In the evening, everyone sat around a campfire while eating the roasted prey. They all told each other stories and chatted happily. Especially when Danzel told his story during his adventure, everyone listened and enjoyed it.
Until late at night, Richard and Niken decided to spend their time together before they were finally separated for a year.
"You can't be jealous of Richard, can you?" teased Shin Ha.
"..."
"No way, Kazuto ..." Shin Ha's words stopped when he saw one of Kazuto's hands turn into a wolf's claw and ready to strike him if he continued his joke. "Hahahaha... I'm just kidding."
"Not funny at all." the answer was nonchalant, and his hands had returned to normal. "But ... somehow, I feel like I won't be able to get in between the two of them. They seem inseparable."
"Come on, Kazu... you also know they only have each other as family. Maybe their relationship and affection have become their habit for years. And that won't disappear easily, you can't change it either."
"I know. That's why I let them be. But, I couldn't help but feel restless. My instinct told me they are not blood-related siblings."
"..." Shin Ha looks thoughtful. During his search, he did hear that Princess Xiao Yue had an older brother, but surely not a twin. If it's true that Niken is Xiao Yue, then who is this Richard? And where is her brother, Xiao Yang? He remembered what Izzy said last night. Is it true Prince Xiao Yang died in the attack?
"I'm not 100% sure on that. But I could see the affection of Richard toward his sister. He loved her as a brother love his sister." Shin Ha decided not to tell Kazuto about Xiao Yang. It's better to let Niken himself tell Kazuto first since they will be together for their journey to Shiqu mountain.
"I know that." Kazuto also could see it through Richard's sharp eyes.
"Do you know who this Muyun is?"
The questions posed by Hokuto made Kazuto and Shin Ha turned around and join their friends. They decided to drop over the siblings and join their friends.
"Our guess is that he is one of the Liang clans - the mo spirits," Lionel answered.
"Mo spirit?"
Lionel explained that besides the Xiao family, there was a Liang family who was a resident of the Nishian kingdom. This Liang was exceptional because they has the ability to move freely in time zones that frozen without using any energy force.
These Liang clans who made a contract with Time Master were called mo spirits. They were direct descendants of Mo Shi Liang, the oldest leader of the lower caste wizard, as well as the first Great Time Master in the world.
That explained why the Liang clan was immune to the energy of time-controllers and Time Masters, whereas the Liang family has the power to sentence to death and bless the prospective baby who will become a Time Master.
If there was no one interested, the baby would not awake nor grow up to adult till someone from the Liang clan is willing to become her mo spirit.
Everything had two sides, the same with the Liang clans. Some of them dislike the Xiao family to rule the kingdom, so instead of giving their blessing, they gave a death sentence to the baby.
Once the verdict is given, the baby will experience an abnormal death. Her heartbeat is still running, but the baby will fall asleep to the max of ten years before the heart's pulse will stop.
Only someone stronger than the convicter could wake the baby up and become her mo spirit automatically.
Ling Duan was the mo spirit of Xiao Feng, while Muyun is the mo spirit of Xiao Hua, the younger sister of Xiao Feng.
Xiao Yue also has a mo spirit as she managed to grow well. However, no one knew who her mo spirit is or where he is.
"What is the use of mo spirit for Time Master?" Kazuto was restless, knowing more unfamiliar people get entangled with his inamorata.
It seemed that mo spirit alleviates the Time Master's mental condition who is contracted with him. When the Time Master experiences a deep wound, some pain will be channeled into the mo spirit. Every time Time Master felt something, it was happening to the mo spirit. And if the Time Master dies, then her mo spirit will die too.
When the Time Master lost control of her power and threatened the world, her mo spirit would soothe her raging heart while withstanding that power.
Generally, the person who was a Time Master is a woman. Most women were more thought with their feelings so often out of control whenever she felt emotional and did not care about the life around her.
This was the duty of a mo spirit to check the master's emotions. He helped the master to control the overwhelming emotions and power.
"If I remember correctly, wasn't the Nishian kingdom attacked a dozen years ago? Is there any chance that Niken's mo spirit will not survive the attack?"
"..." Lionel wasn't sure he could answer the question from Kazuto. He did not even know the mo spirit's identity that had awakened Xiao Yue when she was born.
"For the time being, we don't need to worry about it. Whether there is mo spirit or not, Niken will still be a Time Master."
Although Lionel said the words in a soothing tone, actually, he was quite restless. If Niken does not have mo spirit, then there is a possibility that the energy that Niken will use will be very limited.
Niken needs mo spirit to increase her magical energy cultivation power. Otherwise, Niken wouldn't be strong enough to fight Muyun as a mo spirit from another Time master.
The only one who could fight Time Master was mo spirit, and the one who could fight mo spirit was another mo spirit who has a contract with Time Master.
Xiao Yue could easily defeat the White Knight, but she needed mo spirit to defeat Muyun.
Even if Niken's mo spirit had not yet appeared until the end of the day, there were still other ways to defeat Muyun.
They just need to find Xiao Hua's exact location as she was the master of Muyun and then kill the woman. As soon as Xiao Hua left this world, Muyun would automatically die too.
The problem was that it would be a problematic path searching for Xiao Hua as the woman had already been missing for decades. Asking Muyun for the woman's whereabouts was out of option.
Everyone nodded in agreement, hearing Lionel's explanation. Even though he convinced them himself, Lionel continued to look at Yuki with an agitated look. Somehow he had a bad feeling about this plan, and he thought that girl was the cause.
Lionel brushed aside his negative thoughts and hoped he was just paranoid. But he couldn't help but remember his conversation with Finnick that day when Finnick was still the colorless Elementalist knight.
'My successor will have unique mastery.'
'What kind of mastery?'
'I haven't look into that yet. I also don't know whether he will be a threat to this world or not.'
'I thought you could see everything about the future.'
'I had these prophecies from my dreams. But you also know that sometimes my dreams were just ordinary. Not all the dreams I had come happened in the future. I hope this time, it's just a normal dream.'
'Why?'
'In my dream, the colorless knight will defeat you and the others. All of you were no match for him. Not even the white knight.'
'Sounds like a tough opponent.'
'That's why I really hope my dream this time is just an ordinary dream.'
Just an ordinary dream. Lionel emphasized that phrase repeatedly in his heart to make him feel relieved. At present, the threat to the world was the white knight, not the colorless one.
Even though their opponents are not easy to handle, he preferred to deal with opponents who he knows his abilities rather than face opponents whose skills he doesn't know. Not to mention, Yuki was half-breed of Zeed, meaning she had magic cultivation in her. She even could create her own magic circle if she wanted it. Yet, Lionel preferred the girl would never use her magic. Otherwise, he couldn't imagine what kind of aura the girl would emit once she combined the magic and elemental energy.
Even though the little girl was his master's lover, he still didn't believe that Yuki wouldn't have changed a heart.
"Danzel, I hope you can get Yuki on their side. I'm not sure if I can handle it if the girl defected against her comrades." Lionel whispered to his best friend, who would guide and train the young knights.
Danzel looked at Yuki, who did not make any emotion when she saw her friends discussing and chatting.
"I understand. I will try my best."