- "Pardon? He disappeared?" Zachary asked Frederic.
The butler nodded in response and said nothing more. Zachary meanwhile began to walk in circles in the living room before sighing for a long time.
- "Any idea where did he start from?" he then asked.
- "The soldiers told me that he left Upper Town to visit the lower levels with an escort" replied the butler immediately.
With that, Zachary sighed in relief, at least he wouldn't need to worry about a potential incident. From what he had heard from Isaac, the latter did not seem to fully understand the extent of his powers.
If he had to defend himself against an overconfident scoundrel, he would quickly have burned him and the surrounding buildings to ashes.
Zachary had also planned to test the limits of Isaac to gauge his powers and be able to officialize his rank. After all, despite being displayed by the system as a Grand Archmage, that had to be verified.
The golden window being visible only to its recipient, it was easy to declare yourself Archmage. Also, each kingdom had a way to, if not identify, estimate a person's level based on the mana they can muster.
Once this famous test is completed, Isaac will be able to be officially recognized as a high-ranking mage and will be able to access magical libraries and mage training facilities.
Although Zachary had already planned to set up a special place for Isaac, given his power.
Anyway, right now he had to make sure Isaac didn't cause any incident but just as he was about to teleport, a sphere of shadow appeared nearby.
Moments later, the so recognizable figure of the Elven Archmage came out and smiled at Zachary.
- "I'm back!" he announced casually.
Having Isaac in front of his eyes already greatly relieved Zachary to the point where he decided to lie down comfortably on the living room sofa.
- "You look tired, are you okay?" Isaac asked, frowning slightly. "Is it so hard to create a kingdom?"
- "Do you think it's easy maybe?" he replied to Isaac, giving him an incredulous look, and raising an eyebrow. "But that's not the only thing, please sit down," he said then pointing to the couch in front.
Immediately Isaac obeyed and came to sit on the sofa comfortably until he placed his feet on the table in front of him and sighed in satisfaction.
Frederic looked at him with a slight hint of disappointment and refrained from reminding him of the proper etiquette and decided to bow forward before leaving the room.
Feeling Zachary's serious gaze scrutinize him, Isaac looked at him and listened intently to what was to follow.
- "Let's say we have some problems with the Church. The King has already issued a royal decree to establish an independent organization under your name. Details can be worked out later, but we have to move quickly," Zachary began.
Isaac furrowed his eyebrows slightly, intrigued by his colleague's words.
- "Is it because of the Church that we have to speed things up?" he asked.
Zachary nodded before continuing.
- "Correct. The Church sent a letter accusing us of having stolen an essential component of the protective dome of the capital ..."
- "What? But I haven't even met them yet! The only thing I took were the…" Isaac answered before stopping.
Zachary seemed to understand immediately and turned slightly pale. It was no coincidence that dragons were dormant in the Palace underground.
Was the Church behind the capture of the two dragonets? And if these were the famous essential component of the dome, how were they useful for a dome?!
They didn't understand a thing and it showed on both of their faces when a familiar voice echoed in their minds.
- "They are talking about our eggs" said Green.
The little dragon appeared on Isaac's legs which made him jump slightly.
- "Your eggs?" Zachary asked without delay.
Green seemed to give him a nod in response before his brother's voice resumed.
- "More particularly, the runes which are inscribed on them. They allow to do many things, in particular the manipulation of the spirit and the mana" says Blue.
- "Mind and mana manipulation?" Isaac asked curiously, intrigued by the sudden statement.
Blue suddenly appeared on Isaac's couch and nodded in turn with a slight smile.
- "We had plenty of time to analyze them, but with our limited knowledge, we were only able to identify fragments. They create a spiritual interface which makes it possible to converse with others, to remove the language barrier. That's how we can speak with you, we learnt to project our thoughts using these runes" explained Bleu.
Zachary and Isaac followed quietly and were fascinated by these explanations. Isaac really wanted to see those runes, but right now going back to the underground cave would only indict him more in this theft story.
- "How is that used for the protective dome?" Zachary asked, still a little confused.
Green moved on Isaac's lap, trying to find a more comfortable position before continuing his explanation.
- "These runes are also capable of storing and managing a theoretically unlimited amount of mana to power the protection of our eggs, making them theoretically indestructible. Maintaining domes of protection as well as collecting mana requires enormous logistical facilities. Technically, they should ask all the inhabitants to come and pray all the time to provide for the needs of the dome," he said.
At this point, Isaac completely understood. The Church was collecting their energy through artifacts before which believers would pray to offer their cumulated divine energy.
If they were to power domes of protection capable of withstanding an Archmage's spells, the energy to store and collect would be enormous. Without speaking of where to put it all which would be a technical challenge in itself, the transfer of energy throughout the capital would be very difficult.
- "The Church uses our eggs to create a spiritual bridge with all the inhabitants and uses it to extract their energy from it before redirecting everything towards the enchanted stones of each wall…"
Isaac nodded and even seemed extremely interested and happy. He had learned a lot from these few exchanges.
