Legacy of the Dark Sage

“Besides,” Kyran faced them and continued, “If I can have others do it, I will not stress myself over it.”

Then he lightly tap his storage pouch as three silhouettes emerged from within and appeared behind him.

What greeted them were three ‘people’ wearing black robes.

“These three are my puppets,” Kyran told them, in a tone that sounded as if he was only introducing his friends.

“Those are puppets?”

It was unsure who said it aloud since all of them had thought the same thing in complete shock. After all, the only ones who had seen Kyran’s puppet had been Malek, Noir and Sigma.

The other council members were told about the puppet to ensure they were on the same page regarding its history. They were all surprised but not overly invested in the idea. Their complacent attitude stemmed more from the fact that they had not seen it in person or in action. Most of them imagined an ordinary puppet with human limbs and a head to give it a human shape.

That was all.

But their initial idea was overturned the more they look at the puppets behind Kyran.

What made them particularly gape in both amazement and shock was the fact that they sensed different types of magic energy in them.

“I’ll program my puppets to protect the Conclave’s participants in the event they will participate in on any Soul magic attack,”  Kyran continued not waiting for the council members to recover from the shock. “One will each participate in, Material Gathering, Beast Hunt and Alchemy. For those members participating in the Team Competition, I’ll put an enchantment in their armor. As for Smithing event, since they will be people from the Blacksmith Order, they should be fine.”

The Crown Princess had marked all of the possible participants Kyran could think of when she went to the Blacksmith Order. He already adjusted their mark and even if she planned to reinforce her mark during the event, his adjustments could easily adapt to it.

“For the remaining three; Array Creation, Single Competition and Field Operation, I’ll take part in them.”

His brow furrowed slightly recalling why he had to participate in the competition, “If you’re wondering why I included the Single Competition, it’s because the Emperor wants me to participate as the Blacksmith Order and Mercenary Hall’s representative.

“I can ignore this, yes. But doing so will endanger your people. I have a feeling they will do everything, even resort to underhanded tricks, to ensure I participate in the events the order and the hall will head.”

What he said was included in the detail of the joint military exercise.

The Conclave did not have to include participants in all of the events from each of their constituents.

For example, the Alchemy event would only require participants from the Alchemy Association. The same went with Array Creation and Smithing. There were events where two or more Conclave constituents would head, such as the Material Gathering, Beast Hunt, and Field Operation.

The Blacksmith Order and the Mercenary Hall would also head the Beast Hunt event, but Kyran opted not to participate and instead have one of his puppets join.

His reason was obvious. Because of his special ability to drive beasts away, the team he would join would be on the losing end.

Winning an event was not exactly important in joint military exercises. However, Kyran knew the Conclave members still had pride and wanted to give their all in every event.

Only by going eye to eye against the Royal Family’s military strength could the Conclave maintain its neutral status. By showing off their military strength, the Royal Family would hesitate to force them into joining sides.

At least, that had been the Conclave’s reason, thus far. But this time’s joint military exercise was different. And if not for Kyran they would likely fall into the hands of the Royal Family.

Anyway, Kyran did not want the Conclave to know about his special ability, and to avoid the members from asking questions, he decided to put one of his puppets in it.

Once Kyran finished telling them his plan, all of them could not help but look at him wryly.

They appreciated the fact that Kyran was willing to help them. After proving what he could do, they were all confident that this plan would work.

Nevertheless, it still left a bitter taste in their mouths.

They were the Conclave’s High Council and should be the ones thinking up ways to protect their people. Yet they had to rely on Kyran whose only in his teens, not to mention, only one person. Err… okay, plus his three puppets.

However, because of the urgency of the situation, they could only swallow their pride and accept his plan.

The one who broke the silence that followed was Sigma.

He gave Kyran a wry smile and said, “Why did you not go for Smithing and Team Competition, too? You may have thought of a way to protect our side even without taking part in those two, but given your capability, I’m sure taking part in those events will not be a problem.”

Kyran raised his brows and looked at him, “As I said, I’m not omnipotent. I do get tired. As a matter of fact, I am tired right now.”

He added the last one while giving a wry smile. To be honest, he was not just tired but was dead exhausted.

There was also the matter of replenishing his magic energy.

After absorbing the Shaiha, Kyran noticed that his natural magic energy recovery had improved. Yet, his magic reserves did not appear to have recovered much.

