"Sir." A masked man kneeled in front of a middle-aged man with white hair. This white hair was different from the normal white hair that people got through aging. This white hair was whiter than snow.
This was the characteristic of royalty. Most of the royal children who were born had this hair and the kingdom believed it was their royalty gene. Those who didn't have this white hair would be considered inferior.
And this middle-aged man was one of the contenders for the throne, the Third Prince.
He furrowed his eyebrows, looking at his subordinate as if judging the content of the information.
"We have confirmed that Noel Ardagan has gone to Countess Christina's territory. After that visit, Countess Christina's mansion is quite lively for a while. And we've managed to receive a rumor that Countess Christina now has a weapon to take down the enemies. She's planning to use it to destroy Count Leinberd and Marquis Walford.
"We don't know much about the weapon, but it seems to be in the form of a book. It seems that she's planning to send it somewhere else. We don't know about her destination yet, but we're putting a lot of our men into figuring out her destination."
The Third Prince narrowed his eyes. "It seems that Noel Ardagan is using the book about the runes to entice Countess Christina. She is a smart and powerful woman, so she should be able to comprehend the book and confirm its authenticity."
"Should we steal the book?"
"Noel must have left the book to her so that she could confirm the authenticity. Her reputation should be enough to make some important believe it and conduct more research. This way, it will be spread to those people and a lot more people will start looking at this book.
"It seems that Noel Ardagan hasn't predicted this result. He must have thought that Countess Christina would only do it for herself. And if he is loyal to me, then it won't be weird that Countess Christina will give the book to us.
"I thought Noel Ardagan would be smarter than his father, but I guess Luke Ardagan is at a level beyond a human. The way he thinks, the way he creates his influence, and the way he governs his people… That's what made me fascinated by him. Unfortunately, his son couldn't be compared to him."
The Third Prince thought for a moment. Although he didn't say it earlier, he believed that Noel was dumber than he originally expected. And a foolish person wasn't that much of a threat.
So, the Third Prince asked, "Where is he going after this?"
"According to the direction, he is probably heading to Lelelei Fort. It seems that he is planning to leave the border for a while."
"Hmm?" The Third Prince didn't know Noel's intention, but there shouldn't be many possibilities of going out of the border. Noel must be trying to find a way to break through. And to do it, he had to hunt a lot of demons.
Since Noel's course of action could easily be predicted, his focus returned to the book. "If that's the case, tell Countess Christina that if she gives me the book, I will get rid of her enemies for her. However, the condition is that she has to give it to me after she confirms it."
Before sending his subordinate away, the Third Prince also had one more concern. "How many people know about this?"
"We are not very sure right now. But getting the information is easier than we originally expected, so I'm afraid there are more people who know about this."
"How many men do you bring?"
"I bring four Spirit Wielders and more than ten Spirit Practitioners."
"Use all of them to escort the book to me. And since the current situation is dangerous, you have to report to me if something goes wrong. I might have to make my move personally." The Third Prince's expression turned cold as if he was threatening him that if he was useless, his superior would do it himself. As a result, he might not be able to keep his life.
"We'll do our best to avoid the situation where Sir has to do it personally." He lowered his head before disappearing.
The Third Prince narrowed his eyes. He felt something was amiss in this situation. On the one hand, the problem looked simple on the surface. On the other hand, he felt something might go wrong.
Unbeknownst to him, the Third Prince had been trapped inside the web Noel had spread in order to capture all the people who were interested in the book.
And Countess Christina, who had known about all the plans, was sitting on her chair with a grim expression.
On the one hand, she had studied and confirmed that the content was truly the complete version of the Spirit Enchantment. Although she couldn't use it personally since she wasn't a Blacksmith and she had never used runes before, she could still manage to form the rune on her hand.
She looked at the rune on her hand and muttered, "It's truly working. I can't utilize its power yet, but the flow of Spiritual Energy is stable.
"Judging from the content of the book, it will take an average person a year to understand the basics. Then, another three years to prepare the advanced runes. After that, it will take at least ten years for the specialization. There are even four types of runes and the Spirit Enchantment is one of them.
"If this knowledge is spread, it will cause a massive shock to all kingdoms. And Noel, who has become the center of attention because his name is attached to the book as the author… It's clear that there will be a lot of changes happening around him.
"The reason this is so important is that the runes aren't limited to blacksmiths. Spirit Magicians, Demon Banner Army's knights… everyone! Everyone who has cultivated their Spiritual Energy even if they haven't awakened their spirit! The world is going to change…"
Christina smirked before she destroyed the rune on her hand as she felt a presence. "It seems the fish has taken the bait."