The whole capital was swept up in a festive mood when evening came, right after the end of the competition. Most of the taverns were filled with celebrating people, while many of the families who watched it happen gathered around the dinner table in their homes, discussing not only today’s events but everything they had witnessed since its first day. Even the patrolling guards on the walls were talking about what they had seen and if they could even fight against something like those 'kids.'

  “Just stay put, Mother, I’ll take care of the dishes!” Saynur said as he put a freshly brewed tea in front of his pregnant mother while Frenir was still munching on his piece of chicken meat.

  “Thank you, dear, I hope your father comes home soon... I can't make you do everything.”

  “He will be sad that he missed the fun today!" Frenir grinned, his mouth full, "Mom! I want to cultivate too!”

  “You said that for the hundredth time, Frenir. Mother’s answer will be the same,” his brother cut in, before Frenir could continue.

  “Listen to your brother." Their mom nodded, "When you have your Ceremony, you will be able to learn, be patient until then.”

  “But-”

  “Lil’ brother, listen!" Saynur sighed, not wanting to break his little brother's dream, but they were nothing like those in the competition, "We are not as gifted... As such, we need to take things in order. Who knows, maybe when you become an adult, you will be the first cultivator in our family. But until it happens, just be patient, okay?”

  “O-okay…” nodded the young boy with a little bit of disappointment on his face, making Saynur feel a little bit guilty.

  “Ahaha, I look forward to how far you will go, son. You will make us proud!” his mother giggled, which immediately raised Frenir’s mood as he dreamed about being with his new heroes, fighting at their side.

  …….…..

  While people were still basking in the afterglow of the competition, Leinor and Ren were standing in one of the side rooms in the pace. As they waited there, in the main hall, a formal banquet was on its way, honoring the top fifty fighters. At first, both of them were having fun, Ren even grabbed Leinor’s hand to pull him onto the dance floor, but soon Anya arrived, telling them to follow her, her face strangely serious. Sensing that something was off and after leading the youngsters here, Ren was impatiently tapping her feet against the marble floor.

  “Tsk, why can’t we have a little fun?” Ren moaned, sulking, deciding that it was better to just be sitting in Leinor’s p. "I even dressed up nicely..." She muttered, stretching her white dress, before fiddling with her hair, which was decorated with lic-colored hairpins in the shape of butterflies.

  “Maybe it’s Father. Rex, we will be done and head back to the main hall soon, and have some fun!” Leinor ughed, enjoying her sweet scent while he also wore a white suit simir to her dress.

  “Oh, yes, it reminds me!” she snapped her fingers while turning towards him and suddenly kissing him on the lips. “Your reward that I promised~!” she giggled, holding his head with her hands and going in for a second kiss, one that was longer... just about to finish it when the door opened.

  “Oh, maybe we should come back ter?” The Emperor ughed, but Anya only growled at him before stepping past him, looking at Ren with a stern gaze.

  “Ugh… busted…” Ren murmured, getting out of his p, sitting down on the chair next to Leinor.

  “Father.” Leinor nodded, but he no longer went to his knees when meeting with him. Besides that... his voice contained a little… distance.

  “Son...” Dermitos sighed as he walked before the two, leaning against the table behind him. “At first, I wanted to talk about something else, but what you did today in the arena threw everything into disarray!”

  Ren immediately sensed something strange was happening. As she looked at Anya, standing close to them, she realized her mother was ready to react at a moment's notice. She was in a full-on combat stance and awareness...

  “What's going on… will the Emperor attack us? Doesn’t seem like it. Both of them stand in the way of... Something else... Are they... shielding us?” Ren thought, “I have this gut feeling someone is watching us… just like before. Maybe it’s LeiLei’s grandfather? The probability is high... Then something did go wrong… But what… was it LeiLei? Tsk. Are we a target now for a greedy grandpa?”

  “I understand, Father,” Leinor replied with a stoic face, but Dermitos just raised his hand.

  “No, you don’t. Where did you learn that skill?”

  “Excuse me?” He blinked his eyes, surprised.

  “Where did you learn about energy draining? Who taught it to you? How did you become so strong in just a few years?” Dermitos asked quickly, directing a gaze toward Ren at the st question.

  Of course, Leinor immediately became silent and wore a cold expression, refusing to answer.

  “Son. Answer me. Now.”

  “...”

  “Leinor!” Dermitos fred up, releasing his aura, suffocating only his son with it, but he just sat there, trembling, biting his lips, not saying anything.

