Before Round 3 (2)

Meanwhile, the master of Alicia and Alex, Astar, made moves to ensure the Emily's safety. In a secure room that had the coliseum in sight, he waited for his guests to arrive with a cup of tea in hand. They were of a status that could allow them to ignore an invitation from the Array Association Head, but there was not a doubt in his mind that they would come to see him. This was not arrogance on his part, he was truly an existence that they couldn't afford to offend.

"Right on time, young duke."

In response to the opening of the door, Astar stayed seated and greeted the two who entered. One of them was the potential heir of Duke Eclair, while the other was the duke's right hand. Few within the entire kingdom could afford to be as relaxed as Astar when facing them, but the two recognized that he was one of them so they didn't make a fuss about his lack of respect.

Although Astar was the guest elder of the Array Association, he didn't accept this position because of any benefits that the organization had offered him. The only reason why he agreed was because it was a tradition of his family that the best array master among them would take this position to ensure that the organization did not stray from its original ideal. Therefore, despite being a guest elder, Astar was also something like a supervisor of the association.

'So this is the man who's in the top three despite being the youngest on the Major Ranking.'

This was the first time that the young duke had met Astar face-to-face, and so he appraised him as he took a seat opposite to him while his guardian remained standing. His guardian had seriously warned him to be careful of Astar, but he couldn't help being critical when he saw how lightly he was being treated. The casual smile on Astar's face irritated him to no end, but he wasn't a reckless fool who would lash out at anyone without thinking of the consequences.

"There aren't many with the qualifications to invite me, but it's an honour to finally meet you, Grandmaster Astar," said the young duke.

"Kukuku, in that case, I suppose I should be glad that you showed up."

The young duke spoke with thorny euphemisms while Astar responded in a more subtle manner. Their small talk continued for a few minutes more, but any objective person could see that Astar held the absolute advantage when it came to words. The young duke's guardian also noticed this so even though he knew that it would upset his charge, he interfered in their conversation.

"Pardon me, but the next round of the preliminaries will begin soon, and I'm sure none of us wish to miss out on it. What do you think, Grandmaster Astar?"

The young duke glared at his guardian for this action, but he didn't say anything about it in front of Astar who nodded in response.

"That's true, but don't worry. I may have called you here with a request in mind, but it shouldn't be anything too difficult. I just need you to keep your hands off of the girl."

'As I feared.'

The young duke's guardian had an inkling of a suspicion that this would be the case and inwardly sighed, but the young duke raised the edges of his lips.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're-"

"Don't bother playing dumb. I know that you're threatening the association with information about a malfunctioning array that was made under our supervision, but I don't care. If you ignore my warning, I will have a debt to collect, both with you and your father."

"..."

Facing Astar's solemn face was the young duke's hateful expression. He couldn't stand being treated with such disrespect, but he still retained enough reason to keep in mind the consequences of acting out of frustration. However, he knew he couldn't stay like this for much longer, so he soon got up and left the room with his guardian without another word.

As the guardian followed the young duke out of the room, he hoped that the warning would make the young duke reconsider his plans, but for a young man so fickle, he was surprisingly stubborn when he wanted to be.

"Young Lord, will we move forward with your wish?"

"Hmph, of course. He might suspect something, but as long as no evidence remains, I'm sure he won't act against our dukedom for the sake of a stranger."

The young duke thought that he was being logical, but in the end, he was still putting the dukedom at an unnecessary risk. As long as he chose not to send assassins after the girl then they wouldn't have to worry, but it seemed he had no intention of going back on that. His guardian shook his head, but the most he could do was inform the duke about this matter.

Elsewhere, Adler stomped his feet as he returned to his VIP area. He hadn't given up on monopolizing Emily's talent, so he went to tamper with the lock and key puzzles so that he could reduce her value to the public, but lo and behold, he found the Array Association Head there. He then hurriedly scurried away, trying to come up with an alternative plan, unaware that the Array Association Head had the same idea as him.

It was already impossible to hide Emily's talent, but if he didn't do something he had a feeling that the young duke would take action against her. Of course, he could use this as an excuse to break off the deal that they had, but he believed that Emily was worth more than a bought position on the Minor Ranking. Last time, he made the puzzle that reacted to her aura as difficult as what would be used for the final round, but this time he decided to make it test the limit of what a tier 3 array master could handle.

'I'm sorry, but you'll thank me for this.'

Not long afterwards, the break was over and it would soon be time for the third round to commence. However, before that, there was a piece of bad news that was announced. After intense deliberation, it was decided that the standards would not be lowered and so despite it being less than intended, the number that advanced to the third round did not accommodate those who fell short of the standard.

Due to this, Emily walked past many crying men and women near the coliseum's competitor entrance. Even so, her pensive expression showed that she didn't pay them much attention. It couldn't be helped since she was still thinking about the information that Shui got from the assassins. In addition to confirming that they were behind the poison, they also learnt who was the one that ordered the hit.

If there was a proper contract then they wouldn't be able to say the name even if they wanted to, but there were few means available on the market that could prevent someone from directly extracting that information from the soul.

The name they obtained wasn't completely unfamiliar, in fact, they were surprised by how unsurprising it was that they would put a hit on Emily, not because there was a history of hatred behind them, but due to the presence of a simple to understand motive.

The client of these assassins, was the first place winner of Emily's tier 3 examination. Indeed, that guy, who didn't even win because of his skills, wanted to kill her, likely because he didn't want to be outshone by her. It was honestly so pathetic that neither of them considered him dangerous, but if they saw him then they would take care of him at that time.

However, this wasn't what kept her pondering; it was a rumour that one of the assassins heard. A rumour that members of the Tower of Killers were gathering in Paraj.