"Hmm?" Curious, Gabriel glanced at the old woman, wondering what she was going to say. "The answer is simple?"
"Didn't you say yourself, little one? No matter what you do, you can't bring them back to life. So even if you've promised your friend to take care of his family, at this point, there really is nothing that you can do about that. The only thing that you can do is not let this affect your inner peace..."
"Not let it affect me?" Gabriel also wanted to do that, but it wasn't that simple.
"Was that friend close to you?" the old woman asked.
"He was like family..." Gabriel answered, remembering all the training he went through in the Tower.
"Was? Is he dead too?"
Gabriel nodded in response.
"So his entire lineage is dead now... I see why you're so upset." The old woman sighed, understanding that Gabriel was upset because it was something like the last wish of his friend.
"But I'll still say the same thing. You can't change what happened. So instead of focusing on the ones who are dead, focus on the ones who are alive. That way, you can keep your promise to your friend." The woman pushed her body up and stood up.
"He was like a family to you. I'm sure you would be like family to him as well. Doesn't that mean one of his family members is still alive?" The woman asked as she lightly tapped the forehead of Gabriel. "And that member is you."
"You promised your friend that you'll take care of his family. So you need to take care of yourself. If you don't, won't he be upset?"
Hearing the woman's words, Gabriel was slightly surprised. Her words did make sense. In the short time he was with Cylix and Novius, they had been like a family. That meant Novius' family was still alive... through him.
"Sometimes answers are right before our eyes, but our judgement gets so clouded that we fail to see those answers," the woman stated as her voice grew distant. "You just need to find those answers..."
"Thank you. I understand what I have to do now." Gabriel raised his head, thanking the old woman. However, to his surprise, there was no one there.
He wondered if the old woman went back to her house. He also stood up and went to the house that the woman introduced as her own house. Since she had helped him, he wanted to thank her. He also wanted to leave some Spirit Crystals as his gratitude.
He walked to the house before him and knocked on the door.
The door was opened by a middle aged man. "Yes?"
Gabriel told the middle aged man that he wanted to meet the old woman and thank her. However, to his surprise, he was informed that no old woman lived in that house. The man didn't seem to be lying either.
"You might be mistaken. Check some other houses." The middle aged man went back inside and closed the door.
Gabriel went to the nearby houses and asked everyone, but he couldn't find that old woman.
After searching the entire area, Gabriel ended up where he started, confused. If the woman didn't live in this area, then who was she? Where did she come from? Why did she lie to him about her house? And more importantly, how did she disappear so suddenly?
There were so many questions, but no answers.
"Was I hallucinating?" Eventually, he could only wonder if he was imagining things. But it didn't look like a hallucination at all.
He could only give up for now and leave this place. It didn't matter if the old woman was real or just a figment of his imagination. What mattered was that he now knew what to do!
****
As soon as Gabriel left, the old woman was seen sitting right where he was sitting before. The woman looked in the direction Gabriel went in.
"Just like him..." She muttered softly.
****
Gabriel stepped out of the outer zone and entered the main city, which was much different than the outer zone of the City.
The streets of the main city were much wider and a lot cleaner. A few statues were also erected at places where roads converged.
"The City is quite similar to Lumen City." Gabriel could see that the structure of the houses was very similar. He could only see a few differences in this city.
According to what he had heard, this city was created much before the Lumen City. That made him believe that Lumen City took inspiration from this place.
Along the streets, he could see Knights patrolling under streets. In fact, he could see more Knights in this place than the Mages. Moreover, people appeared to respect Knights more than they respected Mages.
Mages in this city were only slightly above ordinary citizens in respect. Above them came knights, and above knights was the Royalty.
In Lumen City, Gabriel had seen shops that sold man-made artefacts. However, in this city, the number of such shops was astronomical.
Since this city was filled with Knights who mainly relied on their own strength and magical treasures, this place was like the dreamland for an Artificer for sales.
Most of the shops were filled with customers. Amongst the customers, the majority were people who were aged between twenty and thirty.
"The Knight Tournament must have attracted all these people here. They all want a good weapon to be able to stand out in the Tournament."
It wasn't surprising to Gabriel that people were so crazy about the Knight Tournament. It wasn't often that a person got to marry the Eldest Princess of an Empire. And if they won this tournament, they were going to become the Prince Consort.
"I wonder if the Arecia Empire is the only place which selects the husband of Princesses like this," he wondered. He hadn't heard of this happening in the Lumen or the Yann Empire, so it certainly wasn't common.
In the distance, he could also see the Royal Palace. Since it was the tallest palace, it was visible from almost all corners of the City.
Initially, he didn't want to deal with the Royal Family. He just wanted to take the item that could strengthen his body and leave. But after the new discoveries, he had changed his mind.
"The Royal Family, huh. If I'm not wrong, the current Royal Family must be the Noble Family that planted all those lies and created such tides against Novius' descendants. It would be a pity if Novius' Empire remained in their hands."
He still couldn't forget the words of the old woman. Even though he didn't have a blood relation with Novius, he was no less than family. That's also why he decided to take action personally. He had decided...
"The Empire that belongs to Novius... In his stead, I'll take over this Empire! It shall belong to me!"
