During the days that Lina and her group spent in Saltstar City, they didn't find out anything about Vicente Fuller being Cesar Mazzanti.
In the meantime, Vicente remained in the city dealing with his affairs, occasionally meeting Newton and some allies but mostly occupied with his family's affairs.
They were already preparing a group to move to the area that Nova had arranged for them. This group would move with Vicente into the territory as soon as he left for the capital.
They would start building the metal city with a smaller group of blacksmiths and laborers since they intended to build a village first.
Because of these plans, the family was very busy preparing the wagons, materials, and food they would take to the area, which was a 13-day wagon ride from where they were.
Meanwhile, Benson and a few other men from the family should have been arriving in Martell Village, where they would study the route Vicente's railway would take.
Vicente intended to take part in the production of this railway, so Benson's group would just do the preparatory work so that everything would be ready when he returned from his trip.
Amid the family's many plans, Nina returned to her usual routine at the academy while new resources from the vampire's body were being delivered daily to the men of the Fuller family.
With these new resources, more men were advancing to the middle and end of the 3rd stage.
Finally, on Lina's eighth day in the city, she would meet Vicente for one last time before his departure. But this would just be a goodbye and 'see you later.'
She would tell him that she would be waiting for him in the capital before leaving the city for good after consecrating a new local Count and finishing her investigations.
...
Two days after Lina left Saltstar City, Vicente, Sarah, and Rory left the city along with the men who were going to build their metal city.
Onyx was still sleeping at the Fuller estate, while Bart had stood guard to help the family's men protect Vicente's interests. So, neither of them was with their master.
Layla and Jasmine were in the city sorting out their affairs, while Nova and Casey had stayed behind with orders to help Eve lead the family in Vicente and Rory's absence.
Finally, the three young Sovereigns were currently in a metal carriage while their group climbed the mountains near the coastal area they had just left.
"What do you think the king wants?" Sarah asked Vicente, a little worried, given that Lina had just visited them.
Why did the king want to see Vicente in person?
Rory was also curious and turned his eyes to his friend.
"Well, I think he wants to establish his dominance. You know, make me go to him. He's not going to do anything. Apart from the fact that it's already too dangerous for him to do something like that, the situation in the kingdom isn't the best.
I imagine the king knows about dozens of monster clusters around his state... I doubt he'd bother taking action against a citizen like me right now." Vicente replied without much concern, feeling that this must be the case.
"He might try to force you to join him," Sarah muttered, thinking the worst.
"I don't think so. Our monarch has plenty of resources and ways to please even Paragons. But he wouldn't gain anything from it. Lina has already scouted me out, so I doubt he'll waste his time inviting me to join him." Vicente commented, imagining the king might even want that. Still, the monarch wouldn't try to invite him or force him into anything.
"Maybe it's about The Purification?" Rory asked his friend.
"It's possible. The king has better contacts than we do. He probably knows a lot more about this problem than we do." Vicente's eyes narrowed. "That's why I hope to gain something from this meeting."
"Gain something?" Sarah asked without understanding where that was coming from.
"What are you talking about?" Rory frowned.
"We only have three pentagrams... What if the king wants to invest in us with information about special essences?" He smiled as he showed what he had been thinking.
The agreements he had signed after the vampire's fall guaranteed the secret about his magical form. However, it was very likely that the princess and her men had discovered that Vicente only had three pentagrams.
Not only that, as Vicente was still only a Sovereign, others of the same stage, stronger in terms of mana than him, could perceive such a thing when very close to him if he didn't hide.
Since he could already be considered a valuable magical resource for the kingdom, the king could help him so that he could help the kingdom in the future!
In the fight against the monsters, there was no distinction even between Dark and Light Path magicians. All there were were the monsters, the enemies, and the magicians, the allies.
The same went for people from different organizations and states. Even the Chutha Dynasty and Kenyth Empire would stop their conflicts as the threat from the north intensified!
Even if Vicente didn't join His Majesty Seidel's forces, he was still a resident of the kingdom, someone who had a little sister in one of the king's provinces. Whether or not he was subordinate to the local monarch, he would end up protecting part of the lands in King Seidel's domain!
The stronger he was, the more effective his action would be, which made Vicente think about the possibility.
Newton had already started sending letters to the capital talking about Vicente weeks ago, so this young man's hopes of gaining some high-value information were not small!
"That makes sense," Rory commented as a smile formed on his face, having not thought of it before. "The king is only a Sky Sovereign, but he has close contact with sects and clans with Paragons in their ranks.
He must have information of high value to us!"
Sarah looked at those two and felt things in the capital might not be so bad for them.
"He probably won't tell you what you want for your fourth pentagram, but he might point us in the right direction to look for our next essences," Sarah said, confident that the king would never recommend something like a cyan pentagram to Vicente.
Vicente agreed with her. "If he can direct us to perfect pentagrams for the two of you, that would be great."
They would continue to talk about this and many other subjects during the almost two-week journey ahead of them.
But soon, they would reach their first stop!
