While on the road to the Tower of Conclave, Silas recounted his and Gage’s journey to Aeren Town and what led him to meet Pheobe.
Throughout Silas’s narration, Callan did not ask any questions and only listened in silence. This made Silas wonder if Callan already knew what happened, and if he did, how did he know.
After that, Silas asked what really happened to the Mercenary Hall that resulted in the ‘hole’ on its building wall. However, Callan only vaguely explained that they were visited that day by someone unhappy about the Mercenary Hall’s recent bounty posting.
This made Silas frown slightly. He clearly remembered Marley and the others talking about being attacked by the target with the One Million Bounty reward. Still, Silas did not pry much. He could read between the lines and knew that the President was deliberately lying to him. It was more than the President did not want the information to come from him.
That was all right with Silas. He also could not say much about his time inside the Regis Estate. Although he was supposed to deliver the item to the President of the Mercenary Hall, the Regis Patriarch only told him that the President would know what to do once the item was delivered.
Right now, Silas wondered whether that meant that the President would only be their passage to meet the real person whom they could talk to. And that person was the Head of the Conclave.
Finally, Callan and Silas arrived at the forest leading to the Tower of Conclave after almost four hours of travel.
When the carriage neared the entrance of the Tower, Silas was shocked to find a huge pit on the ground. The carriage drove around it and approached the tower up ahead.
Silas suddenly had a bad feeling after seeing the pit because the hole on the ground was neatly dug.
“Just like the hole in the wall of that building you went to.”
A cute voice spoke his thoughts.
Lumi appeared above and lay on her stomach on top of Silas’s head.
Silas looked up and asked, “You noticed it too?”
Lumi immediately frowned and pounded at Silas’s head.
“What do you take me for, huh? Stupid Silas!” She berated.
“Okay. Okay. Stop that. I’m sorry,” Silas replied with black lines on his head. He could not decide whether Lumi’s short-temper and tendency to hit him was scary or cute. Especially since she knew she could not hurt him, but she would hit him anyway.
Hearing Silas talked suddenly, Callan only raised his brows in wonder. He smiled slightly when he realized that the Lady Spirit must be talking to him right now.
Lumi stopped hitting Silas and looked over at Callan. She knew he could no longer see her because there was no array with Crystal Blood Flower in the carriage.
“Oi, Stupid Silas, ask the old man for me if the same person who made the hole at the hall building also made this.” She ordered Silas.
Silas belated realized that he was openly talking to Lady Lumi in front of the President. He faced Callan, who was still smiling. Silas smiled apologetically and said, “I’m sorry, President.”
Lumi frowned and pulled on Silas’s hair.
“That’s not what I told you to ask!” She berated.
Silas winced and lifted his hands. He was tempted to knock Lumi off his head, but he feared the outcome. So he could only endure while saying, “Ow. Ow. I get it, Lady Lumi. Stop pulling.”
Although Callan could not see Lumi, he noticed how the hair on top of Silas’s head lifted and guessed what was happening.
“I have been told of how Spirits can be mischievous but affectionate, and I can see that both of you are very close.” He commented, chuckling.
“What? My noble self being affectionate to this stupid stinky human?” Lumi glowered and faced Callan. “Do you want me to freeze you to death, old man?”
As soon as she said this, she shot snowballs in Callan’s direction.
Silas intercepted it with his hand and laughed uneasily. He looked at Callan and said, “Please, President. That topic is taboo to Lady Lumi.”
Callan raised his brows questioningly but seeing the uneasy expression on Silas, he just smiled.
“By the way, President. The pit at the entrance was it…?”
Callan shook his head and smiled apologetically.
“All your questions, you can ask them once we meet the Head Master and the Lord.”
“I understand,” Silas replied with a nod. Callan already mentioned he could tell everything to the Head Master and the Lord, so he agreed without making any fuss.
Lumi pouted. All these secrecy acts were annoying her.
She was a Spirit!
Her kind were the ones who were supposed to annoy these lowly humans, not the other way around!
Callan looked out the carriage windows and smiled.
