After she returned to the training camp, she still had some time before the final fight, so she left to go find the library. She wasn’t using enough spiritual energy to be able to detect the contents of the books, so she was going to enjoy reading the mundane way for the first time in a while.
Technically she could transfer mental power and spiritual energy from her main consciousness, but she was restricting herself to using only the SPRT her Status as Adrianna showed through the thinned consciousness link, partially so the additional spiritual energy she gained from her second Status wouldn’t destabilise her soul, and partly so she didn’t accidentally show too much ability that might make Griffin suspicious. She had nearly finished reading through all the books, and they would be onboard ships the next week, so she was taking the chance to relax slightly.
She grabbed a thick book from one of the shelves she was nearly done with and sat down beneath the stairwell of the library’s stairs. It was about half an hour later when she had to suppress a sigh as a second individual walked down the stairs to enter the library. And her perception field told her exactly who it was.
Liliana Mason hummed as she wandered the aisles of the library, idly picking random books off the shelves and scanning them, before returning them to their places and moving on. Two times, she stopped, picked up a book from the shelves and continued to hold it as she moved around the large room. She had the two books when she rounded a corner and headed back for the stairs.
“Now, where should I read these….” she murmured to herself as she walked towards the library’s staircase.
Then she froze as her eyes fell on the figure of Adrianna under the stairwell.
Adrianna stared back at the blue-eyed archer for a moment and then proceeded to ignore her as she continued reading her book. Liliana remained still, looking very self-conscious, as hesitation and indecision warred on her face. Then she carefully walked towards her.
“Um… have you….. been here since the beginning?” Liliana asked awkwardly, shifting stray hands of dark-brown hair from her neck.
Adrianna slowly raised her eyes to gaze at the woman and then nodded.
“O-Oh. I see,” Liliana muttered quietly. “Uh… sorry for the intrusion.”
Adrianna looked back down. “I don’t own the library,” she replied, returning to her book, and flipping a page.
Liliana blinked and then began edging away from her with an embarrassed look. “R-Right. Er… I’ll leave you to it then.” Then she walked up the stairs with slightly stiff and rigid movements, glancing at her with a sheepish expression.
A few minutes later, Adrianna sighed and put down her book, then looked up to stare at the brown-haired woman peeking over the stair railing, watching her from above.
“What are you reading?” Liliana asked curiously.
She gazed silently at the archer for a second, before reluctantly answering, “…it’s an annotated memoir of a High-mage’s musings on runic model design and theoretical advanced-level spell models for fusion elements.”
It seemed the fact she even responded made the woman a bit bolder because she stopped secretively peeking over to straighten up. Liliana appeared even more curious. “You’re an intermediate-level mage, right? And you’re already reading something like that?” Then she hesitated. “I guess it’s already obvious you’re a genius magic user though…..”
Adrianna returned to looking down at her book. “I haven’t met many mages, so I wouldn’t know what the average standard is.”
Liliana slowly took a step back down the stairs. “Didn’t you want to go to the Academy?”
Adrianna sent the woman a flat look, well aware that she seemed prepared to return to the library’s floor, but the blue-eyed archer didn’t pick up on it. She prevented herself from sighing as she answered, “The Academy’s illusion department doesn’t have any active research into the relations between spiritual energy and illusion magic. It’s useless to me.”
Liliana seemed to think for a moment with a pensive expression before she hesitantly spoke up. “Do you know what Rilcofin’s Water Element Mana Mastery Method is? The mana manipulation instructor mentioned it, but I can’t find it in the mana manipulation book section.”
Adrianna studied the woman and then nodded. “That’s because it’s in the prerequisite skill section. That mana mastery method is one tertiary skill of three required to get a secondary skill related to water element manipulation.”
“It’s part of a secondary skill? Really?” Liliana replied, surprised. She glanced down the stairs, thinking, and then walked down them with quick steps, the two books still in her arms. She placed them down on the last step and went into the aisle containing books that detailed low-rarity skill prerequisites. After a moment, she stuck her head around the corner.
“Do you have any idea where it is exactly?”
Adrianna eyed the woman dubiously before resigning herself to replying, “Third shelf from the bottom, eighth book from the right.”
“Third shelf… eighth book…” the archer murmured. “Oh! Here it is! You have a good memory.” She pulled out the book and paused as she registered its weight. “Wow, this is heavy. This might be a task to get through.”
She walked over to the last step again and sat down, opening it on her lap. She began to frown after a while. “Radix… intersection… mana linkage… passive returning cyclic movement path? This sounds like magic, and I’m not a mage.”
