Legacy of the Dark Sage

The Smithing Competition between the Royal Army and the Conclave was scheduled for the morning of the third day. Similar to the setup in the Array Creation competition, six workstations, with three on each side, were prepared at the Courtenay Family's dome, on the half side of the 4th floor Grand Hall.

Decan,  and two other blacksmiths from the Blacksmith Order were already waiting for the start of the competition. The Royal Army's representatives were also there.

The four Conclave Council Members in the venue were also present, as well as the three deputy marshals of the Royal Army.

Other representatives of the Three Noble Families were in the audience to witness the competition.

As for the Royal Family, the one in attendance was the Crown Princess. Her presence drew the attention of most people in attendance. After all, this could very well be her first public appearance.

The only ones who were able to meet her at present were members of the Three Noble Families in high positions. Similarly, only selected members of the Royal Army had met her in person.

"We hope you will be able to enjoy the competition, your highness," one of the Courtenay Family attendants assigned to look after Haylee's needs said.

Haylee, sat in a high chair prepared by the Courtenay Family that overlooked the hall. She paid little attention to the attendant, who clearly wanted to curry favor for the Courtenay.

"I'm interested in smithing myself, watching the competition will be educational for me," Haylee gave a noncommital response while she wandered her eyes below.

"Ah..." She stopped short when her gaze caught sight of the people she was looking for. But then her brows furrowed slightly after realizing that the person she wanted to see was not present.

"Your highness?"

Hearing Haylee's disappointed sigh, the attendant looked at her in concern. He was instructed to ensure the princess remained in high spirit. If she was in low spirit even before the start of the competition, he would definitely hear a handful from his superiors.

"All participants are here now," Haylee replied. "Let us begin."

"Y-yes, your highness."

Haylee leaned on her chair and closed her eyes before falling into her reverie.

After the Array Creation competition last night, it was she who requested to meet Disciple Tyr. She had only found that her mother talked to him and felt it necessary to clear some things up. To be honest, she did not agree to the empress meeting with him.

Iulia did not say what they discussed and it gave Haylee a headache. The last thing she wanted was for Tyr to know about the matter with the Regis Clan.

Her reasons were a little unreasonable. But she did not want Tyr to know about the matter of her father's plans to marry her off to the Regis young master.

For this reason, she wanted to talk to Tyr and probe for the details of his talk with her mother. Alas, the latter refused to meet her.

And now, he was nowhere in sight.

Haylee opened her eyes and looked at the people below. However, she was still preoccupied.

'He said he was not feeling well,' she thought. 'Is it the reason why he is not here? There is no record of him going to the infirmary though.'

Malia's image crossed her mind and let out a sigh, 'Right, Chairman Malia is here. If he is unwell, there is a much more capable person with them to check on his condition.'

Shaking her head slightly, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind for now. She had to focus on the competition at hand and decided to watch the Solo Competition later.

While the Smithing competition was underway, the subject of the Crown Princess's reverie was currently outside.

That was right, Kyran was not in the Courtenay land.

Going back to what happened last night, after Kyran received the coded message, he left to meet that person; Chairman Hugh.

Hugh made up his mind to help Kyran in exchange, the latter would help heal him.

Of course, Kyran was not the one who would heal Hugh.

It was Cyneah. After all, the reason for Hugh's illness was the erosion of his magic core.

Although Kyran gained vast knowledge in the Tower of Tribulation and knew a number of concoctions that could help Hugh, with the limitation of materials in the human plane, he would not be able to concoct it.

And even if he could, the moment Kyran combined all the materials, a rift would appear in the human plane because the concoction was at least a transcendent grade. If that happened, it would alarm the 'outsiders.'

It was unfortunate that Kyran could not use the Void World for this kind of thing. That place was rich in magic energies and was an ideal place to grow any herbs or some beasts. One could say, it was an ideal world. Alas, anything created in that world, could not be taken to the 'real world.' After all, anything created in that world by default had the 'Void' nature.

Still, Kyran had yet to ask Cyneah's opinion regarding the matter of healing Hugh. Knowing her character, though, he was positive she would agree to any of his requests.

The thought of taking advantage of Cyneah did not sit well with Kyran, to be honest. But given the situation, he did not have much choice. With that in mind, he promised himself to agree to anything she ask of him in return for her help.

Nevertheless, revealing Cyneah's existence to Hugh might put her in danger. So Kyran had to make ample preparation before he take the older man to her.

After the two came to an agreement, Kyran left to find someone. Or to be precise, he went to get someone he noticed was loitering near the location they met: Nolan.

As Kyran expected, Nolan got lost.

Unsurprisingly, Nolan had been wandering the forest for more than a week now. But Kyran did not have the opportunity to make fun of Nolan, because he realized the latter was severely injured. With Nolan being  an essence, Kyran had a rough idea of how it would affect the original body.

Kyran warped straight to the cottage.

Based on the time difference, it was already morning in Noser when Kyran and Nolan arrived. Anette was already there with Cyneah and both were preparing breakfast.

When Anette saw Nolan's condition, she turned pale and had Kyran take him to her Alchemy room. She already noticed Nolan was an essence, but it was precisely he was one that she panicked.

The injury he had that began to fester because it had gone unattended for more than a week would not be good for the original body.

If the original body was injured, the essence was not affected. However, if an essence was injured, there was a good chance the original body would also suffer the same thing.

Knowing of this, Kyran stayed until he was sure Nolan was safe.

He did not want to admit it in front of the older man, but now that he knew how they were related, he was worried— no matter how annoying Nolan was.

While Anette attended to Nolan, Kyran asked Zephyr on an errand to meet Tritus.

On the other hand, Cyneah, knowing she could not be of help, busied herself in the garden.

Kyran took this time to sort his thoughts.

It was already late in the afternoon. Kyran sat on the bench on the front porch, with his eyes closed and his back leaning on the chair.

The things the empress told him still filled his mind.

Right now, he had yet to decide how much of her words he could trust. But looking at the overall situation regarding the 'outsiders,' Kyran judged that the Conclave would suffer. For this reason, he focused on helping the Conclave make their countermeasures first.

He might not want to make full use of the Conclave's strength, but they would still be a good addition when the time to face his real opponents comes.

'Real opponents...' Kyran thought as he opened his eyes. His heart almost leaped out of his mouth when he realized Cyneah's face was inches away from his.

He had not even noticed her approach. Had he been too absorbed in his thoughts that he failed to notice her presence?

"What is it?" Kyran asked and was quite surprised his voice did not betray how fast his heart was beating right then.

Cyneah tilted her head, looking innocently at him. She had no idea what he actually did to him.

Alas, being blind had some perks. Well, Kyran was glad she did not see the look on his face.

Err... actually, he was not even sure what kind of look he had right now.

"Nar," she said as she sat on the empty seat on his right.

Kyran's brow furrowed slightly. For some unknown reason, hearing her call him 'Nar' was making him feel uneasy.

"Uncle Nolan... He... I don't know how to say this, but... when you two arrived, I sensed him, and yet I don't. Is his condition really that bad?" Cyneah started. "If it is, why didn't master ask for my help? Is my healing ability... unreliable?"