Chapter 419: Trace 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Kid only had twenty thousand rumbs left, so it probably wasn't enough to buy this thing.
Garen mused over it for a while.
"Then forget for now, I'll come back when I get enough money."
Although elementalization items were interesting, that didn't mean this was the only place he could find them.
Garen was mostly worried that after the assassination began, the Kingdom would fall into chaos, and if the War Guild was caught in the conflict as well and couldn't provide upgrading services for the War Chain anymore, then that would be a problem.
Old Man was slightly disappointed too, but he didn't show it at all on his face."That's okay. Since the customer doesn't have enough funds, you can still buy it again later. We have a steady long-term supply of these Dematerialisation Badges, so I’m sure we won't disappoint you."
"Oh? Is it forgeable?" Garen's eyes lit up.
Old Man smiled but didn't reply.
"In that case, we'll take our leave now." Garen thought about it and decided to leave.
"Allow me to see the customer out."
************
Deep in the palace
Delouse wore along figure-fitting dark red dress, sitting quietly on the Concubine’s throne, one hand on her chin as her eyes wandered, thinking about something, goodness knows what.
The palace was dim and dark, with no lights and only black shadows flowing quietly in the corners.
The cold moonlight shone in from outside the large door, falling onto the floor in the middle of the large hall.
"How's the situation?" Delouse’s lips moved slightly, but her voice carried to the shadows in the corners softly.
"The defense minister is mending the holes in the Air Defense Department, and won't return until tomorrow morning. The Guard Captain Edin’s disciples came across some problems, so Edin went to deal with it. Now there's only that person left by Avic’s side." A sharp and reedy voice came from the dark corners.
"Is everything ready?" Delouse said calmly.
"Everything is fine. As long as we succeed, all the escape routes will be completely activated. Within five minutes, you will be able to leave the Kingdom."
Depose nodded.
"What about Veska's Three Fangdragon Generals?"
"They went with the defense minister."
"In other words, other than the three departments’ defense forces on the outside, there are already no more peak-level totem users in the core of the inner palace?"
"Naturally."
"That's good." Delouse nodded in satisfaction.
Looking at the pearly white moonlight on the floor. Veska’s old-fashioned and stern face flashed past her eyes.
"Veska, we've been fighting for so long, but this time, I want to see how you settle this…" The corners of her lips couldn't help but curve into a confident smile.
***************
Garen led Kid out of the Guild, and the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the assassination would be brought forward. He couldn't bother with anything else anymore, and couldn't even wait for Angel at the War Guild, running straight for the palace.
The whole Kingdom was filled with edits fighters, but only a few could be stronger than him.
That was also why, as soon as he arrived at the entrance to the palace, there were already several elite guards blocking the way.
These people were evidently waiting especially for him.
"It's already late now, may we know why Viscount Garen is here at the palace?" The leader was a man in a full suit of white armor, even his face was wrapped up in a white helmet. His voice was deep, coming through the crack in the helmet so that his bright and sparkling eyes could be seen.
Gran stood at the entrance to the place, and behind him was the meeting area where only nobles could enter, so there were basically no outsiders around, all of them cleared out of the area by the guards.
He glanced at the white-armored guards in front of him. There was a small smile on his face.
"His Majesty had promised me the legacy of a Black Storm Dove totem, but unfortunately I never had the time to take it from the palace warehouse. Today I suddenly remembered it, so I came here and plan to bring one back."
"Black Storm Dove?" The Guard Captain’s eyes flashed with envy. He had heard of this bestowal before too, it was one of those rare times His Majesty generously gave a totem legacy. "So that's how it is, please forgive our insolence."
"No matter." Garen nodded. He turned around and glanced at Kid. "You're with me, or?"
Before Kid came here, Garen already warned him that this time might be slightly dangerous. With Garen’s tone, if he said it was dangerous, then it was probably a huge risk to him. So he didn't force himself at all, shaking his head.
"I'll wait for you outside."
"It's okay, you return to department headquarters first, wait for my news." Garen smiled and told him quietly.
