Thankfully, it seemed that the guards were only Amateur Human Fighters. Hence, with a quick burst of speed, she left them behind and headed out of the fields while hoping that reinforcements wouldn't intercept her.

It seemed that luck was on her side, as she safely made her way out before quickly changing her clothes and even her appearance in a nearby bush using a portable make-up kit.

Such things were needed in their line of work where they might be chased around by Kingdoms for trespa.s.sing in multiple places.

Making sure that no one was watching her, she took out a trinket and started sending a message.

…

In the throne room of the Black Raven Kingdom.

"Are you sure? And you say that Lanthanor might be aware of the discovery?"

Saying these words into the trinket he held, the Black Raven King waited for the reply while the old man watched on with hopeful eyes.

His body seemed to have withered in these two months. His face was sunken, and his lips were bloodless.

After hearing the response, the Black Raven King said, "She says that the Ker Gem mine is definitely there, and that it is larger than the one found before near Eldinor. She even says that it is a very old mine, meaning that the gems can be directly plucked out instead of having to be extracted."

These words made the eyes of the old man light up, as he finally saw his salvation.

Ker Gem mines had different properties based on their age. According to a study done by eminent scholars in multiple kingdoms, the age decided whether one would have to expend a lot of time and effort to extract the gems from the mine.

The idea was that the gems would be much more attached to the surroundings around them if they were newly formed. With time, this connection would weaken, making it so that they simply might even fall off and acc.u.mulate into a treasure pile.

Of course, these type of mines would be the best as it would mean that whoever found it could simply take the gems and run away instead of in the case of the mine near Eldinor where the elves had had to go to such lengths to delay for time in order to extract the gems.

"The problem is that Lanthanor might know about it. What should we do? Should we offer to buy it from them? We don't have enough money unless we risk the Kingdom itself collapsing. Besides, the King may choose to keep them for himself."

This made the old man frown, as he knew very well that Ker Gems were strategic resources which any Kingdom wouldn't sell.

Thinking for a few seconds, a savage expression appeared on his face as he said, "s.n.a.t.c.h them. Send the soldiers. It's possible Lanthanor doesn't know yet, but even if they do, they won't have time to react properly. I'll call in an old favor to distract them. Order the soldiers to kill anyone who stand in their way and come back with the gems no matter what happens."

"But aren't they our allies?", the Black Raven King asked but winced the next second as he felt something tightening around his heart.

"Don't act smart. I know very well that you don't care about anything like that, just like you didn't when we gave them the deal with the Echer seeds in the first place. You're only saying that because you hope that I die if I don't get the Ker Gems. Send the soldiers with the order to kill. And remember, if I die, you and even this Kingdom will cease to exist. I'll make sure of that."

Saying these lines with an expression of madness on his face, the old man walked out the door with a firm stride.

Sighing and seeing that his ruse had been found out, the Black Raven King took out the trinket to send the orders. Indeed, he was a ruthless individual who hadn't hesitated to kill multiple people in order to become the King along with the old man's help. Although time might have changed him to care for his people, he still had only disregard for those of other Kingdoms. In fact, he couldn't care less about their fate.

The past two months had actually been very difficult and taxing on him. If it weren't for the spars with Elanev who was constantly improving, he might even have gone insane. The unrest that came due to that incident was still prevalent, with some soldiers even rus.h.i.+ng off to the Valley of Mist to search inside because they couldn't take the questions of the people who kept asking when that arrogant man would be brought to justice.

Of course, they all met their demise, leading the King to pa.s.s an order to forbid everyone from going to the valley.

The families of the two waiters who had been killed by the old man had also come asking, but they had been sent away with remuneration after being told that the waiters were on a secret a.s.signment in the service of the Kingdom and hence could not contact them for the time being.

Along with this was the constant pressure from the old man to find Ker Gems. Being bombarded from all sides with worries and problems, Tenebrol felt more and more like everything was falling apart in his hands.

Hopefully, obtaining the gems would at least get the old man off his back.