{Present-No POV}
As everyone was slowly entering 10 people were waiting outside.
Seeing these 10 people together garnered the attention of many of the mercenaries.
However, they did not move against them because they knew those were students that were given an invitation to the banquet.
At 16:45 two people emerged walking towards the group of 10 people.
"Law you finally arrived. What took you so long?" Rondell shouted excitedly while standing next to him was a younger girl of about 11 years old.
"Sorry, my cousin decided to join me in the last minute." Law introduced his extremely beautiful cousin to them, nervously.
"Hi, I am Law's cousin Silph." The gorgeous women introduced herself.
"Guys lets postpone introductions later. We need to enter the hall before registration closes in 15 minutes." Ian informed everyone while dragging an older boy who was next to him, towards the registration booth.
Everyone finished their registration and was slowly queuing up in line for the reward booth while talking amongst themselves and introducing the people they bought with them to each other.
The registration booths were closed and the people standing behind the booths gradually disappeared.
Then at 17:05 an extremely luxurious white carriage dragged by 4 white horses arrived.
"Lord Albert, I am afraid we are late." Natasha quickly got out of the carriage worriedly while waiting for the man in the carriage to come out.
"Hahaha, as one of the imperial princess you have to make a grand entrance dear. Before we enter, make sure to address me as Uncle Al inside there." An old man with red hair carrying a walking stick jumped out of the carriage energetically.
Seeing the 2 people were walking towards the banquet hall the mercenaries were about to intercept them.
Before they could move all of them received an order. "Do not engage! They are allowed to come in."
The mercenaries looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders and standing by.
As the people were talking to each other inside the hall, suddenly the entrance doors were quickly flung forward with a loud resounding sound.
*Bam*
The hall became quiet while everyone turned to see what was going on.
"Hahaha, I the awesome legend is here." A boisterous laughter was followed soon by Natasha emerging from the entrance with a bright red face.
Followed by an old man.
"See I told you being late will make you the centre of attention. Go get them girl! Hahaha." The familiar sound everyone heard at the beginning was heard again from the old man.
The old man started laughing seeing the red-faced Natasha.
"*Sigh* Ellis he has changed his appearance, but it's still that wacky old man that comes to my store." Prince John informed Ellis through the device.
Ellis clenched his fist before deciding to stay as far away from that wretched old man as possible.
Natasha walked embarrassedly forward. She halted as she saw her ex-group of friends gathered together.
She then decided to move towards another reward booth, while being followed by Lord Albert.
Natasha had been wondering how to convince her nana about wanting to go to the banquet after telling her she did not want to go.
-----------------
{Natasha PoV-8 am(Day of the banquet)}
*Knock**Knock*
"Come in." I instructed while braiding my hair.
Expecting it to be one of the maids that wanted to inform me concerning Sir Marc's appointment I turned around.
"So, did Sir Marc agre..." Before I could finish I realised the person standing in front of me wasn't part of my retainers.
"You have grown a lot, little magi." A woman that was as beautiful and similar to Natasha stood opposite her.
"Natalie..." My eyes quickly examined the route she used to come in, in order to see if she has already, placed any of the recording devices on my room yet.
"Is this concerning the appointment I asked for with Sir Marc?" I gathered myself while forcing a smile on my face as I asked her.
"Partly." Natalie nodded while placing her trained eyes on me.
"I believe it is not treason asking for an appointment." I tried not to gulp or show any sign that I was panicking, especially not in front of her half-sister, who is working for Lord Albert as one of his agents.
Natalie was silent for a while before she spoke again. "We can allow the appointment, only under two conditions."
I motioned for her to continue.
"1-You have to go to the banquet today.
2-You, bring someone we choose as your plus one." Natalie gave me the conditions while watching me.
I was confused but slowly understood the reasons, why they might need me to go. But why today? Why during the banquet?
I know for a fact that John is equally accessible to everyone in his restaurant. So it doesn't necessarily have to be about capturing him.
Or is it possible that the empire is already aware of Lord Fake and his apostle? Could it be they are aware of what is going to happen to him today?
