The Royal Academy training camp was almost empty. Only a handful of students was training.

The sandy soil shone under the sun.

Around the field, where some lessons were taking place and the pupils were practising their skills, there was a clearing, surrounded by trees with branches so large that someone could lie on them.

Zzz…Zzz…

And in fact, on one of those branches, a boy with scarlet hair lay motionless, covered by the lush leaves of the tree.

His elegant and ethereal look was in sharp contrast with his loud snoring. His face's angular features seemed sculpted by an expert hand and gave him a very charming appearance.

As the boy rested, a shadow wrapped in darkness began to approach him. Because of her curves and her black leather clothes, it was difficult to mistake her for some other woman. Her Aura contained several natural forces and seemed to merge more and more with the surrounding environment at every step.

"Don't you think you should train too?" Circe screamed at the top of her lungs, knowing well how her voice annoyed Vlad.

"Mph, could you please not fucking scream?" The young man grunted.

Circe pursed her lips and smacked them enticingly. Its beauty could have made entire civilizations fall.

"Everybody is training hard."

Vlad looked at her for a few seconds before turning away and ignoring her.

Vlad was of one of the few men under the Third Phase not completely terrified by Circe. Not even Helial could handle that mischievous woman easily.

The Witch of Orma did not get upset about her cousin's behaviour. Indeed, she seemed to be used to it. Vlad's laziness and indifference were in direct proportion to his immense talent.

Circe sneered and resumed talking: "Francesca will come and watch your fight. She told me she is worried about you ", and she licked her lips, waiting for a succulent response that would allow her to stick a little bitterness up her cousin's stunted ass.

"Aha," Vlad yawned, not caring at all.

With her arms around her breasts, Circe urged: "Maybe she could wet herself in front of his scarlet-haired hero."

Without turning, Vlad frowned slightly but remained silent.

Thinking about it, the match they were about to face would be very difficult. It would be strange if Orma's big shots wouldn’t show up: Helial with a simple move had the Sect of the Worthy cornered; this meant the Sacred Eagle Clan and the Guild of Life and Death would be capable to kill in order to understand if betting on the King's Human disciple was worth it.

This was not such a simple matter. After putting the Sect of the Worthy in a difficult situation, Helial now had to prove himself worthy of bearing such a burden.

Even Vlad didn't know if Helial would have been able to. But the moment, he didn't care about anything but sleeping peacefully on that branch. The sooner Circe left him alone, the better.

"I don't think this conversation will get us anywhere, my dear cousin. Can't you just let me sleep? "

"You should be afraid of me losing my temper, you know?" replied Circe, and a vein began to throb slightly on her forehead. Ever since she was born, no one had ever ignored her as her cousin did. Of all the people in Orma, only he had the guts to treat her like this. Not even his father, perhaps afraid of the possible consequences with his wife, had ever dared to treat her with so much sufficiency.

It was as if a child blessed by the heavens had suddenly found to be stuck in the highest mountain of shit in Orma

"Come here. This time I'll take your Interspace Ring and you'll go home naked,” replied Vlad in a calm voice. "Just think of the scene, the great Witch Orma going home without clothes. What a unique sight. I bet our cousins, your friends and even Medusa would talk about it for weeks. "

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A large blue vein appeared in the middle of Circe's forehead, who then revealed all her rage. If someone else had talked her that way, Circe would have already dismembered them.

Not even Medusa had ever had the courage to treat her like that, despite their mutual disdain.

How terrifying was that scarlet-haired young man, if he had the audacity to say those words in front of Orma's second greatest genius?

But the real question was: why had Circe not yet silenced him? She wasn't exactly renowned for her patience in the Capital. Among her many qualities, there had never been patience

So why hadn't she done anything yet to silence that loudmouth in front of her?

This question would surely haunt anyone unlucky enough to see that scene. Or better, this would have happened if Circe had let someone survive after seeing Vlad treat her like that.

