352 C352. New Appearance
Tyler, or rather Lix was completely at a loss for words as these people rather seriously discussed his accomplishments in front of him the moment the Lord of this city introduced him to the room.
For some unknown reason, it seems one of the Magicians representing the top-ranking parties in the Magic Guild and were supposed to have been assigned the same mission as his party, did not share the room’s favorable opinion on his little group.
Although a part of him could understand how she must’ve felt after working her ass off to rise through the ranks all the way to where she is right now, only for a common Rank 2 Magician to come along and suddenly be put on the same level as her.
Even he would be annoyed at such a thing, not that he would actually care that much though. However, despite his transformation to a demon, he wouldn’t be able to maintain a human mindset if he wasn’t a hypocrite sometimes.
So naturally, despite his understanding of her feelings, he still could not allow such blatant disrespect to the character of Lix he had spent so much time and influence in building up till now. It didn’t matter if everything had started out accidentally or premeditated.
However, just as this thought crossed his mind, one of the other two magicians in the room, Severus, suddenly addressed him directly.
“Pardon my interjection for a moment Mr. Lix. Before we proceed any further, please allow me to offer my gratitude for escorting my little nephew and his party on their unauthorized quest to the dangerous Farbelt Pass. Knowing their strength personally, I’m sure the only reason they were able to make it back unscathed was because you were both there.”
“Your nephew?”
“Oh, I suppose you’re wondering who I’m referring to. While I may not look it right now, I’m actually still a lesser demon myself. My full name is Severus Mahlat.”
.....
“Mahlat?”
Lix asked with a hint of contemplation as he seems to have found the name Mahlat rather familiar. It didn’t take long before his posture returned to normal as he had quickly found the information he was seeking in an instant.
Noticing that Lix seems to have recalled who he was referring to, Severus quickly acknowledged his silent conclusion and proceeded to explain further before he could ask any questions.
“Indeed, Dohel Mahlat, the supposed leader of the Hunter party so ignorantly named Unrivaled, is the only son of my late brother. I’m ashamed I haven’t been able to look after my nephew myself given my busy schedule so I appreciate you looking out for him.”
A warm smile graced his face as Severus lowered his head slightly for a moment as a show of gratitude towards the hooded Lix.
“I see... still, I didn’t really do much. Also, I’ve heard your nephew and his team have gone missing for a while now. So there really is no need to thank me.”
“Please don’t sell yourself short. Knowing that idiot of a boy. I’m sure he has only just gotten his team into another trouble and I’m already looking into it. But if there is one thing that boy is good at, it’s staying alive.”
Lix tilted his head slightly to the left with reservations. He was quite sure those five may already be dead by now as he couldn’t sense their auras or presence in the city so he was wondering where this dude was getting his confidence from.
“You really have a lot of faith in him, don’t you?”
That question hadn’t surprised Severus at all as he could understand where the skepticism would come from so he replied simply and honestly.
“As his guardian who has been absent from his live for so long, I really have no choice. I just have to.”
Teyla’s face and ears turned red as she watched the way Lix and Severus spoke lightly to each other. Unable to stand the rapidly changing atmosphere any longer, she bellowed:
“That’s enough of this nonsense! My team could do the same things they did if we got everyone together! Besides, what kind of Magicians only have a party of two Huh? He obviously can’t get anyone to join them because they’re no good or are hiding something!”
The air in the room grew tense even as it grew frigid, and then the sound of someone letting out a forced breath came forth.
“Sigh... Let’s leave the matter at that. We didn’t gather everyone here to fight now, did we?”
After that last exaggerated sigh by the Merchant guild leader, Teyla sat down, seemingly deflated. However, she still glared hatefully at Lix.
The two guild leaders watched this sight and shook their heads helplessly. Their role here was not to speak but serve to show their support for the City’s lord plan, yet the situation had suddenly taken a strange turn.
“Fufufufu... I understand that you all value strength, but that is not the topic we are here to address, so why don’t we move on to the matter at hand?”
Seeing as the room had finally calmed down, Nullen finally broke the silence as he decided to initiate the start of the meeting. After all, there was a reason everyone here, people who were at the top of their respective fields, were gathered here today.
“Thank you, Lord Nullen.”
