Early in the morning, back in his room, Isaac was seen resting on the chair rather than on the bed.
He couldn't sleep properly.
He breathed as he massaged his temple with his face carrying the quality of someone who hadn't slept. A sound escaped from his mouth, similar to that of a groan but more subtle such that it could barely be heard if listened closely.
Standing up, he walked unsteadily into the small washroom that was a part of his room. Ignoring the handkerchief that was thoroughly washed and was hanged on a pole meant for towels, he stood in front of the washstand and pressed his hands against it to support his body.
How tiring. He thought, maybe I should've lost against Silas Fulgur. He then turned on the water and proceeded to splash it over his face. Turned it back off. When he stared into the mirror just ahead, the water was dripping down from his face. Or not. There is no way that I could have held myself back against that piece of shit.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
His hair was dark in color. However, unlike the typical dark-blue that the Valerius-born showcased, his hair was closer to that of brown than blue.
His eyes were the key distinctive traits. They were the atypical grey, and seemed to exhibit a sharp gleam even at its basal state. Cold and farfetched rather than warm and welcoming. Again, it was unusual, for the most of the Valerius-born exhibit blue-colored eyes.
In that sense, Caspian Valerius, who possessed both the typical hair and eye colors, as well as the other characteristics that defined a typical Valerius, truly was the golden sun meant to be the rebirth of the first head of the house, Aqueios Valerius.
Why am I thinking of all this. Evaporating the water off his face with a simple application of [Condensation], Isaac walked out of the washroom.
He looked at the outside through the window, and saw that it was getting brighter. The sun hasn't risen yet, but soon, it will.
Isaac sat on his bed. Closed his eyes. Began his daily routine of meditation.
The Manafold Circuitry was clean, with the cost of cognition acceleration having been settled by morning. What remained was the specific background fatigue of someone who had run at high output the night before and had not replenished it with adequate sleep.
"I will be needing coffee today."
He dressed. Placed the iron charm in his pocket. Placed the teleportation device in the opposite pocket.
He was now third day into the festival. Four more days remained until the banquet's arrival.
As he prepared to leave his room and start his day early, a knock was heard by the door, just as how the night before did.
He paused.
"Isaac? Hello? I know that you are awake, you early bird!"
From beyond, the same muffled tone of Magnus.
It felt like a déjà vu.
Silently, Isaac reached the door. Unlocked and then opened it.
There stood Magnus and Vesper. Thankfully, [The Prism] told him that they were real.
"…Hm?" Magnus tilted his head. "Are you fine?"
Vesper looked at Magnus. "What do you mean? He's the same as his usual."
"Just tired." Isaac answered, yawning lightly just after he said so.
"Tired, huh." Magnus chuckled, "I didn't know that you were capable of feeling tired."
"I too am a human, you know."
"Wow, yeah. You really were a human like us."
Isaac looked at Magnus flatly. For a moment, in silence.
Then, the two of them laughed.
"So," Isaac asked, "what are you two here for?"
"Well, to get you. You disappeared yesterday." Magnus said. "I looked for you after—after my thing, and couldn't find you anywhere. Vesper was still with his family so it was just me wandering around like an idiot."
"I was occupied," Isaac said.
"With what?" Magnus asked, with the genuine curiosity.
"I found a partner for the banquet."
There was a silence. The two were clearly processing what they just heard.
Magnus recovered first. "You—you actually found one?"
Isaac raised an eyebrow, "what's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean—" Magnus held his words, and then asked, "who?"
"Evangeline Velvet. First-year."
Magnus looked at Vesper. Vesper was stroking his chin, thoughtfully.
"House Velvet," Vesper said. The flat delivery of someone running an assessment. "Lesser noble. They… from what I know, aren't in a good situation. Civilians are leaving because of the territory's proximity to the eastern battlefield." He then paused, realizing that he was speaking as he thought. Lowered his hand from his chin. "Well, I am glad to hear you made it, Isaac."
"Thanks," Isaac said.
"She's first-year," Magnus then added on. "That means she hasn't had her Rite yet."
