The large study room in the residence of Lord Baro, the Lord of the Yellow City, seemed to narrow with the weight of that silent but tense waiting that had been going on for days. The pale light filtering through the windows illuminated the maps and sealed documents on the table, making the restlessness in the room even more apparent. The intensity of the city's daily affairs and the peaceful environment it possessed in previous years were returning, but while everything seemed to be going so well, the city lord was restless. Baro appeared to be in an age group he did not belong to. Even though he was in his thirties, he looked to be in his mid-forties. Normally, he possessed the dignified and distant stance of a sage, but right now, every line on his face was strained. His black eyes were locked onto Commander Wur, who stood at the other end of the table.
Commander Wur was there with his usual serious and unwavering stance. His bald head shone in the room's light, and his wide, long gray beard poured down toward his chest. Wur broke the silence with his deep and smooth voice: "Despite all the searches and the scouts around the city, we could not find Mais, my Lord. There is no trace of when or in which direction he left the city."
Upon these words, Baro straightened up in the chair he was sitting in and brought his fist down on the table. That calm sage mask on his face cracked for a moment, revealing the anger beneath it. While furiously stroking his goatee, drops of sweat seeping from between his black hair slid down his temples. "He did not keep his word," Baro thundered, his voice echoing off the stone walls of the room. "He had promised to stay in the city! What if he has fled?! What will happen to Maria?"
Wur waited without blinking his gray eyes in the face of his Lord's anger. He understood Baro's anxiety; Mais's sudden disappearance carried a significant risk for Maria's treatment. Baro could not restrict him, and this frightened him. What if he walked away completely one day? Mais was very young. The logical thing was for him to leave this place from the very beginning anyway. His hesitation must have been due to his inability to understand death. But this little child would one day become a young man. Sooner than it appeared. If he then came to his senses and left this mining city, Maria would be doomed to death.
Baro took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and slid his hand toward another report on the table. He wanted to change the agenda, to focus on a power he could at least control.
"Let's put Mais aside for now," Baro said, his voice still filled with a trembling anger. "The real important one is Xiao Diarozu. It has been confirmed that he recently passed into the Sage Realm. I already lost Tenma Yun to Mais's side, for no reason. I cannot let another sage slip through my fingers in this city. Wur, make the preparations immediately. I will visit Xiao Diarozu at his residence."
Commander Wur slowly stroked his beard. That serious expression on his face had now darkened a bit more. Looking straight into Baro's eyes, he poured out the words he wouldn't want to hear: "It is too late for that, Lord Baro. It seems... Xiao Diarozu left the city, taking his daughter Xiao Linlin and his entire family with him. Although they put their properties up for sale before leaving, I heard they sold the properties cheaper to the merchants residing in the Goldengrove neighborhood. He moved fast."
Baro just froze in the face of what he heard. The air in the room instantly turned ice cold. After Tenma, another new sage of the city had left his command for an unknown reason.
At that moment, just as Baro was about to shout in anger, he suddenly froze. Then, without saying anything to Wur, he vanished.
Hideo had collapsed tiredly onto the wooden chair in the dim living room of the manor. Even though his father Tenma Yun had recently stepped into the Sage Realm, the family had never possessed a great fortune in the past. Therefore, instead of the Goldengrove neighborhood where the city's nobles and wealthy gathered, their home was an old manor with slightly worn walls, located in a much more modest and cheap area. If it were up to his father, they could have settled into an even smaller house, but for a long time, his mother had managed to make him buy at least a manor by emphasizing that he was a high-level Core Expert.
Hideo, who was a young man at that time, had completely grasped his mother's logic and had grown up experiencing its effects. But on the other hand, Hideo could now see how right his father was as well. When Tenma passed into the Sage Realm, the prices in the region had also risen rapidly. Of course, it was still not at a level to compete with the Goldengrove neighborhood, but it was a good example of how an individual's quality increases the value of their surroundings.
With the presence of figures like Mais and Kasuur, even the rents in the Goldengrove neighborhood had suffered exorbitant price increases. The fact that the City Lord's and the Meng family's manors were there was of course an important factor, but for an ordinary city, geniuses like Mais and Kasuur were of a very high level. Let us not forget, it was public knowledge that Mais had reached the Sage Realm. Consequently, countless wealthy merchants from other cities were moving to the region.
Even some merchants in the Sage Realm. Hideo had actually seen Merchant Samuel in the city a few times. He had heard that the man was a much more traveling merchant, but the man still spent a considerable amount of time in this city. It was pure luck that the man did not recognize him, but it was not surprising that someone did recognize him, and these people had already informed Luka Navan anyway.
'This was a difficult journey.'
Hideo could not deny that this journey had exhausted him. Unexpected things had happened, and the return journey had been tense. Moreover, Mais...
In the middle of the room, Tenma Yun was walking back and forth with restless steps. The whites falling into the beard and among the bright red hair of the man, who looked to be in his forties, became completely apparent in the filtering weak light. Tenma's face was contorted with anger. Mais sending them word, asking them to leave the Yellow City and settle in the Red River City, was testing the old wolf's patience.
"He wants to tear us away from our order here and send us into the unknown," Tenma muttered, the tone in his voice echoing off the bare walls of the room. "But he himself is nowhere to be found! Where is this boy, Hideo?"
Hideo raised his round eyes, exhausted from fatigue, to his father. His bright orange hair looked pale in the feeble flame of the lamp. There was no trace left of his usual polite and distant stance. "I don't know," he said honestly. "After the auction, he sent me ahead. Last time, he was going to return together with that mad... clown, Ursul. I haven't seen him since then."
Tenma paused, furrowing his brows even more. "Ursul?" he said suspiciously. He had heard the latest news from his son, and it had quite frightened him. Although Plain City was still far away, knowing that such a man existed there... made one uneasy. "Could he be alive next to that madman who tore off City Lord Uzai's head? Mais might already be dead. Why should we listen to the orders of a dead man and leave our power here? Perhaps the best thing to do, before things get even worse, is to go to Baro and offer our loyalty again. Haha, maybe if we beg for forgiveness, he will take us into his arms again."
"But we will completely lose our opportunity to rise."
Father and son knew the consequences when they sided with Mais. Despite this, they had chosen him.
Just then, the heavy wooden door of the room opened slowly without making any noise, just like a shadow. Along with the figure slipping inside, a cold breeze also entered the room. Mais was standing on the threshold with his usual calm and mysterious stance. Even for a Sage, his aura was unique. Finding a Sage with as much Tao understanding as him was very difficult even in the entire 3rd Ferua. He had no mask on his face; that large, deep scar covering where his eyes should be and his dull, gray eyes beneath that scar turned directly toward them. Despite being blind, his gaze was intense enough to easily cut off Tenma's words.
Mais had returned.