Third Person’s POVDespite feeling countless gazes resting upon him and hearing the constant whispers surrounding his identity, Ethan remained completely indifferent.
His crimson eyes were instead fixed upon the gloomy sky hanging above Ice Emperor City.
Dark clouds drifted slowly overhead, blotting out what little sunlight had managed to escape through them.
The heavy blanket of grey gave the entire imperial capital an unusually oppressive atmosphere, as though something immense was silently waiting to awaken.
Ethan frowned slightly.
For reasons he couldn’t explain, the longer he looked at the sky, the stronger an inexplicable feeling of suffocation became.
It wasn’t painful.
Nor did it originate from any injury.
Instead, it felt as though an invisible veil had descended around his senses, dulling them ever so slightly.
It was an extremely subtle sensation, so faint that an ordinary mage would have never noticed it.
Yet Ethan wasn’t an ordinary mage.
His soul power was unusually strong for his realm and the soul perception borne out of it had been sharpened through countless life-and-death battles.
Immediately, his soul sense spread inward before sweeping through every part of his body, as he searched for any outside influence.
It went over his Dark Mana Crystal, the seals on his mana veins for any lingering soul power, his physical body, and his soul but he found nothing abnormal, causing his brows to knit together in confusion.
Then his perception expanded outward once again.
It started to disperse to sense the surrounding mana, the earth beneath his feet, and the students, but everything appeared completely normal.
Yet, that strange feeling stubbornly refused to disappear.
It was as though someone had lightly covered his senses with an invisible cloth.
The annoyance lingering inside Ethan’s heart grew slightly.
However, seeing no immediate danger, he simply suppressed those thoughts for the time being.
His crimson gaze slowly descended from the gloomy heavens and swept across the gathered students.
It eventually settled upon Princess Arlene’s group.
More precisely, upon the handsome blond-haired young man standing at its front.
The moment their eyes met, silence seemed to descend between the two.
Edhan Icedust also happened to be observing Ethan.
His serene blue eyes remained calm and gentle, yet beneath that tranquil surface, Ethan could clearly perceive something else.
It was disdain.
Not the loud, childish disdain displayed by inexperienced fools like Erius, but the quiet skepticism of someone who had spent years standing above countless geniuses.
It was the gaze of a man who had absolute confidence in his own abilities.
Or perhaps, the innate arrogance possessed only by those who had never truly known defeat.
Ethan could roughly guess the reason behind that look.
From Edhan’s perspective, he had appeared out of nowhere and casually occupied one of the forty most coveted positions within the New Moon Magic Academy.
A position that even princes, princesses, and the greatest young geniuses of the Northern Glacial Region had earned only after years of arduous hard work, dangerous missions, and proving themselves through merit.
Yet Ethan had seemingly bypassed all of that.
Naturally, to someone like Edhan, he probably appeared to be nothing more than a privileged young master relying upon underhanded means to secure a place he hadn’t truly earned.
In Edhan’s eyes, he was someone who had yet to prove that he deserved to stand among the elite.
Ethan could also vaguely sense an unusually powerful aura hidden beneath the young man’s calm exterior.
His instincts quietly warned him, that this young man was far from ordinary.
’Heh...’
Ethan merely laughed inwardly.
His expression remained completely unchanged to this provocation.
He had long since outgrown the age where another person’s opinion could provoke him.
Whether others respected him, despised him, or doubted his strength, none of it mattered to him.
People were free to think whatever they wished, as reality had a habit of correcting misunderstandings on its own.
Meanwhile, Erius and Aria had already taken seats upon another side of the square, deliberately choosing a position some distance away from Princess Arlene’s entourage.
Only after briefly observing them did Ethan’s gaze finally fall upon Arlene herself.
The Ice Princess was looking toward him.
A faint, gentle smile appeared upon her beautiful face.
However, it disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared.
She quietly turned her head away without another glance.
Ethan wasn’t surprised.
Standing openly behind Prince Erius had already answered many of the questions lingering inside her mind.
