Chapter 85
They returned to the capital city, landing in the palace's royal garden near the open house where they had left from. Lucas returned to his normal form and deactivated his Mana eyes. He walked into the open house and sat down. Elizabeth and Ashley followed him. They all sat there for some time without saying a word.
Elizabeth wasn't speaking because she felt inexperienced. She didn't want to enter a conversation when she barely understood what was going on. She was clueless, so she let her mother handle everything while trying to understand the situation and how serious their discussion really was.
"What about the other things?" Ashley asked, then added, "Being strong is good and all, but being strong doesn't mean you can make us an extremely rich and influential kingdom before the Empires and the Hidden Cities. And if creating a proper cultivation technique was easy, don't you think there would be more Great Hidden Cities than there are now? Even if you could do that, do you think the other Hidden Cities would allow it?"
Lucas smiled, looking at Ashley and then at Elizabeth. "For your daughter's sake, I'll explain everything fully. First, the cultivation technique. Yes, it's rare that anyone can create a technique that matches those of the five Great Hidden Cities. That's why for anyone using their cultivation technique, there is a mana seal placed on their mana core. It stops anyone from sharing information about the technique. It's extremely powerful, so you can't steal the technique. But the truth is, you can never spread the technique either. They made sure that those who have already learned a different way of cultivating would lose the information about their own technique."
"That's why I asked that question earlier about how only the royal family has this technique. The Hidden City of Sky, or any other Hidden City, doesn't give their cultivation technique to anyone who isn't part of them. And all the defected elite from our Hidden City are already being hunted down and killed. Then another problem comes in when I do create a technique and your kingdom starts cultivating it. The Hidden City of Sky always keeps an eye on the kingdom. So they would know and attack your kingdom, destroying it all because they wouldn't want you to rise in power. Or they would make another deal with you again."
"My guess is that they would take the cultivation technique and allow your kingdom to cultivate it while protecting you. But you would be serving the Sky Empire or the Hidden City of Sky. Your kingdom would disappear and become part of the Sky Empire. Or they would take the technique and allow your kingdom to survive if you tell them who created it. Those are the problems with just having a proper cultivation technique. But the technique would be something you would give only to those you trust and those who have signed this new contract spell I created. The possibility of it being broken by anyone is less than one percent."
"And with me improving it, it would soon reach a point where breaking it would be impossible. It would all be a secret because those people would only be there to protect you and your family if anything happens in the future. There are other plans to keep you safe, but we'll talk about them another time."
"As for the money, well, for me to tell you about that, I need to further improve my knowledge of seals and runes. To add another condition on top, I won't allow you to die when you're sealing the Demonic Mana Beast."
"Wait, what?" Elizabeth spoke loudly, looking quickly at her mother. "What is he talking about?"
Ashley looked into Lucas's eyes for a long moment before sighing. "The last two queens who sealed the Demonic Mana Beast both died in the process."
"Yes, that's why your mother first focused on creating a good image with the people. She wanted your path to becoming queen to be easier, and she also wanted to spend more time with you," Lucas spoke with a calm voice.
Elizabeth was in shock and quickly moved to hold Lucas's hand. "You said you can save her, right?"
"Don't give her false promises. You are strong, but Mana Beasts at their peak are monsters that were impossible to stop," Ashley spoke, and it was true. The tier 9 Mana Beast, the Dragon that attacked the Hidden City of Sky, was greatly limited because it escaped its seal. Around fifty percent of its power was lowered, plus the many Rune Masters and Seal Masters who were suppressing it.
The reason the Hidden City of Sky didn't send even stronger forces to the kingdom was that to them, the Demonic Mana Beast was strong but not something they couldn't handle.
"Don't worry about that. That's my problem to handle. I'm also curious about how the Demonic Mana Beast came into existence," Lucas spoke. From what he knew, all the other Mana Beasts came from the main Mana Beast that the Great Sage found in the old era. By trapping it, he divided its power into nine Mana Beasts. But the Demonic Mana Beast—where did it come from? And there were other Mana Beasts that were not created by the same being that created the main one.
Mana Beasts could grow infinitely stronger as long as there was mana. It was just that the tier 9 Mana Beast had reached the peak that this world could allow for its growth. The other Mana Beasts were following, and all would eventually become as strong as the tier 9 Mana Beast. The Hidden City of Sky held one of them. Some cities held two, some held one.
And from the expression Ashley showed, she also didn't know where the Demonic Mana Beast came from.