Alden stord out of the training hall, ignoring the heavy gazes of others.
He didn't actually care about what they thought about him.
Why would he?
They weren't so big shots.
Even if they were, it didn't bother him.
But what bothered him more was the trouble this little incident could bring him.
From what he knew.
The emperor doted on Amyra the most out of all his children.
That had caused many assassination attacks on her from her jealous siblings.
That was probably one of the reasons for her cold emotions most of the ti.
But he had to accept.
He never in his wildest dream expected Amyra to react like that.
Was that her real Personality?
The one that she kept hidden behind her cold facade?
He had accepted that everyone had completely different personalities than what was ntioned in the novel.
Or...
Has she fallen for my good looks.
He quickly dismissed his narcissistic thoughts.
It doesn't matter.
What matters is, how am I going to survive this ss?
The emperor might send assassins to kill off. Nah, that would be overkill.
I am just overthinking things.
Right?
Lost in his thoughts, Alden arrived at his dorm room.
The door clicked shut behind him.
He entered his bedroom and sat on his bed.
His mind was still in chaos.
Damn it.
The mont his lips brushed against Amyra was replaying in his mind.
And worse?
The innocent look in her eyes… It also kept on repeating.
First, Nyx.
Then this disaster.
And now?
Now he had half the elite students ready to draw conclusions, and the other half were probably planning his public execution.
The emperor was going to kill him. That was a given.
Still…
He lightly touched his lips.
The warmth and the sweet taste was gone but he could still feel it.
He felt sothing familiar. But he pushed that feeling aside.
Damm it.
I can't take it anymore.
I need to calm my mind sohow.
Saying such, he entered his personal training room.
I just need to tire my body out so my mind becos calm.
Coincidentally, the mana suppression bracelet that Amyra had given him before the match started was still with him.
He had forgotten to take that out before he stord out from there.
The mana suppression bracelets were expensive.
The one Amyra gave was not issued by the academy but was her personal property.
Was Alden going to return it?
Nope.
Why would he?
He was going to treat it as his paynt for accepting the spar.
And it's not like Amyra would care either..
He decided to train while suppressing his mana.
This mana suppression bracelets was a bit more advanced than the one which he used against Nyx.
This one also had one other use.
It could increase the weight felt by the whole body.
Any general mana suppression bracelets worked simply.
They didn't suppress the core, rather they absorbed whole mana from the body of the user, temporarily.
But this one could use the absorbed mana to increase its weight.
There was a small dial in it.
Alden twisted it.
Then suddenly—
His whole body was pressed on the ground.
Damn it
He cursed.
He had mistakenly increased the dial too much.
The weight had increased so much that his bones were creaking.
He tried to reach his hands towards the bracelet.
To dial it back…
To make it weightless.
But he couldn't even lift his hands.
The weight was at least ten tis his body.
Is this how I am going to die?
By a re bracelet?
What a ridiculous way to die!
Well, I should stop being so overdramatic.
Alden was just kidding.
He wasn't going to die. This bracelet had a safety feature put in for idiots like him… so it would shut down automatically after a while.
He just had to endure it for a while.
Just then sothing unexpected happened—
Sothing started glowing in his pocket…
An ominous black light started leaking out from his pocket.
He felt sothing floating.
Then with a swish sound, sothing flew out…
What the hell?
It was a spirit pearl.
Is it finally Awakening?
Alden felt excited looking at it…
Finally,
The pearl floated in front of his arm wearing a mana suppression bracelet.
It floated silently before….
The weight on his body vanished suddenly—not because the bracelet deactivated, but because sothing else had taken its place.
The spirit peral's glow deepened into a void-black pulse.
And then—
A tangible mouth made up of energy shot out from the spirit pearl.
Alden's eyes widened as he watched the black mouth of energy stretch wide and devour the bracelet in a single gulp.
No resistance.
No explosion.
It was simply… gone.
Not a single part of Alden's body was touched.
Not a hair disturbed.
The entity had eaten only what it wanted—and what it wanted was the bracelet for so reason.
The pearl hovered for a heartbeat longer, and then—
A faint voice echoed within Alden's mind….
It was difficult to even consider that a voice; it was more like Alden felt so strings of emotions.