"I thought that sooner or later you would get some self-respect. After seeing how much in love you were with that idiot, whose brain is even buzzier than yours, I thought you would do anything to get her back. But no, you spend all day lazing. You trained three months in your whole life. Three months of training, only to spend time with her and then puff, young Vlad disappears again from the Guild's radar.

When you started training, even my father was amazed by your results. The great Big, Guild Chief and Orma's third strongest man, remained open-mouthed before a spoiled, ball-less brat. "

"Circe, stop it." Vlad began to feel irritated. "Francesca made her choice. It was her who decided she would marry that poisonous snake. If she wanted to be with me or needed my help to resolve the conflict between their two Clans, she would have come to me. If even she didn't believe in me, why should I, ah?" said Vlad with a hint of irritation in his voice.

Circe had hit a bullseye and kept digging at that soft spot, never really healed.

"Believe in you? With your talent, you could have started training yesterday and you would still make the whole Sect of the Worthy shit their pants. Once you would reach Cesar or Aure's level, who could ever tell you anything? Francesca? Even if you had asked to become shitty Orma's fucking king, you wouldn't have met any opposition. My talent is inferior to yours and everyone in this stinking asshole keeps praising me. Now, tell me, why can't you believe in yourself?" Circe was furious and, despite not daring to attack Vlad directly, she kept screaming at him, regardless of the curious onlookers who had heard them arguing.

The students of the Royal Academy had begun to wonder who was making all that hubbub, so they had approached the clearing. There they saw Circe screaming at a tree. They left in silence, as they had arrived, for fear of unleashing the Witch's rage.

Vlad was increasingly annoyed. "This is not the problem. I don't feel anything and I'm not going to do anything unless it gives me joy. The power for its own sake, assuming that I can somehow get it, does not interest me. Can I go back to sleep now? "

Circe was mad with anger.

Vlad's sloth was unnerving.

If she could, Circe would have taken that arrogant young brat and give him a beating he would remember for all his life.

Oh, yes she would.

However, the Witch knew that her cousin had many more cards up his sleeve than anyone could imagine. Although she was sure she could win a fight against him without any problems, given the gap in level between them, she was not so sure that she could be the winner in a guerrilla war.

If for a normal archer a forest was a nightmare, due to the difficulty of hitting targets between the trees, for Vlad it was like heaven. Every characteristic possessed by the scarlet-haired boy, from movement to precision, to reflexes and speed of judgement in battle, were top of the range for an Assassin and an Archer.

If she had fought him there, Circe would have suffered.

"You little snotty brat, I swear on every goddamn god in Orma that if you come out alive from this fight, I will personally challenge your team and I will have the pleasure of torturing you myself. Maybe here and in tight spaces you can take any kind of advantage from the terrain. But in a direct match inside the Colosseum, do you really think you could escape me? You are and will always remain an amoeba, a failure and a good-for-nothing. Francesca will never be happy just because you don't have even a hint of guts. Your new teammates will risk their lives; indeed, they are already risking it, while you are here wasting every single drop of talent that rained on your head. You will die alone and forgotten by all!" Circe strided away, not leaving Vlad any chance to reply.

But just as she started to move, Circe suddenly felt an Aura explode behind her; inside it there was a sea of negative emotions. Hate, anger, resentment and loneliness were concentrated in an extraordinarily lethal Aura. He looked like the Aura of a bloody and merciless god, who had never felt compassion in his whole life.

The Aura was so powerful that the Elders of the Royal Academy became aware of its presence and suddenly turned towards the training ground, frowning. That terrifying Aura had to belong to one of the most talented pupils. But then, why couldn't they recognize its owner? From the density of the Mana within it, it seemed to be a bestial and terrifying creature.

Who was it?

Crispio, Binio and Filopappo, who were arguing fiercely about Royal Academy funds, fell suddenly silent and turned towards the training ground.

Circe's expression changed from amazement to satisfaction.

"Maybe, I was wrong," Circe murmured, as she walked away.

The Second Phase Aura that almost everyone, even in the Royal Palace, had perceived slowly began to dissipate.