"Yes. We’ve thought it over and decided that it’s the best course of action right now. Next to me are the two princesses and they’ll be assisting us on our quest." One of the elders nodded.

  "Girls, introduce yourselves."

  "My name is Syvi Valenstaine. Currently level 98 High Elf Enchantress." Syvi smiled and bowed.

  She had short blond hair that was swept to the side and her outfit was similar to Silvia’s priest robes.

  "Cyril Valenstaine. Nice to meet you." Cyril bowed with a grin.

  "Cyril your class." The elders smiled softly.

  "Ah right. Level 93 Ascended Combat Medic." Cyril corrected herself.

  She was on the shorter side and had long blond hair that reached her h.i.p.s. Her hair was on the slightly wilder side with a flick of hair on the very top.

  Looking at that flick of hair, Shiro raised an eyebrow and had the sudden urge to either smooth it back down or give it a tug.

  "So what are you thinking right now that involves introducing the princesses to us?" Shiro asked.

  "You see, everyone knows that the two princesses will support whoever wins the throne in the end. Them showing support to a prince early is akin to us, the elders, favouring one of the candidates. If we follow what you have planned so far, the first and second prince will find out our supposed favouritism towards the third prince. This will hopefully provoke them to make a move early." One of the elders said while sipping some tea.

  Looking at the princesses, Shiro narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

  ’Do they desire the legacy themselves? What motive do they have to help us?’ She thought to herself. But from the looks of things, she knew that she wasn’t going to get an answer so soon. She’ll have to wait and keep an eye on them.

  "Is it ok if I chip in with one of my thoughts?" Aarim called out.

  "Sure. Feel free to share your thoughts." The elder nodded since they were open to suggestions that may help the country.

  "How much urgency do we want the princes to feel? If we were to make our support more apparent and give the third prince more power, it’ll give the other princes more urgency and throw them into complete war. But if we don’t make them feel enough urgency, we’re just going to be powering up the third prince and making him more of a competitor." Aarim reminded.

  "Hmm…… we can’t make the situation too urgent since we don’t exactly have the manpower to keep up." Shiro furrowed her brows.

  "Then how about we show a little surface support then follow it up with some support in the background. The princes will ’happen’ to find out and urge their followers to speed up plans while not making a move just yet." One of the elders suggested.

  "That’s is a possible choice." Shiro nodded.

  "We’ll do that for now then. On the surface, we’ll allocate more resources and potions for the third prince to nurture his follows. While in the shadows, we’ll provide him with some extra support such as weapons or armour." The elder nodded.

  Agreeing upon their current plan, they discussed a few situations that may happen along with actions that they should take.

  "By the way big sis, what are you going to do about dad’s legacy? You are his favourite after all." Cyril asked curiously.

  "Hmm…… Well I don’t know much about it." Lyrica shook her head and looked towards the elders.

  "About that, it’s currently being monitored by your brothers so we’ll have to wait till nightfall. If we can silence the guards for a short while, we’ll be able to send you to the inheritance and see if you can claim it." One of the older elders replied.

  "Ah about the silencing part. Leave it to me, I can sort it out." Shiro offered with a smile.

  """Don’t kill them.""" Aarim, Madison and Lyrica called out at the same time.

  ". . . oi. I’m not that bloodthirsty you know." Shiro’s smile twitched slightly.

  ’Well your nature says differently.’ Aarim retorted in her mind since she could clearly see the figure getting excited.

  "I’m only gonna knock them out. Killing them would only bring annoying trouble." Shiro rolled her eyes. Even she knew that the consequences of killing them would spark a premature war.

  "Then that’s settled. We’ll be going into the inheritance area at nightfall. Cyril will follow you as a guide so that you know where to go." The elders smiled.

  ###

  Later that night, the party made their way through the castle using the elder’s passage. Shiro noticed that they were travelling closer to the world tree.

  ’I might be able to find out where Iziuel is as well.’ Shiro thought to herself.

  Making a few more turns, she narrowed her eyes when she noticed a few presences watching over the area in front of them.

  "Seems like we’re here." She whispered over.

  "Do you need my help in silencing them?" Chen Yu offered.

  "Do you think you can knock out people that are potentially at the peak of tier 4 without anyone realising?" Shiro asked.

  ". . . Nevermind then." Chen Yu sighed. His advantages lay in assassination. Outside of that, he was definitely weaker in terms of power.

  "Don’t worry about it. We can’t kill them so it’s disadvantageous for you. When we do get into a war, you’ll prove to be helpful." Silvia encouraged with a thumbs up.

  "Thank you." Chen Yu smiled.

  Looking at the duo, everyone else in the party had a grin on their faces.

  "Be right back." Shiro waved her hand slightly and flickered away.

  Path of Ascendance: Phantom Path + Celestial path.

  She decided to include celestial path since it would negate any barriers that they may have put up as backup.

  Flickering around the area, she found 27 people that were hidden in various places.

  ’27 should be within my reach.’ Shiro thought to herself.

  Flickering besides the first observer, she activated Fae Illusions and placed her palm against his head.

  Sending out a pulse of mana, she stopped all mana output and placed him in a state of mana deficiency.

  Injecting a single nanobot into his body, she sent out the simulated signal for the brain to fall asleep.

  Quickly catching him before he could make a sound, she placed him in the shadows before moving onto the next person.

  While the party couldn’t see much of what was happening, Chen Yu certainly noticed.

  ’What does she even specialise in?’ He wondered to himself.

  From what he had gathered, Shiro was able to perform tasks from every class and even excel in some.

  This only makes him question where she had even come from. Someone like this couldn’t go unnoticed. Especially if she made this much of a commotion wherever she went.

  During the moment he was thinking about this, he realised that Shiro had returned.

  "I’m done. We can go now." Shiro smiled.

  The party nodded since they expected as such. At this point, they had somewhat gotten used to what she could do, especially after being exposed to such on a day to day basis.

  However, that wasn’t the case for Cyril.

  "Damn…… are they really knocked out?" She asked as her eyes widened in curiosity.

  "Yup. But let’s talk later." Shiro smiled.

  Walking into the open area, they saw that the observers had been watching a simple corridor. If one didn’t know any better, they would have thought that this was just another walkway in the castle.

  "Hehe, it’s my time to shine." Cyril grinned and walked up to one of the doors.

  Placing her hand on the handle, a magic circle appeared on the back of her hand.

  Flickering between tier 3 and tier 4 magic circles, a giant formation slowly appeared all over the corridor.

  Looking closely at the formation, they noticed that it was made up of tiny magic circles that was all tier 4 in grade.

  ’Hmm…… that’s quite the formation. I don’t think my celestial path can cancel it out quickly even if I tried. I’ll need to take some time to study this so that I know all the nodes that I need to destroy.’ Shiro thought to herself since large formations like this had their own back up sections that make sure the formation continues to work.

  Much like the time in the library, this formation required extensive knowledge to decipher. Only this time, it was much more dangerous and more volatile.

  "Impressive right?" Cyril smiled.

  "Yeah." Shiro nodded while looking at the giant formation.

  Having the knowledge to set up a formation like this was helpful in many aspects. Especially if they have a headquarters of such.

  ’If he was still alive, I would like to learn a little from him.’ Shiro thought with a smile.

  After a while, the formation started to unravel as a new door slowly revealed itself. Opening the door, the party could see a pathway leading deeper into the world tree.

  "Let’s go." Cyril gestured for the party to follow her.