Chapter 589: Continental Festival 13

“What… what the hell was that just now?”

“Are we safe?”

“O-Our crystal! Check our crystal—!”

“P-Phew… it’s still here. Thank the heavens…”

“Uhm… shouldn’t we get out of this area right now?”

Voices cracked and stumbled over each other, panic and disbelief tangled into a messy chorus.

Hajey’s group—twenty trained martial students strong—looked less like predators and more like frightened prey.

Even though Rose had already vanished into the trees, her lingering aura clung to the air like a suffocating mist.

None of them could quite believe what had just happened.

They had known the chances of meeting one of the academy’s monstrous geniuses during the competition was always there—but to run into one so randomly, without warning, without preparation…?

No plan accounted for that.

Cristo, who had been standing closest to Hajey, leaned in with a low voice, still pale. “Hajey… that girl just now… was Rose Brilliance.”

“…Yeah. I know,” Hajey replied stiffly, his lips dry.

Cristo let out a hollow laugh, trying to lighten the mood but failing. “Hah… what were the odds, huh? Running into her of all people. We should consider ourselves lucky. If she had come here to fight us…”

His voice trailed off, and no one wanted to imagine how that would have ended.

But Hajey’s thoughts weren’t as relieved as Cristo’s tone tried to be. He was sharp enough to notice the details.

“It didn’t seem like she was wandering without purpose,” Hajey muttered, frowning. “She said she noticed something strange around here. Did you pick up on anything before she arrived, Cristo?”

Cristo shook his head quickly. “No. Nothing at all. My senses didn’t pick up a single fluctuation. And you?”

“…Nothing.” Hajey clenched his jaw. That’s the strange part.

Something was off. Her appearance wasn’t random, he was certain of that.

Rose Brilliance didn’t simply stroll around the forest like a bored spectator.

If she came here, it was because something had drawn her in.

Something real.

But no matter how much he tried to decipher her motives, one thing was certain—they had been unbelievably luc00ky.

If Rose had truly wanted to, she could have destroyed their crystal right then and there.

Not just theirs—the other two team crystals they had hidden behind their formation as well.

Around thirty students, three teams… none of them could have stopped her.

And yet, she hadn’t.

She hadn’t even looked at the crystals. As though they didn’t matter in the slightest.

Which meant… Rose wasn’t interested in the competition’s outcome at all.

She was operating on an entirely different level, with goals beyond what ordinary students like them could comprehend.

Hajey exhaled slowly, his knuckles white from how hard he had clenched his fists.

“…Move,” he finally ordered, his tone sharper than before. “We’re relocating. If she sensed something here, then staying is suicide. Spread out and regroup north in half an hour.”

No one argued.

They picked up their gear in tense silence, casting glances into the shadows of the forest as though Rose’s golden eyes might reappear at any second.

And as they moved off, Hajey couldn’t shake the prickling sense that whatever had drawn Rose here was far beyond the narrow scope of their plan.

“Wait…!”

He paused once, glancing deeper into the treeline where her figure had vanished, then barked an order to pull his scattered men back into formation.

Tsk—

They’d been this close. days of spying, careful reports, contacts paid and silenced—everything funneled into this one moment to drag the Brilliance family’s shame into the open.

He had compiled Seo’s habits.

And yet one casual appearance from a genius like Rose had ruined the window.

It was infuriating.

But…

They had no choice.

“Ignore any other teams you run into,” Hajey ordered, voice cold and sharp as a drawn blade. “Prioritize your safety. We’ve already lost too many pawns trying to test the waters remember the key positions in the formation: wards team technique, team, Group Two moves with us. Team Three—you guard the crystals at all costs. We’ll reconvene after we finalize her location and the potency of our strike. We only have one chance. Do not screw this up.”

Hajey touched a piece of paper hidden deep in his pockets…

’W-WAIT SEO!’

’Hahaha Please show me more~ elder brother~’

’Ugh!’

A bloody unwanted memory popped up again.

Sigh…!

This was their only chance…

To show the world how of much of a bastard she truly was.

…

“Hmm?”

Seo narrowed her eyes, her gaze drifting toward the treeline with a hint of curiosity.

They’re not coming closer?

She tilted her head slightly.

For the past few hours, the group tailing them had been close enough that an attack at any moment wouldn’t have surprised her.

She had almost been waiting for it. But instead of closing in, their presence was fading—scattering in different directions like smoke caught in the wind.

Her brows drew together.

Strange… did I misjudge them?

But the thought didn’t last long.

She dismissed it with a small shake of her head.

In the end, whether they came or not didn’t matter much. If they had attacked, she could’ve handled them.

It’s probably better this way anyway… I wouldn’t be able to protect everyone here at the same time.

Her eyes shifted back to her team.

They were resting now, catching their breath. Despite being freshmen, they weren’t weaklings.

None of them were S-Class, sure, but each had shown more grit than she had expected.

Seo trusted them enough—at least based on the first evaluation she’d made of their mana and their physical abilities.

But even then, her trust only went so far.

That kind of evaluation worked for one-on-one fights, not team battles.

Unless they were as strong as her, there was always a limit to what they could really do.

The ones following them weren’t just random stragglers.