I mentally rejected that idea. Not because it was impossible, but if Lord Albert found out the information, then John would soon find out due to Lord Dexter and the others.
Then, could it be that someone under Lord Albert is a player as well? Do they want to be there to witness and earn free 10 points?
"Who is coming?" I asked Natalie.
"Lord Albert." Natalie replied to my shock.
--------------------
{Back to present- Narrator PoV}
Alister Bright (Alpha), was talking enthusiastically to Dan Stands who could not make it any clear to him to shut up and leave him alone.
While Emma Redwood was meeting and talking with other people while being followed by another man, who like her eyes had the same kind of desire and longing as they occasionally laid there eyes upon the women standing next to Law.
Time slowly passed for everyone, while it slowly started to rain outside.
As soon as the time reached 17:55 all booths were closed, while all the participants were directed towards to their tables.
At 18:00 Prince John had walked in through the entrance as everyone finally quieted down.
Everyone stood up to show their respect before they could bow down in respect.
"Please do sit everyone.
Besides, we are all of similar age, so for the rest of the day treat me not as an imperial prince but as another one of you.
So, therefore, no need for the flashy respect stuff." Prince John quickly addressed everyone before they could shout out to him in greeting.
John slowly walked toward the front of the hall.
"Well, we are all here to meet each other and enjoy ourselves before you all go in different ways of your life.
You are all invited here because I wanted to meet and know the elite of this year's magi academies.
Also, there was one thing I didn't properly mention in the invitation letter that I want to make it clear for everyone here today..." John paused while looking at everyone who was watching him.
"This is an informal event not a formal event like many of you expect. So just chill and enjoy." Prince John finally kickstarted the event for the night.
Slowly events started to proceed as per normal and at 18:30 the first part of the meal started coming in carried in by a trolley.
While the intensity of the rain slowly increased, with blowing wind.
Everyone was served their food, but everyone waited for the prince to start as a show of respect.
"Seriously guys, just eat the food. I cooked everything here today. By eating you show your respect to the food and the chef that made it." Prince John urged everyone, including the people at his table, who for the fact was very surprised and beyond joyous that, the imperial prince decided to dine with them.
Soon a very distinctive event took place as the murmuring of people disappeared to be replaced by the sound of cutlery clanging and people crying while eating.
The trolleys with food just came in while the students just ate without stopping, fearing that if they stopped they would lose the food in front of them. However, what none of them, other than John, Ellis, Albert and the other agents(who were drooling), noticed was that they were all glowing slightly while the magi particles accumulation inside them increased.
This was because the students and the people with them were more focused on eating than anything else.
As the deserts were finally finished everyone started to exclaim in surprise.
"I can't eat anymore."
"I want to eat some more but I can't breathe from eating too much."
As everyone was wailing at not being able to eat anymore, a single old man by Natasha's side was just gorging on the food, while asking for the 4th serving to her embarrassment.
"Natasha, dear order some more." The old man asked Natasha.
"Uncle Al, please at least consider our or at least your position." Natasha pleaded while the people at her table stared at Albert in amazement.
"You brats seriously have no idea how lucky your guys are. Just eat till you die, especially when he is giving all this for free." Albert grumbled with some ice cream in his mouth while ordering another serving of the full course meal.
Natasha was flabbergasted at Lord Alberts reply while thinking. 'You are a bloody commandment, act like one.'
Soon people slowly started coming back to their senses and realised something was off with their selves.
"My accumulation increased."
"I am a rank 2 magi now."
"How?"
As everyone was slowly lost in their surprise of sudden findings as prince John just smiled.
*Clap*
John clapped loudly to get everyone's attention.
"As contradictory to the rumours spread around inside the empire, my restaurant is open to anyone. It is just that not many can afford the dishes in my store, hence the reason why most of my customers are the rich or influential people.
You should all have understood the reason by now why everything in my store is expensive.
You have all experienced the effect of my cooking. If you want to experience more of this then you should all know where to find me." Prince John revealed to everyone with a smile.
Everyone just looked at the imperial prince in bewilderment.
