Zolast hated Edward.

He really, really did.

Particularly, his horrible timing.

Just half an hour ago, he had helped Launara get her promotion. The class she received had been shocking enough. Mistress of the Forge, a class Zolast had never heard of before.

But, considering it gave eight stat points for every level, with two points free, he didn't need to hear of it before to understand just how significant it was. Then, there was the fact that Launara had just received her Life Elevation, and instead of Basic, it was Intermediate, which pushed the impact of her new Stats even further.

He had to admit, he felt a momentary pang of jealousy, particularly since his own Life Elevation had been destroyed by the curse. He liked to see the young ones getting stronger and stronger … but that didn't mean he enjoyed the sense of uselessness that came along with it.

So, when there was an official challenge from the guildmaster of the Eternal Rain, he was happy to accept it despite the implications — implications that their attempt to trick them for a week had just failed, and they probably managed to detect the construction he started was not an attempt to sabotage, making them use one of their pet guildmasters to teach his guild a lesson.

And this was why Zolast was in the Arena, ready to start the duel, for once not caring about the dangerous aura the opposing swordsman was displaying, more than happy to show off his new skill and teach his enemies why it was a bad idea to target someone right after passing them a great treasure …

It was at that point Edward's horrible timing struck.

[Life Elevation - Complete - Human]

Zolast wanted to curse, he really did. Because, that ability, while very welcome in a general sense, ruined his plans.

He was supposed to be a cursed mage with severe limitations, and suppressing his abilities enough to make it convincing was not exactly trivial while using skills, especially if he was going to convince the spies around them.

Suddenly tripling the effect of his Stats turned him from a respectably strong mage to a monster that would likely send alarms through the entire kingdom — even if they had their people with higher order Life Elevation abilities.

Unfortunately, it meant that he had no hope of actually continuing to fake his feeble state. Not without a few days to practice at the minimum. A few weeks would have been better.

Which was why, when a sudden red explosion covered the sky, combined with a matching blue flare, he felt relief before anything else — especially since he could still feel Edward through the Heroic Party, confirming that he was alive and well.

"Stop!" Artmiss called, delaying the duel for a moment, giving Zolast a chance to relax. "We need to make sure there's no danger."

"Good, call me when the duel is on," Zolast said as he went back to the headquarters, glad that the explosion gave him an excuse. As he ran, he was talking with Edward to get a sense of what had just happened.

Learning that he somehow faked his death officially was good news. However, Zolast wasn't idealistic enough to think that it suddenly resolved their problems. Even without the cultists, the region had several dungeons … and potentially another gargantuan one ready to be built where the breach had been before the explosion.

But, as he sent a message to the younglings to stay put, he was casting some simple spells for target practice in their smallest room … even with the weakest spells he was able to use enough to demolish the targets.

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It was a weird problem to have …

Luckily, Edward had already managed to find a hiding spot secure enough for him to be comfortable sleeping, allowing him to focus on controlling his new power.

A task that he had only made modest progress on when a messenger called him for the duel. He wished that he had a way to delay the duel, but the rituals around an honor duel were complicated. Once accepted, his best option was to declare a second.

Which was a problem. Jertann and Silas still didn't have their third promotions — and Zolast had no intention of letting Jertann do so before he could discover the root of his growing transformation.

Mahruss did, but he had just received one of the new master skills, and he would need a while to adapt, meaning there was a good probability that he would lose, hardly an acceptable tradeoff. And, while Karak fought surprisingly well, his lack of an arm was too big of a disadvantage to put to the test in an honor duel.

Limenta would win the fight handily, but Zolast hardly thought that revealing their super-assassin was a good idea, considering their aim was to keep their organization underestimated.

This was why he had a frown on his face as he walked back to the dueling arena slowly, trying to come up with the best strategy to deal with the mess, not even bothering to hide his stress.

However, just as he was about to step into the arena, Young Duke Kyrll spoke, interrupting the approach. "The guild of the Dawn Hammers is going to use their second for the battle," the young duke declared.

Zolast turned toward him, surprised, only to see Artmiss standing next to the young duke. Which was a problem, as Artmiss was a knight of the Duke, and couldn't just join the battle.

His opponent was quicker to remind that fact to the Duke. "It's not possible, my lord," the guildmaster of the Endless Rain declared, his tone too sharp to be deferential, but it was understandable considering the root of the problem. "A sworn knight can't join a guild, and my honor duel is declared against the Dawn Hammers. No one but their members could join."

Zolast turned toward the young duke, to thank his well-intentioned, but useless, declaration, only to tense when he saw the young man smirking.

He had seen that overconfident grin on Terma's face too many times, often right before he did something that would create a bigger mess than needed. Zolast looked at Artmiss, only to see him wearing an exasperated and resigned look.

A mess indeed.

"I'm aware of the laws and traditions," the young duke said as he took a step forward. Zolast tensed, realizing exactly what the young duke had in mind … one that he should have realized earlier, but missed due to his distracted state.

Zolast was lucky Edward had his mess to explain…

The young duke ignored the shocked gasps as he stepped onto the arena, and pulled his sword. "However, nothing is preventing me from joining a guild," he declared proudly … as if he hadn't just caused a massive political scandal.

"M-my lord," the guildmaster of Eternal Rain stammered. His reaction was even more intense than the situation justified, but considering he was an agent of the Kingdom of Somaton and the young duke was their target, it was far more understandable.

"Yes, I'm a member of the Dawn Hammers," Kyrll declared proudly.

Zolast just sighed. He appreciated the help … well, he appreciated the sentiment behind it. Zolast worked with Kyrll enough to know that despite his age, he was a sharp young man with a good knowledge of the laws. His dismissal of the commoners was the only real fault he had, but even then, it was more about the influence of the people he grew up with than anything, and Zolast was already fixing that fault.

However, he was politically savvy enough to know that, by declaring himself as a member of a guild, he was diminishing his political power significantly, while, at the same time, elevating the Dawn Hammers significantly.

A colossal gift, declared just to protect him.

However, while Zolast appreciated the sentiment behind it, the practical aspects of it were more of a concern. By declaring himself part of the guild, he pushed their guild right into the mess they didn't need, suddenly turning them into a serious political player.

He didn't even pay much attention to the battle itself, just enough to make sure the opponent didn't want to use the opportunity to deal with it. Intervening and revealing his power was acceptable to the young duke losing his life because he didn't expect the enemy to retaliate.

Luckily, that was one thing that went according to his expectations, after a listless defense, the guildmaster yielded, and the young duke, unaware of his true allegiance, accepted his surrender.

"Don't worry, old man, I won't let anyone hurt you," Kyrll declared.

"The official term is the guildmaster, my lord," Artmiss gently rebuked him as he walked closer, looking unhappy about the development.

Good, that made two of them.

Zolast couldn't wait until Edward returned so he could foist the whole mess on him.

As for worrying about him being trapped in the castle, he didn't feel even the slightest twinge of it. Edward was an expert when it came to hiding ... and even if he was discovered, he wouldn't be the one to worry about.

It was the flying castle that required the worry.