Chapter 366 - Farewells

"Diether, are you going to bring Lippe with us?" Rufus asked in a low tone as soon as they returned to the barracks at Islefield Fortress.

The place is quite lively again as the merchants in the Northern Region started coming here again. 

As for the Knight Champion, he has already returned to the Sun Fire Knight's Headquarters and allowed the General to take control of the North again.

Diether and Rufus don't have a superior at this place and the most they could do to inform the top brass of the Knights Order about their plan was through the next captain they'll choose for the squad.

"I'll ask her. She should be at the new Arcanist Tower doing her mission. Anyway, She knows a lot of things in Enetha Empire since her family is a noble from the Losea Kingdom. I heard that she went to the Noble Academy there. She will surely be a huge help to us." Diether replied as he looked at the members of his squad coming to greet them.

Diether is a Knight-Captain while Rufus is the Vice-Captain within their small squad. 

They have less than a hundred Knights under them so, in truth, it is not easy to just quit so quickly. 

However, they have already prepared for this and they have someone in mind to become the next captain of their squad.

It is Art Deus, Diether's friend who had grown strong together with him when he was still at the village and learning with his Master Reiji. 

Art became part of his squad and was normally assigned administrative tasks since he's also quite educated. But it doesn't mean that he has gotten weaker at all, he's definitely stronger than Kazim and Sevdi who were Deither's batchmate.

It is only because Art is more of a cavalryman instead of a foot soldier. 

"Art…" Diether said seeing the approaching tall man. 

Art still has long hair and a fiery aura around him. Well, he actually looks more dangerous than ever. As far as he knows, Art wanted to become a Knight Champion someday so he must've asked Sayel, the Knight Champion who came here, to give him some pointers.

Diether wouldn't be surprised if he really did that. 

"It seems that you already found what you're looking for. Are you going to hand over the squad to me now?" Art sensed what was going on. 

Diether smiled and nodded at the man. 

"Alright… Once you returned, we'll be stronger than ever. Well, I'm probably a Champion by then so don't get jealous." Art said with a smile.

"Haha! That's good…" Rufus chuckled as he went to his room to take all of his belongings. 

As a Magic Item Crafter and Array Formation Specialist, he has a lot of things with him so he needs a lot of time to prepare. There are also things he needed to buy so he can't waste his time. 

Diether, on the other hand, will probably visit the nearby Arcanist Tower to speak with Calliope.

***

"Are you really going to Enetha Empire? Isn't that too far? It's dangerous." Lyrei said after hearing Stella's plan to leave. 

Once she went there, no one knows when they'll meet again. 

"Whoa~ If Diether's going there as well, then I won't meet him for a long time. Ugh… Where is he?" Yasmin asked as she felt a bit sad. She hasn't even been able to spend some time with her old friend and he's already about to leave again.

"He should be in the barracks. We're planning to leave tomorrow so you can go ahead and meet him." Stella replied. 

Yasmin chatted with her for a bit more as she's also interested in what happened inside the Chaotic Land. After hearing about their adventure, she unconsciously held her gun feeling that she could probably do the same and have a great journey. 

Unfortunately, she's not battle-trained and most of her battle experience was just training with her Arcana and practices with her friends. 

She knows that in a real battle, she may not perform that well… Anyway, this is only her imagination since she's still unaware of how good she is in actual combat.

"We'll look for Diether now. I'll go with Yasmin."

Aria has similar sentiment and wanted to meet her little brother. She just finished her training and was a bit sweaty but she didn't mind at all.

She wanted to see her sibling.

'Sigh~ I hope mother will not get too sad about this.' Aria sighed since she knows how their mother misses the youngest in the family.

However, there is nothing she could do since Diether appears to already have plans in his mind. It would be futile to stop him at this rate. 

As Lyrei and Stella were left, the two chatted for a long time reminiscing the journey they had for several years as members of the Broken Fang Mercenary Squad. They are unaware of when they will meet again but the memories they shared will surely last forever.

Once they meet again, they would definitely have an even stronger friendship. 

***

On the next day, Diether is readying himself to visit the Arcanist Tower to meet Calliope.

He had a long night yesterday as he spent his time with his older sister and Yasmin. He even brought them a few expensive stuff at the souvenir shop so they wouldn't feel that bad about him leaving. 

It took less than an hour to arrive at the vicinity of the tower. Thanks to his identity as a Sun Fire Knight, he was easily given a pass as the Defensive Array Formations stopped sending threatening aura. 

Diether didn't immediately enter the Tower and looked at it carefully.

'Is this tower really sending their students to the Dark Elves to make them a Sentient Arcana?' Diether mused. 

The Tower looks majestic and it is made of precious stones that were enhanced by the Arcanists. He could never imagine them doing such terrible things until his master mentioned it so.

Anyway, he would never doubt Reiji so he decided to be really careful in this Tower.. Just imagining how he would wake up as an object or Sentient Arcana made him shiver up his spine.