Death... and me

Roan couldn't help but ask.

"Why does he want to see both of us?"

Werxa shrugged his shoulders as he replied.

"Well, he is the Prime Minister of the Sasamil Empire. I just discovered a day after the end of the Alchemist Exam that your Light Element comes from your brother. Perhaps he found out the same thing and got curious about that. Well, even I am curious, to be honest."

Roan shook his head as he said.

"There is nothing to be curious about. We were born like this, that's all. With your influence, you should have found about it as well, right?"

Werxa nodded.

"Obviously. Still, it doesn't make me less curious at all."

Werxa continued.

"Anyway, Huan wants to meet you two tomorrow morning. Just come here to my office, and I will bring you to him."

Roan agreed with that before he left the Alchemist Guild. As for Werxa, he was left behind, pondering about what this was all about.

Later that night, Rean returned from the Formations Guild. Of course, he and Qia were not married yet, so he returned alone while Qia was brought back to the Imperial Palace by her Master.

However, he soon noticed Roan's dark expression when he entered the Sect's residence.

"You know, it's already cold to be near you. If you don't improve your expression, the maids will probably freeze to death."

Roan glanced at Rean, completely ignoring the comment.

"Huan accepted to see me."

Rean was surprised to hear that.

"Really? That's great, then. Make sure to keep our Soul Connection open so that I can hear the conversation as well."

"There's no need. Huan wants to see the both of us."

"What?!"

Rean didn't expect that twist.

"Why?"

Roan shook his head as he answered.

"I'm not sure. There's a chance that he already knows about our Elemental Exchange, so he's curious to see it with his own eyes. Or maybe it's because he is an alchemist as well."

Rean understood from where Roan was coming.

"So he wants to see you using Dark and Light Elements while concocting and, at the same time, the effects on both of us that allow such a thing to happen."

Roan confirmed.

"Exactly."

Rean couldn't help but ask, though.

"But, why did you change your mind all of a sudden? Before, you didn't want to go see him, right?"

"Well, it's not like I didn't want to see him, but I thought it was impossible at our level."

"I see. In any case, this is a good thing. I also wanted to talk with Huan."

Roan narrowed his eyes again.

"Why?"

"Isn't that obvious? It would be a lot better to get his support once we reveal that Calina is alive."

"For that, you will need to tell him that she is alive."

Rean didn't seem that concerned, though.

"That's not a problem. Calina wasn't anyone important in the battle for the throne anyway. Even if he finds out about it, he won't tell others. That's because he doesn't want to take part in the fight for the throne... Or at least, not at the moment. We can use this fake death to our advantage to promote Calina."

Roan pondered for a bit and had to admit that Rean's words made sense. As long as Huan wanted to stay away from the fight for the throne, he won't go around telling other direct descendants' secrets. Let alone someone who was pretending to be dead since it might be part of Calina's plan to take the throne as well. Alerting others about her fake death was the same as saying that he wanted to take a side to the throne war.

"It really might work. However, there's no guarantee that he won't open his mouth."

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he said.

"So what? Are you saying that it's worth losing such an opportunity? Even if he does, the fact is that everyone doesn't think that Calina can do anything in this situation. Or better yet, they will all think that Calina faked her death to stay as far as possible from the throne fight. Who cares about a princess with a half-Chrole bloodline who doesn't want anything to do with their fight?"

Roan agreed with Rean.

"Very well. Let's do as you say."

Still, Roan was quite surprised that Rean thought about all of that alone.

Rean, on the other hand, had another question.

"I know what I want to discuss with him, but what about you? You requested this meeting for a reason, right?"

Roan nodded.

"I want to know his opinion about the Throne War. We do have many ways to pry into the information of the Imperial Palace. Your marriage with Qia, Tissan's information sharing, and the Dark Web organization. Besides, Old Worm seems to know even more than we do. Still, knowing what Huan thinks will be much better to get a full picture of the situation. After all, he is in a neutral position, so there will be no bias."

"But, would he really talk about it with us?"

Roan shrugged his shoulders as he replied.

"Just like your plan of talking about Calina, there is no way to guarantee that my ideas will work either. We can only try. As for it turning into a bad situation for us, I doubt that would be the case now that you will be married to Qia, and I'm an Alchemist Guild member. We can simply use the same excuse as always, saying that we want to let our sect prepare for what is coming."

Rean nodded in response.

"Indeed. Other small sects might not have worked, but thanks to the Communication System that is under the sect's name, it would be hard to not believe in our intentions."

"Exactly."

Rean and Roan then discussed what they would talk about once they met Huan for the next few hours, trying to come up with anything useful. Only then did the two finish their talk. However, just as Rean was about to leave, he remembered to tell Roan about something else.

"Oh, right! According to Qia's Master, Mom and Dad should arrive tomorrow as well."

Roan nodded.

"Sure enough, they can make such a long journey several times faster than us. Very well, we will see them tomorrow."