The Crown Princess, Jina Joul, fell to the ground, exhaustion consuming her.
Seeing this, the referee announced,
"The winner is Sherry Fieda!"
Shion Lan noticed what had happened.
"Sherry's eyes made Jina experience an entire day and night through the fundamentals of time."
Glass Sano heard that and was stunned.
"What do you mean?! She can manipulate time?!"
Shion said,
"It's not like that. You can say that it is like revising what have you done for the whole day. If you've experienced staying inside someone's memories, you can break the spell."
Glass said,
"No wonder she's the director's granddaughter."
Both of them saw Tim Ayr, who was about to stand up, but Sherry spoke first.
"Shion Lan! You belittled me earlier! I want to duel with you!"
"Huh?"
Shion was confused, but Sherry continued,
"What?! Are you afraid of me?!"
She was confident that Shion would accept her challenge to preserve his reputation, but Shion said,
"If you've forgotten, I'll tell you again. I'm not at my best right now."
Sherry sneered.
"Can't you even handle a woman like me?!"
Shion smiled and said,
"No, you're strong. I admit that."
"..."
Sherry couldn't believe what she had heard, but then she remembered something.
"That's what I'd expect from someone like you. The son of a maid."
GASPS!!
Shion's expression turned cold, but he said,
"Director, she's insulting me."
Tim said,
"Sherry Fieda, you've made a lot of mistakes today. You'll be confined to your room for a week."
"Huh?!"
Sherry was at a loss for words, but Shion no longer cared. The remaining matches continued, and he watched Cole Leon defeat his opponent.
The ceremony ended.
---
Days passed.
Shion visited the Crown Princess and stood outside her quarters with a bouquet of flowers.
'She must be fine, but she still can't go anywhere.'
Shion noticed that no one else was visiting her, as if he were her only visitor.
A maid opened the door and said with a smile,
"Lord Lan, the princess will receive you now."
Shion nodded and entered.
Jina wasn't in the living room. Instead, she was lying in bed, her face red from a high fever.
"Your Highness."
Shion greeted her, but Jina said,
"We're at the academy. You can call me by my name. No formalities are necessary here."
Shion smiled.
"Jina, are you all right?"
Jina wanted to smile, but she was still paying attention to the ordinary tone of Shion's voice.
She sighed and said,
"Thank you for coming to see me."
"It's my duty."
Jina felt sad.
'He considers it his duty.'
Shion asked,
"That's strange. You should have recovered by now. What happened?"
Jina said,
"I just didn't expect Sherry to use that kind of spell, so I..."
Cough!
Jina coughed loudly, and Shion's expression softened.
"Your Highn—Jina, let's go to the infirmary."
Seeing Shion's concern made Jina happy, but she spoke in a weak voice.
"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."
Shion noticed her red, exhausted eyes and felt bad for her.
"I'll see if I can get you some medicine."
Shion said goodbye to Jina and left.
After the door to her quarters closed, Jina stood up, happiness radiating from her.
"Yes!! Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!"
Celisia Joul, Jina's guardian spirit, was about to explode with anger.
"You recovered within an hour of getting sick! Yet you deliberately exposed yourself to the cold air just to get him to visit you?!"
Jina ignored Celisia and called out,
"Mia! Come here!"
Mia was a maid from the royal palace, just like Marie.
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Do you think he'll fall in love with me?"
Mia had a passion for romantic relationships and served as Jina's advisor on such matters.
Mia smiled and said,
"If I'm not mistaken, this is your chance! Solan Neumann is in the Far East with her disciple, Sol Hart. And if we consider Pearl Jewel a rival, she's currently fleeing from the Jewel Guild. There are no obstacles in your way!"
Jina asked,
"But why did I pretend to be ill?"
"It's obvious! You said there was a misunderstanding between you and Lord Lan, so I arranged a situation that would soften his heart and help him forget about the problem."
Jina was satisfied with Mia's answer and asked,
"So, you're saying I have a strong foundation for love?"
"Yes!"
Mia gave her a thumbs-up.
Celisia said,
"Why are you so obsessed with Shion?!"
