Legacy of the Dark Sage

'Let the Lord know what happened, huh?' Avrum thought with a wry smile.

Did Chairman Malia forget that he only had a level 2 clearance to the main tower? Or that they did not have the Lord of the Tower's direct channel? If they wanted to speak with the Lord, they had to go through Head Malek.

'But she did not tell me to go to him,' he thought.

With a sigh, Avrum smiled uneasily and went back to the infirmary. Among the council members, he was the most observant. He was able to understand the underlying reason why Malia did not tell him to go to Malek.

'Ah~ah. It's disappointing how these guys are acting like kids to get even with a boy. Oh well, not my problem.'

After a short pause, Avrum finally decided to go back to the infirmary.

While he could not contact the Lord directly nor visit her quarters at the main tower, there was still a way for him to send his message. And that was by using the transmission array at the alchemy chamber inside the infirmary.

This transmission array was a small one connected directly to Stella's quarters. It served as an emergency transport of medicine or potions without her having to visit the infirmary.

'I just hope the Lord is in her quarters as the Head Master said earlier,' he thought.

===============

'What?' Kyran was surprised.

He did not anticipate Malia to restrain Sigma suddenly.

Malia took a sharp breath and glared at Sigma.

"You are already an adult. What are you doing getting yourself worked up?" She scolded. Then she turned to Kyran and said, "Kyran. You may think that you are already fine, but you have to remember that you have been unconscious for days. If your body was subjected to a rigorous activity right after waking it would have a negative effect on your recovery."

Kyran could not help but sweat. Because he had stayed inside Stella's study that had been accelerated by time, from the outside world, he just woke up. But to him, he had been awake for more than a week.

"Well... Technically, I've been awake for more than a week. So you really don't have to worry," he politely told her.

Malia and Sigma frowned. Both of them made a mental calculation of the days.

There was a moment's pause before Kyran's words finally made sense to them.

"Oh." Malia said.

On the other hand, this further annoyed Sigma. "Tsk. See how this rascal had blinded the Lord? He even takes advantage of her magic!"

Hearing this, Kyran slightly frowned.

The way Kyran understood Sigma's words, he was not really mad about him attacking the Tower of Conclave and destroying the defensive array in the process. Nor was he mad about hurting their people.

It had something to do more with Stella. Particularly on her preferential treatment of him regardless of what he had done.

"Hush, Sigma. You have no idea how happy the Lord was now that she finally met Kyran." Malia scolded him again.

Black lines appeared on Kyran's head.

'No, please don't say it like that or else-.'

"This rascal is clearly taking advantage of the Lord! Just because the Lord is inexperience does not mean this rascal has the right to take advantage of her!" Sigma flared once again.

More black lines appeared on Kyran's head. He remembered how Stella spoke to and treated him. There was also her gentle expression. If she had the same expression when talking about him with the rest of the council, they would definitely get the wrong impression.

For all he knew, Stella was only like that because they had similarities.

'I better clear this out or else,' Kyran decided and said, "Look. I think you have the wrong idea here. Stella is only treating me as-."

Sigma suddenly turned to him and glowered, "YOU DARE SPEAK OF THE LORD'S NAME?"

Malia clobbered him from behind.

"Ow." He turned to Malia. "What did you do that for?"

"You overreact to everything about the Lord! Will you stop for a moment and let me handle this?"

Kyran could not help but sweat at this scene.

Somehow the tension from earlier just... disappeared.

'I wonder how the rest of them will act when I meet them?' He thought with a sigh.

Malia looked at Kyran and said, "Be as it may. We are going to meet in a few hours. So can we put this 'incident' behind us?"

"No."

"Definitely not!"

Kyran and Sigma said at the same time.

"Why are you two so-."

Before Malia could finish, Kyran raised his hand while saying, "Miss Malia. Don't get me wrong. I can't put this incident behind me not because I feel mistreated. I actually understand why... he attacked me. So I don't blame him. Putting this behind us will not resolve it. But you are right. I will meet the rest of the Conclave Council members in a few hours, and I want to address this incident as well as what I did a few days ago."

Both Malia and Sigma fell silent. They were both surprised at Kyran's temper.

At first, Malia thought he was just stubborn, but he was actually thinking about facing them properly. Such was an attitude of a responsible person.