This was the first time that they realised eating can make them powerful. If they had realised this earlier they would have gone to his restaurant to eat and grow powerful instead of practising and training slowly.
"What you have all eaten here is made of level 1 beast ingredient, so therefore what you have all just experienced is just the foot of the mountain. I am not going to explain the effects of higher-level beast ingredients as you should just experience it personally."
Another wave of shock just ran through everyone inside the hall.
"Since everyone is almost done, let us move onto the next main event." Prince John announced, while the waiters slowly walked in to collect the empty plates and glasses.
"As you might have all noticed, there are few other people invited here that did not make it to the top 100. These are people who made it to my special ranking.
Out of thousands of you, only 17 people made it to my special ranking. Those 17 people might be very confused as to what your reward is for reaching my special ranking." The 17 people who the prince just announced looked at the imperial prince in excitement.
"Your reward is a pretty simple reward, to understand.
Starting from tomorrow for 2 times a week, for the next 3 months, those that made it to the special ranking will be given free 3-course meal.
These meals will be made out of at least level 5 beast ingredients for those in top 20.
Those in the top 10 will have their meals made out of level 6 beast ingredients.
The rank 2nd student will have his meal made out of level 7 while the 1st rank student will have her meal made out of rank 8 beast ingredients." The 17 students had their jaws wide open, along with the rest of the students.
Many of them had only heard about level 4 beast ingredients, let alone eat a level 5 and higher beast ingredient every week, especially when the said food can increase accumulation when cooked by his highness.
"Please bring your appropriate identity with you during your first visit to my restaurant and I will explain more about the details then.
Now, let us move onto the final event of tonight." Saying so John looked towards the group of musicians gathered in the corner.
"Let's Enjoy!" Without for them to get over their shock, John waved, and the front of the hall slowly started dimming as the music started to play.
Slowly after a while, people slowly started to join in for the dance, while some of the more reluctant once stayed behind.
To their surprise, the prince occasionally joined in as well.
While this was happening the little girl, who came with Rondell watched the rain pouring outside through the window.
"What is a brat like you doing here?" A voice distracted the little girl.
She turned around to see a red-haired old man behind her holding onto a bowl of soup.
"..." The girl not knowing how to answer just stared at the old man.
"Relax, I am here to watch the rain as well." Albert replied while sitting behind the girl while watching the rain.
The girl nodded as she turned around to watch the rain slowly falling.
"Do you like the rain so much?" The old man asked the girl.
"Umm" The girl nodded without turning around.
"What about the wind?"
"Mhm" The girl shook her head.
"Lightning?"
"Umm" The girl nodded her head.
"Hmm..." Albert was silent for a while.
"Do you want to see lightning?" Albert asked
The girl froze for a moment before turning to look at Albert expectantly.
"Fine. Don't tell anyone about this then." Albert replied while slowly lightning crackled between his fingers.
The girl's eyes widened in surprise.
"Shh!" Albert put his finger up to her lips before motioning her to turn around and watch the rain.
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They both watched the rain in silence, while music played in the background as people danced to it.
Suddenly the little girl's jaw dropped in shock seeing the scene outside along with Albert's widened eyes.
The rain stopped as far as they could see.
The rain stood still as if frozen in time.
Albert who was sat down stood up with a serious face.
He quickly opened the window and tried to grab a droplet of frozen rain, however despite his effort the droplet stood still in the air without moving an inch.
The students who were ignorant about this danced without a care.
Albert quickly sealed the window while instructing the girl "Brat stay here. Don't move."
Albert quickly ran towards Ellis who was sat away from the crowd.
"Oi brat, this is an emergency." Saying so the old man caught the device that flew from Ellis' ears while ignoring his shock.
Seeing this Ellis took a combat stance "Give it back!" Ellis ordered.
"Hang on brat not now! This is serious. If you don't believe me look outside." Albert ordered as he tried to contact the mercenary stationed outside while pointing towards the window.
Ellis warily looked outside, only to be shocked to see numerous droplets of water frozen in the air.
"Darn! None of them is responding." Albert shouted angrily.
