The Author's POV

Melissa found herself roaming the halls after separating from the others.

Passing through a group of individuals, Melissa clenched her teeth and mumbled.

"…What does he want from me now?"

Melissa has a strong urge to just turn around and leave the premise, but she knew that she could do nothing but listen to his words.

To make matters worse, her current mood was not very stable.

After what she had just witnessed, how could her mood still be stable? Although she knew that Ren was still alive, a part of her didn't really believe what Amanda had told her in the past.

She was a pragmatic person.

What she witnessed that day suggested to her that the probability of Ren surviving was almost impossible.

As such, she only partially believed what Amanda said. 'Turns out she was right.' Melissa quietly murmured.

Who would've thought? He was actually still alive.

One of the only people that can get on their nerves whenever they spoke.

"I swear, I'm going to lose it one day."

She shook her frustrations with a sigh, then quietly headed for a particular section of the hall where a large wooden door stood.

"This should be the place right?"

Halting her steps in front of the door, Melissa took out a small flask from her dimensional space and directly chugged it.

Gulp—

"Haaaa.."

Wiping her mouth, she glimpsed at the empty flask in her hand before putting it away.

Smacking her lips, her face cringed a little.

"I've got to improve the taste of this."

What she just drank was the same thing that she had given Ren before.

It was pretty much a life-saver for her. It basically helped her calm her nerves. If not for it, she would've probably gone on a similar rampage.

Fortunately, because of the situation, no one questioned her about the potion when she gave it to Ren. Saved her a lot of explaining.

"...Alright."

Once she felt her nerves calm down a little, taking another deep breath and raising her hand, she knocked on the door.

To Tok—

"Come in."

Not long after she knocked, An emotionless voice sounded from behind the door. Hearing the voice, Melissa's brows furrowed tightly.

Grabbing onto the doorknob, she slowly entered the room and closed the door behind her.

Ci Clank—

***

"Huuu."

Thud—

I sat down on a comfortable chair. My shoulders instantly relaxed.

Because of what happened before, I was forced to change my clothes.

Gritting my teeth, I extended my hand and grabbed a drink. My whole body was numb, and if not for the pills I took before, I would've been in extreme pain.

"You feeling okay?"

I was currently back inside the hall which was crowded with people. From how everyone was still happily conversing, it was clear that no one had noticed what had happened outside.

Sitting next to me, with a drink in his hand, Kevin took a small sip. His eyes drew into half-moons as he took a sip of the drink.

"…no, not really. Everything hurts."

"That so?"

Kevin took another sip of his drink...or at least tried to, just when he was about to bring the tip of his glass near his mouth, Kevin's face suddenly crumbled and the drink in his hand shook. Spilling onto the ground.

"Looks like you're also not okay."

Taking a napkin to wipe away the liquid that had fallen on him, he eyed me from the side of his eye.

"…and whose fault do you think that is?"

I shrugged.

"Your fault for being weak."

"What did you say?"

"You heard me right. Your fault for being weak."

I put down my drink.

"If I don't remember wrongly, I was kicking both you and Jins's ass."

I may have lost in the end, but that was because I was fighting against four to three people at the same time.

Of course, I knew that they were both holding back.

Jin and Kevin were both really strong in their own right. It would've been weird if I was able to beat them both if they weren't holding back.

"…I was holding back."

"Yeah, and I wasn't in the right state of mind."

The edges of my lips curled upwards, and the faint sound of Kevin grinding his teeth rang next to me. Turning his head, Kevin's eyes turned into small slits.

"You sure know how to piss me off."

He muttered with his teeth clenched tightly.

Putting his cup down and taking off his blazer, Kevin stood up.

"How about you have another go at me? I'll show you that what you remember was wrong."

"I'm good."

I lazily yawned before I exaggeratively pointed toward my rib cage area.

"I'm quite injured you see. Ahhh, so painful."

Glancing at Kevin, I raised my brow.

"You won't try fighting against someone who is injured, right?"

"Ugh."

A groan escaped from Kevin's mouth before he sat back down in a defeated manner.

Seeing how deflated he was, I patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, we will get a chance to fight again at the event. We won't have to hold back then."

Buttoning the buttons of his blazers, Kevin grabbed a new drink and took a sip of it.

"You're right. I will hold myself back till then."

Lifting his head, Kevin looked around.

"By the way, where are the others? Haven't seen them."

"How should I know?"

The first thing I did when arriving back into the hall was sit down. Kevin followed me after, but regarding the others, I really did not know what they were doing.

"May I have your attention."

While Kevin and I were wondering about the whereabouts of the others, suddenly a melodious and peaceful voice sounded throughout the whole place and everyone stopped speaking.

Turning our attention towards where the voice came from, a mesmerizing figure appeared in the distance.