Although Kid didn't know why he arranged it like that, he still nodded seriously, turning away and leaving without hesitation.
Garen looked around him in a circle.
He was surrounded by grey-black tall stone buildings, the palace’s stone walls surrounding this place, forming a small square in the crevice.
On either side of the square, there was a row of white-armored soldiers.
But for some reason, Garen felt as though something was slightly different from normal when he looked at these soldiers.
Yet he couldn't exactly say what was different.
Led by the white-armored guards, he walked straight in through the palace’s main gates.
Going through many black corridors, walking through two large black stone halls. He could also see that the guards in the halls were a lot fewer than before.
He hadn't gotten far when he saw a swordsman in heavy black armor running up from behind him with heavy footsteps.
"Your Excellency Viscount Garen, His Majesty is watching the power competition in the Ocean Wave Hall, and has invited you to join him."
"Power competition?" Garen paused for a moment and knew what kind of competition it was.
There weren't many forms of entertainment in the Kingdom, and Avic was an emperor who extremely enjoyed battles, so he started an internal ranking competition. All the ministers, families and nobles, even royalty, had to join this internal competition, in order to rank the top hundred in Kovistan’s Silver Palace.
Of course, this ranking didn't include real-life fighting experience and was merely a competition. Similar to a sports activity. Those in the top hundred were all given the title of Silver Palace Wingmaster.
It never occurred to Garen that they hadn't brought forward the ceremony to tonight, but were organizing the Silver Palace internal ranking competition instead.
"What a coincidence, I've never seen the Silver Palace competition before." Garen accepted graciously.
Following behind the black-armored guards, Garen turned down another corridor and continued walking.
After going through an open-air corridor, he saw a large and open white stone square in front of him.
In the middle of the arena, there was a tall square platform, with two huge beasts colliding madly into each other, one bear and one tiger, one black and one gold respectively.
The two huge beasts roared continuously, the black bear's speed extremely fast, while the golden tiger was lethargic. He kept trying to light up a golden glow in his mouth, but each time was interrupted by the black bear with one palm.
Two young men in glamorous clothes were standing behind the two totem beasts, one looked confident while the other was deathly pale. Evidently, the match was almost over.
There was a circle of black-armored guards around the platform, and some people in white clothes, surrounding Avic as he sat on another platform parallel to the tall platform, watching the battle on stage from a distance.
Avic was mostly surrounded by nobles in white fabulous clothes and royalty. But the ones closest to him were the princesses in white lace dresses.
The youngest princess was sitting on Avic's lap, he hugged her lightly as her eyes were trained completely on the battle on stage.
The others wore different colored clothes, each befitting nobility, and were obviously people from outside the royal family, just like Garen.
These people were rather young too, looking unexpectedly green.
"Announcing Viscount Trejons!"
A maidservant’s voice reported.
Most of the observing crowd suddenly turned around, looking at the direction Garen was walking in from.
Most of the royal family looked vaguely curious and wary. A few of the young men even had hidden envy in their eyes.
"Haha, it's Garen!" Avic stood up, taking the initiative to beckon Garen over. "Just nice, the Silver Palace ranking competition just began, do you wanna try too?"
"The Silver Palace has too many elite fighters, I'm afraid I'm not strong enough," Garen replied humbly. Led by the maids, he actually walked up to Avic's side and took a seat.
"You're being too modest." Avic patted Garen's shoulder, to show his friendliness. "It's good you came, watch these young participants’ abilities with me. It's perfect, you can be a judge, and give marks."
"Marks?"
There were four princes and six princesses in total around them, and although the First Princess wasn't here, the two royal daughters also very much in favor, the Second Princess and the Fourth Princess were also here. Just then, they heard that Garen was here as a scorer. Their expressions changed slightly.
To be able to become a scoring judge, one's abilities had to be at the forefront of the Silver Palace. At least in the top ten.
