Why is she staring here longer?

After arriving at the mansion, he headed for his room, which was somewhat difficult as he had to avoid being seen because of his condition.

He somehow managed to pull it off before cleaning himself up and bandaging some of his wounds.

The bandages had some healing properties, so they didn’t just serve as a cover for the injuries.

He put on a new set of clothes, including a long-sleeved hoodie, so most of the bandages were concealed.

After sitting aimlessly for some time, he decided to check out the underground training arena.

He had gone there several times in the past two weeks, even having the luxury of completing level 4, and now he wanted to see how much he could fare against level 5.

The hallway was quiet—well, it wasn’t as though it was usually noisy. Most of them were still learning how to use and control their true weapons better.

They had all completed the weapon-sealing ritual with their true weapons, which finalized the bond between them.

It wasn’t hard, as they just needed to make a cut and allow some of their blood to drop onto the weapon, so he was in no hurry to do his.

It was already getting late, so he decided to do that and more tomorrow.

On his way there, he spotted JV and Chucky approaching him. He’d been avoiding them for now, but he couldn’t change his direction because of them, so he continued walking forward. As expected, they weren’t just going to walk past him quietly.

“Huh? And where are you headed, twerp?” JV sneered.

“Don’t tell me you’re going underground,” Chucky added, but Art passed them as though they didn’t exist.

JV wanted to react, but Chucky stopped him.

“Let him be. We’ll get him some other time.”

They began walking away, but JV wasn’t satisfied, so he turned around and spat at Art, who noticed this and tilted his head, dodging most of the spittle. Yes, a few particles landed on him.

Even though this was enough reason for him to react, he wasn’t someone to let emotions get in the way of his plans, so he just cleaned his face and walked away, his eyes filled with sinister thoughts.

Arriving in front of the door to the underground arena, the same thing happened: it opened itself, but the staircase was already lit up, indicating that someone was already inside.

He proceeded to walk down, and when he got there, he saw several people seated, with two people sparring in an open space.

Some noticed his presence and shifted their gazes to him, still finding it hard to believe how he had transformed over the past four weeks.

Art was no longer skinny in any way. His body was lean and slightly muscular, with his formerly pale skin now ruddy. His facial features were more defined, his golden eyes even having a dim glow, and his gaze was now sharp and slightly cold.

Though he still wasn’t the most handsome among the boys, he wasn’t far behind, and his features—which had made him seem weird in the past—now made him look special.

Not paying attention to their gazes, he took a seat away from the others while focusing on the fight in front of him.

With a competition between them happening, it would be normal if they avoided fighting to keep their skills and trump cards hidden. So, he was a little surprised that they were going at it so openly in front of several people.

Maybe they believed they couldn’t win and saw no reason to conceal things that would still end in failure.

The names of the two people fighting were Roy and Domit. According to the rankings, they were at 11 and 12.

Roy was using gauntlets, while Domit wielded a staff. They weren’t making any moves for now, only catching their breath while staring at each other with smiles on their faces.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Domit was the first to charge forward with a speed that Art considered quite fast.

He couldn’t help but chuckle internally, as this was a speed he could only have wished for four weeks ago.

If you’re wondering where he currently stood in the rankings, ease yourself—you’ll find out soon enough.

As Domit got close, he leaped into the air, twirling and spinning the staff around different areas of Roy’s body, but Roy was able to counter most of the strikes before punching forward.

Domit was fast enough to evade the punch, even though his legs were barely touching the ground. When he completely landed, he swiped his legs at Roy’s feet, successfully taking him off balance.

Roy fell onto his back, and using this opportunity, Domit slashed the staff toward his chest. Quickly forming an X with his arms, Roy blocked the staff using his gauntlets before rolling away and getting up, only to see Domit swinging the staff once more from above.

Rather than trying to block it, Roy sent out a punch to Domit’s stomach instead, surprising him.

When both attacks connected, Domit skidded backward, blood trickling from his mouth. He suffered more, as the sheer strength behind their attacks was on a different level.

But Roy didn’t go unscathed, as Domit had hit him hard on his right trapezius.

Art, who was watching the fight, heard footsteps approaching his position but didn’t look toward the person.

He didn’t expect it, but the person took a seat next to him. It was then he shifted his gaze slightly sideways to see a boy with short silver hair tied in a ponytail and blue eyes. He wondered if the ponytail was an imitation of Lord Gajeel as he looked up at him.

The person beside him was Charles, and he focused his gaze on the fight. It didn’t take long before he spoke up.

“Who do you think is going to win?”

Art stayed quiet for some time before answering. “I’m sure you already know.”

Charles stared at him before slightly smiling.

“I guess you’ve truly changed.” He brought his attention back to the duo in the arena. “I think it’s time this fight finally came to an end.”

Domit was breathing heavily, likely due to moving so much. He was feeling exhausted and had failed to bring down his enemy, but he wasn’t going to give up yet.

He kept skillfully spinning the staff around, sending strikes at Roy, who kept blocking, sometimes receiving hits. With good timing, Roy finally grabbed the staff and pulled with great force while punching out with even greater strength.

When the punch connected, Domit let go of his staff, blood spurting from his mouth as he fell to the ground. He wanted to get up, but a fist was already right in front of his face, so he fell back in defeat.

“I guess you win this one,” Domit muttered.

“You’ll never know—you might win someday,” Roy chuckled, his tone making it sound like both encouragement and bragging.

Domit looked up to see a figure walking into the arena.

“Bro, I think we should go,” he said, helping Roy stand up as they both walked out.

“Hmmm?” Charles stared at the person in the arena in slight surprise, as the person wielded two swords.

“This is rare. Does she plan on sparring?”

Art was also interested in what was going to happen, as he longed to see this person fight as well.

The gaze of everyone was fixed on this person. Her blue eyes glazed across everyone in the room.

This person was obviously Iris, and she seemed to have found who she was looking for.

‘Why is she staring toward here longer? Maybe she’s lost in thought,’ Art wondered.

Iris suddenly threw one of the swords, and everyone’s eyes followed it as it landed on Art’s lap, causing him to blink several times.

“Huh?”