“That’s because it’s made for elementalists, and not warriors. The instructor probably suggested it because you’re a hybrid warrior-manipulator,” Adrianna informed her, not looking up from her book.
Liliana looked up at her, then at the book, then at her again. Adrianna sighed as she realised what the archer was going to ask.
“Do you have any idea what this is about?” Liliana asked sheepishly.
Adrianna clicked her tongue and gestured to her. “Pass it here,” she said.
The archer happily, and with a bit of surprise at her answer, passed it to her and then stood up to walk over to her, sitting down against the wall under the stairwell next to her. Adrianna scanned the page, matching it to her memories containing her comprehension of the book, before beginning her explanation.
“Radix intersection and mana linkage are terms used to refer to mana veins. Radix intersections are two points inside someone where the body’s mana veins merge to connect above and below your mana pool,” she told her. “Mana linkage is when you form a mana line that doesn’t use the existing mana veins as a path, and instead cuts across through the body itself to connect to its destination.”
She pointed to a diagram on the page as Liliana leaned closer to look. “This section discusses the upper radix intersection, which means the point connecting all the upper body’s mana veins.”
“Oh… thank you,” Liliana replied. “Then…. the passive cyclic path thing?”
“As a tertiary skill, it only has a passive function,” she stated. “That’s just a name for the method used to form the passive function, and other mana mastery methods would have other names for their methods.”
“That’s helpful to know,” Liliana responded. Then she closed her eyes as she tried to mimic what it was describing with her water mana. She opened her eyes a few seconds later with a frown. “It’s more difficult than it seems.”
Adrianna gazed flatly at her. “Have you finished the section for the skill yet?”
“Er….” She glanced down at the book on Adrianna’s lap. “No, not yet,” she said, flushing a bit.
Adrianna picked it up and dumped it on her lap. “Then finish it,” she stated blandly.
Liliana gave her an embarrassed smile and then returned her focus to reading the book. Then she grimaced. “I still don’t understand what half these words mean though…..” she muttered.
Adrianna put down her book and pressed a hand to her temple, realising she would not be able to be left alone as she had planned. She rested the back of her head against the wall with a sigh and held out her hand. “Give it,” she ordered tonelessly.
They spent the better part of the next hour decoding the words within Liliana’s book, continuing that way until it was time for the final fight between Adrianna and the rest of the training camp.
----------------------------------------
It’s finally time.
Conlan fiddled with his uniform’s buttons as he waited for all the fighters to get ready. He had been preparing for this final fight for some time, but he still couldn’t help running over the plan again and again in his head, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He needed to get this part perfect before they stopped doing combat, and before they left the training camp to come back next year.
Over the last week, he had laid low, making sure he didn’t stand out but was capable enough to not be kicked out of the camp. He had been to the library to learn useful skills and had formed stable relationships with most of the cadets if not any close friendships. He knew all their personalities though, so that would come with time. He had also slowly leaked some of his capabilities to the instructors so that when he eventually revealed his true strength, they wouldn’t be suspicious.
But he had to reveal that strength first. He glanced at the other cadets as he listened to their conversations.
“I’m so sick of this,” Ruel Deirvetch muttered with crossed arms. “The Commander already got her to show her spell at the very start, we don’t need to keep fighting her just so they can show that she’s his favourite.”
“It’s getting kind of boring,” Drew Baxtimer replied, looking up at the sky as he stretched his arms. “Nothing’s changed the last few times we fought.”
Conlan looked over his shoulder as Catherine spoke up, talking to Liliana and Zhang Mingxia.
“Last fight, and then I’m done. I am never going to talk to her again,” she exclaimed with her hands on her hips. “We’ll get split up into new squads in February, and I won’t need to be anywhere near her.”
He watched Zhang Mingxia give her an awkward smile, while Liliana looked uncomfortable with her statement. He knew the Sect heir was already aware that her company would be placed in the special force, so that explained her expression, but Liliana…. Well, Liliana always had a much different relationship with Adrianna than the other crew members for some reason. He guessed the signs of that were beginning to reappear. And as for Adrianna herself….
He turned around to see the woman standing still in the area of the training grounds they used when fighting her, her arms crossed as she gazed at the ground. He shook his head and tapped a hand against the pommel of his longsword. She wouldn’t care about their comments.