Jina communicated with Celisia and said,
"He's the only one who—"
"I know that old story. He treated you normally and was kind to you. But you're the Crown Princess now. You need to find a real king, not just someone you love."
Jina said,
"He has the ability to be a politician and the power to manage almost anything. Even if he doesn't want to be a king, it doesn't matter. I'll stay with him and spoil him."
"You—!!"
Celisia wanted to shout, but lately, she had been losing control over Jina and could do nothing about it.
Jina cut off their communication and swallowed a potion. She thought,
'Shion, we still have plenty of time to take our next steps.'
---
In the Far East of the continent, in the Ishtar Kingdom, at Bimal Academy...
Solan Neumann was in her room, thinking about what had happened recently.
"Everything went well, but the spirits here seem worried about something."
Solan had participated in the matches, defeated every fourth-grade student she faced, and learned about different beasts. Yet throughout that time, the spirits had remained worried about her.
"I tried to communicate with them, but they kept avoiding me. What's going on?"
She summoned Polter and said,
"Investigate everything. I don't know why the spirits are worried."
Polter said,
"They're worried about you."
"About me? Am I in danger?"
Polter replied,
"That's what I'll investigate. I sense that something is wrong at Bimal."
"All right. Be careful."
Polter disappeared, leaving Solan alone again.
"Let's go out for a while."
Solan left the dormitory and looked around the academy.
The academy stood on the mountains, surrounded by forests and the sea.
Solan saw spirits everywhere. Some took the forms of beasts, while others appeared as humans, floating around her.
"Beautiful. If Shion were here with me, it would be wonderful."
She walked a little farther and noticed something strange.
"Baro? Fiore?"
Baro Ferrer and Fiore Tai were hiding while watching something.
"You two, what are you doing?"
Both of them panicked, but they relaxed when they realized it was Solan.
"Sol, we're watching Kin Light."
Solan looked toward Kin and noticed something surprising.
"Who's that girl?"
Kin was with a girl, and they seemed close to each other.
Fiore said,
"I saw that girl yesterday. She spoke with Kin for a while."
Baro said,
"As expected of the Swordsman of the Moon. He can win over any girl he wants."
Solan grabbed their ears and said,
"Don't talk like that. He's your master's friend."
"Ouch!"
Both of them cried out in pain. However, they didn't know that Sol Hart and Solan Neumann were the same person, even though they knew Sol Hart was the Pure Spirit's disciple.
Solan was curious, so she asked the spirits to listen to their conversation.
The girl immediately turned around to see what had happened and noticed Solan and the others.
"Kin? Are they your friends?"
Kin looked at the little group and said,
"Yeees..."
Solan felt embarrassed, but she was curious about the girl.
'How did she notice me?'
Kin introduced them to each other.
"My friends from Karath Academy: the spirit mage Sol Hart, Baro Ferrer, and Fiore Tai."
Then he looked at the girl.
"This is Ilya Mou, the young lady of the legendary Mou Family."
Ilya said,
"It's an honor to meet you."
"Likewise."
Solan answered, then asked,
"I'd like to ask you something, if you don't mind. How did you notice me?"
She thought,
'Although she has the strength, she shouldn't be able to sense my spiritual magic.'
Ilya said,
"Sol Hart, the spirit mage, I'd like you to know that I have a beast of my own: the Moon Wolf."
She summoned her beast, and a silver wolf appeared behind her, a moon-shaped mark on its forehead.
"My beast can sense all kinds of magic, especially non-elemental magic such as spirit magic."
"Oh, I see. But... why is your beast getting so close to Kin?"
The wolf was licking Kin.
Kin said,
"Ilya, you're right. I can feel a bond here!"
Baro said,
"The Moon Wolf and the Swordsman of the Moon. It makes sense."
But Solan noticed something different.
"Are your arts connected?"
Ilya said,
"I don't know yet. That's why I was talking to Kin."
Fiore sighed.
"I thought I was going to witness a romantic story."
Baro shook his head.
"Two hearts from the Far East and the Far West, connected by the threads of fate. What a lovely story it would be."
