"Were you able to sense his presence when he disappeared?" One of the Sacred Elves standing around the Royal Princess asked her. He was staring at her in disbelief, and also at Nial who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Many looked in Nial's direction now, clearly showing their surprise at what Nial had just done.
"I just sensed him again as he appeared behind the Royal Princess…" A High Elf at the Mythician rank acknowledged, clenching his hand into a fist at the sudden realization. He hadn't been able to sense how someone at the Keltia rank disappeared in front of him, let alone that he reappeared all of a sudden.
That shouldn't have happened, especially since there was a humongous gap of strength between the Keltia and the Mythician rank, or so it ought to be. Almost all ten Mythician-ranked High Elves stared dumbfoundedly at Nial, trying to figure out what exactly he was.
"Was that a Mystic technique that uses the Shadows to teleport through space? But even then we should have sensed some energy fluctuations…" Another High Elf at the Mythician rank wondered while scratching his chin, his eyes gleaming in interest.
Meanwhile, the other High Elf, who had approached Nial with anger and his mana unleashed, looked at Nial standing behind the Royal Princess with complicated feelings. There was a slight hesitation in his movements but he was also angry, while Nial was extremely calm.
This enraged the High Elf even more, which was why he took a step toward the Royal Princess, or Nial to be precise, resting his hand on the scabbard of his thin longsword.
"Don't bother attacking. He is just playing with you," The Royal Princess intervened, lifting her hand to stress over the fact that she did not want a fight to break out and to make sure that everyone understood she was serious about nobody attacking. Her head turned to Nial, whose corners of his lips were uptilted.
"I could have given you some Origin crystals if you asked normally, you know." She said, trying to calm her racing heart. Princess Evalyne hadn't expected Nial to be capable of gaining so much attention from the Mythician High Elves. They were usually not that easily surprised.
However, Nial just shrugged his shoulders. He was not really bothered about her light warning since he had wanted to test something before, either way!
"It is much funnier that way!" Nial excused himself without really trying hard. He had a reason to provoke the High Elves from the beginning but that was not something they would have to know.
The Royal Princess stared at the calm expression of the blind Original and nodded her head without saying a word. She told one of her subordinates to retrieve their Origin crystal savings before her attention turned back to Nial.
"How is your shelter doing? I heard a few things from Master Crevian but he is not involved in everything. Tell me about it," Princess Evalyne said in a tone that was a mix between demanding to hear Nial's answer right now and trying to sound mysterious.
The attempt to sound mysterious failed miserably which caused Nial to smile wryly as he gave the Princess another shrug.
"You should visit the Orion Shelter when you have time. It's much better to see things first-hand rather than listen to the useless talk of someone who doesn't even know what he is talking about. The sight is beautiful…apparently," Nial joked in a light and subtle way before he shamelessly added, "Bring some presents though!"
The Elves stared at Nial not exactly sure what to say about Nial's attitude, or how to react in his presence. But seeing how relaxed their Royal Princess was and that she had a hard time keeping her pokerface, they just let it be. It was interesting that Nial could invoke so many different emotions in the Royal Princess while others were only able to see her cold and dominating side, the poised and composed expressions of the Empress' daughter!
It didn't take much longer before the errand boy of the Princess returned with a spatial ring. He handed it over to Evalyne who threw the spatial ring in Nial's direction without a second glance.
"Why do you need so many Origin crystals, to begin with?" Princess Evalyne asked for the first time, not actually expecting Nial to answer her. Nial was simply too mysterious about most of his actions. That made it quite difficult to figure out what was going on in his head all the time and what he was trying to achieve, in the first place.
"I'm going to summon another of Damian's Devils. I have some problems with a High Mythician Dungeon that manifested not too long ago. One of the regions adjacent to my plateau is about to be flooded with dungeons of all ranks and I cannot really handle all of them at the same time. Wasting my precious workers to kill a bunch of beasts is not a sane choice either, so I'm going to get my hands on the Shadowmancer," Nial explained in a rather detailed manner. At least, it was very detailed to hear from someone like him, an Original who liked to keep secrets and speak cryptically.
The Royal Princess stared at Nial for a second or two before she nodded her head. "Alright, have fun…I guess…" She merely said before Nial had already disappeared. Ryu chirped all of a sudden and he dashed in a different direction, leaving the Greater Forest Dragon youngling all by herself.
She let out a tiny little roar and tried to follow Ryu, just to realize that she was not only much slower but also that the path of the Darkness Gryphon led straight to the person she was the most afraid of. The Greater Forest Dragon youngling didn't want to be closer to Nial than necessary. She could clearly tell that Nial had the capability to devilize her and turn her into one of his subjects.
The thought of getting devilized and becoming someone else's subject was horrifying to the Greater Forest Dragon youngling. She wanted nothing but to be free, without any restraints in her life. The Elves allowed her to do exactly that. Thus, the dragon youngling stayed by the Elves' side who gave her protection and everything she needed for the time being.
As for accepting Nial's existence, there was not much she could do about it, either way. He was stronger than her, right now, and it was fine to accept him since he didn't seem interested in devilizing her and turning her into his subject. He didn't show much interest in her which made the little beast feel relieved.
The Greater Forest Dragon youngling was slowly unsealing the sealed memories in its mind. This was what every Greater Dragon did, unsealing the memories of their race to learn the laws of nature and the cruel world to become the unfathomable existences they were.
However, even without these memories, it was certain that Nial was an existence that shouldn't be taken lightly.
It was as obvious as the existence of life itself, and a determining factor for the youngling's fear.
This fear was not only of the unknown but also of the things she could tell clearly.
Nial was dangerous, and someone she should never be on the bad side of!