Chapter 168 : Chapter 168

Chapter 168. Guessing the Victor

After inspecting the black horse, Maeve suddenly became interested in this team.

Leaving everything else aside, just that black horse alone—if the seniors of her Transmutation School charged money for every single modification they performed—

then once the cost of the modification surgeries and the materials used were added together, that horse was probably already worth as much as that full suit of armor made entirely from special metal she had seen earlier.

With that thought in mind, she continued inspecting the weapons of Finley’s team. There was nothing prohibited here either.

What did puzzle her, however, was why none of the weapons in this team were coated with poison. She clearly remembered that applying a little paralytic toxin was allowed.

After inspecting Fran’s longsword, she found the answer.

She stared at the longsword lying on the table in disbelief. It was silver-white from end to end and looked, at first glance, not much different from one forged out of refined iron.

But if one examined it carefully, it became obvious that the material was definitely not refined iron.

Even Maeve had to think for a long while before she finally realized what it was. Wasn’t that Highland Silver? A famous enchanting material.

Then she carefully examined the symbol engraved upon it, only to see the image of an angel, and she could not help sucking in a sharp breath.

This method—making a special image appear on the sword instead of the rune itself—was used by only a very small number of Enchanters.

And even from a certain distance away, Maeve could feel the intense rune fluctuations coming off it. That kind of fluctuation generally only appeared in advanced compound runes.

She had never seen a rune in the shape of an angel before, so it led her to another guess.

She turned a heated gaze toward Fran, but Fran remained unmoved and did not return the look.

In Maeve’s eyes, the equipment Fran was carrying was worth a tremendous amount of money, and that special image had also been engraved onto the longsword.

In the world of Enchanters, only one kind of person could use that sort of thing: the mage families of the Sky Island.

She thought of the famous commander of the Blood Wolf Knight Order. That man had also run away from one of the mage families of the Sky City.

And the one before her now—could he be the same sort of person as that commander of the Blood Wolf Knight Order? Had he also run away from some mage family?

It was very possible. After all, the equipment on him was worth so much that even Maeve would not know how many years she would have to work to earn that much.

Although Maeve did not know which mage family the angel emblem belonged to, she was certain that it had to be a mage family’s crest.

After all, craftsmen capable of such techniques only used them out of respect for the mage families. They would engrave such images for them and for them alone.

No one else even needed to think about it. Those craftsmen would absolutely never use that technique on an ordinary person.

She gave Fran one more look, then, without much hesitation, said directly,

“You pass.”

Finley found it a little strange. Why had this mage focused all her attention on Fran’s equipment during the inspection? Was there really something strange about it?

Wasn’t it just ordinary refined iron with a few simple patterns engraved onto it?

But the knight duel was about to begin, and Finley had no mind left to dwell on it. He hurriedly brought Fran and Stefan with him and rushed toward the site of the knight duel.

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There was a raised platform at the site of the knight duel. That was Earl Ian’s seat, from which he could clearly observe the movements of the knights below.

And all around the dueling grounds, the crowd had already gathered to watch the excitement, their eyes uniformly fixed on the knights below as they made their preparations.

After completing the equipment inspections, Maeve also walked up to the raised platform and arrived at Earl Ian’s side.

Earl Ian was currently discussing the likely winner of this match with several minor nobles under his command.

These minor nobles were the administrative power within the city. Agriculture, grain, commerce—various regulations of every kind were all drafted and managed by them personally.

The lord of the city might change, but these minor nobles were not so easily replaced, because such lords often found it difficult to find anyone capable of taking their place.

Even so, knights ultimately wielded real power. No matter what, these minor nobles could not defy the orders of knights. At most, they could skim a little profit for themselves behind the scenes.

They too looked down at the knights below with envy in their eyes. For families like theirs, the key to rising one step further was to have a knight-level combatant within the family.

Even if they could not obtain a large territory like Whiteflower Territory, they could still go beneath those great domains and claim a smaller fief. That would be an enormous leap for the whole family.

“I think Knight Eric will be the victor of this contest. Just look at his armor—that’s Volcanic Residual Iron, a special metal found only in volcanic regions...”

One noble was analyzing matters with great confidence, and Earl Ian nodded slightly from the side. Clearly, he shared the same opinion.

At that moment, Earl Ian also noticed Maeve’s arrival. He rose from his seat and welcomed her.

“Mage, you’ve finally arrived…”

He led Maeve to the seat beside his own, displaying the respect he held for a mage.

After she sat down, Earl Ian asked,

“Mage, you’re the one who personally inspected the knights’ equipment…”

“You know how it is—when us knights truly fight, what decides victory is more often courage, with perhaps a little help from external factors.”

“So in your opinion, which of these knights is most likely to win this contest?”

The other minor nobles also turned their eyes toward Maeve, wanting to hear what insights this mage from the Alliance might have.

Maeve was not used to having so many people looking at her at once, but she still suppressed her discomfort and answered smoothly,

“I think it will be Knight Finley.”

“Finley?” one of the minor nobles blurted out in surprise, causing the people around him to look over. He quickly waved his hands, signaling that the sound had slipped out by accident.

After that minor interruption, even Earl Ian looked at Maeve with curiosity and doubt as he asked,

“May I ask, Mage, whether there is something special about Knight Finley that the rest of us do not know?”

Maeve had just been about to speak, but then she realized that the young man who might have come from one of the mage families of the Sky Island might not appreciate having his background exposed.

So she smiled, chose not to answer directly, and instead said,

“I can only say that one of Knight Finley’s attendants is very formidable. He may well be the one to decide the outcome of this battle.”

“As for the exact reason, Your Lordship may ask me in private later.”

That only made Earl Ian even more puzzled, but he still caught the implication in Maeve’s words and understood that Finley was probably hiding something that was not suitable to bring up openly on the platform.

Earl Ian looked at the position of the sun in the sky, rose to his feet, and said,

“The time has come. The knight duel may begin.”