The eggs of the dragonets were thus in a way artefact with an extremely large radius of effect. They served as a charger and the bricks of the walls could be considered as a battery, a giant battery.
- "So, when you hatched, the runes became inert, cutting off the power supply to the domes" Zachary continued, putting his hand under his chin.
- "Correct" answered Green.
Isaac sighed. It was not a situation that he liked; he would have liked to visit the famous holy places of the Church. Like the famous tomb which he suspected to be that of the mother of Green et Blue.
The only thing he could do at the moment was to create his "kingdom" as quickly as possible and establish an authority influential enough to protect himself from possible political fallout.
Things were complicated, Isaac was already fed up.
- "I presume it's because we are Archmages that they don't want to imprison us?" he asked rhetorically.
- "Not quite" replied Zachary with a small laugh.
Isaac tilted his head slightly to the side to show his incomprehension which made Zachary smile.
- "Apparently the matter has been handled by a Cardinal and, surprisingly, the Queen Mother herself. They wish to arrange a meeting between the Papacy and the Royalty to settle this matter calmly and with the least fuss possible."
It seemed logical, after all the efforts the two factions had put in to maintain their balance, they were still not going to ruin everything like this.
What's more, protective domes are a matter of public safety. It is therefore in the interest of the Royalty and of the Church to resolve this matter quickly and calmly.
Now Zachary was right to mention that the Queen Mother was involved, given the charges already on her back. Either way, they would probably learn more when they met.
Isaac sighed, already thinking of the mess he was going to have to face. He would have liked to stay in the sanctuary, but he would not have had the chance to see so many new subjects to study.
Thinking about that, he turned to the two dragonets and smiled. Seeing Isaac's gaze, Zachary sighed and stood up.
- "I'll take care of politics; you can go back to your research. Avoid leaving the Upper Town alone anyway, just in case" Zachary declared.
- "Do you think they can hurt me?" Isaac replied, a little taken by surprise.
To that, Zachary burst out laughing then responded while wiping a small tear from the corner of his eyes.
- "No, I would especially like to prevent you destroying public property. If you really want to go out, take an escort with you" he said before pausing.
He took a small metal pebble attached to a rope and handed it to Isaac.
- "Speaking of escorts, take this pass. You have access to practically all the places to which I myself have access. One of my apprentices will accompany you to guide you and show you the protocol."
With that, Zachary approached one of the doors and opened it, letting a young woman barely in her twenties come in wearing a gray tunic. The recognizable clothing of an apprentice mage.
- "Her name is Betina, she is an apprentice at the Royal Academy" announced Zachary, pointing quickly to the young girl.
Betina stepped forward a little, then bowed slowly in a short curtsy while lifting the skirts of her tunic before raising a smiley face to Isaac who was slightly surprised.
She might have looked like an ordinary girl from afar, but up-close things were different. The scent of rose scent filled the air as she approached, forcing Isaac to pinch his nose a little.
There was also her slightly pale skin softened by a thin powder coat revealing makeup, further proof that she was surely very rich, most likely a Noble.
Not to mention her long red hair showing a particular care taken to them, well beyond the standards of the Lower Town and the girls that Isaac had seen during his walk.
- "It is an honor to be able to serve you, Excellency" she said in a smooth and gentle voice.
After this little observation, Isaac moved on to an analysis of her mana circuit. Immediately, his eyes changed and emitted a slight bluish glow which surprised the young girl.
A little taken aback, she turned to Zachary who nodded slightly and motioned for her to wait a moment.
For his part, Isaac was totally focused on the knots of the young woman's circuit. Even though she was unsurprisingly above average, she was not out of the ordinary either. Granted, in terms of mana capacity, she should be above the city guards, it wasn't that extraordinary. But he had yet to see what is ordinary, so he withheld his judgment for now.
This was probably why she was just an apprentice now, so Isaac decided not to linger too long and stopped. He then looked up before seeing Zachary's gaze.
"Hm? What is it?" Isaac wondered when he saw the gaze of his colleague who inhaled slightly.
- "You should avoid doing that, even if it is an apprentice. For a practitioner, someone looking at their circuit is equivalent to being seen naked" he warns immediately. "Ask permission before."
Isaac stepped back slightly, taken by surprise by this revelation. Were people really that shocked at something so natural?
But on second thought, it was true that seeing a person's mana circuit was a lot like seeing them naked.
The mana circuit, like the skin, changes over the course of a person's life. We can read the story of his life, guess his emotions thanks to the intensity and flow of mana.
There was also the fact that the mana circuit is an essential part in a mage's body. It is logical that the latter therefore considers it intimate.
It could easily be seen as a violation of a person's privacy. So, Isaac nodded in response which reassured Zachary and Betina.
- "Good. The meeting with the Papacy will take place in two days, in the meantime you can visit the Royal Library and the Academy with your apprentices if you wish" he finally said, smiling. "I'm going to go to sleep, some here need to rest."
Isaac smiled and came to thank him with a nod of his head.
- "Good night!" Isaac said as he watched his colleague leave the room and close the door behind him, leaving Isaac and Betina alone.