n

n

nWallace greeted and talked with Yumi and her group in a few minutes before going back to the crowd and watch the competition. They were in an empty hallway inside the arena.

nThe Adult Yumi has companions together with her, it was Max, Aaron with a strange look at Yumi, and probably another member of Lucent Force.

n

"You have a decent skill, huh.

" Yumi smiled at Wallace and mocked him a bit. She wasn't really mad but she put a lot of effort in what happened after he left.

n

"I'm sorry for the trouble I caused.

"

n

"It's good that you're sorry. How did you disappear in the hotel?

" Yumi asked instead, she had investigated the pillow that Wallace left which fooled them by placing his Mana Fluctuations within it and was actually amazed that Wallace has such an advanced method mana manipulation.

n

"Ah, that? I conveniently brought my Float Drive System to fly away.

" Wallace answered. He doesn't have to tell every detail. He wanted to make an excuse but if he told a lot of things, there would be a lot of holes. Luckily, It seems that Yumi wasn't too inclined to know that detailed event.

nIn truth, Yumi was still unconvinced because she believed that she should have detected the Mana artifact's activation unless Wallace deliberately created a cloak spell to hide its presence. Reaching this line of thought, she realized that Wallace might have really created one.

n

"Alright then, did you get what you're looking for?

" Yumi asked instead. She has another theory about what truly happened specially about the armored being's appearance but since there were more people here at the moment, Wallace may not admit. So she decided to confront him about this later on.

n

"Yes.

" Wallace answered in which Yumi nodded in return.

n

"Wallace, I'm not sure what happened but it's good that you're safe.

" Aaron said after noticing that the Yumi and Wallace had nothing else to say. He was genuinely happy that Wallace has returned although he wanted to scold him a bit. But since Yumi was cool about what happened and didn't take it too seriously, he stopped himself to do so.

nThey still have another tasked to do. They have discovered one of the hideouts of the criminal organization, Z-Company, that was hidden in one of the isolated islands of Araceli here in Montego.

nThis requires a lot more attention as the Lucent Force felt that the royalty here wasn't too inclined in pursuing this. The only response they received was a message telling that they'll investigate the island and if the criminal organization really does exist there, they will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

nIt only means that the Lucent Force wasn't included with further follow up investigation or operation against the Z-Company. Although Aaron's expected this, they were still unhappy that their sacrifice in discovering the island seems to be about to go to waste.

nThey were in a different country so they couldn't take that much of an action and whatever result of investigation or operation they made, they could only accept it.

nThe Z-Company had been active on stealing a Sealed Mana Artifact in the past years, their country was victimized in this event, and this could have been a chance to trace those artifacts.

n

"Thank you pres, I wonder why you're here. I didn't thought that you'd personally come and support me in this competition.

" Wallace said as he smiled at Aaron.

n

"Eh? Right... I visited you here to watch you compete.

" Aaron awkwardly said as he remembered that Wallace shouldn't be aware of his identity. As he met with various members of Lucent Force and people who somehow knew his identity, he forgot that Wallace was not included in them.

n

"Really? I'll work hard then. But I heard that there's already a substitute that was selected.

"

n

"Oh, we can just remove him. What's the matter?

"

n

"It seems that he was unconvinced about Wallace's talents.

" This time it was answered by Lucian who coordinated with the substitute himself.

n

"Unconvinced?

" Yumi smiled after hearing this and further asked Wallace.

n

"What would you do?

" She felt that it would be better if Wallace would personally deal with this. After all, she wanted to find out more about him. But just in case that Wallace decided to go thru proper procedure and speak with the manager or organizer so he could forcefully reclaim the slot, Yumi would still be willing to help him.

nWallace pondered a bit and sighed. He believed that it's fine to show some more things about his skills. Anyway, he would show even more once he's in the competition.

n

"Alright. I would speak to him once we are on lunch. If I remember correctly, submission of line up would be between 1 and 1:30 PM as the first round of Artifact Forging would start at 2 PM, is that correct?

