The Jack of Hearts finally arrived in the capital of the Heart Kingdom after his long trip to the Diamond Kingdom and was quick to enter the room where most royals and those who would attend the tournament stayed at
There was an immediate silence as soon as his aura was felt by everyone
"It's obvious that my presence attracted your attention so while I have your attention I would like to announce something! No matter how old I am or I become I will not be replaced by any loser in this room!" The Jack of Hearts, Balor announced
With this announcement he singlehandedly made every attendant angry toward him
"Oh, I hear you wonder who this little piece of matter is! In simple terms, just one of my victims! Icarus Ruw!!! I heard you are here and that's the only reason I came here, so get ready to get crushed by me!" Balor said as he smiled
"Oh my! Quite excited as always Balor! But please don't go around scaring my guests!" The king of Hearts said as he placed his hand on top of Balor's shoulder
"Wow! You are quite strong!" Teras said as he walked in front of Balor
"Who is this kid Max? Some sort of a jester?" Balor asked confused
"My name is Teras! Nice to meet you! You must be my next prey!" Teras said with an innocent expression on his face
And a bloodthirst bigger than any that was inside the room
"Prey you say? Who exactly are you? You are not a part of any royal family nor someone I would recognize" Balor said as he smiled, it was a smile created by anger
"I just told you who I am! Did you not hear me? That's the name you will be screaming inside the arena, begging it to stop!" Teras continued as he slowly released his black aura for dramatic effect
"I like this kid Max where the hell did you find him?" Balor said as he started laughing out loud
Suddenly Enyo appeared out of nowhere to kick Teras in the back of his head
"What the hell are you saying to a royal idiot? Do you have a death wish!" Enyo screamed at Teras's face
"Oh my! Enyo is here too? This party seems to be way more packed than I thought! So when does the fighting start?" Balor asked excitedly
"Certainty not now! First, we will have a feast-off before discussing what has been happening to the world in the last few years"
"Boohoo so much for a fight!" Balor said as he followed the king to the big table that was set for the royals to feast
Teras decided he wasn't fit for this fancy lunch so he headed to the garden to stare at the moon and the stars, it was night after all
"You are Teras, right? Dude I saw you back there! You were amazing! I didn't know someone like me could talk to a royal like this!" Maximus said as he interrupted Teras's silent stargazing
"Who are you?" Teras asked confused
"Oh yeah, I'm sorry! I'm Maximus Jones a high silver ranked adventurer! What rank are you?" Maximus asked expecting a high rank
"Silver"
"Just silver?" He asked empty
'This guy is a lower rank than me and had the balls to say that to the Jack of Hearts, I'm so jealous' Maximus thought with amazement
"You came to look at the moon too? It's a full moon today so it's especially beautiful" Teras said as his eyes were glued to the moon
"Not really! I don't like the night, every monster reveals themselves at night so it's kind of scary plus you can't see anything unless you use mana vision which is very annoying and hard to use" Maximus said as he sat near Teras
"It's not so hard if you focus enough, in fact, mana vision is a critical thing in fighting strong opponents so you should focus on training it before it comes to a point when you fall behind..." Teras told Maximus without looking at his eyes
"Whoa really? Is this why you feel comfortable while talking crap to strong opponents?" Maximus asked jokingly
"Strong? This fake-ass Jack? I don't want to start talking about him because I won't stop criticizing the way he used his mana flow to "scare" us!"
The way Teras spoke made Maximus think they were in a different league even though he was considered a higher-ranked adventurer than Teras
"Who do you think will win the tournament?" Maximus asked Teras out of nowhere after a long time of silence
"Probably Icarus" Teras replied mindlessly
"You too? Everybody says that but I don't want to let a gloomy guy like that be the Jack of this kingdom! What does he even do here? He is from the Diamond Kingdom, couldn't the Ruw family stay away from one important spot once?" Maximus said as he stumped his foot against the ground
"What do you mean?" Teras asked
He still wasn't sure of the state the world was in at the time
"The Ruws have tried to spread their kind everywhere in the world, they are trying to marry into royal families and also trying to become royals themselves, it annoys me! Being one of the strongest families in the world isn't enough for them?"
