Ding!

[Mission Complete: The Saint’s Obsessed Shadow.]

[Reward: The ’Fate Correction’ event has been successfully delayed by 30 Days.]

[Hidden Condition Met! Extra Reward gained.]

[New Attribute Unlocked: Fate Resistance +10%]

[5,000 Fate Points Gained.]

While Iris was completely lost in her own world, affectionately nuzzling her cheek against his palm, Lucian’s eyes were sharply fixed to the screen in front of him...

"Fate Resistance... nice. That is actually going to help a lot."

"System, what is my total Fate Point balance now?"

[Total Fate Points: 60,000]

[You can now purchase the Unique Skill: ’Overdrive’.]

A hidden sneer formed on his face...

A few seconds later, he pulled his hand back from Iris’s grasp and put on his usual fabricated expression.

"Alright, That’s enough for now," he said, clapping his hands together.

By now, Sera and Elira had both stood up and were looking at Lucian with questioning eyes. What was all this that had just happened? They needed an explanation, and they needed it damn quickly... as they leaned in so close to him.

"Heh... wait a minute girls, let me explain..."

He took a deep breath and began to explain everything. He told them about how Iris and Aria were two completely different conscious personalities sharing the same body. He also briefly touched upon how he knew her from their childhood, bringing up the memories of his biological mother, Lydia, and the curse he suffered.

However, he deliberately kept one crucial detail entirely to himself — he never mentioned that Aria was the actual reason he had been cursed.

Seeing how smoothly Lucian was handling the situation, Iris happily retreated into the depths of her mind, leaving the driver’s seat and the entire messy aftermath for Aria to deal with.

As soon as Aria regained control and realized the massive wreckage Iris had just caused, her legs completely gave out. She collapsed onto her knees, frantically scrubbing at her falling tears with the back of her trembling hands.

"I... I am so sorry, Elira... Sera... I am the worst..."

"I c-couldn’t control Iris sometimes... I tried so hard to hold her back, but the memories... I’m so sorry... Please don’t hate me—I am a mons—"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Sera crouched down and hugged her.

"Hey... don’t worry, it’s alright, We understand the situation now... you don’t need to beat yourself up over it."

Lucian and Elira also looked down at the crying girl.

He sighed exhaustedly.

After all, dealing with a crazy sadist psycho is infinitely better than dealing with a sobbing saint...

"I don’t get it..." Elira also crouched down.

Aria looked up, her eyeliner soaked and smudged from her tears.

Elira leaned in close with her blank eyes and stared at her,

"Do you really like Lucian?"

Slowly, with her messy and flushed face, Aria nodded.

"Mmm.. ok... but then what about your engagement with Cassian...?"

It was a highly valid question, and one Aria definitely had to answer. After all, if she loved Lucian, why did the System show an 87 Affection between her and Cassian?

She lowered her eyelids as she explained.

"You might not believe this, but... Cassian is my big brother..."

Everyone was stunned.

Sera yelled..

"Big brother? H-How? I mean, you two always cling around each other in the academy... everyone obviously sees you as a couple."

Elira nodded with her eyes shut, totally agreeing.

"Yeah, how? Besides, that pretentious degenerate vermin—"

Before she could bluntly run her tongue any further, Lucian covered her mouth with his palm from behind.

She still tried muffling through his hand...

"Hehe... y-yes, now I understand why Cassian always hovers so close to you. Still... an engagement, Aria? I mean, you haven’t had any blood relatives since childhood..." he quickly shook his head.

"I mean, I’m not judging... but there has to be a reason for this, right?"

Aria and Sera looked at Lucian. Elira, whose mouth was still cupped by his hand, flatly licked his palm, causing Lucian to immediately pull his hand back.

Aria continued.

"Hmm.. yes, there’s a reason for that too... After I left the Valemont estate, Cassian’s parents adopted me when they saw my talent. Cassian has liked me from the beginning and always stays by my side... But I know he’s just a bit too protective of me, though my affection for him is purely brotherly. Still, I can’t deny that he did protect me from a lot of things."

She lowered her gaze, her fingers nervously fidgeting with her skirt.

"As for Iris... the memories I had blocked started naturally surfacing over time. So, I started blocking them again, every single day. Years passed like this, and without even realizing it, I pushed my brain so far to the breaking point that... I ended up creating Iris. Even after coming to this academy, I had to keep altering my own mind daily. Whenever I saw you, Lucian, I would forcefully suppress those old memories. And Iris absolutely hated that... because she is deeply obsessed with you."

"And you aren’t?" Elira asked flatly.

"Huh..."

"I mean, if you aren’t obsessed, how can Iris be obsessed?"

Hearing this, Aria’s eyes started rolling, her face completely turning into a deep shade of red.

"Umm... n-no, there’s a reason behind it! Y-You see, Iris likes Lucian a lot—and yes, I—" She stammered just blindly throwing out random excuses now.

A soft chuckle escaped Sera and Elira. Even Lucian let out a faint sigh of amusement as he glanced at the screen floating right beside her head.

