While all of that was going on in faraway places, Kuroki and Riku were using the training room to test and hone their magic and fighting skills. The latest expedition into the dungeon had shown they are still woefully underprepared. It wasn't even a matter of strength or skill even, it was a matter of experience.

  Plus, Kuroki needed to test the new ability he had awakened. To be frank, he wasn't even sure when he awakened it. It sort of just happened and he naturally went into it. When he thought about it, as much as he loved magic, he also weirdly got into that easily as well. He wondered if the Wishes had anything to do with it, although Amyris mentioned that his Grimoire seemed to be acting unusual as well.

  Speaking of which, Amyris didn't want them going on any jobs for a bit. That latest incident had him worried and in a fit, and since then he had been giving him, Riku, Kaede, and Ryuu various lessons, although Ryuu got most of his instructions from Riza actually. It made sense, since those two seemed to have similar fighting styles and abilities. Ozlo meanwhile was trying to clear a huge chunk of paperwork hell so he would be free to assist more, complaining that he might just burn it all down if the overtime hell got too strong, for which Vanessia chided him and said that minors were not allowed to work overtime, even if he barely was one at this point. Apparently, they were hiring more receptionists too, so that would reduce his workload. As the Sub-Guildmaster, Ozlo had a lot of other duties he needed to do anyways. Furthermore, they couldn't leave an A-Rank as young as him tied to a desk anyways.

  Perhaps all of that was why they seemed to let him go out so much when there was trouble that needed to be crushed. But that wasn't the only issue.

  Valiance had been making waves, gathering influence and power lately. His son, Gathik, also seemed to have it out for them, due to some weird hatred and rivalry he had with Riza, Ozlo, and the entire Luminar family. It seemed like they might also be doing something shady in the background, and Amyris was concerned there was a risk they teamed up with Sebas, the Guildmaster of the Mage's Guild, who was still under covert investigation and observation. Ozlo's uncle, Riza's son, was a receptionist in that guild, and was currently monitoring him, along with a few others.

  This had all prompted Amyris to accelerate their training a bit as a result, which was why Kuroki was currently working on layering. It was the act of putting spells over another. Even as he incanted one spell, he would create the spell formula for another, and hide it within the spell. For more simple layering, he could even just directly manipulate the mana itself if he was familiar with both spells enough, but that would only let him layer simple spells. Even if he did both incantation and mana manipulation, the mana manipulation would be a simple effect, while the incantation would be the more advanced and powerful one.

  For Mage's, it wasn't raw magical power or Arcaniums that were their greatest assets, but wit and deception. A weaker mage could easily unravel the spell of a far more powerful mage if he could figure out its composition and nature and affect it before it completed its effect. Of course, mages could make their spells incredibly stable and durable to prevent that, but that would take away from its power and might be easier to defend against. It was also possible that if they were extremely skilled, they might find another way to counter it. An all purpose counter spell did not exist, but one could create one based on what the spell was and what it did.

  That was why layering was an important aspect for a mage to learn. By doing so, one could hide a spell inside of another. It was difficult though, and one had to make sure the spells did not unravel each other or conflict in any way that could be disasterous, which is why Kuroki needed practice.

  "So, how well is it going?" Amyris asked as he entered the room.

  "Only about half my layered spells blow up in my face now" Kuroki declared proudly.

  "That is much better from a few days ago already, when they all blew up in your face".

  "Some of them are such big explosions they blow up in my face too though" Riku muttered.

  "Well, thanks for enduring. How are you doing anyways?"

  "I think I am getting a handle on the fire, but the other parts are giving me issues. I am not a natural at it like Kuroki is, but I made some progress. Plus, I think my endurance has gotten better as well, because I can handle more Brilliant Flashes then I used to be able to".

  "Good to hear. The next time we face Chianthias, she wont hold back. I have no idea what she is up to, or why she is after Starfallen still, but we can't let her win or underestimate her...not again".

  The two nodded, understanding his determination. Anna was still petrified in stone, trapped by her own curse and spell. She did it out of desparation, so she wouldn't have to kill any of her friends, and they wouldn't have to kill her.

  "Also, you haven't been playing around too much in the examination room right?"

  That was what he called the room Anna was in sometimes. The two shook their heads.

  "We went into it a few times to check, but that is it".

  "Well, I found pebbles and whatnot on the ground inside the room and on the door right outside for the past few weeks now, and its been tracked elsewhere as well. Please be more careful".