There were a lot of words that could've been used to describe how beautiful she looked, but I refrained from telling them as I was too mesmerized by her looks…or rather, it was the sense of tranquility that enshrouded her body. Seemingly trying to suck me in.

The more I looked at her, the more entranced by her looks. But it was then that I suddenly felt a sharp pain by side of my ribs. Right, where I was injured.

"Khhh!"

Groaning, I turned my head and realized that the pain came from Kevin elbowing me.

With a solemn look on his face, he warned.

"Careful."

"...Thanks."

Snapping out of it, I lowered my head and thanked Kevin. Had it not been for his intervention, I would've remained dazed for a bit longer.

"The mana around her body is very pure. If your mind is weak, you might end up getting mesmerized by it."

Kevin explained from the side, his eyes locked onto the figure in the distance.

"…Right."

I nodded my head solemnly.

Kevin was right. Because of the purity of the mana surrounding the figure in the distance, my mind fell into this weird daze.

This was one of the features of pure-blooded elves. Definitely had to take note of this in the future.

Normally I would've never fallen into such a situation, but it was clear that my current mind was still not very stable.

"Thank you all for coming here today. As most of you know…"

Disrupting me out of my thoughts, the elves' crisp and melodious voices rang throughout the hall as everyone present their attention to her.

***

At the same time.

Emma sat down on a large red sofa. Curiously glancing around the room, she tried her best to remain composed.

Right after they managed to calm Ren down, the old man that suddenly showed up in front of everyone brought her to this room.

Although skeptical about his intentions, Emma immediately agreed.

She had an inkling about what this was about.

Ba…thump! Ba…thump!

The sound of her heartbeat was the only sound that Emma heard inside the room.

With both arms on her legs, she sat up straight.

Ci Clank—

Her wait did not last for long as the door of the room soon opened. Appearing from the other side of the door was a middle-aged man with black hair and bushy brows.

With an annoyed look, the middle-aged man entered the room and deeply sighed.

"Sigh, Douglas, the ceremony is already in full swing, why are you—"

But halfway through his words, his feet came to a halt. Lifting his head, his eyes soon met Emma's, and the room froze.

Staring at the figure that she had not seen for a long time, Emma's lips trembled.

Clenching her small fists tightly, she released the grip before clenching again. She repeated this several times as she tried to find the right words to say, but despite all of her attempts, her mind was currently blank.

Mustering every little bit of courage inside of her, she muttered.

"D…dad."

Before long, her vision blustered and tears streamed down the side of her cheeks.

"I've mis..sed...you."

***

"Well, that was boring."

Leaning back on his chair, Kevin softly muttered.

The speech lasted for over an hour. There was not a lot of important information in the speech as the things that were said were things that most people already knew.

Apart from the date of the tournament, which was in a week's time, the rest of the stuff that was said was just pleasantries.

"You thought so too?"

Standing up, Ren stretched my arms. Then, looking around, he asked.

"By the way, did you figure out where the others went?"

"No, not really, but if I had to guess Amanda and Jin had to leave because of guild-related stuff, and regarding Emma, I really am not too sure. She just told me that she had something to do."

"Ah, right. I forgot you guys are no longer as free as you used to be."

A look of melancholy appeared on Ren's face as he muttered those words.

Staring at him from the side, Kevin understood how he felt.

Having not seen everyone ever since their first year, it was understandable that he felt that way. He wasn't the only one that changed, everyone else changed too.

They were no longer the same naive students from the past.

"It's alright, you'll get used to it."

Patting Ren on the shoulder, Kevin walked alongside Ren towards the exit of the building.

The ceremony was still not over, but after what happened not too long ago, they decided to head back. Their bodies just couldn't keep up.

"...Huh?"

Bust just as he was about to near the exit of the building, Kevin's feet came to an abrupt halt as he stared at the panel in front of him.

Furrowing his brows, and staring at the red message that had appeared in front of him, Kevin muttered.

"Just what in the..."

[Warning.] [Warning.] [Warning.]

Time remnant has set its eyes on you. Advice caution.

This was not the first time that he had seen the message.

In fact, he had been seeing this same exact message for quite a while now, but he just never understood it.

'Time remnant.'

That was the only thing that caught his interest, but despite his many attempts at trying to figure out what it was, he was never able to figure out what it was.

He did remember hearing about it in one of his visions, but that was all.

"Something wrong?"

Ren's voice rang from the side.

"No, nothing."

Kevin smiled.

'I should not get him involved in this.'

Whatever this time remnant was, it was definitely after him, and judging from how the person in his dreams seemed so wary of it, Kevin knew that this time remnant was something he had to be very careful of.

Kevin didn't want to drag Ren into his problems. He had already gone through enough.

Plus, what would he know about it?