Chapter 241

Lucian Blackveil felt uneasy facing Violet.

From his perspective of having lived a lifetime thinking he was exceptional, Violet was an uncomfortable presence.

‘I was glad we hadn’t met until now, so why here of all places?’

Objectively, Violet was a beautiful girl.

Her golden hair, shimmering like a fall wheat field kissed by sunlight, fell to her shoulders.

Her captivating and lively red eyes seemed to condense pure blood and fire. Even her cheeks had a roundness that resembled dough rolled in flour.

Compared to other students, one could definitely say she was a beautiful girl.

This was something even Lucian acknowledged.

But that wasn’t all; she was an Awakened One with a Powerful Ability. She expanded herself like a collective through her clone creation ability, opposing dozens or even hundreds of enemies, or created Self-Destructive Clones to demolish enemy lines.

Through the utilization of her abilities, she compensated for her slow learning speed by sheer volume, growing at an astonishing rate.

From his perspective, who had been called a magic prodigy since childhood, it was utterly absurd.

It wasn’t a matter of pride.

A human has no reason to feel inferior to a computer. Her abilities were on a whole other level; what more was there to compare?

However, despite that, there was something that made Lucian reluctant about the girl named Violet.

‘That girl is a walking disaster, a complete troublemaker.’

As someone who had closely observed Violet’s antics up to this point, Lucian felt this fact even more keenly.

Immortal Collective Consciousness, Self-Destruction, overwhelming tactics.

Hadn’t she even committed acts of terror against clans the size of nations, shaking whole organizations?

The biggest issue was that every time they worked together, they always ended up embroiled in major accidents.

So when he heard that bright voice coming from a distance, Lucian couldn’t help but flinch.

Turning his head, he saw Violet approaching him.

“You, you! Why are you here?”

Lucian unconsciously took a step back.

He had tried to stay as far away as possible in Aegis Academy, yet here they were meeting again.

In his surprise, Lucian ended up slipping back.

“Are you okay?”

“Ugh. Uh-huh.”

She was staring into his eyes.

Her usual silly expression, which was nothing special, overwhelmed Lucian as he sighed and nodded.

“Wow, you came to see the relics too!”

“No, I just…came to look around.”

“Look around? Then do you want to hang out with me?”

While picking a word to deny her, Lucian felt a bit pressured by Violet’s unwavering gaze and changed his response. Somehow, rejecting her felt uncomfortable.

‘There are a lot of magical flows in this area, similar to hers. Clones, maybe?’

Since they would run into each other again anyway, he thought it would be better to stay in a visible spot while keeping an appropriate distance, altering his mind.

“Haah… alright, let’s go together.”

Violet smiled as if satisfied and pointed toward the direction of the relic exhibition hall.

“Great! Then let’s go this way first.”

Violet led Lucian into the relic exhibition hall.

While she looked around at the displayed relics with the brightness of a child, Lucian quietly murmured as he watched her smile.

“This time, there won’t be any major issues…”

Behind Violet, familiar faces appeared.

If it was the stuttering ballista girl and the previous Inspection Bureau people, they could probably manage that troublemaker somehow.

However, his uneasy premonition didn’t last long.

The moment Violet leaned close to examine a crystal-like relic, alarms began to sound.

-Beeep! Beeep!

“Violet!”

“Huh? I didn’t do anything!”

Sophie El rushed over to Violet, but it was too late.

As the alarm rang, security drones rose into the air, surrounding Violet.

Security personnel approached with wary eyes.

“Hey, step away from the relic immediately!”

Violet, surrounded by drones, looked around in confusion.

“Wow, I’m surrounded.”

Lucian buried his head in his hands and sighed.

‘Here we go again…’

We started browsing around the relic exhibition when suddenly, the security personnel approached and called me over.

I thought something serious was happening. It turned out to be just a machine error.

“Uh, excuse us. It seems our sensors malfunctioned.”

After a brief apology, the personnel disappeared, and my tension completely relaxed.

「See! Violet is innocent!」

They said it was the biggest fair in the academy city, but it was horribly chaotic.

If security errors occur this frequently, I feel like there’ll be a big accident later. They seem like fools.

「Don’t worry too much, let’s just look around!」

We eagerly examined the curious items as if we were in a museum.

「Look at this. They say if you use this together, you can share your view. If you look closely, you can even see someone else’s magic formula, right?」

「But, where would you use this?」

As I looked through the exhibition, there were many interesting relics. For example, a pair of sunglasses that allowed two people to share their view.

Then, we discovered a place where the relic we were looking for was located. People were lined up in front of a small box.

「So this is the box!」

The description said the following:

「You cannot grant overly large wishes, currently it can only provide food.」

Is that really true?

Since people were waiting in line, I quickly lined up myself to experience the power of the relic.

After a long wait, it was finally my turn. Standing in front of the box, I wished desperately inside my mind.

「Give me money! Gold! Or something else amazing!」

But the relic showed no reaction.

The attendant next to me kindly explained.

“Right now, only food comes out except for other items. If you imagined something else, I’m sorry but it’s not possible.”

“Oh…”

I felt a little disappointed for a moment, but quickly resolved to follow the instructions.

「Give me a delicious hamburger set! Large size!」

Then the box trembled, and in the blink of an eye, a hamburger set appeared in front of me.

