Lirian looked at his constantly decreasing fate particles, his little stunt did not go without cost, he had purposely used his fate particles to look into those spiritual markers, by doing so he was able to gain a basic understanding of all those that watched his recording and as expected it spooked the hell out of a lot of them.
He completely depleted all of his acquired fate particles and spent 20 trillion from his system to maintain his data gathering, it was not nearly enough but if there was one thing Lirian was it was brilliant, the reactions of those who saw the recording fed him plenty of fate particle so used all the particles he was gathering to perform a self-sustaining fuelling loop.
All the fate particles he was gaining would be used to ensure the continuous running of the information gathering from the recording, he doubted that any of them even realised that they were being spied on.
Currently, his gains were a lot more than his expenditure, but once word of the recording got out and people stopped being so surprised by it his gains would drop which is why he didn't take in any of his earned fate particles for now, he didn't need it anyway.
His biggest contributor was the heavens chosen boon without it the loop would have cost him far too much, but for now, he was glad to have such a valuable source of information.
When he returned home, the situation was the same as the previous day, his mother was very busy dealing with many different officials that he had managed to fright and he doubted that she would be free anytime soon.
Six months slowly went by under the current circumstances.
It was so early in the morning that not even the first traces of sunlight appeared on the horizon when Edith arrived at school, she had made it a habit to be the first to arrive, she would always be in the school before even the boarding students could climb down from the 30th-35th floors.
She sat in the private room reserved for the candidates with complex feelings, the hearth burned ever so faithful and washed away the cold air allowing her to remain lost in her thoughts, these past six months were different.
She remembered what it was like to be the star of the zone, while Tobias was known well by the public and spoken of by the nobles, she had always been a core subject of their attention but in recent months that spotlight lost its glow in comparison too the burning sun that was Lirians fame.
She would always think back to her father's words of the tide, without realising she had given way to tide far greater than her own, and it seemed like that tide could continue to rise endlessly, she would have been happy if she felt there was room for her to help that tide grow and stabilise itself at least then she would have still been fulfilling a purpose but as things currently sat Lirian seemed to be in perfect control of everything.
The worst part was that she found it impossible to hate him, despite how arrogant, disrespectful, and insensitive he could be he never stroked his own ego by belittling his seniors and he was extremely helpful, in the past six months she found herself thinking in critical ways she couldn't have imagined before.
She looked at this special room made for candidates and thought that it was the perfect place for the great families to watch their little toys play, but she felt that the others would laugh at her for thinking such things but in the corner of her mind she choose to be more careful of the words she spoke in this place.
Media entered a little later and smiled in greeting as she ordered a warm beverage and sat in front of the fire, the days were currently cold and she slowly warmed her hands in the fire's light.
"I've been hearing from my family that the security around the Xelia families star cluster has been increasing by the day and it's been happening around the entire star zone," Media said as she got her drink and took a small sip.
Edith nodded, "Yes, apparently the entire zone is about to get a lot of visitors and some of them could be dangerous, they will begin arriving in the next 12-13 months and the situation should remain the same for a few years, I doubt that it will change before Tobias and I enter into suspended animation."
Media nodded as she got the confirmation she was looking for, she assumed that her family would be happy with her information gathering, having a direct confirmation would always make the information more valuable, "I've heard that this has something to do with Lirian it's hardly believable that he caused such a stir." she mused softly.
Edith also shook her head, "I'm not too sure about that but my family has been asking me a lot about him, but they aren't telling me the reason."
The door opened again and Tobias came in taking up the entire doorway and Wentian followed behind him with Cole they were all dressed as if it was summer and they took the seats furthest from the fire.
"Why are you guys sitting so far away it's pretty cold?" Media said and lifted her drink to show them the steamrolling into the air.
"We use the cold to temper our bodies, it is what will make us true warriors," said Tobias in his deep and powerful voice.
Edith chuckled, "Boys will be boys," she said and shared a look with Media and they giggled as they noticed the boys' legs filled with goosebumps from the cold.
