Lirian climbed out of bed in the early hours of the morning like always, his head was aching and from the previous night and he wished that he could go out and grab himself a drink to dull the pain.
He carefully placed the sword back in its case and dressed up for his morning training, he was soon frowning outside his mother's study the meeting was still going on and that meant they would have no training for the day.
He went out to one of the other courtyards and did his training alone before getting ready for school, at breakfast he didn't even try to sit properly and ate his meal while leaning over his plate, it always helped his mood when he noticed the irritation of the people around him, and in the last few minutes, he dropped his eating utensils and ate the last bit of his food with his hands directly.
He almost broke into a fit of laughs as he watched the eyes of the aides' twitch uncontrollably at his lack of manners, but when he looked at the dropping fate particles he decided to stop, that was one of the problems with fate if you do something to evoke a reaction purposely it will cost you fate particles, his only solace was that since the difference in life hierarchy between him and the aides was too large it didn't take too much of his fate particles.
Before he got dressed, he called one of the servants to give him a haircut the shoulder-length hair of his was definitely part of the reason everyone mistook him for a girl and it was time for it to go.
He sat down on a chair and allowed the servant to cut his hair as he relaxed comfortably, and after ten minutes he looked into the mirror, and only one word coursed through his mind like a bolt of lightning.
"KAWAIIII!" he shouted as he looked at the mirror, "Holy freaking crap, I look more like a girl than ever before."
He could hardly believe it was himself in the mirror, the shortened silver hair emphasized his lovely and smooth snow-white skin to an entirely new level, he now thought of himself as a porcelain doll as he looked at his reflection and ran a finger across his soft face.
"Truly I am cursed by beauty," he muttered and the servant couldn't help but nod in agreement, he really tried to give him a more boyish look but it completely backfired on him.
"Sir Lirian if you are determined to have a more boyish look, I could shave your head." the servant offered.
"No way am I going bald, not a chance of it!" he cried out, in all his lives he never once allowed himself to go bald and he'd be damned if he allowed it to happen in this life.
He climbed out of the chair and went to wash up.
As he was leaving for school, he checked his watch again but no message appeared so he decided to take the initiative and messaged his mom wishing her a good morning.
He kept checking his watch every five seconds for the reply, Anya who was watching kept gritting her teeth feeling irritated at his behavior, ten minutes later he finally got a reply.
'Sorry the time just slipped by me, I didn't realise that a day already passed, have a good day in school.'
-M
He breathed out in relief and finally managed to settle down, the voices finally quieted down and he could hear himself think again.
His arrival caused quite the scene, after the events of the previous day news had spread like wildfire amongst the students about him being the source of the silver energy that damaged the school.
Along the way he could see looks of detest, it was mainly the younger students that looked at him like that, but the older students looked more envious than anything, some were even nodding in respect, it was only the ones that understood the difficulty of energy control that had no qualms with him all, however, there were very few of them in the entire school.
He entered the elevator and when he reached his floor, he found two people blocking his path as well as an entire entourage of their followers.
He identified both of them very quickly, Edith the princess candidate he had already met and the person next to her made his mouth sour, he was a seven-foot-tall high orc with a monstrous size, easily the most famous prince candidate on the planet.
"Greetings miss Edith and sir Tobias," he greeted them with a smile, he intended to create a meeting with them at some point in the week but he was happy to see them ahead of schedule.
Tobias jumped in front of him with his arms wide open, "You're so cute," he bellowed at the top of his lungs and tried to grab Lirian in a crushing hug.
"Tsk," Lirian clicked his tongue and delivered a sucker punch in Tobias's face, and the hulking giant tumbled backward on the floor, he got up like it was nothing but he grinned from ear to ear as he looked at Lirian.
"My eyes say one thing about you, but nose shouts that you're a boy," he laughed and continued to look at Lirian with starry eyes.
"Keep thinking such things and I'll make sure you stop being a boy," Lirian scoffed at him and aim a kick between the high-orcs legs.
Tobias dodged quickly and laughed it off like a silly joke, he was impressed with Lirian from the beginning, he was especially surprised that such a small person could send him sprawling on the floor with a single punch.
Edith rolled her eyes at the display, she had expected it since she called Tobias with her, after the previous day, she could tell that Lirian was smart and that was enough for her to approve of him, she had deliberately given him exactly what he needed as ammo to win against her, it was a tactic she used on every candidate in their first meeting.
It gave them a sense of superiority to her and made them lower their guard against her in future confrontations and it made it easier for her to get closer to them, people like people they are superior against, and to date that tactic always worked for her.
"Candidates are not allowed to cultivate..." she began.
Lirian stopped her promptly, "Yesterday you interrupted my pleasant conversation and today you state the obvious, miss Edith I do hope that you have a reason for these... interruptions." he wanted to say for annoying him but that wouldn't be very cordial.
