The Mysterious Black Magician

The empress took their attention when everyone finished their meal.

"Now let's start, do any of you have an idea why the palace sponsored that competition?"

Suddenly asked the empress.

"Uhm, Your Majesty..." Cinde called out shyly. "Yes, Young Miss of Lupine family?" The empress urged her to continue. "Wasn't it for the empire's annual competition to celebrate the empire's founding anniversary?"

"Hm, it's one of the reasons. But it wasn't the main purpose this time."

Empress Eleanna replied..

"I… see," said Cinde as she creased her brows and glanced at Crimson. She saw him shrug his shoulders. 

Yman had no idea about the empire's celebration or whatsoever. After all, he came from the Human City.

He too was wondering about the reason. After all, even though the empress knew that he was a human, she still summoned him. Rea just remained silent while sipping tea.

Roman, on the other hand, was crossing his arms across his broad torso. Even though he was the champion of that competition, he remained quiet as he as well could not find an answer. It was easy to guess from his furrowed face.

"Uhm, Your Majesty, could it be that the empire wanted to find new remarkable individuals?" Hilion, who was a smart person, said his answer.

The empress chuckled and said, "You are a half-correct, Young man of Gustav family."

She glanced at Crimson but noticed his silence. The empress proceeded to say, "The real reason for the competition was to find new experts with unique talents."

"Unique talent?" Crimson repeated as he glanced at Cinde.

"?"

A question mark was floating on Cinde's head.

"Fufu, yes, Mr. Crimson." Said Empress Eleanna as she placed her right palm over her left that was resting on the table.

"For example, Miss Cinde Lupine's fire element,"

Eleanna said as she darted her eyes to Crimson and Cinde. Hearing her name spoken by the empress, Cinde was surprised.

Yman understood what the empress meant. She must have meant Cinde's holy fire that could exterminate any dark enemies, like the undead or even the demons— 'Wait, could it be…' he realized something.

He wanted to ask but he could not speak ahead of her. So Yman remained quiet about it and nodded.

Roman and Hilion were a little puzzled by the empress's words. They had no idea about Cinde's fire. Of what was special about it. Wasn't she using the same fire as her muscle brain brother? They spoke inwardly but did not voice out their thoughts.

Yman guessed that the empress must be thinking that his fire dolls were special talents as well since she also invited him, even though he failed to proceed on the second elimination match of the competition.

Actually, all of them were conflicted. It was their first time to talk with the empress in person, so they were skeptical about saying something.

"Fufu, if you have something you want to say or ask, don't feel reserved and speak out the words in your mind." Giggled the empress.

Yman and the others were surprised at the empress' non-aloof behavior.

Suddenly he felt a tug on his collar. It was from Sistela, who was silently sitting on his shoulder. He slightly lowered his head to listen to her words.

<Partner, Miss Rea's third clone is a meta empress?> Sistela whispered.

"....."

'This Sistela, what was she talking about? What's a meta empress?' Yman almost burst out laughing. He wondered why Sistela asked it out of the blue. But he had a guess the reason was because of the empress down to earth approach with her people. 

Regardless, he returned his gaze to the empress and listened to her words as he felt slight changes on her countenance.

"Lately, there have been some rifts appearing at random. Most of the time, it was caused by demons. But this time, it was different. We sent some experts to investigate these rifts, but none of my people had returned yet…"

The empress explained to them the abnormal appearance of the rifts. They could not get any information about it as no one that they sent inside had returned yet. And now the empire was wary to send another explorer.

All of them were just listening with grim expressions on their faces as the empress came into details about these so-called Abnormal Rifts.

Not only that, the residents who were leaving around the said rifts had reported that the soil around those rifts had turned black. It seemed like the rifts were eating up all the life force from those soil. Because of it, the normal and magical plants and herbs around those rifts had dried up in just a mere month.

"Uhm, Your Majesty, may I know when this Abnormal Rifts had started to appear?" Yman felt interested and asked.

The empress nodded. "The first appearance was about three to four months ago."

Yman was quite surprised. Because it was also around those months that the demon of possession appeared from the rifts. He wondered if the demons were secretly the cause of it.

And also, wasn't that demon always talking about the coming war? He needed to ask him later. But one thing puzzled him. Because the rift that appeared in the Underground Channel of Human City Zone 7 was so different from those Abnormal Rifts mentioned by the empress.

"Uh-uhm…" Cinde suddenly made an uncertain noise.

"Ehh…" she was slightly taken aback when everyone's eyes were on her. "Cinde, if you want to say something don't be afraid. Her Majesty said it. You don't need to feel so reserved," Rea said calmly to urge Cinde to say whatever bugged her and also to give her mental support by showing a warm smile.

But in Rea's mind, 'As expected of an introverted person.'

Cinde could not say it straight. She stole a glance at Crimson and saw him nodding his head. "Uh-uhm… Y-your Majesty, the reason for this meeting is… to ask us to explore those Abnormal Rifts?" Fear was visible in her voice as she asked it.

After hearing her questioned, everyone's attention was on Empress Eleanna.

Everyone knew that if Her Majesty wanted to ask them to venture inside those rifts, there was no way for them to disagree.

Even Roman and Hilion were quite shaken at the thought. Actually, they already guessed that it was the case after hearing her majesty's words. But the two of them could not find the right timing to ask it. Good thing that this Lupine girl questioned it.

They noticed Empress Eleanna smiled. "You don't need to worry about that. It's true, the reason that I called you here today was for an important mission…" everyone felt a little nervous. After all, they were students only. And most of them were only False Path experts.

"...but it wasn't to ask you to venture inside one of those rifts."

They sighed in relief upon hearing her. However, they froze at her next words.

"But you will be sent as ambassadors to the other big continents."

"....."

"....."

"....."

"....."

<.....>

<What with this Meta Congress?>

Yman didn't know if something happened inside Sistela's system. How the Empress becomes a Congress? And meta to boot! He wondered how Sistela came up with such a phrase.

Welp, it's better to ignore her and assumed he heard nothing.