Chapter 346 Marked

After Haylee left the infirmary, Celine looked at Kyran with a slight frown and telepathically spoke to him.

'I think you went overboard. If you keep acting this way around them, they will keep a tight watch on you and find out why you feel this way.'

Kyran looked at Celine with raised brows. He did not expect her to speak her mind.

No.

Kyran's eyes narrowed the moment his eyes met hers. Earlier, he noticed her uneasiness whenever he looked at her. Right now, however, she looked fine.

His eyes under the mask turned dark purple as he spread his magic sense to cover the whole room.

There he found traces of Soul magic lingering inside the members of the order's bodies and Celine.

A smile tugged at the corner of Kyran's lips as he realized what the Crown Princess had done. This could be the truth behind her supposed innate ability to control others.

It was no innate ability. It was Soul magic.

Now, the question was what was the Crown Princess' real innate ability?

'I'll find the answer eventually. There is no rush,' Kyran thought and approached Celine.

The moment Kyran started walking, Celine felt her heart skip a beat. She unconsciously stepped back while saying, "W-What is it?"

"Don't move," Kyran told her as he raised his right hand and lifted a pointing finger on her forehead.

A part of Celine wanted to brush his hand away, and at the same time, did not want to.

It was as if there were two wills within her fighting over control of her movements.

While Celine was struggling inside, a purple ring appeared at the tip of Kyran's finger.

The purple ring turned into a single rune which Kyran gently placed on her forehead. In an instant, a golden mark appeared on Celine's forehead that caused her to cry out in pain.

"Argh!" She exclaimed. She would have fallen over if not for Kyran's deft movements wherein he grabbed her arm to support her.

Sizzle!

The golden mark sizzled as the purple rune seeped into it, slowly turning its color into purple.

Celine let out a gasp a second later after the mark had completely turned purple.

Good thing, Kyran held Celine's arm, if not she would have fallen to her knees.

"W-What just happened…?" She muttered, looking up at Kyran questioningly.

The moment her eyes met Kyran's, she could not help but redden. Though Kyran still had Tyr's face and eyes, the fact that she knew it was him under that disguise, made her flustered.

'That girl left a mark on you and everyone inside,' Kyran replied telepathically as he looked at the still unconscious members.

His words immediately made Celine scowl in anger.

'S-She— h-how— more importantly, she actually did that to me? To all these people here?'

She might not be a powerful offensive Magus, but she was still a Magus! For such a young girl to secretly leave a mark on her, even if she was the Crown Princess, was disgraceful!

Seeing Celine's reaction, Kyran let out a chuckle.

'Now you understand how I feel?' He asked.

Celine looked at him and fell silent.

She already guessed the two had met prior to today based on their interaction. And apparently, their first meeting had not been friendly.

Now Celine understood why Kyran had his guard up around the Crown Princess. It was not only because the Royal Family might now be involved with his current situation, but because underneath her gentle smile was a shrewd person.

'I… did not even sense the mark entering my body,' Celine commented, recovering from her initial shock.

'It is normal. That is how Soul magic works. If you do not have a certain level of magic sense, you will not realize it,' Kyran told her.

'Certain level of magic sense?' Celine repeated in doubt.

She knew magic sense had five levels.

Most mages could only master until the third level: using magic sense to 'look' at their surroundings without really seeing with their eyes, and to 'feel' the presence of others.

Celine was also at the third level but she had not mastered it yet. At most, she could look at feel to a certain degree. It was for this reason that she was unable to see the Emperor and the Special Ops hiding earlier.

The Crown Princess's magic was Healing, but if she wanted to fully utilize it where she could heal and regrow limbs, she had to have a high magic sense.

After witnessing how she healed the injured members to their best state, and even regrown Emmet's hair, then her magic sense was at the fourth level: she could manipulate the magic energies in the surroundings.

Did this mean the Crown Princess had a monstrous magic sense? She could also well be the only person in the whole empire—, or maybe the whole world, that had reached a magic sense to this degree!