  “LeiLei, just tell him!” Ren chuckled, elbowing him. “I didn’t intend to keep it a secret anyway.”

  “Secret of what?” The Emperor asked, his eyes turning towards Ren, but his aura did not, as it was instantly drawn back.

  “The answer to why we are this strong is simple: because I devised a new technique. Mom?”

  “Here,” Anya answered, pulling out a prepared document her daughter compiled before the tournament. Taking it with a furrowed brow, Dermitos ran through it, and his face became more and more astonished, the more he read.

  “Unbelievable… this is… this… how many people know about this?” He asked, gasping.

  “Only those who are reted to me,” Ren replied, taking up a strict, business-like attitude.

  “What about the Blood General and his adopted daughter?” Dermitos raised his eyes questioningly, already noticing the signs and details within the little booklet, but Ren’s face remained calm.

  “They are reted to me,” she countered with ease, not even flinching.

  “Tsk…”

  “Dermitos.” Anya cut in, seeing his face and knowing the Emperor had already thought about silencing the bandits... Even if they were reted.

  “You don’t have to worry about Boursat,” came a voice projection from Carthus into his ears. “He is still loyal to the family. I’ll visit him and talk it out. No matter how many years have passed, he is still my Uncle.”

  “Okay, what about the technique?” Dermitos grunted as he turned back toward his son, looking calm again, but only on the surface.

  “I came up with it myself." Leinor began expining, now that he had the permission from Ren, "You can study the technique that Ren came up with and realize how many different ways it can act, depending on one's affinity. What she had made will change how humans cultivate, Father. I’m sure of that! The basics are simir, but the end result can vary significantly depending on how many people train with it. Or with what kind of affinity... After exploring and deliberating on how my own affinity works, I came up with the idea to reverse it. After I began working on it, it just happened... it was a quick success. It came to me naturally, to be honest.”

  “I see…" Dermiots muttered, closing his eyes, remaining silent for a long minute. Ren could tell that the Emperor was both horrified and proud at the same moment, because this just showed that Leinor was more than good... He was a genius. "What about the next realm?” he asked, looking at Ren after reopening his eyes.

  “I don’t know." She shrugged, "I am not at that level yet.”

  “Understandable." Dermitos nodded and then pulled himself straight, becoming the Emperor instead of a Father. "Leinor, I forbid you to ever use that technique again or try to develop it further!” As Aerthus IX, he decred it with utmost authority.

  “What?! Father!” Leinor cried out as he stood up with an enraged look. "You can't tell me that!"

  “Sit back down!” Dermitos shouted, forcing Leinor back only with the pressure of his presence. “Do you know what that skill of yours does?! It saps your opponent's energy! Think you, idiot! What is the affinity of our bloodline?!”

  “L-life force.” He answered, looking confused and angry.

  “Yes! Exactly!" Dermitos yelled, "What, you think you only drain energy?! Bullshit! You also drain your opponent's life force! You keep using it, and soon you will kill my daughter-in-w!” He added, spping the table next to him, sending cracks along its surface, stunning Anya and Ren. As for Ren... she was mostly surprised because of how he addressed her.

  “What..?” Leinor asked with eyes as big as the moons themselves that shone in through the windows.

  “You heard me right! Idiot!" Dermitos continued, somewhat lowering his voice, "You are not the first to come up with it. Your great-grandfather had the same idea... The history books call Aerthus VII a tyrant, and with good reason. If a minister made a mistake, he just had to put his hand on his head, and soon only a mummified corpse remained.”

  “I never heard about it... “ Anya murmured.

  “Of course not." Dermitos shrugged, "Every mention, every record, EVERYTHING has been erased about him. The one who helped destroy everything was Boursat himself... and a few of the utmost loyal generals of the empire, including your butler, Hal. Erterion, who was Aerthus VII before taking the throne, was the one whose technique crippled Hal, stopping his rise in power... which was why Hal became the leader of the Shadow Rebellion ter on, collecting allies as my grandfather's tyranny grew.”

  “Uncle Hal, was that awesome?” Ren asked out of reflex with shining eyes, "So coool..."

  “Ren!" Anya scolded her at once.

  "Do you understand now, son?” Dermitos asked again, this time with a softer voice, ignoring Ren and looking at his son with a caring expression.

  “Y-yes father… I… I won’t use it again…”

  “Good! Please truly don’t do it. Anyone using it walks down a horrible path,” he sighed with a heavy heart. “I trust you, son… and you too, Ren. But promise me... Don't develop that technique.”

