Unsurprisingly, after Valyr asked his question, an awkward silence surrounded the two of them.
For a while, Nila looked at the young man with suspicion written all over her face.
After all, she had no idea how Valyr knew something that she had kept a secret for all of her life.
Then again, it was due to that thought that she began to think of the young man's question from another perspective, wondering to herself if Valyr was just blurting out random guesses.
With that in mind, she somewhat calmed down, inwardly sighing in relief as she looked back at the young man with a slight smile.
"What makes you say that?" she asked him with a chuckle. "Do I look like I come from someplace else to you?"
At those words, Valyr shook his head. "You don't."
Seeing his response, Nila inwardly let out yet another sigh of relief, only for her to cough loudly after hearing the young man's next words.
"But isn't the Hephaista clan a clan well-known for their forging skills throughout the Zetaris Galaxy?"
"Cough! Cough!"
Taken by surprise, it took a while for the woman to recover from her coughing fit as she glanced at the young man in disbelief.
At this point, the remaining thoughts of Valyr throwing out random guesses at her had all been thrown away.
Instead, she now began to look at the young man with a new light, wondering how someone from Veldanyr would have access to knowledge beyond their own planet.
Curious as to where his knowledge was coming from, Nila decided to act dumb for a bit longer.
"You must be mistaken," replied Nila with a wry smile, giving the expression that felt like she had been wronged.
"I'm from the Hephaista clan that's located near the outskirts of the Zeihardt Sovereignty," she added. "You flatter us too much if you think our clan's reaches extend beyond Veldanyr."
'Am I mistaken?' Seeing how adamant Nila was in rejecting the notion that she was a part of the Hephaista clan he knew, Valyr began to doubt his own words.
Though, with a quick refresher through his treasure trove of memories, he soon found out that the woman's words matched exactly with what he knew about the Hephaista clan.
Even the location Nila had mentioned regarding her clan more or less matched up with the outpost the Hephaista clan had in his past life.
Now getting a faint idea of what she was trying to do, Valyr took in a deep breath to calm himself.
After that, he decided to strike while the iron was hot, ending their farce with a single key term he knew Nila would most certainly react to.
"Al-croz'daal Hephaista."
Uttering out a name all of a sudden with a calm expression, Valyr stared directly at Nila's face as he stood up from his seat, wondering for a while as to whether or not he would get a reaction out of her.
Fortunately for him, the gambit had paid off as Nila dropped all previous pretenses, now looking back at him with an intentful glare.
"Where… did you hear that?"
Whoosh!
Placing her forging hammer to the side, Nila began to head towards Valyr's workshop as she flared her aura in its entirety.
Though much of her strength was restrained by the Gates of Awakening, that still did not hamper the Myth-level strength she was given, putting a bit of pressure on the young man as she moved closer.
Knowing that he had been the cause of the current situation, the young man remained steadfast as he continued to stand in place.
Looking directly into Nila's eyes the moment the two were only a meter or so away from one another, Valyr took in a deep breath before flashing a slight smile.
"Before I answer your question, let me introduce myself."
At those words, the young man gave Nila a respectful half-bow, causing a hint of confusion to appear on the latter's face.
"The name is Valyr Zeihardt."
"I hail from the Zeihardt Imperial Clan."
Hearing the young man introduce himself, Nila looked at him in disbelief.
With her eyes slightly widened, the gears in her mind began to slowly turn as she started to connect the dots.
On the other hand, Valyr felt a bit of nervousness after seeing Nila go silent.
After all, he was unsure whether the Zeihardt clan was more than enough of an explanation for his copious amount of knowledge regarding the Hephaista clan.
Aside from that, the part where he mentioned the Zeihardt Imperial Clan was all based on the fact that he was considered a Harbinger.
As far as he knew, he was not part of the Zeihardt Imperial Clan at all.
He was instead part of the Zeihardt Royal Clan thanks to his parents, which was one tier below it.
Then again, with the Zeihardt clan having control over the sole sovereignty of the human race, Valyr felt that it was highly likely that the clan had access to information regarding other worlds.
In fact, that was the only reason why he had decided to introduce himself out of nowhere.
Thankfully for him…
It had worked.
"Zeihardt, huh…" Muttering these words to herself, Nila looked at Valyr for a bit before prompting a screen to pop up before her.
Reading through the information shown on her screen, she soon closed it, eventually letting out a low sigh as she made her way back to her workshop.
"Those old busybodies. Couldn't keep their mouth shut about the Hephaista clan's origins."
Hearing the words coming out of the woman's mouth, Valyr did not know whether to laugh or cry.
However, if there was one thing he was sure of after hearing that, it was the fact that she had bought his lie.
"I'm sure you didn't ask me that question out of nowhere, Valyr." Letting out yet another sigh as she returned her focus to forging, Nila briefly glanced at the young man with slightly narrowed eyes.
"So, what do you want to know?"
Valyr apologetically smiled in response. "I do apologize for asking that all of a sudden."
"However, the fact that you're from the Hephaista clan is a great opportunity to find out something."
Hearing his words, Nila raised her eyebrow in slight curiosity. "And that would be?"
In response, Valyr let out a bit of laughter. "Nothing too difficult."
"Just wanted to ask for information on technologies beyond the Early Middle Ages."
