“Not that much, unfortunately.” Pondering over Faulerei’s question for a while, Valyr eventually shook his head in response. After all, the only information he had regarding what was going on within the Zeihardt clan was what Aster had told him, as well as the description given to him by the World Quest. “All I know is that both factions making up the Zeihardt clan are on the lookout for my whereabouts.”
“Both of the factions are indeed on the lookout for your whereabouts, Herald.” Faulerei nodded in agreement. “However, did you know that the entire Zeihardt clan has fallen into disarray after all traces of your whereabouts had disappeared on both sides?”
“Really?” Valyr’s eyes briefly widened in surprise.
“That is indeed the case,” said Faulerei in response. “Before the entire Imperial Production Guild sent out all of its reconnaissance teams in search for your whereabouts, we sent a letter to the Zeihardt clan to mislead them into thinking that the person that they’ve been looking for is at a faraway place.”
“However, we’ve only sent a letter like that to the rebel faction of the clan, so be at ease, Herald,” he added, causing a question to form in Valyr’s mind.
“Did the guild do anything similar for the supportive faction, then?” Asking this question to Faulerei, Valyr expected the man to respond that they did do something similar for the supportive faction. Yet, the answer that Valyr got from Faulerei instead was a slow shake of the head.
“We have done nothing of the sort,” Faulerei told him. “At most, we have not contacted the supportive faction of the clan in any way.”
“In any case, that is more or less what the Imperial Production Guild currently knows of the happenings within the Zeihardt clan,” he continued. “That is also the true focus of the second topic of this meeting, which is to update you regarding the situation within the Zeihardt clan, Herald.”
“If I were to sum it up, then it could be said that not much has changed overall for both factions of the clan.”
“Of course, if the clan were to find out that you were currently within the Imperial Production Guild, especially your clan’s rebel faction, then who knows what might happen?” Faulerei briefly shrugged his shoulders. “Nevertheless, it is truly the guild’s luck that neither the supportive or the rebel faction were notified of your presence, with your ownership of a concealment skill decreasing the chances of them finding out even further.”
“But I was told that the Imperial Production Guild was on the side of the supportive faction?” A brief expression of confusion appeared on Valyr’s face as he listened to Faulerei’s words, recalling what Aster had told him back then.
“That would indeed be the case.” Faulerei faintly nodded. “However, the supportive faction not knowing of your whereabouts works in their favor, Herald. After all, if the rebel faction decided to have their way and engage in a battle against the supportive faction to obtain information regarding your whereabouts from them, wouldn’t the latter faction’s obliviousness towards your whereabouts make the actions of the rebel faction useless overall?”
“What’s the true goals of the two factions anyway?” Though Faulerei’s explanation made sense in his mind, another question instead formed, causing a slight frown to appear on Valyr’s face as he focused his attention on the elder.
“Do you not have a smidgen of a clue about it, Herald?” asked Faulerei in response, only to be met by Valyr’s shaking of the head.
Seeing Valyr’s response to the question, Faulerei briefly scratched his head as he contemplated over the question. While doing so, he looked at the elders on the other seats, who were looking back at him, all of them gazing at him as if they trusted him that he would say the right thing.
After a while, Faulerei let out a faint sigh as he looked back at Valyr with a slightly conflicted expression. “Unfortunately, all I know regarding their goals is that it has something to do with you, Herald.”
“Right, the title I’ve been referring to you as is also a clue regarding their goals. However, I do not know what significance the title contains.” As Valyr listened to Faulerei’s response to his question, he had a hunch that the elder definitely knew something more about what’s going on within the Zeihardt clan, as well as the reason behind the clan’s frantic search for his whereabouts.𝑜𝓥𝐋xt.𝕔𝒪𝗆
However, since Faulerei did not want to say anything about it, as well as the fact that Valyr knew that repeatedly asking the elder about it would not yield any significant answer from him, then that meant that he was left with only one more way to get the information he wanted.
‘Guess I’ll have to make a trip to where the Zeihardt clan lives.’ With this thought in mind, Valyr let out a faint sigh, pondering as to when he’ll do just that. In the end, he decided that he’ll obtain his subclass, as well as ascend to Rank 2 first in order to have enough strength to fight back against everything that would be possibly thrown at him once he was there.
‘Then again, I do have [Enhanced Polymorph]…’ Thinking about how he would go about visiting the Zeihardt clan’s residence sometime in the future, Valyr decided to place the thought at the back of his head for now after seeing that Faulerei was about to tell him something else.
“Since we’ve covered both of the topics of the meeting that I wanted to address, if there’s nothing else that needs to be discussed, then we shall adjourn the meeting here,” said Faulerei as he looked at the other elders. In response, the elders faintly shook their heads, eliciting a nod from the elder as he soon looked at the young man still standing at the center. “How about you, Herald? Do you perhaps have anything else to discuss?”
“Hmm…” Valyr went silent for a bit in response to the question as he pondered over it. Fortunately, it did not take long for a question to pop up in his mind, something he was curious about, even though Braum had already satisfied his curiosity about it somewhat.
“Would it be possible to find out more information regarding the orc outbreak I’ve been hearing about?”