Legacy of the Dark Sage

Chapter 956  Taking the Initiative (2)

Kyran did not object when Cyneah asked to come because he planned to take her along.

On the other hand, Euan wore a complicated expression as he sensed an incoming headache. This was because he could see a very determined look in Cyneah's eyes that spelled trouble to any father who wanted to dote on their daughters.

Cyneah looked like a woman out for blood— err, battle.

Euan could not say for sure whether Kyran noticed her look. And if he did, he wanted to play dumb. However, Euan, for one, wanted the latter to be more aware of what was to come.

Cyneah resembled her biological mother, the late Empress, in this aspect. Once she decided on something, she was determined to see it through to the end.

Kyran had never been to the Kingdom of Cretea. Thus, he gave Euan a transmission scroll so they could get there as soon as possible.

In fact, Euan was using one of the lost technologies the Kingdom of Cretea possessed. This technology could transport several people from the outside to a specific location inside the Kingdom of Cretea and vice versa. However, it could only be used once per day. Since he used it to get to the Eidum's border, he had to wait another day to use it again and return to the Kingdom.

Fortunately, Kyran had made it a habit to make transmission scrolls whenever possible. Because it required his blood, he could only make one or two scrolls every other day. This was why he had plenty of transmission scrolls to spare.

Euan chose to transport them inside one of the towers in the kingdom's central palace. This tower was where he lived as Anshel's hostage. Though he could go and enter other towers and locations inside the central palace, he was not allowed to step outside because it led to the kingdom's main city.

All of those were in the past now.

After Cyneah changed Anshel, Euan was now free to enter and leave the kingdom. Of course, because he bore an uncanny resemblance with Anshel, if he changed his hair and eye color to blonde and blue, respectively, he stopped adapting to a complete being's image.

As Euan stood beside Cyneah, one would immediately notice their connection because the shade of their hairs were the same— light brown.

Once they appeared in the tower, they immediately heard a huge commotion happening outside.

Kyran walked over to the tower's window and looked outside. There, he was greeted by a multitude of Nobles gathered outside the central palace's gates.

A few of Anshel's subjects tried to calm down the multitude while preventing them from entering the gates.

"I thought you said Anshel's subjects are the ones protesting?" Kyran asked Euan without looking at him— a slight frown appearing on his face.

"I did. Those subjects leaked Anshel's desire to change their nation's law, which is why you see the scene below," Euan explained with a sigh of resignation.

Kyran's frown deepened as he looked at the multitude gathered outside the palace's gates again. He had expected the Nobles would not be happy with the reformation of their nation's law. However, he did not expect such a large number of opposition.

Seeing the gathered multitude below, it felt as if 90% of the Nobles were against the reformation.

For the record, though, it was Anshel who ordered a change in their nation's law; it was actually Kyran who suggested it. Nevertheless, the latter did not remember the reformed law to have changed to the point that 90% of the Nobles would be dissatisfied.

Kyran did not even remember any drastic change that would merit such a reaction from the Nobles.

As if reading Kyran's thoughts, Euan explained, "They mostly reacted to Anshel's decision to open the Kingdom of Cretea's Council to non-Nobles. While these would promote equality among the complete beings and beast-likes, they did not like the idea of having a beast-like as one of the members of the Council."

"From what I remember, Anshel is actually part beast-like; thus, they received special treatment inside the kingdom."

Euan shook his head at once, "Remember that complete being hated being tainted by others. While it is true that the Kingdom of Cretea gives special treatment to the beast-likes, it is only the case because they did not want to be cursed by the Land."

"And when you say the Land, you're talking about Somuli in general."

"Yes."

Kyran sighed in indignation. He still did not understand how Somuli's law that protected all beast-likes from being harassed by complete beings worked. After all, that did not seem to be the case with Armakea, who did not mind exploiting beast-likes and 'low-level' complete beings and using them as cannon fodders.

"The truth, the so-called curse of the Land, only affected the Kingdom of Cretea. Only a few trusted subjects of Anshel, and Anshel himself, knew of this. On the other hand, the Eidums had once witnessed how a complete being, whose nationality was unknown, got punished for breaking the Land's natural law and, thus, believed that the punishment applied to everyone. Only the Armakean are convinced that because of their status as the true successor of Somuli's Lost Technology, they believe they are immune to the curse and will not be punished. That is the truth of the matter," Euan explained.

Kyran gleaned a few unspoken clues from Euan's explanation. However, before he could dwell on the matter, Cyneah approached the window as well and gazed down below.

Not bothering to say anything, her mirror-like eyes lit up as the Macabre Glacier's silhouette flashed within them.

Soon after, Kyran and Euan felt an invisible wave of magic energy that spread outward from within Cyneah's body. It resembled a light breeze that swept through their bodies. The invisible wave continued to spread and soon reached the multitude below.

"N—!"

"O-Oi!"

Kyran and Euan were rendered speechless at Cyneah's sudden move.

The invisible wave was a subtle Soul attack, targeting one's soul and changing one's heart according to the caster's will.

"Rather than mulling over how to deal with them, this is faster, right?" Cyneah said while turning her head slightly over to her right, where Kyran stood.

Kyran blinked once before nodding his head apprehensively.

Just as Euan predicted, Kyran was quite oblivious to Cyneah's mood. After seeing her wanting to resolve the problem in the Kingdom of Cretea as soon as possible, Kyran finally noticed it. Unfortunately, he was quite oblivious to the reason she was in such a moody state.

Meanwhile, the moment Cyneah's Soul attack reached the multitude, their protests slowly died down. And then, after a few minutes, the multitude started to leave.

Anshel's subjects, trying to calm them down, were struck with wonder at what had happened. They obviously sensed something strange from the light breeze that swept past them. But because they did not sense any hostile energy from it, they ignored it. As a matter of fact, the light breeze comforted them, and they felt reassured. They had no idea why they felt that way, though.

"Yes..." Kyran replied to Cyneah's words after a short pause. Still feeling apprehensive at her seemingly out-of-character move, yet also a very Cyneah-like move, he continued to study her face. Soon, he finally noticed that there was something very different about her that day.

"Neah, are you okay—?"

"I want my reward, now," Cyneah demanded, cutting Kyran before he could finish what he was about to say.

"Reward?" Euan could not help but repeat, as he was unaware of the deal the two had made several years ago when they were still living in the cottage back in the Human plane. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Kyran was silent. For some unknown reason, he felt intimidated by her demand.

"Okay," Kyran finally replied after another pause.

Euan looked at Kyran questioningly.

Instead of answering, however, Kyran added, "Let's do that after we deal with Anshel's subjects who—."

"Father," Cyneah turned to Euan without even letting Kyran finish his sentence again.

Euan was taken aback at Cyneah's unexpected address. He looked at her with complete disbelief and stammered, "Y-Yes?"

"Anshel's subjects should be gathered in one place, am I correct?"

"That's right," Euan replied deliberately.

"Please take us there," she requested. Then she turned to Kyran once more and said, "I'll handle them myself. Then you have to keep your word about my reward."

Kyran was speechless. He had never seen Cyneah act out like this. Then again, back when they finally met after a horde of beasts attacked the Eidum's border when Cyneah thought Kyran was injured, she had acted very similarly.

The only difference was that she did not stutter this time.

Cyneah turned her head slightly toward Euan and said, "Please lead the way, Father."

Euan appeared very happy being called 'Father' by Cyneah. He gestured toward the stairs leading to a twin door and said, "Let's go this way."

Cyneah nodded. Since she could see Euan's silhouette quite well, she followed him down the stairs.

Kyran, sensing an incoming headache, followed suit.