“I didn’t. I believe that it was the environment of my homeland that caused the law of Aries to level up so much on its own, as for the law of Capricorn, I’m pretty sure it was stirred up by the match I had with a certain rude white-haired man with black eyes. For the law of Libra, since I cannot use it, it’s obvious that I didn’t achieve even the first star level yet.”

Zoemi shook his head and answered straight, with almost no delay.

“If that is the case then how can you know about which laws you have or don’t have a talent in?”

Viola asked, and this time there was accusation in her voice – as if she just caught Zoemi lying right to her face.

“God of stars, Guide, told me so. I already had the maximum

affinity for the law of Aries, but he opened up the pathways for the law of Capricorn and law of Libra.”

“…”

Once again, Zoemi said the plain truth without adding even a single grain of falsehood, but even so – or maybe because of exactly that – the beautiful woman in front of him tensed up and said nothing.

As their conversation was stopped dead in place, they finally arrived at the bottom of the stairs, where a massive sturdy door made out of ancient wood and thick metal plates was embedded straight into the wall.

“Law of Taurus.”

*CREEEAAAK*

Viola activated her star power and opened the heavy door, revealing a rather small cave lighted up by a single torch. The entire wall opposite the door was filled with the star chart depicting the twelve constellations of the western Zodiac that Zoemi had already known – at least to some degree.

“Go in and put your hand at the base of the star chart to prove that your words are truthful.”

Viola stepped aside, making way for Zoemi to pass by her, and pointed her hand towards the inner parts of the small cave.

“That’s it? This is my first time using something like that.”

The black-haired man glanced inside and asked curiously.

“Nothing more. That is all.”

“Okay then~”

Viola nodded and waved her hand again as if she was trying to shovel Zoemi inside without actually touching him, to which the black-haired man merely smirked and moved forward, entering the place.

Truth be told, Zoemi did encounter a star chart once in the past, but it was when he was already dead so he couldn’t have any memory of it – and to begin with at that time the star chart reacted to the power of Guide and not the black-haired boy’s talents.

After entering the cave, Zoemi could tell that it was much taller than he originally expected – it wasn’t spacious or wide, but its ceiling was high enough to not get reached by the flickering light of a single torch down below.

Zoemi looked around, wondering whether this was some sort of an ambush or a trap and the door would close behind his back the second he entered, but that was not the case.

…for now…

With the cautious eyes of Viola following his every move, Zoemi stopped by the star chart carved into the wall and put his palm on the convenient spot smoothed out by countless hands touching it thorough Guide-knows how much time.

As soon as he did, the star chart came alive, and the ephemeral line began to crawl its way up through the lines connecting the stars of all constellations.

Not all though.

Only the ones making up the Aries, Capricorn, and Libra constellations were glowing.

The entire constellation of Aries began burning with a blinding light and it seemed that the entire cave was exposed to the full power of stroboscopic light.

That made it hard but not impossible to check out the rest – Capricorn had the first six stars glowing brightly but even so the lines connecting the individual stars were moving past the lighted-up stars, indicating that the pathways are already open.

Same thing with the Libra constellation – despite not having a single star shining, the lines and therefore the pathways were glowing with the soft ephemeral light.

“Tsk! Just as we thought!”

*SLAM* *click*

While Zoemi was gazing upon the bright star chart with amazement, Viola clicked her tongue and slammed the door shut and locked it, imprisoning the black-haired man inside.

“Something like that simply isn’t possible! You’re a member of a dark sect trying to infiltrate our sect! You will wait here until someone from the Star Pagoda will come to interrogate and deal with you accordingly! Don’t worry – it won’t take long – they were already notified about your arrival! Law of Capricorn!”

The beautiful woman shouted through the door and the sound of her footsteps on the stairs soon disappeared after she aided herself with star power.

“So it ended up being locked away. Since she didn’t do that from the start, I assumed that she had someone hide in the dark under the ceiling to attack me when I don’t expect it. Definitely counts as a high offense against someone of my status, still.”

Zoemi sighed, rubbing the back of his head with a slightly disappointed expression.

“Since Alan is within the premise, I should not act too hasty… How much head start I should give them then…? She said that someone will be here soon to take care of me… I wonder how will they try to judge me considering I’m innocent? Oh, well. If no one will show up within an hour, I will get out on my own. Thirty-six hundred. Thirty-five hundred ninety-nine. Thirty-five hundred ninety-eight….”𝒐𝑣𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

The black-haired man thought out loud, crossing his arms and tilting his head with a devilish smirk.

…and began the countdown…

——–

“Mother! You don’t understand, Zoemi isn’t a dark sect member! If you want one, then Zoey…!”

“No. YOU don’t understand a thing, Alice. You will get to the main building wearing the clothes prepared for you, or you will be seized by other students and forcefully dressed up before getting dragged there.”

Alan shouted at the door leading out of his room, but his mother interrupted him before he could properly finish what he wanted to say.

“We can use this entire thing as you luring the dark sect member into a trap! This will immensely help our reputation, not to mention that the head magistrate of justice at the Star Pagoda is the old friend of my father and just so happens to have a son of a similar age to you. As long as we will play our cards right, we will put the Great Ram sect back in its rightful spot in one fell swoop!”

Viola declared, completely deaf to her child’s calls.

“An unmarried son of similar age to me… Wha…?! Mother…! I don’t want to marry now! What about the Heavenly Star Academy?! I worked so hard to be put on the waiting list and I already killed a Bull-ape on my own to fulfill the requirements!”

Alan said in surprise then gasped in realization and cry out in disbelief at how far his own goals were from the plans that his mother was making.

“Your father and I only agreed to allow you to try and get in that place so that maybe some other sect would come up with a marriage proposal after seeing your prowess in star power. That will no longer be necessary if you will be able to marry a son of a head justice magistrate.”

Viola scoffed shaking her head although Alan could not see it.

“Huh?! Wait a second, mother! You and father told me that when I will get into the Heavenly Star Academy I will be able to improve our sect’s status – there was nothing about me searching for a marriage partner!”

The young man took a step away from his door and pointed out, clenching his fist because of the very uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

“Yes. And you told us that you were a man, even though you are clearly not – as long as you are lying to us, we should be free to lie to you as well. No?”

“…!”

*thump*

For Viola, it was just an angry remark that she believed to be obvious, but for Alan, it felt as if he was punched in the stomach.

The mental hit that he received was enough to make him stumble and fall to the ground with a blank expression.

“Dress up in the clothes provided. Be at the main building in ten minutes – the martial artists from the Star Pagoda will be here in less than half an hour to deal with the dark sect member you so foolishly brought back. And while they are here don’t you DARE to blab out that you wanted to hire him as your bodyguard!”

Viola walked up to the door and declared, knocking on it with her fist after each sentence to add more gravity to it.

“…”

Alan turned his head towards his bed, where n top of the mattress someone spread a full set of especially feminine-looking set of martial artist uniforms.

Normally, unless someone made a conscious choice of adding some accessories, there was no difference between the male and female uniform for the Great Ram sect members, but this one was a custom-made piece no doubt ordered by Alan’s mother.

“You have nine minutes left before I will send other students to get you. Oh, and this room is being observed so don’t try sneaking out.”

Viola declared in a strict voice, not even waiting for her child’s response, and walked away, already glancing towards the main gate through the hallway’s windows, busy with worrying about the important people coming to their sect.