Chapter 211: Chapter 209: An Array Master Should Be Arrogant!

In the afternoon, people from Huijin Divine Hall arrived.

Along with them came members of the Ista Royal Family.

The two are respectively in charge of the Divine Hall and the nobles. Mr. Puniel, as City Lord, has autonomy over Southern Border City, but it’s only semi-autonomy, not full. So when the castle was damaged, they still had to report upwards and request funds from the Ista Royal Family to help rebuild.

After the authorities arrived, Puniel handed over all the remnants of that ’Magic Puppet Man’ to the Royal Family, stating that all other pieces were smashed, including the Heart of the Magic Puppet.

When facing inquiries from the Holy Court, he gave the same explanation, but secretly hinted both openly and covertly that Hilia had taken the Heart of the Magic Puppet and suggested the Holy Court should dish out some money.

Melina, who handles the sect-related matters, heard Hilia’s name and immediately looked as if everything made sense.

"So even Miss Saintess was at the scene, huh."

Puniel explained, "This really has little to do with Miss Hilia; it was mainly the heretics recklessly invading Southern Border City. She was nearly attacked by them."

Melina nodded repeatedly, "I understand, I understand. Hilia got involved? I can see why. Don’t worry, the Holy Court will fully support you and help Mr. Puniel rebuild the city’s array. Oh, by the way, I recommend a really skilled Array Master to help design it. Even Mr. Alvis was impressed by her skills, and she happens to be in Southern Border City right now."

Puniel’s eyes lit up, "Thank you so much! Do you know where this impressive Array Master is?"

"I’ll call her over."

Shortly, Hilia arrived before Puniel, greeting him reservedly, "Nice to see you again, Lord City Lord."

Puniel had also called over the city’s Array Master, who handles daily array maintenance, hoping to get some pointers from Melina’s recommended Array Master.

Only, he hadn’t expected—the one who showed up was... Hilia?

Puniel looked at Melina, his eyes full of confusion.

Melina smiled, "Hilia is the Array Master who Mr. Alvis can’t stop praising."

"???"

Puniel’s smile froze as he glanced at Hilia. As a Tier Four, he knew perfectly well that Hilia was only Tier Two right now.

A Tier Two... Array Master?

Well, Tier Two isn’t necessarily an issue, but this Tier Two is really young, just a teenager.

A Tier Two Mage not even twenty, an Array Master?

Seriously?

Hilia, a bit embarrassed, said, "Honestly, I’m not that amazing—just a little better than the old broken array you had here before."

Puniel: "..."

He said nothing, but the Array Master beside him couldn’t help speaking, "Miss, you might be better than us, but you shouldn’t insult Southern Border City’s centuries-old array! That was built over a hundred years ago when the City Lord hired the top Array Master of their era at great expense!"

Puniel turned around and sternly said, "No rudeness to Miss Hilia. Apologize to her."

"Yes, sir."

The Array Master begrudgingly lowered his head and apologized to Hilia, "Sorry, Miss Hilia. I was out of line."

Hilia replied, "It’s okay. I wasn’t saying the array the Array Master made was bad, just that after all these years, it just doesn’t meet the city’s needs anymore."

Puniel smiled, "We’re aware of that, which is why every City Lord upgrades the array in their term."

Hilia said, "Your upgrades really are impressive, you know? Actually managing to turn a perfectly functional array into a worn-out one without damaging the core... I mean, you took a Defense Array capable of stopping Tier Five, then downgraded it to one even a Tier Four could break through. That’s a ’level up’ if I ever saw one!"

Puniel, Array Master: "..."

Melina pressed Hilia’s shoulder, "Okay, okay, Hilia, that’s enough."

She found it a bit odd: Hilia was usually so gentle, why so snarky today?

"Got it." Hilia instantly turned obedient.

Honestly, her mode of speaking was because in her observation, nearly all Array Masters are super arrogant and temperamental.

Acting a little cocky just suits the Array Master persona~!

The Array Master said, "Then, Miss Hilia, please design for us. We’d love to see whether a Tier Two can actually come up with something impressive."

"Three days." Hilia held up three fingers. "I’ll deliver in three days."

"Alright, we’ll wait three days!"

...

Three days flew by quickly.

Hilia finished tidying up her new design for Southern Border City’s array and headed to the temporary conference room.

Over these three days, the losses to the Divine Hall and castle had been tallied, and waste was being recycled and cleared.

During the same three days, the city’s residents were abuzz with rumors about the sudden collapse of the Divine Hall and castle.

Based on the noises they’d heard that night, all sorts of wild guesses spread.

Puniel, as City Lord, stepped up and used newspapers, radio, and the city’s wall displays to explain the situation to everyone.

He claimed the city’s array was aging, and a trainee Array Master made a mistake during maintenance, accidentally detonating a Magic Crystal, causing a chain reaction that destroyed both the castle and the Divine Hall. Luckily, they reacted fast and activated the backup Defense Array, preventing further losses.

Most people didn’t really buy this explanation, and rumors were everywhere.

But fortunately, since all the heretics were dealt with and Puniel acted quickly—

Apart from a bit of disruption to daily prayers, everything else was fine and the city still ran normally.

Puniel also set up a temporary room to handle his official duties.

Even Hilia heard plenty of rumors; some even made food and Magic Item prices spike.

She regretted that while busy designing, she missed the chance to cash in.

"Although this design was completed with Lord Rose’s help, I still made great progress myself!"

Hilia hugged her design prints and headed to the temporary conference room set up specifically by Puniel for receiving guests.

Everyone had assembled upon hearing Hilia’s notice.

Besides the two Array Masters, there were Puniel, Melina, Vanessa, the bishop from the Southern Divine Hall, and two Array Masters representing the Holy Court and Royal Family—eight in all—waiting in the meeting room, looking at Hilia.

Having faced more than one bishop and archbishop’s scrutiny before, Hilia wasn’t fazed by this scene at all.

Previously, Rose designed and built the array; this time, Hilia only asked Rose to point out her mistakes. From concept, material selection, and notation for other Array Masters to understand, she completed everything herself.

Basically, for the past three days, apart from eating, sleeping, and meditating, she worked nonstop on these thick sheets of designs.

When the designs were done, Rose had no further comments and fully approved Hilia’s work.

Of course, only super-large Array Runes can be designed this way—using her knowledge at just Tier Two.

If it were small scrolls or micro Magic Puppet runes, the hands-on stuff, she still couldn’t pull that off herself.

Glancing at the eight assembled, Hilia smiled slightly, hugged her thick designs, walked up to the conference table, sat down, unfolded the blueprints, split them into four sets, and distributed them to the four Array Masters present.

"Here is the Protective Array I designed for Southern Border City—it handles attack, defense, internal and external detection, pollution purification, and secret passage scanning modules. I trust everyone will understand it."