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nVale was a bit surprised after hearing Yvaine’s words.

nHe had also heard the word Abyss from Lotus, and that place doesn’t sound great. He had an impression that it was a place that could even cause trouble to the Spirit World, even though there were plenty of powerful entities living there.

nAccording to Lotus, the Abyss should be a terrifying place where Dark Spirits like her had to stop from spreading throughout the Spirit World. It seems to be capable of invading the Spirit World, which was quite baffling to Vale.

nHe then maximized the limit of his Magic Zone to observe the surroundings before asking Yvaine once again.

n‘Abyss… Are you referring to the Demonic Beings? Are they here?’ Vale asked in concern.

n“Yes. However, I can’t pinpoint their location… I only sensed their drifting essence.” Yvaine answered in a serious voice.

n“I guess it wasn’t serious. I’m sure that those beings won’t dare to come here.” Vale said as he recalled that this place was basically heavily guarded not just by one faction but all twelve Arcane Factions within the kingdom.

nYvaine didn’t reply anymore, so Vale continued searching for the familiar aura.

nIt didn’t take long before he found a familiar young girl trying to escape from the guards.

n“This girl… What did she do this time?” Vale muttered in a soft voice as he used his ESP spell to suppress any fluctuation of energy coming from his body before arriving beside the young girl.

n“Denise, did you steal something from them?” Vale’s voice sounded beside Denise, giving her a scare.

n“Kyle! Ahh… Vale! I was looking for you. I thought you wouldn’t recognize me with my hair and mature body.” Denise exclaimed, a mixture of surprise and relief evident in her voice.

nWith a chuckle, Vale replied, “Heh~ You’re only 14, right? I don’t think your body has fully matured yet.” He playfully took Denise’s hands into his own, a genuine smile gracing his face.

nHe then reactivated his Lightspeed and carried her away.

n“Ahh! What’s this Spell, Vale?!” Denise asked in shock. They were moving so quickly!

n“Hehe… You don’t have a movement spell, right?” Vale answered with a soft laugh.

n“Hmph… I’ll also surprise you later….” Denise replied mysteriously as they chatted while moving away.

nThe wind rushed past them, carrying their voices and creating a sense of exhilaration and freedom.

nAfter some time, they stopped in a secluded spot, and Vale gently set Denise down on her feet.

n“Denise, it’s truly wonderful to see you again… I didn’t know you’d also be here… Wait, did you come here for me?” Vale suddenly asked.

nDenise nodded at this as she replied.

n“Yes… Master Heinz sent me here to give you a gift for entering the competition. He probably thought you wouldn’t achieve much in the competition, so he wanted me to bring you the corpses of beautiful nobles from Ruri Kingdom.”

n“Ahhh? Wait, what? I have so many questions… Corpses of beautiful nobles? How could he even have that? Why did it come from the Ruri Kingdom? Also, why did he think I wouldn’t achieve much?” Vale asked in one go as he was baffled by Denise’s sudden words.

nDenise seemed to have expected this reaction and chuckled.

n“I can explain everything to you. However, do you really want us to talk in this dark alley?”

n“Ahem… Let’s go to a nearby shop then. I noticed a coffee shop in the corner a while ago.” Vale replied as he took the lead.

n“Right… About the corpses… Do you really like them? Should I just dispose of them? I’m keeping them in a small storage house, and I’m paying for it for three zen a week.” Denise said, which made Vale hesitant to answer.

n“W-well… Can I take a look at them? Master sent them, so it won’t be appropriate to just dispose of them, right?” Vale replied after some thought.

nDenise narrowed her eyes as she looked at Vale with a mix of disappointment and relief.

nShe was disappointed at his hobby, but she also felt relieved that he hadn’t changed that much after entering the Academy. He was still the Kyle Marshall that she had befriended in that laboratory.

nShe had seen many people change their behaviors after entering the Vermont Academy in a few years, so she was still somewhat pleased by Vale’s reaction.

n“Alright… Let’s have a coffee first since I won’t be in the mood to eat once we go to that place.” Denise replied as she was still not used to being around corpses, unlike Vale.

nAlthough she may appear unbothered by it, she was merely putting up with it since she needed Heinz’s help.

nSoon, the two of them entered a coffee shop, where Denise explained the situation to Vale.

nVale learned that the corpses were actually bought by Heinz, not because he really wanted Vale to have them but because Heinz wanted to study the tattoo marks on their bodies that seemed to be capable of drawing power to another realm or perhaps entity. 𝑖𝑟𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝘮

nIt was the specialty of the Ruri Kingdom’s nobles, and it doesn’t seem to belong to any of the 12 Arcane Paths. The closest was the Rune Arts, but they were still different since the markings weren’t anything close to the ones used by the Rune Arts.

nAfter all, the Runes were languages of the ancient, while the ones in the bodies of the Nobles were more like drawings of the ancient.

nThis made Vale even more curious about the nobles. He couldn’t wait to see what kind of attributes he could extract from them.

nThen, Denise explained why Master Heinz had such a low expectation of him.

n“He was feeling bad that he failed to give you the best potions he could make but was able to give it to Evelyn and the others… Ahh, you should’ve met them already, right?” Denise asked.

n“Those kids… Yeah, I met them. They’re quite prideful.” Vale answered.

n“Heh… Of course, they’ve beaten a few young Elementalists before they were allowed to enter the Academy by Sir Heinz… Anyway, he knows that you will reach the limit of your potential, so he wanted to at least give you those corpses.”

nVale shook his head as it seemed that Heinz had underestimated him. Well, that wasn’t surprising since the old man had no idea about his system.

nAs he thought of asking Denise about the storage room where she kept the corpses, he suddenly felt a very familiar presence getting close to him…

n“Ahh… Lotus?” Vale asked in surprise. 𝘳.𝑐ℴ𝓂

nDenise was also baffled as she looked at Vale in shock.

n𝑖𝘦.𝑐𝘰𝘮

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