Chapter 331: Final Preparations.

Later that evening, the family gathered for dinner, and Kael enjoyed the meal without worrying about the Guild, the tournament, or any of the other matters currently occupying his attention. For a little while, he simply allowed himself to enjoy being home.

Eventually, after dinner concluded and everyone began drifting back to their respective activities, Kael headed upstairs. Once inside his room, he closed the door and stretched.

It had been a long day. However, before retiring for the night, he still had one final task to complete.

With a thought, Kael summoned his Void Echoes and sent them into the Tower to cultivate. Thanks to their existence, he could maintain his cultivation progress even while handling other responsibilities, and considering how busy his schedule had become, that was an advantage he appreciated more with each passing day.

After confirming everything was in order, Kael finally settled down to rest. And just like that, the eventful day came to an end.

---

Time passed.

The following days turned out considerably busier than Kael had anticipated.

With the Mothlight Guild’s auction fast approaching, there were numerous matters that needed handling.

Although Joy was responsible for most of the preparations, certain decisions still required Kael’s personal attention, the final selection of auction items, the arrangements surrounding their presentation, security considerations, coordination with the Guild’s personnel, and countless other details that had to be ironed out before the event could begin.

Fortunately, Joy had proven herself more than capable of handling the pressure.

Whenever Kael visited the Guild, he’d find her busy coordinating one matter or another, and after spending several hours assisting with the preparations himself, his appreciation for her rose to an entirely new level.

Just how much work does she usually handle by herself?

Kael couldn’t help wondering.

He’d always known Joy worked hard, after all, she oversaw much of the Mothlight Guild’s daily operations. But knowing something and personally experiencing it firsthand were two very different things.

The sheer number of decisions that had to be made daily was almost ridiculous. And considering the Guild was still relatively small, Kael could only imagine how much more demanding things would become once they began expanding into the other Safe Zones.

This won’t do.

He made a mental note.

Once the auction and tournament were behind them, he needed to start recruiting additional personnel to assist Joy.

It wasn’t reasonable to expect her to keep managing so many responsibilities alone. Even if she was capable of handling the workload, that didn’t mean he should let it continue indefinitely.

A growing organization needed a proper management structure, and if Mothlight was ever going to become the powerful Guild he envisioned, it needed more people capable of making decisions and overseeing different departments.

I’ll have to look into that soon.

He also decided Joy deserved a substantial reward once everything settled down. She’d been pouring an enormous amount of effort into the Guild, and Kael had no intention of letting that contribution go unrecognized. After all, capable and trustworthy people were often far more valuable than rare treasures, and Joy had already proven herself to be both.

Of course, the auction wasn’t the only thing occupying Kael’s attention. There was also the upcoming tournament, scheduled to begin the day after the auction concluded. Which meant that while Mothlight’s preparations reached their final stages, Kael also had to make arrangements for his own participation.

Fortunately, preparing for the tournament itself wasn’t particularly difficult. At least, not when it came to combat.

Kael was confident in his current strength.

Although he didn’t know the exact capabilities of every participant, he doubted there would be many opponents capable of genuinely threatening him. And even if some unexpected powerhouse appeared, he possessed numerous abilities and treasures that could help him handle difficult situations.

However, there was one complication. He wouldn’t be participating under his real identity, that had been part of the arrangement he’d made with Vice President Jonas. Unfortunately, the name Jonas had chosen was, well, Kael wasn’t quite sure what to call it.

"Leak."

When he received the details of his new identity, Kael stared at the name written on the document before him, then slowly rubbed his forehead.

Seriously?

Leak.

That was the name he was supposed to use throughout the tournament, simply his own name spelled backward.

Kael.

Leak.

What kind of terrible naming sense is this?

He genuinely couldn’t understand what Jonas had been thinking. Of all the possible names he could have chosen, the man had somehow settled on this, and knowing Jonas, Kael strongly suspected the Vice President had done it deliberately. Probably because he thought it was hilarious.

That old bastard...

Kael sighed. Still, he decided not to make an issue of it. The name was ridiculous, sure, but it wasn’t particularly important. As long as the disguise served its purpose, he could tolerate being called Leak for a while.

As for Leak’s identity, the Association had deliberately kept the background rather simple. He was supposed to be a young swordsman affiliated with the Southern Safe Zone’s Hunter Association. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The decision to present him as a swordsman had been relatively straightforward.

Although Kael possessed numerous combat abilities and preferred maintaining versatility rather than restricting himself to a single fighting style, he was still more accustomed to using swords than most other conventional weapons.

And with the Sword of the Unbroken Will already in his possession, he had a suitable weapon ready for the role.

Naturally, he wouldn’t be revealing his full strength during the tournament, that would defeat much of the purpose of competing under a disguised identity in the first place.

Instead, he intended to rely primarily on swordsmanship and only a limited portion of his other abilities, and in that way, he could still perform well without exposing too much about himself.

And considering his current capabilities, Kael doubted that would be particularly difficult. As long as he didn’t run into anything too ridiculous, it should be fine.

Of course, that didn’t mean he planned to deliberately underperform simply to avoid attention. Quite the opposite, he intended to achieve a genuinely good result.

However, there was a clear difference between demonstrating enough strength to win and revealing every advantage he possessed. Kael understood that distinction very well.

As for Leak’s background, Jonas had deliberately avoided crafting an elaborate history, no detailed family record, no lengthy backstory. Instead, the Association had kept the available information minimal, and at first, Kael had wondered whether that might actually make the disguise more suspicious.

After all, wouldn’t someone with almost no background information draw even more attention?

However, after discussing the matter with Jonas, he’d come to understand the reasoning behind it.

The representatives from the other Safe Zones would undoubtedly investigate the tournament participants, that much was practically guaranteed. Each Safe Zone wanted to understand the capabilities of its potential opponents, and gathering information beforehand was simply common sense.

If the Association had created an elaborate false identity for Leak, there would be countless details that needed to remain consistent, and the more information they fabricated, the greater the chance someone would eventually stumble onto a contradiction. And once a single inconsistency was exposed, the entire identity could begin unraveling from there.

By keeping Leak’s background deliberately vague instead, the Association avoided many of those problems altogether.

Rather than appearing like an ordinary Hunter with a suspiciously fabricated history, he would come across as someone whose information had been intentionally restricted. A hidden talent.

Perhaps a young swordsman the Association had quietly cultivated in secret. Someone whose existence had simply been kept confidential until the tournament began.

And if Leak performed exceptionally well, that impression would only grow stronger.

That’s not a bad idea.

Kael had to admit the approach carried a certain logic to it.

It wouldn’t necessarily fool everyone, there were undoubtedly sharp, intelligent individuals among the visiting representatives, and some might very well suspect Leak wasn’t who he appeared to be.

But suspicion alone wasn’t proof, and as long as the Association avoided handing out unnecessary information, there would be relatively little for outsiders to dig into.

Of course, Kael would still need to be careful about how he fought.

His combat style, his abilities, his equipment, any of it could potentially reveal more about him than any written record ever could. But that was something manageable. He’d already decided to lean primarily on swordsmanship, and with his current strength, he felt confident he could adapt his fighting style enough to avoid drawing any direct connections to his real identity.

At least, that was the plan.

Naturally, whether everything would proceed as smoothly as expected was an entirely different matter. After all, Kael had learned long ago that plans rarely survived contact with reality without a few unexpected complications along the way.

Still, he wasn’t particularly worried. If something unexpected came up, he’d simply deal with it when the time came.

And so, between the auction preparations, Guild matters, and the arrangements surrounding his tournament identity, the remaining days passed by quickly.