Moments after the lecture ended, and long after Dyon had left, Elder Flyleaf exited the hall with a complacent and thoughtful smile on his face, entering what looked like a lobby made for those of high standing. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰

“I haven’t seen you smile in quite a while Flyleaf, what’s got you so happy?” An elder dressed in similar acacia embroidered robes as Elder Flyleaf questioned him.

“I met an interesting human boy today.”

There was an odd glint in Flyleaf’s green eyes as he seemed to be reflecting back on every detail of his class that day.

“Human? Since when did we have humans in our school?”

“Well, it’s not the first time a human has come here… although he didn’t join our academy. That aside, I believe only the headmaster could have allowed such a thing to happen without us elders knowing…”

Unlike Benes and Ryba, Elder Flyleaf was far more experienced. For a human to enter their school without any elders being aware could only have been done by someone with sufficient power to ignore even the elders. At that point, there was only two possibilities, but the other was unlikely.

“The Headmaster? Well, wasn’t his late wife human? That sounds like case closed, what else could be interesting about that?”

“Even the Headmaster wouldn’t allow a human in that didn’t meet the criteria of the school. Don’t you know how rare it is for humans to have innate soul power? What’s more, this boy has an innate aurora.”

The elder’s playful expression suddenly turned serious. “Do you think he could be useful? Him being here likely means that he has no real ties to the humans…”

Elder Flyleaf let a small smile grace his lips, “I don’t know if he’ll be so easily manipulated. He completely brushed off my soul pressure earlier today, my suggestion techniques won’t be effective.”

“He brushed them off?… His innate soul strength can’t have been low then… but we’re in sore need of talent that hasn’t been influenced by higher level experts…”

“You shouldn’t worry too much about that, Erunonidan. If the Headmaster let him in so easily, I’m sure he already has his own plans. Let the chips fall as they may. We haven’t even seen if his soul manifestation will be worth nurturing. He has the looks of an elf, but, if his power base isn’t built upon the same fundamental things as us, he’ll never be properly accepted.”

Elder Erunonidan nodded. “Since he has an innate aurora, he’ll probably go to the alchemy or formation guilds right? We have supporters there, it won’t be too hard to keep tabs on him.”

“Ai, also pay attention to any heavenly signs and changes in the soul manifestation leader boards that may occur in the next few days…”

Elder Erunonidan started, “you think his soul manifestation will cause a heavenly sign to come down?…”

Elder Flyleaf’s face hardened. “He may not even be aware of how amazing he is… to be barely 17 years old, and have the ability to create a peak level practitioner array in less than a minute… his level of skill is comparable to the formation guild head already…”

Silence reigned the room.

Because of Dyon’s inexperience with other formation and alchemy masters, he had no way of gauging his skill as compared to them. To Dyon, a Saint level expert who was also a formation master should be far better than him at creating arrays. However, he was wrong.

Because of the separation of array theory and alchemy, often, the highest levels formation masters reached was the peak master level – in terms of this particular world, anyway. A level that Dyon had already broken into the lower level of just recently. The advantage his innate aurora and intelligence gave him was incomparable to what other experts had.

To Elder Flyleaf, he was aware that Dyon’s soul strength was nowhere near the formation guild master’s, but, the ability to speed array was something he had no concept of. To him, the only way Dyon created a peak level practitioner array was by being able to draw the complete array quickly. Which made him slightly overestimate Dyon, but also underestimate him at the same time.

He overestimated Dyon’s ability to speed draw complete arrays. But, he also underestimated Dyon’s intelligence by not considering the fact he could create his own short cuts to emulate such an effect.

Elder Erunonidan sighed. “The best way to know if he’ll be useful or not is once he’s grown enough to participate in the wars…”

A complicated look appeared on Elder Flyleaf’s face. He really seemed to abhor the state of things. The frustration on his face was clear. But, he could do nothing but hold it in.

“Because of these wars… we’ve lost contact with our king… we lost our greatest ally… the power struggles in our kingdom have reached unprecedented levels… and everyone has seemed to forget the reason we fight these wars in the first place.”

“All we can do is defend our gate and hope the other races do the same. With the Royal God Clan, humans will always be the rulers of this world. We can only trust that they have everything under control.”

“The previous campaign ended early because of the struggles we’re having here. But, the good news is that because the World Tournament is coming up soon, there’ll be many youngsters who want to temper themselves by leading their own campaigns. We should receive reinforcements for the Gate soon.”

Elder Flyleaf nodded in agreement. “Either way, if he decides to join the Elvin campaign banner, it would do us good. He’s handsome, intelligent, and as long as he marries an elf of high standing, from the right family, no one will have anything to say.”

Despite how much praise Elder Flyleaf heaped on Dyon, Elder Erunonidan couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Are you sure this is a student you just met instead of your bastard child?” 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Elder Flyleaf chuckled, “I just have a good impression of him. If he campaigns under our banner and has good results, it’ll only help us in stabilizing the throne. The traditions that have always chosen our king shouldn’t be done away with so easily. The power-hungry nobles who are so intent on doing away with our old traditions, have already forgotten why those things were our traditions in the first place.”

“Sometimes I can’t help but feel that they have the point… without the help of our long gone ally, is it even feasible to continue with tradition? We haven’t even found a successor appropriate based on traditions.”

Despite Elder Flyleaf’s determination, he had no good answer for his long-time friend. He could only shake his head.

“We must trust that things were made like this for a reason. Trust our ancestors and trust the gods we came from. They gave us our strength, our faith and our future. We can’t forsake them.”

“If only the old and devoted generation could still fight…”

“If only we could still fight…”

𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