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*****

"Nothing special Simon. More importantly…" Carlos turned his eyes toward Lyra and smiled. "We should help our mates, right Lyra?"

"..." Lyra didn\'t answer and stayed quiet.

"Lyr-"

"Oh, they need help Simon, could you?" Carlos\' raised his tone and pointed behind Simon were their mates were struggling against kangaroos.

"Ah, yes!" Simon rushed without waiting in a swirl of sand.

"What\'s that, Lyra?" Carlos asked when he saw Lyra\'s hand reached out to stop Simon from leaving. He took a step aside and faced Lyra. The latter was barely able to make eye-contact. She was gritting her teeth.

"What do you want?" She raised her gaze and asked in a cold tone.

"Oh…what\'s that distant tone, Lyra?" Carlos asked. "We have been lovers, remember?"

" \'Have been\' yes." Lyra said and walked past Carlos.

"Lyra…" Carlos sighed and grabbed Lyra\'s arm.

"Leave me-"

"If you do listen to me, I will send all the photos, videos and every single evidence to all nobles of this Kingdom, starting with your own father." He said in a more cold tone than before. There was no more a smile on him.

"!" Lyra\'s face turned pale when Carlos said that.

Someone threatened her in the same way before.

She could still remember that day when Edward threatened her but this time, she could feel the difference.

While Edward threatened her, there was no ill-intentions in his words and his wish. He was merely asking her to stop involving herself with Milleia and Alfred. 

Now that she thought about it…Edward didn\'t mean any harm to her from the beginning. Since the day she agreed to his terms, Edward didn\'t even bother her anymore or brought the threat back.

"Do you want that?" Carlos asked again, his voice getting lower as his smile curled up. "Lyra?"

"..." Lyra clenched her fists in frustration. She cursed her previous naive and innocent self.

"I want you to volunteer tonight\'s guard shift with me." Carlos said.

"..."

"Your answer." Carlos hardened his grip on Lyra\'s arm.

"Yes…"

"Good." Carlos released Lyra\'s hand and left with a smile.

****

"Where are they?" An irritated voice echoed somewhere on the fortieth floor. It was Ronald\'s voice.

"Shouting will not help us, Ronald." Thomas furrowed his brow when Ronald got already angry. 

"Don\'t order me around, Thomas!" Ronald snapped at Thomas. He hated Alfred and he hated his goons, so Thomas and Loid as well. "Dammit…why did I end up with that guy…"

"You are noisy."

"Hah?" Ronald turned toward the voice and saw Clara with a clearly annoyed expression. "What did you say?"

"You are noisy, I said." Carla repeated in a fed-up tone.

"Please everyone, let\'s compose ourselves." Aurora intervened, feeling the tension. "If we want to pass the exam to please our loved ones, we should fight as a team. Together." Her words were calm yet authoritative.

And it clicked in everyone\'s mind.

Thomas wanted to get back his lost pride, Carla wanted to boast to Jayden and Ronald wanted to impress Layla. They all nodded.

"We have only found 3-Star Mana Beasts so far, but as the Professors stated, we must bring and defeat at least Disaster-Rank Mana Beasts, preferably 4-Stars. We\'ll go deeper and attempt to reach the 43rd floor before the end of the night. But don\'t lose sight of our ultimate aim. We just need to bring thirty Disaster-Beasts. Reaching the fifty-first floor first is not our objective. If we defeat all of the needed animals on the lower floors, we will just have to sprint to the last one while avoiding all of the mana beasts on them. Understood?" Aurora explained the plan.

""""Yes.""""" They all nodded without anything to add and even to correct. Aurora was right after all. They shouldn\'t lose sight of their primary objective just for the sake of their pride.

….

"Luminous Blade!" Aurora swung her sword and gave the final strike to the four-star disaster monster.

"As expected of the Princess!"

"A-Amazing!"

Aurora\'s teammates exclaimed after seeing Aurora\'s sword easily cutting through the disaster rank mana beast. With an elegant movement, Aurora swung her sword again and all the blood sticking to her shining golden blade disappeared. 

"Your sword…is made of Eden\'s Tree from Sancta Vedelia, right?" Carla approached and asked.

Aurora faced Carla and smiled. "Yes. It\'s a gift from my mother. Until now I kept it sealed since I wasn\'t strong enough to wield it but not anymore."

