The white-haired young master made his way to the room exclusively only for the VIP Personnel. He is the very same person who laughed and had a friendly manner towards Euphemia before.

He is the top, a very important person, and the owner of the exclusive companies built inside the empire. Seemingly, he was one of the emperor's trusted people who managed everything smoothly. No one can dare to defy him; he more or less got the level of emperor for himself.

The appearance he possessed is more than just a porcelain white aspect, his rarity is beyond rare. That's why people also consider him an ancient person. Ancient people are actually what they've called Raksha's before.

Raksha is once the guardian maintaining the balance of the world, however; up to these days, no one has ever seen them again. They became a myth, and mostly can only be found in some sort of children's book. Although the Raksha has vanished from the world, magic or commonly now called Magia still exists.

The empire maintained the source of Magia's life and only the people who were capable of serving the empire for the end of their lives are the people who are able to receive this kind of blessing. The candidates are mostly from the royalties, and nobles. If one may get Magia's blessing, then they will be treated as much of the privilege they want in life.

People in nobility are ambitious, their greediness has no never-ending cycle. Just take it, for example, if one noble has their firstborn, they will surely send the child at a young age to the empire to be trained and be useful. It was like this young child was a sacrifice for the empire. Even though this young child doesn't have any wish to have anything to do with the state of soldiers, armies, and knights of the empire, they wouldn't have much choice.

That's why being the older sibling in the nobility is a curse.

Some might think it was a curse but for some students, it was sure a blessing. After graduating, some don't go back to their families and start a new majestic life using the privilege they've gotten in the academy.

Going back to the white-haired young master, naturally, people who are with him won't hold any single conversation. No one has actually known him for what kind of person he is, and how they will roll over with a good conversation with this important person.

"Young Master Stale." People call him a young master instead of a higher rank title. He doesn't wish to be called out in some way; this was already decided a few years ago.

"That girl." Stale grew a little curiosity toward the young missy across the deck. He doesn't show much emotion but somehow, curves a smile on his face. He also pointed out with an effort, to be more specific he was actually talking about Euphemia.

Everyone shuffled their attention to the girl, "She is your—" before one can even finish the sentence. Stale abruptly halted him by having an unresolved sigh.

"There's no need to mention then. I'm just surprised she grew up into a fine, energetic young missy." he calmly muttered, "We should get going."

Although this kind of conversation he was engaging with his people made their heartbeats so fast, it was like they feared something about Stale. They are nervous and afraid that this young master might happen to shift his mood to a level that no one is wishing for.

"Y-yes, young—"

Stale was about to go, but; he was held by the stutter of one person who was serving him. He stood firmly, having a puzzled gaze on the man who was obviously uncomfortable around him.

Stale didn't even flinch.

"Am I that scary?" he questioned this man directly. "N-no, sir!" and the person answers him specifically from his question as fast as he could. Hence, the man would avoid his glance for his own sake. He doesn't want to get into some sort of trouble himself.

"Then quit being stuttered. Stutter once more and you'll see yourself out of this place." The warning contains both enigmatical threats and advice. One of the staff shoved the man away from who did negative actions in front of Stale, few of them would secretly break a sigh away to release the intensity of the surrounding.

"Let's go." fortunately for them, Stale didn't make any more unresolved matter towards his men. He let that incident slide without saying anything regarding it.

They proceeded inside the room and began the analytical report discussion regarding the current studies of the students as well as the status of the whole Magia's transplantation for their project.

"A human weapon who will surpass the power of the gods."

***

Euphemia's perspective.

My eyes were covered in morning dust keeping my eyes lids closed. I rubbed it multiple times, as I relaxed my body, continuously doing that for about one minute.

Today, I have a class, but I'm about to skip class again.

I am certain that I'm in my dorm, the door is locked, not going to let anyone enter but I'll go out soon.

And if you ask me why I am skipping class, there's no particular reason for it. My body feels so heavy, that I don't feel like doing anything at all.

I was finally able to brush away the dust in my eyes as I dramatically took sight slowly of my surroundings. However, an abrupt scene from the past eventually freaks me out. It was a trauma of mine where I can able to see the pit of the hellish blaze around me, then I would see my mother's smiling face, who also carries my older sister's body.

They are standing right in front of me as if they are telling me that the tragedy of Sabrie is not done yet.

Yes. It probably wasn't done, but for me it is. I had already planned the things I was about to do on the ground. "That is to live luxuriously forever." I'm so done with the pain it caused me back when I was a child.

I moved on. The ghost from my past won't affect me anymore. "Except they sometimes startled me like a couple of minutes ago."

But it's probably just my mind, playing tricks again.

I sighed heavily, stretching myself, "It's good to start a new fresh day." without worrying about anything. If the exam is truly difficult, I would like to see it for myself and break some legs.

Clapping a couple of times, I see myself in the mirror. My hair has been messy since I just got up on the bed. My face was actually covered in dry saliva—just how good my sleep was yesterday night.

I don't remember much of what I did yesterday but that white-haired person's smile still appears on my head.

Although, I couldn't figure out why am I bothered by that brat's smile. It's not even interesting to contemplate.

"I should just fix myself." deciding on what to do next. I brushed my hair using a normal hairbrush. After that, I headed to the bathroom to wash my face and then brush my teeth, it's an actual normal routine for a person. It didn't take me long to fix myself, and so before I can even forget. I wear my uniform.

After doing the normal things I do every single morning. I head out, though, I won't particularly go to attend the class today. I decided to take a stroll right on this campus since I can't ride airships to get on the ground.

"The examination will take place tomorrow." I uttered to myself, "Pretty sure that everyone is preparing and honing their skills."

"But tomorrow is also basically my Freedom Day. So, I will use this time to enjoy myself in this place for the last time...

...There's nothing memorable happened in this place, though..." I paused myself for a while. Ungratefully recalling all the things that happened to me in this place. "I can only remember those people injecting something inside my body. It's painful, and an Artes appeared together with its mark."

The mark actually appeared right in the middle of my chest. "It has a fiery red colour, but..."

"Huh?" my thoughts are disrupted by somebody who abruptly makes a confused sound, 'huh'?

I glanced at the person who caught my attention. "It's you." the person who appeared, was that kid who had a mysterious smile on his face yesterday.

He is still smiling now. Seems like someone was grateful to meet me today.