In the evening
Completing his duty for the day Sean made his way to the resting quarters arranged for the mercenaries by the carnival. This resting quarters was a big carriage where at least 10 mercenaries shared a place to rest/sleep.
Apart from the place being shared by both genders the whole place was filled with stench of sweat and it was sufficient to say that the conditions were worse for them. However this was only for the mercenaries who guarded the carriages. Sean found that the conditions for the vanguard mercenaries were much better and could only curse his own luck to be stuck in this stench hole.
Being a former military personal with many tours under his belt he has experience in this type of conditions as he had to share the same space with his team members but it didn't mean that he liked it.
Going inside the carriage Sean's face scrunched from the wave of stale stench he smelt the second he opened the cover of the carriage. Sean saw a group of men huddled to sleep and made his way to a corner and had his back against the sides of the carriage.
With his eyes closed as if he was taking rest Sean secretly made sure that the mercs inside the carriage were asleep. After a bit of rest to adjust his mind to its peak Sean took out a serum with the label 'STR 7' in its body and injected the serum into his nerve.
The feeling of a strange foreign liquid coursing through his veins was felt by Sean for the nth time and that strange power went straight towards his heart which was the source of power. With the liquid being sucked a hard heart beat was heard by Sean following which his heart started to pump out new blood and with every blood flowing through his veins and bones nourished the same making him more stronger than before.
The entire process continued for a few minutes before all the functions in his body seemed to return to normal. Squeezing his palm in and out Sean felt up his strength which had increased yet again and from the increase estimated that he could fight a level 8 warrior with bare hands.
The Qi training will no longer help him in fighting people of higher realm unless he becomes a higher level in warrior training which wouldn't happen anytime soon. As for Gene enhancement he could at best fight a person upto one level higher than him and the chances would decrease in case his opponent has a strong bloodline limit.
With enhanced gene Sean had his consciousness enter the system and entered the training arena to get used to the new gene enhancement.
Meanwhile in the vanguard camp Cornelia was dealing with a headache for the past 10 days. Ever since she entered the vanguard camp, she tried to keep a low profile but still ended up gaining attention from a pest. The pest was named Kelly Ashburn and it seemed like he was from a medium class family.
Ever since she entered this camp he would try to hit on her, courtesy of her gorgeous figure which couldn't be hidden unlike her face which was covered in a mask. Despite her face hidden she couldn't hide her attitude and disposition which was of a noble background combined with her cold attitude made this Kelly Ashburn to get infatuated so much so that he would try to flirt and court her before his fiancé.
This continued today as well, Kelly Ashburn, with his fake gentleman disposition offered Cornelia to come to his tent for dinner. There was a woman who was standing four steps behind Kelly. This woman was not his fiancé but his other girlfriend who had after a long period of courting and seduction solidified her position and right now she was seething with anger.
'Where the fuck did this bitch come from. She is acting all high and mighty for a bitch from small background. I know you are playing hard to get you bitch. Your ultimate aim in the end is to spread your legs to him. Why are you acting like an innocent angel, you whore?. This is not good. Ever since this bitch came along Kelly hasn't been paying any attention towards me. If this continues I would get abandoned by him after all I am not even his concubine. All I am right now is his sex friend in actual and girlfriend in name. He will abandon me the second he gets tired of my body.'
The countenance of this girl was ugly as she saw Kelly desperately trying to get Cornelia to accept a dinner date. Cornelia completely ignored him and made way for her resting place with two other girls with whom she formed a team temporarily. Her work was similar to that of a guard for the scouts and during this time period she had completed her job diligently but kept minimum contact with the people around her.
This was to avoid getting her identity known to others and also to get herself entangled in other's affairs. "Why don't you accept his invitation Ms. Bird?. He is from a very wealthy family and judging by how infatuated he is with you, you might very well become his fiancé" asked a girl near Cornelia.
Ms. Bird was the fake name Cornelia had given while introducing herself to the team. Growing up in a large family she had multiple cards holding different names and this helped her to successfully hide her identity.
"I am not interested" was all the answer the girls received from Cornelia as she entered the tent given for her stay.
