Death, Devotion, Dissonance

It was laughable how out of place Eliseline looked, sitting among the rest of her classmates. An adult in the body of a 10-year-old. And unlike Endra, she didn\'t need to act. She could simply be herself and no one would find it odd. After all, she was a Child of the Empress. Who knew what kind of life she had previously? 

Despite the comic sight she made, a faint feeling of companionship rose in Endra. He was also the same as her, wasn\'t he? An oddity that probably wasn\'t supposed to be where he was. The thought made him smile self-depreciatingly. It also reminded him that he was probably staring at someone for too long.

He nodded slightly to Eliseline and walked out of the stage. He didn\'t know what the nod meant.

As he arrived among his classmates, Arza patted him on the shoulder, sighing exasperatedly. 

"I really wanted to fight with that guy…"

"I\'m sure you\'ll find a chance soon enough," Endra shrugged.

Endra\'s classmates congratulated him on the win, but weren\'t so surprised about the result. Well, they tended to expect unreasonable things from Endra. Some even spoke with relief, saying that the Arcvallen academy wasn\'t as unreachable as people made them out to be. 

Endra let the other students be and flipped open another book the Chairman had given him. He found it hard to focus on it, as he noticed a few eyes focused on him. They were the nobles and mages who were spectating the fights. 

Endra gave them no heed, but soon, an invisible guest landed beside him. From the shape, Endra could tell it was a woman. She wasn\'t using otherworldly devices, so it had to be a high-level mage. Before receiving his Soul Sense, he could vaguely tell if someone invisible was near him through Seyethe spells, but surprisingly, even those failed to notice the woman. 

From the fact, Endra realized he probably shouldn\'t try anything with her. He kept his poker face and focused on the book. The woman approached him to see what the book was about; dug through Endra\'s pocket – he honestly didn\'t feel anything even though he knew what was happening; and just stood there, observing him silently.

Endra sent curses to the woman in his head, realizing what she was doing. He hoped she wasn\'t there to stay with him forever, but a voice in his head was jokingly telling him that she was staying with him forever, like how a certain spirit used to haunt others. 

\'But at least I had the decency to not let the person I\'m stalking to know I was actually there…\' Endra grumbled, before realizing he was staring at one page for too long. 

He continued reading his book, hoping the woman would leave at some point.

As time passed, the tournament\'s first round ended. 

For the 2nd years, in joint first place, Ankelite and the South\'s Crownshield stood with four points. In second place, Arcvallen and Torgaza stood with three points, while the rest of the academies line up after them.

For the other years as well, Ankelite academy\'s students appeared high up in the rankings. Everyone managed to win at least three matches, standing proud among the elites.

Endra could tell it was an unprecedented event. Arcvallen, Crownshield, Torgaza, they were the academies that performed consistently well. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th years of these three academies all were familiar with each other, everyone looking like long rivals. 

It was natural, in a way. The three cities they represented were the most powerful cities of the kingdom. Crownshield was ruled directly by the Duke of the South, who was most likely the biggest contributor to the kingdom\'s war with the south. Torgaza was ruled by the Duke of the East, which functioned as the kingdom\'s biggest gateway to the rest of the world.

So, it was odd that the academy of a random city of the north was sharing the spotlight with them. 

Endra smirked.

In a way, it was natural for him to be accompanied by an invisible woman. The dark horse always attracted attention. 

And besides, the invisible woman was rather useful. As Endra was reading his book, three other invisible \'guests\' came to accompany him. They were all incapacitated by the woman who arrived first. From the brief fights, Endra realized he was lucky he didn\'t try to dispose of the woman. 

Like him, she too was a firm believer of the \'One hit, one kill\' philosophy. Even if she wasn\'t going to kill Endra, she was going to hurt him a lot. 

Endra didn\'t want to go through such pain, so he happily convinced his mind that it was \'cool\' to have a pretty lady acting as your silent protector. There was no need to panic. Endra just needed to act cool in front of her, so she would be impressed by his capabilities and his strange abilities.

\'Wow, this kid I started following sure is cool!\' she would surely think. \'He doesn\'t even piss or shit! Is he really human?\'

Endra sighed and said his goodbyes to his classmates. They nodded, disinterested. They were already used to him doing whatever he wanted. 

As he walked out of the arena, he could sense the woman following behind him. He wasn\'t really sure where he was headed, so he simply walked around the city taking the sights in. He soon realized there was a coffee shop in the city somewhere, since Rhea mentioned every city in the kingdom had one. 

He asked around, and soon found the place. He ordered two cups like he always did, and sat down a bench. He noticed the people walking by, a content expression on their faces. The peace he was seeing was a lulling experience. It was hard to think the kingdom was at war.

\'Now that I remember, the king tried to mention the war today, but was stopped by the Mage King. What was that all about?\'

There was something odd about the king. Endra couldn\'t tell why, but something about the man\'s character didn\'t add up. He was acting out of character way too much. It was as if he had split personalities. 

Though Endra didn\'t think that he had a voice in his head controlling him somehow. That sounded too implausible to happen. The head of the country couldn\'t have something unknown influencing him from inside. Since Evin could find his way to Twelve, Endra was sure the royal family could find an Aspect to help them out.

But the idea of split personas didn\'t work as well. King Roland had many children to choose from. It would be weird of him to choose the one that was mentally ill. 

And there was the fact that the Mage King prevented the king from speaking about the war. 

\'It\'s not my problem,\' Endra wanted to say, \'But when I reveal how far I\'ve learned portals, I\'ll have to work under the king…\'

As he was thinking, he noticed the woman sitting beside him and then picking up the cup. Her features were revealed and she spoke in a sultry voice.

"How did you know I was here?"