When Lirian came in he was dressed in his proper winter outfit and a silk scarf of red and silver was wrapped around his neck and the word 'With love from mom.' were seen clearly on it, it was also hand-stitched.
Most of the ordinary students in the school would probably laugh at him for it if he wasn't a prince candidate while anyone from the great families with parents in important positions would look on in envy even his fellow candidates couldn't help but feel jealous of course they would never admit to it.
Lirian took a seat near the fire while frowning and folded his scarf neatly, to make sure the words were all visible as he sat it down and ordered himself breakfast.
Cole hopped out of his seat and jumped into Lirians, the couches were pretty big, and in the past few months they had all gotten over their fear of him, they learned one rule, you can say whatever you want to him so long as you weren't making light of his ability or say that he was undeserving of his power you could joke around with him and all would be fine.
"What's got you looking so grumpy today?" he asked with a chuckle.
"These damn great families are a royal pain in the ass!" he exclaimed loudly, "Because of their crap I haven't been able to see my mother for a few weeks, and even when I do see my mom, I can only say a few sentences to catch up before she has to enter another meeting."
It was really starting to annoy him, especially the fact that things hadn't been fixed up between him and his mother, it seemed that everything was okay on the surface but the problem was just shelved temporarily and if he couldn't find a solution it was only a matter of time before it blew up.
Edith glanced around the room with a trace of worry, she feared that the families could hear that and she was surprised to see that it wasn't only her looking around warily, as she thought about it, she realised that she wasn't the only one that was more restrained with her words.
He truly made her feel complex emotions, on one hand, she envied his relationship with his mother and she also felt somewhat grateful to him, since he arrived, she had more contact with her mother than ever before in her life, it was annoying at first because the main subject was always Lirian, but recently her mother would give personal calls occasionally to catch up with her for a few minutes.
Cole was the sole person who pondered on it deeply unlike the others he was an ordinary civilian from a normal family, when the school learned of his talent, they recommended that he declare himself a candidate but other than that his life was still pretty much the same.
"If you really want to spend some time with your mom, just buy an easy to eat meal and target one of your moms small openings in her schedule to eat with her, it's what my mom does to spend a little bit of extra time with my dad," he shrugged, he didn't know if such a tactic was possible with someone as important as the empress, but it was all he could think of.
Lirians eyes sparkled and he looked at Cole like he was his savior, this entire time he was thinking that he had to do something big and grand, but it was just like cultivation, things had to be repaired in small steps if you want to fix a sword you don't melt it down in the sun, you use a furnace.
Cole felt himself blush at the look Lirian was giving him and it didn't make sense he liked girls but Lirian somehow had that effect on anyone he met they couldn't help but feel strong things about him especially when he looked at them so intently.
After an embarrassing few seconds Cole turned away looking flushed, "This is why I think of you as my closest friend," Lirian added with a chuckle, his reaction was genuine but he had to add that so that he could have his own fun.
"Hey I thought that I was your BFF," Tobias added with a saddened expression.
Lirian tilted his head slightly at the giant of a man, "Not a chance in hell," he said coldly.
"Why are you always so mean to only me, I didn't do anything wrong to you," he cried out with teary eyes.
Media giggled loudly, "I think I know why," she paused deliberately with intent and gave Lirian a sly smile, "I have noticed that Lirian hates anyone taller than himself, and the taller you are the more he hates you, in short, he as an inferiority complex when it comes to height,"
"Th.At. Is. Ri.Di.Cu.Lus." he snapped and swiped her drink from her hand and took a long sip from it, ", and I'm not returning this." he said while taking another sip.
By now they had long since figured out who the food thief was after all it only started after Lirian became a candidate it didn't take a genius to figure it out, but to their dismay, they could never spot him doing it, and eventually, they just gave up and began ordering a little extra food on the side.
While he was enjoying Media's drink everyone's eyes were glimmering due to the revelation and it felt like a veil had been lifted especially for Tobias who had received unjust treatment so far, but he couldn't help it that high orc physics were so stocked.