Brushing the dirt off his body, Greyson did not continue to pay any attention to the mysterious crazy dungeon creator and instead turned back towards where the crowd was waiting. Their entrance did gain decent attention as they were the first to exit after Eris' group. His teacher did not opt to watch and wait during this portion of the exam since it would take too long, therefore Greyson only noticed the Old King and the two brothers in the crowd. He knew that they were most likely here for Palmira not for him. Since they were not too close, Greyson decided to just stay with Leilena on the edge. When they rejoined the crowd, people whispered while glancing at Greyson since they recognized him as the black horse from before. True to his reputation, he placed high up during this part of the competition as well. This noise lasted only a couple monts before everyone was silenced by a resounding *SLAP!* Shocked by the sharp sound, all heads including Greyson's turned to the origin of the sound. Holding her already swelling cheek and spitting blood was the very Eris that Greyson just fought. Furrowing his eyebrows, Greyson had to admit that he felt a little guilty. He could already imagine the reason the man in front of Eris was so angry.
"Useless wench! What is the point of your so-called fairness?! We have sent you to win glory for the kingdom! If first is in reach, why settle for so asly second? Truly, girls are such a useless bunch!" The incensed middle-aged man harshly scolded. Although Greyson was unsure of this man's exact identity, it could not be low if he was allowed to so violently lay a hand on a favored princess. But this man was truly inviting hate onto himself. Almost all the won, and even so of the n, were all glaring at the man due to his last sentence. Snow Country was a place that accepted Queens and so kingdoms thought that their Queens were better rulers than their male counterparts. By shouting such clearly misogynistic words, he was causing lots of people to take offense. It was one thing to say such things in a private space and another to paint yourself into a such a person in public.
"Yes, little sister, you have to know that you are representing the kingdom not just yourself. You clearly held the advantage to sweep the first five places and won glory for our Maewen Kingdom. To just selfishly give that up for your pride does not seem right!" The younger man beside the older gentleman chid in on the side. His hair was dark blue while his eyes were more of a paler blue. One could tell that he bore so faint resemblance to Eris, but his looks were much more common and the concentration of the Yce bloodline was not as strong. He seed to be scolding her gently like a true brother, but any discerning person could tell he was just fanning the flas. His eyes gave away the fact that he was truly enjoying this situation.
"Hah, Grand Duke and my 'dear' elder brother, are you encouraging to shalessly gang up on soone and take first place through power in numbers? This is truly an eye-opener. I'll admit that fairness is not too important in real life-or-death situations, but this is just a competition. What honor would I truly be winning if I received things in such a fashion? I feel that I would instead look foolish taking every route to try to win so first-place title. I understand people of such diocre talent as yourselves would not understand, but every genius has their own pride." Not backing down one step, Eris just scoffed and retorted back.
The Grand Duke's face turned red in what seed to be a mixture of pure fury and also embarrassnt. The older prince's face also turned pale as if he had been physically struck by those words. So of his hatred leaked to the surface and he no longer held the look of a loving older brother. The older man moved to strike Eris once again, but the servant behind him whispered sothing that made his arm stop. Glancing around at the crowd that was observing him with clear disdain in their eyes, he took a deep breath and no longer tried to hit Eris again. Although he looked extrely unreconciled with letting her go, the Grand Duke did not seem to want to continue causing a scene. Huffing angrily, he turned around and quickly departed from the group with the prince in tow. They did not care to wait for the results of the rest of the Maewen Kingdom participants as continuing to stand there would only invite more embarrassnt. Watching the two speed away, Eris just sneered and no longer paid them any attention.
A little concerned seeing that her face was only turning darker from bruising, Greyson walked over silently to offer his help.
"Do you want to heal that for you?" He softly inquired while gesturing towards her face.
"Haha, it's not necessary." Laughing in spite of the situation, Eris whipped out an unknown cream and gently covered her cheek with it. Almost imdiately, her face began responding and the swelling and bruising of her cheek continually went down until it vanished. Looking good as new, Eris resud her normal devil-may-care attitude.
"Thanks for the offer. It's not as if this is the first ti nor will it be the last. That Uncle of mine just wants his son to be the one to take the throne while my older brother has always thought that I was an eyesore. We are not born of the sa mother, so he does not really hold any type of sibling affection for . If I was still not prepared for sothing like this then I would be a truly hopeless idiot." Shrugging the scene off nonchalantly, Eris did not seem to want to dwell on the issue.
