Sirius' office.
"Valyr will become the reason for humanity's downfall…" Hearing the words Sirius had said to him, Julian decided to repeat it back, his expression that of slight shock.
"Don't you think only someone crazy would say something like that?" However, just as Sirius thought that his friend had internalized the saying and believe it, the exact opposite had happened, with Julian even going so far to call him crazy. "What kind of evidence do you even have to say something like that?"
"Well, first of all, the young man's from the Zeihardt clan," said Sirius, deciding to respond to the question. "Both of us know very well that those from the Zeihardt clan tend to have quite the odd personality."
"Just because we've encountered one of those rude members from the Zeihardt clan in the past doesn't mean everyone in the Zeihardt clan is also like that." Briefly scratching the back of his head, Julian let out a faint sigh. "Plus, that man had all right to be mad. You did throw your drink on his white shirt, after all."
"Accidentally. Accidentally, okay?" Sirius emphasized as his face went slightly red, to which Julian slightly shrugged his shoulders in response. "In any case, why does it seem like you're so protective of the young man? Is it because he has increased the Blacksmith Guild's reputation?"
"Well, there's that." Julian wasn't afraid to admit it. "There's also the fact that he's a Zeihardt, a Herald at that."
"However, I'm not protective of the young man because of such ephemeral things," clarified the man soon after. "If anything, it's the fact that he's an incredibly talented blacksmith in his own right. As part of the old generation, it only makes sense for someone like me to fully support a young man who might become a pillar of the guild for the future."
"Plus, even though I'm certain the Imperial Alchemist had not come up with that prediction out of nowhere, I'd rather believe what I can see with my own two eyes than something that only has a chance to happen in the future."
"Is that so?" Listening to Julian's words, it did not take long for Sirius to realize that anything he did to persuade the man would have no effect whatsoever. With that, he inwardly gave up on doing so and let out a faint sigh, deciding to share the information from another perspective instead.
"How about this?" said Sirius, prompting Julian to focus his attention on him. "I won't persuade you to believe what I have to say, but just listen to the other things the Imperial Alchemist told me regarding Valyr."
"… as a good business friend of yours, I'll be willing to hear you out at the very least." Though Julian would have preferred for their conversation to end there and then, the man eventually decided to agree, considering that the man before him had helped Valyr earn quite a sizable amount of money.
"Glad to hear that." In response, Sirius merely smiled.
"So, aside from the fact that the Imperial Alchemist told me that Valyr would become the reason for humanity's downfall, she also told me how such a thing might possibly happen."
"Now that I think about it… why would the Imperial Alchemist tell you about this in the first place?" As he nodded in response to Sirius' words, a question suddenly popped up into Julian's mind.
"To be completely honest with you, I have no clue either." Sirius briefly shrugged his shoulders in response. "However, I'm sure she had a good reason to tell someone like me. After all, I'm still part of one of the empire's imperial clans."
"Continue." Feeling as if the Imperial Alchemist's reason in telling Sirius was just for the sake for it, Julian decided not to head down the rabbit hole for the meantime, giving his friend the freedom to continue his explanation.
"As I was saying… the Imperial Alchemist also mentioned to me how such a thing would happen." Nodding in agreement, Sirius continued where he left off. "First, both of us know that the reason why the Zeihardt clan is madly searching for Valyr's whereabouts is because of the fact that he's a Herald, right?"
"As far as I know, yes." Julian nodded after a bit of thinking.
"And we both know as well that those born as Heralds in the Zeihardt clan generally have far superior strength than their peers, to the point that their strength would cause a new era of humanity to begin."
"That is also true." Julian nodded once more.
"However, according to the Imperial Alchemist, Valyr's eventual level of strength won't just stop at the level of the Heralds we've known in the past," said Sirius, his expression solemn. "Instead, it would exceed it by a great margin, causing not only humanity to change, but the entire world."
"That means… the orcs and the elves would also become affected?" asked Julian for clarification.
"Yes." Sirius nodded.
"Huh." Obtaining affirmation from his question, Julian could only utter out a sound, pondering over what he should feel from the information. Though, after a while, he was able to sort out his feelings, eventually telling Sirius something that caused the latter to do a double take.
"Well… if you think about it, such a future isn't that half-bad."
…
"Urgh…" After quite a long amount of time had passed, Valyr had eventually woken up once more, slowly getting up as he came to terms with what had happened to him.
"I drank the liquid inside the vial…" Frequently scratching the back of his head, it took a while for the gears in the young man's mind to start turning again. "And then… a wave of coldness hit me… then… I fell unconscious… I think."
"Huh." Giving himself some more time to think about what had happened, Valyr decided to clean up the black mass he had vomited out. Standing up, he then left the room for a bit to grab some cleaning supplies, only to go ahead and scoop up every little bit of black mass he could as he continued to ponder over what happened.
"Well, nothing else seems to be out of the ordinary." Once he was done cleaning up the mess he had made, Valyr did a quick physical check.
"Time to check the notifications, then." Seeing that his body seemed to be doing fine, the young man then moved onto the remaining thing he hadn't checked yet, commanding the system to bring up a notification screen in front of him.
Ding!
"Uh huh." Though, once he did…
He could not help but get an odd feeling from what he was reading.
