“I don’t think your family took it too well.” The Architect spoke with a low chuckle.

“You just told them that I’m dead. How else do you think they would have taken it?” Silas rolled his eyes.

The sound of beasts clicking their hooves as they trotted through the Uladia forest with its head held high.

There were several of them riding behind Silas and the Architect, one of them even holding Nymira in their arms while another held the chief’s head in a small bag.

Apparently, horses weren’t really used on Gilea unless you were filthy rich. It was quite a surprise, but Silas didn’t mind. After all, the alternative to a horse was an earth dragon. Their running speeds were far superior to a horse’s, capable of running close to 80 miles an hour if there were no obstacles in the way.

They were essentially scaled bipedal pigeons with tiny little arms instead of wings and one huge curved beak that took up the majority of their face.

They were only 7 to 9 feet tall on average, and despite their looks, they were quite dangerous if aggravated.

They were practically dinosaurs.

“Well, I think you did the right thing.” He complimented from his own earth dragon. Death could also be seen on the Architect’s earth dragon, laying unconscious behind despite all the movement.

“I can only hope…” Silas’ expression fell slightly before he steeled his nerves and straightened his back.

Silence descended upon the conversation, ending it quickly and extending for about an hour and a half. No one spoke at that time, yet it wasn’t awkward.

It was actually kind of peaceful. It was quiet, and that’s what Silas liked, and therefore that was exactly what the Architect liked.

After all, the masked man was essentially a reflection of himself.

He was right. They were one and the same. Though, the Architect seemed to hold Silas in higher regard than Silas did to him.

“There was another benefactor, right? Someone who paid you to bring me and Syra?” Silas finally asked.

“What do you mean?” The Architect seemed to raise a brow at Silas’ question.

“I’ve looked through it in every possible way. The church paid you to kill the chief to usurp more power for themselves. Now that there is no longer a respected authority figure who leads the town, that position instantly goes to them.

If this was about kidnapping some kids, there is no way in hell that the church would send so many people to cause so much havoc and destruction. 75 bandits just to kidnap three kids? No way. And you wouldn’t wait for a big day like this if you wanted to kidnap children. You’d wait for the night or when adults are busy.” Silas explained.

“I’m listening…” He smiled with a hint of curiosity and amazement.

“Your job was to cause havoc, though I doubted your assignment was to destroy half the town like that dimwit of a commander did. By causing havoc and killing a few people, the townsfolk would see that their modern leadership style isn’t working, forcing them to turn to a higher power, or in this instance, the church.” Silas rubbed his brows with a little bit of anger.

“Then, what makes you think we have other benafactors?” He asked with narrowed eyes and a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

‘He’s testing me…’

“Because despite how sh*tty the church can be, there’s no real point to kidnapping us. Instead, you would have killed us on the spot.” Silas explained before turning to the man beside him, riding on an earth dragon.

“Pft… Hahahahahahahaha!” The Architect’s head whipped back as he let out a fit of loud laughter.

The man laughed for almost a whole minute before wiping tears from his eyes and turning his attention to Silas.

“You’re mostly right. I cannot believe you deducted most of it in less than a day. I thought it would take you a week or possibly even a month, but holy sh*t you did it in a day!” He shouted while the rest of the bandits looked at him weirdly from behind.

“Since you got most of it right, let me ask you a question…”

“What…”

“How does Nymira come into all of this?” He asked with a deadly smile.

“What?” Silas raised a brow. How did Nymira come into all of it? It was simple. They kidnapped the three most talented individuals in the town. It was pretty easy and simple, right? If Silas had to actually think about it, he never really thought of Nymira while making his deduction.

He almost thought of her as a third anomaly. He didn’t really care about her, and after the disappointment of a light festival match that was their fight, it became all the more obvious that she didn’t deserve to be anything close to a rival of his.

Maybe he thought of her too highly at first. It happens. She was so much stronger than him back then, yet now she seemed like an ant.

However, if there’s something more to her kidnapping, maybe he thought of her too little?

But if that was the case, wouldn’t that mean he and Syra were being kidnapped for a completely different reason? Did it have something to do with his family? If so, were they in danger? Did he make the wrong choice by leaving them?

“Before you begin to spiral, don’t worry, you’re family is safe.” The Architect soothed.

No, I don’t have to worry about them. One spell should do. The Architect might need more than one, though. However, I don’t have nearly as much mana as before.

And even though my breakthrough mana helped me against the commander, there is no way of knowing if things will go the same way with this man. The Architect is intelligent. The commander was an absolute idiot who was almost too easy to enrage.’ Silas gripped the leather straps of the earth dragon’s lead.

“I already have a plan in place to make sure they don’t go after you or your family anymore.” The Architect gave Silas a sidelong glance at Silas before sighing.

“We’re close to our temporary base anyway.”

“Can’t you just tell me?” Silas asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” He chuckled before realizing something,

“Everyone, halt!” He shouted, making all the bandits stop their earth dragons and got off.

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