Chapter 29: Aria Everlight

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Aria Everlight

"Not bad, not bad..."

Seeing the status screen, Aegon couldn’t help but grin a little.

His physical strength had leapt by nearly 500%, his maximum Mana had climbed from 10 to 20. More importantly, his Soul Power had not only fully recovered, but its maximum capacity had also expanded from 12 to 19 after surviving another complete depletion.

?Now, only the final piece of his preparation remained.

?Summoning the black notebook and the Quill of Finality into his hands once more, Aegon closed his eyes and reconstructed the silver artifact he had memorized at "The Golden Cauldron". Every curve of the band and all thirty-two microscopic interlocking runes flashed across his mind in vivid detail.

?The Quill danced across the dark page. Because the intricate runic geometry was far more demanding than an alchemical liquid, ten whole points of Soul Power drained away in a single breath.

?[ Soul Power: 4 / 19 (Nascent) ]

?Ting.

?With a faint metalic sound, a delicate silver band dropped onto the palm of his hand.

It was glowing in the moonlight filtering through the curtains.

?Aegon slid the Ring of the Focused Mind onto his right index finger.

Instantly, the thirty-two miniature runes along the inner band pulsed with a cool azure light before turning invisible against his skin.

His mind felt completely at ease. And when he circulated a wisp of mana around his fingertips, it obeyed his thoughts with master level precision.

?Dismissing his Grimoire, Aegon lay back against the pillows and stared up at the ceiling as the first faint hints of dawn began to bleed across the eastern sky.

?The 100,000 applicants of the Beliath Empire were waking up, and the Imperial Academy gates were about to open.

***

As the first light of the fated day fell upon a luxurious garden, a delicate young maiden rose from her seat.

?She was a vision of ethereal beauty, with long silver-blonde hair, crystal-blue eyes, and a porcelain complexion.

?She stared at the distant Academy building, her delicate fingers fidgeting with one another, indicating that she was calculating something.

?Soon, a miraculous thing happened. A circular ray of sunshine landed on a specific building, lingering more than necessary.

?Her crystal-blue eyes shone with wisdom.

?"Wind moves fast, Sun shows the path, Destiny calls. Is he already here?"

?She uttered some incomprehensible words, which appeared puzzling to her friends.

"What’s gotten into you, Aria? You are murmuring under your breath again," a girl about twelve years old with short red hair said smilingly.

?She and two other girls were seated comfortably at the tea table within an ambiance of wealth and luxury.

?"Seems like our Aria has finally found the Prince Charming she was searching for," teased the girl with blonde hair.

?"Really? Where?" asked another with a clueless expression.

?The bookworm-looking girl adjusted the angle of her book, then said, "Are you all forgetting we are taking the entrance exam today? Literally, 100,000 girls and boys of our age, with awakened Grimoires will be joining it. We should be moving toward the gates already."

Aria showed an enigmatic smile, letting the teasing remark roll off her shoulders like morning dew.

Slowly lowering her hands into the folds of her white silk dress, she turned away from the sunlit railing.

?"Evelyn is right, the stars have already shifted into position. It would be rude of us to keep the examiners waiting."

?Less than half an hour later, the colossal plazas surrounding the Imperial Academy were packed to the brim with a sea of anxious youths.

?At the Eastern Gate alone, nearly 25,000 applicants stood shoulder to shoulder beneath towering arches of white marble and star-iron.

Above the closed gates, a dozen grand sorcerers in crimson academy robes floated in midair, their arms crossed as their cold gazes swept over the noisy crowd to prevent any early brawls.

?Near the middle of the waiting assembly, Aegon stood quietly beside Clara, Zane, and Marcus.

Cardigan had only been permitted to escort them to the outer perimeter, leaving the four ten-year-olds to face the suffocating pressure of the continent’s greatest talents on their own.

Marcus’ palms became oily because of sweat and nervousness.

?"Look at the emblems on those cloaks, Clara. They are the Royal houses from the southern kingdoms, direct descendants of the Imperial dukes, and even heirs from the great merchant guilds... Every single person within fifty paces of us has at least a B-Rank Grimoire."

?"Stop looking around and focus on your breathing, Marcus," Clara scolded softly, though her own knuckles were white as she clutched the strap of her satchel.

?Aegon remained composed, his right index finger lightly brushing the invisible Ring of the Focused Mind.

Because of the ring, while the natural mana radiating from 25,000 nervous sorcerers was enough to make an ordinary child dizzy, his mind felt as tranquil as a frozen lake.

?Suddenly, a ripple of hushed murmurs broke out near the front of the avenue. The dense crowd of proud aristocrats parted automatically, clearing a wide path as a magnificent carriage drawn by four winged white horses glided to a halt before the marble steps.

?When the gilded door opened, four young girls stepped out onto the red carpet.

?Leading them were a fiery red-haired girl, a haughty blonde, and a quiet girl holding a thick leather-bound book.

Yet the moment the fourth girl descended from the carriage, the entire plaza seemed to hold its breath.

With her cascading silver-blonde hair catching the morning sun and her porcelain skin glowing with an almost divine radiance, she looked less like an examinee and more like an angel who had accidentally wandered into the mortal world.

?"Isn’t that Lady Aria from the Grand Duchy of Everlight?" a nearby noble boy gasped, "I heard she awakened a legendary prophetic Grimoire at the age of nine! Even the Imperial Princes have been trying to court her favor!"

?Hearing the name, Aegon raised his eyebrows slightly and turned his head toward the front of the plaza.

Soon, her name from the character sheet surfaced in his mind.

?"Aria Everlight —The Oracle of the Silver Star. In the novel, she was supposed to be one of the most elusive figures in the academy, someone who could glimpse fragments of the future through the flow of destiny."

?Aegon had only intended to take a brief glance from a distance before looking away. After all, there were thousands of heads between them, and he had no desire to draw the attention of someone who could read fate.

?However, just as Aegon was about to turn his gaze back toward the iron gates, Aria suddenly stopped walking at the top of the marble steps.

?Her three friends paused, looking back at her in confusion, yet Aria did not seem to notice them.

Slowly, deliberately, the silver-blonde girl turned her head toward the crowded square.

?Her crystal-blue eyes bypassed the princes, the dukes’ heirs, and the flamboyant prodigies in the front rows.

Moving with uncanny certainty, her gaze cut straight through the sea of 25000 faces until it locked directly onto a 10-year-old boy wearing a simple red scarf in the middle of the crowd.

?Aegon’s heart skipped a single beat.

?Even from a hundred meters away, he could tell without a shadow of a doubt that Aria was looking right at him. Beneath her long eyelashes, those clear blue eyes widened by a fraction of an inch, as if she were staring at a puzzle piece that did not belong to this world.

?Before Aegon could break the gaze, a loud DONG echoed from the central tower above, and the hundred-meter-tall gates of the Imperial Academy finally groaned open.

The exam was about to begin.