Chapter 364 A Threat Or…?

The information of what happened during the Solo Competition in Function Hall 2 spread like wildfire to the other factions.

In particular, the Lumley Family seethed in anger for having their team two wiped out by a single mage. Their anger increased by the fact that the said mage was the very person they wanted to teach a lesson, Disciple Tyr.

The Courtenay Family who had a neutral stand at first, being the one hosting the whole event under direct supervision of the Royal Family, was also rattled.

Patriarch Ernst gave strict orders to stay clear off Discple Tyr because he knew the Royal Family had their eyes on him. But, given how he single-handedly defeated five of the Lumley Family's top talents, their pride as one of the Three Noble Families were threatened.

Tyr was a commoner. For him to defeat mages from a noble family's main branch was disgraceful. At the same time, it was something that the other members of the Three Noble Families could ignore.

If the Lumley Family was defeated by the Conclave as a team, then their lost could be justified as their members' lack of information against their opponent. But they were defeated by Tyr, a mage who their young master Matias and even Tobias recently encountered. They could not justify their lost as being unprepared.

Aside from this, their members' were all defeated in less than 5 seconds!

Truth be told, the only reason it took Tyr a minute to defeat the five Lumley members were because his second match started 30 seconds later. The third match, would have taken another 30 seconds to start if not for the Lumley family's coach suggesting to remove the 30 seconds countdown before the start of the match.

Initially, the coach thought the 30 seconds was too long, giving Tyr ample time to rest and recover his magic energy before the next match. Unfortunately, even if the 30 seconds were removed, Tyr still defeated the rest in less than 5 seconds.

Calculating the total time Tyr defeated the five members of the Lumley Family, it was only 17 seconds.

Patriarch Ernst had to rethink his order. If not, the Lumley Family might think they were favoring Tyr. At the moment, the Ernst was convinced that they were the only noble family who knew the Royal Family's real motive. The Lumley Family might have gathered some clues from how the Emperor revealed himself back at the Blacksmith Order, but his appearance also appeared as a way to 'save' members of the Three Noble Families from further 'embarrassing' themselves.

In any case, Patriarch Ernst knew they could not stay neutral. Unfortunately, he was still a little hesitant to make a decision because so far, the Montgomeray Patriarch had not done anything.

Because the Team Competition between the Conclave and the Montgomeray Family in Function Hall 4 that happened at the same time with the Solo Competition, ended in a draw. There were no changes in the rules as well and the match lasted for almost forty-eight minutes. A clear sign that there was a balance between the two sides because the Team Competition's time limit was set to an hour.

For the record, the Team Competition between the Courtenay Family and the Royal Family also ended in a draw, with the match ending because of the time limit.

In the end, Patriarch Ernst could only tell the members of the Courtenay who would participate in tomorrow's Alchemy to stay on guard. Tyr might not be listed as a participant but the names the Alchemist Association submitted were unfamiliar.

There was even one Alchemist whom they believed was a newbie. Because among the unfamiliar names, it was the only name that they failed to find any information.

An Alchemist named Len.

They also took note of two names they failed to find information from another events. One participant named Aki participating in the Material Gathering and another named Neo, in Beast Hunt. While the Three Noble Families would not participate in these two events, finding new names among the Conclave's talents would pique their interest.

Nevertheless, the first day of the event ended with a hanging tension from what Tyr had done.

The second day marked as the real start of the joint military exercise between the Royal Army and the Conclave.

In the morning, the Royal Army and the Conclave participants for the Material Gathering event gathered at the east terrain of the Courtenay Land, the Forest.

There were five participants on each side for this event and a list of materials scattered in the forest was given for them to collect. The event was set to have a time limit of six hours.

The Conclave assigned the Chamber of Commerce to provide their people, with the exception of one named Aki that came from the Conclave's own ranks.

Among the five participants of the Conclave, only Aki and a man named Feldon, was the only ones who could use magic. But that was alright, after all, Material Gathering's purpose was to test the knowledge of each side.

However, the Courtenay Family still released a few small to medium-sized forest beasts to serve as an obstacle for both sides while also testing their teamwork.

Five seven-floor high open towers were built at the border of the Forest.

Each towers were occupied by the five sides; from the one at the farthest right were as follows: Lumley, Courtenay, Royal Army, Conclave, Montgomeray.

