Arriving at the participant hall, Veritas, Bello, and Alice stared at the various people in front of them.
It equated about 20 or so participants, coming from either the Knights Academy or the other regions of Elrod.
The next stage wouldn't happen until the afternoon so there were not that many people inside!
Veritas saw a couple of familiar faces belonging to his friends.
He saw Leo pestering Hana as always, who was getting prepared for the 2nd stage in the afternoon.
On the farther left side of the hall, he saw a groupmate from yesterday who was named Morah.
She was from Alfar and she possessed an attack-type Path and a water-based Attunement.
It seemed that she was talking to a colleague of hers so Veritas did not bother getting closer.
Instead, he made his way towards Leo and Hana.
"You two are here early.."
"Oh! Veritas!"
"My liege.."
Leo rushed towards him and jumped in joy.
"I saw your performance in the battle yesterday! It was wild! Your teammate, Bello- oh, he's right there! Hello!"
Bello awkwardly smiled and waved his hands.
"You two are immediately acquainted huh.."
Nodding at the fast development, Leo brought his finger up to his chin.
"We didn't expect our Paths to synergize that well. So, once we did, the two of us were immediately acquainted. That said, he is also the pfft.. apprentice of the Head Wielder, I guess that makes it common for the both of us."
"Hmm.. Alright, I see."
Then, Hana stepped forward to greet Veritas. She bowed down slightly and placed her hand on her left chest.
"I was amazed by your performance, my liege.. You too, Lord Bello."
"Y-yeah."
Actually, now that their Bello's disguise had been found out by the Puppeteer. Veritas consulted his father about it and was guided to casually approach Bello and become acquainted with him.
There was nothing to lose as both of them were turning out to be quite the celebrities inside the Knights Academy.
But the most important reason for this is because..
They failed the plan.
Or rather.. the first step of the plan.
Although Veritas really outshined himself and garnered the attentions of many. In the end, the Puppeteer gradually came to notice his connection with Bello, especially in that harrowing night.
Seeing the lifeless body hanging from the ceilings of Bello's room turned out to be more complicated than he thought.
Bello was blamed to have caused the murder! But thanks to the King's influence, and his information control, he was cleared of his name and that information never came out of the light.
Still, that was quite a traumatizing sight to behold, especially for someone who was not quite experienced with the mystics like Bello.
He was assigned a new dormitory after that but Bello chose to stay at their residence at the Gold Borough with Alune.
Another thing was, Veritas had finally found the perpetrator of Alune's sudden outburst in the past month.
Seeing the dream and his Vision, Veritas began to piece together the symptoms of the Curse and Alune's illness.
A sudden exaggerated emotion of fear, and beginning to tremble uncontrollably. It was not normal to begin with but it made much sense!
Alune was not the only one who felt that illness too! Although it was weaker and didn't turn the people into Faceless, it was still quite harrowing and caused a couple of deaths in Elrod.
Who knew that the Seraphim could still be quite active even after being trapped in an endless dream.
No wonder Alune got affected, his affinity to dreams were something else..
The investigation of the King's team and the investigation agency aimed to search for people with similar incidents like Alune's. Then, after 3 days, they found a relevant piece of information that they could piece together.
All the people that were affected by the symptoms of the Curse were all Dreamers!
Alune had to be extra careful and take the prescription of the Queen more seriously..
The Seraphim was already gone from the dream though.. it's Soul was stolen by the Puppeteer! So, the symptoms have probably dissipated by now..
Spacing out, Veritas was suddenly snapped back to reality and he asked, "Where is Mercury?"
Leo replied:
"Oh.. he was just here a couple of minutes ago."
"Is that so?"
Leo then nodded.
"He's probably at the training ground though, I mean.. he's always there."
"You're right.. I'll check right away."
"Alright~"
Veritas walked towards the exit of the participants hall and then looked back at Bello and Alice.
He then shrugged upon staring at Bello.
'Meh.. He'll be alright.'
With that, he headed outside and towards the training grounds.
*
The sun was beginning to warm up the Central City of Elrod. The cold breeze of the spring slowly dissipated due to the hasty arrival of summer!
It was hot and humid. Even though it was only 8:43 in the morning, the sun was already scorching the surroundings!
Students at the training ground were sweating all-over, dripping down to the sandy floor below.
Their black bodysuits absorbed the sweat so the discomfort did not last that long.
All except for one individual who seemed to be unmoving yet the training dummy in front of him succumbed to invisible strikes.
The Northern Swordplay!
Capable of sending out a well-calculated and hasty slash towards their opponent!
Then, after seconds passed, the training dummy was finally split in half!
A boy with-blonde hair stared at the doll with great indifference.
Suddenly, he jolted upwards upon hearing a loud voice echoing from the distance.
"Mercury! Mercury!"
He didn't turn back because he already knew that it was going to be the Prince, who would be wearing a lively yet regal face.
So, one second of ignoring passed by but the Prince was already behind Mercury!
"Haven't met you in a while there."
Veritas raised his hands to greet the calm son of a Duke.
Mercury nodded and congratulated Veritas, "Congratulations on your victory yesterday. It was.. well deserved."
"Thank you and I congratulate you too! Your team came in 2nd place!"
"Yeah."
Veritas looked at the training dummy in front of him, seeing that it was cut into half.
"Northern Style?"
"Yeah."
Veritas felt the awkward atmosphere between the two of them and started up a new conversation.
"The King's invitation, are you coming?"
Veritas stared up at Mercury, who seemed to tower over him even though he was only a couple of inches taller!
"My Father invited me to go, it is only normal that I do."
"Great, see you there! Oh, and Alice will be there too!"
Veritas finished his quick talks and slowly walked away from Mercury.
However, he was stopped by Mercury's sudden words!
"I heard that your brother would be there too."
Veritas' interest was suddenly piqued.
"Oh..."
Excitement began to brew further inside his heart, anticipating to see the person that he long wanted to meet!
He widely smiled and continued taking his steps..
"Pallacio! Why the hell did he not tell me that he would come home?!"
Veritas mouth formed into an O as he spoke:
"Oh. It must've been a surprise for us.. But why wait until the second day to reveal yourself.."
"Dear brother of mine.. You're still the same."
Thus, Veritas silently laughed and felt excitement brewing for the next 3 hours or so..
He walked out of the training ground and regrouped back with Bello and the others..
Then, the hours passed and the moment of the second stage was nigh!