Dyon remained unwavering. “There’s no need to try and intimidate me. I know very well that your energy cultivations are well into the saint stage. And maybe you’re not even that far away from the celestial stage.
“But, I can clearly tell that both of your souls are still at the Essence stage. And now, you only have access to 41%. To you, that’s more than enough to beat me. But, would you be correct in that assumption?”
Elder Dior frowned. “Are you trying to imply that your soul is more powerful than 41% of a lower Middle Essence stage soul? Even if your innate soul was of the highest order, at the peak Foundation stage, and you began cultivating with a peak heaven level soul technique, you would at most be at the Peak Blossoming stage considering your age… nothing could be so exaggerated…”
Dyon shook his head. “I’m implying nothing at all. I simply posed a question. Since I’ve issued this challenge, I’m ready to face the consequences.”
To Elder Dior, he had used the most exaggerated metrics possible for Dyon. The Elvin Kingdom didn’t even have a genius with an innate soul at the peak Foundation stage right now, let alone a human having it. And they definitely didn’t have a peak heaven level soul technique, at most, they had a lower heaven level one… reserved for the best of geniuses of the major families.
How could he know that not only was Dyon’s innate soul higher than that… he even had access to a peak level divine soul technique?
Grand Elder Cormyth finally spoke. “You realize that guild challenges aren’t something you can just do, correct? If there was no possible penalty, wouldn’t a guild be flooded with these constantly?”
Dyon nodded. With a flick of his wrist, two lower grandmaster swords appeared. One was exactly like a traditional Japanese Katana. However, the other seemed too thick to be a sword, but too thin to be a saber.
“Here are two grandmaster level swords. These weapons are obviously better than what your blacksmithing guild can produce. And if you wanted a weapon of this level, you would most likely have to go to the center of the human continent or to the headquarters themselves and pay a ridiculous price, no? I believe these will be sufficient? One for each guild I challenge today.”
Grand Elder Cormyth froze. ‘This is who we offended?… What normal kid can just take out two grandmaster weapons? Is his fiancée really Madeleine Sapientia?… Who is this kid?!’ 𝑖𝘦.𝑐ℴ𝘮
Dyon was willing to expose these weapons for that reason exactly. He wanted to remind the elders of his words that day. Madeleine was in fact his fiancée. And secondly, they had to now second guess who he was. Whether or not the believed that Madeleine was his fiancée was irrelevant. It was only a possible added bonus. The effect Dyon truly wanted was for these elders to second guess making a move against him because of who may or may not be backing him.
With a frozen smile, Cormyth continued, “these will… these will be enough…”
“More than enough,” Dyon corrected, “these will also be payment for my master level badge after we’re through here.”
Grand Elder Cormyth sighed. It wasn’t that he was a bad guy. Being of high regard in an academy was more than about just the prestige and money. In fact, if it was about profits, he would just stick with Alchemy. There were very few professions that paid as well as it did. All he wanted was to rope more students into his preferred secondary occupation. But, often the most talented ones chose to focus on cultivation for campaigns instead.
To have a genius like Dyon… who was even willing to head their guilds, was definitely different. He only wanted the best for the Elvin Kingdom. It was just that he thought the Acacia family wasn’t it… especially with their alleged ancient history…
As such, he supported the Sigebryht and Norville families. But, it wasn’t blindly. If it wasn’t for his support, the Grimbold family would have never gained the headmaster position of Mathilde Academy. Although he felt that Zaltarish, with his ambition and talent, was very much suited kingship, he received a report the other day that didn’t sit well with him… the orphanage that had popped up out of nowhere had been destroyed.
Imagine that. A human of all things helped your kingdom fix one of its most pressing problems simply out of the kindness of his heart, and yet, due to anger, you erased that kindness from the face of the earth.
Although Grand Elder Cormyth hadn’t told Zaltarish to do it, nor was he even sure it was Zaltarish, all signs made it obvious.
Not only did Dyon embarrass who Grand Elder Cormyth knew was Zaltarish’s fiancée, he had even beaten Zaltarish in front of so many people. And then to top it off, he hadn’t even stayed to gloat… as though gloating about such a victory was beneath him. He instead chose to get up and leave to go to an orphanage the Elvin Kingdom themselves should have opened!
And now, Grand Elder Cormyth could see the shift in Dyon’s personality. Before, Dyon had been willing to give him some face as an elder. When he tried to pressure Dyon’s soul, Dyon had pretended as though it hadn’t happened. But now, could he blame Dyon for being so blatantly disrespectful? Cormyth was clear on the fact that Dyon probably assumed he was involved!
Because of the orphanage incident, Grand Elder Cormyth had rethought his position on a lot of things. He himself had many children and had once participated in the campaigns much like everyone else. If he hadn’t been a campaign leader, but was instead a foot soldier, what would have happened had he died? Would his wife be forced to campaign? Would his children be without parents?
Whether Zaltarish was a genius or not was now irrelevant to him. Putting the kingdom in the hands of such a twisted individual would be bad for everyone.
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