The First Magic World War

Charlotte was slightly surprised!

But Julian's face remained calm as he said, "The specialty of our Asilo Clan's Extraordinary Weapons is their ability to integrate into the Bloody Vortex."

Charlotte remembered Blood Rose, caressing her left arm, thinking to herself, "It does go well with the Withering Rose."

In battles among commoners, firearms had a tremendous advantage, but they had an insurmountable weakness at the Extraordinary level. Even low-order melee weapons like swords could unleash extreme power if the wielder's rank was sufficient, but Extraordinary firearms were limited by their inherent ranks and could not fire bullets beyond their class.

Charlotte owned an Anti-Space Sniper Rifle and two Silver Rhinoceroses, but without Magic-Breaking Bombshell Bullets, he could not breach the protective energy surge of a Transcendent, and even with the bullets, he had encountered a peerless Transcendent who could deflect them with a single Knight's Spear.

To this day, he could not understand how Cyrus could deflect the high-speed Magic-Breaking Bombshell Bullets.

Cyrus, wielding the Black Knight's Lance, was like an unshakeable mountain, no matter how much Charlotte improved or how close he came to mastering swordsmanship. Cyrus was like the unfathomable sea, always finding a way to overpower him. The several hundred duels they had had in the Dreamscape remained Charlotte's most profound nightmares to date.

Hmm, after dueling with Cyrus, Charlotte didn't really fear High-Level Transcendents anymore.

He even felt it wasn't so difficult when he killed the South Ceraph Reclamation Army General, Zolman, who was at the fifteenth rank of Extraordinary Ranks.

Though, in that battle, Charlotte had used a little trick.

But in combat, especially a fight to the death, shouldn't one use all means available, using whatever works?

Seeing Charlotte deep in thought, Julian thought he was dissatisfied with the power of the Withering Rose and said, "If you don't like it, when I return to Byron, I can have the Withering Rose brought to me, and I'll exchange it for an equivalent Aegeus."

Charlotte smiled slightly and said, "No, I like this gun very much."

"Have you ever heard a common saying from the New Continent, 'To give away roses is to leave fragrance on one's hands'?"

Julian had truly never heard this saying from Earth. He pondered it in his mind for a moment and couldn't help but laugh, "That saying has a nice flavor to it."

"If you're not too busy, let's have lunch together this afternoon and travel together in the evening."

Charlotte nodded in agreement. Julian didn't leave but instead rang a bronze bell to summon someone. Shortly after, a meal cart was brought in. He had ordered Byron's famous crispy pork knuckle, tender suckling pig, a selection of sausages, freshly baked bread, and a small barrel of beer.

Julian tied a napkin around his neck and complained, "The scenery in the Inglima Empire is nice, but the food is really terrible. I don't want to go out to eat; that experience..."

Julian couldn't find the right word at that moment.

Charlotte filled in, "Dark cuisine."

Julian's eyes lit up and he said, "Exactly, that's the word. To describe the Inglima Empire is to talk about the Hell of delicacies, and we are the gourmands of Hell."

"I won't ask you to go out to eat; that would not be good hospitality."

The two of them had a meal together in Julian's office.

```

Although they hadn't gone to any famous restaurants, Charles truly found these dishes quite tasty, especially Byron's ale, which was now no less superior to the best ale brewed by the famous pubs in Silver Pigeon Fort. He even thought he should ask Anne to try Byron's cooking next time he returned to Strasbourg.

After they had finished their meal and switched back to black tea, they chatted away the afternoon until it was almost time for the dance. Julian even had someone bring Charles a change of clothes to ensure he wouldn't embarrass himself at the event.

Charles' Fars diplomatic common attire was indeed not suitable for a dance.

As they left Lafayette's store and Julian was about to hail a public carriage, Charles smiled slightly and touched the ring on his hand, summoning a luxurious dark carriage pulled by eight spirit horses out of the void.

"Let's take my carriage," he said.

Julian happily stepped into the luxury dark carriage and said, "My brother has one too. He even planned to give it to me as a birthday gift, but I didn't accept it."

Charles felt a tinge of sourness and asked, "Why not?"

Julian replied with confidence, "Who would want a second-hand carriage as a birthday gift?"

More than a hundred years ago, Master Alchemist Stardust made thirteen luxury dark carriages, and the ones passed down now are all considered antiques. But when Julian called them second-hand, it wasn't exactly incorrect either.

Charles had only shown off the luxury dark carriage to two people—Anne had no clue about its specialties, and Julian thought of it as nothing more than a second-hand carriage...

This is what it means to be from the top class of nobility.

The extraordinary item that Baron Fiel treated as an heirloom was nothing but a trifle in their eyes.

Charles felt increasingly sour.

The luxury dark carriage was, after all, a high-order extraordinary object. The carriage pulled by eight spirit horses didn't require a driver. The last time he had a Hunchback Red Bear Warrior fill in as coachman was mainly to avoid causing a sensation.

But this time they were going to attend the dance of Victory Champagne Count, the legendary figure of the Inglima Empire Lanmalock—it would be odd not to cause a sensation, so Charles did not ask for a shop assistant from Lafayette's store to serve as a coachman.

In just over ten minutes, the luxury dark carriage arrived at Victory Champagne Count's Champagne Palace. The spacious square in front of the palace was filled with sumptuous carriages, and any carriage worth less than five hundred gold pounds seemed out of place. It was a gathering not just of Inglima Empire's nobility but of nobles from various nations.

In a place swarming with so many nobles, Charles didn't dare activate Insight. After all, among these nobles were transcendents, and using Insight would be akin to spying, which is incredibly impolite. But even with his naked eye, Charles could not spot Augusladin High Priest.

Julian urged, "Let's go inside."

Charles casually put away the luxury dark carriage and made space for a white carriage that had just entered the square. A young lady aboard leaned out and gracefully expressed her gratitude.

She didn't care about the magic of Charles' carriage being able to shrink into a ring, she was just thankful for the vacated parking spot.

In his previous life, Charles was an ordinary person—what high-end society could a math teacher experience? At most, he got a glimpse of it in TV dramas, but the dramas nowadays were too unrealistic. In this life, he came from a family of merchants, not the magnate kind, where even purchasing a new carriage required careful consideration—he had never experienced a true noble gathering.

Anne was an incredibly down-to-earth girl who never showed off her family background.

Having crossed over, this was indeed the first time Charles had been to such an event, and he felt oddly, damn nervous.

```