Chapter 49
A castle of unbelievable size stood at the heart of the Sky City.
This was not just a castle; it was a towering fortress that touched the clouds themselves.
It held every important person in the empire, from low-ranking officials to the highest nobles.
Even the Sky King himself lived within its walls.
The castle was built from a magic material, a rare ore that was the most expensive in all the lands.
It cost hundreds of millions, but the result was this incredible structure that reached for the heavens.
Its colors were a deep black and a shining gold.
These colors were extremely striking and beautiful whenever light touched them.
The light never faded, because during the day, the sun made it glow, and at night, the soft moonlight kept it shining.
Its beauty was something most people could not fully understand.
No matter how long someone looked at it, they would always feel amazed by its grand shape, its brilliant colors, and the precious material it was made from.
The Sky Empire was the richest and most powerful empire, and this great castle proved its reputation was true.
Inside, at the very highest point of the cloud-touching castle, was a large and very luxurious room.
The floor shone with expensive tiles that looked incredibly valuable at a single glance.
The big room was filled with many items of music and art, like paintings and instruments.
However, the only people there were in the center of the room.
There, a large table was set, and two men sat across from each other, playing a card game.
One man had hair the color of gold and eyes as red as blood.
He was not wearing his formal king's clothing.
Instead, he wore simpler clothes like someone on the street might wear.
His shirt was black and white with short sleeves that showed the muscles on his arms, and he wore shorts.
He was very handsome and tall.
On the other side of the table was a man with black hair.
He had similar red eyes, and he stared at his cards with a confident smile.
He looked sure that he would win no matter what.
"Your turn," Ronan said with a playful smirk. "Or are you still trying to figure out how to beat my 'Shadowed Hydra' with your 'Flames of Dawn'?"
Arthur made a funny face and put down a card. "The flames burn away all shadows. That's eighteen points for me."
Ronan just smiled and flipped one of his own cards. "'Tidal Abyss.'
My water spell puts out your fire and hits you back with five points of chill."
He took a slow sip of his drink, looking very pleased with himself.
"You always pick the most annoying water cards," Arthur grumbled, but he was smiling too.
"This whole expansion set is unfair."
"Coming from the man who only uses the overpowered 'Solar Judgement' card," Ronan shot back, laughing.
"You're one to talk."
They played quietly for a few minutes.
The only sounds were the soft tap of cards on the smooth table and the faint, distant noise of the city far below them.
This game was a comforting tradition, a small piece of their old life from before Arthur became king.
After a while, Arthur started gathering the cards to start a new game. "So," he began, "I heard you were at the Gilded Lily tavern again. Twice this week."
"Well, a man is gonna do what he's gonna do. I am different from some virgin King who hasn't tasted the touch of a woman," Ronan said, teasing Arthur.
"Says the guy who wants to sleep with anyone he sees walking. You are already troublesome. I wonder what you will become if you find a woman you actually fall in love with," Arthur replied with a quiet chuckle as he placed a card down.
"My noble friend, falling in love is for other people. I just want sex," Ronan replied, drinking his alcohol as he looked at his cards and placed another one.
"Hmmm, that's exactly why you will fall in love," Arthur replied, adding, "If you aren't just sleeping with her, then other feelings will grow. But as your friend, I will advise you to stop sleeping around so much."
Ronan laughed loudly. "How many times have you tried telling me that? It never works."
"I think it's the 796th time now. I am just hoping to reach a thousand times," Arthur said, and both men laughed together.
"You should try getting out more. Leave this tower," Ronan said. "There's a new singer at the Vermillion Teahouse—she has an amazing voice, and eyes like a calm sea. You've been as tense as a pulled bowstring since you took the throne."
"I have a city to run. My father is still recovering, and four other empires are just waiting for me to make a single mistake," Arthur said. But his voice was light, not heavy. "My idea of relaxing is reading a report that doesn't have the words 'crisis' or 'war' in it. Besides, you seem to be handling enough romance for both of us. Weren't you sending love poems to that archivist from the Wind Clan last week?"
"Yeah, that girl knew what she was doing. Just thinking about her is making me want her again," Ronan replied.
