Oliver saw Jeanne's unwavering expression, and he sighed in response as he stopped his leave for a second to then say.
"This isn't fair for him you know, he has been training since he was ten, and then this kid just randomly appears, he deserves a chance", said the City Lord.
Unfortunately for him, Jeanne was calmly finishing her meal while she handed Emily a red capsule, which she swallowed in a go, only after that Reyne's mother answered him.
"That's not something you can decide, you already know my standing in all this, leaving that aside how did the meeting go?".
Oliver shook his head in response to then say.
"I have obtained the support of another twenty or so cities, thanks to the rumors of the neighboring wasteland region, where a town was practically razed to the ground in a single day, there weren't even signs of the chief getting the chance of asking for reinforces".
"The old fogeys refuse to make a move first, unless I get explicit evidence and those guys will arrive at Tiria tonight, I swear I don't understand how we haven't gone extinct since the founder passed away".
Jeanne placed her fork on the plate as she finished eating, while she gazed at the dark gray haired Emily before saying.
"That's because per ever million of cowards, someone with enough courage to make a real difference appears, don't forget to inform the old man to be prepared, who knows what those guys are plotting, but I'm pretty sure they aren't happy that she escaped their grasp".
After saying that she and Emily left the room, Oliver followed not too long after, changing the scenery a bit, Reyne guided Daimon and Sarah through the castle all the way to the exit.
Whenever the guards saw Reyne they respectfully bowed towards her before returning to their static positions, it was obvious that she had a high status among the Valleris, which made Daimon wonder she wasn't the successor instead of Eliot.
He couldn't imagine that strict upright guy, choosing his son just because of some kind of favoritism, when Reyne clearly was more apt to the uphold the responsibilities of a City Lord.
That Eliot guy was too short tempered for that, maybe others couldn't notice it, but since he could literally see mana pressure, even if he wasn't subjected to it, he of course noticed that Emily was the one that prevented Eliot from attacking him in a moment of recklessness.
Apparently Reyne was quite sharp towards this subject, as she took the initiative to say.
"Not all the cities have the same rules, with the pass of the years there are some which are ruled by the Adjudicators and some which are ruled by the Church of Justice, as long as the one in charge cares about humans, no one has really anything to say about it, in fact it is taken as a competition to see who can bring more prosperity to humanity".
"But there is an exception and that is border cities, like Tiria, more than 60% of Kerrol became unhabitable ever since the first blood moon week, and the remaining part is divided is divided in 15% for us and the leftover 25% is ruled by the flesh eating demons".
"Contrary to what other people think, the central cities aren't the strongest, but the border ones, as they regulate the many dangerous regions, making sure that enemies don't infiltrate into the core of human civilization, and because of that, the city lord of every border city has to be an Adjudicator, someone with outstanding battle capacities, other aspects can be managed by assistants, like in my family's case".
"In other words, father handles the fights while mom handles the internal affairs, as long as it doesn't require seeing the representatives of other powers, because there is always a chance of someone trying to take me or her hostage to blackmail father, Eliot is always with father so he isn't a target in that sense", she said stopping a moment to look at Daimon before continuing.
"The reason as to why I was hiding my identity and temporarily staying in Brown Wind town, is because there were some meetings which father had to attend, and aunt Emily was out of the city fighting in the Red Plains".
Daimon nodded, earlier he could tell that Oliver is a defense type mage, he is perfect to protect, while Jeanne is a full combat-oriented mage, if a fight breaks out, she can easily defend herself, but defending others is a completely different story.
As for Emily, though she isn't a defense type knight, the nature of her abilities make her a good bodyguard, who can both defend and attack depending on the situation, and since Reyne seems to get along quite good with her, it's obvious that the dark gray haired woman is often watching over her.
It's also worth noticing that the Red Plain she mentioned is the largest extension landscape in Kerrol, which is basically an open area surrounded by rock formations, that divides the territory ruled by humans and the one ruled by flesh eating demons.
It's the only point from where the flesh eating demons can realistically invade the human territory, since a large army would suffer if it had to move through the different extremely dangerous landscapes of Kerrol, which are the domain of the magic beasts, making it the major battlefield between the two races.
