The stage was massive, designed for the grand competition, and everyone had been granted free permission to watch. VIP seats were reserved for high nobles and royalty.
There were many VIP sections, divided by different types according to the hierarchy of nobles. The Royal Family had special VIP passes, High Nobles had VVIP passes, and other nobles and merchants had standard VIP seat passes.
There were also expensive seats available for paying customers, though these weren't quite like the VIP sections. In total, over a million seats were available, with most people having permission to watch for free.
Roan sat in one of the expensive seats with Alice and the rest of his team.
"The time has come," Roan said, his voice serious as he looked at the stage. Their plan was set, and they just needed to execute it in few days.
"Remember one thing—you only need to kill as many academy students and professors as possible. Don't touch the common people around us."
All of them stared at Roan, wondering about this restriction. If they did something like that, weren't they giving up their advantage?
"Then aren't we at a loss?" one of the teammates asked him.
Roan looked at him. He was right, but Roan had his reasons.
"Don't worry about it. The Lord is already in the capital."
Alice and the others were shocked by his comment. They had never expected their Lord to come for them personally—they had thought they might die here as nobodies.
But if the Lord was already here, that changed everything. They felt warmth spread through their chests. If the Lord was here, it meant they could survive.
Alice glanced at Roan and asked, "Why didn't he join us?"
Roan looked at her and paused, thinking. I asked him the same thing, and he said he had other things to do. He's going to protect us from the big shots—all the kingdom's rulers. He's planning to battle them alone, or he has something that makes him confident about going against those four monsters of the kingdoms.
Roan sighed internally, not showing any emotion outwardly, but he was nervous about this. He had never killed anyone before, and now he had to fight against the world with just a few people around him.
Roan didn't even know why he was following the Lord's orders, but he didn't notice that his revenge against the Academy had clouded his judgment regarding this unknown organization.
"He's busy with other things, and he said we can erase all the students from the academies and destroy them too. He'll handle everything else for us."
His team members looked at him with smiling faces. They had never thought they would be able to find backup for themselves.
They were happy about having a savior, but they couldn't think about their Lord's real motives.
"Yes, leader!" all of them said in unison after hearing the good news from Roan. They had been together for almost six months, which had made them close to each other, and they had started to trust their lives in his hands.
All of them had become loyal followers of Roan. He could use them for anything, and they would follow all his words like commands. They never doubted his decisions and would follow him with their lives.
Roan had a serious expression as he looked at the others. "Were you able to find Aeren's location?"
All the team members' happiness disappeared as they looked at Roan. Their gazes fell to the ground, and their answer was clear without words.
Alice also felt bad about Aeren. He had been missing for months, and they hadn't been able to find his location despite Roan's constant insistence on finding him.
Roan had always wanted to find Aeren, and he cared about every team member. That was what Alice liked most about Roan—he was different from others. He always thought about others more and himself less.
"We searched every corner of the capital, and we still couldn't find anything about him."
Roan sighed and didn't say anything to them. He knew finding Aeren was like trying to find a needle in the entire world. Aeren had no distinguishing features and looked like millions of commoners. He could sit among them and no one would notice him.
If people looked different from others, finding them would be possible, but if someone blended in like he'd been with them for years, then he couldn't be seen by normal eyes.
Roan was just waiting for Aeren to show himself, or they would never be able to find him.
"Let's go. We only have five days before the competition starts."
Alice saw Roan's disappointed face and wanted to help cheer him up, but she didn't know anything that would make him happy. She had never met someone like Roan—built like he was strong, with his handsome face, red hair, and red eyes that shone like a victor's.
Then she remembered seeing couples around the shopping district, where people looked happy with each other while celebrating the festival.
She approached Roan. "Do you have anything to do right now?"
Roan looked at her and thought he had something to do, but it wasn't that important. "No, I don't."
Alice's smile brightened at his words as she took his hand. "Let's go shopping?"
Roan and Alice went on their small date before the competition began.
Meanwhile, Arin and Renn were speaking to each other at a corner of the stage, discussing the future disasters Arin had seen in his past life. Arin's trust in Renn had increased because of his sister Elenya.
Arin had seen Elenya with Renn and had researched him, finding that Renn had stopped many incidents around the world and in the capital.
He had also learned about Aeren and what he had done. Arin had never seen Aeren and Renn in his past life.
That's why he needed help from Renn to avoid more incidents in the future. Arin had cleaned up all the branches of the 'Worms' organization and had also killed several branches of the monster worms. But there were always errors in the world and system.
So he came to speak with Renn about the incident that was going to happen, hoping he could protect as many people as possible. But he doubted that Renn would trust his words.
Still, Arin had to try at least.