"Until the next stage, Greyson! I won't hold back so easily next ti or else the old geezers and hags back ho will never let hear the end of it." Playfully winking at him, she made a cool exit with those maids of hers still trailing behind. Each of them did not forget to send another death glare at Greyson as they seed to bla him for their master's injury.
Watching the proud girl stalk off, Greyson just heaved a sigh in his heart. Truly, it would seem that the saying 'blood was thicker than water' did not always hold true. These family mbers of Eris' were no better than her mortal enemies that were just waiting with bated breath to stab her in the back. Plus, it was not just her. Even Leilena was in a similar situation where she had no one to trust or lean on in her family. They all treated her like an outsider. Maybe Greyson was not missing much? He liked to believe there was no worthy incentive for true siblings and family to turn against each other. But perhaps even familial relationships were cheap.
...
"Do you want to head back?"
"Don't we need to wait to take the teleportation formation back?"
"I an, we could since that is faster, but we don't know when the last person will finally finish up. There is usually only one teleportation charm that you use to reverse teleport back from where we landed. The prince will probably use it once all 32 participants co out or a ti limit they have set passes. So of the participants may never co out after all and they cannot continue to wait aimlessly. I'm not completely sure about this ti limit, but it is surely not too short. I don't want to continue wasting ti here. Don't you have your dragon partner? Let's just start flying back now. We will probably still beat everyone."
"Hmm... that's also true." Greyson also did not see any point in continuing to wait around.
However, before the two could set off, he caught soone approaching him from the side of his eye. Turning his body to look, he was surprised to see the Tenth Prince, Braiden Yce. This ti the Prince was joined by another petite, pretty girl. She had the sa black hair and blue-grey eyes that represented the Yce family bloodline. From their clear resemblance, Greyson assud that they were siblings so this girl must be a princess.
"Hello, Greyson. I'm pretty sure I don't need to introduce myself, but just to be sure, I am Braiden Yce. This is my sister, the 14th princess, Beline Yce." Braiden warmly smiled and greeted. The young girl beside him also curtsied.
"Hello, nice to et you." Wondering why the Prince approached him, Greyson just responded politely.
"I've really wanted to introduce myself to you since the first part of the selection. You really stood out as a genius of our Snow Country from the very beginning. Our Uncle even ntioned that we should pay attention to you. That picky Uncle of mine usually doesn't have anything positive to say about anyone, so I was especially curious about you."
"Your Uncle? I don't believe I have ever t him, though?"
"You did not directly et him and speak with him; however, he was one of the people who watched the travelling teams. You were one of the teams that he saw."
"Red Snow Fields?" Greyson guessed.
"Yes!" Braiden readily admitted.
"You, are you actually human?" Rudely interrupting the small talk, Beline could not help but abruptly enter the conversation. Truly, this question had been bothering a lot of people in this selection. Just going off of the white hair and blue eyes, Greyson looked a little different but it was not extre enough to claim that he was not fully human. After all, there were an array of hair and eye colors in the human population. The reason they were so curious was because of Greyson's amazingly high talent. If he were truly purely human, then they could assu that his parents could not be nobodies. Hence, any plans to win Greyson over were pointless since he most likely was already dedicated to whatever power his parents controlled. Within the human race, only those with ancestors that reached a significant level would be able to have talented offspring. Otherwise, humans were generally not talented in sensing and controlling mana compared to magic beasts, elves, dwarves, and even the minority races scattered across the continent. However, if Greyson were a mixed-race individual, then they could accept the fact that he might really be so unknown talent buried in the outskirts of the country. Nobody in any of the races truly treated mixed raced individuals equally. Most of them were outcasts, but this did not discount the possibility of truly genius children being born between the mixing of two races. If the child inherited all the good traits of each race, then they could be a head above the rest. Generally, it was hit or miss. The bloodlines either shed well or they did not and one bloodline would dominate over the other. If this were the case, Greyson would be up for grabs by anyone. A recruiting frenzy would start at that ti to win over this young, promising genius.
Anyone within earshot tried to listen in to Greyson's answer.