"Brat catch!" Saying so Albert threw the earpiece towards Ellis who caught it and put it back in his ear, to try and contact the mercenaries posted outside.
"Who is posted in the control room?" Albert asked.
"One of our agents." Ellis replied as he suddenly had a feeling of who was behind this event.
"Where is it?" Albert asked as he looked around the room to spot any irregularity.
Seeing Ellis silent Albert became annoyed. "We can't risk going outside to the unknown. You guys have monitoring device located outside. So, whatever happened to the people guarding outside we can see from the control room easily. Take me there. Now!" Albert ordered worriedly, as he knew whatever or whoever was behind this event was not someone from the empire.
Ellis nodded before saying "Follow me!" while looking at the direction prince John was having fun dancing with others.
Both quickly ran towards the control room only to see that the agent stationed there was missing, while the communication channel was shut down.
While Albert tried to get the communication channel fixed Ellis looked through the monitor to see the situation outside, only to see something even more terrifying.
It was not just the rain that was frozen in the air but rather everything and everyone.
A man running through the rain was frozen in his running position, while mercenaries who were talking to each other was fixed in the same position.
Suddenly the monitoring screen showing the inside of the building started having static disruption.
Seeing this Ellis knew what was going to happen. As he was about to run out, he froze, along with Albert who was right beside him.
Both used all their strength to move, while Albert occasionally tried some high ranking spells.
However, it was all futile.
The only console to the frozen and concerned Ellis was the monitor screen was working perfectly now without any static disruption.
While back at the dance, Alpha who was talking with an unfortunate soul who managed to get his attention, was torturing the other person with his non-stop talking.
Suddenly the communication device in Alpha's ears activated.
"Al..a g.t ..t .f th.r.!" The device in his ear started to lose connection while the instruction coming from his superior started to distort.
But he understood the message.
'Alpha get out of there!' It was a warning.
But what can threaten him here? There should be nothing that can leave a scratch on him in this empire.
------------------------------------
{Base of the commander of Alpha- 1 minute later}
"What the hell is going on?" The commander who was just woken up from his sleep due to the red alert walked in, only to see his subordinates frantically trying to establish contact with Alpha.
"I am not sure sir, but we lost all communication with Alpha and lost all surveillance of the area he was in suddenly." The commanders assistant replied as she stood up from her seat.
"Have you found the reason why we lost communication suddenly?" The commander asked his assistant as he furrowed his eyebrows.
"No sir, but we got something that might point to the reason why we lost contact." She replied as she passed a small rectangle device to the commander.
The device showed videos of the surrounding area just before they lost contact.
"Is this real Iris?" The commander asked his assistant, seeing everything frozen in the video that was playing.
"I am afraid so sir. This was the last thing we captured before we lost contact." Iris replied.
"What in Almighties name is happening down there?" The commander frowned.
---------------------------
{Back to the Banquet Hall}
John talked and occasionally danced with the students freely.
Suddenly the song changed to that of romantic and everyone started to find a pair to dance with.
All the girls were reluctant to approach John and ask him for dance. It would be humiliating as it was usually the boys who asked the girls.
Suddenly, one gorgeous girl amongst the group slowly made her way across the group.
She approached John.
John whose communication line was always open spoke through it, seeing her approach him. "Unidentified target approaching."
However, no response or action was made as the women got closer to John.
"Your highness, shall we?" The women extended her right hand towards John.
Seeing her hand John raised his eyebrows before smiling towards her calmly. "Sure."
Both of them started dancing(Waltz) while John waited for some kind of reply from the communication line.
He looked around the hall while moving around to dance to find that both Ellis and Albert were missing.
"You seem awfully calm for a person who found that something is wrong." The women replied.
"What is meant to go wrong will go wrong." John smiled while twirling the girl.
"That is true. Tell me your highness did you anticipate something like this tonight?" The women asked John.
"Isn't that an obvious question? I mean it was plain obvious since no one attempted anything during the exam." John replied.
"But there was one thing I got wrong though." John said, while his long silky tied up hair danced with his motion.
"What was that?" The women inquired.