“Here we are,” he said.
Silas also looked out the window and saw that they had arrived at the steps leading to the tower’s entrance.
He saw this tower long before they entered the Tower of Conclave’s premise. Now that he saw it up close, he was amazed at how enormous and high it was.
Callan looked at Silas and said, “Let us go in. We should not let the Head Master and the Lord wait.”
Silas nodded in response.
===================
The next half hour after Kyran found the caravan wreckage; he maneuvered around the forest as stealthily as possible. He could not afford to be seen. While the forest was vast and the probability of meeting other people was close to nil, it was not zero. So he could not lower his guard. Although he resolved to silence those who would see him, it was not his nature to kill indiscriminately.
‘Now that I am aware of my magic cores, my Regis Body Tempering Technique seems to have a breakthrough. Before, this technique could only heighten my senses and strengthen a part of my body or an object, but now even my sensitivity to magic and auras are improved.’ Kyran thought as he moved from a tree’s branch to another.
Although the improvement in Kyran’s Regis technique was not that huge, he believed there was more to it that he had not yet discovered. But he would have to wait until he arrived at the mercenary guild before he explored it.
‘Hm?’ Kyran abruptly stopped when he sensed movements at least twenty meters away ahead.
He strained his ears and heard people talking. However, his distance was still too far for him to understand them.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Kyran thought and decided to change direction.
As expected, all those involved in the wreckage back there did survive and were wandering around the forest. Whether those people in front were the survivors or the attackers, Kyran did not care. He chose to go around through the left.
WHOOOSH!
Kyran squinted as he turned in midair and avoided an object coming at him from the back.
As he turned, he saw a thin knife about half a foot long passed near his left ear.
Then he saw four more coming and immediately used his hands to grab on the closest tree branch and hoist himself up.
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
The knifes hit the branch in succession.
Kyran landed on top of this branch and looked ahead in the direction where the knife came from.
“Gee, are you a monkey in your previous life? How’d you avoid my knives?” A man with a raspy voice dressed in mismatched leather and metal armor plate on top of a dark brown overall asked as he appeared on a tree branch almost ten meters away from Kyran. A red scarf covered half of the man’s face. His hair was dark and unruly.
Another one with a shrill voice sneeringly said, “Hehehe! Admit it. Your accuracy sucks.”
Kyran looked to his left and saw another man wearing a shriveled brown coat and black baggy pants, standing on another branch of a tree seven meters away. Similarly, the man’s face was half-covered by a red scarf. His long hair was greasy and messy, and one of his eyes also had a nasty scar.
“Humph. Stop playing around and dispose of him immediately.”
Another man appeared below the branch where the first man was.
This man was huge and was only wearing black baggy pants. His bare masculine torso had a huge claw scar. Like the other two men, a red scarf also covered half of his face. His bald head had nasty scars all over.
Kyran could not help but sweat. Was he not praising how much his Regis technique improved only a few seconds ago? Why did he not feel these three sneaking on him?
How ironic.
“Then I’ll do just that!” The lanky, long-haired man said and immediately made a move.
He jumped toward Kyran while a sword appeared in his right hand.
“Die for me!” He shrieked and pointed his sword at Kyran.
Kyran’s eyes narrowed, and he jumped back. Did this guy think he would wait for his sword to reach him?
“HAHAHAHA!”
The lanky man burst out in laughter, and his ‘sword’ suddenly extended into small parts and lashed toward Kyran.
‘A sword whip!’ Kyran realized in surprise.
“I’ll cut you to pieces!” The lanky man shouted as his sword whipped around Kyran’s torso.
Suddenly.
“Idiot.”
Three purple needles formed on Kyran’s left hand.
He turned to avoid the sword whip’s blades and simultaneously threw the needles at the lanky man. He accurately hit the man’s forehead, chest, and stomach.
“Wha…” The lanky man felt three stings on his body.
Kyran looked at the lanky man and pointed at his head.
Then.
The lanky man’s face distorted.
BOOM!
His head, chest, and stomach burst open, and human flesh, blood, and organs spilled out.