Hovering in front of the towers, were translucent sphere-shaped projections showing different views of the forest.

In the tower occupied by the Conclave, Vaness and Callan were the only Conclave council members.

Malia and Noir were not there because they were asked by the Courtenay representative, together with Ingrid and Imman from the Royal Army to check all materials that would be used in the Alchemy and Array Creation competition in the afternoon.

The rest of the mercenaries were there since they did not have an event today. As they took their place behind the two council members, their eyes were also drawn to another person standing between them.

If yesterday morning, they still feel a little reserved around this person, after the events of the Solo Competition yesterday, their feelings of reservation were replaced by a mixture of apprehension and wonderment.

The object of their mixed feelings was none other than Kyran.

This was especially true with the four mercenaries who participated- err, was part of the Solo Competition.

It was their first time seeing a mage fight utilizing Array Creation and they realized how formidable it was. Of course, it was only possible because of Tyr's unique ability.

But those were not the reason they were looking at Kyran, right now. It was because they were wondering why this guy looked at ease standing in between the Conclave council members!

Not to mention, the three seemed to be engaged in a serious discussion.

No, wait. Kyran would participate in an event in the afternoon. Was he not supposed to be resting since he just fought five matches yesterday?

...

Fine, so it was an easy win and he did not break even a tiny sweat, but still… Array Creation required more than spending a lot of materials and magic energy. It involved problem solving.

Should he not take this time to condition his mind?

While the mercenaries were pondering this, Callan, Vaness and Kyran continued their discussion in low voice.

"We have avoided exhausting our members yesterday thanks to your help. But the number of people from the Three Noble Families who had to go to the infirmary numbered to thirteen, including the five people from the Lumley Family you defeated and a couple from the Royal Army," Callan was saying. "I understand you already laid out a countermeasure to prevent these people from being affected by... her magic. But won't they suspect you in the process?"

Callan's worry was justified.

Kyran had made himself the eye of the storm, if the Crown Princess ended up failing to control people he defeated, she or the Emperor would definitely find something strange.

"Hm," Vaness also nodded in agreement. "The same goes with the Team Competition. Our people are the only ones who did not have to go to the infirmary."

"No, we're not. There's also the Montgomeray Family," Kyran told them feeling a little uneasy.

Yesterday, after the Solo Competition, he had been feeling uncomfortable. As if someone, or something was looking at his every move. Of course, if it was a detection magic or even a magic sense trying to pry information by inspecting his physical body, his Void magic energy would definitely protect him.

But it was not the case. It was as if, an unseen presence was keeping a close watch on him.

Kyran was not entirely bothered by it, but only felt uncomfortable.

Anyone in their right minds would have felt the same way when you constantly sense eyes looking at you.

Nevertheless, Kyran was positive it was not the Royal Family or the higher-ups from the Royal Army. It was also not the Lumley Family or the Courtenay Family.

That left him with the Montgomeray Family.

There was also the matter of why the Crown Princess was hiding amidst them during the Solo Competition.

The Montgomeray Family was definitely not under the Royal Family's control yet. That much, Kyran was sure of. But that did not mean they were not working with them.

Anyway, he planned to keep a close eye on them on tomorrow's Solo Competition. He planned to check on them during the Team Competition but the match had already started when he arrived at Function Hall 4 and also failed to 'watch' using his magic sense.

Because of the feeling of being watched, Kyran had refrained using his magic sense, in case whoever or whatever it was watching him could some clues about his Void magic.

'No, I'm not worried about them sensing my Void magic, because of the Shaiha. What I'm worried about is the Shaiha itself,' Kyran thought and sighed inwardly.

If not for this joint military exercise, he would be busy studying the Shaiha while slowly transitioning into 'Nar.'

"Right," Vaness agreed. He did know the Montgomeray did not suffer much in yesterday's Team Competition. Both sides ended up in a tie, but that was the decision of the announcer because by then they were only wasting their magic energies while being in equal footing.

"The Montgomeray Family is a strange one instead of being a real mysterious family. We have information on their members but as far as we can tell, most of their members are Dinaeri hiding behind those masks."

"Dinaeri…" Kyran frowned slightly as he muttered the name.

After a few seconds of silence, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind when he remembered something.

"That's right, the Dinaeri Family are Summoners!"