"Ahh!"
Hearing soone respond to his question from behind him all of a sudden, Valyr imdiately went into fight or flight mode, releasing his aura in its entirety as he turned around to see who sneaked up on him.
"Who…?" Clenching his fists in preparation for a potential fight, the young man's expression was incredibly serious as the attire that the person wore was not sothing he was familiar with.
"…Oh. It's just you, Riekan." Fortunately, the tension he felt swiftly washed away the mont he laid his eyes upon the person's face, prompting him to let out a wide sigh of relief not even a second later.
Taking a bit of ti to regain his bearings after that, the young man briefly let out an exhale before looking at the man in front of him with a hint of confusion. "How long have you been here?"
"A few minutes, give or take," said Riekan in response, only for him to return a slightly confused look back at Valyr soon after. "Why do you ask?"
"A few minutes…?" murmured Valyr the mont he heard that, the gears in his mind whirring as he felt that the response was slightly peculiar.
'If I rember correctly, I spent around half an hour in the Mystic Plane,' thought the young man to himself, glancing at the man's face from ti to ti.
'Considering the difference in ti between the Mystic Plane and here… that ans he's been waiting here ever since I headed to the Mystic Plane?'
As he ca to this realization, Valyr felt a wave of greater confusion hit him. After all, he only began to ask Mystia if she could contact Riekan for him near the latter half of his brief stay within the Mystic Plane.
Even his conversation with Braum regarding the sa thing was made around that ti.
'In other words, Riekan had already expected that I'd co looking for him even before I even started trying to look for him.' With this thought in mind, the young man began to slightly frown.
Briefly taking in a deep breath to retain his composure, Valyr looked back at Riekan before asking him, "If you don't mind, could you explain what's going on?"
"Huh?" In response, Riekan looked back at him with confusion, greatly oblivious to the thoughts that were running in the young man's head.
Though, the man wasn't truly oblivious for much longer.
Ding!
Hearing a couple of notifications go off in his mind, the man quickly took a look at them, causing him to slightly raise his eyebrow as he realized he'd received ssages from a couple people all of a sudden.
After reading through the ssages he got, Riekan did not take long to understand why Valyr asked that question out of nowhere, prompting a wry smile to appear on his face the mont he was done.
"What bad timing," muttered the man with a slight shake of his head, only to glance at Valyr after that.
Seeing that the young man in front of him now began to look at him with a hint of wariness, Riekan knew that he had to clear up their misunderstandings sooner or later, lest he wanted to make his efforts of having Valyr co here go to waste.
"So, here's what's going on." Letting out a sigh, he then called for Valyr's attention, causing the latter to pause for a bit before nodding.
With the young man now wholly focused on what he had to say, Riekan went ahead and explained the entire situation around the Caelio clan in detail, talking about how he planned on resolving the problem on his own in the first place.
After that, he talked about the tournant, Valyr's appearance, and how the flint gem ca to be.
Naturally, such an explanation did not answer the peculiarity that was his appearance before Valyr even began his attempts at contacting him. With that, he told the young man about the additional features he added to the flint gem that allowed it to function as a tracker, as well as the thing that prompted the peculiarity to arise in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, it took a while for Valyr to process everything Riekan had to say, considering that the scope of the entire thing spanned over a far longer duration than he thought it would.
Though, by the ti he'd gotten the gist of what was going on, Valyr took in a calming breath as he asked the man, "So, if I'm getting this correctly, you wanted my help in resolving your clan's problem because of the prestige my identity held?"
"Correct." Riekan nodded.
"And the flint gem you gave during the tournant was actually a tracker that allowed you to view every action I made the mont I arrived at the clan?"
"…Also correct."
"And the reason you decided to appear where I last stayed was because you saw go through a portal?"
"Yeah." Riekan nodded one last ti. "How could I not? It's a portal that leads to a concept plane, after all."
Hearing Riekan ntion the term 'concept plane' all of a sudden, it went without saying that Valyr was caught off guard. After all, the only people he knew in Veldanyr who had sothing to do with those places were just two people: Mystia and Noel.
Then again, even though he was surprised to hear such a term from soone like Riekan, the young man did not show that on the outside, rely nodding as he sowhat understood what the man ant by that.