"I expected you to be earlier in order to attempt to intrude during the registration process or when everyone was eating, not during the dance." John replied as they stared at each other's eyes while dancing around.
The girl smiled while holding her gaze towards John.
"Did anyone tell you how fascinating your mind is your Highness?"
"There are people who knows how dangerous my mind is but never how fascinating it is. Why do you say so?"
"Simply because your mind is empty of everything other than the trap you have laid for those who are foolish or curious enough to intrude into your mind. Not that they would find anything I presume." She smiled towards John.
"Ho, you are quite the cautious one aren't you? What stopped you from examining the trap as well fair lady? You might find that everything you want, or need is behind the trap." John replied without any worry, despite the women having found out about his trap set in his mind.
"For 2 reasons your highness. 1- I know what happened to Jerry the reader." The lady paused
"The second reason?" John asked curiously seeing her pause.
"I have no reason to know what is in that wonderful mind of yours."
As they danced both their tempo was slowly rising, despite the serene romantic music.
"Then why are you here?"
"To give you something, your highness." The women replied as they rapidly sped up their dancing while everything in the background seemed to slow down for them.
"You could have just posted it? I don't live in the palace or places with extreme difficulty that normal people can't reach, you know?" John pointed out.
"But this is something that must be delivered to in person, that is how important it is."
"Oh, now I am excited." The smile on John's face grew.
Suddenly John halted along with the women.
"Your name?" John asked.
"Linda." She replied with the smile still on her face.
"Well Linda, looks like you are going to have to give me the thing as soon as possible because you are not going to like what is going to happen now." As soon as John finished, the agents who had already infiltrated with the dancing students quickly moved towards them, along with the other agents throughout the hall.
"No need to rush your highness." Linda whispered. Suddenly the agents all stopped moving, almost as if they were frozen in motion.
"Afterall the night is ours." Along with them, the students froze in their steps as well.
John widened his eyes in awe.
"I see that your confidence was not for nothing." John uttered.
As John turned his eyes back towards Linda he felt something stabbing through his chest.
Looking down he saw that it was a needle-like hairpin, slowly being bathed in his red blood, from his heart.
---------------------------
{Luke POV- 5 minutes ago}
Why isn't she here yet?
Something is wrong and I can sense it, but what?
There is no one at or anywhere near the entrance, where the reward booths are currently open despite the heavy rain.
Quickly I could feel my hair on my back rising.
Something is wrong!
I moved very quickly to the entrance in order to go inside the hall.
She is definitely going to meet him.
But as he entered the hall he felt something wrong.
It was too quiet outside.
Turning around he saw that everything was frozen as far as his eyes could see.
Crap she is definitely coming.
I quickly ran towards the area where everyone should be.
But as I was about to pass through the door I felt that I could not move.
My body was not responding to me despite both my legs being in the air.
*Tap* *Pat**Tap* *Pat**Tap* *Pat*
I could hear someone walking behind me.
Within a few seconds, I saw her again after a long time.
Her eyes lingered on me for a second before moving back to her target, without stopping for a second.
All I could see from now was how she was dancing with the very person I had hoped she wouldn't meet, Prince John.
I could see them talking while dancing.
Then strangely both of them started to increase their speed, while everyone moved out of their way.
Then I saw agents slowly infiltrating amongst the students and getting close to them both. As all of them were in a position to strike Prince John stopped, while all the agents converged towards them.
However, within a second all of the agents along with everyone else in the room froze to the surprise of Prince John who was looking around in shock.
Then as he turned towards my sister I saw a strange long needle appear on her hand before it started to float and fly towards Prince John.
I wanted to scream for her to stop but I could not move even my tongue.
Then to my dread it was stabbed through his heart.
--------------------------------
{Narration- Back to Linda and Prince John}
John held his hand over his bleeding chest.
"Enjoy trying to survive your highness." Saying so the smiling apostle proceeded to turn around.
She faced her back to the prince and took her first step away from him. Before she could take the second step she froze in shock.
"How?!" She exclaimed while moving her hand towards her chest.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." John warned while standing despite the amount of blood pouring out of his wound.