The only explanation he could come up with why this happened was the fact that all his magic cores got bigger. Filling them up with magic energy would take some time.

“Besides, in Team Competition, I had to have a good grasp of my teammate’s strengths and weaknesses to come up with a good strategy,” Kyran continued after a short pause.

“I want to observe our side during Team Competition since they will probably end up participating in the Field Operation too. At least, when its time for the Field Operation, I can come up with a good strategy against the opposing side.”𝑶𝒱𝗅xt.𝗰𝑂𝓶

“And the Smithing?” Avrum asked.

Smithing did not require a mage to use magic energy. It only required a person to know how to craft an item such as armors, accessories and weapons.

Instead of answering Avrum, Kyran took out a black-blue colored short blade from his storage pouch.

The short blade was his first-ever crafted weapon.

That was right, this was the weapon he crafted in the Lignum plane.

Kyran flicked his wrist and let the short blade fly toward Avrum. However, Sigma intercepted it, easily catching the hilt with his hand.

Avrum did not mind, since he did not have the experience nor the ability to examine a crafted item.

On the other hand, before Sigma caught the short blade, Noir’s keen eyes already saw its quality and exclaimed in surprise, “That short blade is—!”

“If you want a weapon with that quality to appear here, I don’t mind participating in the Smithing event,” Kyran said with a wry smile, noticing Noir’s look.

Sigma’s expression turned sour as he examined the short blade. He could not recognize any of the materials nor the process of how this short blade was forged!

Kyran’s words made the rest of the council members rouse their magic sense to inspect the short blade.

Soon, their faces distorted.

This short blade was only a normal weapon yet it possessed the strength of a mid-grade magic weapon! If something like this appeared in the empire, the market for normal weapons would overturn.

Vaness was a businessman, yet, he too did not want something like this to appear in the market. The demand for such an item would definitely skyrocket and Kyran was probably the only one who could make it. More importantly, the materials used to make it was foreign to him.

Sigma scowled at Kyran and said, “You’re annoying.”

Kyran replied with a light chuckle.

Suddenly, Avrum turned to Kyran with a thoughtful expression and was about to say something but was interrupted by the latter.

“I forgot to say, that weapon is the first one I’ve ever made. So, if you want me to participate and lower my ability or something, please forget it.”

Avrum’s expression turned grim. That was exactly what he was about to tell Kyran.

As for Sigma, Kyran’s words made him want to flip the huge round table!

Even the council members’ expressions turned placid.

How to put this… they were wondering whether Kyran was able to say these things because he was under Tyr’s disguise, or was this his normal self?

Malek glowered as well, but all he said was, “Alright. We’ll go with your plan.”

The council members who had yet to recover from another revelation of Kyran’s impossible skills forced themselves to prioritize the matter at hand. They were still leaders in their own rights. If they kept on being surprised by every detail Kyran revealed to them, they would lose face.

In any case, most of them had already gotten numb from Kyran’s ‘overpoweredness.’

“If all of you are okay with it, then let’s discuss who our participants,” Stella, who had been silent all this time finally said.

Kyran looked at her and said, “I’ll let you guys continue, but before that, can you send the information on the Royal Family’s participants?”

Stella looked at him with a slightly disappointed look, “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah. I just dropped by to share my plan,” he replied with a nod.

Sigma scowled, “Aren’t you a busybody.”

Kyran looked at him and replied, “Well Senior, I still have a number of magic items to create after all.”

Noir sighed as he recalled how 70% of the request they received wanted to have ‘Tyr’ make their magic items.

“If you need time to—.”

“No need,” Kyran cut Stella midsentence. He knew what she wanted to propose and he appreciated it.

But he was not exactly going back to the order to make magic items. He already left two of his puppets there for that task.

Right now, Kyran’s priority was to rest and recover his magic energy. Though Stella’s Time Magic could grant him enough ‘time’ to rest, Kyran knew a better way to recover.

Besides, he also needed to replenish his consumable items. And the best one to ask for help on that was none other than Anette.

As for an immediate recovery to his magic energy, who else would be best to ask than Cyneah?

In any case, Kyran also wanted to check on them.

Zephyr might have gone back to act as their guardian but Kyran still felt a little unsettled. After all, he would be busy for the next few days and would probably not have time to check on them.