Chapter 1045: Duties of a Guardian
"Are you sure?" Raising his eyebrow as he heard the words that left her mouth, the gears in Valyr's mind turned as he wondered why Mystia made that decision all of a sudden. "Wouldn't I be taking up a lot of your time?"
"After all, you're not only an imperial adviser for the empire, but you're also the Imperial Alchemist of the Meltierre Heavenly Court."
"Which gives me all the more reason to accompany you in that meeting, to be honest," replied Mystia, smiling as she knew what was going on in his mind.
"Though my eyes aren't as inquisitive as a blacksmith's when it comes to sets of armor, I have a strong feeling that the armor you're wearing is probably one of the best, if not the best at its current rarity."
"Then again, from what I could see, you've put a lot of effort and time into your armor, allowing it to reach that level of performance," continued the woman, to which Valyr nodded in agreement.
"With that being said, take my words with a grain of salt, but I feel like pitching the set of armor you're wearing to them would only be more effective if you were to have a blueprint of its simplified version ready."
"Yeah." Valyr nodded in agreement once more. "Both Julian and I have already thought about that, actually. In fact, I was only planning to share a simplified version of my blueprint for those at the frontlines to use."
"Then that's good," said Mystia in response, continuing to maintain a smile as she recalled the performance of the second item she identified.
"However, if you think about it, what would truly make them agree to your request would be the other item you brought out."
"I'm assuming it's an improved version of the ranged weapon that's already being distributed out in the frontlines." Mystia briefly rubbed her chin in contemplation as the gears in her mind madly turned.
"Considering that your version of the weapon has far greater firepower than the one currently available on the frontlines, I have a strong feeling that it won't take a lot for them to agree in mass producing both items, especially if you use the latter as a bargaining chip."
"Then again... you might come across an obstacle along the way." As these words left her mouth, Mystia began to frown, prompting Valyr to raise his eyebrow in curiosity.
"What do you mean by that?"CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m
"Well..." Taking in a deep breath, Mystia took the time to gather her thoughts before opening her mouth. "As an imperial adviser, you know that I'm frequently updated regarding the general situation in the war against the orcs."
"Uh huh."
"With that said, the ranged weapon that I was talking about have slightly begun to tip the scales of war towards our favor. After all, its ease of use alongside its firepower is more than enough to lower the strength requirement for those enlisting in the war."
"Yeah. And?" At this point, Valyr more or less knew what she was getting at, causing his expression to turn calm.
"Well, to cut a long story short, you'll probably have to ask Vylhalteinn if he's fine with you implementing an improvement over the weapon he introduced to the frontlines."
"Oh, he'll be fine with that." Hearing the words that he was expecting to hear come out of Mystia's mouth, a confident smile soon crept up onto Valyr's face. "After all, I'm the one who introduced the concept of the arquebus to him in the first place."
"However, I'm sure that you'll be meeting most of the directors of the Blacksmith Guild there for the first time," she continued. "Though they may know of the feats you've achieved, that isn't enough reason for them to accept your proposal of mass producing the two items."
"Unless... if you had someone like me helping you out."
Hearing those words, Valyr could not help but feel his heart warm up, thanking Mystia soon after for sparing the time to help him out.
In response, Mystia told her that it was the least she could do, considering how it was a duty of hers as an imperial adviser of the Meltierre Empire.
"Though, if we really get into the specifics, it's mostly because I'm your master. Shouldn't a master stand up for their disciple at least?"
"Er..." Just as Valyr was about to respond to her words, prompting the conversation to continue, the two were interrupted by Marcus, who the two gradually forgot the existence of as their conversation regarding Valyr's items got deeper and deeper.
"I don't mind you two talking about all of that stuff... but is it possible for you to two to talk about that some other time?"
"Sorry." Considering that he was the one who'd been in the Mystic Plane the shortest, Valyr took the initiative to ask Marcus for forgiveness.
Though Marcus accepted the apology he gave him, the young man noticed the look of slight unease on the man's face. "What's wrong?"
"Well... we've got company," replied the man, prompting both Mystia and Valyr to look at each other as it did not take long for them to understand what was going on. Embracing his role as the Mystic Plane's Guardian, the young man immediately got serious as he began to ask Marcus a string of questions. "How long ago did they appear?" "Like a couple minutes before I interrupted you two... sorry about that, really." "It's fine, we went a bit too deep in our conversation, actually. How many are they?" "From what I could tell... around 20 to 30?" Marcus had an uncertain expression on his face. "I'm not entirely sure. They feel like they're one entity, while also not at the same time." "Let's not worry about that for the meantime." Valyr reassured him. "How strong are they?" "Around the middle levels of Rank 5 to the peak of Rank 5," said Marcus after some time. "Best-case scenario would be an Epic at the strongest, though it's possible that they might have some Legends among them."
"I'll keep that in mind." The young man nodded once more, eventually asking the man the
most important question.
"Where are they?"
"That I'll take care of." As he responded to the young man's question, Marcus placed his
hands on both Mystia and Valyr's shoulders, only to then envelop themselves in a cocoon of
Mystic Energy.
Whoosh!
Not long after, the three disappeared from where they originally stood, appearing in a part of
the Mystic Plane Valyr was not expecting to step foot in some time later.
The edge of the Mystic Plane itself.