Linda halted her hand movements before turning towards John.
"How?" This time the question did not seem like a rhetorical question or an exclamation of surprise.
John shrugged his shoulders while smiling and looking around at the frozen people.
Understanding what he was implying Linda waved her hands.
"No one should hear anything we say outside of our range." John furrowed his brows while looking around. He could see the very dust itself frozen outside 30 cm range of him.
"Interesting. Where did you learn about sound and vibrations?" John asked as he finally realised Linda stopped the very vibration of particles around them to stop any sort of sound escaping from a 30 cm range outside of their area.
"I will tell you if you answer my question. How are you able to control your hair like that, despite being a soulless?" Linda motioned towards the thin strands of numerous hairs invisible to the naked eyes. Each strand of hair had entered through her chest and wrapped around the artery and veins closest to the heart.
Suddenly John smiled eerily at having found something.
"If you move or take any sort of suspicious actions I will just cut out your artery and veins and push your heart forward.
If you use your power to stop my hair from moving it will just push forward the stretched veins and arteries that I am pushing back, along with your heart which I am pushing back. That is enough pressure to rupture and break off your veins and arteries linked throughout your heart.
Even the potent healing factor of award user cannot connect missing vein and arteries if they are out of reach. After all its rapid healing not rapid regeneration that award users earn with each rank up." John smirked seeing the tensed Linda.
"From your surprise and sudden obedience after finding out I hold your heart, I presume you do not own a regenerative award ability as well.
Even if you do, it will not matter as your brain connected to the veins, that is cut off from the isolated heart, will be ordered to just slowly create entire new heart behind the already existing heart, when they cannot reattach to your old heart.
If it did somehow create a new heart, I would like to see how it is going to start beating?" John threatened while a dark shade covered Linda's face.
John carefully observed Linda, while deducting everything he could from the weakness she was displaying for the moment.
"You are an award user, but strangely you have 2 awards- telekinetic and telepathic- despite logic dictating otherwise.
From your application of award- freezing people in mid-air- and knowledge of sound and vibrations it also seems like that you were taught in areas of physics, biology, and chemistry in order to apply your power efficiently to the point of controlling the muscles of everyone present here, holding them up mid-air, freezing the very particles around you along with diverting any chemical reaction occurring due to localised freezing of particles in an area.
That means the person behind you is extremely powerful due to raising a powerhouse like you, along with extremely knowledgeable to the point where it will put to shame every scientist in the empire.
Then, there is the fact that you brought along a hairpin to stab me. Which shows the person clearly knows me or has been watching me, as I have long hair which I do not often tie up and have kept it this way for a long time. This means the person behind you should know almost everything about me.
You stabbing me despite knowing the power of the healing properties contained within my food towards my soulless condition shows that you did not want to kill me rather make me go after you in return chase the person behind you. That also means you are not allowed to kill me under any circumstance.
In short, he/she wants to play with me!
From the constants change of micro-expression on your face along with the instinct movement of your heart which I can feel with my hair, I know what I said is right.
That means I do not have to answer you anymore and you have already answered most of my questions." After finishing his analysis John took out a paper bag from his pocket, in front of the disturbed Linda.
From it, he took out a burger and ate it in front of Linda, with one hand.
While eating he slowly took out the hairpin stabbed through his heart and put it in one of his pockets.
Linda who stood opposite him desperately tried to keep her calm but failed.
The blood pouring out like a fountain never reached Linda, while Ez who stood opposite her was drenched in his own blood.
She then saw as the hole created by the hairpin slowly closing up before her eyes.
As Ez finished eating the burger he blew into the empty bag before smashing the bloated bag.
*Boom*
Despite the sudden loud noise, Linda stood there unfazed. "Well trained to control your instinct and emotions, despite the young age, shown from the quick and well control over the rapid inflation and movement of particles over a frozen area." John approximated.
"However, unfortunately for I am a lazy person." John stretched himself while yawning.
"I guess game over!" John shrugged.
"Despite how long it lasted it was a boring game, Ms Linda.
