Chapter 66 - His Grace

After taking all the unconscious candidates to the beach Aaris and Niran returned to our meeting point. It took almost 20 minutes to send off each candidate, but soon Crius and Melvi came with water and fish, fruits, and rabbit and deer meat.

After setting up a small camp, Aaris peeked at his card,

_____

| Second Trial -› Kings Domain Game |

| Time Elapsed -› 07 Hours 21 minutes |

| Total - Points -› 025 Points |

| Team -› Team First North | 

| Status -› King | 

—» Team First North can enter the Throne now «—

_____

They cooked food and had their supper, with some small chit  chats, and exchange of information about the locations they explored individually while sitting there in front of the kindling bonfire.

Crickets and Cicadas buzzing around were giving a feeling of warm summer nights but this isn't anything more than a planned stage.

"The night is approaching, the trial started at

11 o'clock and in a while, 8 hours would pass, can't we move to the Throne tomorrow?" Melvi was still hesitant but not as much as she was earlier.

"We already have rested enough, even though we had completed the requirement to enter The Throne but, dilly-dallying in overconfidence and irresponsibility could harm us. It's best to rest for a while here then move to the Throne as I said earlier we need to reserve a good spot on the land of Throne."

Niran pushed aside the ambers from the bamboo in the fire and pulled out his steamed fish.

"Why are you in such a hurry? I mean if we move late to the land of Throne, then the other teams who have already made their domain can be hunted down easily,  we could haul more points from them without wasting much energy on finding them or doing camping or setting up traps." Aaris rested on his back on the ground and breathed a long yawn.

"When you don't know what kind of enemies you are facing then it's better to explore the battlefield first, For instance, if we acquire outer parts of the land even of small width, we could know which and how many candidates have passed or are currently residing in our land, that's one of the perks of being the King, don't you know that?" 

Niran pulled out the bones from the fish and drew a rough map on the ground.

"After collecting every information, we could plan our attacks and baits, but one most important thing that you shouldn't forget: Rise, once a King enters the Throne, and acquires land you can't leave the Throne! The center part of the island is surrounded by a circular river called the Blue ring,  once you cross that, then the game will be over for you and us-!" 

"Your Majesty, we can't trust this fool with such an important role. Why don't you use Cold Promotion and take the status, no one here or on the whole island is better suited than you for the role of the King! As everybody knows-" Crius abruptly interrupted Niran and started paving his way to his favor but he was cut off by Aaris too, 

"I see, well then if you say so, once Melvi says she is ready let's move from here, besides it would take us 4 - 5 hours by foot to reach the Throne by foot, it's better to save our energy for later, don't suggest me taking candidates on the back again." Aaris turned over and closed his eyes.

"Don't interrupt me you-" Crius got furious at him but was again interrupted and ignored by Niran, 

"Then that's the plan." Niran also laid on his back and closed his eyes, while Crius was biting his lips in bitterness.

"Why does this peasant have such a friendly relationship with this spoiled bastard! This makes things tough for me, I need to do something about this Rise and this Melvi first!" Crius thought and calmed himself, and sat down.

While Melvi was chomping down the food like a hamster.

-- Aaris - PoV --

Looks like this time things will go smoothly this time, my rank has been at the bottom for the last trials, I was really concerned that I will make it to the top 10 or not.

Once we make it to the Throne and win this game by coming first all four of us will make it to the Top 4, he would get the first rank because of extra points and I'll probably get the 4th one because of my previous ranks.

Now it all makes sense, why is he dominating the first rank from the start of the game, why is he, Sir. Edward's Seth, 

~~ When they were escorting the candidates to the beach ~~

'By the way, I was curious, what's your magia?' I was carrying a faint on my back and dashing over the branches of the sky-scraping trees. 

Niran was going faster and was leading the way,

"Mine? I am… not normal like you guys, why do you ask?" 

'Well it piqued my curiosity, not because of your spell but because of your mana, that wasn't normal mana that humans possess but it was much stronger and denser, more like Ethereal mana!' He is hiding something about himself.

"Aren't you sharp? Many people often mistake normal strong and dense Mortal mana for Ethereal mana, why are you so sure that mine isn't Mortal but Ethereal?" Niran's tone was amused, I can only see his back but he is probably quite amused now.

'Simple, Mortal mana radiation can't disorient mana circulation in others until you use a specific spell, but what you did there wasn't an enchantment but just boosting or soared your mana outside of your body, speaking frankly it was more like a dragon roaring to dominate its prey instead of wasting attacks on it.' 

That's what I felt back there, it wasn't targeted at us, so it was precisely aimed toward the other teams. It's still too hard to believe candidates like his caliber compete to get into the academy.

"Looks like I underestimated your wits, you are not as stupid as I thought" 

'Oye!'

"You're right, I use Ethereal Mana." 

'Figured! Then what are you? There aren't many race beings that use Ethereal mana.'  I wonder If he tells me the truth, He can lie to me and I would believe it without any question if it sounds convincing but I think he won't.

"Well, I am not supposed to reveal about my Magia until the circumstance allows but since you are associated with Lady Tara, I don't think it'll matter much, as you know I am the son of the hero of the Kingdom Esnair, Emperor Drake Azeihik who had the grace and blood of one of the last Sacred Dragons, the Hell-Fire Dragon Drake."

'So that means-"

"Well, you are just half right, I am just a human, but  I have the blood of two Dragons Grace users running through my veins, 

I am The Golden Flame Dragon Grace user."

If I hadn't seen him in action, I would've said that he is bluffing but, I also doubted this, he is a Dragon Grace user too!

~~ Present Time ~~

But there is still something I can't believe, why did he lie to me about being a Grace User?!

"Rise! Rise!!" Melvi shook me vigorously… "Can you come with me?" She whispered to me, 

'What happened? Have you eaten and done resting?' I sat up and looked around Crius and Niran was lying drowsily, 

"Um- you see can you come with me for a bit, it's gotten dark and scary" she was a bit restless and nervous, 

'Why don't you ask Crius or Niran? Aren't they-'

"I can't ask his Majesty or this creep for such things!" She flustered and pulled my arm, 

She literally dragged me on the ground and took me to the forest. I was still half asleep but I did see Niran smiling and waving at me, that bastard!

[ HELIOS ]

she chanted and her wand lit up,

'Why did you drag me here in this dark forest alone?! Don't tell me… I can't believe even young noble ladies have started preying on young boys?! Niran help me!' I started struggling but she swung her wand on my head and probably broke my skull.

"No! You idiot, how can you say such things?! Don't you understand what a girl means when she asks for a boy's company, without telling much?!" She turned and beat the hell out of me.

How can I? I never indicated much with girls like this, and I can't even tell her that my most fresh memories are with a middle-aged man, traveling in the land of hooligans!  

"Just stay here quietly, I asked you because you are a better guy than that Crius…" she flinched all of sudden.

"I can't hold it in anymore!" She mumbled and ran behind some bushes not too far from us.

What does she mean-

Suddenly I realized, 

What...what...why did she take me here! But she trusted me with an important task! As a gentleman, I won't run away! First I need to assure her!

I took a deep breath, 

'MELVI! you can finish your business without any fear! Don't worry I am watching over you!' I yelled to assure her but her wand came flying straight at my face.

"I prefer you don't! Just stay quiet for a while you idiot!" She whimpered in anger.

I can't believe here I am helping her and she treats me like this-

"Rise!!" Suddenly she screamed and the bushes started shaking.

Now what?!