"Ma—what?!" Anna was completely taken aback by the sudden question. She never thought that Noel would just forget about everything they discussed prior and talk about marriage.
"I'm just teasing you." Noel chuckled while looking away.
"Teasing me?" Anna squinted her eyes, noticing that Noel was lying. After they got together, Noel seemed to have a hard time lying to her. It must be that he didn't want to have any lie between them, but it was just hard to completely change one's character. So, this looking away action became Noel's method.
She approached Noel while glaring at him as if demanding an explanation.
"I'm just teasing you, alright? Just leave it at that." Noel scratched the back of his head, albeit Anna didn't like it.
"Have you forgotten that if there is any problem, we will be dealing with it together?" Anna sighed, slightly feeling disappointed. However, she didn't pursue this matter.
But that was the exact reason why Noel felt bad. He ended up resigning to his fate and apologized, "Sorry. The marriage part was just a foolish idea. I mean, if my mother visited you when we just got engaged, what would happen if I married you?"
"Ah!" Anna finally understood Noel's thought. The answer was clear. Noel had been chasing after his parents this whole time, so now that he had gotten a clue about it, he wanted to try to catch them and finally reunite with them.
However, Noel instantly realized how rude that plan was. Just for the sake of his parents, he actually wanted to sacrifice Anna and even married her for that cause. It was the rudest thing to their commitment. That was why Noel wanted to brush it off.
Surprisingly, Anna chuckled and said, "You know what? I like it when you show me how strong you are and how perfect you can become. But when you are making mistakes like this… you know, I love you even more."
"Mhmm?!" Noel was dumbfounded as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
To Anna, Noel was a special existence that was capable of dealing with everything. But seeing him making a mistake like this somehow made him appear down to earth. She could relate to him a bit more and that was probably why she actually liked him more.
They were not perfect and might make mistakes. But the point was that they shouldn't make a mistake, but to actually solve their mistake and become better next time.
Though, Noel was tongue-tied, noticing that Anna got all the momentum in their conversation. Still, he did feel happy when she said it.
"Thanks."
Anna smiled and changed the topic or it would just become even more awkward while bringing the map to him. "In any case, we should get back to work. This is the map."
From the looks of it, there seemed to be about seven villages and one city at the edge of his territory. It would be hard to get the number of people living in his territory, but he estimated there were at least three to four thousand people living in those places.
And with the additional ten thousand people who were going to live here, they should have enough people to gather a huge amount of points over time.
"By the way, what's the condition of the territory next to us?" Anna asked.
"You want me to help the other territories?"
"Why not? I don't see a problem as long as they are not hostile."
"It's not much of a problem, but a lord leaving his territory easily is a bit… problematic." Noel thought for a moment. "Well, if I want, I can probably do that. But it will take time."
"Alright. We can figure that out after solving the problem within our territory." Anna nodded in agreement.
"I'll take care of the details later. For now, I think about making a breakthrough in rune." Noel opened his system.
Honor Point: 487 Pts
Skill Point: 10 Pts
'Hmm… The points should be enough to advance all the runes required to become a Rune Knight. However, it's barely enough. If I'm attacked like last time and require more Honor Points or Skill Points to buy or upgrade my ability, I won't be able to do it.'
Noel contemplated for a moment, carefully measuring the pros and cons before deciding to do it.
"Ardagan. Level up these runes…" Noel listed all the runes from all five systems to be considered as mastering them.
The influx of information was something Noel had grown accustomed to, but this time, he also completed the mission.
[Career: Rune Knight]
[Description: There are a total of five categories of a rune: Support Rune, Attack Rune, Defensive Rune, Utility Rune, and Movement Rune. Master 5 Runes of each category]
[Requirement: Support Rune (5/5), Attack Rune (5/5), Defensive Rune (5/5), Utility Rune (3/5), Movement Rune (5/5)]
[Upgrading the job from Rune Swordsman to Rune Knight.]
Name: Noel Ardagan
Job: Rune Knight
Weapon: Ardagan Sword
Main Medal: Demon Hunter Medal, Elite Medal, Couple Medal
Honor Point: 23 Pts
Skill Point: 0 Pts
There was another wave of information flowing into him. This information was far different from what he had seen before.
In reality, Noel suddenly raised his hand and formed a rune in front of him.
"!!!" Anna stepped back but soon dropped her guard, knowing that Noel wouldn't hurt her. She believed in him.
