129 March

The crowd went silent after Jackal's savage act. Daniel's mangled body was carried away. "Jackal wins!" Alexander announced, his previous enthusiasm gone. Some people had shocked expressions. Some people managed to make it out of the Colosseum before vomiting. Some people were going faint. All were staring at Jackal's bloody mouth and broken fangs.

In the room where all three generals sat, Doevm saw a lot of movement and fast hand gestures behind the bracket's image. Even though Doevm enhanced his hearing with life essence and the Colosseum was silent, he still couldn't hear their yells.

'The glass uses sound suppressing spells. I guess the knights' academy uses more artifacts than I thought. Maybe I should make some of my own, after I learn how to fight as a master. I might have reformed my soul, but I know that once I start making artifacts, I won't stop until I have an entire arsenal. Remember why I'm here, to learn how to do cool flips and stuff. Everything else can come later.' He glanced back down at the burnt stage and the ashes of Daniel's molted skin. 'but what was that? Judging from the crowd's reactions when Jackal breathed fire, it was impressive and difficult to pull off, but common knowledge. Something isn't right here. This…it isn't what I want.'

Frey winced at the sight of Oliver tying Jackal down and carrying him away like a rabid animal: "That was horrible, but how did Jackal do all of that? He could practically control fire." He was leaning forward more than Doevm at Elero's performance.

"How did Daniel counter it with just his body? Imagine how much stronger we can get, what we can do once we graduate. I can't wait to start lessons. Don't you think the same, Doevm?" He turned to Doevm, who was emitting large amounts of bloodlust. A chill ran down his spine. 'Has he always been this terrifying?' he thought. 'No, it's just that I've never seen him this mad before.'

Doevm's jaw and white knuckled fist clenched. His eyes stared at the stage and at a far-off place, deep in thought. "Doevm," Frey said. "Can you retract your bloodlust," he asked and pointed to the people unconscious behind them.

"It's just like magic," Doevm said, more to himself than Frey. "Just like fucking magic. What the hell?" He stormed through the rows of seats, stepping on unlucky people's feet and belongings. When they stood up to complain, a glare sharper than a spear point sat them back down.

Doevm wasn't the only one who was upset. The majority of the audience stood up too and walked away from their seats. Doevm disappeared in the crowd.

"What's with him?" Wade asked.

"I don't know," Frey leaned back in his seat, trying to spot Doevm in the crowd moving to the top of the Colosseum. "Say, why didn't anyone ever tell us we could do these kinds of things with life essence?"

"He's been acting weird." Wade raised an eyebrow and Frey sighed: "Even weirder than usual. He's been shaking, hadn't been smiling as much, and tired. Ever since Hopi passed away, it's like he's isolated himself in his own world. Do you think I should go after him?"

"Give it a bit," Wade said. "He probably has some things to work out. Just make sure to be there when he needs you. Even if he yells at you like before, even if he tries to push you away, be there. He is someone who always relies on himself more than others, but everyone needs external support or else they wouldn't be human."

'How,' Doevm thought. 'How was Jackal able to breathe fire? How did Daniel shed his skin? I've never seen anything like that. Is that what I'm going to learn at the knights' academy, a pale imitation of magic? If that's true, why the hell am I here? Why did I come so far if it was all for nothing? Fifteen years I've waited, and now this is what I get?' He took deep breaths.

'Calm down. I don't need to be angry right now. Push it down like everything else.' As he took more breaths, he loosened his clenched jaw and fist. The world went in and out of color.

'Just keep walking,' he told himself. His heartbeat was loud enough to hear its rhythmic beating. 'I can't take this out here. One wrong move and I might kill someone right about now.' He kept blindly pushing his way through the dense crowd, but he must have made a wrong turn somewhere because he ended up at the top of the Colosseum with a view over the wall. He tried to turn around, but the flow of the crowd went against him. Doevm glanced over at the exit, which was void of people. Moving his gaze back to the crowd, he found that they were all looking outside of the Colosseum.