  "Sorry".

  "Our bad".

  Amyris nodded at the two, accepting their apology.

  "In any case, just keep that in mind in the future. I dont want to risk someone slipping or accidentally damaging something, especially Anna herself".

  "Speaking of damage, Ella sent of a new set of clothes for Anna while you were away. Something about her needing something to wear. She even begrudgingly made underwear that Anna liked instead of something girly, in hopes that maybe it might somehow trigger her to break out somehow. We left it on a table in the room. And Riza came by and sharped the sword she was holding again".

  Only her body turned to stone, not her clothes or weapon. The clothes had degraded long ago from the various tests and magic done, and the weapon no one could remove without breaking off her hands, which they did not want to do for risk that it would kill her should she ever be restored.

  As such, the sword was carefully left as is in her hands, suspended in a way to make sure the weight would never cause strain on the stone, without removing it and damaging anything. And Ella apparently sent new clothes occasionally, although Amyris also felt guilty and bad and seemed to make them disappear out of sight or such. But he hadn't been here the last time they visisted, so they had just accepeted them and put them in the room.

  "Yes, I saw...she always said it was bothersome to get dressed around the house when she would be staying inside all day, despite being rather active in the end even she had days where she wanted to laze about. What a troublesome apprentice..."

  Even though he complained, he looked rather sad and melancholy. Then he looked up again, with a fire in his eyes.

  "Still, I asked a friend I know to look into a new option, so maybe a new lead will come to light" he mumbled to himself. He then looked at the two of them. "Keep up with training and improving yourself. Layering will save your life one day, you need to master it as soon as possible. Chianthias learns from all her failures. The next time we face her, she will account for everything you did in the ruins. Frankly speaking, in the next battle, I doubt we will be able to get away without at least one of us dying. She knows our allies, our positions, she probably knows our schedules at this point. And...she knows of our enemies".

  "You think she will use Valiance and Sebas against us?"

  "I am sure she will. Valiance would be child's play for her to manipulate, and Sebas she could easily tempt with dark knowledge from the Devils and Demon King regarding magic. Plus, Sebas is surely looking to stamp us out as a threat after we raided the Elven facility he co-opted. Only low ranking trash to be sure, but annoying all the same".

  "Low ranking?" Kuroki asked.

  "There are nobles with far, far greater influence and pull, with far more connections and far harder to detect dastardly plots. Valiance has become desperate, and are not all that great actors truly. Make no mistake, their only winning point is being able to hide his corrupt and deplorable nature from the rest of society, and there are those that do it much better then them. There are corrupt nobles with contacts among much higher ranked criminal organizations, and assassins who would do well. Some may even be capable of infiltrating my house's magic, although it wouldn't be easy. We may not have any critical evidence, but we sure have gotten quite a bit suggestive evidence. Far more then a normal noble would leave around so easily. I mean, we haven't even truly investigated anything yet beyond that facility because of everything else that has been going on, and searching for other Starfallen. It would be one thing if we ran a proper investigation, but we have not had the time to do that yet".

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  Kuroki could see what Amyris meant. Typically, they wouldn't have reason to suspect unless they had some clues or evidence at least. Well, they could theorize, but thats a different matter entirely. Although Valiance made sure they didn't have any hard evidence, it wasn't like he kept himself out of being suspected at all.

  "In truth, I wouldn't be surprised if Chianthias or someone else was already behind the fact the Valiance's haven't been caught yet. Its without a doubt weird...unfortunately, even now I don't have time to look into it".

  "Because you need to make regular trips into the forest?"

  "Yeah. The thing that sealed within the depths is really quite brutal. Both me and the guildmaster check on it, because if it ever got close to town, that might just be it. Azralia may not survive what would come next".

  "Surely, it can't be worse than a Demon King" Kuroki noted, but Amyris shook his head.

  "The main threat of the Demon King is its strange abilities, mental corruption aura that seems to passively effect random people across the entire world, and the fact it can lead all the Devils and Demons. The fact it has immense magical and physical abilities is a problem too, but...there are things that are even more powerful and dangerous. Hell, one was once forcibly relocated to the place the Demon King incarnates to, which gave us a few hundred years of peace long ago, and let people build up quite a bit. But that's not something that can be done easily, it could take thousands of years for the right conditions, creature, people, and resources to come together for that".

  "Right....so what is this thing you need to be wary of?"

