After calming down a bit,
"System, use ten tickets in Techniques and the rest for Materials. I don't need any tools at the moment."
[Piano Manual 1x] [Fencing 2x] [Sword Art Manual 2x] [Basic Forging Manual 1x] [Spear Art Manual 2x] [Basic Medicine Manual 1x] [Basic Acupuncture Manual 1x] [Water Bottle 15x] [Iron ore 2x] [Mithril 3x] [Iron nail 1x] [Chicken Feather 1x]
"Forging!" Alex surprised
"Finally, I got a forging manual. I already have an Alchemy Manual, but I don't have any cauldron to use. I searched everywhere but never found an alchemy cauldron. It seems like now I can make my own cauldron." He jumped around happily, ignoring the many water bottles he just got.
After a while, he started calming down. "System, dismantle the item like before."
[Process]
[Ticket 2x]
"2 tickets... Let's save them for now."
While Alex was grinning happily, he didn't know what was happening in the dining hall.
In the dining hall, the atmosphere was so gloomy because of the grand duke and Alicia.
The rest who were there got confused about why grand duke and Alicia was like this. So the wife asked the grand duke.
"What happened, husband?"
Just as he was about to explain, the maids got in.
"Master, Sir Alexander said he was in the middle of practice, and he said he won't join today's dinner and the Grand Duke can continue without him."
"Aah..." grand duke's face darkened "Alright, you can leave."
The maids looked at the grand duke, they got scared by the reaction and left immediately.
"Husband, what happened to you? Alicia, can you explain? Why doesn't Alexander want to join us tonight?" The wife was still confused over her husband and daughter's expression.
"This..." he calmed himself down and started explaining what happened at the restaurant. And how Alex began distancing himself from Alicia right after the incident.
After hearing the whole story, the atmosphere became gloomier than before. After eating, they just went back to their own room.
At night, Alex got back to cultivate when he finished opening his gacha. After cultivating for 2 hours, he opened his eyes.
"Hmm... summing up from before, for 6 hours I can get 5 points status with one point each status." He said to himself.
It was almost midnight when he finished his cultivation so he got ready to sleep right away.
'Knock Knock'
Hearing the sound of a knocking door, Alex immediately opened the door and he was surprised as he found Alicia was the one who came into his room.
"Princess.."
"Alex..."
The atmosphere around them was awkward, it was unusual for Alex to greet her that way.
"Princess, what kind of business do you wish to discuss with me in the middle of the night? It would damage your reputation if someone sees you coming to a man's room at midnight." Alex broke the silence.
"Alex… please... don't call me Princess, just call me Alicia like you always do." Alicia bit her lips. She couldn't bear to see Alex became so polite when talking to her, tears started forming at the corner of her eyes
"Princess, if you came all the way here only to discuss this matter. Please go back to your room and get rest for tomorrow." Alex said.
"Alex..." she looked down, dejected.
When Alex wanted to close his door and Alicia was about to leave. They heard the windows shattered. Alex immediately raised his battle stance since he recognized the sound coming from his back. He noticed that it was his room's windows that just got smashed by something.
"Assassin!" Alicia shouted.
The assassin, without further ado, closed his distances with Alex and swung his dagger to Alex's neck.
Alex immediately blocked the assassin's hand and kicked him. The assassin was surprised by Alex's reaction, he thought since his target was a young inexperienced commoner, it would be an easy kill. He immediately put his other hand to block Alex's kick. But Alex's kick still blew him away.
'He's strong' both of them immediately thought.
Recognizing each other's power, they knew their power was equal. The assassin immediately changed his target to Alicia that was behind Alex. He knew that his faith was sealed when he failed to sneak into Alex's room. The only thing he could think of was bringing someone else to death with him.
Noticing the assassin's intent, Alex immediately grabbed Alicia to his bosom and dodged. Alex didn't dodge thoughtlessly. He dodged to the side of his bed, where he placed his sword. He grabbed his sword and Alicia froze when Alex pulled her to his bosom, she blushed.
"Alex... I will help!" Alicia started to calm down while looking at Alex clenching his sword.
