He knew very well Yale's age and even a genius in Imperial City would be unable to kill an army like the one that surrounded the Nacesai Academy being sixteen years old.
"Indeed. I am Yale. It has been a long time, master."
Yale continued descending towards the ground, and Swordmad sensed Yale's current level, 8-star Practitioner Rank.
That level wasn't high compared with Swordmad's one because he was at the 9-star Elder in the Warrior Path and 4-star Elder in the Magus Path, but the fact that with such level he had such a fearful strength capable of destroying an army was something that Swordmad could only admire.
Moreover, having such a high level at his age was abnormal, even people who had received legacies didn't advance so quickly.
If he were to know that Yale had just made two breakthroughs while executing the previous attack, he would be unable to speak from the shock. Yale's ability to advance in level while battling was already famous in Sword City and surroundings, but it hadn't reached the far Nacesai City.
"You are really an abnormal disciple, but I can't say that I dislike that about you. Welcome back."
Although Swordmad seemed to give Yale a warm welcome, he wasn't too happy about just meeting Yale at that moment because he didn't know how to explain that he let Ange being kidnapped and he was sure that would be the next thing that Yale would talk about.
"Where is Ange?"
Just as Swordmad expected, Yale hadn't appeared there randomly at the critical moment. Swordmad guessed that Yale had obtained the information from someone and rushed there to help.
"Sorry. She was kidnapped, they fooled even me."
Swordmad didn't want to lie to Yale; he knew that Yale would only be angry afterward when he discovered the truth and telling lies about such important matters wasn't something that Swordmad liked to do because that was opposite to his straightforward nature.
"I am late. The Roanmad Clan is the one that kidnapped her, right?"
Swordmad nodded to that; the Roanmad Clan had completely fooled him.
"We should have exterminated them back then."
Hatred could be sensed in Yale's eyes; he never had a good impression of the Roanmad Clan, but he didn't think that they would be traitors because his father was married to a member of the Zhan Clan who was considered a criminal by the True Zhan Clan.
"Maybe my mother was killed by my father? But why wait until I was born? This doesn't make sense; he would have also killed Ange and me if he had been on their side since the beginning."
Yale was deeply pondering about that; he knew that his mother's death wasn't normal, but thinking that his father was a member of the True Empire from the start didn't make sense.
Moreover, in the information he received, the Roanmad Clan appeared as a cooperator for that scheme, but it didn't appear as a clan affiliated to them since ancient times like Heruk's Clan.
"I also regret hadn't taken measures back then. However, I investigated the matter, and not all the Roanmad Clan switched sides. Sadly those who refused to Ange's kidnap and to betray Nacesai City were killed mercilessly."
The Roanmad Clan hadn't been part of the True Empire from the start, but some elders had some deals with groups belonging to the True Empire, so they used those connections to provoke that those elders made the Roanmad Clan change sides and killing anyone who opposed to it.
"The current clan head was the only one who wasn't killed despite opposing to them openly, but he is in prison, and they had turned into a symbol of the fate of those who disobeyed their orders. If he hadn't been eating poison with his food every day in the last years, his strength would have been able to stop the rebellion of the elders."
The current clan head was at the 2-star Master Rank while the elders were all just at the Veteran Rank; the clan head shouldn't have had any difficulties avoiding the clan falling in the hands of the elders if he hadn't been stealthy poisoned.
"I suppose that my father was one of the traitors, right?"
Yale never had a good opinion of his father; they almost never interacted when Yale was a child.
"I heard that your father supported that operation openly even though Ange was his own daughter..."
Yale didn't change his expression; he expected nothing from his father, but hearing that he even supported openly helping to kidnap his own daughter still disappointed him a bit. After all, Ange trusted her father. If he had only shut up and let the plan happen, he would have been a coward who sold his daughter for fear of being killed or enslaved, but at least he wouldn't have actively supported kidnapping his own daughter.
"He is even more despicable than I thought."
Swordmad sighed after hearing Yale.
"That is not all the story. While the clan was preparing to lure Ange, your father managed to take out from the clan all his wives and children without everyone noticing. He even tried to save Ange, but he was injured trying to rescue her and fled. No one knows why he acted in that way, but his current whereabouts are unknown, and the same applies to all the people who he made disappear previously. The last I know about him was a letter he sent to us saying that Nacesai City would be attacked and asked us to be careful. Without that letter maybe we would have died under the recent attack."
Yale was dumbfounded hearing that; he couldn't imagine his father acting like that after how he was treated when he was in the Roanmad Clan. However, he also knew that he was the only one who received such a special treatment from his father and Ange had only complained of her father by how he treated Yale.
"I don't know why your father helped to organize the plan to try to destroy it later, but he didn't seem to be on the side of those who attacked us."
Yale nodded to that; he still dislike his father for not battling to the death to protect Ange, but at least his father wasn't a traitor nor truly wanted to harm Ange despite Yale's guess that he had used her as a decoy to save his other children and his wives without being noticed.
"Let's stop speaking about him. Now, we need to save Ange. I thought that I couldn't sense her bloodline due to the barrier, but she should be one of the bloodlines I sense towards the east."
Swordmad didn't understand Yale's method to detect Ange, but he knew that they had the bloodline of the noble clans, so he didn't think that having such method was completely impossible.
"Those who attacked us came from a neighbor city situated at the east of Nacesai City, so your senses are probably working well."
At that moment, Yale understood that Swordmad still thought that their problem was a war between two cities.
"Before anything else, you need to understand the importance of this matter. They are part of a bandit alliance that decided to call themselves the True Empire, and they want to rule over the Revgen Empire and the rest of the continent. There are traitors in the noble clans supporting them. I obtained the information about the problems in Nacesai City from the leader of the traitors in the Larken Clan. Of course, he is already dead."
Swordmad didn't expect such an explanation; he thought that some bandits joined hands with the neighbor city to conquer Nacesai City; it was impossible for him to think of such a big plot.
As for the fact that Yale managed to obtain information from that leader, Swordmad didn't think too much about it. The Larken Clan was famous for being righteous and gave hard punishments to those who break the rules, so he expected that the traitors were caught and killed after obtaining all the information from them.
He also knew that Yale had been forcefully engaged with the Larken Clan, and Yale was a monster in terms of talent, so the fact that he obtained some important information wasn't outside consideration especially when it was information regarding his birthplace.
"I will go to rescue Ange. I have no time to lose. Master, you can accompany me if you want, but I don't plan to lose more time."
Seeing how Yale was eager to go to rescue Ange without caring about the consequences, Swordmad couldn't avoid thinking about himself and how many times he did things like that. Of course, he planned to tag with Yale to rescue Ange.
"Wait. We haven't seen each other in six years. I still have to thank you for saving me in the special realm six years ago."