"Lizzy!!!" The two called her name upon seeing her eating with me.
A slight panic shook her entire body for a moment upon being called and shifted her attention to the person who called her.
As soon as she took a glance at them, she immediately saw the familiar faces.
A handsome yellow-haired boy with both of his eyes red followed by another handsome boy with black hair and blue eyes.
Albeit It's my first time seeing them closely, I know these two pretty well. They're Michael Azkarorg and Axel.
We're classmates and we sometimes hang out. Although, It's only because I was being forced all the time.
My parents were constantly forcing me to hang out with them at every parent's meeting. I could roughly guess that our parents were pals and are forcing their children to become close to each other for political reasons.
As for Axel, he wasn't part of that. His parents are both commoners and dead. Above all things, he has nothing to be proud of. However, thanks to these friends of his, he somehow becomes lively and happier.
Yet, we're still not close to each other because of those killer eyes of his every time we saw each other.
His mood suddenly changed from being cheerful into a demon as soon as he grasped a glimpse of me eating with his friend or should I say his crush.
I don't know why he is acting like that to me, is it because I'm eating with her? No, that doesn't explain everything. This is the first time I got to talk with her. Therefore, the reasons are surely different which is unusual.
Set aside, I stared at the girl in question ahead.
So her name is Lizzy. That clears everything up.
Among the five of the king's children, there is only one person with the name Lizzy in this empire, And that is the second daughter of the current king. Lizzy Alfin. The second princess.
That was unexpected, even though I know their names, I've never seen their face personally or even in the newest history book.
The recent history book contains all the information regarding the empire. Every descendant of the king was engraved inside the book. However, their faces were never imprinted in the book that's why it was quite a surprise that the person in front of me was a princess albeit were classmates for two years.
Problem must've occurred inside the castle. for them to hide their descendant's faces it must be serious.
They immediately greet each other when in touch with each other and talk about trivial things.
Then...
"And who might you be?"
Are you saying you hang out with me without remembering my face and name before? Oh yeah, that's right, I'd keep my distance from them before so it wasn't hard to adapt.
The person who asked that was Michael.
"Sigh... Just a passerby eating at the table."
"You sure are confident. Do you know who the person in front of you is?"
"Who knows. I was eating here before she came and asked me to eat with her."
"Lies. She will never ask anyone to eat with her unless you forced her."
Axel aggressively remarked.
Everyone's gaze became sharper than it was upon hearing that.
Certainly, they knew everything from the root to the edge of the tree yet their expression is still showing their hostility toward me.
Was it on purpose?
I stared at Axel. There was a subtle smile engraved on his face. However, it instantly disappeared the moment I looked at him. I shifted my gaze to Lizzy who had been shivering in embarrassment or whatever the reason is.
This is dumb.
I let out a breath before speaking.
"I hope we will never see each other again" with a disappointed look.
With that being said, I'd grabbed my food and left the cafeteria.
They seemed to be confused by my strange demeanor, but the one who took the damage was probably Lizzy herself. The shame she accumulated cannot be said in words.
Shortly, I arrived on the rooftop. There I began eating my food peacefully without being disturbed by others.
After that, I returned the tray to the cafeteria and went back to the rooftop, and slept.
There wasn't even a single hint of hesitation from me before doing it.
But then, I remembered something really important.
I immediately got up and sat nearby. It was time for that.
I started to concentrate. The mana around gradually came to my body and soon, my body was coated in mana with different types of colors.
Hump-...
I used all my strength in an instant. Then, the mana around me started to engrave runes around the shackles that became evident to the naked eyes.
The purpose is to destroy the shackle that conceals and keep the mana I accumulated for the past 6 years inside my body. Without these shackles, I wouldn't be able to collect and keep this huge amount of mana inside of me.
And now is the time to destroy the shackles that restrain me for its sole purpose.
Released-...
One before another the shackles have gradually torn apart.
Crack-... Crack-... Crack-...
When the shackles had finally worn off, the mana inside hastily burst out without giving me the time to prepare.
However, on the contrary, that's what I'll have been waiting for.
The moment it came out of my body, I made sure not to spread the mana around and make it unnoticed to everyone.
I may have a hard time performing this but even so- I don't want anyone to notice it openly. People might sense the tremendous amount of mana leaking on the rooftop. However, I have already thought about it beforehand, that's why-
"Soul arts, sphere of concealment."
Quickly after saying these words, huge white mana enveloped and circled me, and soon the entire rooftop was covered in white mana with me in the midst. In addition, the mana created an illusion that made the rooftop seems normal and completely concealed and trapped the entire thing inside including the mana leaking on my body.
"With this, the chance of discovering me drops to zero"
This would've been noticed by anyone, however, this technique does not need mana to deploy. The energy desired to create is pure soul energy which Is something I accumulated along with my mana for the past six years.
and even without the system, anyone can use this technique as long as you have full control over the soul energy you possessed.
As such, with this technique currently functioning, I have nothing to worry about getting discovered by someone.
Since everything had been settled, the only job left for me to do is to wait till every bit of mana inside me leaked out before condensing it all inside my right eye.
After wasting some time waiting, shortly, I began controlling the mana around me and compress it all into my right eye.
Compress...
"Ugh-"
The procedure is completely different in real life than in the game.
I could feel my right eye slowly drying up and the pain is gradually increasing.