Now that Doevm collected himself, he felt his heart, the beating of which did not match the rhythmic beating he was hearing. He focused on the source of the noise, finding it to be not a single repetition of beats, but a large number that happened all at once, followed by another beat, followed by another.

It wasn't how loud the noise was that caused Doevm's ears perk up, but the rhythm, the intensity, the familiarity. He had ignored it because he had gotten so used to it as a background noise that he had forgotten the rhythmic beating, the sound of marching, wasn't normal outside of the front lines.

He looked out over the balcony again only to find that, around all the piles of food and blankets, the people who had gone missing were now marching in a circle around the Colosseum.

As he and the rest of the crowd gazed at the strange phenomenon, curiosity took hold of other members of the audience, who joined in the mass. Even some of the nobles were strolling over, yelling at people to make way for them, only to discover when they got to the edge that there was a large number of commoners walking in a straight line with slips of paper in their grasp.

Doevm used life essence around his eyes and focused on the pieces of paper: "The king may rule the country, but he does not rule your hearts. March and see what he will do. This is not an act of defiance, but an innocent march. Reward for participation is ten coppers." Below the pieces of paper were symbols of a broken cage.

Doevm furrowed his brows as a hundred guards swarmed out of the bottom of the Colosseum and approached at the line with their weapons drawn. The commoners screamed and ran as they were tackled to the ground and bound with rope. Some still marched but most had retreated back to their homes. The weapons weren't used for bloodshed, but more for intimidation, for control.

The king marched from behind the guards and pointed at the line. Sir marble's and his own men moved in and continued the arrests. It didn't matter if they were children, adults, or the elderly, all were bound and taken away. Soon the line had diminished to nothing but a memory. The king turned his men back to the Colosseum and the men went back to their stations. All of this, the audience saw.

They whispered to each other, all thoughts about Jackal's match forgotten. 'Why would the king arrest people for marching?' Doevm thought as he dispersed his life essence and listened to the crowd.

"The king has always been a little harsh, but I didn't think he would stop just a little march." One said. "They weren't even doing anything wrong. Do you know why that happened, because I do not?"

"No," Another random person said. "During my inspection, one of the guards let it slip that they were looking for members of the resistance here. Maybe those people were them. That might be the reason they have increased the patrols lately."

"Ssshh, you can't say the name of that group you idiot. The king banned it. Anyone who acknowledges the group is hung in front of the entire capital. After, their body is sent to the magic academy for experimentation. Don't look at those people or else the king might think you're a part of it too. I've heard about his men breaking into people's homes just for being accused, and that they're the source of the missing people. I don't know what happened but the king sure hated it."

"I think I saw people I knew though, and they weren't part of that group. They were just normal folks from the middle-class district. They couldn't hurt a fly. Maybe the king is losing it."

'So that's what's going on,' Doevm thought as he went back to his seat. 'Humans will always whisper, always judge, no matter how little information they have. Like the man who talked about me and the creature in the Underground, people will just make assertions without any basis. This was the Resistance's plan. Frey told me about them back at the front lines, but I didn't think that they would actually exist.'

'The royalty hasn't been overthrown for centuries, which is also the reason they can get away with their strict policies. When the demon king and his army resurrects, the royalty has always formed an army through the knights' and magic academies to resist. The authority was necessary for survival. I don't know if the resistance is same group that attacked me, but I need to find out.

'The key is Jackal. He has a necklace like Frank. He most likely knows about whatever a "gun" is, the group, and most importantly, that necklace, which was the same one as mine. I was too angry to notice, but I did feel a little soul mana come from him when he was knocked down. I need to get down to the medical wing and interrogate him. After all, what if this group goes after the academy? What if they know about soul magic? I've gathered enough information. It's time to act.' He pushed everyone out of the way and headed down the stairs.