"Understood, Supreme Leader," Zodreg acknowledged before taking a moment to compile his findings.

"I am uncertain if this is the norm around here in the witch kingdom, but I noticed blockades were set up beyond the neighboring human settlements in each direction, preventing people from entering and leaving this central region, Supreme Leader."historical

"Furthermore, according to what I learned, the people at the blockade appeared to be part of this kingdom's royal army. It almost seemed like the kingdom's ruler personally ordered the blockade to contain the region," Zodreg added.

"Transcendent Henrietta mobilized the army to seal off the central region?" Vaan raised an eyebrow before shortly shaking his head. "That doesn't sound right. Unless Transcendent Henrietta had forsaken the kingdom, doing such a thing wouldn't benefit her in any way."

"Of course, it could be to hide the news of Sunpeak Town's development from the greedy witches living in the capital. However, this is hardly considered a good move when multiple predators are eyeing this piece of land."

"I'm more inclined to believe the royal army was mobilized by one of the witches that chose to side with Transcendent Sybil," Vaan said with furrowed brows.

In other words, at least one witch with a high position in the royal army was working with Transcendent Sybil.

"Right, Supreme Leader; I also forgot to mention the blockades were also equipped with large magic tools that seemed to be mana disruptors," Zodreg recalled.

"Mana disruptors, huh?" Vaan's eyes flickered thoughtfully before he commented, "How meticulous."

As its mana suggested, mana disruptors disrupt mana—or, more precisely, they disrupt mana signals, which was similar to a mana version of sound waves. Any large-scale spell cast within the range of mana disruptors would not be felt outside of it.

At the same time, the mana disruptors would also disable all communication-type magic tools; the mana signals transmitted by them would never reach their destination.

There was even the risk of the messages hidden in the mana signals getting intercepted.

"Since the enemy has also deployed mana disruptors, any long-range communication-type magic tool would become useless. They've truly locked down all forms of news from leaving and entering the central region."

"The capital won't learn what happens in the central region, and no one in the central region can contact outside," Vaan stated.

After learning about the mana disruptors, Vaan felt even more certain that Transcendent Henrietta didn't order the blockade.

He also understood why Transcendent Henrietta never appeared to investigate his battles in Sunpeak Town.

However, there was only so much time the capital could remain oblivious to the situation in the central region. Unless the royal army silenced everyone heading to the central region, news of the blockade would have spread throughout the capital sooner or later.

As such, even if Transcendent Henrietta weren't all-knowing, she would be too incompetent of a ruler not to know or even see the blockade.

In other words, there were only two possibilities; Transcendent Henrietta either foolishly turned a blind eye to the blockade, or she was in a situation where she could do nothing about it.

"What are you thinking about, Supreme Leader?" Zodreg wondered out loud. He couldn't help but feel curious seeing the person in such deep thought.

At the same time, the spirits sitting on Vaan's shoulders also tilted their heads toward him curiously while nibbling on the mana stones.

As a bird form, Ruby had no hands like Emerald and Topaz. Thus, she had the whole mana stone stuffed in her mouth, causing her cheeks to be puffed out like a squirrel with nuts.

However, Ruby accidentally swallowed the mana stone and got it stuck in her throat, causing her face to pale as she choked.

"Fyuk, fyuk!" Ruby tried to cry for help.

"I was just thinking; if Transcendent Henrietta's strength has reached Peak-level Rank 5, the Holy Knight Empire still has no chance of winning unless something was done about her," Vaan casually mentioned as he helped Ruby disperse the mana stone stuck in her throat.

"Transcendent Sybil shouldn't have overlooked this, even if she found a way to keep the other witch kingdoms from aiding the Kingdom of Black Rose. It would be too risky to confront a Peak-level Rank 5 being without an equal opposing power."

"Of course, the Holy Knight Empire has Ulrich Salazar. But if he openly challenged Transcendent Henrietta, his identity as a Devil's Contractor would be exposed, and the Holy Knight Empire would be viewed as the enemy of humanity for shielding him."

"If that happens, Ulrich Salazar will no longer have a place on this continent and be forced to flee to Gehenna—if he can get past us, of course. As such, it's unlikely for him to reveal his strength and even more unlikely for the Holy Knight Empire to invade without a foolproof plan since they don't know his secret identity."

"After pondering for some time, I'm ultimately led to believe Transcendent Sybil has found a way to contain Transcendent Henrietta while the Holy Knight Empire invades—No, Transcendent Sybil might have already trapped her somewhere," Vaan guessed with narrowed eyes.

Shortly after, he shifted his gaze to Zodreg.