Seo could tell right away—they were people from her own clan.

The eastern-style Amritl uniforms gave it away, and so did the subtle stealth techniques.

Nobody outside the Gyeoul clan would move like that.

At first, she thought it was just another one of her grandfather’s tests.

As clan head, he was always throwing challenges her way, measuring her worth.

She’d expected something more direct from him though, something bold and in her face.

Not this quiet, drawn-out game of stalking from the shadows.

The fact that they were biding their time, waiting, scheming around instead of striking, told her it wasn’t her grandfather’s doing.

This had someone else’s fingerprints all over it. And she didn’t need long to figure out whose.

Her elder brother was among them. That alone was enough of a sign.

And if he was here, then it meant only one person was pulling the strings—Madam Gyeoul, her stepmother.

Seo’s lips pressed together in a thin line. So it’s her, huh…

“I guess I’ll have to greet her once this competition is over,” she muttered under her breath.

She couldn’t quite figure out why the Madam would bother setting up something so roundabout and deliberate.

The intentions behind it were obvious—malice, as always—but the reasoning felt… unnecessary.

Then again, maybe it didn’t matter. Nothing Seo did could ever change the woman’s mind about her.

That much she had learned long ago.

With a faint sigh, she turned back toward her team.

….

Meanwhile, back at the academy’s grand colosseum, the atmosphere was anything but calm.

The stands were packed with people from all corners of the continent, their voices rising and falling in waves of gasps, cheers, and excited chatter.

Thousands upon thousands of spectators filled the arena, their eyes fixed on the massive holographic screens that floated in the air before them.

On those screens, highlights of the ongoing team battles played out in bursts of action.

Blades clashed, spells lit up the battlefield, and students fought with the kind of determination that made the crowd roar.

[Team Forest has once again risen in the rankings!]

“OOOOHHH!”

“Unbelievable!”

“Did you see that strike?”

“That elven team is insane! And all four of their squads are still in the running!”

“Well, it’s a forest environment. Guess elves do have the edge here, huh?”

The crowd’s voices blended into a storm of hype and awe.

Tens of battles were happening at once, so the holographic projections only showed the most spectacular clashes.

It wasn’t exactly live coverage, but the carefully chosen highlights kept the energy soaring.

Every decisive strike and every clever tactic had the spectators leaning forward, unable to look away.

Even the evaluators—scouts from adventurers’ guilds, knightly orders, and mage towers—were impressed.

Their pens moved quickly across their notebooks, already listing names of students who showed promise, potential candidates to recruit once the tournament was over.

The entire colosseum was alive with excitement, like a festival of combat and dreams.

Yet, above all that noise, beyond the cheers and energy of the crowd, there was one place where silence reigned.

In a private viewing room high above the stands, separated by thick glass, the mood was different.

Cold.

Detached.

The figures seated there didn’t share the crowd’s joy—they watched with eyes that weighed, judged, and schemed, their silence sharper than the roar of thousands below.

A beautiful woman sat with elegance on a velvet sofa, her posture calm yet commanding.

Everything about her radiated a regal, almost foxy charm—the kind that lured and intimidated at the same time.

Her crimson-red hair spilled like silk down her shoulders, and her half-lidded eyes, the same sharp shade, carried a cold indifference that could unsettle anyone who met them.

This was Aera Nari Gyeoul, the Madam of the Gyeoul clan.

She stared at the large holographic screen before her, her expression unreadable, as though the spectacle of clashing students was nothing more than a passing breeze.

Only a few meters away sat another figure, his presence colder, heavier.

Golden hair framed his sharp features, and his golden eyes shone like tempered steel.

The aura around him was rigid, suffocating—an aura that announced him without words.

Duke Raymond Brilliance.

Neither of them spoke at first.

The glow of their personal screens reflected in their eyes, both watching with the same detached, apathetic glares.

But after a moment, the Duke’s lips curved into a faint smirk as he turned his head ever so slightly toward Aera.

“It would seem,” he said slowly, his voice calm yet cutting, “that the students from your marital clan are too afraid to test themselves against my daughter.”

Aera’s eyes did not shift from the screen. “…Yes. It would seem so.”

The Duke chuckled under his breath. “I had heard rumors that the Gyeoul clan’s sponsored students were remarkable martial artists—formidable warriors, trained with pride. Yet what I see now… are only pathetic, nervous faces.” His gaze sharpened, voice laced with ridicule. “Tell me, Madam of Gyeoul, were those rumors nothing but empty words?”

At that, Aera turned her head slightly, her crimson eyes meeting his.

A small, almost playful smile tugged at her lips.

“Yes,” she said softly. “But they don’t look nearly as nervous as someone on the verge of losing his daughter. I suppose the Brilliance family is about to lose the prestige and honor it so proudly flaunts?”

The Duke’s chair creaked as his body stiffened. His eyes narrowed into blades. “What did you just say?”

Aera tilted her head, her smile widening just a little.

“Why, whatever could I have said?”

Silence fell between them.

Heavy.

Icy.

“…”

“…”

The air in the private room grew tense enough to choke.

A quiet tremor, like faint sparks of lightning, seemed to flicker in the space between their eyes as they glared at one another.

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