After her crushing defeat against Pyres, the man using Sunfire, Aurora felt weak—terribly weak. At that time, she wished she had brought her sword made of the Holy Tree which would have been without being capable of repelling the strange fire used by Pyres. But again she knew that she wasn\'t strong enough. That\'s why she trained even more and thanks to her father and the Archangel\'s Michael\'s Blessing reacting, she became strong enough to wield it.

Only a few were capable of wielding weapons made of the Holy Tree of Eden after all. Aurora\'s powerful bloodline had helped her a lot to get the hang on it.

"You should have also had a weapon made of the Branches of the Holy Tree of Eden, isn\'t it Carla?" Aurora asked curiously.

Carla was the daughter of Duke Roger who was obviously powerful and wealthy enough to procure such valuable resources for his daughter.

"Yes…" Carla smiled but bitterly. "I still haven\'t awakened my bloodline so I don\'t think I am able to handle it…" She felt slightly left behind by the other girls of her age. Namely, Aurora but in Aurora\'s case, it might be \'normal\' for her since she had Archangel Michael\'s bloodline…

No.

The one Carla didn\'t want to lose against was the one she considered as her rival. 

Layla Adriana Tarmias.

Since little they had been like cats and dogs, always insulting and fighting against each other for small matters. They had been equal in all domains or so Carla thought. There was one domain, in strength, that Carla couldn\'t catch up with Layla.

Layla was the second strongest girl of their promotion and yet she might be even as strong as Aurora already. 

"You haven\'t changed Carla." Aurora smiled at Carla. 

"Hm?"

"You are still competing with Layla, um?" Aurora asked with a teasing smile.

Carla\'s cheek reddened in embarrassment when Aurora guessed what was in her mind. "So what…?"

"But every time you catch her up, don\'t forget that, Carla." Aurora leaned her head.

Carla was surprised at first when Aurora consoled her but then a smile bloomed on her face. "You haven\'t changed either, Aurora. Always there to help everyone."

"Isn\'t that more Myra?" Aurora tilted her head. She was sure that Myra was the one more caring for everyone and everything else.

Carla sighed at Aurora\'s words. "Indeed but Myra is caring toward everyone while you are favoring us."

"Hey!" Aurora let out with a pout.

"Sorry." Carla raised her hands in surrender. "As a Princess, you cannot get close to strangers, I know."

Something that Miranda didn\'t have to respect as she was the daughter of a Monarch and not a Royal. That was the difference between Miranda and Aurora.

\'Also you are more careful and less reckless than Myra…\' Carla thought inwardly. Miranda was one of her childhood friends and though she wasn\'t as close to her as Elona, she cared for her and had already told Miranda many times to not try to save everyone carelessly but the latter wouldn\'t hear it and keep doing it.

"By the way, isn\'t Louisa really cold? She could have at least greeted us." Carla crossed her arms with a frown.

Louisa was their overseer so Carla expected Louisa to speak to them a little as their long time friend.

"Senior Louisa is the president council, she can\'t show such intimacy toward us, Carla." Aurora who always looked up to Louisa explained.

" \'Senior Louisa\'?" Carla was dumbfounded. Indeed they were friends but Louisa was like a sister for Aurora. In the end she sighed knowing that Aurora also respected the Academy\'s code and made sure to put a line between her personal life and Academy\'s one.

Then as if remembering something, Carla\'s expression turned awkward. "Aurora…I have a weird question."

"I am all ears for your weird question, Carla," Aurora replied with a smile.

"D-Do you love Jayden?" Carla asked, unable to prevent her face from reddening.

Aurora\'s smile froze as she didn\'t expect that question at all but she quickly recovered. 

Carla continued. "You know…if it\'s you and Jayden really likes you…I won\'t mind-"

"Carla." Aurora quickly stopped Carla from speaking further. She looked at Carla seriously. "I don\'t hold any feelings toward Jayden or will not either."

"..."

"You can put your heart at ease." Aurora sighed. It was to prevent such a misunderstanding that she started avoiding Aurora. Even yesterday, she didn\'t want to speak to him but relented when Jayden begged for the book one day before the exam. 

It\'s all because of him!

A grey-haired man\'s face flashed her mind.

I will never forgive this scoundrel!