  "Apparently, a prince is coming to town. The fourth or fifth I think? A twelve year old boy who apparently is quite talented. He wants to meet all the various important and notable people in town, so that means I have to go to the guild and deal with that. Make sure you don't leave the city today, everyone is going to be too distracted by this royal visit, Chianthias might take advantage. Of course, she might also try to have the prince killed, and even make one of us do it".

  "Ah, that does sound like a hassle".

  "Yeah. So be extra careful today. A prince arriving in a frontier city? Uhg...its going to be a huge amount of assassins to deal with. Professional ones too. If anyone from Blank appears, who knows what might happen".

  "Blank? Why does that sound familiar?"

  "We probably reviewed it before. Its the name of a large scale criminal organization. They don't go by any identifying name or symbol, and some think it might even be a fairy tale. Since it has neither of those things, its annoyingly and notoriously difficult to track. After all, how do you chase an organization with no name to use when searching, no symbol to look for when searching, and they are adept at going undetected, erasing any evidence if they even left any in the first place, and silencing any connection to them. So yeah, we have a lot to cover today. As such, you really need to try and avoid trouble today".

  "Kay. In that case, can we have some money to go on a food tasting spree?"

  "Done".

  Amyris tossed them a bag with some coins in it, and then headed out.

  Riku however seemed puzzled.

  "Was Amyris distracted? Those pebbles and dust have kinda been around since we got here in that room, and down here in general. Pretty sure he is tracking it in".

  "Maybe? We take our shoes off at the entrance after all. Well, he is really busy, so lets leave that for much later".

  The two nodded at each other, and decided to go pick up Kaede and Ryuu and enjoy a lot of yummy food today.

  At the same time, Ozlo was currently behind held back by Vanessia.

  "Come on, just let me burn it a little!"

  "Ozlo, no! Come back to your senses!"

  "Do these idiots think I am made of time?! Valiance, so help me..."

  "Ozlo, calm down!"

  The source of this feud was a bundle of documents currently on the desk in the reception area, where Ozlo usually sat. The other adventurers seemed to be ignoring or steering clear, showing some consideration, while Ozlo was fuming.

  "Lets burn it all! Lets burn all paperwork down! See how they like that!"

  "Don't give into Valiance's schemes! You know better then that!"

  "But this is absurd! Cruel! Abusive! I think its the bane of office workers everywhere! The bane of receptionists everywhere!"

  The huge stacks of paper were all various request forms, verification forms, interview schedules, not to mention reward adjustment documents. It's not even just for the road the prince is arriving on and leaving on, its for all of them. Each one with far more paperwork then necessary.

  "This may not be Valiance, but assassins who are warry of you as the Dragon Caller also".

  "Grrrrrr....stupid assassins, stupid royal visit, that's it! I am burning it all! We never got them!"

  Vanessia proceeded to hit Ozlo on the head and pinch his nose, which seemed to snap him out of it.

  "Ahhh...sorry about that".

  "No, its no wonder. You had to be reaching your limit. You have to worry about greeting the prince when he arrives right?"

  "Yeah. My grandfather is going as representative as Order of the Silver Wind, and given Sebas, my uncle cant represent us. My father is out on business in another city, my mother is dealing with a curse inflicted upon my younger brother by a rival family, my older sister is currently away training because she is annoyed her younger brother is a higher rank then her, my other older sister is currently assisting the guild with a survey of some lands, and my older brother is busy on an expedition inside of uncharted lands gathering rare ingredients, so right now I have to be the one to greet him".

  "As usual, your family takes on way too much work. Which is why...you are taking a day off today. I have recruited a bunch of guild members for a special quest to deal with the hellpile, so you go relax and do whatever you want on your days off so that you can deal with the prince properly when he arrives this afternoon".

  "Ah, you sure?"

  "Yes. Go relax now" she said, as she literally kicked him out of the guild. A barrier appeared over the guild immediately after, which specifically would keep Ozlo and Ozlo alone out for the whole day provided he didn't try to burn it and the guild itself down.

  "Ahhhh...I guess I got a bit crazy. Well, its good to take some time off as well" Ozlo said as he got to his feet. He put his hands behind his head and proceeded to casually walk down the street. He started to humm a tune, as he soaked in the sunshine and decided to traverse the town aimlessly.