Solan grabbed them by their ears and dragged them away.
"Sorry for bothering you."
"Wait!!"
"That hurts!!"
"..."
"..."
Kin and Ilya were both blushing, but they eventually calmed down and continued their conversation without further interruption.
---
Weeks passed, and Shion received an invitation to meet the head of the Ocean's Core Guild.
"Pearl..."
Shion was in the carriage, wondering what Pearl Jewel wanted.
'She escaped after carrying out her plan to destroy the Jewel Guild, and I haven't heard anything from her since.'
He obtained permission from the academy and went to the guild.
The guild occupied a large establishment, but Shion wasn't impressed by its size.
'I saw a lot in Shi Yun Lan's world. This won't impress me.'
Debi greeted him with a smile and said,
"Lord Lan, Milady is waiting for you."
"All right. Let's go."
Shion entered the guild and observed everything around him: the workers, merchants, and officials.
"A lot has happened."
"Yes, my lord. Our stock has risen sharply. We've even attracted the interest of the Six Great Families."
"I don't know much about trading, but I think you should be cautious about your employees."
He explained,
"A new, large guild is easy to deceive because unfamiliar faces keep appearing, and no one can know what's in their hearts."
Debi said,
"Don't worry. Milady is doing her best."
Shion nodded and headed to the office with Debi.
A woman with black hair and freckles was sitting in the office. She smiled at Shion.
"Lord Lan. It's a pleasure to see you again."
Shion smiled. Even though she could change her appearance, she still couldn't hide the waves in her sea-blue eyes.
"Pearl Je—! Oh! You must have made up a new name. What is it?"
Pearl smiled and said,
"You can call me Miss Oriana."
"...Strange name."
Shion didn't comment further and asked,
"What have you been doing lately?"
"Cornering the Jewel Guild, blackmailing its officials, making my father suffer in prison, and taking control of the guild. What about you?"
Shion said,
"Nothing as interesting as that. I've had conflicts with Bimal students, learned about the various matters required to become a noble, worked on regaining my power, and avoided the princesses. One wants to spend time with me, while the other wants to duel me."
Pearl focused on one particular phrase: spend time with me.
"Is the Crown Princess, Jina Joul, interested in you?"
Shion shrugged and said,
"I think she's trying to apologize for how she treated me back then."
Pearl remembered the trial of the Ranus Family. She recalled Jina's cold eyes, but Shion's name had eventually been cleared, leaving Jina feeling guilty.
"So, what will you do about her?"
"I'm her loyal subject. Nothing more."
"I don't think she'll see it that way."
Shion changed the subject.
"So, why did you call me?"
Pearl pouted.
"I destroyed everything, but my father's wife and her son are still free."
"I think they've escaped, too."
Shion explained, and Pearl smiled.
"I think I can find her."
She handed Shion a message. He read it and frowned.
"She's threatening to destroy your mother's image."
Pearl smiled.
"I left that image alone and waited for her to make a move so I could capture her. I was busy escaping, so I couldn't do much. And..."
Her eyes became as still as a calm sea.
"I wanted her to suffer alongside her son. I blocked every possible way for them to save anything from the Jewel Guild and drove them into poverty."
Shion had never questioned her cruelty before, but this time, he asked,
"I can understand why you want revenge on her, but why her son?"
"..."
Pearl said nothing. Her eyes remained calm, like a night sea concealing every disaster beneath its surface.
"I don't want to answer your question. But I can tell you that I won't treat them unfairly. My father deserved his punishment, and they will receive their share of it."
Her voice sounded far removed from that of an ordinary girl, as if she had suffered an injustice beyond what anyone could imagine.
She handed him a piece of paper and said,
"Lord Lan, I don't know what will happen if I go to meet her, so..."
She lifted her eyes again, their beauty restored, and said,
"Let's stay in touch."
Shion took the paper, and Pearl took another.
She wrote on hers,
"Greetings, Lord Lan."
The words disappeared from her paper and appeared on Shion's.
Shion watched this happen and told her,
"I don't know what you're planning, but..."
His voice softened.
"Take care of yourself."