So, let us see how loyal you are to this person, shall we? " John smiled as he suddenly controlled one hair wrapped around the left pulmonary veins to a crushing motion.
Seeing Linda's unresponsiveness despite knowing what he was doing, Ez proceeded to the right pulmonary veins.
"Seems like you will die for that person. Oh well, what a waste talking to you. Goodbye." Saying so Ez tore through all her veins and arteries while pushing her heart forward and isolating her heart from the rest of her inner organs.
While at the same time he crushed all nerves and veins leading towards the brain, effectively stopping any sort of quick action she might take.
Linda's body fell towards the floor limply.
However, Ez still held up his guard because the frozen guards were still frozen in mid-air that meant she had not died completely yet.
"Oh well, just a few more seconds I guess." Ez mused quietly while waiting for the effect of her power to fade.
Yet, despite even after 30 seconds the effect still held on.
Ez looked around to see what was wrong.
*Clap**Clap*
"You are truly a genius and worthy foe for him your highness. It is a good thing I took a precaution against you." Hearing the clap and voice behind him Ez turned around to see a perfectly alive Linda standing there.
Ez quickly glanced behind him to see the limp body of Linda still there, before turning back to face the alive and well Linda.
"Oh her? She is dead, just like you said she will be. I mean the poor thing was all alone so I thought she might like talking to you." Linda said while pointing towards her dead body.
Ez turned around to see particles of light slowly fading in order to reveal a little girl of 12 years of age.
Seeing the little girl, prince Johns' eyes widened as he quickly looked towards the frozen Rondell, whose eyes were slowly turning red, where tears streamed.
Then amongst the frozen students, one of them walked out, from what Ez could remember he is the rank 79th student.
Similar to the little girl particles of light started to fade from that person's body to reveal a man wearing a pure white mask, who bowed towards him and the frozen students, as if it was the end of a performance, before silently walking off towards the exit.
Without waiting for anything else Prince John quickly ran towards the little girl, who he knew was Rondell's only alive close family.
"Quite the ability right, your highness?" Linda spoke in the background.
He knew what he had done, but he had to at least try and undo what he had done.
Using his hair, he arranged the placing of the torn vein, nerves, and arteries and held them together.
"I had him transform the little girl into me while I controlled her movement from a distance you see, including her heartbeat and expression using my powers."
Then he quickly took out another paper bag from his suit's inner pocket. Taking a bite out of the sandwich, he chewed the food as much as possible before spitting it back into the child's mouth, followed by holding her upper body upright.
"Who knew you had an unforeseen trump card with you despite being a soulless?" With the help of his thin and almost invisible hair, he pushed the food towards her stomach, where the concentration of magi particles slowly dispersed into her body, slowly mending the broken veins, nerves, and artery, including the ones in her heart.
"But you were right about all your deductions though. I didn't fake those heartbeat and facial expressions. After all, it would be a boring game if I were to crush you so quickly." Prince John tuned out Linda's chattering and concentrated on the work in front of him
However, it could not jump-start her dead heart. So Ez proceeded to pound her chest with his fist as the energy of the level 8 beast ingredients infused in her body.
"Your highness, why try so hard for a commoner? In the grand scheme of things does it matter whether she dies or not to people like you and him?"
Within the 4th attempt of trying to jumpstart the heart using CPR her heart finally started beating.
Ez relaxed seeing that he managed to kickstart the heart but Ez had a feeling it would only last until the energy of level 8 beast ingredients stayed in the little girl's body.
He removed all of his unseen hair from the little girl's veins, nerves and arteries after making sure they were healed.
Turning towards Linda who was still blabbering nonsense Ez spoke calmly. "Good one. Looks like I am going to have to get slightly serious with you lot."
"You weren't serious the whole time? Excellent, you are proving to be more and more outstanding as I get to know you personally." Linda replied excitedly.
"Can you please get lost now? I just want to go back to sleep now, because of you." Ez replied annoyed.
"Only if you tell me why you saved her? He would want to know why you did it after all!"
Seeing the sound barrier was still in place Ez shrugged his shoulders "Fine, just because I felt like it at that time, not cuz I felt I lost that round to you.