" Wallace tried to clarify the little rules that was provided to them. The competitions themselves weren't described in great detail and could only guess based on the title of event.

n

"That's correct. Then I believe that you can sort that out with yourself? Although we weren't too inclined in winning this competition, I heard from Aaron that you still have your fans in your academy watching this competition, so you have to be part of it.

" Yumi smiled and said before gesturing on others to quickly leave her alone with Wallace. Although the other magicians was surprised, they didn't asked too much.

n

"I just want to have a quick word with him. This won't take a minute.

" Yumi reasoned as she just want to really tell something to Wallace.

nAfter leaving the two alone, Yumi cast a quick isolation barrier making her conversation with Wallace unheard to the others.

n

"What's with this secrecy about?

" Wallace curiously analyzed the isolation barrier but it seems that he expected too much. The barrier could only lower the frequency of the sound going out from it and stop other people in hearing their conversation. There are still many ways to deal with this kind of barrier but since they were in a safe place and no one would bother to put so much effort in eavesdropping on their conversation, Wallace and Yumi felt that it was enough.

n

"Well, I just want to tell you something uncle Nortrom. I'm Hani.

" Yumi said with a teasing smile.

n'Ah, she already knew? No, she's definitely aware that I disguised as Nortrom so she followed me. But one more thing... What about the armored being within the Araceli island? Was she aware about it as well. Does she knew everything?'

nWallace quickly thought and was surprised that Yumi would actually use this approach. He took a breath and cleared his mind. It might also be a trap and Yumi may not be too sure as well. 'She only called me uncle Nortrom, he may be aware of that idenity being me but she can't be sure about the armored being. That's right. I just have to deny for now... Once I learned her motives, I might even have to enlist her and have her work with me.' Wallace finally concluded his thoughts. His plans can't be accomplished alone. Building a spaceship could never be done alone even with the help of an A.I.

n

"Haha... I'm not sure what you're saying.

"

nYumi had been watching Wallace's face as soon as she asked the question.

n

"Well, it seems that you're not ready yet. Don't worry, I will not report what I've seen in that island and inside that aircraft.

" Yumi didn't lose her composure after Wallace tried to deny it. Wallace was even more glad upon hearing this. It seems that Yumi was a good person.

n***

nAfter returning to the crowd to spectate the battle, Wallace had already realized the ability of the automatons to learn within the third round. But the changes was only magnified at the fourth round where all participants and even the audience had seen the drastic change in their behavior, movement, magic skills, and spell utilization. The automatons became more careful and had been so good in decision-making.

n

"It would be tough for Kyla.

" Wallace blandly commented after observing the team. He then turned his eyes on the Montego's team's area who were calmly assessing the situation. It seems it wasn't only him who noticed their too amazing plan in this event.

nThe announcers defended the Montego's team as they felt that people was having the same thoughts as Wallace. They tried to find a word to reason out. After all, it was their home team's reputation.

n

"Our Montego's team seems to have a great strategist. As we all know, aside from several spells that could restore the user's Mana, vitality, and corrode the enemy's mana, the Vampiric Staff has a spell called Five-Force Push. A mana spell that could store abundant mana force with the help of vampire stone attached at the middle of the staff and this Five-Force Push can only be used after five different forces of mana was stored in this stone.

"

n

"That's right, that skill should be enough to deal with the last automaton. They must have realized this based on the competition 10 years ago that the last match against a puppet, now called an automaton, would be tough.

"

n

"Yes! The strategist must have planned this for them. Its good that it bore fruit, because if the strategist failed his deduction about the competition, the students could have suffered for nothing.

"

n

"True... After all, the participants would not be informed about this. Only the main organizer of the event, or Sir Julian himself would be aware of the proceedings. They just have a capable strategist.

"

nAfter the audience heard this, they all nodded and understood everything as they awed about the brilliance of the strategist.

n