"Correct."
Magnus absorbed this. "And she was willing?"
Isaac considered the most accurate response. "She was rather reluctant, as if out of options."
Magnus opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "Well… so were you. I mean, were you?"
"Doesn't matter," Isaac said. "What matters is that I won't face the same fate as last year."
"Sometimes, I wonder of just why your life, in general, appears harsher than the others." Vesper remarked with sympathy in his tone.
"It is what it is." Isaac shrugged. "Everyone has good and bad moments throughout life. I think," his mind briefly thought of all the events he's gone through, "those experiences made me stronger, if anything."
Magnus grinned. "I like that optimistic mindset."
Vesper nodded firmly, with his typical stoic expression.
"And so," Isaac proceeded to ask, "what kept you two yesterday?"
Magnus pointed his thumb at himself with the energy of someone who had been given permission to talk about something they wanted to talk about. "My cousin was in the Free Ground. We ended up spending the morning together. Ate everything. Went everywhere. Good time."
He didn't mention the name. However, a name popped up in Isaac's mind.
"Raul Ignis," Isaac said.
Magnus blinked. Then his expression moved through surprise into the specific resignation of someone who had decided not to name something and found it named anyway. "How did you know?"
"You mentioned him once," Isaac said. "The Golden Repose placement."
"Huh, did I? I mean, I don't even remember what I said back then." Magnus exhaled. "But yeah. Raul. He was here for the festival." He scratched the back of his head. "I just—he's not the kind of person who wants to be recognized everywhere he goes, you know? Ignis heir and all that, he always gets bombarded with people. He's just a chill cousin to me, but to others, he's the next generation of Aetherion Kingdom's leaders."
"He sounds like a cool person." Isaac said, and then added on, "and noted. I won't speak about him in the public."
"Much appreciated," Magnus nodded.
Vesper looked at Magnus with the expression of someone who was quite interested in the topic. "How come he's so close to you?"
"I don't know. It has always been like this." Magnus shrugged. "Back then, I didn't even how he was that big of a figure—or wait, he wasn't the heir back then."
"He still was a son of Ignis patriarch though."
"Well, true. Still—well… I guess he still was big."
After a brief silence, Vesper returned his attention to the corridor. "So, where are we going this morning?"
…
The morning passed in the festival's established rhythm. The three of them moved through the Free Ground's third-day configuration, which had settled into something more local than the first day's broad excitement. The vendors who had come from outside the capital were finding their footing. The residents who had been celebrating since day one were pacing themselves.
"Eh… it's actually getting a bit boring." Magnus, as they settled near a fountain for a moment, said as he leaned into a bench he was occupying. "Same thing over and over again for three days, and it's the same vendors and all."
"Can't help it." Vesper shook his head. "Regardless of the festival's opening, the fact that we are still in the middle of the war cannot be ignored. The kingdom doesn't have the luxury to hold the festival as grandiose as it was two years and before."
"But yeah, still," Magnus sat up and leaned forward, "it's better to be free like this than be stuck at that crowded academy."
"Well, just be aware that following the conclusion of the festival, three among the sixteen of us will be challenged by the elite class." Vesper looked at Magnus and Isaac, who was staring at the ground, seemingly lost in thought of his own. "You know what I mean."
Isaac looked up from the ground, "sorry, I didn't follow."
"Is something in your mind?" Vesper asked.
"Yes, but nothing serious."
No, it is quite serious. Isaac thought inwardly, as his eyes, viewed through the lens of [The Prism], caught onto a thin strand of mana that was hovering around him for quite some time ever since their entry into the Free Ground.
He was being monitored. Almost certainly by a hostile party.
Clearly, the enemies identified that five of theirs didn't return from the assigned task. Today, they found that Isaac has been alive still.
He deduced that they were trying to process the current situation.
What then?
He wasn't in an immediate danger, but needed to be vigilant.
A directed connection running from him toward a source in a direction… which he could track if he chose to.
This was also an opportunity.
