Count Henry Kavier felt like he was about to go numb from exhaustion these past few days. Three days ago he had just received the knight order from the Central Continent, and was about to personally go pick out Holy Spirit Day gifts for the children, yet the moment he stepped out the door, he ran into another big shot.

Fal Inhix, this young master who grew up in the Central Continent was the future Grand Duke of the Falette Duchy, and also the grand-nephew of the current Emperor, most likely the future Elector of the Southern Region.

Now, this young master had come to him, hoping to use his connections at the Holy Silver Tower to find a powerful mage to assist him in accomplishing a major task.

“Young Master Fal, magical standards in the Central Continent are much higher than in the south, so why insist on commissioning someone here, couldn’t you just find someone at the Imperial Capital Magic Academy, you’re a top student there after all.”

On the way to the Holy Silver Tower, Kavier rode alongside Fal, asking as respectfully as possible, while the future duke scratched his blond hair and sighed as if hearing something unpleasant.

“I don’t have a choice, I’ve already looked in the academy, but their magical attainment isn’t enough, the only one qualified is the Grand Sage who never leaves her quarters, she was one of the heroes who fought the Demon King, even I can’t meet her.”

Besides, the task he intended to commission couldn’t be entrusted to members of the Hero’s party.

“I heard there’s an insanely powerful mage in the south called Xilrodiel, I want to find her for help, the reward definitely won’t be small, and maybe I can learn some magic from her to deal with this semester’s exams.”

“Xilrodiel…”

Kavier murmured, he had heard of that name too, a mysterious mage whose magical ability was said to be absurdly high, but whose whereabouts were unpredictable and who gave no face to anyone.

Even a noble like him had never qualified to meet her, this young master really knew how to make things difficult...

“I’ll do my best to help you contact her.”

“Much appreciated! And the south shouldn’t sell itself short either, I heard the Holy Silver Tower has recently been trying to summon and enslave an ancient Flame Demon, that’s a project worthy of being recorded in imperial history.”

Fal grew visibly excited when speaking of this, after all elemental beings were extremely powerful, and the ancient Flame Demon was a legendary existence whose strength rivaled dragons.

Low-tier elementals, high-tier elementals, Origin Lords and Elemental Gods, this was the basic hierarchy of elemental beings.

At present, the Empire’s magical level could only control low-tier elementals, while high-tier ones were the threshold countless mages of this era were trying to break through.

As for Origin Lords and Elemental Gods beyond that, they were monsters Fal didn’t even dare imagine, after all there were only two historical instances of dealing with such beings.

One was two thousand years ago, when the Hero Nochi gathered the power of storm, ocean and earth to forge three holy spears and used them to slay the Origin Fire Lord.

The other was the Northern Wind Battle in the southern region twenty years ago, when under the influence of the Imperial Gods, the demon race summoned an incarnation of the Wind Elemental God, if not for the Hero turning the tide, the entire southern region would have been wiped out.

Even so, parts of the southern land were torn into islands by the raging winds.

“Sigh, researching elements really requires caution... oh right, is the Holy Silver Tower holding some kind of ritual lately, why does it look like it’s spewing fire?”

“Huh?”

The two looked toward the Holy Silver Tower in the distance, only to see raging flames engulf the entire tower like oil had been poured over it, gradually merging with molten marble into a humanoid shape, accompanied by countless miserable screams.

“That’s... a high-tier elemental! That terrifying presence... at least Radiant Star level! What are those idiots at the Holy Silver Tower doing!”

Kavier reached for his sword, memories of storms ravaging the south surged in his mind, he could not allow elemental beings to devastate this land again.

“Young master, fall back! I’ll cut it down!”

Meanwhile, Fal’s face had already turned pale, when the Flame Demon threw a fireball that instantly swallowed a vast forest, he nearly fell off his horse.

“Summoning a high-tier elemental without containment measures, are they insane!”

* * *

Unaware of the two insignificant figures in the distance, the Flame Demon with a serpent face and humanoid body raised its whip blade, beneath it were fleeing students, seeing this, it laughed loudly.

“Hahaha! Foolish humans dare grant power to flames, in that case, use your fragile bodies to experience it yourselves!”

With that, the whip blade as long as a rainbow descended rapidly, about to claim countless lives.

At that moment, a wind spear struck the whip blade with perfect accuracy, storm and thunder coiled into serpents along it, binding the Flame Demon’s arm, violent lightning instantly suppressed the powerful elemental being.

Next came a water spear imbued with tidal force, descending from the sky and piercing into the Flame Demon’s back, enveloping the remaining ruins of the Holy Silver Tower, as waves surged forth, the flames around the demon turned into smoke and the once-arrogant elemental let out a miserable wail.

Finally, a black-haired girl wearing a mask appeared before the Flame Demon’s massive head, holding a crystal spear, in the next moment, a flash of cold light, and the spear infused earth power into its brain.

Storm, tide and earth, three mutually opposing forces entered the Flame Demon’s body at once, causing it to collapse and disintegrate at a visible rate, ultimately turning into ash.

Three-element suppression, a method developed by Hero Nochi a thousand years ago to deal with elemental beings, the best way to eliminate them was to inject three incompatible elements into their body.

But Fal couldn’t understand... what kind of person could control such elemental power capable of destroying an ancient Flame Demon so cleanly and efficiently.

Watching the girl slowly descend, only two words appeared in his mind—Hero!

‘This girl must be a Hero!’

Meanwhile, Xidis looked disdainfully at the devastated Holy Silver Tower, casually casting a healing spell to save the survivors on the brink of death.

She really wanted to drag the tower master out and scold him.

‘Who summons elemental beings without containment measures, are you trying to die?’

But after thinking about it, she let it go, she came here to gather information about the Holy Spirit Festival, not to make trouble, better to take this opportunity to find a noble and extract information, treating it as payment for handling the elemental and healing the wounded.

‘Hehe, what luck! Which noble should I approach?’

Xidis scanned the area, most mages were injured and busy rescuing others in the ruins, no one had time to bother with her.

But among the crowd, two people stood out, not only well-dressed but almost completely unharmed, clearly perfect targets for gathering information.

However... one of them looked strangely familiar.

Xidis’ gaze met Kavier’s, and this noble who had long offered her candy immediately sensed something was off...

He had heard from others at the Holy Silver Tower that the great mage Xilrodiel was a girl wearing a strange mask, now seeing her... why did she look so familiar?

“Lady Xidis?”

Kavier instinctively tested the waters, but from beneath the mask came a slightly sharp yet pleasant female voice.

“I’m not.”

Only after saying that did Xidis realize in horror that she had forgotten to change her voice in her haste!!

“This...”

Kavier realized Xidis didn’t want her identity exposed, but he also wanted to help Young Master Fal in exchange for a favor, caught in a dilemma, he slapped his forehead and said.

“Young Master Fal, Lady Xilrodiel! This isn’t a good place, shall we find a room in the city to talk?”

Xidis was eager to leave the Holy Silver Tower to avoid being exposed by this idiot, while Fal was convinced she was the mage he was looking for, someone capable of solving his troubles.

Thus, the two nodded.

“No problem!”