Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1945: Anticipation

Ning remained silent for some time, thinking of what the Constellation had told him. He turned toward the princess.

"The promised day has something to do with the summit, doesn’t it?" he asked.

It wasn’t hard to make the connection since there was nothing more important than the summit happening tomorrow. Powerful individuals, both in abilities and politics, would be gathered for a long conversation, and each group would announce different things that they wanted to accomplish going forward.

Ning wondered just what it was that they were going to do tomorrow.

Elowen said nothing.

Her silence was answer enough to make Ning suspicious, although he could not tell whether she refused because she had been ordered not to speak or because she genuinely feared that saying anything would reveal more than she intended to.

She stood from the chair.

Captain Maelis stepped away from the wall and moved toward her.

"It was good speaking with you again, Sir Blackfang," Elowen said.

Ning nodded. "Thank you for letting me know I need to be prepared for tomorrow," he said. "If Tritus contacts you again, do tell him that I intend to kill him if he shows himself tomorrow."

The woman couldn’t help but chuckle out loud. "If that is what you believe will happen, then sure."

The princess then gave him a small smile, offered her farewell, and left the room with Maelis following behind her.

The door closed.

Ning remained seated for a long while as he simply stared at the empty chair across from him and considered everything he had learned.

The promised day was tomorrow, so it was likely that more Numbers would be active soon.

The princess had revealed herself to be Number 2, which left Number 1 and Number 6, unless more Numbers had been recruited since the demise of 7, 5, and 3 many months ago. One of them had to be the Clairvoyant, and one of them was said to be in such deep love with 7 that her death had made them mad enough to try and kill him.

Ning was curious to meet both of them.

He would most likely do so tomorrow.

More importantly, Tritus had offered Ning the position of Herald rather than Number, which meant the Constellation believed whatever he was preparing required someone powerful enough to announce, represent, or perhaps carry out something on his behalf.

Ning did not know what that something was. He would find that out tomorrow, along with everyone else.

He eventually grew tired of sitting in the room and decided to go outside.

Cape Mistam was still crowded with arriving delegations, guards, palace workers, and visiting officials, but the area surrounding the royal residence offered surprisingly few places where someone could simply wander without immediately encountering security checkpoints.

Ning had barely reached the lower courtyard when he noticed Lightspeed approaching from the opposite direction.

The hero had changed into casual clothing but still wore the covering around his eyes that concealed his identity.

"I’m heading out for a walk," Lightspeed said. "Want to come?"

Ning considered returning to his room.

Then he decided he had already spent enough time thinking by himself.

"Sure."

They left the palace grounds together and followed one of the roads descending toward the city, where the evening mist had begun moving inland from the ocean and gathering around the lower buildings.

Cape Mistam looked different away from the palace, with narrow stone streets passing between old houses covered in vines, small restaurants opening their doors to the evening crowds, and people from several nations filling the streets now that the summit had brought more foreigners into the city than usual.

Lightspeed did most of the talking.

He spoke about the summit, the demonstrations Conjora intended to make, and the amount of pressure resting on their delegation. Apparently, news that they were about to reveal new technologies that had something to do with people’s abilities had already spread around for some reason, and many were beginning to ask him and the others for some early information.

Ning’s anticipation for tomorrow was growing just as much as everyone else’s, but hardly anyone understood that it was different for him.

For the president, tomorrow was about diplomacy.

For Sharron, it was about proving the value of the technology she had spent years developing.

For Lightspeed and the other heroes, it was about protecting Conjora’s representatives and making sure nothing disrupted the summit.

For Ning, tomorrow was about Tritus.

Whatever the Constellation had spent months preparing was finally going to happen, and Ning intended to be present when it did.

The two heroes continued walking for some time before eventually returning to the palace.

By the time they arrived, the main courtyard had become far busier than before, with officials moving between buildings and servants preparing additional rooms for delegations that had yet to arrive.

Ning heard the news shortly after entering the Conjoran wing.

The Faedrian delegation had finally departed their island nation.

Their aircraft was already on its way toward Cape Mistam and was expected to arrive before long.

Ning stopped walking.

Leamor was coming.

The name immediately brought back the old house in New Limaro, Alya restrained beneath the High-Elf’s power, her child crying nearby, and the expression on Leamor’s face when he realized the woman he intended to use for his claim to the throne had already given birth to someone else’s child.

Ning had waited months for this.

He could have gone to Faedria at any time, found Leamor within seconds, and killed him before anyone understood what had happened, but doing so while Tritus watched him would have risked revealing far too much.

Now he would not need to search.

Leamor was coming directly to him.

Ning looked toward the palace windows, where the distant lights of Cape Mistam’s airport could barely be seen through the evening mist.

Tomorrow might belong to Tritus, but that did not mean Ning could not multitask. The retribution for what Leamor had done would be dealt out tomorrow as well.