He was quite confident that the royal family won't disclose the information that they managed to extract from those operatives to him. After all, the primary reason why they involved him in this mission was because of them acquiring the information that there will be a second assassination attempt targeting him.
He didn't like the idea. The best defense to protect his life was to be aware. To know. He needed to conduct research of his own, and he found another opportunity that could lead to another breakthrough.
"Isaac? Hello, you there?" A hand then waved in front of him.
Isaac blinked as Magnus retracted his hand away from his face.
"Was I zoning out?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah, for quite a bit." Magnus pointed his thumb at his back. "Come on, enough rest. Let's roam around some more."
Isaac gave the hovering strand of mana one more glance.
For now, he would let them watch.
…
After some more time together, the three of them disbanded.
Isaac, at the fourth bell just as the past two days, headed to Hearthstone.
Henrick was already at the second table from the back left wall.
He looked tired, as if he had been awake through the night doing sustained work and had arrived at the afternoon bell on the other side of it. His eyes carried the weight, and the shoulders rested slightly lower than their ordinary position.
"You look terrible," Isaac said, sitting across.
Henrick produced the wide smile. "Festival will do that. Third day and I already feel like I ran the whole thing. It's actually better than last year, since the scale is smaller." He flagged the waiter. "Eat something. You look like you haven't slept either."
"You can tell? I thought I did a good job hiding it." Isaac said.
"For how long do you think I've known you? You may be able to hide from others, but not from me." Henrick smirked as he picked up his cup. "Anyway… I've been, as you mentioned, tired, simply because I ran into an old friend this morning. Completely by accident. We ended up talking for hours." He shook his head. " You know how it is when you haven't seen someone in a long time—there's so much to catch up on."
Hours of conversation.
Interrogation, I see.
The extraction had been extensive. The information drawn from five operatives across a night of work had produced something significant enough that Henrick had been occupied until the morning bell.
Isaac looked at him. "Did you catch up on everything you needed to?"
"Most of it." Henrick set down the cup. "Some things you can never fully catch up on, you know? But enough. Enough to feel like the conversation was worth having." He looked at Isaac with the easy warmth of the public persona, but underneath it, there was something firm, something more direct. "It was definitely worth having."
The conversation continued in the established register—the easy back-and-forth of two people performing acquaintance, nothing coded about the topics, nothing that would register to an observer as operational communication. Henrick talked about the festival's food. Isaac asked about the western quarter's morning crowd. They ate.
At no point did Henrick say anything that contained a hidden message, and this itself was the message. The operation was proceeding, the extraction had produced results, and Isaac was not going to be briefed on those results.
The royal family was operating based on whatever the extraction had yielded, and Isaac being kept out of that information was the correct institutional decision. The fewer connections between Isaac and the royal family's operational response, the fewer threads the surveillance following him could trace.
He accepted this, especially given how he was being observed even now—the thin thread of mana still lingered in his ambient surrounding.
"This morning, I was with my friends." Isaac decided to hint it, "I found a drawing machine filled with prizes. I input the instructed amount of money and pressed the button. I didn't manage to win one yet." He shook his head, "I am thinking of going back to try it again later on."
I will be utilizing the teleportation device once more, if needed.
There was a subtle pause. Henrick then shrugged, "well, good luck with that."
When the meal concluded and Henrick left with the easy wave of someone heading to the next festival event, Isaac sat for a moment longer.
The surveillance wasn't going to become an attack. They were in observation mode—the confirmation that a second strike was not coming until they understood the first failure. This meant the window for what he was planning was open.
Henrick was notified as well, just in case. Given how he didn't seem to notice this thread of mana, Isaac deduced that compared to his high mastery over skill and broad frame, his sensitivity to mana—which is linked with one's Total Reserve and Mana Efficiency—wasn't as high.
He looked at the Hearthstone's single front window. At the northern district's direction, visible as a roofline beyond the festival crowd.
[The Prism] held the mana strand's direction at full resolution.
"Guess I will go back to that machine then." Muttering, Isaac stood up.
He left the Hearthstone and walked.