Lira knocked on Elenya's door and waited a few seconds outside.
Elenya said from inside, "Coming!"
Lira heard her voice and waited for the door to open. When Elenya opened it, she looked at Lira with a smile and asked, "Why are you wearing your academy uniform?"
Lira looked back at herself and said, "Hmm, nothing."
Elenya looked at Lira like she was an idiot—the academy was closed, yet Lira was wearing her academy uniform. It was awkward, but Lira acted like it was normal.
Elenya ignored her uniform, took Lira's hand, and started walking toward the stadium. She wanted to see who she would be competing against.
Both of them left their room and headed to the stadium.
Meanwhile, Aeren walked with chains covering his entire body, accompanied by Royal family guards who were taking him to the 'Prison of Dungeon'.
In the Prison of Dungeon, there were many monsters captured by the royal family. There were also human prisoners, but they were kept in different areas. Sometimes those monsters were sent to the human side to make the prisoners feel despair.
One of the royal guards looked at Aeren and asked, "Why did you kill that student?" The guard looked at Aeren, thinking he must have had a reason for killing someone—everyone had reasons for killing humans or anything else.
People killed for money, property, position, knowledge, and so on.
But did Aeren have any reason to kill a lowly person like Bale? Aeren looked at the guard and said, "Hmm, he pierced my heart, so I felt like doing it on him, and he died."
The royal guard looked at Aeren and thought, This boy isn't stable at all. He speaks like any other criminal. And what the fuck does he mean Bale pierced his heart? He looks fucking fine and is telling us lies like we'd believe them.
All sympathy the royal guards had for Aeren vanished, and they began ignoring him.
Aeren noticed they were also looking at him with disgust, but he said nothing and continued with them to see the real Prison of Dungeon.
The royal guard finally reached a massive gate with Aeren and looked at the other guards protecting it, saying, "Here, take him inside."
The other guards looked at Aeren with confusion and asked, "What the hell? Why are you sending a kid into this hell?"
The royal guards looked at the gate guards and said, "He killed a student from the academy just for fun."
Aeren looked at the guards and was about to say that he hadn't done it for fun, but he thought these puppets would never understand him anyway. So Aeren remained silent and didn't say a single word to them.
The guards still looked at Aeren, not knowing what to say. Killing an academy student was the highest crime in the kingdom, and most of the people inside had committed similar high crimes.
The guards had nothing to say and just nodded with a sigh. "Man, there are still many idiots who think they can't be punished for anything."
And just like that, Aeren entered the Prison of Dungeon with mana restriction chains covering his entire body.
A week passed. Isolde won her matches and advanced to the top 16 for the main event. The principal called her and Renn along with others to his office.
In the principal's office, Principal Valerius sat in his chair looking at four people across from him: Renn, Adam, Isolde, and Uria. Principal Valerius had also called for Lira and Elenya, but those two had rejected his request.
Valerius looked at Adam first. Adam appeared confused about being called in with younger students around him, but he accepted the situation and sat with them.
Valerius asked Adam, "Can you tell me about your brother?"
Adam stared at Valerius and asked with a serious tone, "Why should I?"
Valerius saw the anger in his words, sighed, and explained, "Your brother has killed a student from the academy, so it's my responsibility to know the reason behind it."
Adam's eyes widened at this answer. He stood up, looked at Valerius, and asked again with a loud voice, "Where is my brother?"
After hearing this, everyone became confused—they didn't even know who they were discussing. But for Valerius, it was shocking to see that Adam Drevin had ignored his question and asked a different one while shouting at him.
Valerius looked at Adam and said, "Calm down, Student Adam."
Adam didn't calm down and started to leave the room. Valerius released his mana, and Adam collapsed to the ground, overwhelmed by gravitational pressure.
Valerius looked down at Adam and said, "Who gave you permission to leave?" His cold voice even threatened the surrounding students.
Everyone felt fear emanating from Valerius as he continued looking at Adam on the ground. Adam somehow managed to look up at Valerius and said, "Let me leave." He could barely get these words out.
Valerius glanced at Adam, then ignored him and looked at the others. They were frightened and said nothing.
Valerius didn't want to see this type of situation—he had wanted to ask them politely and let them go, but because of Adam, everything was ruined. He glanced at Isolde and Renn, who were looking at him but didn't appear much different externally. Then Valerius saw Uria, who was afraid, with her head down, not even glancing at him.
Seeing this, Valerius said, "Student Uria, you don't need to worry."
But Uria didn't look at Principal Valerius and just nodded like a puppy.
Renn saw Uria and had never seen her before, so he curiously glanced at her and noticed she looked prettier than the average girl. Then he looked at Isolde, who was staring at him. He thought that while Uria was attractive, Isolde was much prettier, more beautiful, and kinder.
Valerius sighed inwardly but didn't show any irritation around the students.
"Okay, students. I want to tell you all the reason I asked you here," Valerius said. All the students' attention turned to the principal. Valerius paused briefly and said, "Aeren killed a student a week ago in the academy. So I wanted to ask you all a few questions."
Valerius looked at all the students around him, expecting something from them. To his surprise, Renn and Isolde didn't react much, but Uria looked like she was about to cry at any moment after hearing his words.