Finally, the head instructor arrived. The dark-haired man gestured to the woman, who nodded and then set up her illusions. When she was done, she very slightly tilted her head and gestured to them to come forward.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Aren’t you going to start?” she asked in that toneless voice of hers.
That made several of the others scowl, and Catherine, Drew and Ruel dashed forward to begin fighting her. Zhang Mingxia and Palin Zoc’uraghets were just a beat later, and he ran forward as well.
He pulled out his sword in one swift movement and then added something to it that would enable him to fight: a mana blade. Or a pseudo-mana blade. He didn’t have the mana to form a real one at his level, even with his doubled stats, so rather than gaining a blade of light mana that extended out past the sword’s tip, the metal was only coated in a thin layer of the golden-yellow mana. The pseudo-mana blade was a technique only he was capable of doing, because of his years of experience with sword fighting and the light element.
[Incomplete Mana Blade – Light]
When I get enough skills, I’ll deactivate those notifications.
He stepped onto the battlefield and habitually dodged the [Morphic Kraken Tentacle] that materialised next to him to attack him. Then he swung his sword through it, his light mana's purification causing the fake monster mana tentacle to dissolve back into illusion mana which Adrianna recalled. Without the mana blade, he would be incapable of cutting through, the tentacle turning permeable.
He took advantage of the break in combat to dash forward and make it to the others. He ran forward to deflect a strike heading for Catherine’s exposed back and turned around to protect her for a bit as he cut away the bony spines that an illusion had morphed into.
“Thanks,” she replied distractedly, her spear lighting up with hot, red flames. “Gimme a second and I’ll be good. Ruel needs help soon.”
“Earthen Deformation?” he asked.
She nodded, shouting, “Something like that!” and then leapt forward with a swipe of her spear, intense heat from the weapon distorting the air around it. The illusion she attacked seemed to melt slightly as the fire mana damaged the construct, and Adrianna had to keep de-materialising and then adding illusion mana back to the destroyed parts so the illusion wouldn’t disintegrate.
He left her to run over to the mousy-brown-haired man, dodging the attempted entanglement of the grey-blue illusions as he went. The man was frowning in concentration as the stone around him liquified into molten orange lava. He didn’t look at Conlan as he spoke up.
“Just help me if a Blast Shock or other spell is incoming. I’m using more than earth this time.”
“Got it,” he said, using his sword to block the morphed wolf head that was aiming for the man.
The snarling illusion clenched its teeth around his blade, but he was able to cut right through and it melted into indigo-blue mana, that quickly reformed into another illusion, this time a grasping claw tipped with dark shadowy mana nails. He ducked under it as it swiped, the shadowy claws lengthening, but it didn’t hit Ruel as his sword deflected it to the side.
Ruel threw out a hand and turned his palm to be horizontal with the ground. “Wave of Molten Earth,” he announced, the skill sending out waves of dense fire and earth mana in the form of lava mana from him.
Zoc’uraghets and Drew dived to the sides, getting out of the skill’s range. The ground turned red as it bubbled and cracked, large stone shards sinking into the glowing liquid stone. The molten stream quickly extended from in front of Ruel to head towards Adrianna.
Adrianna glanced at it and gestured with her hand. Ruel watched warily to see what spell she would use. Conlan glanced at the ground to his left and noticed the illusion mana condensing.
“Monster skill incoming,” he informed Ruel.
Ruel noticed it as well and pointed a finger at the indigo mana. “Earthen Barricade.”
Just as an illusory tentacle thickened and lashed out, sending a wave of frosty ice crystals that re-solidified the molten ground beneath it, the earth rose to create a short wall, blocking them from the attack. The wall quickly crumbled, and Ruel clicked his tongue with a gesture of his hand.
“It was on top of lava. Couldn’t do much,” he said, lava bolts rising out of the molten stone to aim themselves at Adrianna’s illusions.
Conlan nodded and dashed forward to attack the illusion before it could release its skill again. His sword shattered the icy crystalised illusion and it fell apart.
“Griffin, leave it to me,” a new voice spoke up. They glanced at the blonde-haired and dark-skinned Palin Zoc’uraghets, his sandstorm mana spinning around him. He held a large weapon, or falchion as Conlan knew it was called, in one hand. The man swung his weapon, and a thick blade of sand materialised in mimicry of its movement just a few seconds later, slicing the illusion about to attack Ruel.
Conlan jumped across the lava pool and fought his way through the illusions to get over to Zhang Mingxia and Drew Baxtimer. At several points, he had to duck and dive to avoid the lashing of the [Morphic Kraken Tentacle]s, but he eventually managed to get to the more central part of the battlefield. He needed to be there to begin the next stage of his plan.
