Legacy of the Dark Sage

But wait... 'The Emperor found a clue to the Shaiha's new master'?

Everyone was too focused on the importance of the Shaiha if it fell into the hands of The Emperor, and it took everyone a few minutes before they registered everything that Aillos had said.

Amidst the seriousness of the situation, a delayed response to this awkwardly fell on the hall. It even appeared that they reacted to Aillos's declaration not to allow The Emperor to do as he pleases anymore.

All patriarchs and second-in-command were itching to raise their hands and voice their doubts. But there was an order of things during the Grand Gathering. They could not openly raise their voices and interrupt their Lord during his speech. Furthermore, subjects about the Shaiha were very delicate, and they could not openly discuss them in front of the others.

If this was a closed-door meeting among their Lord, his aides, and the patriarchs and second-in-commands of their tribes, then it was acceptable. But at the moment, they were in a formal setting with a festive atmosphere. They could not possibly open a discussion about it and completely change the mood.

"I know I am declaring things that could affect the clan's future without giving you a chance to voice your opinion. For that, I apologize," Aillos continued while looking at the patriarchs of each tribe.

"However, I know all of you. And I am confident you will not look the other way when matters about the Ancient Magic Corew or the Shaiha are involved. All of you are aware of the tragedy these things could incur once they appear again."

Though most patriarchs and second-in-commands were still young when The Fall happened, they learned more about it from their elders. There were different versions back then because the dragons were not united like in the present. While the whole realm was in turmoil, the dragons were also in conflict and trying to destroy each other.

It had more to do with the lingering influence of Coelus, but it was a very dark time for them.

In any case, they knew how dangerous it was for the Ancient Magic Cores and the Shaiha to appear once more. The Higher Being failed to take them for his own, but as if fate was trying to mess with them, his only apprentice— The Emperor— coveted what his master failed to take.

The Realm fell when the Higher Being coveted those things, so what would happen if The Emperor coveted them now?

No one knew the answer, but one thing was sure: both realms would be plunged into chaos.

"Fortunately, we have the advantage of knowing the whereabouts of the Ancient Magic Cores and the Shaiha's new master."

Since the patriarchs and the second-in-commands had already registered the fact that their Lord was referring to the new master of the Shaiha rather than the Shaiha only, they felt even more uneasy. This was because they more or less guessed who the Shaiha's new master could be.

"As you have all guessed, the information is with the Regis Family," Aillos said and looked over to Kyran and the other's table once more.

A tense silence befell the hall as their suspicion was confirmed. They could not help but look over them as well.

"Putting aside the matter about the Shaiha's whereabouts for now, predicting where the Ancient Magic Cores will appear again should have been easy because they had already appeared once simultaneously, and that was in the Human plane. Moreover, they can narrow their search further if they know the conditions for how these cores would appear.

"The Emperor knew it. But since he cannot confirm it and has no way of locating the Human plane, he can only give up and wait for it to appear somewhere else," Aillos turned his attention back to the rest of the congregation.

"However, there he made one mistake. He did not consider the possibility that the Ancient Magic Cores could be inherited by the successors of those who first possessed them. As such, he did not expect the Draconic core to appear among the previous Dragon Lord's descendants.

"Rumors about a new Dragon Lord have been circulating the clan, and I did not make any attempts to dissuade the rumors or deny them because it is the truth. A new Dragon Lord has been born among the Regis Family, and The Emperor has gotten wind of it.

"That was why The Emperor sent one of his most trusted subjects to the Lower Realm. At that time, he had yet to confirm the rumored human-shaped dragon they discovered in the Lower Realm. But it did not take long for him to realize the truth and he decided to prove it by personally going to the Lower Realm.

"That is the truth of why my daughter, Ames, suddenly disappeared, only to return bringing along a few members of the Regis Family."

Aillos did not give an elaborate narrative of what happened because he knew the congregation could fill in the rest of the details he did not mention from the recent events that occurred in their plane in the last few months.

He was spot on in his judgment because all patriarchs and second-in-command were able to connect the recent events to his narrative.

They were now aware that the person the Regis Family was searching for was the new Dragon Lord. They more or less guessed that The Emperor likely met him in the Lower Realm and had been on the run since then.

How he ended up in the Higher Realm was still unclear, but they reckoned since he was the new Dragon Lord, his dragon blood could have been recognized by the route the Dragons used to travel down to the Lower Realm from the Higher Realm and ended up there.

"I'm sure you have the general idea of our current situation," Aillos continued after giving them a moment to contemplate his last few statements.

"I will leave this matter on this note and discuss it in greater detail on the last day of the Grand Gathering."

The Grand Gathering lasted a whole week, with the banquet being the opening. In the next few days, the young talents could exchange notes by sparring among themselves. Finally, on the last day, a close-door meeting would commence between the patriarchs, their second-in-commands, Aillos, and his aides.

"I am sure you have a lot of things to say, but I hope you can wait until the last day to voice them out. After tonight's banquet, the dome will officially be opened, and all tribes will be allowed to issue spar requests. Of course, the participants for the spars, as per tradition, will only include the young talents of each tribe."

It went without saying that adult dragons could not issue a spar request to young dragons and vice versa. Though it would have been very beneficial to the young dragons to issue spar requests for the adult dragons, there had been a slight issue that happened in the past that they wanted to avoid.

During a gathering, a young talent issued a spar request to another tribe patriarch and lost. While the young talent did not receive any long-lasting injury, the young talents from the patriarch's tribe were enraged by that talent's audacity and issued spar requests against him.

In the end, the whole spar activity had gotten strange to the point that the said young talent's patriarch was enraged and issued a duel against the patriarch of those young talents.

Luckily, the conflict between the two tribes was resolved when Aillos declared he'd participate in their duel as well—meaning the duel would be three-way. Not wanting to be beaten up by their Lord, both tribes reconciled by gifting each other some of their resources.

"Tonight, I want everyone to enjoy the dinner and welcome the Regis Family into the clan."

With that, Aillos closed his speech and gestured for the congregation to continue with the festivity. But given the gravity of what he said, doing that was somewhat difficult.

Fortunately, the congregation was dominated by the younger generation, who were more than willing to abide by Aillos's invitation to enjoy the rest of the evening.

However, instead of focusing on the other tribes' young talents or dinner, their attention was directed toward the Regis Family.

They were waiting for Lord Aillos to introduce the Regis representatives and were disappointed that it did not happen. However, if he had done that, the congregation might have taken it as if he favored them by introducing them personally, so it did not matter to them.

In any case, most of the young talents were also curious about the Regis representatives' young talent. Because if they followed what Lord Aillos had been telling them just then, he should be the new Dragon Lord.

Apart from that, most of these young talents were familiar with Cynean and were interested in knowing if the new Dragon Lord was her rumored life partner.

Why would they be interested? This was because most of them had favorable impressions of her and wanted to assess him. But even if he was not, they still wanted to evaluate his worth since he was the new Dragon Lord.