"Call Ellis over," Claude said with a blank face, no one knew what was running through his head at the moment.
Most of the Elders here knew of his attempts to remove Ellis from the family to pave a way for his lineage.
Everyone waited for the guard to come back with Ellis. A few minutes later, the guard returned with Ellis in tow.
"Uncle, you called," Ellis' voice could be heard before he came out of the building.
He was surprised when he saw the people from the Vaergahl family again. Not expecting to see them this quickly after they left.
"Yes, where's your friend?" Claude went straight to the point.
"My friend?" Ellis almost freaked out when he heard this question, but he managed to hold himself back.
He initially thought Grey had been captured, but if he were, his uncle wouldn't ask him about it so calmly.
"The boy you came back with, where is he?" Claude asked, taking a step towards Ellis, standing in front of him.
"He's gone," Ellis lied without even blinking.
There was no way he could say Grey was in his father's room. That would cause him too many problems.
"You're lying, he hasn't left the mansion since coming, actually, he hasn't left your room since he came." Claude narrowed his eyes, he turned to look at the guard who came with Ellis before nodding.
"Uncle, what's the meaning of this?" Ellis asked, his eyes showing anger.
"Your friend has something the Vaergahl family wants, I can't let someone we aren't related to cause problems for our family," Claude held onto Ellis, stopping him from going after the guard.
Ellis clenched his fist while gritting his teeth. Unfortunately, there was no way he could free himself from the hold of his Uncle.
The Vaergahl family watched on silently, waiting for the guard to come back with Grey.
The Elders of the O'Brien family watched on as well. This was a very complex matter. If Grey truly has the item the Vaergahl family wanted, then they'll have to force him to hand it back so they don't go to war with the Vaergahl family. But if Grey doesn't have it, it will make things complicated since the Vaergahl family believes strongly that Ellis or Grey who wiped out the bandits had the item.
The guard returned within a minute, but Grey was not with him, contrary to the expectations of the crowd waiting outside.
"Where's the boy?" Claude asked the guard.
"There's no one in the room, My Lord," The guard bowed as he reported.
"Huh?" Claude raised a brow.
"You see, I told you he's gone," Ellis said as he freed himself from his Uncle's grasp.
"Claude, I need the boy," The old man from the Vaergahl family said.
"Hmph! I'm not your servant old man. This is the O'Brien family," Claude snorted coldly.
He might want to hand Grey over, but since he couldn't be found, there was no way he would cower in the face of the Vaergahl family. If he wanted to gain the trust and favor of the Elders, then he had to show them his strength.
"Watch your tongue Claude, when I was famous in the continent, you weren't born," The old man took a step forward, releasing his powerful aura.
The shape of a Dragon's head appeared above him.
'An avatar,' Ellis thought internally as he stared at the Dragon that seemed to have the strength to topple the world with a single roar.
"Zylres, what are you doing?" One of the Elders in the O'Brien family stepped forward.
"What the boy has is important to the Vaergahl family, and we will not stop until we get it back," Zylres withdrew his avatar before turning around.
The faces of everyone in the O'Brien family turned serious, they knew what Zylres' words meant. Either they provide Grey, or they would have to contend with the Vaergahl family.
"Just what does he have?" Claude took a step forward stopping Zylres from leaving.
"Since it's already gotten to this, I'm not going to hide it. You all know about my family's connection with the Dragons, since our first ancestor, none of us has been able to get a high purity of dragon blood when born, and over time, the purity of the blood continued dwindling, to stop it, the Elders decided we should start refining a true Dragon's blood."
"Of course it was easier said than done, it's not like we could capture Dragons since it was forbidden, so we made a pact with a Dragon who's a friend of our ancestor, every hundred years, he'll give us a drop of blood essence to give to the most qualified member of the younger generation."
"With this, we have been able to produce a genius every hundred years. The only reason I'm willingly telling you this is because other than the Vaergahl family, no one else can refine a Dragon's blood essence," Zylres explained.
"Does that mean…" Claude's eyes widened.
"Yes, what the boy has is the Dragon's blood essence," Zylres said before Claude could finish his statement.
Everyone from the O'Brien family took a deep breath when they heard this revelation. Although they've all heard of this, it was merely rumors amongst the big families, no one from the Vaergahl family has ever confirmed it. The only reason they didn't dismiss it was because they followed the saying which was "there wouldn't be ripples in the water with disturbance".
Ellis was currently caught in a dilemma, the Vaergahl family are hellbent on retrieving the blood essence which means they wouldn't mind getting into a battle with his family. But he couldn't give up Grey.
'I'll wait till he finishes with what he's doing. I'll think of what to do then. But, I never saw something like that in the ring,' He thought, still confused about not sensing the blood essence.
For something so powerful, it was strange that they didn't notice it.