"Keep your brother under control, next time he looks at me with those disgusting eyes of his, I'll beat him to a literal pulp", casually said the crazy girl, making the last guards who were at the entrance of the castle shake a bit, it was hard to ignore that comment, but they saw Reyne glaring at them as of she was saying "Don't you dare move".
Reyne noticed that Daimon wasn't against the idea and she inwardly sighed remembering the destiny of those guys back at Brown Wind town, it wasn't hard for someone like Sarah with a really strong poison affinity to turn someone into a bloody pulp.
"Sorry about that, he has always been a bit reckless, but in part that's how he became an Adjudicator even at a young age, since aunt Emily should be looking at us, he won't come to look for trouble so just ignore him", she said.
Leving that aside, they finally left the castle, but were still within the territory of the Valleris, which extended to the surrounding streets, a literal part of the center of the city fully belonged to them.
Daimon slightly raised his head to take a look at his first destination, the large cathedral that raised at the south of the Valleris's castle, following the explanation given by Reyne, if a birder city had a strong representative from the "government" then the same should apply to the church.
"We'll go to the cathedral since I want to verify a couple of things, are you sure you can come?", asked Daimon to which Reyne nodded.
"With aunt Emily tagging along, there is no place of the city which I can't visit, don't worry I won't cause troubles", she said.
Daimon saw the dark gray haired woman observing him from the shadows, since she wasn't complaining or preventing Reyne from coming with them, then everything should be fine.
Since that was settled, they walked towards the cathedral, on the way Daimon observed the city, it is easy to get an idea of how a city is doing by observing those who live in it, it certainly was on a different level compared to the towns.
There were no people living on the streets, and no one seemed to be worried about food or security in general, this was true even at the outer part of the city, which he observed from within the carriage when they arrived, though certainly it was a no-luxury life for those who lived there, it was still way better than the towns.
"Say, Reyne, as someone who has lived in the wasteland I don't particularly mind, but why is the city not tending a hand to the towns, not like in giving them free stuff but employing them, even at the towns there are several Lord ranks which could be useful and that would prevent what happened at Brown Wind town to repeat", said Daimon to which Reyne bitterly smiled.
"It's the law, unless flesh eating demons the cities don't interfere with the other, much less with towns, humans are weaker than flesh eating demons by innate, so it was done like this to prevent us from getting us comfortable which might lead to extinction, at least that's the official reason, but in all honesty, I think that both the Adjudicators and the Church are trying for a second person like the first king to appear".
Daimon raised an eyebrow, they basically used the towns to force people exploit their potential, in a do or die kind of situation, humans are prompt to exceed their limits, it has happened in the four galaxies before when Corrosive Light was created to by the Light Faction to deal with the Undead.
The process didn't really mattered to Daimon, but the result they wanted, in other words someone like the first king appearing to lead them, did interest him, because that so called first king could have been the hero as there are no records of how he looked or how strong he really was, according to Ender.
And for such an important person to just disappear from the books of history, it was a hard thing to accomplish, but it would become easier if we are talking of a system user, also the timing and the situation matched.
Clearly whatever the mission the hero had here was, he failed to completely clear it, but since he could leave a portal to this place, something that for sure had to be with his system, then he should have managed to do some progress, a mission tends to have many objectives and each give a small reward.
'So, he freed himself from the prison and led the humans, but couldn't finish it, maybe he wasn't strong enough the first time, so he left to continue later, but died before having the chance to do so', thought Daimon.
Putting the matter at the back of his head until he met whoever sold information in this city, he came out of his daze as he saw the entrance to the cathedral which was quite imposing from up-close.
There was a small number of stairs which one had to go up, meaning the cathedral was at a higher ground than those outside of it, a quite authoritative design, from the outside it looked like an old European building, made out of white marble, with small green areas at its sides and of course full armored guards standing at the entrance.
Daimon could also see the numerous arrays here and there, as well as the cores embedded in the walls, pillars and practically every part of the structure, acting as decorations, while they were actually part of the defensive system of the building.
Emily had to come out of her camouflage, otherwise if the arrays detected her, she would be treated as an enemy trying to sneak in, so she just followed the group as they entered the cathedral.
The insides were quite spacious too, the whole thing was basically a single huge hall which extended from side to side of the building, with chandeliers hanging from the high roof, pillars engraved with several designs, and no place to sit, besides a slightly elevated platform at the other side of the whole thing.
