It was only when Roel felt the cooling wind on his face after leaving Nymph Palace that his mind finally calmed down a little. As he regained his senses, he began to realize Lilian’s ploy.

  “She said those words with the intent to make me flustered, hoping that I’d entrust the mission to her when my mind is not thinking straight, but she ended up getting embarrassed by her own words…”
Doesn’t that mean that there is some truth behind what she said?

  “No, no. That’s not what I should be focusing on now.”
Roel grasped his forehead and took two deep breaths to compose himself. Once he was finally calm, he began to recall everything Lilian had said earlier.

  He was rather certain that Lilian had downplayed her situation in order to reassure him. At the very least, her deployment to the eastern border would have significantly weakened her political connections, severely disadvantaging her in the fight for the throne.

  She knows that I would have figured that out and tried my best not to burden her, so she ended up resorting to this. A honey trap, huh? That’s the last thing in the world I would have expected from senior.

  In truth, Roel had no way of stopping Lilian from taking up the mission. She could have gone straight up to the ‘Tark Stronghold Search and Rescue Seminar’ and volunteered for it, and it wouldn’t have made a difference whether he opposed to it or not. That decision had never been Roel’s to make.

  The real reason Lilian had gone through the trouble to obtain his agreement was to keep him away from this matter. Just as how Roel had no power to stop Lilian from taking up this mission, the converse was equally true too.

  Unfortunately, Lilian was doomed to be disappointed here.

  Putting all things aside, Roel would have personally made the trip to Braytown even if just for Lilian’s sake. He still hadn’t forgotten Layton’s words from several months back; the old man had warned him that the Fallens could go for other awakeners of the Ascart Bloodline.

  There was a chance that Lilian’s bloodline might have already been exposed, especially when considering Emperor Lukas’ suspicions toward her. It would be unwise to overlook the possibility that the Fallens were eyeing her.

  Furthermore, Lilian would be heading straight to the frontlines in the eastern border once the mission was accomplished, which meant to say that their time together was limited.

  “…”
Roel felt uneasy just thinking about Lilian being in the dangerous eastern border.

  It was common knowledge that the initial phase of a war tended to be the most dangerous of all. He found it hard to understand how a parent could put their children through such danger.

  Of course, there were also opportunities to seize in the initial phase of a war. Those who were able to survive this dangeroud period were likely to be promoted to become one of the leaders of the united army by the time the war ended, even if they were relatively unknown prior to that, though naturally, this was conditional on them surviving the war.

  This was also what it meant by ‘building qualification’. Those who had fought for humankind from the start to the end were bound to be more handsomely rewarded.

  Lilian’s recent breakthrough to Origin Level 2 was more than enough to make her one of the top commanders of the united army. As long as she could produce results on the battlefield, the influence and prestige she earned as a result would improve her position in the Austine Empire.

  Things were not all bad from that perspective.

  Roel spent a moment to quietly pray for Lilian’s safety before he began making preparations for the mission.

  …
Early morning, Roel sat by the corner of Saint Freya Academy’s Administrative Center, where missions were posted, and quietly sipped his tea. A commotion had broken out at the opposite end of the room, where the mission bulletin board was located.

  “Oh? This mission…”
“It’s to investigate the mystery behind the missing Tark Stronghold?”
“So we just have to look for evidence? The rewards are really good for just that!”
There was a crowd gathered before the bulletin board, and their discussions were drawing more and more people in.

  Roel wasn’t too surprised by the commotion. After all, it was a mission jointly released by the Tark Stronghold Search and Rescue Seminar and the united army, related the mysterious disappearance of Tark Stronghold. Most students were definitely curious about it, but hardly any of them had the intention to take it on.

  Curiosity kills the cat.

  Those who had been through dangerous missions would have agreed with that saying. It was one thing to discuss about the overnight disappearance of Tark Stronghold, but it was another thing to get involved in it. A moment of carelessness could be all that was needed for their names to be added onto the list of missing personnel.

  There were also stringent requirements one had to meet in order to take on the mission, the most notable one of all being strength. That was the additional requirement Roel had put in using his authority as the Bluerose Ringbearer.

  The united army had offered a handsome reward for the mission, such that some would be emboldened to take it on despite the limitation of their ability. Besides, such investigation work required a high level of expertise, such that a layman would hardly be of any help.

  Since Roel had made up his mind to carry out the mission together with Lilian, he was determined to ensure that the investigation bore results. To do that, he needed good companions.

  There were quite a few people he could choose from Rose of Dawn and the Bluerose Faction. He took some time to consider his choices and soon made up his mind.