[AFFECTION INCREASED]

Aria Lighthollow: 105 → 115

Ding!!

[Enjoy your 30 days of ’peace,’ son... because right after that, the Grand Tournament resumes — and so does your suffering.]

Lucian frowned.

"What?!!!"

The Grand Tournament.

A massive, high-stakes competition held between first-year students of the five most prestigious academies—where prodigies are revealed, and the weak are crushed early.

The Sovereign Monolith from the Zandar Empire

Silvercrest Academy from the Granhold Empire

Astraviel Academy from the Arkon Empire

Blood-Oak Institute from the Granhold Empire

Black-Mire Academy from the Frostfall Kingdom in the Arkon Empire

The Grand Tournament is held between all these top-tier academies... The first phase is an exact, simple Arcane written exam, the second exam is an Inter-Academy Dungeon Expedition, and the third consists of the Ranking Duels.

"A one-month hold?" The words suddenly slipped out of Lucian’s mouth a bit too loudly.

Sera, who was sitting on the floor, stood up.

"What happened... are you thinking about the upcoming Grand Tournament?"

"Hmm... So is it true that the tournament is on hold for a month?"

Sera gave a slow nod.

"Isn’t it supposed to start this very week..."

"Yeah, it should have, but it didn’t. This is all a plot by King Oberon of this Aegis Kingdom..." Elira muttered as she walked over and sat on the nearby bed.

"And why is that?"

"Well, simply put, it was put on hold because of King Oberon. He told the council that some of the top-ranking students of Astraviel Academy are currently diseased and injured, and it might take them up to a month to recover. That’s why he requested the hold... though the real reason is something else entirely."

Sera frowned, crossing her arms.

"And what exactly is this ’real reason’?"

"Actually, it’s about the recent activity the Zandar Empire conducted in the Forbidden Forest... you know, that ’Dead Raid’ King Oberon couldn’t just sit still. He decided to launch a Night Raid of his own. And now, he’s planning to conduct this Night Raid this month, taking along the Aegis Kingdom’s strongest hero Ronan, his party, and some strong elites from the Holy Kingdom of Hagnos."

"Elira... how do you know all this?" Aria whispered softly, her puffy eyes blinking in confusion.

Elira casually dropped her back onto the mattress, staring up at the ceiling as she let out a faint sigh.

"Hmm... you do know I am the Princess of the Frostfall Kingdom, right? Word of these things just naturally reaches me."

"By the way..." She suddenly sat back up, her tone shifting into something much colder and more serious as her unreadable eyes swept over the three of them.

"I don’t know the full real reason, but rumor has it that King Oberon is going to conduct this raid alongside his daughter Princess Aurelia, the strongest hero of the Hagnos Kingdom, Samurai Moumuta, and the notorious group from the Dark Ally, the ’Bloodbrothers’... So "Whatever is about to happen down there... it won’t stay hidden for long."

Aria was the only one deeply confused, completely clueless about the political weight behind those names. Lucian and Sera, on the other hand, were acutely aware of exactly who those entities were.

Recalling the information, Sera muttered, "The strongest hero of Hagnos... hmmm. I know the summoning hero whose mana was already at Crown Stage when he was summoned, and he never lost a single battle with anyone who he had fought. And very soon, he’ll be officially recognized among the top 8 strongest Crowns in the world..." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"And Princess Aurelia, who is currently at the ’True’ rank, easily places within the top 5 strongest figures of the Aegis Kingdom," she added, shaking her head. "These are some crazy shit people..."

Hearing all of this, Lucian sank into deep thought. few moment passed.

"I also really need to get stronger... no, I have to become even stronger than all of them combined... so I can easily take down the upcoming Tournaments and whatever Fate Correction event," he thought while clenching his fist tightly at his sides.

Ding!

[New Mission Available...]

[Reward: Dark Core level 1 → level 2]

[Objective: Train with your master.]

[Location: Professor Myra is currently in her quarters. Get moving, you idiot, and train hard...]

Reading the strangely sassy system prompt, Lucian let out a long, exhausted sigh. He turned toward the door, pausing just before stepping out to glance back at the girls over his shoulder.

"Let’s go, girls. I need to introduce you all to someone..." He looked directly at the Saint. "Aria, you too."

Aria just blinked, still a bit dazed.

Without another word, Lucian stepped out into the hallway.

"H-Hey, wait for me!" Sera called out, quickly rushing after him. Elira let out a quiet yawn and lazily dragged herself up from the bed.

However, just before stepping out, Sera suddenly poked her head back through the doorway. She smugly swept her eyes over the heavily decorated ceiling and the picture-covered walls, flashing Aria a highly teasing smirk.

"Aria... nice collection."

Leaving behind a light, mischievous giggle, she disappeared into the hallway.

Elira silently followed right behind her. Left alone for a split second, Aria’s face instantly burned a furious, tomato red. Trembling awkwardly, she hurriedly scrambled to follow them out.

"I hate you, Iris... for embarrassing me this much..."