Garen's battle results were really impressive, but to say he could rank in the top ten of the entire Silver Palace was pushing it. After all, under Avic's encouragement, Silver Palace had included all of the Empire’s strongest totem users and could be said to be a peak level organization representing all of Kovistan's power. To be able to rank in the top ten there meant he would be top ten in Kovistan in name, in which case his influence would be huge.
Bam!!
Just then the winner had been decided on stage, the black bear actually grew a thick black tail with scales, like that of a crocodile, and swept it at the side of the tiger's body, beating it to a pulp and rendering it unable to retaliate.
The black bear's totem user was raising both hands up in the sky, bowing towards Avic in the distance.
"Newly promoted competitor, Count Leon wins!"
"Now we shall award the royal family’s most technologically advanced crystal -- the Silver Wings!" A male guard at the side announced loudly. There was also a maid carrying the tray with the award onto the platform.
Garen sat down next to Avic and immediately heard Avic ask him.
"Garen, what do you think of those two just now?"
He thought it over for a while.
"At their age, it's already not bad that they can achieve the elite level of Form Two. It's just I don't know which family has descendants with so much potential."
"Just the heir of a small family that recently entered the Kingdom. But since they have potential, they'll naturally be Kovistan's talent and assets. We will certainly raise them properly." Avic shook his head, "The next group!"
"Next group!!" The guard passed down his order.
Soon enough, two more young people, dressed differently, went onto the stage.
One was wearing a white wig, a woman. The other was wearing skintight black leather pants and a short black dagger for unknown purposes strapped on and was also a woman.
After they went onto the stage, they both bowed and paid their respects to each other. Then they released a white wild boar and a black bald eagle with reddish wings each.
The two of them faced off on the high platform.
Garen watched the battle with Avic, but he had no interest whatsoever in these Form Two totem users with ordinary elite totems.
Compared to Form One, Form Two totem users already had a special ability, but they weren't strong, with not much variety, not enough changes and naturally not much to see. Although some totem users made up for it with tactics, totem users who could use tactics were far too few.
Match after match went on, and after six whole matches, there was finally a young man who could use tactics.
But even then, Garen nearly fell asleep watching them.
"Don't worry, the next one up has some connection with you, Garen." Avic glanced at him, chuckling. As though having seen through his disinterest.
"Connection with me?" Garen said, confused.
"That's right, this little fella’s grandfather is Earl Baxy. Their Hildra family and your Trejons family have always been on good terms." Avic explained.
Garen suddenly remembered, this Earl Baxy was related to Vanderman, and was one of the Trejons family relatives in the Kingdom.
Back when he first arrived in the Kingdom, they had even sent an invitation, but he didn't have the time to join them.
His mind running carefully, Garen smiled slightly. Acacia’s mother was Earl Baxy’s daughter, meaning Earl Baxy was this body's maternal grandfather.
"According to our relations, he should call me his older cousin."
Avic laughed.
"His name is Reyn Hildra, he's the totem user candidate with the most promise in this generation of the Hildra family. As members of the same generation, you two should be closer."
"Of course." Garen smiled.
Soon enough, Reyn Hildra went onto the stage. This was a handsome man who also had blonde hair, no older than twenty years, and with rare purple eyes. His slender body wore a white warrior’s uniform, with just another silver-striped leather cloak draped over his right shoulder.
He first bowed at His Majesty, and then added a bow to Garen by himself.
And then he waved his right hand, a pure white owl appearing on his right shoulder. Strangely, this owl kept sparkling with blue lightning.
Garen smiled a little.
Looks like this young guy was abnormally friendly to him, and plus, he was the only one with a decent totem presence to come up to the stage since just now. Garen suddenly had a shard of recognition for him.
That Lightning Owl was evidently not a regular Form Two totem.
"Looks pretty decent," Garen said lightly.
"How about you judge this match?" Avic glanced at him.
"Can I?" Garen was surprised.
"Of course you can."
"That's against the rules, isn't it, Father?" The Fourth Princess said sweetly and softly from the side.
She quickly swept Garen with a glance, her eyes full of wariness.