  The first person he wanted to take was Selina.

  Braytown was a remote border town that was practically located in the wilderness, which was where her skills shone. On top of that, her keen beast-like instincts for danger would likely come in handy for this mission that reeked of a trap.

  It was just that Selina wasn’t in full control of her bloodline yet, and she could possibly run wild without Roel nearby to suppress her bloodline. That would undermine her maneuverability. However, Roel didn’t think that was a problem since he had no plans to splitting the party up.

  The second person he wanted to take was Juliana.

  He figured that the bulk of whatever danger they faced would likely come in at night, so having a member of the Blood Clan who possessed powerful detection skills and offensive prowess in the night would be a great asset.

  Roel hadn’t interacted much with Juliana thus far, but she did maintain a respectful attitude toward him as a member of Rose of Dawn. It was unlikely that she would turn down his dispatch for this mission, though he would have to talk to Alicia about it too since Juliana was now her right-hand man.

  “Things are going to get troublesome,” Roel murmured with a sigh before taking another sip of tea.

  Alicia and Lilian had never been on close terms. He could already see Alicia kicking up a fuss upon hearing that the two of them were going to carry out this mission together.

  Roel shook his head and turned his attention back to the personnel selection. The next person he had on his list was someone he wasn’t close with but possessed a set of interesting abilities—Stuart, the young man from Knight Kingdom Pendor who blindfolded himself with black cloth.

  Putting aside appearances, Stuart was the most normal one out of all the eccentric transfer students from Knight Kingdom Pendor. His fighting prowess wasn’t particularly impressive and he didn’t have a striking personality either, so he was often overshadowed by his peers.

  However, the truth was that Stuart was actually an outstanding prodigy, just that he hadn’t fully grasped control of his abilities yet. The secret to that lay in his eyes.

  Thousand Irises Clan—that was the lineage Stuart had inherited his bloodline from. Said to be borned from Sia’s tears, the Thousand Irises Clan was a unique clan even in the ancient era. They were similar to humans in terms of appearance, but their eyes were rumored to harness up to a thousand abilities.

  The Thousand Irises Clan was rarely spoken of in the legends, but most of the famous eye technique users in the history of humankind were their descendants. Countless years of association with humans had made them, to a large extent, indistinguishable from humans.

  One could say that they were humans with special eyes.

  However, Stuart was an exception, having awakened to his Primordial Bloodline.

  From a young age, he faced all sorts of inconveniences due to his eyes. There were days he woke up with X-ray eyes and saw his parents as walking skeletons. When he looked at distant mountains, the scenery would sometimes suddenly zoom up on him. These hindered his day-to-day function, leaving him with no choice but to control it with a blindfold.

  Theoretically, the eyes of the Thousand Irises Clan harnessed up to a thousand abilities, but the situation varied from individual to individual. Some could only use up to ten whereas the more talented ones were able to awaken to over a hundred abilities.

  Stuart belonged in the latter category, just that his circumstances were more extreme. Even to this day, he was still awakening to even more abilities. That posed a huge challenge for him to control his abilities.

  Roel wasn’t sure how powerful Stuart was, but just his detection abilities were more than enough reason to add him to the party. More importantly, his Academic Credit was still a big fat zero despite being a member of Rose of Dawn.

  Having decided on his party members, Roel quickly dove into the recruitment process.

  Shortly after the mission was released, Lilian finally made a public appearance after a month of absence to announce her participation in Braytown’s investigation. Many scholars who were intrigued by the mass disappearances also began recruiting personnel to participate in the investigation.

  All it took was a single day for the mission to be known throughout Leinster.

  To be clear, the mission was posted throughout Leinster, just that the mission requirements set by Saint Freya Academy were stricter than other places. The united army and the Tark Stronghold Search and Rescue Seminar were planning to recruit as many people as possible to thoroughly comb the area for clues.

  Roel was aware of that, but it didn’t change his decision to go for quality over quantity. He was able to recruit most of the people he had decided on without trouble, but he encountered one problem that he had already foreseen beforehand.

  “Lord Brother, you’re intending to go on that investigation mission with that old woman? There’s no way I can agree to that!” Alicia cried out.

  Roel quietly looked at her for a long while before letting out a suppressed sigh.

  “I’ll accompany you for three missions next year.”
“That won’t do. This is a matter of principles…”
“I won’t drive you out of my room anymore.”
“Deal!”
“…”
Roel’s cheeks twitched as he watched Alicia wipe off her tears and clench her fists in excitement. He belatedly realized that he had been tricked again. On the bright side, at least his preparation work was going well.