Chapter 603: Information

He put those thoughts aside for now and turned his attention toward a much more immediate problem.

Escaping the annoying horde of nobles who were surrounding him. Luckily enough, Wendy gave him a brief moment of respite.

She approached him through the crowd and told him to consult with her in the future regarding everything that had happened today, particularly when it came to making sure that the compensation ordered by the council was actually handed over.

Elion thanked her lightly.

After that, Wendy left the court as well.

The councillors had already departed some time ago, and Elion immediately took advantage of the small opening she had created for him to search for Zenith.

It didn’t take long to find her.

She was standing several metres away, completely ignoring a pair of pompous old coots who were trying their absolute best to grab her attention.

The sight made Elion smile.

’Good luck trying to get her to even spare you a glance...’

One of them seemed to be saying something rather enthusiastically, while Zenith merely stared past him with the expression of someone who would rather be anywhere else.

Elion’s amusement lingered for a moment before his gaze drifted elsewhere.

Toward Liora.

For some reason, she was still sitting in the same place, and she hadn’t moved an inch.

Her pink hair fell loosely around her shoulders as she stared toward some unseen distant point with an unfocused gaze, looking strangely lost, hopeless, even.

Almost like a petrified statue.

She barely seemed to blink.

Elion watched her for a few seconds longer than he intended. A part of him almost wanted to walk over and speak to her.

But his ego wouldn’t allow it.

If anything, another, less charitable part of him seemed to enjoy watching her sit there in silent misery after everything she had helped put him through.

Still, he wasn’t cruel enough to walk over and taunt her while she was already down. So Elion simply looked away and pretended she wasn’t there.

He reached out to Zenith through their shared link.

A few brief thoughts passed between them.

Then they waited.

The nobles around Elion continued talking, asking about his availability, his affiliations, his plans, what faction he intended to support, whether he had considered forming closer ties with certain families, and just about everything else they could think of.

Elion smiled when necessary, nodded when appropriate, and answered almost nothing.

Then, the crowd shifted just enough for him to give them the slip. He and Zenith disappeared from sight.

One moment they were there.

The next, they were gone without leaving so much as a trace behind.

Several nobles were left staring at the empty space in front of them in complete stupefaction.

Elion couldn’t have cared less.

He had absolutely no intention of answering most of their questions, and because he wasn’t particularly good at dealing with this kind of political pleasantry in the first place, all he had wanted was to get out of there.

...

"Nicely done, Elion!"

Jaeneva’s hand shot upward.

Elion raised his own, and she actually had to hop slightly to meet it because of his towering height.

Smack!

Their palms connected. Jaeneva landed with a pleased grin while Elion returned the gesture with a smile of his own.

Nadia offered him a simple approving nod from where she sat, while Isla stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him in a shy hug.

Elion smiled and briefly returned it.

"Seems like you’ll be swimming in gold soon," Esme said with a light laugh.

"Assuming Dawncrest actually pays," Elion replied. "If he doesn’t, well... Then we’ll just have to go and rob his treasury."

That earned a few amused giggles.

All the succubi had left the confines of the Ark for the time being, taking the opportunity to enjoy Haven properly before they eventually departed for their next destination.

For now, they had wandered deeper into the city and booked a private balcony attached to one of the lavish establishments built high above the streets.

They had needed somewhere quiet.

Somewhere they could sit down, breathe, and sort through everything that had happened.

From this high up, Haven looked completely different, like glancing at it through a different lens.

The city descended gradually toward the coastline below, rooftops and towers layered across the landscape in waves of stone, colour, and glass.

Farther out, the afternoon sunlight scattered across the waters surrounding the docks, turning the ocean into a vast sheet of glittering blue.

Ships moved slowly along the harbour, and tiny figures filled the streets far below. The distant noise of the city reached them only as a low, indistinct murmur.

A cool sea breeze swept across the balcony, carrying the faint scent of salt with it. For the first time in a while, Elion felt as though he could actually breathe properly.

He had initially planned to leave Haven almost immediately and return to Dreadmoor Hollow, but after giving it some thought, he had decided against it.

There was simply too much happening here now.

The Legacy World had appeared nearby.

Haven was about to become the centre of attention for nearly every major faction and race in the world.

And no doubt, Marilyn would want to hear from him once news of everything reached her.

More importantly, Elion wanted information.

His gaze drifted beyond the city once again, settling upon the vast ocean.

’I guess these are the final moments of peace I’ll have before heading into that mysterious place.’

The thought sobered him slightly. He had barely spared any effort researching the Legacy World up until now.

That had been careless.

Now that the opening was drawing closer, the sooner he corrected that mistake, the better.

After all, it would be incredibly foolish to enter a place like that completely blind.

The Legacy World had opened countless times before, once every century, and surely those who managed to return had brought back more than treasures.

He was willing to bet they had at least brought back maps, records, and accounts of dangerous regions.

Perhaps information about powerful creatures that dwelled in the realm. Maybe even detailed descriptions of structures, or places that should be avoided entirely.

There had to be something.

Information like that would have been far too valuable to simply discard or not collect entirely.

Entire factions had probably spent generations preserving what their predecessors had learned for the sake of preparing the next batch of entrants.

Of course, Elion wasn’t naive enough to assume that the entire realm had already been explored.

A place capable of supporting such a massive event every century was probably far too vast for that, but surely some regions had been mapped thoroughly.

Perhaps several.

The real question was who possessed those maps. Elion rested one arm against the balcony railing.

After all, not everyone would be some generous saint willing to hand over information gathered through the blood and deaths of previous generations.

Cooperating to share entry quotas and helping locate the entrance didn’t mean everyone suddenly became allies once they stepped inside.

Quite the opposite.

The fact that Elion had already been told that he would have to group up with the other entrants representing the Triad Alliance told him all he needed to know.

People would form groups and alliances in order to hoard resources. And anyone weaker would either be forced aside or crushed completely.

No matter where one went, competition followed. And once the unknown dangers of the Legacy World itself were added on top of that...

The place was almost guaranteed to become a bloodbath.