Beside them, Margo’s face darkened instantly, a storm brewing across his sharp features as he clenched his jaw hard enough that a muscle twitched in his cheek.
Max hadn’t even looked at him while speaking—hadn’t spared him a glance, hadn’t even acknowledged his presence—and the calculated slight burned hotter than fire in Margo’s chest.
It was as if Max had declared that Margo was too insignificant to warrant even a single word.
Alice, however, didn’t appear the least bit troubled. Instead, her eyes glowed softly with warmth as she nodded in quiet understanding, a gentle happiness radiating from her despite the looming tension.
She seed utterly content that she’d been able to see Max again after so long, and her slight smile was like a balm against the heavy atmosphere crackling between the two n.
But then Margo finally snapped, his composure shattering as his sneer twisted into full-blown scorn. "A Level 1 Master Rank trash saying he would keep an eye on our team... this is too much of a joke," he spat, his voice dripping contempt as it rang out sharply through the hall, drawing a few curious glances from passing experts.
His eyes bored into Max with a mixture of fury and disbelief, unable to stomach how soone he viewed as a re insect dared not only to ignore him but to speak so confidently of protecting his team. It was as though every word from Max was a slap across his pride.
Max, however, remained completely unfazed, his expression smooth as polished stone as he continued to act as if Margo were little more than air. He turned back to Alice, his tone casual and light. "Alright, see you on the battlefield," he said with a faint nod, as though their entire exchange with Margo had been nothing more than a passing breeze.
"You too," Alice replied, her lips parting in a genuine, bright smile that seed to cut through the crimson haze lingering over the city like a blade of sunlight.
With that, Max pivoted gracefully on his heel and strode away through the crowd, his black robes rippling around him as he returned to his own waiting team, leaving an increasingly apoplectic Margo behind.
Margo stood rooted in place, his fists trembling at his sides, his eyes following Max’s retreating figure with a glare so intense it could have burned a hole through stone. His breath ca in short, furious bursts, his mind seething with indignation.
Twice—twice—he had been ignored and brushed aside as though he didn’t even exist by soone he considered trash at Level 1 Master Rank.
A cold, insidious smile slowly curled across Margo’s lips as he forced himself to relax his clenched jaw, dark thoughts swirling behind his eyes. ’Just you wait...’ he seethed silently as he finally turned away, stalking off with his team and Alice in tow, his heavy iron sword shifting slightly across his broad back with each step.
anwhile, Max moved on without a single backward glance, unbothered and focused on the path ahead. He wasn’t worried about Alice’s safety. He knew well that Alice bore a remarkably prestigious identity, even among the illustrious descendants of the Four God Nation’s great families.
Unless soone possessed recklessness bordering on suicidal folly—or a death wish that defied heaven itself—no one would dare lay a finger on her or create trouble that could provoke the wrath of powers far beyond their comprehension.
"Max, do you... do you know Princess Alice?" Arlen blurted out, his voice tight with disbelief, his eyes practically bulging as he stared at Max like he’d suddenly sprouted wings.
Beside him, the other four mbers of their team all turned their stunned gazes on Max as well, each pair of eyes wide and sparkling with a mix of curiosity and shock, as though they were witnessing sothing impossibly rare.
Max couldn’t help but smile wryly, lifting one hand to scratch the back of his head as if trying to dislodge an uncomfortable mory. "I... once encountered her before joining the Great Ruler Empire," he said whatever bullshit ca to his mind "And we beca acquaintances from then on."
Arlen’s face lit up instantly, his eyes shimring with unrestrained excitent, as though he’d just been told that Max personally knew a celestial goddess. "That’s so cool," he exclaid, practically bouncing on his heels with youthful enthusiasm.
But before he could continue, Lena suddenly folded her arms tightly across her chest, the fabric of her robes rustling as she shifted her weight and fixed Arlen with a glare sharp enough to cut steel. "Huh. I never thought you liked Princess Alice," she said coolly, her tone crisp and edged with a note of frost, her narrowed eyes boring into Arlen as though daring him to confess so hidden infatuation.
Caught like a rabbit in a snare, Arlen coughed awkwardly, his cheeks flushing a faint red as he waved his hands defensively. "W-Who wouldn’t like Princess Alice?" he stamred, glancing nervously between Lena and Max. "I an... I’ve heard she’s kind and magnanimous. Everyone says that about her."
Wanting to steer the conversation away from the awkward tension crackling between Lena and Arlen, Arlen quickly cleared his throat and latched onto another thread of curiosity that had been lingering in his mind. "But... wasn’t there a rumor that she went missing for like a decade or sothing?"
Lena’s brows knit together in a deep frown, her arms still folded tightly across her chest as she nodded in agreent, her eyes narrowing slightly as though sifting through old scraps of gossip.
"Yeah, I heard that too," she said, her voice edged with thoughtful suspicion. "It was said that Princess Alice had disappeared from the Phoenix God Nation for years, but no one ever seed to know the truth. There were so many conflicting stories—so said she’d been kidnapped, others claid she’d gone into secluded cultivation, and a few even whispered about assassination plots. But nothing was ever confird. And now, seeing her here in the Hunter Association, alive and well... it makes think those were just rumors after all."
She cast a quick glance at Max as if hoping he might fill in the gaps, but Max only remained silent, his expression inscrutable as shadows danced across his eyes beneath the glow of shifting crimson light filtering through the towering windows.
"I think so too," Arlen chid in, eager to reassure himself as much as anyone else, a relieved smile spreading across his face. "If she really had disappeared, the entire Phoenix God Nation would’ve been thrown into chaos. She’s the Princess, after all—one of the Four God Nation’s most important figures. But we only ever heard whispers, and then... nothing. Everything stayed quiet. No wars, no upheavals. So, I guess it was just people making things up." As Arlen spoke, his tone grew lighter, as though brushing away the dark weight of intrigue and potential political catastrophe.
But Max, standing among them with the hum of countless voices filling the colossal Hunter Association hall around him, felt a different heaviness settle in his chest. Though he remained outwardly calm, his mind churned with silent reflections. He knew the truth behind those rumors better than anyone present.
Alice truly had been missing from the Middle Domain for nearly a decade, absent from the grand cities and golden palaces of the Phoenix God Nation. She’d spent almost her entire life hidden away in the Lower Domain, far from the eyes of the overlords, from political sches and the endless struggles for power.
’I have yet to know why her mother brought her to the Lower Domain when in the Middle Domain she could have had much faster growth than in the Lower Domain?’ Max thought silently as they headed towards the battlefield.
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