Zhang Mingxia noticed him and gave him a nod. “Your support is appreciated. I am beginning to be pushed back.”
Several illusions had combined forces to attack the Sect heir, preventing her from getting closer to Adrianna, who was still a good ten-twenty metres away. Drew had his hands full wielding his chains, trying to restrict the movement of a particularly large tentacle that had materialised and would cause tons of damage if allowed to rampage however Adrianna pleased.
He sprinted over, leaping over an illusion with spines that had swiped at his legs, and then swung his blade in two quick movements to give Zhang Mingxia a brief respite and an opening to counterattack. His movements split one of the illusions in half lengthwise, and it collapsed into mana particles, the illusion too small to reform itself into separate tentacles.
He twisted his arm behind him to sever the blue-grey limb trying to get him from behind. Crouching slightly, he pushed forward with his strength to cut the base of three of the illusions trying to attack Zhang Mingxia, and the vague formation they were creating to box her in became ruined. She took the chance to escape the fleshy cage, her movements becoming quicker once she was free of their bombardment.
He noticed Adrianna glance at her, then at Drew. Quickly, he dashed forward to yank the man out of her spell’s path, his fiery chains slackening in surprise as he was pulled away.
Adrianna pointed at him.
“Blast Shock.”
The air rippled with power as the wind-element spell was cast, and her illusions distorted, unable to keep their form in the mana disruption. He glanced behind him as he heard muffled curses, to find Liao Tengfei struggling to get up, holding his head with a scowl as his head rang from the shockwave after being caught directly by the blast.
The narrow-eyed man stumbled and faceplanted, which was when the head instructor decided to retrieve him in one quick flash, utilising his high-rank speed stat. The robed man was haphazardly dumped outside the battle zone.
“Quick thinking,” Drew said beside him, swinging one of his two chains as he prepared to attack again. The black metal lit up with an orange glow. “You always seem to know when she’ll attack.” And then he ran forward, throwing out a chain to hook around the new illusions that had formed.
Conlan glanced at him, before dashing forward himself to deal with the illusions flickering with ghostly white fire in front of him.
Well, I have known her for over 200 years. But even then, she’s still unpredictable.
He smirked.
That’s why I can’t wait to see how she’ll react when I achieve my goal.
For a few minutes, he continued attacking and dodging the illusions, which cycled through several variations of monster skills, from poison mana to searing hot spikes of fire mana that materialised, the different kinds pushing him to use an assortment of techniques and sword movements at different times. He paused when he saw Catherine and Zhang Mingxia fighting next to each other, and then noticed that they were being bombarded by many more attacks than him. They were grimacing as they fought next to each other.
He leapt over one of Wilden Leutia’s undead, which was combatting another illusion, and then sprinted across the battlefield to thrust his sword into the illusory construct about to stab Catherine in the shoulder with a bony spine as her back was turned.
His eyes widened and he spun around as he detected a morphed tentacle aiming for him only a few centimetres away from his neck, but then he blinked as a bolt of high-pressure water punctured a hole straight through it, disintegrating it into illusion essence. He turned to give Liliana on the outskirts of the battle zone a thankful nod, before helping Catherine and Zhang Mingxia fight off the illusions.
“We have not been making progress,” Zhang Mingxia announced to them both, her blue water qi giving off a soft glow around her.
“Should I just forfeit right now?” Catherine muttered, scowling as she swung out with her red-orange flame-coated spear, flickering with light. “No, I won’t. I won’t let her have it that easy.”
They ducked as Noirel Arventiel air-tackled a tall illusory tentacle that was overhead, her strange ribbon weapons extending out to about five metres around her as she twisted the fake limb into knots and flew past the illusions to entangle some others. A surprise for many in the camp when it was first discovered, the half-fae was mostly a physical combatant.
He glanced at the two girls, and then finally decided it was time. “Cathy. If I needed a distraction, do you think you could buy time?” he asked in a low voice as he swept away another illusion.
The redhead shot him a look, her vivid green eyes eying him with scrutiny before a wide grin spread across her face. “Sure thing, Con. If I can’t beat her, then I’ll go out with a bang.”
“It seems you are planning on attempting something,” Zhang Mingxia remarked, glancing at him as she severed another morphed limb from its body. “I have noticed that out of us all, only you have yet to reveal some hidden method. Very well then,” she proclaimed, holding out her tasselled sword as the blue qi surrounding her became denser in colour. Her dark hair began trailing frost behind her as she moved.
