"Oh?" Dubrolf turned to the braided-hair commander and said, "There's another option? Quickly share it then, Kog."

"Yes, General," Kog complied with a nod before mentioning, "Lord Mortimer was sent to the Holy Knight Empire some time ago to negotiate a trade for His Imperial Majesty."

"Given the current special relationship between the Holy Knight Empire and the Black Rose Kingdom, it might be possible for Lord Mortimer to be openly granted access to the Black Rose Kingdom if his talk with the Holy Knight Empire goes well."

"Lord Mortimer? Mortimer Tombend? That blockhead?" Dubrolf frowned with doubts at the mention of the name.

His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Varan, was not a fool.

His Imperial Majesty should have known better than to assign Mortimer to an important mission like negotiating with foreign countries when there were far better candidates for the job.

But the fact that His Imperial Majesty did would imply that negotiating with the Holy Knight Empire was not that important.

Did His Imperial Majesty send Mortimer to gauge the Holy Knight Empire's stance on the dragon blood? – Dubrolf wondered.

That might be the case.

"I don't expect Mortimer's group to do well in the Holy Knight Empire. However, it doesn't change the fact that he is currently in the Holy Knight Empire. Perhaps he will surprise us with unexpected results," Dubrolf said optimistically before coolly asking, "Do we have any way to contact him?"

"We don't, General. However, Lord Khargen from the Grimfort Barony and Great Elder Fraelmir in the capital city should have sound-transmission artifacts connected to Lord Mortimer," Kog answered.

"Grimfort Barony and the capital…" Dubrolf muttered, his gaze flickered before firmly saying, "The capital is too far to reach out to Great Elder Fraelmir. On the other hand, Grimfort Barony is only a couple hour's ride from here."

"Since you were the one who suggested and appeared to be the most familiar with it, I will leave the task of contacting Lord Khargen to you, Kog."

"Understood, General!" Kog answered resolutely.

Suddenly, a regular warrior barged into the meeting room with hasty steps and attracted everyone's attention.

"General! The pillar of blue light has disappeared!" the regular warrior informed.

"Haiz…" Dubrolf immediately sighed, seemingly not surprised but disappointed nonetheless, before saying, "I wasn't expecting it to last, but it still disappeared much faster than I had ho—"

"General!"

Before Dubrolf could finish speaking, another regular warrior, who had also been on sentry duty, barged into the meeting room.

"The pillar of blue light has returned!" the second regular warrior informed.

"…"

Dubrolf was speechless, not knowing what to think. The subsequent good and bad news left a sour taste in his mouth.

If the pillar of blue light was going to disappear and come back, why couldn't they report it to him together instead of separately?

"So the pillar of blue light can come back after disappearing… That's good. At least, we know there's still a chance it will come back even if it disappears while we try to figure out what it—"

"General!"

"Dammit!"

Dubrolf suddenly cursed after being interrupted again. He immediately glared at the third warrior, who had suddenly arrived.

"What is it this time?" Dubrolf snapped.

"T-The pillar of blue light has disappeared again!"

"…"

Dubrolf did not respond to the third warrior; he simply stared at the person in silence, seemingly pondering and waiting for something.

A short moment later, the hasty footsteps of a fourth warrior were heard as the person barged into the meeting room with seemingly urgent news.

"General!" the fourth warrior called.

"What?" Dubrolf glanced at the fourth warrior indifferently and guessed, "The pillar of blue light has returned again?"

"Yes… That's right, General," the fourth warrior replied with mild astonishment.

Following the fourth warrior's confirmation, Dubrolf briefly closed his eyes to rest them. Moments later, they snapped open with a fierce glare.

"You are all messing with me, right?" Dubrolf accused them.

…

…

…

The unprecedented phenomena brought by Vaan and Henrietta's dual practice attracted all kinds of attention, near and far.

While people from distant countries could only observe the visual appearance of the pillar of blue light, those close to the Black Rose Kingdom with high mana sensitivity could feel its surging waves of mana.

However, of the two neighboring witch kingdoms, only Scarlet Flame Kingdom was interested enough to send people to investigate.

On the other hand, the Verdant Wood Kingdom did not dare.

After all, the Verdant Wood Kingdom had recently lost its Transcendent Witch ruler. It was also in the middle of a transitional phase of becoming a vassal country of the Black Rose Kingdom. Thus, very few people from the kingdom would have the courage to step into the Black Rose Kingdom before Queen Henrietta's stance regarding their kingdom became clear.

…

The Scarlet Flame Kingdom…

The land of fire was a place full of active volcanoes stretching to the Dragon Mountain Range in the east, the Violent Tributary in the south, and the Treacherous Sea in the west.

Originally, it was a Perilous Land that shouldn't be habitable by humans.

However, the Scarlet Flame Transcendent Witch led her people there and cultivated it into a haven for all fire-attribute witches due to the rich fire elements that could be found throughout the vast volcanic region.

As such, the Scarlet Flame Kingdom's fire-attribute witches also experience faster growth and improvements than any other witch kingdoms.

If the battle prowess of the seven Transcendent Witches were excluded from the seven witch kingdom's comparison, the Scarlet Flame Kingdom would be noticeably stronger than the other six kingdoms—at least, before the Black Rose Kingdom gained thousands of new High Witches.

That said, the Scarlet Flame Kingdom's lead in power wasn't attributed to its overall number of higher-rank witches.

In fact, it was due to the Great House of Caelestis, which resided there despite being a mighty household of spatial-attribute witches. No other individual household in the seven witch kingdoms could compare to the Great House of Caelestis, whether it was influence, power, or wealth.

The Great House of Caelestis was only below the Transcendent Witches.

Nevertheless, despite being an ancient family with its roots in the Verdant Wood Kingdom, no one outside of it knew exactly why it arbitrarily decided to move to the Scarlet Flame Kingdom, where it was difficult for most people to live.

Still, if there was one thing everyone knew, it was that the Great House of Caelestis could be found at Black Dragon Peak.

Black Dragon Peak wasn't the tallest volcanic mountain in the Scarlet Flame Kingdom's eastern region.

However, the Great House of Caelestis did mold it into one, making it even taller than the mountain peaks in the Dragon Mountain Range, which divided the border between the Scarlet Flame Kingdom and the Black Rose Kingdom.

At that moment, a beautiful woman with age-worn eyes that did not match her young Darkan appearance could be found observing the pillar of blue light from the wooden pavilion built by the easternmost edge of the mountain peak.

Her name was Victoria Caelestis.

Although she looked young, she was already a grandmother to others. And although she wasn't the matriarch, her status in the Great House of Caelestis was only second to one.

"This pillar of concentrated mana contains traces of fire and space attributes…" Victoria Caelestis muttered with a frown as she thought of something.

Only one person in the entire Black Rose Kingdom had practiced fire and space magic to a great degree – Henrietta Rosegarden.

As such, only such a person could have caused such a stir in the elements.

However, what kind of phenomenon was this pillar of blue light?

Did Queen Henrietta break through the Transcendent Rank? – Victoria Caelestis suddenly wondered with surprise.