"Useless! Absolutely useless!" Adler shouted.
He had given Adrian the order to provide stress to Emily and then lace her clothes with the emotion-boosting powder so that they could force her to fail or forfeit the competition. Although he would never admit it was because he was worried that she would surpass him, which she already had, there were two other reasons. One was that he wanted to leave a devil seed in her heart that would drain her confidence and stop her from advancing further as an array master. Then, while she was at her lowest, he could send Adrian to manipulate and use her as he wished from the position of her benefactor. This wasn't the original plan, but the objective had never changed. Emily was talented, Adler had to admit this, but even he who had watched her almost as long as Nikolai didn't think her talent was this great, no, he was sure it wasn't.
'How could she have improved so much? Could it really be that guy that this fool told me about?'
Regardless, he had to greatly adjust his plans now. After her master was out of the picture, he wanted to take her talent into the family bloodline and use her skills to cement his position in Rockshaw, and he hadn't given up yet. However, he scrapped the initial idea of having her marry into the family. Now that she was well-known, he would have to hide her identity so that others didn't come looking for her, but there were benefits to this. If he didn't have to care about upholding a clean image, he wouldn't need to use Adrian as much anymore and could simply make her a slave. He would probably hesitate if he found out that the young duke wanted to kill her, but his ignorant self only cared about the foreseeable benefits.
After Emily, no one paid much attention to the other competitors. Furthermore, due to the mental damage of having the unsurmountable Emily before them, many of them were unable to bring out their true abilities and failed to pass the round. It was so bad that the organizers had to consider lowering the standard for advancing to the next round so that enough people could pass. They would deliberate on this over the break between rounds so those on or below the line of passing had to go to lunch with butterflies already in their stomachs.
When the break was announced, Shui quickly met up with Emily so that he could explain the situation. Considering that she was the talk of the town, he was worried that she would be crowded before he could get to her, but luckily, the cold face that she put on was enough to fend off casual fans.
He sensed Alicia's and Alex's secret guards around her so he didn't conceal their presences, but communicated through telepathy. Since his soul was so strong, he could create a telepathic channel that strongly limited the burden that his partner needed to take up, but Emily could send telepathic messages without his help. Normally, telepathy was something that energy cultivators picked up in the Earth Realm, but as Emily's soul was comparable in strength to a nebula two-star soul, it was no problem for her. It was important to be wary of interception during telepathy, but Shui hadn't detected anyone who could intrude on a conversation that he wanted to keep secret.
Once Shui told her about the danger she was now in, Emily apologized as he thought she would.
"It looks like I'm causing a lot of trouble for you. I'm sorry."
"A thank you, would be better. Besides, you're fighting for our master, aren't you? Then isn't it my responsibility to help you?"
Shui then pat her head while flashing a reassuring smile. Emily didn't want to be over-reliant on him, or anyone else for that matter, but he always knew how to persuade her.
"Fine. I'll be in your care, Brother."
Shui responded with an even brighter smile, but that didn't mean he forgot to keep an eye on their surroundings. It would be hard for a novice since basically everyone was watching Emily due to her performance, but armed with the power gained from the Perception Chapter of the Tome of Shadows, it was child's play for Shui to distinguish became threats and bystanders.
There wasn't a direction in which he couldn't find someone coldly observing them, but the secret guards were enough against people of their level so Shui didn't conceal their presences as they made it to a restaurant for lunch. Naturally, it was a different establishment from the one Emily was brought to by her family.
Once they were escorted to a private room, Shui used talismans to create a barrier at the window, but he didn't block the door. Emily showed some interest in the talismans, but she instead continued their previous conversation. She did wonder why he didn't seal the door as well, but she assumed it was so the staff could enter with their food. Besides, they were still using telepathy anyways so there was no fear of eavesdropping. It took a bit of mental energy to maintain, but it wasn't enough to negatively affect her in the next round.
"Do you think I'll only be targeted inside the city or...?"
"It should just be until the end of the preliminaries. Based on what I know, the officials are probably hesitating because protecting you will mean offending a lot of people, but that'll change once you pass the preliminaries. By then your popularity will be too high to ignore, so the administration will be forced to protect you because if you died in the city, then it would be a huge hit to their reputation."
Although she wasn't the type to meddle in politics, Emily understood the situation from Shui's explanation.
"So I have to last until the end of the final round tomorrow. It looks like I'll need to put off sleeping tonight."
Emily thought that with so many assassins after her, it was obvious that she would have to stay alert throughout the night, but Shui disagreed.
"No, you won't, remember where we're staying at. You should know as well as I do about how good the security is in Myriad Flower Pavilion. And even if there's an assassin already in there, there's a rule that prohibits killing and I doubt that they want to upset the owner of the inn."
"Hmm, you have a good point."
Although his identity wasn't known, the owner of the Myriad Flower Pavilion was said to be one of the strongest Masters in the city and considering the connections he had with various major-level forces, no one would recklessly attempt to anger him. Emily seemed to honestly agree with the idea, but Shui wasn't so naïve. He could tell from her expression and the look in her eyes that she was worried that she wouldn't be able to relax alone. It was too embarrassing to say it herself so it would be nice if Shui did it, but he had other plans for her so he regretfully had to pretend he didn't notice.
The atmosphere became a bit stale, but luckily the food they ordered arrived soon after. It was a wonderful spread, however, Shui narrowed his eyes as he examined it.
'As I expected.'