However, there was something weird about this rune. She squinted her eyes and examined the new rune. 'What is this? I don't think I have seen this rune before. The complexity… doesn't seem to be an intermediate rune. Is it an Advanced Rune?'
'There are not many records regarding the Advanced Rune. In fact, Noel only publicized a few of them in the previous life.'
However, the rune soon shrunk before moving toward Noel's chest, where Heisk's Spirit Seal resided. It actually integrated itself with Heisk's Spirit Seal.
After that, Noel gradually opened his eyes. "Did something happen?"
Anna was still gasping in shock because this was the first time she saw a rune being integrated into the Spirit Seal. "You didn't know what you'd just done?"
"Did I do something weird?" Noel frowned. "All I can remember is that I'm drawing a rune according to the information flowing into my mind. If I'm not wrong, that rune can reinforce the Spirit Seal. The effect is pretty simple, it's just increasing the conversion rate."
"Did you just say increasing the conversion rate?! And you said it's simple?!" Anna was dumbstruck. She slammed the table and shouted, "Do you know what kind of ridiculous thing you've just said?"
"Of course I know. But If I keep quiet about it, no one will know. And my conversion rate is already one hundred percent, so it's not a big deal."
"I mean…" Anna was a bit hesitant to say that he should do it to her and anyone else. That rune would definitely become something that everyone would want. And she could understand why Noel wanted to hide it. Even his disciple might not know about this rune. After all, it could be something that destroyed the Ardagan Family.
"Ardagan implanted that rune by using my own blood as well as his power, so it can be done perfectly. Of course, I will also implant it on you later since I have to understand that rune a bit more. But I don't think a lot of people will receive this kind of rune, considering it's using the user's blood and conversion rate to boost other people."
"Ah!" Anna scratched the back of her head and hurriedly replied, "You don't have to do mine. I'm fine."
"You don't have to worry about that. Ardagan boosts my conversion rate to one hundred percent. The only reason for him to forge it by sacrificing his eternal one hundred percent conversion rate is that if, in the future, I want my child to inherit the Ardagan, my conversion rate with Heisk won't go down." Noel explained.
"That's… Does that mean you are the only person who can do that?"
"I and all my descendants." Noel nodded. "Well, the one with Ardagan. And since Ardagan won't activate without the blood of the Ardagan Family, so yeah… it turns that way."
"I see…" Anna finally saw the gravity of this ability. On the one hand, it looked like the others could do the same, but it sacrificed their own power to boost their successor's ability. And that level of power would depend on their own conversion rate and their successor.
So, if someone knew that the Ardagan users could do it infinitely, they would be enslaved and controlled. That was something even she didn't want to see.
"I won't tell anyone or even make a record about it. In fact, I can finally understand why you never drank alcohol in the previous life."
"It's as simple as clouding my judgment." Noel nodded. "Nonetheless, I have become a Rune Knight."
Noel opened the system again, checking the reward he got from becoming one.
Enhanced Strength Rune (1/3)
Rain of Light Rune (1/3)
Spiritual Barrier Rune (1/3)
Energy Concentration Rune (1/3)
Platform Rune (1/3)
It seemed that he had received one rune from each category. The Enhanced Strength Rune was the one Anna used during the exploration. The Rain of Light Rune was a versatile attack rune, while the Spiritual Barrier Rune was what Alexander Ardagan used to protect Margaretha for the first time. The Energy Concentration Rune was an enhanced version of the Energy Gathering Rune with a bit of tweak, while the Platform Rune functioned as the name implied.
More importantly, all of them were considered to be intermediate runes.
"It seems that I have a few more runes… Although I can replace a few runes on our Rune Body, I guess we can put it aside for a while, right?"
"Yeah. Right now, not a lot of them know about the Rune Body. If we use it to surprise our enemy and upgrade it after that, we can surprise our enemy again." Anna agreed. "But to think that you can advance just like that… I'm kind of envious."
Noel shrugged. "You also have a quality, not inferior to mine. So, it's fine."
"Since you're done, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be exhausting."
"Yeah. Training in the morning, taking care of the business at noon, and handling the paperwork during the evening before having another training session until we sleep."
"Besides, you'll be going on a trip soon, right?"
"Indeed." Noel nodded while rising from his seat. "There are also plenty of things I want to implement with the story you told me earlier, but I haven't thought about the concrete details."
"Take your time. We still have plenty of time before the incoming attack."
"Yep."
"By the way, to answer the previous question, I don't mind."
"Which question again?"
"The one where we should marry immediately."
"…"
It's just another daily life of the Ardagan Family.
