"Impossible for you to be that useless one, guard, are you sure it's him?"
Enrico's cheeks were tightly pinched by small hands — Taíra's — who seemed unable to believe what she was seeing. The only one not surprised was Platina, who had already seen him several times at the academy in secret.
"I told you he had changed."
"Why the surprise? Didn't you watch the battle between the classes?"
Angela was the one who stepped forward and asked with doubt. Enrico's appearance should already be known, so why did they have that expression? Matteo was the first to snap out of his shock.
"Well, let's say we put all our focus on the top three students of the academy."
"Analyzing future prospects? Well, I guess it was also the director's fault for not showing his fight with Miss Danyana to the territories."
His appearance drew great interest, especially for demonstrating great power before the princess and her subordinates. The king himself was interested in him, particularly after hearing how quickly he had evolved in just a few months.
'Although he wasn't the only one, everyone around him had an absurd evolution.'
Titanza, approaching, looked closely at Enrico's face while pulling Taíra aside. Placing her hand on her chin, she became thoughtful.
"It really was true… you lost weight."
"He must be a fraud, there's no way he's that useless one."
'What an irritating girl.'
Enrico was getting annoyed with Taíra's words; he even felt like smacking her head, but that wasn't important now.
"Hello, Taíra."
She hid behind Titanza with a suspicious look. She was sure this person was strong thanks to her unique ability that allowed her to see the level of everyone she looked at, using the Zaras' rank.
'He's at the level of a Phase One and seems he could evolve to Phase Two at any moment.'
That was why she couldn't believe it — how could someone useless just a few months ago have such a huge evolution in so little time? It wasn't possible.
"Enrico, sit down."
Hearing Matteo's voice, everyone who was standing sat down except Angela and the guard. Asking a maid to bring tea, he observed closely.
"Did you make a contract with a demon by any chance?"
'Coming from someone like him who has a contract with a prince of Hell, I feel slightly uncomfortable.'
That's right, the man in front of him had secretly made a contract with a demon to be stronger than Titanza.
"No, Mr. Matteo. If you want, you can ask everyone at the academy and they will confirm, or you can speak to the director."
"I can confirm that he didn't make any contract, since I watched over him seriously for a long time."
In truth, she was still watching him — only now for different reasons. Noticing Angela's presence, he looked at her, recognizing her from the images his subordinate had sent of Virelle's household.
'From what he told me, she's a very important and loyal subordinate. It seems Virelle's interest in him is real.'
Titanza seemed to notice as well since she had her own subordinates who researched everyone that could be dangerous to her. Pretending, she asked Angela's name, and upon receiving it, she spoke more calmly to her.
'This woman is already trying to approach strong people, just like in the original story.'
Seeing that nobody had changed and they were the same as in the original story, Enrico was already tracing a route to eliminate them, since all of them eventually became villains at some point in the work. Although the only current villain in the family who hadn't returned was Matteo, who had already begun his path toward villainy.
'If I could find a way to have them on my side, it'd be good… I'll try to make them follow another path, but if there's no way, I'll end them.'
[Already thinking about killing or changing their fates, as always, a foolish thinker.]
'I see some way they could be useful. The more allies and fewer enemies, the better our situation will be.'
Of course, new enemies could still appear who never existed in the original story, which could complicate things. But he was already making some plans to prevent that, one of them being alliances between territories, continents, races, and perhaps worlds.
"If it's confirmed that he didn't do anything wrong, then we're at ease."
"Not just me, even the director can confirm it."
"Well then, I suppose there's nothing else to say except ask my son what kind of training he did."
Great, now he had to explain part of his training. Still, he only needed to tell half-truths to make them believe he was a hidden prodigy — and for another reason: if Angela knew too much, she would stay far too attentive to him so he wouldn't surpass limits.
"I just pushed myself with physical training and focused on learning how to handle my magic better."
"I'd like to know more."
It seemed they wouldn't let him leave until they were satisfied. So, after telling a small part of his training — only the less serious details — he avoided revealing what he didn't want Angela to know.
After minutes explaining part of his training, Enrico's parents seemed somewhat satisfied with his evolution and efforts.
"It seems you only needed focus to awaken your potential… very well, you should rest. And Miss Angela, could you stay to talk with us?"
"Of course, I have some things to discuss with Mr. and Mrs. Solcren."
"Add Ferreira as well."
"Of course, Mrs. Ferreira."
Seeing that they were about to start a conversation, all the children went upstairs. Platina was the closest to him — in fact, too close.
'Well, it's possible that now that I'm useful she'll try to use me, but nothing she says will work on me.'
"I bought some high-quality vases… would you like to see them?"
Cat ears appeared on his head as if curiosity had suddenly awakened. Those words affected him because, throughout this time, he had cared about the vases from the dungeon, and he had begun to feel a certain genuine closeness to them.
"Where?"