Her eyes automatically turned to look at Edith and saw the tears gushing out of her eyes. Victoria waved her hand, sending a sliver of Cosmic energy to the orb. Right after the Cosmic energy reached the orb, Valeria’s figure vanished into thin air and the orb lost its glow.
As soon as Valeria disappeared, Edith collapsed down. She closed her face with her hands and started to cry,
”Edith” Victoria knelt beside her best friend, wrapped her arms around her shoulder, and pulled her close to her.
”I… don’t know… what to do” Edith sobbed as her voice stuttered,
”Hey hey hey, you don’t have to do anything. Stop crying” Victoria tried to console her. She wasn’t in her usual cold self. How could she when her best friend was crying for the first time in many many years?
Edith sobbed continuously for fifteen minutes and no matter what Victoria tried to say or do, she could not stop Edith from crying.
”It’s okay” Edith opened her hands revealing puffy red eyes and a pale face. She quickly wiped off the tears and tried to let out a smile,
”I’m used to not having things I love. You can have him, he will take good care of you, he’s really a good guy”
Surprisingly Victoria slapped the back of Edith’s head,
”You dumb silly, who said I’m going to choose Noah? No offense but I’m not gonna share my husband with you or anyone”
Looking at Edith’s dumbstruck face, Victoria sighed before smiling,
”Mother said two candidates idiot. If I have to choose one, I will choose the other one. I bet mine is better than yours” she joked to make Edith truly smile again instead of the fake one on her face at the moment,
”But if-“
”Shh” Victoria closer her lips with her hands,
”If I agree to marry someone else, I don’t have to marry your loverboy”
”Hrmmmmm” Edith was saying something but due to Victoria’s hand on her mouth, her words became inaudible.
Victoria removed her hand as Edith stared at her with watering eyes,
”You would do that for me?”
Once again Victoria slapped Edith on the head,
”Idiot, I would do anything for you. Don’t you know-”
Before Victoria could finish her sentence, Edith leaped at her, hugged her, and squeezed Victoria,
”How dare you think I will join his harem huh?” Victoria asked playfully,
”He said he will treat all of us equally. If you enter the harem, it’s goodbye equality. You will kick us out” Edith purred,
”That does sound like me” Victoria chuckled as the two girls remained in each other’s embrace for a couple of minutes. Then only Victoria remembered that she put her mother on the hold,
”Mother is still waiting”
”Oh” Edith almost squealed when she remembered about Valeria. She quickly let go of Victoria, stood up, and fixed her face and her dress.
Just like before, Victoria sent a sliver of Cosmic energy to activate the orb.
”Everything okay dear?” Valeria’s figure appeared in the room and asked,
”Yes mother, someone came to meet us suddenly”
”Aww” Valeria pouted,
”I thought you cut the connection because you were shy”
Victoria couldn’t help rolling her eyes,
”Mom, have you met me?”
”Teach your friend to be shy Edith, she will need it” Valeria turned her gaze towards Edith,
”I have a better chance of teaching a cow to bark, aunty”
Valeria burst into laughter and so did Edith who felt light-hearted after Victoria promised not to take Noah from her. Surprisingly, Victoria too chuckled with them,
”Now if you finished making fun of me, tell me about the other one mom”
Valeria was surprised by Victoria’s sudden interest in knowing the brides. Before this, Victoria would either ignore her or leave the room if she opened the topic of marriage. Valeria wasn’t going to waste this moment by pondering why the sudden interest,
”The second guy is more of your father’s choice, he is rather what the right word” Valeria rubbed her chin for a moment searching for the right word in her mind,
“Insensitive,” she said and continued,
”Not forgiving as Noah and sometimes ruthless. He is not a noble like Noah and our spies fail to find any solid information about his origins. However, your father doesn’t seem to care about his origins because of what this young man has achieved by himself in a short amount of time”
When Valeria was talking about Noah, she had a bright smile on her face. That smile was nowhere to be found on her face now,
”He went from Foundation stage to Core Formation stage level 10 within a year. You won’t believe how he became a king…”
Valeria began to narrate everything from the beginning to Victoria except one thing which she kept to herself to surprise Victoria. At the end of the story, Edith was horrified and began to sweat thinking about what would happen if Victoria married this guy.
Victoria on the other hand was amazed by him. He seemed to have everything Victoria wanted in her life partner. In addition, he also earned Victoria’s respect.
