The Runic Alchemist

"Larven…?" the queen inquired, her gaze shifting with curiosity. "A noble associate of yours?"

Damian looked to the side, noticing Einar frozen in place. Her foot lingered near his, as she had been stomping on it moments before. Meanwhile, Sam was staring at Damian as if seeing him for the first time.

"This is her…" Damian said softly, watching Einar as her eyes met his, filled with millions of emotions. He wouldn't press the issue if she didn't want it; in truth, he doubted he could secure both the valuable land and a title with a single request. His contributions were significant, but they still might not be enough to warrant such a reward. Yet, he had no other wish in mind—this was simply a way to test how far the queen would go. The wish wasn't very important to him.

"Her…?" a small voice echoed. It was the princess, her eyes darting around as everyone momentarily looked her way before turning back to Einar.

Einar, suddenly aware of all eyes in the room fixed upon her, straightened, offering the queen a curtsey, her posture signaling,

'Yes, I am the one.'

"Windhaven lies within Duke Harold's region, Your Highness," a butler murmured from behind the queen's throne, though Damian heard every word. "Near the Windweaver Lake… It was the ancestral seat of House Larven, but due to unfortunate circumstances, another knight in their service assumed its governance."

Vidalia and the queen exchanged glances.

"Becoming a lord isn't child's play," the queen said, her tone edged with solemnity. "It requires foundation, power, support, and many allies to defend any land bestowed by the crown upon you." Damian merely nodded, already expecting her to reject his request. "But I gave you my word, and in honor of saving my commander's life, it is a minor thing…"

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Damian's eyes widened, momentarily taken aback. She continued,

"I will not grant you the seat of power in Windhaven, but I will give you an opportunity—a right to challenge the current lord of Windhaven in a duel before your twentieth nameday, whoever it might be at the time. If you succeed, if you claim victory, the crown will do everything in its power to support you."

She finished, meeting Einar's gaze. Einar nodded, bowing once more.

Damn.. She really took that seriously huh..? And pretty cleverly at that. If Einar could secure victory on her own with the legacy of her name behind her, the people would support her. If not, it would cost them nothing. His request was honored in spirit. She could also give the currently empty seat of Windhaven as a reward to one of the opposition allied lords who made a big contribution in the war and then support Einar's claim from the shadows or in open as the rightful heir. Though Damian doubted they were as cynical as him, whatever the thought behind, it was a pretty good solution.

The queen indeed knew how to play the game. And it was good to see, she was at least somewhat true to her words. He could live with that. That was as good as it gets anyways.

"You may leave," the queen announced. All three turned to go, but a voice called out before they could take a step.

"Even if you somehow miraculously manage to heal him, which is impossible, he will still face charges for his actions…" Vidalia's words hung in the air.

Damian clenched his teeth, holding back his emotions. This was their kingdom, bound by their laws. Forbidden spells, rituals… surely there was a good reason behind such severe consequences. But it still felt wrong. Kazak had accepted his fate knowingly to save his valley. All Damian could do now was try to bring some peace to his troubled mind, if that was possible at all.

Escorted all the way back to their rooms by the knights, Sam and Einar remained silent until they reached Damian's room, and Sam shut the door behind them. They had both followed him in, and Damian didn't object. He released Toph, who immediately started playing on the bed. And Damian turned to face them.

"Why do you keep doing this!?" Einar demanded, her anger pretty justified. "You had no right!"

"Ah, sorry. I just wanted to see how much she was willing to grant…" he admitted, hoping to placate her. Her eyes softened slightly, but her anger remained.

"Why drag me into it!? You revealed my identity…"

"The guy's dead, Einar. Why are you still hiding your identity? But, fine—it's up to you. If you don't want it, I can ask for something else…"

Damian's attempt to calm her was failing miserably. In truth, it had been the only thing that came to his mind at the time, he didn't think much of it.

"I… I just… uhhm…" Einar faltered, words failing her, so instead, she stomped on his foot one last time with all her might before storming out of the room. Damn, that hurt. That girl really is a demon.

"You saved her? How in the hell does a first-ranker save a third-ranker? Even if you're… well, you," Sam said, his tone incredulous.

"I just healed her. You've seen my runic circles…"

"Yes, and no one in the world understands even a fraction of it. I've asked around. You're a very suspicious person…"

"Go away…"

"Do you really think revealing her name was a good idea?" Sam's voice shifted, sounding genuinely worried now.

"We're in the royal castle Sam; they know everything about us that they can find. And Maybe, by not hiding, she can finally start living a new life…" Damian replied, gazing out the window at the golden leaves swaying and humming with energy.

With mana extract he can get as much light mana dust as he needed and create a huge advanced healing runic circle. But still the problem was not more light mana, maybe the continuous healing could do some good but as he had speculated before, Kazak can't handle that big a toll on his body. He couldn't do the continuous advanced healing spell because he didn't have enough resources, here he could do that yet there was just less than 1% chance for it to succeed.