If it was another time where I was not feeling lazy or tired, I wouldn't have bothered to save her."
Linda was silent for a while before laughing out loud "Hahaha I honestly can't tell whether you are lying or not but knowing you that should be the truth. Truly an eccentric oddball just like how he wants it."
"You know, there is no point planting seed of curiosity in me. I am not going to come after you or track your members to ask who you are working for or what your plan is." John said annoyingly seeing that Linda was trying to make him ask who they were working for.
"Huh? Then what are you going to do now?" Linda asked with clear surprise drawn in her face.
"I don't know. Maybe just ignore you, attention seekers..." Ez paused to see if there was any reaction, seeing that there was none Ez carried on.
"...Or get your brother to tell me everything." Now there was a reaction of shock, on the poker-faced Linda.
"How? Please, that is one of the first things I noticed when you told me your name after seeing him frozen while trying to run through the door." Ez pointed to the frozen Luke.
"Parents in the empire often had a bad/ lazy habit, naming their children with the same initial letter. Luke and Linda.
This extends to even my father the emperor who named all his sons with 'J': Jack, James and then me, John while all his daughters' names with 'N': Natasha, Natalie etc.
After all, as an emperor, he wanted to seem different from you commoners, so it is worthy that he named his daughters and sons with differently right?" Ez smiled towards Linda, whose face was going through different shades of worry.
"Looks like I am right again. You and him are citizens of the empire and that to commoners.
For an extremely prepared person, you are giving off more than you have planned it seems." John mocked Linda, with a smile.
"Now for the confusing part. Why would a powerful and extremely knowledgable guy like your leader pick a commoner like you and ..."
Suddenly Ez felt a force pushing him back and before he knew it Ez was slammed against the wall.
"Man, that's twice this week I am getting my ribs broken." Ez grumbled annoyingly as he saw Linda disappearing off while carrying her frozen brother behind her, while he slid off the wall.
*Pat**Pat**Pat**Pat**Pat*
After a few seconds everyone regained motion while the familiar sound of rain hitting the windows resumed.
Suddenly the frozen agents surrounded Ez, while a screaming Rondell ran toward his sister.
"RACHEL!!!"
The door towards leading towards the control room busted open as Albert and Ellis rushed in, who for the matter of fact was frozen as well after coming out of the control room.
Ellis quickly ran towards the guards making a circle around someone.
The agents seeing Ellis let him through while stopping Albert.
"Oi, old man go and check on the kid. Her heart is going to stop soon." Ez shouted out towards Albert standing frustratingly outside the encirclement of agents.
Grumbling something about overworking Albert walked toward Rondell and his sister.
While beside Ez, Ellis knelt.
"Your highness..."
Before he could carry on he was interrupted. "Listen to me Ellis I am going to be fine. I don't know if you saw anything through the screens, but I want you to follow Luke, who was just carried out of here by a woman." Saying so Ez passed a device he took from his pocket to Ellis.
"Maintain a safe distance and observe where Luke is being taken to. This device will show you the general direction they are moving in, but not for long because Luke is soon going to notice the tracker I placed on him. I will get someone to follow the tracker I have on you. Now go!" Saying some instruction Ez ordered Ellis to move, while slipping something in Ellis' pocket, to which Ellis reluctantly agreed.
Coming out of the encirclement, Ellis did not stop to see how the old man was dealing with healing situation as he just ran out.
As Albert reached the crowded area he pushed past the annoyingly tight group of students watching over the crying Rondell holding his sister's body, while his friends held onto him.
Seeing that the injured person was the little girl kind of ticked Albert off, as he just blasted everyone surrounding Rondell and his sister backwards, including the disguised Sophia standing next to Law, with a wind spell, before kicking Rondell away from his sister with a flying kick to his chest.
"Darn annoying brats. Who the hell brings kids to eat unhealthy foods these days?
I knew coming here wasn't worth the food I was gonna get." Grumbling Albert proceeded to heal the little girl with his magi while raising a barrier around a certain area around him so the kids he thew off earlier would not disrupt him.