"Alright," Malia replied with a smile. She looked at Sigma and asked, "And. How about you?"

"Humph," Sigma harrumphed but silently agreed.

Malia nodded and looked back at Kyran, "Shall we patch you up then? If the Lord sees you like this-."

Sigma started to growl on the side again, but Malia ignored him.

"-she'll be upset."

Kyran nodded his head, "Okay."

He made a mental note to talk to Stella and clear any misconception the council members had about them.

===============

Right that moment, Stella was indeed still in her quarters. She had not finished with her preparation for the meeting that would happen in two hours.

'Hmm...'

Stella stood in the middle of her room with a thoughtful expression. She crossed her arms as she stared at the few opened parchments floating around her.

These parchments were what she was sorting. It contained all recent information of the Royal Army's movement they had gathered these past few days.

Most of the information was provided by the Mercenary Hall. Since the bounty on Kyran was still active, the mercenaries who accepted it were all looking for more information about him. Those mercenaries who took his bounty were mostly veterans, and they believed the reward was too generous for it to be an easy capture the target alive request. While investigating, they immediately noticed that the army was present and was very active within the area where the target was the last seen. They even found some traces of battle in the forest. Thus, most of them deduced that the army might be involved. Some proceeded to gather more information using that lead. For fear of getting tangled with the army, others located Kyran's tracks using a different approach, like finding his identity.

Of course, these mercenaries were still unaware of what was really happening behind the scenes.

Stella had ordered Hugh and Callan not to disclose this information. At least not until they talk about it with Kyran.

But that was not what made Stella had a thoughtful expression at the moment. Right now, she was looking at the files of all the mercenaries who took Kyran's bounty request. After checking through it, she immediately recognized three of them; Gage, Silas, and Nolan. The three closest to the truth behind the bounty. Silas, because he actually made contact with the Regis; Gage, because he was the one who Silas entrusted to deliver the 'item' to the Mercenary Hall; and Nolan, who actually met Kyran.

What got her attention the most was that all three took the bounty at the same Mercenary Guild. The one being managed by a mage named Soren.

She was worried that if the army found even a trace that links the three mercenaries, the Mercenary Hall would be implicated. Especially now that she had not heard from Nolan after he left to intercept and save Gage a few days ago.

'I may have to let Callan talk to Soren and tell him to be careful,' she thought.

'There was no report of any city or train station being destroyed so there's a high chance he succeeded in intercepting Gage. And according to our intel, after that day, Gael visited a Master Artisan up north of Meliora because his weapon was destroyed.' A smile escaped Stella's lips as she thought of Nolan. It would seem she had to prepare a good remuneration for his good job.

'After visiting the Master Artisan, he went to work as normal, however he looked a little displeased. I just hope Nolan and Gage escaped unscathed. I know letting Nolan go was risky, given his history with the Royal Army. But his strength from before has improved by leaps and bounds so I am quite confident he would succeed. Anyway, he's probably on his way back. But now, I am not sure whether to tell Kyran all this. After all, we don't any news about his family. I am sure he is more concern hearing about that.'

She then looked at the report Vaness gave her this morning.

It was a list of materials that were ordered by the army a few days ago.

Stella had a feeling that these materials had something to do with the Regis. Vaness also noted that the materials the army ordered were used for array creation. When he asked Noir about it, he said he had three arrays in mind that use those materials.

''And one can destroy a defensive array,'' she thought, quoting what Vaness said.

Taking a deep breath, Stella suddenly felt an incoming headache.

'I have to open this to the council later, that way we can come up with a plan to verify this.' She decided.

While she was contemplating all this, she suddenly noticed the bed table on the right, her left at the moment, lit up.

This table was actually a magic item, serving as a transmission array. It was connected to similar tables placed at different locations inside the Tower like the kitchen, Malek's office, her office, and alchemy chamber.

'Does Malek need me to review more reports? Why didn't he tell me though?' She wondered and walked over to the table.

Soon, an off-white colored slip appeared on top of the table.

'This,' Stella's eyes narrowed as she recognized the slip. This was an item Malia used to give her patients instructions with their medication.

'Why does Malia gave me a slip?' She wondered and picked it up. She roused her magic and filled the slip with magic to check its content.

Soon her eyes widened, and she immediately activated the transmission array and left.

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