“There is no need for you to thank me but sure, please explain the details of the current situation to everyone here.”
“Understood. If only I could have reported it right away…”
“Don’t worry, I was handling a matter in connection with the Farbelt Pass myself.”
“There is another Huh.”
“Now then, let’s get to the point—”
“Before that, shouldn’t we show some basic courtesy and remove our hoods?”
Teyla cut in once more with mocking words and a cheeky smile on her face, however, unlike with Rain, Lix didn’t find that smile appealing in the slightest.
While she was not incorrect in saying that, she was also being quite annoying out of spite. Even the other Hunters frowned as well and were about to say something giving as Nullen had refused to comment on it.
Rather, it seems the new city lord had a thing for the drama as Lix got a feeling that he was carefully waiting for something. There was no need for Lix to comply with any sort of formalities and take off his hood.
However, he had a feeling this childlike lord was planning something and for some reason, he couldn’t help himself but accept the challenge.
“It’s fine. This time, she has a point. I have been somewhat rude.”
Ever since Tyler first donned the identity of Lix, he hadn’t really worn the hood to hide his identity. Rather, he was simply afraid the distinct appearance that differs from the people around him would arouse suspicion.
However, he had once been able to get away with it with the explanation of being from the Far East when he had revealed his identity to the Merchant guild leader. A decision he admits to being shortsighted at the time.
As that decision had been made with little to no information on the world around him, things had changed dramatically since then and he couldn’t help but laugh at his own naivety considering how things had progressed beyond his wildest expectations.
Not only had he revealed himself to the Great Five as their opposition for the Darknar castle. He was now the absolute ruler of his own demon family.
So naturally, his face would soon become well known amongst the nobles and high-ranking commoners. Which was why he now needed to deal with the only loose end which was the Merchant guild Leader, one of the main reasons why he had headed straight for the merchant guild upon his arrival.
Unfortunately for Tyler, he hadn’t met the guild leader at the time, and now, he could not activate any spells without the Lord of the city, Nullen, sensing something was off leaving Tyler in a rather peculiar situation.
However, this was little more than a Minor obstacle for the current Tyler who had learned a vast array of utility spells and skills from the magic Library for situations just like this. With that, he was able to create a miniature version of himself during the time he had waited outside the door for the maid to invite them in.
All he needed to do was create a clone of himself, and then, using Matter manipulation to manipulate the clone’s size to that of an atom, sensing its presence and energy, especially with the Ring of Nullity was impossible for anyone that wasn’t a literal God.
Of course, his clone’s mission was simply to enter the room unnoticed and discretely attach a spell to Riokar’s brain. Manipulating his memories right now would be impossible to pull off unnoticed so Tyler attached a memory replacement spell instead.
Simply by taking off his hood, the spell would replace Riokar’s memories of his real face with the new face he had transformed his face into by using shape-shifting.
His current appearance only slightly differs from his original one. As he was originally mixed race, his skin tone had been a little tanned but right now, he was almost pale with short blonde hair and a seemingly average appearance which told everyone he was not a demon noble.
“Since I’m from the Far East, I try to avoid attention by wearing my hood and have gotten used to keeping it on no matter the occasion. Do forgive my lack of manners.”
“Cheh, just an average joe.”
As per the trend, only one person couldn’t Control themselves but made a rude remark almost purposefully.
“That’s enough rudeness from you, Teyla. Our three organizations were founded for the common demon and just because you were once part of a noble family does not give you the right to look down on anyone else. ”
As the voice castigating Teyla’s second interruption rang forth, she realized that everyone else in the room felt that way, so she reluctantly fell silent. A vein bulged on her forehead as she gritted her teeth and mumbled something under her breath.
Of course with the high levels of everyone here, there was no amount of mumbling she could do that they wouldn’t hear but rather than fall for her tricks and deviate from the topic, they all chose to ignore her.
“...Well, it’s mindsets like this that maintain and reinforce the current structure of this flawed society.”
Everyone fell silent at Lix’s words and Teyla’s face had gone from pale to red. The four guards that sat next to Nullen and were yet to speak a single word frowned slightly but Nullen maintained the shameful childlike smile the entire time, remaining completely nonchalant about everything that had happened so far.
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