Legacy of the Dark Sage

Haylee looked at Vera and smiled, "Yes."

"But your Highness—."

Vera started. However, she immediately shut her mouth upon realizing that her opinion did not matter this time. The Crown Princess was not really part of the army and they were only there to act as her convoy while she deal with the Royal Family's business. At the end of the day, what the Crown Princess decided upon was absolute. Her words could even be considered the Emperor's Royal Decree.

Still, this did not stop Vera from feeling dissatisfied.

The young man, who obviously was Disciple Tyr, might appear to be a talent who could create Array Formations on the spot, but that was all. In Vera's opinion, Disciple Tyr's Array knowledge was a far cry from those who had been promoted as Array Specialists.

One reason why Vera thought of this was Disciple Tyr's decision to create a barrier to protect himself from President Sigma's unibit. Disciple Tyr should have been aware of President Sigma's battle capability so the former's decision to create a barrier was an amateur mistake. The unibit's piercing ability could destroy any barriers in a matter of seconds. Knowing this, Disciple Tyr should have aimed an array that could disrupt President Sigma's casting before the unibit fully formed.

Vera might not be privy to the real reason why the Crown Princess had to meet Chairman Noir, but she could at least guess from what the former had just said, that she wanted to employ the Conclave's assistance in providing talents from the Blacksmith Order to the Royal Family. With this in mind, it would be a waste to take an amateur. Even if the Crown Princess believed that a younger talent could be nurtured, they did not have the leisure of time nor the resources to waste on such an amateur.

After all, the reason why the Royal Family needed Array Specialists was not a secret to Vera.

Brigadier General Rhys was also looking at the Crown Princess with a thoughtful look. Unlike Vera, he could see far ahead and was able to predict why the Crown Princess was interested in Disciple Tyr.

Disciple Tyr's ability to perform an Array Formation almost in an instant, albeit simple ones, was only secondary.

Back in the receiving area, the reason why Rhys did not act when Lt. General Reid planned to bait Head Master Malek into doing something to provoke the Crown Princess, was that he was silently observing the fluctuations in the latter's mood.

Sensing a person's mood fluctuations was Rhys's innate ability. Because of his ability, he realized the Crown Princess had been feeling annoyed with Lt. General Reid's attitude from the moment he stepped out to greet the Security Unit of the Conclave.

Rhys was also not privy of the Crown Princess's purpose in coming to Starhorn, but he could guess that she wanted to curry favor with the Conclave. And Lt. General Reid's arrogance almost cost the Conclave's ire.

The Crown Princess's decision to let Head Master Malek take care of the Brigadier General who dared speak to him further attested to Rhys's suspicion. For her to not bat an eye when offering the head of her own subordinate on a silver platter said a lot about how much she wanted to get the Conclave's favor.

She even asked the Conclave to set their own terms when she tried to enlist Disciple Tyr.

However, Rhys knew the Crown Princess did not do this just to get on the Conclave's good side but because she knew, taking Disciple Tyr would be difficult.

And the reason was not because of the latter's ability to create array formation on the spot, or that he was Chairman Noir's disciple.

Rather...

"To be perfectly clear," Haylee suddenly said as she turned to look at Malek. And with an innocent smile added,  "Should I say... the person controlling him?"

"C-Controlling...?" Vera wondered out loud and turned her attention back to the arena.

The cloud of smoke had mostly cleared and they could now see President Sigma and the young man.

At the moment, the young man was kneeling on the ground with his head bowed low while President Sigma appeared to be saying something.

Then the center of the black platform opened and a white platform emerged with a tall middle-aged man with long black hair that had gray streaks. He was dressed in a black robe with silver linings.

Haylee and the rest recognized him at once.

He was none other than Chairman Noir. And standing beside him, was a young man, similarly dressed as him. However, what caught the attention of Vera, surprisingly, this newly arrived young man also had auburn hair like the young man kneeling on the floor. The only difference was, that the former had a very handsome countenance noticeable even at a distance.

