On the fifth day after Silas left the Regis Estate, he finally arrived in Starhorn City.
He was supposed to arrive two days ago, but after leaving the Regis Estate, he waited a day before leaving Aeren because he was worried about the army’s sudden attack. He decided to camp out for half a day and told himself he would return to the estate if their situation worsened. Unfortunately, he wasted half a day for nothing because the army secured the surrounding of the Regis Estate well.
The people of Aeren Town did not even hear the explosion or feel the tremors when the Royal Army launched their attack on the estate.
After Lumi reprimanded Silas, he finally left Aeren and decided to contact Gage.
Contacting Gage caused Silas another day of unproductiveness because he could not reach him. Even when Silas sent his message through the magic item he lent Gage; there was no response.
To be precise, Silas could not send his message. As if the magic item was in a place too far from him or that it was inside a powerful prohibition, and he could not connect to it.
And so, Silas decided to go to the Mercenary Hall directly. If Gage succeeded in delivering the orb, the President of the Mercenary Hall should already know the situation.
But as soon as Silas arrived at the Mercenary Hall building, what he saw left him dumbfounded.
Silas stared at the big hole on the wall on the upper floor of the Mercenary Hall building.
“This..?”
Lumi appeared with a soft puff and sat on his head. She also looked at the hole with a thoughtful expression and said, “That is such a clean hole.”
Silas frowned slightly and peeked at Lumi above his head. She really loved to sit on top of his head. He did not mind, but if she suddenly appeared like this.
“Lady Lumi, could you not suddenly appear-.”
“Don’t talk to me. You should know that these ignorant fools will not be able to hear nor see me. If you talk to me, it will only appear as if you are talking to yourself. I know you are stupid, but don’t flaunt it.”
Black lines appear on Silas’s head. He was used to Lady Lumi’s verbal abuse since he was a child, but she had gotten worse these days for some reason.
“I get it,” Silas could only mutter with a sigh.
He looked at the hole one last time before he entered the building.
As soon as he entered, Marley, staying by the reception counter, looked up and immediately smiled.
“Sir Silas, it has been a while.” She greeted.
The other mercenaries in the lobby also turned to look at him.
“Look its Silas the Crystal Swordbreaker!”
“I heard he took the One Million Bounty, did he have some news?”
“A pity, if we have known about the new reward, we would’ve taken proof when he came here a few days ago.”
Hearing the whispers around him, Silas could not help but frown. Just what did they mean?
“Is everything all right, Marley?” Silas greeted with a smile as soon as he reached the counter.
Lumi flew up and circled Marley.
“Hmm,” she moved closer and sniffed at Marley’s neck and said, “This girl smell strange.”
Silas could not help but sweat at what Lumi was doing, and he tried his best to ignore her.
Marley smiled awkwardly at him and said, “Please, sir Silas, are you really asking that question?”
She looked up as if looking at something outside, and Silas immediately understood what she meant.
“Sorry. I did not mean that. Just… what exactly happened?” He asked.
Lumi stood in front of Marley and started to poke at her cheeks.
Silas’s brow twitched. He refrained from pulling her off Marley.
“We were a little careless,” Marley explained. “It happened a few days ago. I am sure you are aware of the One Million Bounty and know what the target looked like. However, he looked nothing like the poster and so we thought he was just a regular applicant who wanted to be a mercenary. He went through the assessment but… who would have thought that his real purpose was to attack the mercenaries and tell us not to mess with him, before he escaped.”
“Hmm. This girl is not reacting to my touch, interesting.” Lumi said on the sides as she continued to poke Marley’s face.
Distracted by what Lumi was doing, Silas cleared his throat and laughed uneasily at Marley.
He said, “Well.. that’s quite unfortunate to be attacked by that young man…”
Suddenly, his eyes grew wide as Marley’s words finally registered.
“Wait, what? The target on that bounty came here pretending to be an applicant but then he attacked instead?”
The gears on his mind moved as he tried to process the things Marley said and did not say.
Kyran went to the Mercenary Hall? When? He was the one who made that hole on the wall? More importantly, he attacked the Mercenary Hall?
Marley sighed and nodded. “Yes. He looked like an innocent young man. Who would have thought he has such ulterior motives.”
Lumi finally stopped and glared at Marley and pointed at her accusingly, “You wench! Don’t you dare slander the new Void Master!”
