Later that evening…

"I've got good news."

Leaning into her chair, Rancain's eyes gleamed with anticipation as she read the message that popped up on her smartphone.

"We can call the Grand Sage a few minutes from now," she said to Celsus, prompting the latter to let out a faint sigh of relief.

"That's great," he said in return. "I thought we'd have to wait until tomorrow or the day after to inform him about the matter."

After Rancain asked him if he wanted to meet the Grand Sage with her, Celsus went silent for a bit as he thought about the things he still needed to do once more.

Though, once he concluded that none of them were urgent matters, the man eventually agreed to the idea as he accompanied the Great Sage for a while longer.

Of course, as they got to talking, Rancain told him about how there was a good chance they'd have to wait a day or two before they could finally contact the Grand Sage.

Naturally, as the strongest and greatest Sage of their time, the Grand Sage had a lot of say in various matters throughout the planet. However, just because he was the strongest Sage didn't mean he had to be involved in such matters.

If anything, it was because the Grand Sage himself had chosen to get involved.

If not for that, then it would have only taken them a couple of minutes to contact the Grand Sage after Rancain brought up the idea.

"It could've been worse," said Rancain in response to Celsus' words. "There was one time in the past where I had to wait for an entire month just to get a hold of him."

The latter shuddered at that. "Was the matter you had to tell him urgent?"

"Fortunately, it was not," replied the former with a shake of her head. "After all, it was just me giving him an update on the Eminent Sage Tournament."

"Us Great Sages are more than enough to handle the matters necessary for that to happen."

"Oh yeah." At the mention of the tournament, Celsus' eyes lit up with curiosity. "Speaking of the tournament, how many years are there left until the tournament?"

"Since the tournaments after this will now be held once every decade, we're still working out the various changes to it, which include the rewards we would give," answered Rancain as she thought about the question for a bit.

"Of course, as it's the only Eminent Sage Tournament that's transitioning in schedule, the rewards for this one are better than the last tournament. But even then, it'd take at least six or seven more years until we'd announce something to the public."

"Why the question? You planning to participate or something?"

"Just curious." Celsus shook his head at the question. "Anyways, isn't it about the right time to contact the Grand Sage?"

"Right." Thanking him for reminding her, Rancain went ahead and opened her laptop once more as she began to attempt a video call with the Grand Sage.

Fortunately, it only took a couple of rings for the video call to connect, prompting the screen to reveal a young gray-haired man whose eyes looked as if they contained the light of thousands of stars.

"Great Sage Rancain. It's been a while."

Just as those words left the Grand Sage's mouth, Rancain urged Celsus to sit beside her.

"It has indeed been a while, Grand Sage," she replied with a nod, only to then point at the man beside her. "This is Upper Sage Celsus, the person behind the reason why I've called you."

"Upper Sage Celsus?" The young man went silent for a bit as surprise soon appeared on his face. "Wait… are you perhaps the grandson of Old Farren?"

"…That would be me, Grand Sage." Though this was the first time he was hearing his grandfather being called that way, Celsus maintained a calm expression on his face.

"I knew it." The Grand Sage let out a chuckle in return. "Already at the 2nd Upper Boundary, eh? Keep it up."

"Thank you, Grand Sage."

"So, about the matter you wanted to talk about." After exchanging a couple more words with Celsus, the Grand Sage soon returned his attention back to Rancain. "The Lightless Sage Protocol, right?"

"Yes." The latter nodded. "Sage Celsus here informed me of a person that has achieved both high tiers of color and omen during their aptitude test."

"Oh?" The Grand Sage raised his eyebrow at those words. "Quite rare to have both color and omen appear. How high of a tier are we talking?"

"The color is around the fourth tier, while the omen is a two-color omen," replied Rancain, prompting the Grand Sage to fall silent.

Seeing the Grand Sage's expression become more pensive as time passed, both Rancain and Celsus could not help but feel like a hint of nervousness.

Though, just as they were beginning to think that something bad was going to happen, the young man let out a soft sigh as he told them, "Tell me more about this person."

…

"…Veradine Avantis."

Bringing up her information on his computer, the Grand Sage's eyebrows furrowed as the gears in his mind whirred to life.

"According to you, Sage Celsus, her blood caused around 70% of the concoction to turn colorless, while a brief flash of two colors had appeared during this process. Is that right?"

"That is correct, Grand Sage." Celsus nodded on the other side of the screen.

"Hmm…"

Closing his eyes for a bit, the Grand Sage thought about his final response for a bit longer.

'I already know what kind of effects the other colors have, but this is the first time I've heard of the concoction losing color. Better to err on the side of caution in that regard.'

'Then again, the two-color omen isn't a lot, but there's a good chance that this piece of information is falsified.'

'In that case, the two combined means that there's a great possibility that this Veradine Avantis might just have the potential to achieve what I couldn't,' he thought to himself.

'Since that's the case…'

"I've come to a decision," said the Grand Sage, prompting both Rancain and Celsus to pay attention to his next words.

"Although the results of her aptitude test shows that she has potential to become a Sage with enough time…"

"I, Grand Sage Genesius, would suggest her to remain as a mortal instead."