"This...?"

Rhys's eyes narrowed.

This was what he had noticed. With his innate ability, he had observed the fluctuations of both President Sigma and the young man's mood. To Rhys's surprise, he was unable to detect any fluctuations in the young man. Even when he appeared annoyed, there had been no fluctuations.

Such an instance was a first to Rhys. He had never encountered a human whose mood did not fluctuate. Unless the person he was using his ability was an illusion or a...

"Puppet..." Rhys said with narrowed eyes.

There were no mages in the Yflaen Empire that could control puppets. Mages like this were found in the western nation. However, they had never heard of a mage who could create and even control a human-shaped puppet.

As far as Rhys was concerned, if Disciple Tyr was really the one controlling the puppet then he would be the first mage in history to have a human-shaped puppet.

Vera's eyes widened as she turned to Rhys, "Puppet?"

Haylee smiled, "Yes. That young man is a human-shaped puppet."

Vera looked back at the arena.

In the arena, the handsome young man was scratching his head as he walked toward the 'puppet.'

President Sigma crossed his arms and was saying something to which Chairman Noir nodded in agreement.

The handsome young man knelt in front of the puppet and waved his right hand. In an instant, several different-sized array circles burst out from the puppet. Some of the array circles were in gold while some were in red color. Black streaks sizzled out from the red arrays, apparently, the red arrays had been destroyed.

"This—! Wasn't President Sigma punishing Disciple Tyr?" Vera exclaimed in confusion.

​ Upon closer look at the handsome young man, Vera already guessed he was the real Disciple Tyr. The reason why she mistook the puppet for Tyr was not that they looked the same, but rather, that she was too far. Aside from this reason, the puppet had the same hair color as Tyr.

"No, wait." Vera abruptly stopped and recalled Head Master Malek's words before they entered the building.

Malek had said that Disciple Tyr was currently being punished and that it was Sigma who was handling it. While he did agree that the punishment was being done inside the training ground building, he did not say anything about what kind of punishment it was.

Vera was the one who assumed the punishment was to have Tyr duel with Sigma.

"Head Master Malek?" Haylee called when Malek did not respond to her previous question.

Malek kept a straight face as he looked at Haylee, "Apologies your Highness. Although the members of each of the constituents of the Conclave are not bound to us, they are talents that each of our constituents has. We will not force them to be enlisted to other factions."

Haylee smiled and nodded in understanding, "I am aware of that. Only the council members are bound and reported to the Conclave. This is why, even when the Mercenary Hall had other high-level mages, like Celine, for example, they are not included as the Conclave's 'strength'

"In that case, if we want to employ Celine, all we have to do is propose the terms with her, and the Conclave will not interfere."

Malek nodded, "That is correct."

"Can I take this as the Conclave's consent then? That I can directly propose terms with Disciple Tyr to take him?"

Malek did not reply immediately.

After a short pause, he looked at the arena and replied, "The Conclave will not provide any consent whatsoever on this matter. As I said, any member of our constituents are not bound to the Conclave."

"That is good then," Haylee replied as she turned her attention back to the arena and to Disciple Tyr.

Right now, Disciple Tyr appeared to be fixing a red array circle near the puppet's head. Because of the fluidity of his actions, Rhys and Vera were now convinced that Tyr was really the one who owned the puppet.

Not Sigma, nor Chairman Noir.

Then Sigma looked at the crowd and said something. The crowd instantly burst out in excitement.

Disciple Tyr, however, turned his head to look at Sigma with an unwilling expression.

But Chairman Noir looked at him and said something which made Tyr reluctantly nod his head.

Haylee's sapphire blue eyes glinted as she observed Disciple Tyr with a slight smile.

As if sensing that someone was looking at him, Disciple Tyr turned and looked at the VIP area.

His aquamarine eyes immediately found Haylee looking at him.

Haylee's smile widened as she held Tyr's gaze.