just by looking from the outside? We don't even know if there are any traces of demon activity inside!"

"While that is indeed true, I believe Dalaran's defense systems are still quite trustworthy."

A soft feminine voice rang out, causing Arthas to sigh. "Lady Sylvanas—pardon, Lady Sylvanas... Ah, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner's sister, Lady Vereesa. Generally speaking, yes, but our opponents are likewise not ordinary people."

The high elf known as Vereesa was none other than Sylvanas Windrunner's younger sister. She had joined Arthas's investigative party partly because she was intrigued by the renowned young prince, and partly because she had heard Arthas had saved her sister's life, prompting her to come and offer her assistance.

Although incomparable to Dalaran's upper echelons of elite mages, Vereesa's reputation as a ranger leader still carried some weight within Dalaran.

Earlier, owing to her appearance being nearly identical to Sylvanas's, even Arthas had almost mistaken her for Sylvanas arriving in Dalaran.

Upon a second thought, however, Arthas had dismissed the possibility—as the Ranger General of Quel'Thalas, Sylvanas was practically incapable of leaving her own territory, making the identity of this ranger who looked precisely like Sylvanas quite easy to deduce.

To be completely honest, Arthas did not wish to entangle himself with Vereesa for the time being; to be precise, he wished to avoid any connection to a certain individual who was exceptionally close to her.

That fellow's name was Rhonin, and regarding him, Arthas held only a single evaluation:

The ultimate, super-duper, supreme unluckiest bastard alive.

The perilous dilemmas he stumbled into were likely beyond anyone's wildest imagination, yet he was invariably the luckiest person when facing those perils, while the ones who suffered were almost always his teammates.

There was a saying among the mages of Dalaran: If Deathwing were to swallow Rhonin whole and happen to choke to death on him, we would rid ourselves of two scourges in one fell swoop.

Just imagine how terrifying it must be to be compared to a calamity on par with Deathwing, the World-Breaker. The other mages of Dalaran practically gave Rhonin a wide berth, terrified of being cursed to death by his misfortune one day.

Yet this brat possessed extraordinarily good fortune. Because of his mission to rescue the Red Dragon Queen, he caught the attention of the Dragon Aspects and even fell head over heels in love with his teammate at the time—none other than Vereesa Windrunner, who now stood before Arthas.

Deathwing's injury was inextricably linked to Rhonin; had Deathwing's plans not been disrupted by this single variable, the other Dragon Aspects might well have been exterminated long ago.

Arthas had no intention of teaming up with Rhonin. He still had far too many things to accomplish and had no desire to confront Sargeras, the Dark Titan, head-on quite yet.

***

Yet Vereesa had come with good intentions to help, and she was not herself a walking catastrophe generator. As long as Rhonin was not involved, Vereesa's identity would indeed prove immensely useful to Arthas.

Arthas swept his gaze across the heavily guarded treasury once more and addressed the others. "Let's go. There are no signs of penetration here for the time being."

The three of them looked at Arthas with astonishment, unable to comprehend how he could arrive at such a conclusion.

"There are no traces of demons having appeared here, and the vault's defensive arrays and other security mechanisms are also in a state of absolute perfection." Arthas glanced at it one last time before withdrawing his attention.

"Besides, if even this place had been infiltrated by a dreadlord, why would he wait for us to arrive instead of taking what he wanted and leaving long ago?"

As a Grand Magus, it was impossible for Rommath not to recognize whether a defensive array was intact; a pristine magical array and a flawed one gave off completely different magical echoes.

Since even Rommath had detected no anomalies, there was no point in bickering further with the Kirin Tor over the matter. Arthas's original intention had been to find a way to spirit [The Book of Medivh] away directly and utterly destroy it somewhere, but clearly, given the vault's security mechanisms, that was an impossibility.

What a pity... He had originally intended to strike before Tichondrius and take the object away.

Dalaran's vault security measures were indeed formidable; even agents of the covert chambers would find infiltration impossible, rendering Arthas's plan a dead end. Moreover, having brought along two outsiders in Rommath and Vereesa made resorting to such methods completely unviable.

"Your Highness Arthas is right, otherwise the demons would have already made their move—I propose we go and inspect the nearby ley-line nodes. If the demons have been tampering with the magic, we might find some clues."

As a knowledgeable Grand Magus, Rommath offered the best suggestion he could conceive, which coincided perfectly with Arthas's own thoughts. In the absence of any incriminating slip from Tichondrius, their only course of action was to investigate anything out of the ordinary.

"That will require going to some restricted areas with a higher security clearance, but my status and Rommath's should resolve most of those issues," Vereesa said softly, lifting her chin slightly. "However, there is one place we cannot enter."

Following Vereesa's gaze, the towering main spire of the Violet Citadel stood proudly—the very epicenter of Dalaran's ley-line network and the beating heart of the entire city.