The sweetness of that parting kiss quickly dissipated through the week, leaving some bitter aftertaste. Kyrie comforts himself with the promise of watching fireflies once they meet again.
The gates have closed, and the news soon spread like wildfire. Monarchs send representatives to verify those rumors that manage to reach their ears.
The speculations have sparked many imaginations, especially in those who look for something beyond the ordinary. They imagine things like potions of immortality, unbounded riches, and body-enhancing elixirs.
The appearance of the gates becomes a big deal since the saintess has entered it.
What are those gates, and why the saintess entered the gates?
Aside from one of the few lines in the holy scriptures, there is no more information anyone could salvage. So, their greedy eyes turn to the Kingdom of Aria. Desperate, the new king turns to Kyrie for help since the pressure of war has been even mentioned from the mouths of those foreign ambassadors. So, Kyrie, with his title of the holy paladin, has announced a gathering to disclose about the gates.
The announcement turns into an enormous event where most of the nations of all races, aside from the demon race, participated. That is also when Kyrie uses that opportunity and officially announces his guild's existence to gather talents and attract eligible individuals to enter the gate. Many kingdoms covet the phantom guild to register the guild under their nation. Still, Kyrie announces the guild as stateless due to his own identity, preventing greed from becoming the engine of mindless wars.
When the information about the gates becomes public, many flames of greed fortunately extinguish. There has been a massive shift of mindset during the event when people become aware of three major points.
The first point is that the gate is actually a phenomenon caused by the collision of two incomplete worlds. The inferior world is using this chance to enter this world and destroy it to prevent the collapse of the inferior world.
A collection of whispers interrupts Kyrie as the representatives talk amongst themselves with the potential chance that their country might need to assist with the incoming threat, whether by manpower or resources. They press their lips into a line with discontent. This meeting turns out to take from them more than they gain.
The second point is that the next five gates will appear in the demon continent. The majority of the kingdoms that attended favor keeping the peace with the demon race, so many of them would not send armies into the demon continent in fear of retaliation. They might send undercover groups into the demon continent so that the responsibility could easily be transferred to the undercover groups even if they get discovered.
The final point is what extinguished most of those greedy wishes. The only people who can enter the gate have to be able to process essence in their bodies or else they die. Of course, the question of how someone could be eligible for the gate gets thrown to Kyrie. However, the answer that Kyrie gave puzzles the majority of the people.
"Those who know the existence of energy beyond mana and practice with such energy are most likely eligible."
The reason is quite simple. There are three categories to determine eligible individuals: bloodline, heritage, or blessing. Those who have never known about other energy aside from mana would normally not be eligible.
Despite these three barriers, the kingdoms fervently look for people with those special qualifications and willingness to participate in the gates exploration for the next few months. All of them claim to protect the world alongside the saintess and the paladin, despite their obvious intentions. They strive to increase their power, wealth, and maybe a chance at immortality like the scriptures say.
After the first recruitment, the phantom guild closes its doors once again and disappears from public eyes. Many kingdoms try to locate them again but end up finding no leads.
A year later, after the paladin's announcements, in the Grand Duchy of Halinas, the grand duchess Lillian Halinas receives a letter from the holy paladin for an audience. The grand duchess Lillian would normally be thrilled to receive such a letter. Still, at the moment, she faces the loss of her daughter and heiress Fiona Halinas, who is, unfortunately, one of the victims of the unsolved cases of serial murders. Her daughter's body is still missing. Thus, she declines the request politely with the promise of receiving the paladin personally another time.
---
"Headmaster," Federline knocks on Kyrie's office door.
However, there is no sound coming from inside. So, Federline circulates his mana into the ground to sense the movements inside the office. His mana enters easily underneath the doors, but after a couple of steps inside, his mana gets stumped by someone's foot, stopping his mana from moving. The stomp has sent a recoiling force, and Federline ends up feeling goosebumps all over his body when the force reaches him.