"If I want you to investigate the capital and check if Transcendent Henrietta is present in her magic tower, do you think you can do it unnoticed?" Vaan asked.

"You mean that city of spires up in the north?" Zodreg asked for confirmation before shaking his head. "I might have reached Rank 5, but I'm afraid that's impossible even for me, Supreme Leader."

"I don't even need to go there personally to feel the cluster of mana gathered in that region. I would say there are at least several hundred thousands of magic towers in that land. The cumulative mana gathered from all these magic towers works like a network of detectors."

"As such, the security is too high for me to bypass unnoticed. I'm not sure even the Peak Lords can sneak through the city's airspace without getting discovered either," Zodreg replied.

"I see," Vaan casually uttered without a shred of disappointment, having suspected that might have been the case. "Anyhow, let's leave it at that."

"Let's talk about Redpine City, the first city north of these mountains. You should have passed it twice already. What's the situation there?" Vaan asked.

Shortly after Zodreg filled him in on the details of Redpine City, Vaan understood Redpine City also had its own difficulties.

However, Redpine City was on the lower list of priorities compared to Sunpeak Town.

In other words, there was a chance that Lord Helia still had her long-range communication-type magic tool.

Once they ruin the northern mana disruptors, they could use the magic tool to inform the capital.

Transcendent Sybil's people were trying to keep Sunpeak Town's situation from reaching the capital. Thus, it was all the more reason for him to ruin their plan.

Although doing such a thing would cause great chaos for both sides, the traffic to Sunpeak Town would likely increase by a few dozen times.

His strength now, he was no longer afraid of troublemakers. Instead, he welcomed them. It would give him more victims to extort and help him speed up Sunpeak Town's development.

At the same time, the confrontation between him and the supremacist faction would force Transcendent Henrietta to intervene—if she was still in the capital.

If Transcendent Henrietta didn't appear during the chaos, it would confirm his suspicion regarding her absence.

In that case, he would have free rein to do whatever he pleased with her kingdom as he protected it from outside threats, even if it involved some housecleaning.

..

After Zodreg finished all his reports, his interest shifted to the mountain.

When he asked the Supreme Leader about it, Vaan explained his plan to build the ten-thousand-foot magic tower, which required a very firm foundation.

"Our clan has a very large collection of rare minerals. You can find the strongest of metals there. Why don't you use them to build the foundation, Supreme Leader?" Zodreg suggested. "And if we lack Rank 5 metals, we can produce new ones through alloy fusion."

"Bold of you to assume I wasn't planning to," Vaan replied.

Zodreg was immediately speechless.

He suddenly recalled the eighth and ninth dragon lords recently had their mana stone collections emptied by the Supreme Leader.

Would the same happen to their mineral collection next? – Zodreg wondered.

While Vaan and Zodreg were discussing, Ruby finished absorbing the mana stone and started rubbing her cheeks against the side of his neck.

"Fyuu, fyuu!" Ruby made an unexpected yet not-so-unexpected request.

"Hm?" Vaan shifted his attention to her and uttered, "You want to see my blue flames again? Alright then."

Shortly after, a tiny wisp of blue flames lit up on his fingertip like a lighter before he moved it closer to Ruby.

During their earlier work, Ruby had shown fascination toward his blue flames.

Although Ruby had the form of a mountain bluebird, she was not blue at all. Instead, she was mostly red like any other Fire Spirit.

At first, Vaan thought Ruby's attraction was just simple curiosity since his flames differed from normal flames. But later, he suspected she might have an affinity with it.

His suspicions were confirmed when Ruby suddenly devoured the wisp of blue flames like a powerful vacuum.

Shortly after, she grimaced in pain.

"Fyuu.." Ruby groaned.

Vaan started to worry, thinking his blue flames were too powerful for her, given she was only a Mid-rank Fire Spirit. On the other hand, his blue flames were comparable to the fires of a Quasi-Divine Fire Spirit like Flamewing.

That said, Ruby wouldn't have attempted to devour his blue flames if she didn't think she could handle it.

After all, spirits weren't prone to committing suicide to their own element – or at least, Vaan hoped not.

Unfortunately, he didn't know much about spirits for him to be certain.

Ruby's body inflated like a balloon, seemingly about to explode, which caused Vaan even greater worry.

But then, she burped out all the smoke in her body and deflated back to her original size.

"Fuu..!" Ruby expressed her joy and satisfaction as if she had just finished eating a great meal.

At the same time, Vaan received a notification from the system.

Ding!

<Ruby (Mid-rank Fire Spirit) has grown stronger>

<[Mana Capacity]: 20/255 → 25/360>