Was Robert a fool to let off this hooligan? The answer was obviously not. If he had acted rashly and killed off even one of Hristo’s followers, the scenario would have been entirely different. The Royal army and other clan's armies were here near the Greyston town. Would they just stand as spectators if one of their own was attacked?

Edwyn was hearing what had happened in the Greyston town. He and the other clans had already left Greyston to go to Goldfair, but Hristo stayed behind. Hearing the incidents that happened from a soldier who was still at Greyston, Edwyn sighed.

Hristo had lived a normal life, not much different than that of a normal clan member of Black Dragon till a few months ago. After Lucio, the clan leader fell, Luca took over the clan and that gave Hristo high position in the clan. Like someone who had just gotten rich, Hristo, who had been someone without power, on getting power started to abuse it.

“Is anyone dead?” Edwyn asked the soldier.

Edwyn was sure that the incident at Greyston was Hristo’s fault. That hooligan cannot stop seeking trouble wherever he goes. And what happened was in no way related to the army, as it was a personal matter. But if someone from the army was dead, that was another matter. Edwyn, as the commander of this army, and as a representative of the royal family couldn’t stand still if one of his subordinates were attacked while on a mission.

“No your highness, 6 men are injured, but everyone will live.” The soldier that reported the incident to Edwyn replied.

“Although Hristo is on our side, so is the city lord of Greyston, he is also Lorvale’s subject. It would be best if we let this slide for this one time.”

A city lord meant that he was the city guard as well as a judge in a town. Edwyn, who had commanded over armies and managed many cities could see the thoughts of Robert and decided to do nothing.

The army marched forwards, towards the city of Goldfair. After a while, Hristo had also joined the army, his face had lost its smug look and was an ugly sight to behold. He didn’t complain to Edwyn, he couldn’t accept to ask for help, or seem weak in front of the other clans. Hristo had decided to manage this matter of his own, Robert, you just wait until I reach the clan.

Hristo and his army had no idea how they were beaten black and blue by an unarmed city lord. They had disposed of the idea of archers, as there were no arrows. Even the elite hidden weapons wouldn’t be able to do this much damage.

The army dispatched from the capital, a thousand men cavalry, arrived at the gates of Goldfair city. Sophy dressed in a black formal gown, was at the city gates, waiting for the army to arrive. Seeing cavalry arrive, she rode her white horse to the front of the army and nodded at Edwyn with a smile.

“Long time no see, Sophy, how is your father?” Edwyn asked Sophy, smiling.

Although Edwyn held his head high, he was in no way arrogant. And when he asked Sophy about her father’s health, it seemed as if he asked it really out of concern and not just as a formality.

“No changes Edwyn, thanks for your concern,” Sophy said to Edwyn.

Edwyn was one of Sophy’s peers from the capital, both of them were of similar in age and thus went to the same school and college. Edwyn was the second prince of the country of Lorvale, Although he was from the royal family, he didn’t care much about being the next king and thus was loved by almost everyone. Usually, when there were three sons of a king, there would ensure a competition for the crown, but Edwyn had conceded his commendation for the crown without even giving a fight. But not contending for crown didn’t mean he didn’t have interest in power. What Edwyn hated was managing stuff, but he loved leading an army to fight off hordes of spirit animals and things like that. Instead of sitting in the comfortable throne of the castle, looking down upon the whole kingdom and giving decrees. He liked to be in the forefront, touching people's lives.

The army marched through the city towards the town hall. Edwin was listening to Sophy narrate the battle of Goldfair. She didn’t hide any information on Robert or his inventions as she had to justify the reason for giving the town of Greyston to Robert.

Edwin was listening carefully to the story,

Hristo was frowning at Sophy all this time. He had guessed that there was someone that helped sophy recapture the city. And he wanted to rope in this expert to his father’s faction if possible. But he didn’t think it was that youth that he went face to face against earlier that helped Sophy win a battle when the opposing side had a hundred experts.

He only had a single order from his father, it was to humiliate Sophy in front of .the royal army pointing at her inability to even hold on to a single city and thus making her position in the clan even less prominent. But on the way here, they had met a messenger that delivered the message that Goldfair city was taken back by Sophy and was now under Black Dragon clan. This had left him furious, but he couldn’t do anything. There were a lot of experts from the Black Dragon clan that supported Sophy’s father and thus supporting Sophy. He had to tread carefully about this matter.

Sophy had arranged a banquet for the army to remove their tiredness from the long journey and to celebrate Black Dragon clan taking over the city. Edwin allowed the soldiers to relax, he himself didn’t partake in the banquet as to remain neutral among the clans. A clan taking over a city was no big deal, it happened all the time. And the war between the clans of a city was normal too. The royal family remained the major power of Lorvale and kept those battles and internal competitions to a limit. It was like the central pillar of a hall with five pillars.

The banquet was going on in the central hall of Goldfair city, many soldiers were outside the central hall, as it was unable to keep all of them inside.

Sophy was standing on the top floor’s balcony, overseeing the banquet when Edwyn silently walked behind her and whispered in her ear

“So… what do you think of this guy Robert?”

Sophy who was enjoying her view didn’t expect someone sneaking up on her and almost jumped in scare. Turning around and seeing Edwyn, she sighed.

“Oh, it’s you” Sophy smiled.

“He’s cute, also kinda weird, I like that though.” Sophy could feel the warm breath of Edwyn touching her face, cold from the night winds.

Sophy and Edwyn were peers, that was just that, or so thought everyone. But the fact that Sophy and Edwyn were in love was known to none besides them. It was not that Sophy didn’t have a high enough status to marry a prince, the problem was that this prince was already engaged to the princess of the nearby kingdom of SilverCaslte at birth. Him taking up another woman as the wife would breach the agreement between these nation and could even lead to a war between Lorvale and Silver Castle.

“Oh! Even cuter than me?” Edwyn showed a sad face.

“No one is cuter than you, silly...” Sophy gave in, she really couldn’t take the innocent face this guy had just shown her.

Her eyes were locked on his eyes, she pulled him closer, embracing him. Her head tilted a bit, Her lips locked with his. She let go of herself, yielding totally to him.

Yuuma was still staring at the booklet of parchments in front of him. It was what he had obtained from the hands of the raven when he was a boy, it was written in some language that wasn’t even remotely reminiscent of the language of the Eastly continent. There were some illustrations and that was how Yuuma was able to deduce the method of gaining other bloodlines.

Yuuma was now looking at the next part of that booklet. There were many illustrations here too, but he couldn’t understand much. There were images of ladders, there were images of blobs if only he could decode the language.

“Seek some scholars for me, I need this translated.”

Yuuma wanted to keep this booklet a secret, but he had no choices now.