Startled by the randomness of the question, Greyson did not answer right away and tried to catch up. Lying was virtually impossible since his Snow Dragon bloodline was a large part of his fighting power, thus Greyson knew that everyone would figure out eventually. The only reason he was not more straightforward was because he understood the normal attitude of people when they found out his mixed-race status. Trying to avoid the drama and unnecessary fights, Greyson normally abstained from bringing up the topic himself. Glancing around to the rest of the crowd who were pretending to not pay attention, he just shrugged.
"I have part of a magic beast bloodline." He responded in the end. As his elf bloodline was currently sealed away, Greyson did not feel the need to say anything more. Hearing this answer, everyone had different reactions. So were clearly excited and started calculating plans, while the other jealous young geniuses felt relieved inside and started looking at Greyson with so of the usual disdain. Rendered speechless by their quick ability to recover their original arrogance, Greyson truly wondered where they got their baseless feelings of superiority. It's not like Greyson's abilities and talents disappeared or could be considered expected just because he was a mixed-race individual.
"Which beast?" Beline pushed curiously.
"To be frank, it's really none of your business." Not stupid enough to blurt out his strength and origins, Greyson still withheld that information. His sister's unjust treatnt was a good example of courting disaster by broadcasting his dragon bloodline. Among the humans, it was very difficult to interact or et with dragons. This tribe of magic beasts was super talented and their bodies could be used to make a lot of powerful magic tools. Pureblood dragons were all also great at sensing treasures and so of those part-dragons also inherit this ability. Due to their poor reproductive ability, dragons did not stray too far out of the Beast Empire since each one was precious. Without enough strength, dragons were the first to be targeted by humans.
"Well, no need to be defensive..." Beline backed off.
"Sorry, my sister is still impulsive. She has seemingly forgot all her manners." Braiden pulled his sister behind him throwing a side glare at her before sincerely apologized.
"It's fine. I didn't take it to heart." Greyson shrugged.
"Well, then I will let you go. I just wanted to introduce myself. Don't be a stranger later." Braiden smiled. "Also, you should prepare yourself for the next round. It's not going to be very safe or fair, there will be serious threats to your life and well-being."
Paying attention to the warning, Greyson nodded gratefully and assured him that he would surely pay attention later. Gesturing towards Leilena, they both ran a decent distance away from the group before Greyson released Zephyr to fly them back. On the way back, Greyson starting imagining what the next round would be. Prince Braiden seed to be sincere in his advice, so this next round would definitely not be simple. It was the last round before they could fight against the predetermined top 10 to try to make their way onto the team that will eventually be sent to represent the Snow Country.
...
"Brother, why were you being so humble to him? He's just so mixed-race nobody, his talent does not necessarily an you should lower yourself like this..." Beline grumbled unhappily.
"Bel, maybe you are still young, or maybe it's because mother spoils you too much. But you should realize that Greyson is not just "talented", don't you see that your prejudice is blinding you? 15-year-old magister level stage five! He will most definitely beco a great magister before 20 at his pace. From the information I have gathered, he also controls multiple elents! This is a genius our Snow Country has not been able to produce in centuries maybe even millennia. He could be our chance at raising our status among the Outer Countries. In the end, our imperial status and bloodline ans nothing. We are just geniuses in a rural village. Once we are placed in a city, we could still be seen as above average. However, placed in the wider world, we are just trash, frogs in a well. Why else would not even one person in our multiple teams of geniuses place in the top 20 of the competition? We are just that weak. Our Snow Country is on the brink of hostile takeover by the other Outer Countries. The only reason they have yet to start is that our country is truly barren compared to them. Other than gaining more land, there is not much rit in taking over. As long as Greyson survives, I believe that he could bring our country with him in his rise to power." One could say that Prince Braiden was truly broad-hearted. With his rather dismal possibility of becoming the heir and his more straightforward personality, Braiden did not assu the normal arrogance of the imperial princes and princesses. He truly wished the best for his ho and geniuses like Greyson were a type of hope.
"I still think Big Brother and Sister Aphina do not necessarily lose out..." Beline pouted.
Although he shook his head in exasperation, Braiden still felt warm from the support. This youngest sister of his still had a way to go. Luckily, Aphina was more aware and intelligent, so he did not worry about her.
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