Federline sighs and pushes open the door with his unimpressed expression on his face. Inside the office, Kyrie stands in front of an opened window, putting a rolled-up letter on the foot of a pigeon. That pigeon is different than normal pigeons. This bird only flies to the person with the same mana stone as the one protruding from its head.
A gentle breeze comes into the office, and Kyrie's hair hovers under the passing wind, brushing on his shoulders. Kyrie tucks his shoulder-length hair back after some strands cascade to block his vision. His features have matured. His eyes are now sharper but still expressing the tranquility and gentleness of a calm lake during spring.
He sends the pigeon away and looks back at Federline with a practiced smile.
"I can still detect your mana, Federline. You will practice with me later this afternoon."
Federline's face twitches as his soul wants to flow out of his mouth. He has an intense wish to jump out of the window and end all suffering at once.
"This is not in my job description…" Federline pouts.
"Did you say something?"
"Nothing, headmaster," Federline forces out a smile despite internally screaming.
Kyrie has created intense training programs that everyone in the guild completely fears. Despite the massive progress, the guild members swear in the name of Vita that their lives get cut in half every time they undergo the training. Everyone has to train, even if the guild member is not part of the battalion. Those members have lower intensity, but the routine is still harsh enough that everyone thinks they have descended to hell. The training is so hard that people with low mental strength will quit, leaving the guild with around one to two hundred people. That is still when they train on their own.
It is another story when Kyrie becomes a training partner. No matter how many times Federline has trained with Kyrie, Federline will not be able to move the next day from excruciating muscle cramps. His muscles can even gain the ability to scream by themselves.
Federline's shoulder slumps as he hopes that tonight's dinner is not something good since he would not be able to lift a spoon after the training. If there is dessert, maybe he would let go of his pride and ask one of his subordinates to feed him.
Kyrie and Federline turn to look at the door after hearing the knock. Laurel leans on the door frame, dressed like a merchant - a loose white shirt tucked inside brown pants with high leather boots. Her hair is securely tied into a high ponytail to avoid the annoyance of having long hair.
"I received some news from the Blair Palace from the grand duchy…" Laurel hands over the letter to Kyrie.
He opens it to read over it quickly, and halfway through the letter, he looks up at Laurel, nodding at him about the surprising news.
"The heiress Fiona Halinas has come back alive despite everyone saying how she was snatched by that creature that caused all those serial murders," Laurel enters the room and drags a chair to sit beside Kyrie, who is reading the rest of the letter.
"Have you investigated a bit more into the serial murders?" Kyrie looks up after finishing to read the letter.
"Well… Usually, the people that fell victim would appear on the streets after some days… without skin. Completely brutalized to the point that those corpses cannot be identified unless there are objects that family or friend recognizes."
Federline pales when hearing the details from Laurel, "Are we going to meddle ourselves with the case?"
Kyrie rubs his thumb on his palm as he thinks, "It is quite surprising that Lady Halinas returned alive."
"Maybe she found a way to get out of her situation… After all, she is a spirit guide. She might have been able to find an escape route," Laurel reasons.
Kyrie nods at the possibility. That unique ability is the reason why Kyrie wants an audience with the grand duchess. For the entire year, aside from expanding their business and finding individuals eligible to enter the gate, Kyrie has put massive efforts to get his hands on some information regarding Phanes.
However, he always walks into a dead end until a shaman tells him that Kyrie should look for the Fae Kingdom. The fairies are known to have a long lifespan, plus they pride themselves on their extensive knowledge. The troubling part is that no one really knows how to find the entrance to the Fae Kingdom, and the best bet they have is to rely on Halinas's unique bloodline of spirit guides.
The Halinas are born with the ability to know which routes to go, no matter where they are. People believed that because of the special bloodline, guides are meant to be rulers since they know the direction despite the changes in the world. From hundreds of years of reign under the same family, that statement remains firm.
"Prepare to go to Halinas," Kyrie decides.
"Yes," Federline skips two steps before walking normally out of the office. He is now exempt from the training!
Laurel remains in the room and watches Kyrie go back to read some documents.
"So… Kyrie…"
Kyrie lifts his eyes off the document.
"Did you receive any message from Ian?"