"D…..A ... .n…ge..r…. …s…a…..f..e.. …. H…u …..n…..gr….y"
The ominous black energy vanished.
The pearl glowed once, and with a soft swish, it floated neatly back into his pocket.
Silence returned.
Alden sat up slowly.
"What the hell was that…" he whispered.
Alden pulled out the spirit pearl back from his pocket.
Nothing…
No change had occurred with it…
The black pearl still was the sa... but Alden noticed sothing different.
The green runic lines on its surface had changed slightly.
The pattern had shifted slightly, and the glow had intensified…
Even if it was brief, Alden had felt sothing ancient from the energy that the spirit pearl had released.
What was that energy?
That was definitely not ordinary mana.
It felt ancient and … ominous.
Alden focused back on the spirit pearl.
He sent the ssage and looked down at the pearl again.
Still and silent.
But he knew sothing had changed.
He could feel it.
__
Even though the black glow had vanished, and the Spirit Pearl had returned to its previous state.
Sothing felt different.
Alden slowly turned the smooth, dark orb in his palm.
The faint runes on its surface glowed a bit dimr than before but were still alive.
Still pulsing. Like a heartbeat.
Those fragnted words echoed in his mind.
"D…..A ... .n…ge..r…. …s…a…..f..e.. …. H…u …..n…..gr….y"
It hadn't been a real voice. Not sothing his ears heard.
It was sothing deeper and instinctual. He felt it rather than hearing it.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Danger… Safe… Hungry…" he murmured again.
The pattern wasn't random. That much was clear.
Danger.
That must've referred to the bracelet's pressure.
That ridiculous tenfold gravitational force that had crushed him against the floor.
The spirit pearl must've misunderstood the bracelet weight as a danger.
It knew.
Which ant…
"Is it bonded to ?" Alden whispered.
No that can't be.
Spirits can only be bonded or contracted once they are born.
But the spirit pearl had not even hatched yet.
Then what was it?
And more importantly, how did I hear it in my mind, if it was not bonded to ?
A crazy theory ford in Alden's mind.
What if the spirit has already been born and is just staying within that pearl for so reason?
That idea sounded insane—but it was the only one that made sense.
There had been no command. No summoning.
The Spirit Pearl had acted entirely on its own.
That mouth—whatever that was—had appeared with intent.
Not blind energy, but purpose.
It had targeted the bracelet, and only the bracelet.
No extra destruction.
No collateral.
Precise.
Efficient.
And then… hungry.
That final word unsettled him the most.
The energy it used—it wasn't free.
He looked down at the pearl again.
It was dormant now, the runes no longer pulsing with the sa fierce light.
Had it used up its stored energy to protect him?
Was that why it said it was… hungry?
Was this so kind of automatic defense chanism?
Sothing tied to a bond?
Maybe it had sensed his life was in danger and intervened.
It was subtle, but now that Alden was focusing—he could feel sothing else.
A faint energy.
Not from the Spirit Pearl.
From within himself. He could swear it wasn't there before.
It was like a thread had been tied between them.
Not tight—but present.
Dormant.
Waiting.
__
Sowhere else within a lavish mansion, a girl was casually sipping her tea.
Her expressions are nonchalant, as if she didn't care a bit about anything in this world.
Her red hair was smooth like a flowing river of blood. And her ember eyes looked as if fire burnt through them.
Just then a shadow appeared inside the room without even the slightest disturbance.
The shadow knelt onto the ground.
"Young Miss, I have found out about the boy."
The shadow said respectfully.
The shadow handed her a file.
The red-headed girl scanned the whole file, and only after she was done did she mutter…
"Astralis Academy, is it?" Her voice was laced with amusent.
"Make preparations; I am going to attend the academy... as a transfer student, perhaps."
She said before she got up from her chair.
"Young Miss, it will be difficult." The shadows said respectfully.
The girl replied after a brief pause.
"Ask Grandpa… Tell him that if I can't go to the academy, I won't talk to him."
The shadow hesitated for a while before bowing. "As you command."
The shadow vanished as silently as it had appeared.
The red head left alone in the room smiled slightly…
I hope things will be interesting for a while.
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