Chapter 1203 Taking Care of Business
Chapter 1203 Taking Care of Business
Briefly looking at the expression Hal was giving him, Valyr faintly let out a sigh as he told him, "Well, first off, don't worry too much. It's not like I haven't thought about what I'd do next when I did that."
Giving Hal a bit of time to process his words, it was only after the man gave him a slight nod did he continue. "As for what I plan on doing next… quite a lot of things, really."
"However, if you were to ask me what I'd be doing the soonest out of all of them, then that would be paying a visit to the Caemelio clan."
"The Caemelio clan?" Hearing those words, Hal looked at Valyr in slight confusion. "As far as I know, they've made sure to stay neutral even after both factions tried their best to woo them over. What do they have to do with your plans?"
"In the grand scheme of things, not a lot," answered Valyr bluntly. "However, I did make a promise with Riekan to pay a visit to the clan once the tournament we were all forced to participate in was over."
"He told me he wanted to upgrade the necklace he gave me after seeing how much I've improved," continued the young man, briefly showing Hal the necklace he got from Riekan.
Glancing at the necklace Valyr showed him, the gears in Hal's mind began to turn after hearing the young man mention a name that he felt like he'd heard somewhere before.
Fortunately, it did not take long for him to figure out where he heard it, causing him to look back at Valyr in shock as he asked back, "You… you know the founder of the Caemelio clan?"
"…" Noticing that quite a few of the passersby began to look at the two in response to Hal's question, Valyr began to slightly frown as he conjured a barrier of Prime Azure Energy that blocked any of their conversation from leaking out.
Whoosh!
Seeing a barrier appear around the two of them all of a sudden, Hal did not take long to understand what was going on as he looked at Valyr with a slightly apologetic expression. "Sorry."
"No need to be," replied the young man with a wave of his hand. "After all, I should've conjured a barrier around us before we even started talking about it."
"Anyways, to answer your question, I do know him." Valyr nodded after that. "I won't go into the specifics of how we came to know each other, but to make a long story short, it has something to do with dungeons."
"Dungeons, huh…" Hal briefly turned silent after hearing those words, the gears in his mind spinning once more. "Then again, that doesn't have anything to do with the discussion."
Shrugging his shoulders at the thought, the man closed his eyes for a bit before looking back at Valyr once more. "What's next after that?"
"Who knows?" replied Valyr back with a slight smile, shrugging his shoulders in the process. "It's not like I need to plan every step I take to achieve what I need to do anyway."
Hearing those words, the veiled concern on Hal's face became more obvious, which only made Valyr look back at the man with a slightly wry smile.
"Do you not trust in my capabilities?" he asked him, to which Hal shook his head in response.
"It's not that," replied the man, his expression briefly showing the conflict going on in his mind. "I'm just…"
"…Ah, to hell with it. It's not like they could complain about it anyway."
Whoosh!
Just as Valyr was about to ask Hal why his demeanor changed all of a sudden, a badge of sorts appeared on the latter's hands out of nowhere, faintly giving off an aura that exuded both nobility and power.
"Here." Faintly wondering what the emblem Hal brought out was for, Valyr's expression soon turned into that of confusion after the man decided to give the emblem to him all of a sudden.
"It's an emblem of the Impyris clan." Fortunately for him, Hal looked like he'd already been expecting questions about the emblem he gave, deciding to take the initiative of giving Valyr more information about it before he could even ask.
"Specifically, it's an emblem only given to those that we consider distinguished guests of our clan."
Sadly, that did not diminish the level of confusion he felt whatsoever.
"And you're giving this emblem to me, why?"
Hal could only let out a faint sigh in response as he slightly shook his head. "Although I know you have more than enough strength to kill even Myth-level beings, surely you aren't thinking of solely relying on your strength to fight against the Zeihardt clan, right?"
"Er… I actually was?"
"…I think it's for the better that I approached you." At those words, Hal let out yet another sigh. "Not all things have to be resolved through brute strength, you know? Sometimes, you can rely on reputation and backing to deal with matters."
"Well… you're not wrong," replied Valyr after some time. "But… if you think about it, even reputation and backing crumble upon an absurdly high level of strength, no?"
"…Are you telling me you have an absurdly high level of strength?"
"…Do I not?"
"…"
…
After discussing his plans to deal with the Zeihardt clan for a bit longer with Hal, the two of them eventually went their separate ways, with Valyr telling Hal that he'd return to the north defensive line after everything was said and done. Nôv(el)B\\jnn
Of course, Hal also left Valyr a few words of his own before leaving, informing him that the other reason he gave their clan's emblem to him was to help him out in his meeting with the Caemelio clan.
"From what I know, the Caemelio clan has multiple internal factions that don't get along with one another. As long as you show them that emblem, almost all of the factions there would be at your beck and call."
'Reputation and backing, huh…' As Hal's parting words continued to linger in his mind, Valyr took in a deep breath before proceeding to head in the direction that led him out of the military base.
Briefly taking a detour into a nearby alleyway to change his appearance to that of his mostly unknown identity, the young man briefly pondered over what Hal told him during their conversation.
Of course, Valyr agreed with him that there were things that could be settled without relying on strength. After all, even he relied on those means back in his previous life when he was faced with a couple of odd problems.
However, as the Zeihardt clan's rebel faction themselves decided to take the initiative by having a group of people attack him all of a sudden, it only made sense that he would return the favor to them and amplify it by at least tenfold.
'Then again, even if he didn't give me that emblem, it's not like I don't have people I could contact for their help,' thought the young man to himself, slightly chuckling as he activated [Flight of the Azure Dragon] the moment he got out of the military base.
If Hal hadn't given him the emblem and needed to use someone else's reputation and backing as his leverage, then he was certain he could ask for Julian's help with no questions asked, especially with the amount of contributions he's made for the Blacksmith Guild.
Then, if Julian wasn't available, he would instead call Mystia. After all, not only was he her third disciple, he was also someone who brought the Mystic Plane to the brink of becoming a mid-sized plane in one fell swoop… which would immediately regress if he were to disappear. However, if he couldn't even contact Mystia for her help, then there was still the big red button he saved in case of emergencies.
"In any case, since you've given me your clan's emblem out of your own accord…"
"You wouldn't mind if I use it to take care of other business, right?"
At those words, Valyr let out a bit of playful laughter.