Path to Transcendence

Richard POV

Richard had taken out a folder with some documents he had to go over as he waited for Julius to finish up. The boy was probably taking his time and acclimating to his new skill.

There was a large selection of monsters to choose from in this specific rift. Julius would be able to take it slow and get comfortable with his [Thermal Empowerment] skill.

He did a double take as he read a certain paragraph from the report, making sure to reread it before tilting his head back in annoyance.

A part of his duties as son-in-law to the Patriarch meant he had to take care of many logistical matters from time to time.

It wasn't that bad though. He knew that many of the other spent over a dozen hours of their day at a desk making sure that House Easten was run properly. He had it easy in comparison. He was mainly there as deterrence for the House and only occasionally had to help with the paperwork.

That was a pretty nice benefit of advancing to Tier 5. On top of that, he got special privileges such as exclusive delving locations and use of the House's teleportation circles to delve at freshly spawned rifts in the Endless Forest or other parts of the Empire.

The rewards for clearing a rift were always nice, if not as common as they were when he was in Tier 3.

His noble heritage also helped with how he was treated. Being a son of House Gallow had its perks.

Even though he didn't have the best relationship with his family, their name demanded respect.

House Gallow was quite notorious for their combat effectiveness. It was why his family had been so angry with him for choosing not to pursue the typical family path.

A Gallow who wasn't a frontliner or warrior was almost unheard of. Especially someone like him, who his parents were proud of for being a genius from a young age.

However, in recent years they have been getting along better. The division between them was slowly healing as they realized that he had chosen a strong path.

Because at the end of the day, the one thing House Gallow respected more than anything was strength.

So Richard being as strong as he was, even as a newly minted Tier 5, was a big reason why his family had backed off in the last couple of years.

It was just a shame it was only after that that they begrudgingly agreed to his choices. He wished they could have accepted him even if he was 'weak'.

With a sigh, he finished reading the material within the documents. The material was about the recent attacks on their teams transporting various goods and materials across the region and to some extent, the entire Empire.

It had been a big pain in the butt. It wasn't like this Conclave was stealing anything of that much importance, all of their highly valuable items were transported via teleportation circles and such. But their large shipments of other goods that couldn't be transported so easily or without great cost were still considerable losses to House Easten.

They needed to do something about it pretty soon, or else it would become a much larger issue. It also sent the wrong message to their allies. A message that House Easten couldn't protect their own stuff. That is the bigger danger of letting these people continue to act with impunity.

With that being said, he didn't know if he particularly enjoyed Casidus's plan. Using children to bait out these people sounded like an unnecessary risk. One that he nor Rebecca were quite comfortable in taking.

Especially not when they had recently been getting to know Grace and Julius. He and Becca had become emotionally attached. Even though she wouldn't admit it they both were. More so for little Cory, he absolutely adored the two of them.

Sometimes he believed Cory liked them more than he liked him or his mother.

Richard knew that the two of them were much stronger than most Tier 3s, even though they recently advanced. But it wasn't a matter of strength in this case, it was about experience.

People who have been in Tier 3 for years had so much more experience than either of them. He doubted either of them had ever fought a real battle between two people before. Well... at least he knew for sure that Grace was green, her occasional sparring with Rebecca showed this.

It was very subtle, but he noticed that sometimes Grace was too hesitant to hurt her opponent and would occasionally flinch when unprepared for an attack.

Granted she was a mage, but an experienced mage would have already experienced someone pressuring them in close combat.

Take himself for example. He was a mage, but he was more than capable in a close combat situation. He had to, otherwise he would be in big trouble.

He had seen firsthand mages who only learned how to chuck attacks from a distance die at the hands of their first close encounter when another human swung a sword at their heads.

It was a scary thing at first and the only way to deal with it was to experience it.

He didn't want either of them to die like that.

Although he was less worried about Julius. The boy was an enigma. Nobody really quite understood what kind of boy Julius was.

He had multiple Concepts at Tier 2, which was already crazy enough, but what had taken all of them by surprise was just how solid his willpower was. Unlike Grace who Rebecca was training daily, Julius's willpower needed no training.

It was one of the most sturdy and powerful willpowers he had seen from a boy his age.

And that didn't come from just simple training. The boy had offered that reason when asked, but Richard knew better than that. It most likely came from life-or-death situations.

Granted the boy did train like a man possessed, but no amount of regular training would let someone that young have such an impressive willpower. It meant that it was probable that he had been in many dangerous fights before.

