"And I bet it's because of those same criminals that he barely manages to remain a baron." Chronos stated to a round of agreement.
"If we could at least find the criminals leader, we could do something about this situation, but they've always managed to avoid us." Roger grumbled.
As the conversation entered a lull the sun badger trudged over with Sariah tightly clinging to its back.
"Fluffy ehehehe."
Her expression was one of pure bliss.
Chuckling Chronos said, "You got caught huh?"
The sun badger snorted at him in annoyance. Gesturing at Sariah, it growled at him asking for help.
"It's useless to come to me. I can't pry her off of you either," he said.
It snorted again before plopping down on the ground next to them giving up on trying to get her off.
"Gregory, was what you heard the same as me?" Chronos asked the air.
A shadow next to him shifted, Gregory appeared next to him as silently as a ghost causing the men gathered to jump out of their seats, making Chronos laugh.
Chronos could still sense him standing there with his [Spatial Awareness], so he wasn't exiting or entering the shadows. Instead, it was more like the shadows were weaving themselves around him to hide his figure and movements. Most likely it was a new skill he had bought from the system but hadn't mastered yet.
It was quite an impressive skill. It would allow him to stand in a corner right across from you without you ever knowing he was there, until he stepped out of the shadows that was.
"Yes, everything I've heard says that Magar is an exemplary leader and a highly skilled mage as well but the baron in charge of this region keeps suppressing him." Gregory said.
Despite having done what Chronos asked, he still didn't know why Chronos wanted a background check on Magar's character. He understood the region better now but that shouldn't have anything to do with their journey.
In the end he gave up and decided to just ask Chronos about it.
"Chronos, why are you having me gather this information? Surely you wouldn't want to try something crazy like say trying to change the regional leadership." He suspiciously asked.
If he did then there was going to be even more annoying work for Gregory.
"Not really. However, a large army composed of many knights and baronets gathered because Magar called for them. I need to be ready for whatever the baron might try when we leave here. Besides, I already sent a message back to the crucible knights with a certain request." Chronos said with a sly grin.
Gregory didn't believe him for an instant. That grin alone showed that he was planning something troublesome, which in Chronos's book translated to fun.
Sighing Gregory silently faded back into the shadows.
Roger shifted uncomfortably, "I don't mean to sound rude but that friend of yours is a bit unnerving."
"Hahaha, Gregory is a great man but a man of few words. Don't let him bother you, it just encourages his stalking instinct." Chronos teased them.
"The only two people I stalk are you and Sariah." Gregory's disembodied voice came from their left.
"Hmph you're no fun. You could have let them squirm for a little longer." Chronos complained. "Well, what do you say to sharing a few more stories about Magar?"
"Sure, we'll tell you about the time he raided a slavery ring selling orc children..."
As they shared stories Chronos's mind wandered into his mental space only half paying attention to what they were saying. He had already found out what he needed to know and had far too much to think about right now.
Inside the mental space he floated in a relaxed posture pondering about his bloodline, the tears, and how he was going to acquire the points needed for new skills.
Other than clearing tears and killing black beasts he couldn't do much about increasing how fast he could gain points right now, so he left them for later.
The tear was another matter.
This was the first tear where he had tried to look into other layers so perhaps the emptiness of the other layers was something unique to this tear. But it was also possible that every tear was empty until it was filled with energy from the real world.
That would be a bit concerning since the tears were already confirmed to be inside of the world.
Was their whole world empty? Just a shell floating amongst the stars? Or was there some greater secret here? Were the tears trying to destroy the world from the inside? Or was someone trying to make a new world by consuming theirs through the tears? Maybe their world fed on other worlds and the tears were a remnant of those worlds.
It would explain why the fae realm didn't want to maintain the gate on the island Smith had visited in the past. Or maybe there was some powerful creature in this world they didn't want to see.
Honestly there could be many reasons why the fae didn't want to come here that were completely unrelated to the tears.
Maybe his own bloodline was one of those reasons.
The Beklaedning bloodline was a growing cause of concern for Chronos. As it grew stronger, he could feel more of the world, but he seemed to be losing control of himself little by little.
He never seemed to run out of energy, but his instincts were becoming more powerful. If he couldn't control his instincts he could seriously injure someone when he lost control. Then he would be forced to go home and retrain his control from the beginning by his mother.
It was the worst at night with near constant dreams of running through various places, most often a strange, forested realm or the layer filled with gray floating balls. He would have to be especially careful with the full moon coming up soon.
Come to think of it since those were dreams, maybe he could find an answer here in the mental space.