"I don't see the reason to be mad at that Maximus, if they are strong then they have the right to extend their family across the world, if they managed to become the best in the world then let them be, why hate someone if they are strong? If you don't like it overthrow them" Teras said calmly
"I guess you are right... Anyway, want to go inside? Even though it's Spring it's still kind of chilly outside..." Maximus said as he warmed himself with his hands
"Nah I would like to stare at the moon and stars for a bit longer..."
Confused by his strange hobby Maximus asked
"Why do you like the stargazing so much? Does the night sky captivate you this much?"
"Why? Doesn't it captivate you? It's full of small lights that fill up the dark sky, unknown of their use or origin, and a moon that lights up the dark days with its gentle shine that also happens to increase everybody's mana regeneration! The night sky is a mystery Maximus, a beautiful mystery, that's why I'm addicted to it" Teras explained to him
"I heard your discussion! Excuse me for interrupting you two but let me educate you on the stars! Even though the moon has its own aura it mostly reflects the light the sun provides and the stars are nothing but a guide for our travels GOD created them for us but it doesn't stop there, the stars are used for us to remember the most important people in the history of the world like Orion, the apex predator which guided humanity through the great catastrophe years ago or Scorpio, which we can actually see now! Scorpio was the savior of the world who gave us the known system of 4 kings and a grand king and also was the founder of many universities and fine arts schools, stars must be praised for ages and never get forgotten because ultimately the stars are our history!" Lola told them with a smile as the stars decorated her beauty
Teras then started to clap
"If you were this passionate about your training you would be even better than me!"
Lola became very embarrassed because of what Teras told her
"Wait the princess can fight? I thought you simply sit on a throne and conquer"
Maximus was quite clueless about the work the royals had to do
"Of course, we don't do that... Wait a minute who even are you? Teras is this one of your friends? Why the hell did you bring him in? You know this is punishable right?"
"Too many questions! First of all, we are not friends yet, and second of all I didn't bring him into the castle he simply found me relaxing on the roof here, oh anyway what are you doing here in the first place, shouldn't you be in the room that they celebrate?" Teras asked confused
"I should but I got bored and left, worst case scenario they will look for me"
"Shouldn't you be a bit more... like formal? Anyway, you are my student! I didn't think you would take after me so early! I'm so proud!!!"
As soon as he said that Lola punched him in the stomach
"RUDE!!! Greetings to you, I'm sorry I insulted you by thinking you are one of Teras's friends! How may I address you as?" Lola asked as she turned to look at Maximus
"M-Me? Oh, I'm just... I'm Maximus Jones..." Maximus said as he got lost in her eyes
'The princess is talking to me? She is looking into my eyes... She even asked for my name... And Teras talks to her every day? I'm soooo jealous!!!' Maximus thought as he looked away from the princess
The thought of looking the princess eye to eye became a hard task after he thought about it
"Oho? Felt for the "charming" princess of Hearts? Get serious right now! You can't have feelings for the princess if you are planning to become her guard, it just won't work!" Teras said with a teasing smile
"Nononononono It's not like that come on!"
"Deny it all you want, but actions speak louder than words!" Teras said with a smile while pushing away the embarrassed Maximus
"MISS LOLA WHERE ARE YOU"
"Looks like it's time for me to go, it was nice meeting you Maximus and as for you Teras, get serious! My father isn't fond of your ways, you have to show up for my training! Me not being worthy to train with you is not a usable excuse anymore!"
Lola made herself quite clear before leaving
"Hey Lola tell your father something by me..."
Lola slowly turned around to look at Teras before entering the castle
"What's that?"
