Ozran burst into a room, and five people turned their attention to him.
“Arkul! We have a problem!”
He hurriedly approached one of the men who was sitting.
“You!”
Ozran grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him into the air. The man he grabbed was Floyd, the leader of Silvershiv, and the other three were the highest rank members.
“You ruined everything!”
“Ozran, calm down!”
Arkul roared.
“Yeah, calm down, Ozran.”
Floyd repeated with a dirty grin.
“I told them to send someone to the academy. I planned to measure the adventurers’ strength, but I didn’t know they raised such incompetent kids.”
Arkul gave a stern look to Floyd.
“Hey, I brought you more than 2000 soldiers. So you better keep your promise.”
Floyd said in response to his stern stare.
“Don’t worry. I will.”
Ozran was still furious.
“Do you know what it cost to send that kid? Someone used his stone and destroyed one of our secret bases. As a result, close to 500 Silvershiv members died!”
“Yes, I know. Calm down.”
“How can I, and how can you stay calm!”
“Because we speed things up. Tell everyone to prepare. We are starting from the Lazor Kingdom.”
Then Arkul smiled wryly.
“Let’s visit our friend King Derek.”
* * *
“Hmm, no matter how you look at this, it looks like there is no humanity left in him.”
Aaron stroked his chin while watching half transformed and chained Sean.
“Indeed.”
Chase said with a nod while closely examining Sean.
“Because he is no longer human.”
Someone came behind them. Aaron didn’t need to turn around to see who it was.
“You came fast.”
“They were just some random low-level members.”
“Did you learn anything?”
“No, it looks like they’ve been kept in the dark. They were just doing what they’ve been told.”
Chase raised his head.
“You said it is not a human anymore, so what is it?”
“I believe they were trying to transfer people into demons.”
Then Idarin paused for a second.
“The question is, how?”
“I’ve been thinking about this for sixteen years, you know. It was weird at that time too, and the only conclusion I’ve reached is that they also are not natural-born demons.”
Chase got up and said.
“Yeah, I was thinking that too, but then this brings us a new question.”
“Who did turn them?”
Chase finished Idarin’s sentence.
“How are the kids?”
Idarin nodded and asked.
“There is no one who seriously got injured. Who was that kid?”
Aaron asked curiously.
“Are you talking about Eldron? His parents are working as farmers. They came to the Mohan Empire when her mother gave birth to Eldron, but I don’t know where they came from.”
“You felt that pressure, right? That wasn’t something ordinary. You should watch him closely.”
“I will, but you know that was just the effect of entering flow for the first time.”
“I know. Don’t tell the kids about anything yet. Let’s not raise a ruckus.”
Idarin nodded.
“Ah, I forgot to greet Victor’s son! Doesn’t he look a lot like her, though?”
“I know, right.”
Idarin nodded again.
“Where are they now?”
“Infirmary. They are waiting for Eldron to wake up. He seems pretty interested in him. I guess he’ll invite him to his team.”
“Can you put Neil in his team too?”
“I can’t force them if the team doesn’t want to.”
“Okay, okay, let’s go to the infirmary.”
Then he turned towards Chase, who was still examining the half demonic thing.
“Are you coming?”
“Why not.”
Chase followed them behind.
Eldron opened his eyes, and the first thing he felt was the massive headache.
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“Uggh.”
“Huh, are you finally awake?”
Elius got up and checked him. His presence surprised Eldron.
“W-why are you here?”
Elius wasn’t the only one in the infirmary. There was also Ian and Jay.
“I want you in my team.”
Elius smiled.
“Why?”
Eldron asked curiously.‘Why would anyone want me in their team after an embarrassing defeat?’
“What do you mean why? Because what you did there.”
“Hmm, all I did was get humiliated.”
“What? No, you almost killed him.”
Eldron was confused. Ian realized something was wrong and asked.
“What do you remember?”
“The last thing I remember is he whispered about something to kill my parents and me.”
“Ohh, don’t you remember that black flames and lightning?”
Elius excitedly asked.
“What are you talking about?.”
Eldron didn’t understand any word they said.
“Interesting.”
Elius paused for a second.
“Whatever, want to join?”
“S-sure.”
Eldron softly nodded.
“Nice.”
Elius turned towards Ian.
“Do you have anyone in mind to invite?”
Elius asked Ian instead of Jay. That was because, after adventurers chose a team leader, they wanted them to choose members. After graduating, traveling with the team you chose on the academy was highly likely, so they wanted them to choose teammates they could get along with.
“Not right now.”
Ian said while shaking his head, and the infirmary’s door opened at that time. Three people they least expected walked in. Both Elius’ and Eldron’s eyes shone with Aaron’s appearance. Ian’s eyes were also shining, but that was because of Chase.
“Hello.”
Aaron said with a smile, and Jay returned his greeting with a nod.
“Ooooh, emperor.”
Elius pointed toward Aaron excitedly. Unlike him, Ian was panicking.
“Idiot, bow down, bow down.”
He whispered to Elius and also caused him to panic.
“Please, no need for such things. I might be an emperor, but I’m just a human too. I want my people to respect me and act like fellow adventurers, not bow down when they see me.”
