Vaan could imagine how close Dahlia was to death when he heard Solana recount the incident. She wouldn’t have made it without Cyrena’s recovery potions.
“Lord Vahn doesn’t need to dirty his hands. I will slaughter them all myself!” Aeliana declared with a ruthless look.
Even before Sunpeak Town’s decline, it had always been eyed by other lords and witches due to its ideal location.
If she doesn’t kill a few people, others would think she’s a pushover.
“You can’t just kill merchants or any witches as you please, for that matter, Lord Aeliana. It’s not a lawful thing to do. If they hold a noble rank, they must be tried before the law,” Astoria mentioned.
“Not a lawful thing to do?” Aeliana snickered with contempt before she stubbornly and vehemently declared, “In my domain, my town, I am the judge, jury, and executioner!”
Not only Dahlia almost lost her life, but her mother was also bullied in their own town! How could she tolerate such insolence from the merchants?!
“I understand your frustration,” Astoria acknowledged before saying, “However, if you kill a lot of merchants and blow up this matter, Her Majesty will not turn a blind eye to what happened here.”
“Depending on Her Majesty’s mood, you could be stripped of your status or even executed. Either situation doesn’t help Teacher Raphna, Lord Aeliana,” Astoria added.
After Aeliana heard that, she calmed down somewhat.
Meanwhile, Vaan shifted his attention to Cyrena and cautioned her to come closer to him before they talked.
“A month ago, I promised to cure you and let you practice magic like everyone else. But instead, I sent you to Sunpeak Town without treating your problem,” Vaan mentioned before asking, “Do you blame me?”
“Not at all, Teacher.” Cyrena vehemently shook her head and said, “I believe you wanted me to focus on potioneering and not be distracted by magic. As a result of that, I fully digested what you taught me and mastered Rank 1 potions.”
“It was also thanks to my swift and solid mastery in potioneering that I was able to help Lady Dahlia recover from her wounds,” Cyrena added.
She did feel resentful at the start. But looking back now, she could only be grateful for how everything turned out.
After Vaan heard Cyrena’s reply, he nodded with acknowledgment. Then, he placed a hand on Cyrena’s shoulder and brought her even closer until their foreheads made contact.
Cyrena was surprised by Vaan’s action as she couldn’t understand it, but then she felt a strange warmth inside her body.
Vaan used his Omni-Sense, powered by his Demigod-rank dragon soul, to locate every antimagic spore in Cyrena’s body and burn them all.
Although he could have asked Aeliana to remove the antimagic spores, this would only benefit Aeliana.
Cyrena would lose her golden opportunity to catch up to her peers.
After all, the antimagic spores in her body had been filled to the brim with mana. Removing them was the same as stealing years of mana gathering.
Still, an Impurity Cleansing Potion would be needed to remove the impurity from Cyrena’s body, but that could be worried about later.
Once the antimagic spores were removed, Cyrena felt her body overflowing with mana. And without even doing anything, the overwhelming mana started to converge towards her heart on their own.
However, the formation of the mana ring ultimately required her control. As such, Cyrena sat down on the spot and focused on forming her first mana ring.
The basics of witch cultivation were engraved in her memory.
Mid-stage True Witch… Late-stage True Witch…
Cyrena saturated her mana ring with little-to-no obstruction, allowing her to soar through the True Witch rank. The mana in her body quickly depleted, but her momentum showed no sign of slowing.
As such, Vaan took out some mana stones and placed them around her. Cyrena’s body devoured them all within seconds like a starved beast that hadn’t eaten for years.
The mana absorption rate shocked even Astoria, Solana, and Silvaria.
Sometime later, Cyrena’s advancement momentum finally came to an end after she reached the peak of the True Witch rank.
‘Peak-stage True Witch…’ Silvaria’s eyed bulged with disbelief.
Within a matter of minutes, a non-witch was transformed into a Peak-stage True Witch. She had never witnessed such swift advancement in her years of practicing witch magic.
Meanwhile, Vaan gave Cyrena a satisfied nod before focusing on more important matters at hand.
“Lord Silvaria, was it? If you’re not one of us, I ask that you leave us. We have private issues to discuss here,” Vaan calmly informed.
“Ah? Please let me stay. I’m like totally on your side. Right, Lady Solana? Lady Dahlia? We just survived a life-or-death situation together,” Silvaria shamelessly stated.
She would be a fool if she wasted the opportunity to become closer to such a powerful figure who was so casual in strengthening witches.
“I think we can trust her. We owe her our lives for surviving as long as we did,” Solana spoke for Dahlia and herself.
“Very well,” Vaan calmly acknowledged with a nod before continuing, “I have, more or less, grasped the general situation. Right now, it’s safe to say at least four forces are interested in Sunpeak Town and its development.”
“The Assembly of Silent Night was only one of them. The scholar group is another force gathered in Sunpeak Town, but they can be considered neutral for the time being. The last two forces are all merchants.”
“However, they can be divided into two independent groups; local merchants and foreign merchants. We know at least one of these forces is responsible for ambushing Dahlia,” Vaan stated.
“Unfortunately, you already wiped out the Assembly of Silent Night, Vahn,” Solana mentioned with a frown. “So even if they were the culprits, we would never find out for certain.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Vaan argued with a slight smile. “It’s true that I wiped out the Assembly of Silent Night, but not entirely. I left four survivors in capable hands for information extraction. We will know if it was them in due time.”
“But why have they all set their eyes on Sunpeak Town, Teacher?” Cyrena couldn’t help but ask after joining their conversation late.
“Well, that’s because…”