Soon I feel like my eye is breaking apart and it hurts like hell. But that did not stop me from continuing the project.
I had already made things clear before doing this even though I know the compensation wasn't evident. Even so- I had to do this in order to become the strongest whether it cost my right eye to lose its sight.
With things still ongoing, I also used my soul energy around my right eye to ensure that none of my mana is leaking out.
That being the case, soon my right eye lose sight and that didn't surprise me anymore, I had already known this to happen in advance.
Shortly, a lot of blood flowed from my right eye and I have no other choice but to ignore it and concentrate on the project.
....
Five hours later...
I woke up and found myself lying on the rooftop. I'll slowly lift my body.
There wasn't a bit of strength left in my body, as such, the only thing I could do at this moment is to rest.
That would be the best choice, but, to do that, I have to go somewhere where I can lean my back.
In that case, I slowly crawled towards the exit.
When arrived, I immediately laid my back on the wall on the other side of the exit.
There I began resting peacefully.
In front of me was the sun setting gracefully.
I couldn't say anything about what happened.
Nothing comes to mind.
Under this circumstance, I got nothing to do but rest until my mind recovered.
1 hour had passed.
I began to remember the things that happened earlier.
After recalling for a few minutes, I opened my right eye. I then glanced to a certain location, on top of the town, a bird is soaring in the sky.
Blink-
While flying, the bird suddenly felt aching in his body, and distortion in the space. The bird glanced at his body to see what was happening only to see his body being blended by unknown black spiral energy.
The bird immediately knew the danger behind it and hurriedly tried to fly away. However, the black spiral energy didn't let him do what he wanted, his body was abruptly pulled back by an unknown force. Without enough strength to escape, the bird was rapidly integrated inside the black spiral energy. No blood came out, only the scream of the bird that alerted the people below was heard.
The people below who noticed the black spiral energy floating above upon hearing the birds scream instantly grabbed their weapons. Some had frowned expressions some had sweat on their forehead some were panicking.
This would have been ignored by most people, however, this strange black spiral is not just an ordinary phenomenon.
The energy they felt coming from the black spiral energy was enough to put the entire nation under intense pressure in just a matter of time. Therefore, their reactions weren't surprising at all. Their instinct is just functioning properly.
And seeing the royals and other nobles including the Arcadia family head as well as the king himself appearing one after another flying around to see where this pressure was coming from, shows how dire the situation was.
"What is this?"
"I don't know. But it appears that this black spiral energy is the source of this chaotic pressure"
"Do you know where it came from?"
"No"
"Don't ask us. We don't even know how this thing was created."
"Isn't that the reason why we all came here?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Everyone nodded in agreement. The sole reason why they came here is to investigate. Therefore, asking other people proves to be inadequate.
While everyone present here was wondering about this sudden occurrence, soon the black spiral started to devour all mana signatures gathering around.
Absorb-
"What the...!" One of them shouted in shock upon realizing the black spiral energy had begun absorbing their mana.
"Everyone stay away!!!"
Everyone approximately had a solemn expression engraved on their face. Nonetheless, they immediately flew away from the black energy.
"Now what?"
"This is bad. We cannot let this go any longer. We're not the only person affected by this, the people below are also getting their mana absorbed which is a big problem. Once their mana was completely absorbed, there might be a chance that they will die." One of them said after noticing the people below are falling on the ground one by one unconscious.
Some people had low mana capacity so this spectacle wasn't surprising at all.
"We have to solve this fast or else not only our reputation will be affected by this but the whole empire as well."
"Yes, you're right. To be honest, I've never noticed this black energy after coming here, in fact, I only discovered it just now when it started absorbing our mana."
This was a reasonable opinion, the size of black spiral energy is almost equal to single rice.
"Let me try to solve this" one of them initiated to volunteer.
Having no reason to refuse, everyone agreed in unison.
"Then..."
As he raised his right hand, a giant solid fireball appeared on top of his hand.
"Fire magic, blazing sun"
He aimed at the black spiral energy before releasing the huge fireball on top of his hand.
Boom-...
A large explosion occurred the moment these two energy touched each other.
"Tree magic, dense forest" one of them created a large sum of trees to cover the people below.
Some also commenced creating protection magic to make the shelter stronger against the explosion. With this, the residents safety was guaranteed.
After a few minutes, the large explosion disappeared.
Everyone eyes were fixated on a certain location to see the result.
All of them waited for several minutes, however, the black spiral energy completely vanished from their sights.
"Did it work?"
"Probably"
"Hahaha, a mere energy like that won't be able to hold against my power" the person who fired that fireball laugh.
Some of them had weird expression on him but that didn't last long, since the problem was solved, they started leaving as if nothing happened.
But before that...
"You guys better come to the castle tomorrow to discuss this matter"
No one replied. But then a few seconds later they nodded in agreement.
This is a matter that everyone needs to discuss about and cannot just refuse it easily.
On the other hand, while they're discussing, a cold smirk resurfaced on my face.
"Hahaha, it was a success."
This was the first time I'd laughed like this in this world.
Then, I started up recalling the event just now.
To others it may seemed like it was destroyed by the other party technique. However, if it wasn't for me having this condition I would've absorbed that whole fireball if I wanted to.
Because of that, it leave me with no other choice but to cancel the technique during the collision.
With this power, I may be able to reach level 1000 in 10 years or maybe beyond than that.