Silas also slammed his hands on the counter. His action surprised everyone, and they all looked at him in surprise.
Even Marley stared at him with wide questioning eyes, “S-Sir Silas?”
“That can’t be!” He exclaimed.
“That’s right! You tell her little Silas!” Lumi also exclaimed.
“Innocent young man?” Silas added.
“Yes! Tell her that the new Void Master would never- wait, huh? You’re reacting to that?” Lumi frowned and glared at Silas.
“Yes,” Marley replied in confusion. “Well, his poster looked much younger but he is still a young man and-.”
“No, I mean. Did that…young man not tell you who he is? And what did the Hall Master do? No, wait. Was the Hall Master here when it happened? How about the President? More importantly, Gage! WHERE IS GAGE?”
Silas’s bombardment of seemingly unrelated questions left everyone looking at him with dumbfounded looks.
Even Lumi was looking at him with a blank expression.
Finally, after a few seconds of silence, Lumi scowled and said while bombarding him with snowballs, “Stupid Silas! Speak in english!”
Ignoring the fluffy snowballs, Silas realized the look of confusion on Marley’s face and said, “I lost my cool. I’m sorry.”
Marley immediately shook her head and said, “N-Not at all.”
“Please, can you tell me if Gage came here?”
“Sir Gage? Are you talking about Twin Axe Titan, Gage?”
“Yes,” Silas confirmed with a nod.
Marley shook her head and replied, “No. He has not come in here. The last time he came here was at least… four months ago, when he received the reward on a Class A bounty he took.”
Gage did not come to the Mercenary Hall? Then, where was he? How about the orb? The President?
This situation was not the scenario Silas was expecting when he arrived.
Lumi also stopped and returned to her seat on top of Silas’s head.
“This is not good. If your little friend did not come here, and the message was not passed on to the President, then the new Void Master is still…” she said.
True. But even if that was the case, the Mercenary Hall knew about Kyran. Would they let him go just like that after he attacked? They definitely would wonder what happened and would try to keep him here.
‘Too many questions. It is best to talk to the President directly,’ Silas thought.
Even if he did not have the orb with him, he still had the Regis token to prove he became their emissary. They would at least listen to what he had to say, right?
Silas looked at Marley and said in a low voice, “Please Marley, can you connect me to the President? I have an urgent matter to discuss with him.”
====================
Kyran walked deeper into the forest. His heart beats nervously against his chest as cold sweat trickled down the side of his face.
The whole forest was still. The only sound heard was his restrained breathing. However, he vaguely felt countless eyes looking at him, and he hated the feeling. It brought back unwanted memories of when he first arrived at the military school.
Slightly shaking his head, Kyran recalled the words of the voices he heard earlier to distract himself. From what he remembered, the owner of those voices mistaken him for someone—a person who was gone for some time.
It was not hard for Kyran to guess that those voices mistook him for the Dark Sage. The ‘scanning’ sense he felt earlier must be a prohibition around this place. Most likely, it was similar to a mage’s magic sense. But he was unsure if it came from the voices or part of the array that produced the miasma. After all, after it happened, the miasma also parted as if to clear a path for him.
‘Or did they recognize my magic when I summoned my Void Scales?’ Kyran wondered. Because he did summon his Void Scales almost at the same time the ‘scanning’ ended.
Either way, he was recognized, and the owner of those voices decided to ‘appear’.
However, when he inquired who they were, they realized something was wrong and chose to observe. At least, that was how Kyran interpreted their silence. He knew whoever those voices belonged to was still lurking in the shadows—watching him closely.
Because Kyran was too wary of his surroundings, he lost sense of time and failed to calculate how far he had gotten. He only noticed this point when he came into a clearing near the edge of a ravine, and up ahead, he saw a magnificent white and black palace floating above.
‘Is that…?’
Kyran’s heart started to beat erratically, and his magic circulated inside him excitedly.
A deep sense of longing overcame his senses as his body made an involuntary move toward the palace.
‘Stop!’
Kyran dispelled his Void Scales at once and urged the Regis body tempering technique instead.
[The Dragon Lord!]
[No! It cannot be!]
[He’s not the Monarch!]
[Intruder!]
[Kill!]
A sudden gust of wind enveloped Kyran as the voices appeared again.