“I shall use all my strength as well. I will wait to see what this secret technique of yours is.”
With each of her slashes, the wound edges gained crystals of ice, and a spray of sharp ice shards fanned out whenever her blade moved. It was a far cry from just the blue blades of water qi from earlier. The ends of her hair began frosting over.
The dark-haired girl re-entered the battle with even more energy than before, but Catherine did something else. She raised her spear high as red-hot fire mana gushed out of her, the air distorting with heat. She had a lopsided grin as she called out her skill name.
“Inferno Torrent!”
The strange red-orange flames she used materialised around her, and the roaring fire soared high, twisting with blazing winds, but she remained untouched. The ground was burnt in a circle several metres outwards from her, and a crest of flames that would never die lit up her spearhead. Her hair flickered with fire as she readied her spear, and rushed forward into battle, the heat ruining the smaller illusory constructs just by being within her presence.
That will keep Adrianna busy for a while, hopefully. Now, I need to focus.
He took a deep breath and reached for his mana, even as he deflected the attack of another [Morphic Kraken Tentacle]. He began withdrawing the glittering golden-yellow light mana from his mana pool, funnelling it into threads to reach his limbs. Such fine control over internal mana was impossible without being Rank-1 or higher. Slowly, his technique began to form the correct pattern, and the light mana rose to the surface of his skin. He blocked another attack and stepped forward, and then he released the skill.
[Gained Secondary Skill: Effervescent Battle Aura – Light (Incomplete Technique)]
Power thrummed through his limbs as all his stats were temporarily increased by 150%. A real battle aura multiplied a User’s stats by a full 300%, but his battle aura was only ‘Effervescent’, after all. It flickered and dimmed as it swam about him, the phantasmal form of full-body armour made of light coating his body. But the armour wasn’t detailed and didn’t contain any definition, looking vague and distorted, as his incomplete skill barely materialised.
Still, it was enough. He shot forward, his path leaving behind echoes of his light mana that appeared like afterimages. The fake mana blade he was using lengthened, becoming boosted by the release of his temporary battle aura. Any illusory constructs that attempted to attack him were disintegrated just by contact with his light mana.
He registered Palin Zoc’uraghets, Ruel Deirvetch and Zhang Meng behind him staring at him in shock, but he ignored them to catch up to Catherine and Zhang Mingxia, who were very quickly tired from using so much energy so fast.
Catherine was panting as she leaned on her spear, her INT not high enough at her level to use the unique ability of her Origin Skill he knew her Inferno Torrent was for long. The fire leaping along her hair flickered and dimmed, her mana exhausted.
Zhang Mingxia was still fighting, but her ice-encased longsword was slowly losing its ice crystals, and the blue qi around her was thinning as her spiritual energy was exhausted.
The girls glanced behind them, and their eyes widened as they saw his speed and battle aura. He grinned at their reactions but ran past them, aiming straight for Adrianna. Adrianna narrowed her icy eyes and faced a flat palm towards him.
“Arcane Barrier x3. Mana Shield x3,” she stated calmly.
As she cast the spells, the first crystalline barrier manifested with the sound of something hitting glass, and a three-layered shield appeared, protecting the side of her that faced him. Then the second spell activated, the round Mana Shield appearing between the gaps of each of the Arcane Barriers.
Just as quick-witted as always. She immediately analysed that my battle aura enhanced both my mana and physical damage. But is she not going to attack?
He was proven wrong when she faced her other palm towards him. The air of the entire Zone of Control that was the battlefield glowed with white light, and then suddenly, every single one of her illusions collapsed into indigo-blue illusion mana, that was drawn towards her. He tried to use the chance to get to her before she cast her next ability, but she easily diverted some mana to form a large [Morphic Kraken Tentacle] that didn’t instantly dissolve, keeping him occupied.
The others watched her warily as she pointed up.
“Phantasmal Conflagration,” she announced with a cold expression.
Then everyone froze as above their heads, the giant form of her Morphic Kraken’s main body appeared, and a horrendous screeching sound resonated within their heads, the presence of the artificial monster made stronger. A mouth full of jagged rotating layers of teeth opened above them, and then the construct paused. They watched in tense silence as its entire blue-grey body glowed with aqua light.
Boom!
And then a giant ball of aqua flame rushed out of its mouth and headed straight for him, its surface flickering with tongues of magical fire. His eyes widened as he realised what skill that was.