Making a ntal note to ask Riekan more about what he knew on concept planes later, Valyr decided to ask him the question that had been lingering in his mind even before the man appeared in front of him.
"So… from what I could infer through the ssages you've put into the flint gem, you want my help in resolving the problem around your clan's nine factions in exchange for the accessory upgrade."
"Yes. It does have sothing to do with that."
"Alright, I'm on the right track, then," replied Valyr with a nod. "If that's the case, then am I correct in thinking that you want to abolish the existence of the eight other factions and only have the founding faction remain?"
"What?" Hearing that question, Riekan looked back at the young man in slight confusion before shaking his head "No?"
"No?" This ti, it was Valyr's turn to be confused. "Are you telling I misinterpreted the ssages in the flint gem?"
"To sum it up, yeah." Riekan nodded in agreent. "After all, a task like that would be too much just for a quick accessory upgrade. Sure, you may have the strength, but we're not that close to the point I'd ask you for such a favor."
"Then… what do you actually want to do?" With the man himself telling him that he'd misinterpreted the ssages behind the gem, Valyr looked back at Riekan with both curiosity and confusion, wondering what kind of request the man was actually asking from him.
Though, once he heard the answer in full detail, he was imdiately left at a complete loss for words.
"What I want you to do in exchange for the upgrade… is to kill a certain mber of my clan in my stead," said Riekan in response to the question, feeling as if a great burden had been lifted off his shoulders the mont he uttered those words.
"…" On the other hand, Valyr remained silent even after the man was done talking, inwardly wondering to himself what kind of ntal gymnastics Riekan had done for that ssage to be the takeaway from the flint gem's ssages.
"Now…" By the ti a couple minutes had passed after the man's response, it was only then did the young man open his mouth once more, looking at Riekan with a frown. "Have you ever thought even just for a little bit that there was a chance I'd misinterpret your ssages?"
"Not really?" Riekan slightly tilted his head in confusion. "Pretty sure I made the underlying request clear when I wrote those ssages… even if the thod to obtain those ssages involved a bit of beating around the bush."
"…Think of it from my perspective for just even a little bit." Valyr could only let out a faint sigh in response to the man's confidence.
"I really made it clear, though?" Adamant that he was in the right, Riekan continued to look at the young man as if he were the one who's wrong. "I placed two ssages in there that depended on the mber that would see it."
"It was either they'd read that you would be acting as my representative in my stead, or that you'd help bring the clan back to the way it was… huh."
"Now that you say that, it does seem that way."
"And that's what I've been telling you all this ti," replied Valyr with a sigh that had both exasperation and relief. "In any case, there's no point in talking about it any further."
Whoosh!
Conjuring a soundproof barrier out of Pri Azure Energy around them, it was only then did Valyr feel like it was right to continue the conversation. "So, which mber of the clan do you want to kill exactly? Also, don't you think it's weird for the clan's founder to end one of their mber's lives?"
"Not really?" Riekan slightly shook his head. "Although I say they're a clan mber, it would be more accurate to say that they married into the clan, which only technically makes them a clan mber."
"…And why do you want to kill them exactly?" Not wanting to get into the specifics of clans and relationships and whatnot, Valyr did not hesitate to steer the conversation back to its intended direction.
"That's because they're the reason the velvet faction was created in the first place," replied Riekan, faintly letting out a bit of killing intent with every word. "If not for them, the Caelio clan wouldn't have spiraled out of control to this extent."
"I see." Finally hearing what he thought was the main reason behind the request, Valyr now had a better grasp of the ntal gymnastics that went behind Riekan's two ssages.
…Even if it was still ultimately a stretch to get to such a conclusion.
With that out of the way, Valyr then went ahead and asked what he now considered as the most important question.
The identity of the person Riekan wanted him to kill.
"If you don't mind asking, who would that person be?"
"I have a feeling you might know her yourself," said Riekan in response, causing Valyr to raise his eyebrow in curiosity. "Her na's Cynthia Arhearst. She hails from the Villen Kingdom's Arhearst Royal Clan."
Though, his expression soon beca serious the mont he heard the man's next words.
"…But from what I found out, she also used to go by the na Cynthia Zeihardt?"
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