Beyond the Bloodline

[Since when did Lower Seats start being the ones dictating the movements of a Founding Seat member?]

His question made them all go silent, and their expressions shifted slightly. However, the uniformed man was not done speaking.

[What? You cannot tell me you were ignorant. Every single member of the Crimson Court knows of the person with the last name ‘Westley’ who is one of the Founding members of our Court.

In other words, his authority is the highest in the Court, save the other Founders; superseding even mine.

So do tell me, when were you allowed to dictate his movements?]

The room went silent after he spoke, so much that one could hear even the sound of the breathing individuals.

This silence was then broken a few moments later, by the one who had caused it in the first place.

[Oh well, if I had to guess, the reason why he decided not to come here first, is probably because he did not sense any of us.

It has been close to 15,000 years since he was last awake so he’s clearly not aware of the things that transpired within that time and the little agreement we made with the other races.

Hence, he most likely thought we were not present after not sensing us on Nightingale.]

He accurately guessed the reason why Jamie had not even bothered to go towards the Sanguine Citadel after coming to Nightingale—because the higher-seat members of the Crimson Court, who were the ones behind the whole operation to awaken him in the first place, could not be sensed on the Continent.

So he believed that they had not yet arrived from wherever they were and thus decided to get other things done while they were on their way.

[If he’s going to Avalore first, and then to Estudiam next, I can pretty much guess he’s trying to find out why he ended up at the bottom of an Ocean when he should have been in Estudiam; that place is his territory after all.]

His statement evoked reactions of light surprise from the faces of the seven others he was speaking to, something the man naturally noticed.

“…Ancient City Estudiam is his territory…?”

[Oh no, not just Estudiam. The entirety of the Fransokyo region is the territory of the Hybrid Jamie Westley.

You younglings would not know about this though.]

Calling these seven individuals ‘younglings’ was a bit of a stretch, given they were all Transcendents that had lived for centuries; but when you took into notice that the uniformed man who was being projected here was someone who interacted with Jamie close to 15,000 years ago, a few centuries was nothing much.

[On things you would not know; is the fact that the entirety of the ‘Neutral Continent’ as you know it, is the territory of the Hybrids.]

“What?!”

“…huh?”

“How could…”

The seven of them all let out confused and dumbfounded voices upon hearing his words, but they could not be blamed, they had grown up believing the Continent to have always been a free territory that was converted to its current ‘Neutral’ status after the war thousands of years ago.

[Why so surprised?

Each race on Estea has an entire Continent to themselves; It makes sense that the Hybrids would have theirs, does it not?

What you know as the ‘Neutral Continent’ is actually the Hybrid’s territory, and in a way, they’re just letting us borrow their land because the war was annoying for them.

If they never agreed to let us use that place then the Neutrality agreement would have fallen through.]

He casually spoke of a part of the Continents’ history that none of the billions of people on the planet were aware of.

Well, besides them now.

[Those guys are so small in number and are always moving around. We were lucky to find ‘her’, otherwise it would have been Chaos.]

The man chuckled lightly as a nostalgic look appeared in his eyes, however, it disappeared a moment after as he sat up and spoke,

[Anyway, I’ve spoken too much. Make arrangements to have him return to the Neutral Continent by whatever means he wants.

When he’s done with whatever he’s doing on Estudiam, he’d come an—or rather, send a message to him telling him to come meet us as soon as possible; We can still talk even if we’re not on Estea.]

He then placed a hand on his chin and sunk into his thoughts for a moment.

[If it comes from you guys, he may not set it as a high priority.

In that case, tell him the message came from Wald-Oh Don’t do that, that guy likes calling us by our last names.

Tell him it came from Vespera, the ‘Third’ one.]

The seven transcendents nodded in affirmation upon hearing his words.

[Good. Now then, I have an interplanetary war to end so do not contact me unless it’s something that really requires my attention.

Like a certain Hybrid leaving the planet or something.]

Right after he said that, his expression turned strange for a moment and he muttered something under his breath.

[Why do I feel like I just jinxed things…]

The projection of ‘Vampire King’ Waldron Vespera vanished right after he said that and the lounge once again fell into silence, with the seven Transcendents all heaving relieved sighs.

After that, six of them simultaneously turned their gazes towards the amethyst-eyed member of their group, who naturally noticed their gazes and questioned them with narrowed eyes.

“What? Why are y’all looking at me?”

“Well…you heard His Excellency’s orders.”

When one of them gave that reply, he instantly understood that they wanted him to be the one carrying out said order.

“Why do I have to be the one to do that?!”

“Um…His Excellency IS your grandfather, and also, the person who’s corresponding to His Excellency Westley for us IS your daughter, so…”

Seeing that the other five all seemed to agree with having him deal with the arrangements, the man clicked his tongue lightly before reluctantly agreeing.

“Fine.”

He turned around and proceeded to exit the lounge, into a waiting room where two of the Sovereign Realm existences present there quickly fell in behind him as he walked towards the room’s exit.

“Prepare the Plane on the Airstrip for a trip to Fransokyo. And get me a direct line to my youngest daughter.”

◇ ◇ ◇

While this meeting was ongoing, Jamie was busy hiking his way up the Avalore Mountain, even though he was very capable of flying to the top with ease.

One might be wondering how he was on Avalore so fast, but it was quite simple.

Jamie had changed the direction of their Convoy to the Lorelith Clan’s residence in Nocturna, and from there, he took a Teleportation Waypoint directly to Educrux.

The Teleportation Waypoints were as their name implied, Waypoints that allowed one to quickly traverse long distances without crossing the physical space between them.

They had multiple interconnected magic and ether spatial formations, intricately designed to work and complement each other without issue despite the use of two different energy signatures.

Each one came with two parts, a dematerializer and a rematerializer; known by the less complicated names of 'Entry Waypoint' and 'Exit Waypoint'.

They were all connected along a large-scale energy network that spanned the entire continent, and for successful teleportation from point A to B to be possible, both the Entry waypoint at A and Exit waypoint at destination B had to be active at the same time.

If the Exit waypoint at B was not activated, then the Entry waypoint at A would be unable to initiate the teleportation in the first place.

It required the operators of these formations to communicate constantly so as not to have any problems whatsoever.

They were installed in all regions over the Continent, but managing these waypoints was only permitted to certain organizations.

Owning private waypoints was a privilege allowed to those who were ‘pretty high nobility’, a Category that the Lorelith Clan fell under.

They had Waypoints that linked from their residence in Nocturna to the Regions they governed across the continent.

And using one of those, it only took a short while for Jamie to reach Educrux, and Avalore in turn.

“They built a city this high up, huh? Neat.”

Jamie remarked as he set eyes upon the small city that had been formed at the top of the mountain, its inhabitants being mostly Epic and Legendary Realm existences who could survive being this high up for extended periods without consequences, and those of winged races with bodies built for handling high altitudes.

“And it seems to be connected to the one on the ground around the mountain too.”

The Hybrid’s words continued as he looked at the network of sturdy cable cars traversing the steep mountain slopes and offering journeys through the clouds between the larger city at the foot of the mountain and the one at the top.

But as he was not here to admire the sights, he quickly put that at the back of his mind and spread out his aura, creating a 3D map of the city with his spatial perception in his mind and comparing it to his memories.

“Good. Things are still the same as they were 20,000 years ago.”