On a balcony of a luxurious flat, a teenage boy with short red hair sat on his comfortable chair. The morning sunlight shined on his fair skin and highlighted his handsome face.

His entire focus was on his laptop, where he was reading chats on his Riscord server.

He then sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He muttered, "They're still on it."

He continued to read the chats for some time, then closed the Riscord. He was bored of them as he could find nothing but people cursing him and then some people, in his defense, cursing the other party.

This started last night, and it was still going on in the morning. 

"Morning, Brother Lex!"

A voice came from behind, making his mood rise as his lips tugged in a smile. He turned his head to look at the small stature girl with long auburn hair and beautiful blue eyes. His younger sister. 

"Morning Ely, I've prepared a..." Before Lexus or Lex could say anything, Elise or Ely flashed a grin at him and showed both her hands, in which she held sandwiches.

"Hehe, I knew you would have prepared them, so I first went to the kitchen before coming here," Ely said as she came towards him and sat on the chair beside his.

She stuffed her small mouth with those sandwiches and looked at the laptop. She asked, "What were you doing in the morning, brother?"

"Hmm? Oh! It's nothing. Just a bunch of people getting riled up because they can't accept other's opinions." Lex replied. "My editor and I were talking yesterday, and We forgot that we were talking on my server. I just said that I don't like this particularly famous novel 'Seven Hell,' and now they've been on it since last night."

Ely took another bite of the sandwich and said, "Well, brother, you must understand that you're a famous author; whatever you say could be controversial. Especially saying something about someone else's works."

"Yeah, I don't really care, though. Anyways, let's not focus on that and ruin our mood." He then looked at Ely's large hoodie and shorts and said, "You should get ready; the escort from the Academy will be arriving soon."

At the mention of the escort, Ely's mood became bad. She said softly, "But I wanted to go with you."

Lex patted her head and said, "Who told you to be so talented? You're someone with the potential to reach S-Rank, or maybe even SS-Rank and the kingdom has to provide protection for people like you. In fact, our kingdom is still the best; in other kingdoms, they force children with good potential to remain in the prison-type palace to train until they reach adulthood. Even then, you would have to serve them, so you should be thankful our kingdom lets you do anything you want."

"Ughh, fine. I'll go and get ready." Ely groaned and stuffed her small mouth with the remaining sandwich. 

"It would have been nice if Mom and Dad were with us; they would be happy seeing us get into The Aethrian Academy." Ely sighed and said. 

"Ely, this is an auspicious day, so don't talk about them," Lex said, his warm voice changing into a cold voice.

"But.." Ely looked at Lex and then said nothing. Her eyes stayed on the small knife scar on Lex's neck. 

She shook her head, standing up, and went to her room to get ready. Lex was right, today was a new start for them, and she should be happy.

Lex shook his head, watching Ely go. He really wanted to just stay in the countryside with Ely all his life. It would been a peaceful life for them, and he knew Ely also didn't have a problem with it.

But it changed when, six months ago, Ely awakened her ability Symbiosis, an ability with the potential to reach S-Rank and even SS-RANK.

The people possessing S-Rank abilities were rare in the whole Kingdom, so when Ely went through her Awakening, she had drawn many eyes on herself.

One of them was the offer from the prestigious Aethrian Academy, the top academy of the Lionheart kingdom. But they didn't force Ely, nobody did.

Ely was going to reject the offer as she just wanted to live peacefully with her brother. But Lex had convinced her to accept the invitation. He knew that even if the Lionheart kingdom wouldn't do anything to Ely, they weren't the only ones who wanted S-Rank individuals.

He wouldn't be able to protect Ely if something unexpected happened. He had almost failed once in the past, and he didn't want to take more risks.

That's why they were here in the capital city of Lionheart Kingdom to attend Aethrian Academy.

"Ughh, but now that we're here, we would have to deal with everyone here in the capital." Lex felt annoyance rise just by thinking of that.

He took out his phone to play some games to clear up his mind. But then he heard a sound coming from inside the room, so he turned to look. 

There, the figure of Ely emerged. She had done her hair in a ponytail and was wearing the uniform of Academy, a black mini skirt with a white shirt and a red blazer which had a lion printed on its left side. 

She was looking beautiful. 

He smiled and complimented her, "You're looking cute."

"Tehehe," Ely just giggled at the compliment. She then remembered something and hurriedly went into the kitchen, Lex just watched in curiosity as to what this girl was planning.

Soon, she returned with a chocolate cake in her hands. Lex raised his eyebrows and asked, "Why the cake?"

"Hmm, well, you love cake, right? So I thought, why don't we start our new journey with a cake." Ely explained as she put the cake on the table.

It was then the doorbell rang.

"Oh! It looks like the escort is here. I'm leaving, brother. Bye!" Ely waved her hand and skipped over to the door.

Lex shook his head with a smile and looked at the cake. Then his gaze landed on his phone, where an ad for a game was playing.

"Lustful Rising? An erotic game?" Lex said and clicked on it.