Edith gave a charming smile, "I am curious as to how you were able to utilize energy control on such a large scale without any cultivation."
He looked at her and smirked slightly, she felt a slight jolt in her nerves when saw that smirk, and for a fraction of a second, she felt a fear she couldn't understand, but as if it was a delusion in her head the feeling vanished and she forced her smile to stay plastered on her face.
"I thought all candidates were capable of something so simple." he answered with a smirk, "Or is it that you are questioning the ethics of the empress and her aides?" he asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
Despite the uncomfortable pressure, she felt Edith didn't waver, "Due to the results of her majesty's previous children, there are many superpowers that believe she might hide the details about you while secretly helping you, and after your stunt yesterday many of the powers are especially concerned. I imagine that as we speak, they are pushing for your capsule data to be released to the public and you can probably guess who is leading the charge against her majesty,"
Lirian frowned but stopped putting pressure on her, as he realized what her words meant, the meeting his mother was in was most likely because of him and now she had to endure a whole load of political pressure because he was trying to build up his fame.
But the worst was that he had given his mother's greatest enemy a weapon, Efrideet Capriska, she was a front runner for the empress's position, but Albus had beaten her to it and chose his mother to become empress over Efrideet.
Efrideet Capriska the diviner, as a diviner her road to power was the most difficult it could possibly be, and to break through the sixth-grade limit to the seventh she desperately needed the authority as the empress to have any hope of breaking through the into the immortal realm, but that possibility disappeared when Taliyah became empress, leaving her extremely bitter and vengeful.
A thousand years later she broke into the seventh-grade but her progress completely stagnated and it became almost impossible for her to ascend any further.
He looked at Edith with a complicated gaze, "Thank you for telling me this," he said after a while, he couldn't figure out why she was helping him, but then he realised that his thinking was too small, his mother was from a lesser world that fell under the jurisdiction of the Eden family, her achievement helped the entire star zone get a better reputation, therefore it was only natural that they would help his mother and him in turn.
"I knew you would be smart enough to understand.", she said with a smile, he smiled bitterly as he thought of how short-sighted his actions were, for the first time he realised how annoying politics can be, there was a big difference from reading about politics and actively playing the game of politics.
"Now that that's settled would you join me for lunch in the cafeteria," it sounded like a question but Lirian realised that if he declined it would make him seem ungrateful but he still hesitated he knew that as the empress's child his presence at a table had a special value.
Her smile didn't faulter as she saw Lirian deliberately taking his time to give her an answer, "I'll call Media and Wentian, and if Tobias calls Cole, it will be all the candidates in one gathering," she offered.
"There is still one missing from your list," he said.
"Oh, that self-declared candidate is an imbecilic, she doesn't understand what it means to be a candidate, she could learn a lot from Cole but sadly her brains don't seem to be able to work, she thinks that being a candidate is a privilege, but she is unable to understand why every citizen of the empire is allowed to become a candidate but so few ever take up the role, but don't worry when she hears about our meeting she'll come running and force herself in."
He was secretly surprised and very impressed by her intelligence, he even felt embarrassed about his previous attitude towards her and that's when it clicked in his head, "You played me like a fiddle and let me win that first round." he chuckled as he realized the truth, she was very smart, it was no wonder she could get all the candidate to meet with her.
"Oh, so you figured it out," she smiled without a care that she had been figured out, ", politicians need to learn how to read the waves, it has to be a give and take, there can never be a tide that never collapses." she added with a smirk of her own.
"Is that something your father told you?", Tobias asked, now that Edith finished what she wanted to say, he stepped out from behind her.
Edith nodded slightly, "Although I was too small to understanding the meaning when he told me."
Tobias gave a hearty laugh, "It beats what my ass of a father told me, at least it wasn't bad advice."
"He told me that there are two types of people I must always avoid, horny men and petty women."
As the two began to walk away Lirian called out to them, "There is something I'd like to discuss during lunch,"
"I'll take that as a yes to my invite, so what is it you want to discuss?" she asked curiously, she was hoping it wasn't something stupid like the idle gossip that goes around the school.
"Actually, I've learned something interesting and would like your help to confirm my discovery,"
"What would you like our help with?" she finally started to feel genuinely curious about him.
"What I need is simple actually, I'd like to see your class registers as well as all the other candidates," he said with a sincere smile but his words caused both Edith and Tobias to completely stop in their tracks.
"You already figured it out!" Tobias said dumbfounded and even Edith looked at him with widened eyes as if she was seeing him for the first time.
"Well, I only had a suspicion, but your reactions confirm my theory."
"I suppose that our meeting will go better than I expected," Edith said with a smile, inwardly she was still shaking, she could hardly believe that he discovered and figured out the first and most important secret of a candidate within a single day.