CHAPTER 352: THE ACTUAL TRUTH

"Hah!" Nero laughed out loud. He supposed it was fair. If he could claim to be a Lord simply because his family had been granted the status of a Great Family, then Vanessa truly could claim even greater titles.

"So then what brings her Royal Highness down to this humble soldier? Surely it was not just to deliver this package," Nero asked, setting the papers aside.

"We barely just started to speak, and you’re already in a rush to get to the point? Do you have somewhere you need to be, or are you perhaps expecting another charming young lady to come and check in on you?" Vanessa asked in a tone as if she was offended.

Yet her tone only made her chuckle.

"Not at all. I have all the time in the world, actually. The longer I take to heal, the better. My body needs its rest, so feel free to stay as long as you need," Nero said, flashing an honest smile. Of course, there was nothing honest about his words or intentions, which is what made Vanessa roll her eyes.

"You don’t know how much time I’ve already spent waiting for you already. I heard you took sedatives to help with your exhaustion. Since when have you needed such things?"

Nero sighed, recalling the test he had faced. He hadn’t wanted to leave any chance for suspicion to fall on him considering he’d already experienced a frame job and attempted assassination.

"Don’t get me started," Nero complained. "The things I do for... never mind. Tell me, did anything happen at the base last night?"

Vanessa raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly happened. She had been very suspicious about his motives when she heard he had knocked himself out. She almost expected that he had done that purposefully to target her, but now it seemed he had been avoiding something else.

"Nothing worth noting. Why? Were you expecting something to happen?" she asked.

Nero shook his head, but relaxed subtly. Either Noman had already left the base with Dave successfully, or they hadn’t managed to detect any spies. Regardless, his involvement with the situation had come to an end. He could properly relax.

"Forget about me. I’m more interested in talking about you. Now that you’ve completed your goal in Perilith, what’s next? Are you going to continue going in there, or are you moving onto another project?"

Vanessa studied Nero’s expression, trying to determine if he truly wasn’t aware of her plans. It seemed too coincidental that he would knock himself out last night, delaying her so much.

"No, after that kidnapping attempt, I’ve been ordered to head back to Nova," Vanessa informed Nero. "Even if the order hadn’t come in, my visit wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I’ve already completed most of my goals, and I’m needed for some tasks back at home. I was actually supposed to head back last night, but my departure was delayed because a certain someone was unavailable."

Although she spoke her last sentence in a complaining voice, Nero didn’t register it at all. Instead, he was focused on a simple realisation: she was leaving. Vanessa was heading back to Nova, and it would probably be a long time before they could meet again.

"I feel honoured that you waited for me," he spoke with a faint smile, though there was something about his smile that seemed less than genuine.

"It can’t be helped," Vanessa said, shaking her head as if enduring a great burden. "I have partnered myself with a certain over ambitious soldier who is exceptionally skilled in courting death, yet somehow even more skilled in barely surviving it as well."

"I’m flattered you think so highly of me," Nero responded, acting as if he was bowing.

Vanessa looked at how nonserious Nero was acting and felt a little odd. He had always been so serious, so composed, that seeing him like this now was... not bad actually. It almost felt like she had unlocked the privilege of seeing another side of him. But the thought of the word privilege made her scoff.

"Don’t get ahead of yourself, loverboy," Vanessa said, addressing Nero with the nickname he seemed to have somehow earned recently. In the base, more than a few people were addressing him as such - though she was also aware of whose loverboy he was supposed to be.

"Don’t be so comfortable barely surviving. If you’re really as great as you make yourself up to be, then survive without being bedridden for days."

"I’ll do that," Nero said, nodding seriously. "I’ll just make a vision board with a picture of the Primal Exarch so that I train to defeat that insane monstrosity. I’ll make it my new year’s resolution."

Vanessa pursed her lips as she stared at the new, sassy Nero. She wasn’t enjoying the talkback, although she’d noticed that he had a certain habit of always getting the last word in even before this.

"Be serious," she said, finally unwilling to continue the banter. "While you were recovering, and the army was busy trying to figure out who among them was responsible for aiding Dave, I was doing some research of my own. I wanted to find out who might be interested in harming me, but the list is too big. The politics here... has gotten a lot more complicated over the past few months."

Nero stopped messing around and listened to her. The whole point of developing a network of contacts was to have access to the various benefits they could provide. Vanessa, with her unique identity, could provide Nero with information that even Gabriel was not qualified to know. If there was something she took seriously, Nero could not afford to dismiss it.

"Some of the things I’m about to tell you... I’m technically not allowed to reveal to anyone, but I’m going to do so anyway. The reason for that is the simple fact that whether you know it or not, your whole family is also influenced by it. No, not just your family... the whole world is influenced by it."

She paused, to collect her thoughts, and consider exactly what she wanted to tell him of the highly sensitive data that she had. Nero did not interrupt her as he focused solely on what she had to tell him.

"Do you know how long Nova and Kolar have been allies?" she asked, eventually.

"A few decades," Nero answered. "Around thirty six years, I think. That’s when Nova set up their factories and assembly lines in Kolar, while we began to supply them with the raw materials needed to research, develop and manufacture all their technology."

"Your answer is correct, and thorough," Vanessa said, with a nod. "On the surface, it seems to explain why the cooperation between our two countries is so good. Not only do we have no conflict of interest, we can support each other perfectly. No other country, not even Saint Codale or Dolziya, despite also having some access to the Aether Mountain Range, can produce as much ore and aether crystals as Kolar.

"The truth, however, is deeper than that. It’s not just a matter of mutual growth and benefit. If it were so simple, how could any of the other countries let our trade continue unimpeded? The actual truth of the matter is far more serious, concerning, as well as simple. After hundreds of years of development, growth, and war... we no longer have the resources required to produce more Sages."

Nero sat up in his chair, looking at Vanessa with an air of solemness for her claim was far from simple. He did not bother to comment that there had been many skirmishes among the countries to interrupt the trade between Kolar and Nova. Skirmishes hardly mattered for they hadn’t been able to prevent the trade. At most, the other countries occasionally looted the convoys to benefit from others.

Yet none of that had any significance in front of what Vanessa had claimed. It seemed like just a few weeks ago, he was hearing proclamations that Kolar was searching for a path beyond the Sage race, filling his blood with fire as he envisioned such a glorious future. Now, it was as if someone had literally dumped a bucket of water on him.

"Elaborate," Nero said, his voice calm and level, lacking any hint of urgency or panic.

"By ’we’ I don’t just mean Nova," Vanessa continued. "I mean all six countries have almost run out of the resources required to produce a Sage. Just think about it - how many Ascendants does Kolar have? And yet, when was the last time Kolar welcomed a new Sage? In fact, when was the last time any of the countries welcomed a new Sage?"

Nero didn’t respond. No one thought that there was anything wrong with the long period without a new Sage. If becoming a Sage was easy, then they wouldn’t be so well respected and revered. It was exactly because of how impossibly difficult it was to reach such a level that Sages had such prestige. They were the best among the best, proven by their very Aetherian Rank.