Heira did not overstay her welcome. She very cleverly didn't push too hard and turned to leave the moment she had said her piece. The only thing she left behind was a method of contacting her and nothing else.

Long after she was gone, a silence weighed over the council room. Even Raymundus didn't say anything.

Elthor sat in a corner, his brow furrowed. He really was being pushed into a position he didn't know how to deal with.

The good news was that while Elthor knew nothing about Heira, what he did know was of the strain between the Milky Way Guild and Leonel. After all, Leonel wouldn't leave him without such a valuable piece of information and most definitely had a way of contacting Elthor.

The issue was that Elthor had tried to contact Leonel, but had failed to do so repeatedly. Leonel had said that this might be a possibility, but that didn't stop it from being a huge problem when it actually did happen.

From then on, there was nothing but problems. Elthor had no idea who Heira was, so he still wasn't sure if he should be cautious of her or not. And, at the same time, he didn't have a rebuttal for the benefits she would potentially be providing.

The most obvious thing to do would be to use the card of distrust… The problem was that there was no real reason to distrust Heira with the exception of one…

She was human.

For obvious reasons, Elthor would be a fool to use this card to try and sway the Oryx. Why? Because in just another few months to a couple years at most, Elthor would definitely have to transfer over whatever strength he gained from the Oryx to Leonel.

If at this moment he tried to stifle their growth by using distrust of humans as an excuse, then what would he do when that time came? When it was exposed that he had been working for a human all along, not only would any trust he had built up crumble, any shot they had at a smooth transition would go up in smoke.

It was already contentious since Leonel had ties with Valiant Heart Mountain which had been oppressing them for so long. They really couldn't afford any more variable to ruins things like this.

Elthor entered a state of calm. Stress wasn't something he was unaccustomed to dealing with. He was the Prince of an Empire after all, and he wanted to be a great General. Since when did such people give up before even trying?

'At this moment, they all believe that I come from an Oryx Empire, and that much is true. It isn't a lie.

'The trouble is that my brothers and the others are still trapped within that silver tablet. And, since my father died, Leonel has no way of resurrecting him in a short time. It's even possible that my father would never be able to come back…'

Elthor closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

'… The pressure of this potential deal will push this Oryx Tribe in two directions. The first is that they will grasp at this opportunity for the sake of taking advantage of their Hyper Evolution. I wouldn't be mad at them for taking this chance, we didn't manage to take advantage of our own very well…'

In Elthor's world, he had heard of the Hyper Evolution state of his people. In fact, his seemingly human-like appearance—with the exception of his horns—along with his battle form were all elements of this.

However, Elthor's people didn't manage to maximize their Hyper Evolution. If they had, they wouldn't have been forced to share their world with Alexandre.

Though Elthor kept referring to things like this, the reality was that the world he had experienced was just one of the many potential branching futures of Planet Valiant. So, he was well aware of just how important the Hyper Evolution state was.

Though he had benefited from it, he would be even more powerful if his Ancestors had made better use of it. So, he really couldn't blame this Tribe for being tempted.

'The second option or path is that their dislike of humans will cause the pressure I face to increase. More and more will want to learn more about my origins. They'll want to know where my people are, what they'd have to do to go… Their urgency will be on another level.' copyrighted © content.

Elthor exhaled a long breath. 'The only way to fix this is resources. They need resources.'

The Oryx Tribe didn't need things like weapons or treasures. What they needed was nutrition and energy. They needed to stimulate and be able to train their bodies to maximize their potential. They needed training and sparring to push themselves to their limits. Only like this would they be able to maximize their Hyper Evolution state.

The latter could be provided by Heira. Obviously, she would want to send them into countless battles, or else she would have never come here.

However, if they also relied on Heira for the former—ie the food and energy sources—then they wouldn't be just warriors, they would be slaves.

Being warriors was easy enough to extricate themselves out of… But if they became dependents… That was how they'd be controlled.

The truth was that the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed. Just like Leonel didn't know what Heira was up to, neither was Heira aware that Leonel was slowly pulling the Oryx to his side. If Elthor could manage to make it so that the Oryx could use Heira put not be manipulated or abused by her, then this might very well be a good thing.

The ultimate question, though… Was how?

At that moment, just as Elthor was racking his brain, he felt movement within his spatial ring that made his eyes narrow. When he heard the message he received he fell into deep thought before nodding inwardly.

The message wasn't from Leonel, but…

"Little one, what do you think of all of this?"

Raymundus' words interrupted Elthor's thoughts. Right then, numerous gazes shifted over to the overly handsome Oryx Prince.