”Who is he?” asked Victoria,
”We know him, dear. You may have even met him”
Valeria surprised her daughter. As a mother, she preferred Noah for her daughter but as a queen, she picked the second youngster. However, she was worried that if Victoria chose the second one, there won’t be a place for kindness. Victoria wasn’t exactly a kind compassionate ruler like herself. Thus, Valeria wanted Victoria’s husband to be the kind and compassionate one when ruling over Thusia. Noah seemed to be that man, not the second one.
She expressed her feelings about him to Maxim but as a ruthless king, he was leaning toward the second one rather than choosing Noah. The ultimate decision of choosing the future king of Thusia fell to Victoria.
Whatever decision her daughter would make, she would wholeheartedly agree and support her although she would be over the moon if she was to choose Noah.
”Do you know the leader of our alchemy guild, the one Calvin chose?” Valeria asked as Victoria began to recall everything released to the Alchemy guild. She was in seclusion when they formed an Alchemy guild of their own. Everything related to talent recruitment had been taken care of by Calvin and because he was competent, Maxim rarely micro-managed Calvin. Besides, they were at war with several kingdoms so they had no time to access every talent brought by Calvin.
Nonetheless, Victoria did hear Calvin talk about recruiting a 5-star Alchemist as their guild leader and plan to topple the Alchemist Guild.
”He goes by the name, Ghost. Apparently, he was also chosen by Mazeroth at the same time as you two”
The moment Valeria said this, the images of the youngster Victoria met in the black forest flashed across her mind.
”That’s him,” Victoria mumbled under her breath. Everything made perfect sense to Victoria and her instincts told her the same.
”Aunty, I think we’ve met him already” Edith sighed. Just like Victoria, she connected the dots and guessed her train neighbor and Ghost may be the same person.
Edith began to tell what happened in the black forest and how the Alchemy student mercilessly beat down the warriors to Valeria.
”That does sound like him”
After knowing what he did to the princess of Bredia and the fellow competitors during the tournament, Valeria wasn’t surprised by what Edith told her. As far as she was concerned, the warrior students were lucky they met him in Mazeroth instead of in Elon where Ghost would have slaughtered them like cattle.
”Since you didn’t find one yourself, these two are the choices you have dear. I would choo-“
Valeria tried to persuade Victoria to choose Noah only to get interrupted by Victoria. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that Valeria preferred Noah over Ghost and Victoria could read her mother like a book. At first, Victoria only wanted to choose the other one instead of Noah because of Edith. But after hearing everything about Ghost, she really felt like he might be the man she hoped to be her life partner.
”I will meet Ghost”
Valeria was disappointed deep down but still, she was happy that at least Victoria agreed to meet him.
”After I finish my studies in Mazeroth and hopefully find the primordial flame, I can meet him”
Both mother and daughter failed to consider Ghost’s opinion on the matter, even after knowing that he already rejected marrying a princess. And last time a king thought about marrying his daughter to him, he ended up not only losing a huge chunk of his kingdom but also almost his daughter.
Moreover, they had no idea that he was once their victim. They literally killed him and everyone he loved.
************************
Mazeroth’s training ground was where mostly the students of warrior houses would train their spellcasting and close combat skills. The grounds were flat, short-cut grassy areas and were located near the Herbal garden. It was overlooked by the training grounds tower and the arena.
The training grounds had countless dummies enhanced to function as sentient beings for the students to simulate a real battle. Each student who wants to train had to take a silver card from the counter located at the entrance. Only through this card, a student could change the difficulty and select what type of training they want. The students could change the difficulty or select a training by establishing a connection with the card. Training grounds had a giant invisible array to enable the students to use a portion of the cultivation power.
At the moment, all the students on the training ground stood aside and watched Michael break hundreds of dummies piece by piece. He was honing his close combat skills and sword skills. Since he sought badass points to settle the debt to the system and to buy some items from the store, he practiced in front of the students.
More than the students were surprised by his skills, it was his emerald green robes that shocked them. They couldn’t believe an Alchemy student possessed such astounding battle skills.
Among the onlookers was a minion of Elliot’s close friend. He was watching Michael with the intention to let his leader know about him. Michael had a plan to pick a fight with the warrior students, beat the hell out of them, farm badass points, and get the hell out of Mazeroth in eighteen months. Unlike outside, they wouldn’t know his identity so he had no need to worry about making enemies.
His plan however started to work sooner than he expected.