From her perspective, he had chosen Shixea’s faction.
Naturally, that meant she could no longer place the same trust in him that she had begun developing yesterday.
Ethan neither explained nor cared, as some misunderstandings were inevitable.
...
Meanwhile, hidden behind the large marble fountain, both Aurelia and Eleanor had finally managed to calm themselves.
Although every instinct within their hearts screamed at them to run toward Ethan, to embrace him and to cry before him after nine years of separation, their reason ultimately prevailed, and neither woman took a single step forward.
Instead, they remained where they were, silently watching him from afar.
The position Ethan currently occupied already revealed enough.
He had secured a position in the elite forty so suddenly after coming out of nowhere.
Then the fact that he was standing behind Prince Erius while arriving together with the FrostStar Palace’s entourage.
Whatever circumstances had brought him here, they were undoubtedly far more complicated than either of them had imagined.
Revealing themselves before thousands of people, especially in front of members of the royal family could very well place all three of them in danger.
As if Ethan had truly possessed the freedom to leave, then why hadn’t he returned home?
Why hadn’t he gone back to Dark North City?
Why was he instead standing among the royals of Ice Emperor City?
Only one explanation seemed possible and it was the fact that he had become entangled within some enormous power struggle.
That thought alone caused both women’s hearts to tighten painfully.
Their hands trembled uncontrollably.
Even their lips quivered as they struggled to suppress the overwhelming emotions surging within them.
After several long moments, Eleanor finally managed to regain enough composure to speak.
Her voice trembled between uneven breaths.
"T... Tell me everything, Aurelia..."
Aurelia hurriedly wiped away the tears clinging to her face before nodding.
Without another word, the two quietly shifted to a position even further behind the fountain, carefully remaining outside Ethan’s line of sight.
They didn’t want to become a source of trouble for him.
Only then did Aurelia begin recounting everything.
From the first moment she had heard about a mysterious violet-haired senior, his physical description she heard from the students and her suspicions.
She hid nothing.
As Eleanor silently listened, countless emotions gradually surfaced within her violet eyes.
When Aurelia finally finished, Eleanor gently reached out and stroked the young girl’s head.
"You foolish child..."
Her voice carried neither blame nor anger, only warmth.
She finally understood why Aurelia had remained silent throughout the previous day.
The girl hadn’t wanted to give her false hope.
She had chosen to bear that unbearable uncertainty alone until she became absolutely certain.
...
Unknown to the three separated souls, far away, inside the upper floor of an unremarkable building overlooking the academy square, an old man quietly watched everything unfolding below.
It was none other than Headmaster Dominic.
Unlike the countless spectators surrounding the academy, his attention wasn’t focused upon the newly arriving geniuses, nor upon the excited chatter filling the square.
His gaze remained fixed upon only three people.
Ethan, Aurelia, and Eleanor.
From the very beginning of their appearance, he had been observing them and every subtle change in their expressions.
Watching the tears flowing down the cheeks of the two women, especially the red-haired Aurelia, a faint smile slowly appeared upon Dominic’s aged face.
"So... I have managed to catch another fish using the same bait."
His old eyes narrowed slightly.
Originally, Eleanor alone had already been an invaluable bargaining chip in his plans regarding Ethan.
Yet today, another unexpected variable had appeared.
That young girl Aurelia.
Judging from her reaction alone, Dominic could immediately tell that she occupied a place in Ethan’s heart comparable to Eleanor’s, while Ethan clearly held an equally irreplaceable position within hers.
The discovery delighted him.
The very moment he had witnessed the emotional reactions of the two women upon spotting Ethan, he had quietly acted.
Without anyone noticing, he had woven a subtle soul barrier around the small area where Eleanor and Aurelia stood.
Its purpose wasn’t to conceal them physically from Ethan’s eyes.
Instead, it was to distort Ethan’s perception, and turn the two women into a blind spot within the domain of his extraordinary soul sense.
Chapter 843: The Dark Hand Behind The Scenes
7 min read