A few days later, Eden received a message from Barlas asking if she had time to chat. Erza notified Eden who was looking at the new designs Oscar presented to her. He was excited to show her his new creations to mass produce. The armor was slimmer, lighter, with gems embedded, and it mainly covered the vital organs. Eden was asking him how he would make up for the loss of protection in the other areas because humans don't have rapid healing abilities as Lycan. Oscar brought out a fabric made of thin titanium fibers. She was admiring how thin and light it was. Then she congratulated him on his new invention before she left to message Barlas back.
Eden agreed to meet Barlas and talk. She invited him over for dinner with her and her army. She no longer felt awkward and they began to act like normal people around her. She wanted Barlas to see this side of the world because she still hadn't told anyone of what she had discovered other than Corruption. It was still a heavy burden for her to carry, but she would tell herself that they are safe for now. The contract stated that as long as the monarch doesn't decline to continue to participate the villagers will not be thrown back into limbo and they won't be subjected to a new monarch that might treat them worse. The new mages were helping the forge with upgrades. And even though she didn't want high level mages, she was utilizing the lycans in boss hunts. With every newt defeat, Ikarus would level up and more buffs would be available. However, they weren't as high as they could possibly be. The buffs would be much higher if Eden was to resume attacking other monarchs. She had made an oath to not do it, not after learning some truths. She was going to find a way to get them out.
Barlas arrived and Eden showed him to her study. Erza was already waiting there because Eden didn't want to go through the trouble of asking her to stay a few feet back behind them for the pixie. After taking a seat Barlas asked Eden, "What is the deal with your guide? She has some blocks around her that my pixie can't penetrate?" Eden tilted her head with a puzzled face. It's been a while since the conversation of Erza was brought up. They only spoke about her during the war debrief, but no one else had any more questions. Barlas asked, "I noticed my pixie automatically moves away from her." Eden said, "I don't know much about the origin of Erza, so I don't know what to tell you." Barlas then replied, "You are going to keep secrets from me?" Eden furrowed her eyebrows and responded, "I haven't held secrets from you yet. Why are you suddenly so interested?" Barlas drank from his cup and said, "it has been on my mind for a while now. I only ask because I didn't see Erza by your side at the mixer. You had your mage next to you instead. Is it because your guide can't be around other guides?" Eden wanted to respond with, no, everyone else's guide is weak against her, but she doesn't have all the data to even make that statement. Eden bit her lip instead to prevent her from saying something she's not even sure about. Then she replied, "Does it make a difference whether other guides can go near her or not?" Barlas pursed his lips and said, "you insist on keeping your secrets. Then I can't explain to others their misunderstanding." Eden wiped her neck back a little and asked, "who is asking if they can't ask me directly?" Barlas replied, "It's not important. The fact is others are misunderstanding you." Eden replied with a bit of attitude, "let them misunderstand all they want. I can assure you that they're doing it out of envy, jealousy or ill intentions going to you to start rumors and mistrust. You are the last person I expect to mistrust me." Barlas stayed silent for a moment. He then said, "I don't know how to protect your reputation if you don't tell me anything." Eden pressed her teeth together from saying something mouthy. Then she said, "In the end, people with believe what they want to believe even if the truth is right in their face. I don't owe explanations to anyone. Just my own alliance members. If it's someone within my alliance asking this, then I demand a name. Don't protect this person over me. They are the ones in the wrong. I've only treated them fairly. If its someone in another alliance, they need to mind their business." Barlas took another sip of his drink before responding. "I can see you're upset that I questioned you, I am just trying to clarify in your stead." Then Eden thought about it, there were only a few who were acquainted with Barlas, so the list was short. Still she didn't want to drive a wedge between them over something trivial. She then said, "If it's not an alliance member. Don't worry about it. A kingdom divided against itself is destined to fall." Barlas nodded in agreement and then they both got up to go to the dining hall.
Later that week, Eden received an invitation from Elise to go on a boss hunt with her. Though Eden liked Elise as a fun acquaintance, she still didn't know where she stood. She accepted to go with her, but brought her mages with her just in case. Elise sent her the coordinates of the meeting place. When Eden arrived, she saw three dragons in the air ahead, they were Elise's. One was a deep indigo color, the other was metallic gold, and the largest one was grey white. Elise had leveled them up enough that they were already incredibly strong and large. Eden did a side smirk and looked at Ikarus that was staring at them flying. Eden could tell he was irritated because he hadn't leveled up high enough to look that majestic. Their second server war was only a day away and he was itching for a fight. Silvie told him while they were in the sky, "this server war you will return unrecognizable." Ikarus replied, "I better."
Elise waved at Eden gracefully from her horse as the distance got shorter between them. Eden also waved and smiled. She thanked her for the invitation and the view of her dragons. Elise said she won a dragon egg during an event and the other was gained during a server kingdom competition. The competition is held quarterly and the other event was known and it was biweekly. There would be a different dragon egg that would be given during the server war. Because they both didn't receive enough points, they didn't qualify to get it. Eden was sure to get more points this time. She didn't feel as guilty going against another server because she was told by Odin that they are not human servers. However, there was a possibility that they might encounter other Lycan and Eden didn't want to force hers to choose sides.
Elise was confident in her dragons because she had put in a lot of work into them. As they were headed to where the boss was, Elise asked, "How is your alliance doing?" Eden replied, "I think they are doing just fine, but I feel since we got a late start to figure things out, we won't be raising our rank in alliance power. They seem happy like that, but I would like them to experience more. It would be great to see them advance. Nothing would make me happier than their success." Elise raised her eyebrows and said, "wow, have you ran an alliance before?" Eden chuckled, "Nope, I was thrown into this without my consent. It was sink or swim, so I decided to swim." Elise then said, "well from outside, it looks like you're doing a decent job." Eden looked at Thunders head just moving to the beat of his own drum. She then said, "I don't know if I am. I sometimes feel I'm not doing such a great job. Either way, it would be nice to relax and focus on my growth again while someone else holds the team together. But I don't know whom to entrust the well being of my people with. Elise then added, "well, why don't you do a preliminary trial with FOX and see how you like. You can always undo the merger. Eden said, "Let me think it through while we do this hunt."