That being said, there were some doors at that side too, from which people came and left constantly, there were guards there too, and a singe man was standing still on the platform, wearing some strange white robes.
"Oh, now this is a sight one doesn't get to see every day, how can I help the young miss from the Valleris family?", said the man wearing white robes as he kept a peaceful expression on his face.
But that was only on the surface, Daimon could easily tell the man exuded a cold aura when he saw Emily, not to mention he also almost unnoticeably glared at Reyne.
"Good evening, Archbishop Terrence, I only came as a guide, these two friends wish to speak with the evaluators", said Reyne as she kept a calm neutral expression on her face.
"I see, that is a good thing, it's always nice to hear that more of those "disgusting" people who associate with those monsters, is being brought to justice, please go through that door", said the man with white robes as he pointed at a door that was at the left extreme of the hall, while at the same time he also glared at Emily.
The atmosphere slightly tensed up, that white robed guy was the same as Emily, a middle stage Arch rank, a mage though, and it was easy to see they weren't in good terms, but after a second of that, they didn't do anything.
"We'll be back in a moment", said Daimon to Reyne as he entered through that door signaled by Terrence, of course the crazy girl tagged along.
…
Once Daimon closed the door he was welcomed with the sight of a complete white room, there was some furnish, a large table, a few sofas and also white armors decorating the room.
But everything was completely white, giving it a strangely uncomfortable sensation, and in the middle of all that, there was a man wearing… you guessed it, white robes, though it was only an early stage Archmage, it was easy to tell it was someone with sharp senses.
Daimon could feel the guy trying to scan him, but of course he could only see what he wanted him to see, the same applied to Sarah since she was using the bracelet of the god of mischief.
"I the evaluator n°286 have confirmed you aren't tainted by those monsters, please take a seat and feel fry to ask", said the man as he offered Daimon and Sarah a seat in front of him, at the other side of the table.
Which they accepted, the man even offered them some courtesy snacks such as little muffins and tea, which he served himself, as he waited for them to talk, since Daimon was acting as someone from the wasteland he went straight to the point in a "blunt" way.
"I want to know what the reward will be, if I captured someone directly working with the flesh eating demons?", he asked.
The man didn't take it as an offense and instead said.
"Noble or regular flesh eating demon, if the answer is the first do you have any idea to which family he belongs, and we'll need evidence of it, otherwise it will be treated as the second, naturally the reward given by capturing those working for nobles is higher".
"It's a woman from a family called "Caraste", this is one of the things I found in her ring", said Daimon as he took out a handkerchief with an emblem in the form of a dagger shoved in the ground, it was something that belonged to one of the two woman that were accompanying Dilan, he of course robbed them before using them as fuel, so he naturally had all their belongings.
The eyes of the man glowed for a second as he took the handkerchief from Daimon's hands, his mana sense inspected the thing thoroughly, before he nodded.
"I have confirmed that it isn't fake, the Caraste are a Blood Viscount level family, which means that normally the reward would only amount to the peak of the Lord rank in terms of value, but they serve a Blood Earl directly and this emblem is so well made, that it has to be someone from its main branch, the reward for this would be an early stage Arch rank payment, you can chose between three hundred peak Lord beast cores, or a single use Arch rank, Beast Weapon".
Daimon's eyes lightened up as he heard about the reward, it was quite a "generous" one.
"Wow, sounds like we'll be able to rest way past the blood moon week, thanks for the information, we'll go get that scum and return to exchange it", said Daimon to which the man smiled in response.
"I'll be waiting for it, may the grace of justice keep you safe", he said as he beckoned towards the door which opened for them to leave.
Daimon stood up and then left with Sarah who had an excited expression on her face, making the man sitting on the table softly smile.
Reyne saw Daimon and Sarah returning and she reunited with them along with Emily, before the group left the cathedral, under the eyes of the Archbishop Terrence.
As soon as they left, Reyne turned to see Daimon before saying.
"Were you able to get the answers you wanted?".
"Yes, everything went well", said Daimon as he inwardly thought.
'Someone that can lie straight to your face and hide it really good, can't be up to something good after all'.
Back at the cathedral, the Archbishop suddenly frowned as if he was contemplating something, before his expression returned to normal, no one could tell what the man was thinking.
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