  In truth, between the Starfallen, the awakening of the Demon King, and other aspects, Ozlo hadn't had a lot of time off. Originally he was only supposed to help out at the guild part time while they were understaffed, but that had ended up going further then originally meant to for quite a bit. That said, a bunch of receptionists were just about finished with training, and so perhaps his busy streak was near an end. The corrupting in the guild had been cleaned out, and everything was nice and organized again.

  "Hmmm. Maybe I should take up some requests then. I am sure there are some bounties that need completing, we have so few high ranked adventurers as it is, and I have been sidelined for way too long".

  While pondering such things, he ended up running across a group he didn't expect.

  "Zak? Kylie? And Lilith too? What are you all doing together?"

  "Ozlo? What brings you out here?"

  "Ahhh, some harassment happened, I threw a fit, Vanessia called in reinforcements and then kicked me out, telling me to take the rest of the day off till it was time to greet the prince".

  "Ahhh...yeah, that sounds like what would happen today" Zak muttered. "Still though, to think you actually did leave. I guess that means you have overcome a lot of hurdles successfully".

  "Yeah...so, what are you three doing together?"

  Kylie nodded. "I proctored Zak's rank up exams. Thats how we got to know each other. And Lilith here said she needed a break from the Mage's Guild audit".

  "Yeah. Sorry we haven't seen much of each other lately, but the audit is driving me crazy. You would think for a guild that has a library in it, they would fill out forms properly. And have legible handwriting. I am convinced the reason we keep losing arcane and magic secrets is because Mage's cant write a legible sentence to save their own lives".

  Lilith was a sixteen year old girl and incredibly talented mage. She went with Ozlo to the Royal Academy, but didn't skip as many grades as him so it took her longer to graduate. Still, she did skip grades, which indicated her overall ability to be well above the average.

  "I wasn't aware you knew either of them Lilith".

  "Yeah. I tried to get in touch with you a few times, but you were always busy. Kylie here offered to help me out. And Zak, bless his little heart, is indispensable for me. Seriously, can I have this kid?" she said as she grabbed Zak, hugging him from behind and resting her head on top of his. "His investigation skills are absurdly high, he has a great mind. Thanks to him, we have been able to make a lot of progress on the audit, and discrepancies that even I would have missed have been found".

  "Just a few days ago, we discovered that one mage has been embezzling funds that were being embezzled by someone else. Double embezzlement! And another guy was selling Wardstones. Now, they were actually wardstones, but they were of much lower quality then they appeared, so still fraudulent".

  "Seriously?" Ozlo asked with a shocked expression. "I suppose they at least did a decent job of hiding their crimes, but that seems really blatant...and wait, if you caught them in the middle of a sale, does this mean they tried to do it while the guild was being audited? Seriously?"

  Ozlo was having difficulty comprehending such stupidity. They at least tried to have a lower quality instead of just selling junk, but to do it while an audit was going on? That was absurdly stupid no matter how you look at it.

  "How many arrogant mages have festered under Sebas?"

  "I think he did it on purpose, to hide his tracks. But enough with that! You are all off! I am off! Let's make a day of it! Let's head to the area with all those scammers and use our skills to win the games anyways, reducing them to tears!"

  "Oh! That sounds fun!" Zak jumped in, excited. "We could test and see who can figure out the correct way the scam is done the fastest!"

  "A competition like that sounds both fun and very much like a vacation. I am in. How about you Ozlo?"

  "Yeah sure. I haven't nearly had enough fun lately, and watching people like that get crushed would be great stress relief".

  "Then we are all in agreement! Lets do this everyone!" Lilith said with a raised fist. "Yeah!"

  """Yeah!"""

  If the people who ran rigged games and scams heard this, and knew who those four were, they would probably already be evacuating...but they had no such organized unity or organization. So only tears and despair awaited them.

  At the same time, a different group was making their way towards the city. All of them appeared as ordinary people, of various ages and backgrounds. The only exception was that they were all adults, and not a single child was among them. That and all of them had that same focus and thought in their eye, as they were looking through various papers.

  "The prince arrives later today. We are to make sure everything is set up by then. Does everyone understand their objectives and priorities?"

  The group nodded to the carriage driver in front, who had asked this of them.

  "Good. Then you all know what you need to do. Make sure you complete your tasks and uphold the mission, whatever the costs".

  "What about this list of secondary objectives? Should we truly be concerned about this group?"

  "Take no chances, engage in no half measures. Complete if you get an opening, but not at risk of exposure. The primary objective must be completed, at all costs".

  "Understood".

  And so, this shadowy group approached the city as well.