Arthur chuckled and said, "Do you remember that time you fought that whole army just to sleep with that girl who loved stronger men?"
"The good old days. I never once won against that woman in a fight, but in bed, I always won. I don't even know what she does to keep it so tight… You can do whatever you want, but it will always be tight like hell… Anyway, you saved my backside after what I did almost started a war," Ronan explained, laughing at the memory.
Arthur chuckled, saying, "Yes, I couldn't let you die yet. At the time, you still owed me a cigar." He took the cigar Ronan offered. "You always know the right ones to bring." He lit it and released a slow stream of smoke.
"Hahahahaha, you know me," Ronan said with some pride.
Arthur looked outside the large window for a moment before asking, "Have you heard anything from Eleanor?"
Ronan drank his liquor and said, "Yeah, the last I heard about her, she was betting on fights somewhere in the Lawless City, between the Sky Empire and another kingdom."
"How is she?" Arthur questioned, and a little worry showed in his eyes.
"Don't take what she did too much to heart. Even if she is strong and, to some extent, wise, she is still a woman, my friend. She feels lost, and she will drown in her feelings until she realizes what she is doing. By then, it might be too late, or she might stop just before doing something she would hate. But you giving her everything she wanted would have been the worst move. She respects you more because you didn't. She is waiting for you to call her. She doesn't have the courage to call you first," Ronan said, smoking his cigar as he spoke.
Arthur sighed. "What about Elijah? Did you find him?"
"For a little while," Ronan confirmed. He poured more drinks for both of them. "He was in the Zenith Empire. He was moving through the trading towns near the Sorrow Kingdom border. He was buying strange things—alchemical ingredients you'd use for serious healing... or for something like a Bloodline extraction, like before."
Arthur's fingers tightened slightly on his glass. "The Domain Project."
"Maybe. Elijah always had the mind of a scholar," Ronan said, taking a drink. "I tracked him to a black market called the Rusted Grate. He was asking about very old books, things about eye powers that existed even before the Six Worldly Eyes."
"The beginning of all ocular powers," Arthur murmured quietly. "He's still searching for that."
"But you lost him."
Ronan didn't get offended. It was a simple fact. "At the Edge of the World Falls. You know the place—where the great river in Zenith drops into that permanent, wild storm. The magical energy there is pure chaos, water and lightning all mixed up. It scrambles any tracking magic. One second he was there, heading for the lookout point. The next... he was gone. No sign of teleportation, no hidden spell I could find. It was like the storm just swallowed him. I looked all around the basin for a whole week. I found nothing."
Arthur stared into his drink, thinking deeply. "The Falls... that's not a random spot. That's a place of huge, wild energy. A good place to test dangerous things... or to make sure no one can follow you." He looked at Ronan. "You think he knew you were there?"
"Elijah?" Ronan gave a short, dry laugh. "Of course he knew. He probably knew the moment I crossed into Zenith. He was letting me follow him, showing me he's still out there, still powerful, and not coming back. Disappearing at the Falls was his final message: 'You can't go where I'm going.' It's that prideful bullshit he always does."
"He always did like to make an entrance," Arthur said. "Remember when he tried to explain his theory about mana being alive by bringing a beehive into the war council room?"
A real smile appeared on Ronan's face. "Oh, skies, yes. The Head Archivist almost fainted. Bees were everywhere, stinging everyone. And Elijah just stood there, perfectly calm, pointing at the hive and saying, 'See? Each bee is like a bit of mana, acting on its own, but together the hive—the spell—has its own mind!'"
"We were finding honey in our armor for weeks afterward," Arthur chuckled, the memory clear in his mind. "And he was so proud of himself, even though all he proved was that bees don't like being locked in a room."
"He was a brilliant, frustrating man," Ronan agreed. "The best of us, sometimes. And now..."
"And now he's a problem for another day," Arthur finished the thought. "If he's in the storm basin, he's stuck there, at least for now. Our real problems are right here." He waved a hand toward the window and the glowing city below. "But keep checking for any news about our defected Saint."
"Understood," Ronan said, finishing his drink.