Siblings Reincarnate as Enemies

Chapter 93 — In which they meet (7)

“You want me to do what?”

Seven asked, his eyes widening with each word Phlox said.

Considering what he observed about those lunatics from Purplus, he expected to be roped into some strange plan, but he still wasn’t prepared for something like that.

“Just draw a teleportation circle. What is so hard about it?”

Phlox grumbled.

Seven didn’t know how to explain to her that teleportation was one of the highest difficulty space-based spells, so he just opened and closed his mouth.

The woman didn’t pay him any attention.

“You two do that, I need to go stop those lunatics, whatever they’re doing.”

‘Those lunatics’ referred to the priests of Sun and Day Gods Temple.

In Seven’s head though, Phlox looked much more fit for the term of ‘lunatic’.

But he wasn’t able to tell her that as she ran off before he could gather his senses.

Ten seconds passed in complete silence.

And then, a man with a presence as slim as his body, asked:

“Is there a problem, Mr. Seven?”

Seven slowly turned and met eyes with Alexandrit.

“You know that you’re asking me to preform one of the highest difficulty spells, while breaking the defenses of the best mage in Rubrun, correct?”

“Correct.”

Alexandrit nodded gently with the casualty of someone confirming, yes, the sky is blue.

When Seven didn’t move for another five seconds and just blankly stared at him, Alexandrit very carefully asked:

“Can’t you do it, Mr. Seven?”

“No.”

“… I see.”

This time Alexandrit’s nod was a bit heavier, as if he truly didn’t expect it.

He took out a communication stone, which Seven suspected was connected to the Saint, the biggest lunatic of them all and who was a mastermind behind that crazy ordeal.

After sending a very short message, Alexandrit hid the stone and the two of them fell silent again.

But another five seconds didn’t pass, when Alexandrit spoke up again.

“Are you close with that red-haired man you were looking at in the teleportation room?”

“What?”

Seven almost jumped.

He barely recalled the man he saw when they teleported over.

But he had no idea why Alexandrit was suddenly asking about him

“I don’t even know him.”

“Really? You two looked a little bit similar so I thought he was your son or something.”

Seven’s brain shutdown.

“No.”

“A grandchild then?”

Correction, Seven’s brain suffered such severe mental shock it melted.

“No… I don’t… have children.”

He blinked and barely managed to assemble a sentence.

“Oh.”

Alexandrit sounded almost disappointed.

Seven used the ashes of his thoughts to ask:

“Why are you asking?”

“Because this is the only conversation topic I came up with, besides your hate for carrots.”

“I don’t hate carrots.”

“And yet you abandoned and didn’t eat the soup.”

“… Why are you so hung up on that soup?”

He brought Seven a soup once, and it was about three weeks ago!

Alexandrit crossed his arms and looked through the window.

“Well, I usually don’t care about such things, but I suppose, in a very stressful situation I tend to start overthinking some things.”

“A very stressful situation?”

Seven double-checked Alexandrit’s expression, which could contend for the embodiment of tranquility.

The embodiment of stoicism nodded. He was doing it a lot today.

“You can’t help us with our plan, which means that we will have to take a much more risky route, which has a very high chance of failure. Naturally, I, who can’t do anything here, can only worry.”

Seven carefully re-examined Alexandrit’s almost expressionless face once again.

If he considered it from the situational standpoint, then Alexandrit indeed…

“So about your hate of carrots.”

Nevermind, he couldn’t take it any longer.

“I’ll do it.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll draw a teleportation circle for you.”

“I thought you said you can’t?”

“Situation changed.”

Though Seven didn’t plan to do it, he considered his chances of breaking Archmage’s heavy defenses and noticed there were little cracks.

And those cracks were increasing.

He wasn’t sure what was exactly happening for an Archmage to make such, even if minuscule, mistakes, but it meant that he could indeed breach the defenses for a moment and make a teleporation circle.

He activated his spiritual vision to better examine the mana flow, when suddenly someone grabbed his arm.

“If you’re going to do it, then do it somewhere else, not here.”

Alexandrit was also scrutinizing the wall in front of them.

Was he also looking at the magic circles?

Before Seven could continue that thought, Alexandrit dragged him to the window, opened it and jumped out.

Seven was suddenly very glad they were on the first floor.

Alexandrit looked around, found a tree in the corner of the backyard and hastily dragged Seven into its shade.

“Here should be better.”

Seeing Seven’s confusion, he added:

“The inside of the building’s fortifications are heavier than outside, right? Mr. Seven should have easier time finding a loophole to make a magic circle.”

Alexandrit smiled slightly.

Looking at that somewhat proud smile, Seven just absentmindedly nodded, while only one thought occupied his head.

‘I can’t fathom that man at all.’

*-*-*

A few minutes before Geod sent an alert to Phlox about the suspected artifact going missing and Alexandrit convincing Seven to make a teleportation circle.

Vern halted in his tracks and hesitated which direction to choose.

His initial plan was to join and cooperate with ‘Flavun Young Lady’s Group’, but when two of his main targets split up, he was a bit at a loss.

His heart wished nothing but to run to check on both of them, but his rationality was leading him in completely opposite direction.

‘Something isn’t right…’

There were too many forces moving.

Observing them, Vern had the same strange feeling he had when reading the research papers he gathered.

An interconnected chaos.

But when looking through the research papers he was able to quickly figure it out, because his past memories held the key, right now though, he didn’t have this advantage.

What was the goal behind all those movements?

Why throw away all those valuable resources?

What was so important it had to be achieved by such enormous costs?

He recalled the warning of Red Throne Rubrun:

— Beware of candles. They may cause fire.

Though not precise, the Crow Rubrun could glimpse into the future.

Therefore, Vern carefully analyzed the warning when preparing for the ceremony.

He was quite certain the bird was warning them about the possibility of war and the actions of reckless individuals, but faced with those reckless individuals’ actions he couldn’t help but end up dumbstruck.

Yes, all of them could cause a war, but then why throw out all of them?

Were they worried that bringing clones of people from Flavun wouldn’t be enough of an offense?

That the strange ritual the priests from Purplus were doing and which Vern was pretty sure wasn’t a typical temple practice won’t succeed?

Or that the sabotages from Rubrun’s mages will all go in vain?

Just any attempt of those actions could cause a war if the situation became tense enough.

As Vern organized his thoughts one after one, the ominous news he heard from Purplus the first week after his ‘awakening’ came to mind.

He suddenly had a terrible guess.

And there was just an opportunity to confirm it.

Vern saw a suspicious Flavun’s servant, who suddenly left with one of the gifts in hands, place the said gift in a corner of an ordinary room for guests.

He started walking again.

That servant worked hard to bring him a gift, Vern wasn’t going to refuse and even planned to check it early.

Opportunely, one of his targets also was heading in that direction, following after a clone with unknown intentions.

Vern checked where the knight, who had no idea how suspicious he looked when he was sneaking through corridors like some kind of thief , was and drew a new route in his head.

While at it, he also sent a message to Crimo.

In case his worst guess was right.

[Watch. Your. Back.]

*~*~*