No, wait.

Celine glanced at Kyran and wondered what level his magic sense was. After all, He was able to sense the Emperor and the Special Ops' hiding earlier, so his magic sense was at least at the third level. Except, his mastery was far better than her.

'What about you? What is the level of your magic sense?' Celine thought.

Or so she thought she did, but then a reply came and made her realize she had asked the question telepathically.

'High enough,' Kyran replied with a slight smile while looking at her in slight amusement. He just told her the Crown Princess used Soul magic but she appeared more interested in his mention of the magic sense.

Celine frowned at his reply.

Did he have to give such a vague answer?

Sighing in resignation, Celine looked away and diverted the subject back to what the Crown Princess had done.

'What you did just now... you removed her mark on me, right? Won't the Princess notice it?' She asked.

'I didn't remove it. I adjusted it. The mark is still on you, but it will no longer affect you,' Kyran explained.

Celine's eyes widened as she once again looked at Kyran.

'Adjusted it...' She repeated incredulously. 'Just like that?' She asked while pointing her finger toward his forward.

'Yeah, just like that,' Kyran replied, raising his brows at her.

Celine gasped and covered her mouth, as her eyes brightened in excitement, 'Unbelievable. Is that the nature of your magic? No, wait. The nature of your magic is not really... Or no, maybe it is! Like, you can 'void' the effect or something? Am I, right?'

Now that Kyran was properly talking to Celine, he realized she had a curious and somewhat clumsy side to her. It made him remember the state of her office— not to mention, her appearance—, the first time they had met.

'I'll leave it up to your imagination,' Kyran replied. He did not have the time to satisfy her curiosity.

'Huh? What do you even—.'

Before Celine could complain, Kyran already walked toward the bed and raised his hand.

He said, 'If I'm correct, that girl already marked some members outside.'

His assumption was not without basis.

The truth was, he was still wondering how the Crown Princess arrived at the infirmary without any assistance from the other members outside, and even enter the room without the two sensing her.

Kyran already had a theory.

His vigilance inside the order was not that high because he already memorized each of the members 'presence.' If any of them have any malicious intent, he would sense it even without using his magic sense.

The Crown Princess had lied when she said, she had let herself in. Most likely, she had concealed her presence well and secretly marked the members of the order who had greeted her then let one of them walk with her to the infirmary, camouflaging her presence further.

The one who opened the door and even let the Crown Princess in was a member. An average human, to be precise.

That was why Kyran did not sense anything. Because his vigilance was even lowered around the average human.

'What?' Celine exclaimed in shock. 'Isn't that bad?'

Kyran shook his head, 'I'll adjust it too. But given their number, it will take me some time to complete it. Especially if I have to do it secretly.'

Several purple rings burst out from the tip of Kyran's pointing finger and flew to every member lying on the bed.

These rings turned into a single rune and landed on their foreheads and forced out the golden mark.

Similar to what happened to Celine's mark, the purple runes seeped into the marks, turning their gold color to purple.

Once that was done, Kyran took a deep breath. As expected, adjusting a mark made from ancient magic was not easy.

After what happened in the Shaiha Ruins, he was only able to replenish his magic energy to 80% before returning to the Blacksmith Order. Then he had to activate a large-scale array, not to mention constantly camouflage his magic. He had used up 20% of his 80% magic energy after that. Now, after adjusting the mark on Celine and the members inside the infirmary, he had used up 14%.

This meant, that adjusting one mark used up at least 1% of his magic energy! And he had to adjust the rest of the members outside!

Celine did not argue further and let Kyran do his work.

Who knew how bad it would be if the mark the Princess left them was left for too long?

? "Hall Master Celine," Kyran suddenly called for her aloud.

"Y-Yes?" Celine replied and looked at him.

"After I'm done here, can you station a few mercenaries here? I have to go to the Tower of Conclave, right after," Kyran asked.

"Oh, that can be arranged. I can also prepare a carriage to take you to the Tower—."

"No need," Kyran replied with a slight smile.