The entire side of the hall was blown up and Virgo quickly raised a semi transparent shield around the table, blocking the debris and dust.
A moment later a shout resounded. "In the name of the empire! Catch them all!" A shout sounded and Sally immediately reacted.
"Sister!" She called out and I immediately calmed down. It seemed this may all just be a misunderstanding.
"Sister!?" Another voice called back and by the time the dust cleared we saw another figure with pale blonde hair that seemed just a mature version of princess Sally in shining knights armour.
Meanwhile around us, people in masks were running in every direction while a hundred or so rank-3 knights barged in, with several rank-4's and even some arch knights and arch mages.
"Sally?! What are you doing here?" Princess Sally's older sister, known as princess Alessandra, the crown princess of the empire and a whopping 42 years old already. She didn't look a day over 20.
I thought about the king who was 180 and vaguely remembered being told once that a rank-4 would have a 400 year lifespan, give or take a few decades. Meanwhile rank-5 could live 500 years. Then there was a large jump to a rank-6 demigod, where they could live up to a thousand years. It seemed that the crown princess would be an old woman by the time it was her turn to rule.
"I have no idea. We just followed him…" Sally pointed at me.
"I followed my intuition. It said something important was here." I responded as the crown princess watched me sternly. Holding my head up with one hand as my headache worsened.
"Then we'll take him in for questioning just in case." Alessandra stared at me with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
"Hey… Sally…" I asked.
"My sisters always like this. Just humour her." Sally waved her hand.
"Sorry. Did you say something sister?" Alessandra asked dangerously, evidently annoyed by the comment.
"I wanna make a bet…" I said, gripping my head.
"What kind?" Sally asked.
"That I can leave this place without even arch-mages and arch-knights being able to stop me." I said.
"A bold assumption. Surrender your sword and submit yourself for arrest." Alessandra Roared coldly.
"Alright. I'll take the bet." Sally said. "I'll meet you at your dormitory later if you win." She added.
I smiled as I looked in front of me.
"Nice…" I said weakly as I made my move and tapped my finger on the table.
"Ha! Do you think you ca-" Alessandra roared, raising her sword before freezing. It wasn't just her though. The entire world around me seemed to freeze.
I would have loved to admire the frozen explosions and such. But I had to move fast. I immediately bolted off back towards my dormitory. My core energy was sucked out of me at an astonishing rate as I maintained the time manipulation and used physical enhancement at the same time. After less than 30 seconds I had to release my time-manipulation, by which time I had already crossed out of the redlight district.
I didn't stop and used the remaining mana in my core to bolt back to my dorm apartment. It had taken 6 hours to get to the hidden auction house, but only taken 8 minutes to get back. 7 minutes and 33 seconds from an outside perspective.
When I entered my dorm I was utterly exhausted and Luna had to catch me before dragging me to my bed.
"Wait! F#ck! I forgot the egg!" I suddenly remembered that I had left the dragon egg behind.
… Princess
In the auction house. I watched as Dirk just up and disappeared. One moment he was standing there and without a single mana fluctuation he was gone. Illusion magic, spatial attribute or overwhelming speed. Nothing could describe what just happened.
"""..."""
The whole table was silent.
"Sir Virgo…" My elder sister, Alessandra spoke.
"I don't know what he did either. I vaguely sensed him leaving my detection range a moment ago, but the only thing I can think of is that he's a master of stealth and has incredible speed. Using some method to evade our senses before silently bolting away." Virgo answered.
I knew Virgo's strength well since he's my uncle. He's been guarding me whenever I do something dangerous since I was born and had accompanied me anytime I left the capital, regardless of whatever he had on.
Moreover, Virgo was a rank-5 Archmage. Dirk was only a higher end rank-2 knight. No… If he could completely evade the senses of even an archmage, then he was at least a rank-3 master.
I sighed. When I had accepted Dirk's confession my only thought had been that it would be nice to find someone to spend time with. Someone who doesn't have any ulterior political or financial motives. My innate talent had always been to tell people's intentions toward myself so it had been almost unbelievable to be confessed by someone without ulterior motives.
Well… My senses didn't tell me he had any. After meeting his sister the next day who approached me, I found his real motives were to be purposely rejected so he could use the excuse of heartbreak to get two weeks approved absence.
I honestly found it ridiculous at first. However after having to drag him to places and seeing how he escaped class in the strangest ways to avoid me, I finally believed it.
Despite how it started though. The more I got to know Dirk. The stranger he became. He did nothing, not any kind of secret training. Yet he could defeat a powerful rank-2 student several years above himself. He had the kind of physical strength that should take years of gruelling training, technique that should take decades to hone and artifacts that have been lost for centuries. He definitely wasn't your normal person.
"Sister, just forget about him. I'll ask him later." I sighed, retrieving Dirk's dragon egg he left behind.
"Where's his dorm?" I asked Alexxandra, Dirks' sister.
"Western separated dormitories. Floor 2, Room 23." She answered instantly.