Looking at Alex who had the same strength as the assassin, the assassin still wanted to escape. Deep within his heart, he still feared death even after he prepared himself well before executing his plan to kill Alex.
"Are you going to escape?" Alex immediately swung his sword at the assassin, making him can't escape that easily. Suddenly, the grand duke's voice was heard.
"Where is the assassin?" The grand duke roared.
When the assassin heard the sound of the grand duke. He knew he can't escape right now.
Noticing this, Alex wanted to interrogate him.
"Who are you? Who sent you?"
"You won't get any information from me."
"We will see...stop"
The assassin snorted and committed suicide. There was a poison in the assassin's mouth. He bit that and his mouth started foaming.
After confirming that the assassin had died, he looked at Alicia right away.
"Princess.. are you okay?" Alicia nodded.
"Princess, you should inform the grand duke."
"Alex..." Even after this incident, Alex seemed to become more distanced from her. She bit her lips and left.
She didn't know why Alex became so distant from her so suddenly. What actually happened during the incident in the restaurant was that his past trauma had resurfaced. When he was a kid, his parents loved him so much. However, soon after he became a useless son, they started comparing him with his sister and they began to hate him.
The one and only person in middle school he thought was his friend treated him indifferently. He also had a girlfriend who treated him nicely at first but then she cheated on him with the fake friend. They betrayed him together and everything had traumatized him for life. He thought Alicia, grand duke, and king were treating him nicely now because of his talent.
When he thought, 'what if I don't have this talent anymore will they betray me too?' it kept resurfacing in his mind. That was why he started distancing himself from her. In reality, distancing himself from trouble with noble etiquette was only one of the many reasons. The main problem was that he was trying so hard to overcome his trauma, but he wasn't a person that could overcome it just because he wanted it. He was someone that will change only after a long period. People might think he was a coward or weak person, but that was just him.
Not long after Alicia left, she came back with the grand duke.
"Alex... Let me do the rest. You can rest in the room next door." Grand duke said after checking if there were any wounds on him.
Alex nodded and left. The grand duke only shook his head and blamed that bastard Nito. He then decided to increase the defense around the mansion.
In the new bedroom, Alex decided to sleep.
In the morning, Alex opened his eyes and he immediately got dressed up.
'Knock knock'
Alex opened his door and the maids found Alex had already been dressed up. It surprised them both because they were the ones who were supposed to dress him.
"Sir, we come to…"
"I have changed myself, lead the way." Alex interrupted.
The maids then led the way to the garden. In the garden, there was a carriage waiting for Alex. He recognized the carriage, it was the previous carriage that Alicia used in her travel. Beside the carriage, the grand duke and head butler were waiting for him. Alex approached them.
"Good morning Grand Duke and Head butler." Alex greeted them, but the tone he used was more polite.
The grand duke's face darkened.
"Alex... How are you?"
"I'm fine. Thanks for the grand duke's concern."
Hearing Alex's response, he gritted his teeth, "The assassin was a rank 3, he doesn't belong to any organization nor family. I heard from Alicia, you got attacked by the son of Marquis. So, what happened yesterday may be linked to them. After you set off, I will immediately go to Pondria's house to demand an explanation."
Alex nodded, "Thank you, grand duke."
Grand duke sighed. After a while, Alicia got out of the house. She wore a white dress, matching it with Alex's white cloth. She let her long purple hair loose.
"Father" She greeted grand duke when she turned to Alex, she greeted Alex awkwardly. "Alex...."
"Good morning Princess Alicia." Alex greeted her politely.
Noticing the awkwardness,
"Since the two of you are already here, let's go then." The grand duke said
The four of them got in the carriage, the travel didn't take too much time and they arrived after ten minutes.
"I wish both of you will have a nice day." The grand duke said goodbye to his daughter and Alex.
Alicia and Alex nodded and walked to the academy. The grand duke and his butler were heading to Pondria's house.
They walked to the crowd forming in line in front of the academy. Alex and Alicia joined the queue.
"Rank 0, warrior, no element, 18 years old. Failed!"