"I'm better at controlling mana than he will ever be so tell him to keep his bits of advice to himself!" Teras said as he stared at Lola's eyes
Maximus felt like his stomach was crushed, he wasn't the one to insult the king but he felt more fear than Teras
What made the situation worse was the arrival of the King of Hearts shortly after, Maximus was even more speechless than before
"Could you leave us alone young man? I have to talk to your friend alone" The king said with a smile
Without saying a word Maximus bowed and quickly left the scene but not quite, he hid and concealed his mana behind a big tree
"I heard you have been saying tough words about the king behind his back, is that true Teras? And what about my daughter's training? I thought you were worthy to become one of us but after you tried to get into the chamber you changed, I don't want your talent to go to waste Teras so cooperate with us, I'm telling you this for your good" The king told Teras with his heavy growl-like voice
"Is this a threat?" Teras asked
"Consider my words however you want"
"Tell Enyo I'm quitting the tutoring" Teras said as he tried to walk away
Suddenly the king grabbed him by his hand
"You can't do that Teras, after telling all this to the world you can't just leave"
"Let go of me"
"I won't Teras, not until you decide to train my daughter seriously this time"
"Do you want me to be completely honest? Your daughter doesn't have the talent to become great with mana, I advised her as much as I could and I told her about my tactics but she couldn't show even half of the results I showed when I didn't know anything about mana yet, she has so many flaws"
"Isn't your job to correct her?"
"It will take years!"
"So?"
…
"What do you mean it will take years to become this strong? You said you got this strong in a matter of 2 years, that's not years, that's a couple of years!"
---
"Come on don't be so cocky! You are not special"
-You are right, I'm not one bit special, but what I went through makes up for everything, the lack of talent, the lack of being special, and even the lack of being weak-
"What did you even go through that made you this tough?"
…
"Hell..." Teras thought as he was relaxing on a hot spring in the middle of the capital
He was thinking about the conclusion of the talk he had and also those visions
'They are not even dreams anymore, simply visions that interrupt whatever I'm doing that day, maybe old memories would be a more appropriate name for them but still, I can't have them suddenly make me collapse like that, what if it happens during a fight?'
Teras was quite anxious about his situation but another thing that warned him was his current situation
"So did you make this fancy sword of yours by using the bones of commoners?" Maximus said as he stood inside the hot spring
"This is titanium not bones! Could you please stop standing now? It's not good manners" Icarus said as he was relaxing with his eyes closed
"Oh, I'm sorry MR. I'm too good and special because I'm a member of the great family! I wasn't raised in a place where hot spring culture was needed!" Maximus replied angrily
"You know Maximus, for a guy that's amazed because of how I talk to people stronger than me, you do tend to be quite aggressive toward someone you know can kill you in three swings" Teras said as he slightly giggled
"Oh yeah now that you mentioned that! Why the hell did you say that to the king?" Maximus whispered in Teras's ear
"What do you mean?"
"My brother you told him to cut his own throat don't you remember? I'm surprised he didn't kill you on the spot"
"Did I?" Teras wondered
…
"So? I'm not devoting years to a princess that's what I'm saying, you and the royals you have to impress can slit your necks"
"That's no way to speak to a king boy"
"Yeah like I give a damn, what did you ever do to me? Did you feed me? Did you perhaps help in any way? Do you know why I trained so hard? Because in my life the only thing I knew was fighting, I didn't live like you I survived for years by being alarmed during the day and hunting during the night, I can't afford to stay here because I know that the thing you are hiding from me is wicked and being here only makes me feel sicker and sicker so you can either accept the way I teach or fuck off"
…
"Now that you mention it I kind of remembered it but why do YOU know? Weren't you supposed to leave us alone?" Teras asked confused
"Don't stress the little details" Maximus said while spanking Teras in the back
"You are one odd pair you know that?" Icarus asked as he stared at the two of them
"You are the one to talk! What was that interaction with Enyo?" Teras asked as he giggled
"I-I was just trying to open up to a strong friend my grandpa knew..."
"Yeah more like you were trying to get her to open up something else"
Teras continued to giggle like a kid
"I will kill you!" Icarus said as he got up
"With what? This little sword of yours?" Teras said as he pointed at Icarus's holy spear of ambition
"Now you have done it..." Maximus said as he stared at the hollow aura Icarus emitted
This late-night friendly fight was about to disturb the silence of this one special night