  “No problemo, Father!” Ren grinned, almost making her mother and the Emperor stagger. “What? You called me daughter before!” she blinked her eyes with innocence, looking back and forth between the two.

  “Khm. So!” Dermitos changed the topic before it devolved further into some nonsense. “The second thing..."

  "There is more?" Ren asked, feeling she wasn't going to like it.

  "Yes. Both of you need to prepare! Every promising candidate, even some from the first rounds, will be sent to the army.”

  “WHAT?!” Anya cried out.

  “Rex. Let me finish!" Dermitos raised a hand, already seeing Anya's mood crashing, ready to jump at him, "The situation in the north is… chaotic. Since Xendar retook Cath’s Door, the demons have relentlessly attacked it, over and over again. It’s our luck that it’s in a great position to uphold... And that my brother is the one guarding it. However, it prevented Xendar from coming home as early as we predicted. We are looking at a stalemate that will continue for many more years. But every setback can be turned into an opportunity! So, we decided that we will send out our promising people to gain experience. Of course, they will be protected. We want training, we are not about sending them to their deaths!” The Emperor expined, still, Anya wasn’t so assured.

  “They are just kids!”

  “Yes, but since they are this strong, we can’t look at them like kids, Anya.”

  “But-”

  “Four years.” Ren cut in suddenly.

  “Mm?” Dermitos looked at her, raising a brow, with curiously shining eyes.

  “Give us four years. I’ll train Isha, Poli, and Zern to a level I’m fine with, then you can send us together as one team. Don’t worry, Mother, it will be safe. We go where Father is! Do you think he would let anything happen to us?”

  Anya wanted to protest, but when she saw her daughter's face, she held back her emotions. Even though she tried to stop her, deep down, she knew what her little girl was thinking... She was like this since her birth... She even snuck out of her home to go on an adventure once.

  “Four years it is.” Dermitos nodded, seeing Anya's silence. “Meanwhile, I’d like a report of the group's progress every month,” he added as he tapped on the paper Ren wrote.

  “Sure!” she grinned as an excited little imp, almost unable to stay put in her seat.

  “Great! We are finished here, then. Go, have some fun. You’ve earned it!” The Emperor ughed, becoming rexed and showing an actually happy expression as he escorted them out, trying to appease Anya on the way. As he was doing that, he was also sending a voice projection to his father.

  “Satisfied?”

  “Yes,” came the short and straightforward answer, and soon the room became empty as everyone left. Yet, not long after that, Carthus stepped out from the shadows, looking outside the windows. “Nameless.”

  “Present,” appeared the man, wrapped in bck, kneeling behind him.

  “Follow Leinor, keep an eye on him. If you see him secretly cultivating or using the technique... kill him.”

  “As you wish, My Lord.” Nameless acknowledged without question, as he disappeared, while Carthus just watched the moons with a stoic face.

  …….…..

  “Why the long face?” Ren giggled as she walked next to Leinor in his garden, near his emptied out side pace.

  “The thing I used on you… I’m… I’m sorry…”

  “Bah, idiot!” she rolled her eyes, grabbing his arm. “Don’t listen to those old fogies!”

  “But-”

  “But, but, everyone has a butt. Listen! There are no evil techniques. None. Zero. Nill. Never were, never will be! Do you understand me?”

  “...”

  “The only thing that turns a technique evil is the person using it." She continued, stopping, holding his hand, and looking up into his eyes, "Every skill depends on the user. Let’s say there is a technique that requires blood. It depends on the caster. Do they use their own? Animals? Criminals? Innocents? That's up to the one using it. Is a sword evil or the one who stabs it into another being’s heart? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “Yes, I do.” Leinor nodded with a somewhat relieved expression after thinking about it.

  “Good! I’m with you all the way, anyway." She grinned, "So don’t give up on it, and don’t be afraid to use it. If you steer off the right path, I’ll knock you back onto it, don't you worry!” she giggled happily, hugging his waist, leaning against him as they stood in the garden, surrounded by gently shining Nightflowers, releasing a fluorescent, blueish hue all around them. “I’ll be with you… always.”

  “I’m one lucky guy, then~!”

  “Nyahaha, yes, you are!” she ughed as she tiptoed to reach him for a kiss, holding onto his neck. "Be happy that you met me~!"

  "Believe me," He leaned down, being the one initiating another kiss, "I am."