The night passed quickly and uneventfully as the Carnival halted their travel for the day. The next day the Carnival set off early and by the time it was 10 in the morning they were greeted by a huge city gate filled with guards and the heavy traffic of mercenaries, adventurers and merchants going in and out of the city. Cornelia was quite restless today as she was completely in dark of the current situation within the kingdom especially the battle between the Crown prince and the Second prince as she was travelling through the plains to reach the Salt lake city for the past 4 days. She had not heard of anything in the previous town they had passed through making her more and more anxious to reach this medium sized city.
Though she was quite dissatisfied with her father for arranging this political marriage between her and Voight she had long accepted the fate of a large clan's daughter. Though she seemed to have a lot of power and resources at the begining every daughter were to a certain extent considered a tool by the clan to increase their power through alliances. She was not an innocent girl who dreams of the impossible and try to go against fate unless she escapes from her clan and be considered a deserter from clan duties and be hunted down by clan enforcers.
Though in small clans it was not a big deal but to a large clan especially that of a mage clan they would spend huge amount of resources on every new blood. There was no way they would lie down and take betrayal lightly.
Soon it was the carnivals turn to pass. The tents and shops were placed outside the city, not on the main road but on a separate spacious area on the sides of the main route. Only the merchants and mercenaries who had business within the city passed through the gate.
The merchants and their employees were planning on starting an advertisement campaign to get more customers to visit the carnival while mercenaries were planning on obtaining information.
Meanwhile within the Arcadia palace, it had been 12 days since the defeat of former crown prince and after repeated inquisition from the current crown prince Lux Arcadia, the king i.e his father had accepted the visit of his son. Unlike what one would expect the king wasn't on his throne. That throne was just a place he sits on when the king has a political meeting with his ministers or visits from foreign ambassadors.
Currently he was in his office wearing a simple robe which in itself felt regal in his presence. He was a middle aged man and according to official records he was around 60 years old but he rather looked to be around mid 30's. This was due to constant consumption of herbs, potions which enhances his vitality and health while also taking special pills to retain his youth, virility etc. As a king he had huge amount of resources to splurge on such medicines.
Looking at the door he saw a youth with silver hair and equally silver eyes enter the room. This was his second son Lux. In actuality Lux was his fourth son, unfortunately the 2nd and 3rd sons were dead. One due to assassination while the other due to accident while on hunting. This was quite common in big families and even more common in royal families. He knew that both were assassinated but his investigations came up empty so he could only swallow the grudge and let it go.
Looking at his son, the King didn't show any signs of happiness or did he congratulate him on his victory. In his opinion his first son Voight should have been victorious but through sheer luck and family background this incompetent piece of shit had become victorious. Despite all the cover ups Lux's mother had done, the king knew every single one of this degenerate filth's activity.
Rape, human trafficking, frequenting brothels where young trafficked girls were employed, special shows for degenerate noble family's young masters and sometimes even patriarchs where teenage girls and boys were raped and many more atrocities. Despite being the king he couldn't capture or imprison big family's patriarch.
"What do you want?" asked the King in a cold tone.
With a lecherous smirk on his face Lux asked in a tone of mockery "Hey Dad, I won against your most filial and doted son. I just came to inform you of that while I also wanted to see that look on your face. Didn't you call me incompetent and a piece of trash. Now that I won what are you going to do about this?".
Hearing the mocking tone of Lux the king's face turned livid but taking a deep breath he calmed down and said "Well you have said your piece. Now why don't you leave. I have more important things to do. Oh and even if you win it doesn't change the fact that you won due to dumb luck you degenerate piece of shit".
Saying his piece the king after a long time in his life released his aura which was stronger than that of level 10 warrior. Yes, his level was far more stronger than level 10. The aura made Lux face turn pale and shiver. The aura kept increasing every second and any more than this and Lux might pee his pants and break down.
Satisfied with this the king retracted his gaze and said "Hmph, trash!! leave".
Not daring to be in this room any longer Lux scurried out of the palace with hatred and fear mixed on his face.