He couldn't help but wonder if the boy managed to become a beast tamer or a mind mage, what kind of monster he would be. With that kind of willpower at Tier 3, he would most likely be able to control some select Tier 4 beasts with little effort.

That would automatically make him a serious threat. Not that he wasn't already.

"How long has he been in there?" He suddenly heard someone ask from behind him.

Richard turned to look at Casidus who had avoided his detection as easily as he usually did.

"It has been several hours," he responded after looking at the rift portal.

"You think he's going to want to enter the Challenge Rift after this?"

"It is highly likely he will choose to do so. Grace might not want to yet, but he's ready," he said confidently.

He would know, he had gone through the Challenge Rift before when he was still a Tier 3. It hadn't been easy, but it was accomplishable for someone of their caliber. The question was how good of a reward they would get after they were done.

"You still disagree about sending them to help draw this group out?" Casidus asked.

"Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea," he said gravely.

"I don't know either anymore," Casidus admitted with a frown.

Richard furrowed his brows and gave the man a questioning look. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"I heard some information that has been making waves through the Empire," Casidus revealed.

"What kind of information?"

"Princess Reinera is apparently missing from Goldencrest and it is causing quite the ruckus in certain circles."

"She's missing? Why would that make you hesitant? Sure, she's royalty, but in the larger scheme, she is simply one of many royals, albeit with a bloodline. I don't get the connection," Richard said confusingly.

"That isn't all. The less-known version is that another student went missing alongside her. A male student going by the name Julius," Casidus said looking directly at Richard meaningfully.

Richard opened his mouth but nothing came out as he processed what he had just been told.

What were the odds?

Two powerful young children who just happened to be traveling alone, one of whom is named Julius himself. That is… odd.

But that would mean Grace was the princess. And there was no way she could be, it was practically impossible. He was confident that there must be some kind of mistake or it was a weird coincidence. He couldn't believe…

He froze in realization. Why can't I believe it, huh? That's not normal. Unless… He shook his head in disbelief.

"It took me a while too," Casidus said. "It must be one hell of an item if it could even work on me."

"Some sort of mental effect? Or is it something else?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, we certainly can't send her on that mission now," he said the obvious. He couldn't believe that he had not even considered it. For heaven's sake, Julius had even let her name slip in front of him in the past. He felt silly.

"Definitely not, that would be a disaster if anyone found out we were about to send the Princess on a mission as bait. The royal family will come down hard on our House," Casidus said.

"What about Julius though?"

Casidus shrugged his shoulders. "You tell me. You and Becca have been around the boy for longer than anyone else."

Richard glanced toward the rift where the boy in question was still delving before turning back to Casidus. "I think he's secretly looking forward to it," he admitted to the man.

Looking forward to it?" Casidus asked, a look of confusion on his face.

"I don't know why, but from what I have talked to him about it, he gets this oddly excited look whenever I bring it up. I have a feeling that he might want to do it more than we want him to," Richard said with a frown.

"Why would he… huh," Casidus paused what he was going to say as if he realized something.

"What?"

"On the day we first met him, he mentioned something about Ducal houses and asked about their potential involvement, but I noticed he was unusually curious about House Greyson."

"What? You think something happened between them?"

"Maybe, or maybe he just has something against this Conclave group."

That could be possible too. Even though they had been getting to know Julius and Grace for some weeks, they didn't know much about them. They didn't talk about their families or anything.

"What should we do about 'Grace'?" He finally asked after a brief moment of silence.

"I think we should pretend like we have no idea who she is. She is clearly here on her own free will, there is no doubt in my mind that she has some sort of way to get in contact with her guards, but she is choosing not to. Let's allow her to do what she wants. The person who I am more concerned about is Julius," Casidus said, sounding almost slightly anxious, which was unusual for the man.

"Why him more than her?"

"The reason I found out his name was because I got two separate visits from House Violet and House Zenith. They both are very serious in finding his whereabouts. What was more odd was that they didn't seem to have any care about the princess though."

Richard frowned. House Violet and Zenith were two Houses that nobody on the continent wanted to mess with. Each one of them had too much influence and power to risk angering them. In his opinion, it was worse than angering the royal family in many aspects.

"Why are they looking for him specifically?" Enjoy new adventures at empire

"I have no idea. But they are really serious about finding him, they sent their best."

"Who did they send?" He asked, feeling a bit nervous.

Casidus gave him a grave shake of his head. "House Violet sent Marcus Avery and House Zenith sent Stella Quincy."

He felt a flash of fear pass through his stomach as he heard their names.

"Shit."

"Yeah, I think you can see why I'm a little more worried about Julius right now."