「Wow! It’s a real hamburger set!」

I marveled and sat at a nearby table, starting to eat the hamburger deliciously.

“Levi! Hurry and line up too! You can eat something delicious, Sophie El, you go too!”

It was a fascinating relic, but honestly, it wasn’t that amazing.

However, since I was hungry, I was quite satisfied.

But then Lucian, who was next to me, looked at me with a strange expression.

“Hey, did you really come all the way here just for that?”

“Yeah! It’s super interesting! This is revolutionary!”

Hearing my words, his expression turned perplexed, followed by a look of disbelief.

“What’s so great about such a silly relic? Regular people or kids might find it interesting, but the real centerpiece of this exhibition is that.”

“What? What’s that?”

Lucian pointed to a spherical relic, where red and gold colors intertwined.

“That’s the Heart of Sunset.”

The Violets all started to look curious.

“What is it? What’s so great about it? It just looks like a big jewel.”

“Don’t say ignorant things. Does it just look like a plain jewel?”

Hearing my words, Lucian, excited, began to explain.

“That can amplify or transform almost all types of energy, including Ether. It’s even said you can use it for amplifying and transforming information.”

“Oh… I see. So how is it used?”

“The magic amplification gauntlet technology from Restraid was actually inspired by that relic. It’s that amazing of an item. You didn’t know that?”

He was really lost in thought, wondering how Sebastian could have ever taken it down. He looked utterly perplexed.

“Uh… I didn’t know. You’re really smart!”

Listening to Lucian’s explanation, it seemed like a really important and amazing relic.

But suddenly, an amazing idea struck me while listening to his words.

「I’ve got a great idea! Let’s use Lucian as our relic guide!」

Relics are items related to magic. And Lucian knows a lot about magic.

So having a friend with such extensive knowledge explain would be a huge help.

「It sounds like a truly good idea!」

Just then, Sophie El and Levi returned with coffee and shakes in hand.

“Here. Can you explain that one too?”

“Okay, just listen. That one is…”

With an air of confidence, Lucian began explaining the other relics enthusiastically, sharing features and interesting stories about them.

「Yay! We’ve got a free relic guide!」

And so, we enjoyed exploring the relic exhibition hall.

As Lucian confidently took on the role of guide, he soon realized he had stumbled into a trap of his own making, while the agents of the Obsidian Legion smoothly surveyed the inside of the exhibition hall, waiting for their chance.

-Sorry, our previous backdoor malfunctioned and caused an error…

-Don’t rush. There’s still no issue with the operation.

Aspen, hearing his subordinate’s report, internally clicked his tongue.

Earlier, a commotion arose. During the process of targeting the security system, an alarm went off, and the unfolding scene of drones took them by surprise.

‘Has Restraid always been this thorough with security?’

It was a rare display of agility from typically sluggish automatons.

The only saving grace was that the surveillance focused more on magical detection.

If it hadn’t been for that, they would have had to employ even more stealthy and challenging methods.

Dressed in ordinary attire, Aspen cautiously observed the red sphere located in the center of the exhibition hall.

The Heart of Sunset, a relic that the Obsidian Legion hoped to acquire, was positioned as if it could be grabbed at any moment.

It had been an eternity since this genuine item was publicly displayed, typically secured deep within Restraid’s stronghold.

-Remember, capturing it during the day is easiest. There’s no point in creating unnecessary friction by intercepting it during the night after the event has ended. Securing the relic comes first.

Ten minutes before the operation began, he instilled reality into his subordinates and surveyed the surroundings.

Oddly, he noticed more and more figures among the crowd that appeared lifeless like dolls.

It reminded him of someone he nearly bumped into earlier.

‘Am I imagining things?’

With vision and hearing amplified by magic, combined with his enhanced human physical capabilities, he confirmed it was not just his imagination.

‘Who are these guys?’

He noticed suspicious figures had intruded but judged they would not hinder the mission.

‘If they cause a commotion in the exhibition hall, it would be appreciated.’

As he continued to scan the surroundings, he accidentally bumped shoulders with a girl.

“Kyah!”

“Oh no, sorry. Are you okay?”

The agent casually apologized after bumping into her.

The girl said she was fine and walked off. Just as Aspen tried to patiently wait again, he suddenly felt a sense of unease.

‘Wait a minute, that girl… I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere.’

Raising his head from the déjà vu sensation, he saw the girl had vanished without a trace.

He sensed something strange but soon found it was time to start the operation.

Should he trust only his uneasy premonition and halt the mission or proceed?

The agent made a decision.

-Start.

Before the actual operation began, a feint was executed.

Ten seconds later, intense explosions and gunfire rang out from outside the exhibition hall.

-Tatatat! Bang!

“Ahhhh! Long live the Ariel Group! Die, clans!”

A group of people screamed as they shot their guns and started chaos.

As the unexpected ruckus unsettled the crowd, the entire convention center plunged into darkness.

“What, what’s going on? A blackout!”

“The lights are out!”

Amidst the chaos, Violet felt a sense of confusion.

“Whoa? Violet, that sound from just now…”

“That wasn’t me! I swear it wasn’t!”

Sophie El only asked innocently out of curiosity, but Violet, feeling cornered, shook her head vigorously.

Soon, she quickly realized the truth.

「Who are these guys?」

「This is trademark infringement!」

Someone had used their organization’s name without permission.