Elius breathed a sigh of relief and approached them.
“Wheew, Mr. Emperor.”
He patted Aaron’s arm.
“I got scared there for a second.”
‘Idiot, how can you touch the emperor this casually.’
Ian still wasn’t calm. Even Aaron was surprised by Elius’ act for a second, but then he began to smile.
“So why did you come here, Mr. Emperor.”
“You can call me Aaron, and I came to talk to you guys. Especially him.”
Aaron pointed towards Eldron.
“M-me?”
Eldron was already surprised by what he heard from Elius and Ian, and now the emperor wanted to see him. Aaron nodded, and his eyes began to shine. For a second, Aaron seemed like Elius to them. He quickly went next to Eldron’s bed.
“Hey, how did you do that?”
His glare was full of curiosity. Idarin sighed and walked up to Jay.
“Jay, everyone seems to form a team already. Most of them had already picked a mission to go. What will you guys do?”
“Hmm. I didn’t check the missions yet, but we also plan to go tomorrow.”
Chase was next to Idarin all this time, and he felt a glare. He slowly turned towards Ian.
“Something wrong?”
Ian flinched.
“N-no.”
“Oh Chase, he is the one that told us about Silvershiv.”
Idarin said.
“Hmm. Are you that Ian kid? How did they let you walk away?”
“I-I don’t know. My father said he disowned me and chased me away from the headquarters.”
Chase stroked his chin.
“Weird indeed. Who is your father?”
“Harold Stein.”
“Hmm?”
Chase raised an eyebrow.
“It gets weird and weird indeed.”
“Do you know him?”
Ian got curious after seeing his reaction
“Yes, I vaguely remember. I know almost every assassin on the continent. I keep a record of them, but Harold Stein doesn’t have any children as far as I know.”
‘What?’
Ian felt a chill run down on his back. Chase noticed it.
“But I might be wrong, of course. So let’s not jump to a conclusion.”
But that wasn’t enough to assure Ian. After all, the seeds of doubt had begun to sprout for him. Then they flinched with the sounds of laughing coming from Elius and Aaron.
“Childish emperor, can we focus?”
Idarin said.
“Fiiiine.”
Aaron rolled his eyes.
“He is a grumpy old man.”
He whispered to Eldron and Elius.
“Oh, by the way, Elius, can you accept Neil as your team member? I know he might be a spoiled brat sometimes, but he is a good kid.”
Elius nodded.
“But he already refused me.”
Aaron sighed after hearing that.
“Okay, okay, I’ll make sure he joins.”
It was time for them to leave.
“Why did you want them to accept your son?”
Chase asked curiously.
“Well… I’m technically his uncle… Not a real uncle, though… His father is just one of my best friends. So it is good if our children become friends too. Anyways, you can leave without me. I’ll give a visit to my son.”
Chase nodded and disappeared while Aaron was walking into Neil’s room.
* * *
Elius was sitting in the corner of the training grounds. There was no one except him.
‘Finally’
He took a deep breath.
“I’m also done.”
“Yes, I can feel it.”
Then a sudden surge of power filled Elius’ body. A white aura danced around him like it was greeting Elius. After the white aura dispersed, a blue aura did the same thing.
“Wow. Finally done with air and water.”
He quickly got up and snapped his fingers. With that, a miniature tornado began to form in his palm.
“Nice!”
It got bigger and bigger with his will. Elius felt like it could become big enough to destroy the academy. After dispersing the tornado, he cast a spell to make himself lighter. It was so much better than before. Elius could move almost twice as faster now. But of course, he didn’t become light enough to fly. Then he commanded the mana around him to form a water sphere. The sphere got bigger and bigger, and it could almost trap someone inside. Its shape was changing just every time Elius thought of something. Then he thought about a figure, a human figure. The water immediately responded and turned into a human shape. Now it was standing in front of Elius. Elius began to shake with excitement.
“ELLY!”
“What?! You scared me.”
“Come on. I’ll do fire, and you’ll do earth.”
“Okay~”
He wanted to master fire and earth as soon as possible, but he was lying on the ground after twenty minutes.
“Damn. I feel tired. Even though we still have some time to master fire and earth, it still feels so good to control an element just with a thought.”
Then he quickly got up, like he remembered something, and a book appeared in his hands.
“What is that? Were you hiding a book from me?!”
“Hey! It is not like that.”
“…”
Elius quickly opened the book, but.
“E-empty?”
All of the spells he unlocked until now were gone.
‘There were only six, but where are they?’
He quickly focused on his mana core and checked his nodes.
“Only six?!”
“Looks like the related spells with it all disappeared after you mastered an element.”
“I guess they are not necessary since I can do anything with them now.”
“Correct.”
Then he took a deep breath and poured his mana into the book.
‘Please, if even mastering the two-element wasn’t enough, I don’t know what will.’
Elius was constantly pouring his mana into the book from time to time, but nothing appeared for a long time. Until now. This time words slowly began to appear in the book.
“Oooh. Finally!”
“Congratulations! It looks like you can control at least one element as you wish now. But! That is just the beginning. Let me give you a little lecture…”
“Oh no. Elly, prepare to analyze. I feel like this lecture will be a long one.”