Marina approached with heavy steps, each one making Alex struggle harder for breath.
"Do you know anything about the man?" Marina asked, enunciating every word.
"I do not," Alex replied. His voice was steady, but his eyes darted to Evelyn—she was pale and barely holding on.
His mind stormed quickly with an improvement for the water shield, and he attempted it on the spot.
He raised his hand, and the water of his shield stirred violently. Wind intertwined with it, mixing and spinning until thin streams seeped outward, forming a small aquatic cyclone around her.
He had to rebalance the nodes of the spell on the spot, and his body took the full brunt of it.
Agony stabbed through his skull. Blood trickled from his nose.
But the spell held.
The crushing pressure on Evelyn lessened, and she slowly unclenched, breathing a little easier.
Marina's eyes widened—astonished. The man had just altered a skill on the spot to protect his sister.
"Marina! What are you doing? Retreat, now!" Vanessa's voice snapped through the air.
It took Marina a moment to react, still stunned by the improvised spell. Then she withdrew her aura instantly and, in a blink, reappeared by Vanessa's side.
Alex collapsed to his knees, gasping, and he released the spell, the shield dissolving around Evelyn.
"Eve… we're leaving," he forced out between ragged breaths.
Evelyn, shaken and terrified, obeyed immediately. Neither bothered to gather their belongings—they just fled.
Vanessa tried to speak as they passed.
"I'm sorry for he—"
"I don't care," Alex cut her off sharply. "This is why I don't like y'all nobles, you are useless, then you vent your frustrations against the commoners, like your uselessness is our fault, farewell, may we never meet again."
They disappeared down the path.
Vanessa turned toward Marina, fury radiating from her.
"Why the hell would you do that?! Did you not see the girl was just a normal civilian?!"
"He was shaming you," Marina defended stiffly. "And he clearly knew something about the man we're chasing, so I pushed him a little. When he denied it, his heartbeat spiked."
"Yes—and in exchange, you nearly suffocated a harmless girl and pushed the boy to die from the backlash of the spell he made in the moment to protect her. Now he hates us even more, and whatever chance we had of him talking to us is gone. Bravo!"
Vanessa clapped sarcastically, her voice sharp.
"And besides—who cares if he outwitted me? If what he said is true, then the royal guards haven't been doing their jobs properly."
"I—" Marina tried to say something.
"Not. A. Word." Vanessa's tone cut like a blade. "From now on, you never act like that again unless I give express permission."
Marina fell silent, chastised.
"You heard him," she muttered quietly. "He never liked us anyway."
"So your solution to mend his hatred for nobles was to nearly kill his sister? Congratulations—you just proved him right." Vanessa's disappointment settled heavily between them.
Marina had no argument. Vanessa was right.
"When we find them again, you will apologise," Vanessa ordered. "They were here first. They let us camp near them. And while he wasn't overly respectful, he wasn't rude either. You crossed the line today. Prepare for punishment when we return."
Vanessa walked away, bitterness twisting inside her. Moments ago, she had stood for justice, yet her own subordinate had nearly crushed an innocent girl over a hunch that the boy may have had a lead.
As she passed the abandoned supplies, she paused.
On the man's canvas rested a painting: a young man with short brown hair and green eyes smiling broadly, framed by the scenery of the capital. A soft radiance surrounded him—the halo of the Nyxveil Seraph, who oversaw the boundary between dreams and reality.
It was a style that was used only for memorial pieces.
Vanessa's expression softened. She studied it silently before murmuring,
"Pack them up. If we meet again, we'll return these."
Halfway home, Alex and Eve were still walking.
Alex was a storm of anger. A grandmaster had used full pressure on a helpless girl. His sister.
He burned Marina's face into his memory. One day—when he was strong enough—he would kill that woman.
He glanced at Eve. She was trembling lightly, trying and failing to hide it.
He took her for ice cream to distract her. It helped a little. So he kept going—shopping, browsing stalls, anything to keep her mind away from what happened.
By evening, Eve seemed mostly back to normal. Mostly. Alex knew this trauma wouldn't fade in a day.
Once home, he went to cook with Susan and told her everything.
Susan was horrified. She had never been angry before—not truly—but now she was furious. Both of her children had been assaulted because a noblewoman jumped to conclusions.
After dinner, she took Evelyn to her room to comfort her.
Alex went to his office.
He didn't turn the lights on. He wasn't here to work—he was here to train.
He needed to replenish the mana he'd burned in the improvised spell. His reserves were draining slowly, and with the Mana lekeage syndrome, if he went to sleep empty, he risked damaging his core permanently.
As he meditated, he checked the new skill he had created.
—STATUS—
Skills:
Windslicer (Novice – 100%)
Twisted Water Shield (Intermediate – 3%)
Windslicer Barrage (Apprentice – 100%)
Water Spear (Novice – 100%)
Spiked Water Arrow (Novice – 100%)
Water Scape (Novice – 100%)
Gentle Ascend (Apprentice – 87%)
Wind Blast (Novice – 64%)
He didn't create many spells over the past three years. He only invented new ones when he needed them.
Gentle Ascend had been made for climbing silently. Wind Blast came after he had once been surrounded while hunting nobles—he engineered it to blast enemies away in all directions.
And now—Twisted Water Shield, the name came from the concept he had in his mind when he attempted to create it.
It was at the intermediate tier, and the mana cost was monstrous: 78 mana per second.
It would decrease with proficiency, but for now, it was brutal.
After several hours of training, Alex finally finished, took a shower, and collapsed into bed.
Tomorrow, another journey awaited him.