She copied the fire breath attack of the Monstrous Drake King?! Is that even possible for a Rank-1?! But…
He gave her a ferocious grin and pointed his golden blade at her. “Did you think I had nothing else?!”
It’s still not enough.
With a roar, he charged forward and began moving his mana into a pattern that was very familiar to him. Into the first sword skill of a skill that had been beside him for centuries. And into a skill that made him become the final victor of the Demon Realm Vs. Mystical Realm War.
“Heroic Sword of Brilliance: Illuminate!”
[Gained Secondary Skill: Heroic Sword of Brilliance: Illuminate]
His sword flared with gold-white light, searing an intense afterimage into the eyes of anyone who saw it. The battlefield flashed, the entire training grounds becoming lit up with radiance, and everyone stared as they registered the massive illusory construct hovering over everyone warp and distort to flake away into particles of mana, not even retaining their element as all the illusion mana scattered in every direction. They waited for the glow to recede, watching for the outcome of the battle.
Conlan coughed, his mana fizzling and dying out as his battle aura and mana blade collapsed, not having the mana to continue being sustained. He was sitting down on the ground, the force of something having pushed him back when his sword clashed with what Adrianna counterattacked with. His sword was lying a few metres away. He looked up to see what she had done.
Standing there, unaffected, was Adrianna with no expression. Her palm was held out, and surrounding her was a multi-coloured crystalline barrier made of densely packed runes, the decagonal shield reflecting and refracting light off of its surface. Then, as he watched, a small crack on one corner of the barrier spread, and the entire barrier crumbled into shards that dematerialised, reverting to normal mana.
They blinked and turned to look to the side as a dark-haired man appeared beside them with a twist of light. The head instructor glanced between them and looked at Conlan with a small frown on his face, but sighed and crossed his arms.
“Riftmire wins.”
Conlan put on a disappointed expression as he clenched his fist, but in reality, he wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.
After all, that wasn’t what I was aiming for.
He stood up, brushing off the dust from his clothes, and retrieved his sword. That seemed to be the instigator as the silence was quickly broken. Catherine rushed over and slung an arm across his shoulders, grinning widely at him.
“Conlan! You did it! You finally landed an attack on her and even broke her shield! I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Yes, it was rather unexpected,” added Zhang Mingxia, who had arrived just after Catherine. She smiled as she spoke again. “I am impressed by your abilities. I had not expected there to be a change during the last battle.”
“Hey, that was battle aura, wasn’t it?” asked Drew Baxtimer, he and the others slowly gathering around Conlan. The red-haired man smirked and stretched his arms out in front of him. “If I had known you had something like that, I would’ve asked to fight you more.”
Palin Zoc’uraghets walked over and inspected the spot where he had fought Adrianna. “It seems you even pushed her back as well.”
“Ha! The Commander’s favourite finally had the little commoners drag down her pristine reputation,” Ruel Deirvetch proclaimed with a wide smirk, hands on his hips. “I wish I could’ve been closer when it happened.”
He smiled and looked around to see where Adrianna was.
Now, how is she going to react when she sees them all praising me like this? Is she finally going to lose her indifference and show some emotion towards-
He froze, and his expression stiffened as he saw what she was doing. Completely uncaring about the words and actions of them all, she was calmly walking off the battleground with not a glance in his direction, her face expressionless like normal. Her icy gaze didn’t land on them once as she looked to the head instructor, who nodded, and she turned her back on them to head towards the exit of the training grounds.
Catherine followed his gaze and scowled when she saw where he was looking. “You don’t need to pay her any more attention. We’re done with her,” she said with a scoff.
“Yeah, Riftmire can go die in a ditch for all I care. I never want to see her again,” Ruel Deirvetch muttered.
He gave them a calm smile in return to their words and paused to look over behind him when he felt a cool hand pat him on the shoulder. Liliana was there, and she smiled at him.
“Good job, Conlan.”
He blinked, and then his smile widened. He gave her a nod. “Thank you, Liliana.”
Yeah, I don’t need to worry about her right now. Making the others admire and want to follow me is more important. I need to win them over. And….
He gave her receding form another glance, before turning his back on her to talk to the people around him, all proud and happy about his accomplishment.
I still have more than a year left to change her emotions towards me. She'll come around eventually.
What Conlan didn’t know was that Lucille was utterly seething after he had acted that way, angry at his manipulation of her former crewmates…… and angry at his shameless attempts to win the favour of the people whose lives he had destroyed by his own actions the first time around.