Speculations

-" Can you believe it? What do you think we will gain?" Ballam was enthusiastically speculating about the possible rewards. "Could be they will grant us titles?"

Jothyr to the side felt his head throb, his old friend didn't shut up since he got the news.

-" Are you stupid? Do you think they would give titles to some many people at once?" Byrth told Jothyr about the rewards before hands so the news didn't impact him very much, nonetheless, he still felt very grateful towards the Marquis son.

Jothyr even thought that it was possible for Luckas and Byrth to gain titles, after all, the higher-ups seemed to think very highly of them.

-" Who knows, maybe they will knight us? To me, just a plot of land and a few silver coins will be enough." Ballam continued to talk but Jothyr didn't pay any attention to him and looked towards the younglings not far away.

Luckas, Byrth, Maria, and Jonathan were chatting, Maria and Jonathan were telling the other two about the capital, at first, everyone thought that it was strange that Luckas didn't know about Strafhampton city, but soon they accepted it, after all, the Iqecia Kingdom was huge even for a merchant to visit all their cities.

Luckas was anxious, he was afraid that his lie would catch up to him, he didn't think that he would tag along Byrth and the rest for so long. And now Luckas was even a bit sad about leaving them, after going through some hardships the group felt a lot closer now.

Jothyr watched the four talk with emotions in his eyes, he felt that Byrth was more open to others now, his parent died when he was a baby leaving Jothyr his last living relative to care for him, but Jothyr had too many responsibilities as the chief of the village, this made Byrth grow up lonely.

While Byrth didn't treat Jothyr as his father, he still felt grateful towards him, he knew that his granduncle was a busy man and truly loved the village, so Byrth always tried his best to help him in the village, this only further distanced him from the others kids his age.

Even his relationship with Maria and Jonathan was a distant one, so Byrth becoming closer to them and befriending Luckas was quite a good thing. In his head Jothyr sincerely thanked Luckas, he always blamed himself for failing to give Byrth a nicer life.

Jothyr sighed and looked to the north, they were close to Strafhampton City, for some reason he felt hopeful and smiled.

While the convoy approached Strafhampton City, Philips was arriving in a big mountain. He felt nervous, not many people made the past Duke felt his way. He calmed down as he walked to the peak of the mountain.

-" Greeting to the Holy Sun Man." Philips reached a gazebo and bowed to a young man sitting inside it.

-" Oh, what a surprise, I wasn't expecting to little Philips to visit me." The young had a calm demeanor, he held a yellow flower in his hands. "So, to what do I owe the honor?"

-" I have news about the Heigong" Philips was direct as he tried to gain the man's attention.

-" They moved sooner than expected." The young man's eyes flashed for an instant, he sighed and put the follower on the table next to him. He gestured to Philips to sit next to him.

As Philips sat the man nodded as if telling him to continue.

-" We foiled a Heigong scheme in my territories, while I think this situation wasn't planned by the Heigong top echelons we could gather some information from there." Philips took a breath and started telling the man what happened.

The man listened with attention, the story was interesting to him, the deeds of the villagers left a deep impression on the man. When Philips finished telling him the story he nodded and closed his eyes.

After thinking for a few seconds he gazed towards Philips and sighed.

-" Perhaps the conflict between the Iquecia and Helmer is being orchestrated by them?"

-" While I can't confirm it yet, it's very likely, there should be other sects involved too, the Heigong isn't so powerful to completely manipulate a kingdom."

-" What's the situation in the frontier? It was been so long since I ventured out of the mountains, I really should focus more on the outside world." The man's eyes were complicated.

Most of the sects tried their best to stay away from the mortal realm, this included being too close alienated from the kingdoms surrounding them. But with their mortal enemies scheming behind the scene they couldn't let them do whatever they wanted.

-" While clashes and skirmish are common further escalation isn't that probable, but, this situation is quite chaotic nobody can tell for sure."

-" So there still some time, I can't promise you to interfere if the war breaks out with only this information, but the Eternal Sun Sect will send a group to keep tabs on the movement of the Heigong."

Philips was happy, he knew that getting them to move against the Helmer kingdom was almost impossible, but getting help against the Heigong would ease the pressure they felt while the main territories were away would be the best póssible scenario.

Philips nodded and parted ways with the man, he still had a lot to do and decided to go back to Strafhampton city to help his nephew at the ceremony.

While Philips was descending the mountain the Sun Holy Man was playing with the flower in his hand as two girls entered the gazebo, the duo sat behind him and waited for their orders.

-" Go to the Strafhampton territory and set a camp there, keep watch on the Thousand Year Dew we can't let fall on other people's hands." The Sun Holy Man ordered the two ladies.

The duo nodded and got up, but before they exited the room he added.

-" Bring your Junior Sister there too, she needs to gain more experience before the chaos began to engulf this era."

As he continued the two ladies gaze darkened, they wanted to retort but the respect for the sect leader was greater. The Sun Holy Man knew what they were thinking but he didn't say anything, some things should be resolved by the parties involved.