"Rank 1, Warrior, no element, 16 years old. Passed!"
"Rank 0, Mage, Fire element, 17 years old. Passed!"
The old man assessed the recruits, some failed and some passed.
"Alex, you have the recommendation letter from the king so you don't need to wait here," Alicia whispered to Alex
"I will wait for you first, Princess."
"Rank 1, Mage, Fire element, 16 Years old. Passed!" the old man was surprised.
"We have a genius this year." The other teacher who was on standby also joined the early assessment.
"Yeah, a rank 1 fire element mage, and he is still 16 years old. He is a genius."
The recruitment for this year was for 16 years old to 19 years old. A rank 1 warrior usually was around 18 years old, while a rank 1 mage was rarer than a rank 1 warrior. So a 16 years old rank 1 mage was something amusing.
"What is your name?" The old man asked politely.
"My name is Rio Maroria, First son of Earl Maroria." He said with a smug smile. He already expected this result since he already tested it in his house. Many people already claimed he was a genius.
"So, it's sir Rio Maroria. I heard so much about you." The old man politely said.
Alex and Alicia were watching this scene in silence. After Rio's assessment, many wannabe students were envious and jealous of his talents. Rio stood by the side, watching the other assessment while grinning.
After a while, it's time for Alicia's assessment.
"Rank 1, Mage, Ice Element, 16 years old. Passed!" the old man was surprised once more. The truth is Alicia was almost rank 2. After traveling with Alex for four months. Alex liked going out alone to kill monsters, but Alicia often followed him. So Alicia who was a new rank 1 mage when they first met, now almost reached a rank 2 mage.
"This... a genius had appeared again!" The crowd was shocked by Alicia's rank.
"It's not a water element, but an ice element!" Ice element was more advanced than the water element, so the ice element was even rarer than the fire and water element.
Rio was shocked, he was not only astounded by Alicia's talent but also her beauty. He immediately decided that he would try his best to get this woman as his girlfriend. He then decided to walk to Alicia.
"Oh my, is this Princess Alicia? A pleasure to meet you, Princess. My name is Rio Maroria. The first son of Earl Maroria. Since the princess already passed the assessment, why don't we get in together?"
"Greeting to you, sir Rio Maroria. I will wait for him first." She stared at Alex to indicate that she was waiting for the man. When Alicia looked at Alex, Rio sent a cold gaze to Alex. Alex looked at him and sighed inwardly 'Another Nasty Young Master who thinks with his d*ck, not his brain. Why are there so many of them?' He sincerely prayed so he won't meet any people like this in the future. Even if he needed to, he hoped he would not run into that many spoiled brats. He didn't know if his prayer would get answered, though.
"You can scram here. You don't even need to be assessed. You already failed!" Rio commanded.
Alex ignored Rio and gave his letter to the old man.
"Sir, this is my recommendation letter." Alex politely gave his letter to the old man. Each noble would have one recommendation letter for their house. They usually used it for their children, who had no talent.
Looking at Alex's recommendation letter. Rio thought Alex must be a mediocre talent since he needed a recommendation letter. So he looked at Alex with contempt.
"Huh, a recommendation letter? Your talent must be so bad that you need to use a recommendation letter. You don't have the right for Alicia to wait for you. Just scram from here."
"Excuse me Sir Rio Maroria, but we are not close to each other. So don't call me by my name. And it's not your business who I am waiting for." Alicia said.
"You..." seeing Alicia reprimanded him, he hated Alex even more. He looked at the old man and other teachers. "I don't want him in the academy, he has no talent and only relies on recommendation letters."
"You... please leave, the academy doesn't welcome you!" The old man said, giving Alex's letter back.
"You... Why did you act like this! You will regret this." Alicia glared at the old man and Rio. Rio only snorted, he was jealous of seeing Alicia with Alex. He already considered Alicia to be his woman, that was why she hoped to get rid of Alex. While the old man saw Alex relying on a recommendation letter, he already decided it's better to get on Rio's good side than Alex.
'No integrity' Alex was surprised by this action. He only shook his head and sighed. When he was just about to leave.
"Wait!"