Legacy of the Dark Sage

Matias’s booming laughter broke the silence in the hall. Gloatingly he said, “So this is the real skill of the disciple of the reknown Array Master Noir!”

The Lumley Family members among the audience sneered at his words, while others from the Courtenay Family and the Royal Army, furtively glanced in Master Noir’s direction.

To think Matias would brazenly say such a bold remark in front of Master Noir! It was one thing to say bad things about Tyr but he even mentioned Noir’s name as if to mock him.

Noir’s expression turned dark, but he said nothing.

Instead of trying to guess what he was thinking, they shifted their gaze on Kyran and were all rendered speechless.

Because Kyran appeared to have not heard anything and continued inspecting the broken sword. He even looked at the announcer and said, “I won’t get disqualified just because the sword broke, right?”

Noir, Vaness, Owen, Hamish, and the rest of the audience could not help but look at Kyran with dull expressions.

They were wondering if he was too worried about breaking the sword to even notice the sudden change in the atmosphere. Not to mention Matias’s mocking.

Speaking of Matias, the young man gritted his teeth at Kyran’s nonchalance. It really rubbed him the wrong way each time this loathsome guy ignored him. He was the young master of the Lumley Family, he would not tolerate a commoner like him ignoring him like this!

The announcer looked at Kyran uneasily.

“Well… there is no rule saying that but to continue with the competition with a broken item is…” as the woman hesitated, her four-leaf clover earring glinted. She fell silent for a moment and replied, “The head committee has spoken. You can still proceed with competition so long as you still use the broken sword.”

Kyran raised his brows at the announcer’s reply. If he had known it would end up like this, he would have told Owen and Hamish to break their items too! Then he could teach them a fast way to craft an item and enchant it in less than two hours!

However, Kyran rejected the idea at once. After all, a fast way to craft would require an enormous amount of magic energy or spirit stones. There were also countless materials they had to prepare.

The materials needed were common items, but what Kyran did not like was the fact that there were countless eyes watching them right now. How he crafted or forged items was a trade secret, after all.

In any case, using a broken item that had already undergone tempering was not advisable. To simply put, the quality of the item would suffer. Of course, this would be the case if an average Array Specialist tried to ‘recycle’ the item.

In Kyran’s case, with his vast Array and Material knowledge, he could easily come up with a calculation to overcome this small problem.

“I see,” Kyran replied with a nod. “Basically, as long as I use the provided item as the base of the weapon it is acceptable.”

The four-leaf clover blinked once more before the announcer nodded in acknowledgment, “That is correct.”

“Alright,” Kyran turned his attention back to the broken sword.

Owen and Hamish could not help but exchange perplexed glances before looking back at Kyran.

The only way for Kyran to fix the sword was to melt it again and redo the whole forging. Given their two-hour limit— which was now down to 1:37:00 according to the timer above—, it would be impossible for him to enchant the sword. Crafting a weapon from scratch would take half a day at the latest.

As if sensing their concern, Kyran glanced at Owen and Hamish with a slight smile. He mouthed, “Don’t worry,” at them before resuming his work.

Seeing the exchange between them, Noir and Vaness’s felt somewhat relieved.

It went without saying, but they already knew Kyran would not say or do something for no reason. They already knew he sometimes act recklessly or even made decisions that did not make sense to them, but in the end, they benefited from them.

They just had to trust him.

Besides, in the eyes of the empire, Kyran was Chairman Noir’s only disciple, Tyr. Being an only disciple spoke volumes and if Noir showed even the slightest doubt of what he could do, people would definitely spread another unnecessary rumor.

While Kyran returned to his work, Matias who finally snapped at being ignored for so long shouted, “Stop acting presumptuously! I may not be a Blacksmith or an Array Specialist— yet—, but I still know that it is impossible to use a broken item!”

As soon as he had spoken, some of the audience who were waiting for some drama to unfold looked at them once more.

There were more people in the audience because those who witnessed Kyran in the Solo Competition spread the news among their factions. And because the Courtenay Family did not prohibit the other factions in coming to watch the matches, a lot had come to check if Kyran would do something again.

Kyran finally looked up at Matias wearing an incredulous expression, “Seriously? I did not realize you actually have some brains in you.”

“You—!”

“Are you sure you have the time to ‘admire me while I work,’ young master Matias? There is only an hour and a half left before the end of the first phase of the competition and you haven’t purified your Udrium yet. You probably did not know but if you want to use that to enchant your weapon, you have to purify it first before adding it to your ink. If not, the rest of the materials in your ink mixture will react to the Udrium’s heat and lose its effect, rendering it useless once you write your Array calculation on the weapon’s surface.”

“DISCIPLE TYR!”

The audience could not help but grimace at Matias’s grating scream.

Some could actually sympathize with Matias because Kyran’s ‘advice’ was a huge blow to his ego as someone aspiring to be an Array Specialist.

Kyran grinned at Matias and said, “No need to thank me. Please go ahead and continue with your work.”

With that, Kyran turned his attention back to his work.

The audience could almost see steams shooting off Matias’s ears from the angry expression he was wearing.

But just when they thought the short-fused young master would raise all havoc, the female announcer spoke interrupting all their thoughts.

“Please refrain from disturbing the other participants.”

Though the announcer did not mention any names, her gaze fell on Matias first before shifting to the rest of the participants, “There is at least one hour and a half left before the first phase of the competition. Please focus on your work to ensure you complete your task ahead of time.”

Matias glared at the announcer.

But then he suddenly froze, his eyes widening, before lowering his gaze.

Millie who saw this squinted her eyes toward the area where the Lumley Family’s coach was seated.

Their coach seemed to not have moved but she was positive, he sent a telepathic message to Matias which forced him to stop.

Somehow, Millie could not shake off the feeling that something bad would happen to ‘Tyr’ during the mock battle. Just thinking of this possibility scared her.

“You don’t have to look so scared.”

Suddenly, a familiar female voice spoke beside her. Millie turned and found Mimi smiling at her wryly, “Looking at your expression, I can more or less guess what got you scared.”

As she said this, she also looked at the Lumley Family’s corner.

“Mimi! Why are you here?” Millie exclaimed in surprise. “I thought your asked to watch the Alchemy Competition.”

Instead of answering her question, Mimi continued with what she was saying, “Our people are no pushovers. The Lumley Family will not be able to make any offhanded moves on our watch.”

With a slight frown, Millie asked, “So you also think the Lumley Family is plotting something?”

Mimi heaved a sigh, before saying in a low voice, “The Patriarch told me to come here instead. Apparently, the head committee sensed the Lumley Family is up to something.”

“Why are they still targeting Disciple Tyr? They already know the Royal Family has their eyes on him, right?”

“I don’t know either. But you know how much the Lumley hated being looked down upon,” Mimi replied, shaking her head. “From what I know, the Conclave rescind the ban order on the Lumley Family to its three constituents except for the Blacksmith Order. It seems it is because Disciple Tyr does not want to settle the matter with the Lumley Family.

“And the Blacksmith Order has also spoken that they will stand by Disciple Tyr’s decision.”𝗈𝒱𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

Contrary to Mimi’s expectation that this news would scare Millie, the latter actually beamed in delight as she said, “So cool. As expected of Disciple Tyr! He is not scared of the Lumley Family!”

Mimi sighed inwardly at the younger woman’s blind admiration.

Deciding to ignore Millie’s fangirling, Mimi looked at Kyran below. She furrowed her brows as she observed him working on the broken sword.

At the moment, Kyran had finished mixing the three materials he took earlier and was now heating the broken sword. With his left hand, holding the tongs that held the broken sword, his right hand also moved. He waved his hand toward the mixture and started writing a series of Array calculations that hovered in midair.

The other participants also started writing their Array calculations, however, compared to the others who were meticulously writing the formulas in fear of writing a wrong sequence of formulas, Kyran was not even looking as he write.

Apart from this, the others started writing their calculations ahead of time, and yet, they were still on the second or third layer of the calculations, while Kyran was already approaching the fifth layer.

His Array writing was simply too fast!

“S-So pretty…” Millie muttered while she gazed at Kyran’s array.

Mimi, who rarely agree with Millie when it came to Tyr, could not help but agree this time.

Compared to the arrays the other participants were writing, the arrangement of the array formulas in Kyran’s array looked more elegant as if he was not merely writing array calculations but was ‘painting’ a series of magic codes.

The audience was also mesmerized by the sight. So much so that they failed to notice how the magic energy in the surroundings stirred toward Kyran’s array, enriching its effect further.

Noir and Vaness were also surprised.

Kyran was merely writing an array calculation to enchant a single weapon, yet it seemed he was making a large-scale array that drew in an immense amount of magic energy.

“He… only picked three common items, right?” Noir asked Vaness.

Vaness nodded, albeit, a little hesitant, and added, “Yes… But the magic energy it is attracting…”

“Theoretically speaking, those items will not be able to attract such an amount of magic energy. However…” Noir furrowed his brows. The more he see Kyran at work, the more he grew excited at the prospect of them talking about Arrays. “I am curious as to where he went to train.”

Vaness chuckled at Noir. He too felt the same way. But because Kyran was not really a member of the Conclave, he felt asking the younger man such a question was out of line.

“I honestly, want to see his Alchemy skills,” Vaness admitted.

Noir turned to him with a wry smile, “Malia also said the same thing. She even said that he probably knew a way to heal Hugh’s illness.”

The idea made them fall silent.

They already owed Kyran so much and could not possibly ask to also heal Hugh.

None of them realized that they were not simply wondering if Kyran had a way to help Hugh but were already convinced he knew a way.

The audience remained silent the whole duration of the first phase of the competition.

Finally, the timer stopped.

The second phase of the competition would now start.