"Do you mind explaining what happened at the arena?" Thalion asked as he looked at the two. He was in disbelief the moment such news assaulted his ears. His son and daughter were masters of the art of combat and for them to fail so badly, there had to be a reason.
"Father, I can explain!" Julian said as he stepped forward. They were currently in his personal study room conversing about this. "Father, I- may have-"Before he could finish, Vivienne spoke up.
"Father, the reason as to why Julian did so poorly was because he had a terrible concussion and temporarily forgot. He has always been a klutz." She excused herself to which Thalion didn't look too impressed.
What kind of an excuse was this? Had a concussion and forgot how to fight. "What kind of an idiot to you take your father to be? Just come out clean with it as to what truly happened. Accidents were a natural thing but for a tier expert to fall into one and one as basic as that, it seemed too unlikely.
"What actually happened father was that as I was having a little fun, I was assaulted by a strange figure? I tried to fight back but he proved too powerful and cunning for me thus my only option was to flee. However, he managed to hit me with an attack. This has to be it."
"Then after, I found a lady and luckily enough, she knew who I was and brought me back." He finished off as he clenched his fists. Thalion squinted his eyes as he looked at Julian. He was too busy engrossed with his work at the time thus he didn't know whether this was true or not.
"Then why didn't you inform me when you woke up?" He asked again to which Julian hesitated. "I knew that it would be a disgrace and tried to look for an antidote but unfortunately, I failed." Thalion fell into silence before he darted back to his daughter.
"And what about you? What is your excuse?" Unlike Julian who was easy to tell that there was something that was wrong about him, Vivienne seemed fine on the outside.
"The way you handled Calliope was definitely how you would usually tackle it! You had a tier three curse spell along with other potent spells yet you didn't use them, why?" Vivienne fell into silence before she spoke out.
"As strange as this may sound, I had earlier found a spell which seemed extremely potent. I had been mastering it for some time and right as I was about to crack it, to my surprise, I HAD LOST SOME of my memories but I had managed to master it!"
'What is going on?' Thalion thought as he heard this. Why were both scenarios related to them eventually having their, memories tampered with? It seemed highly unlikely that such events happened around the same time for it to be a coincidence.
'Maybe there is someone who is secretly targeting my family?' He thought however another thought rushed into his head. "As for how you took down Calliope, may I know how you did it? And what is this spell that you happened to master?"
Thalion had already concluded that it was probably telekinesis but her daughter wasn't specialized in this department. Those who experimented in this field had outstanding reputations as it was one of the harder paths of strength one could take.
It required one to have a calm and composed state of mind. Not to mention, the attacks in this field though versatile and many were hard to execute. In a situation of high stakes where one would need to fully focus on the threat, there was little to no time for one to carry out any potent attacks with such a medium.
But that didn't mean that everyone who chose this path, though most gave up after realizing how hard it was went unnoticed. Having someone who specialized in this field and could fully master it was extremely rare but no doubt an advantage.
Sure they couldn't engage in fast pace action but that didn't mean that they couldn't participate at all. They were extremely proficient when it came to moderate distances and dealing with hordes of beasts or people.
But sadly due to the mental strain that came with this class, most practitioners would age faster and at times die prematurely due to cases of mental fatigue and exhaustion at times in extreme cases thus they were rare to come by.
Vivienne drew a breath of fresh air. She faintly guessed what her father could have deduced. "Father, it isn't any form of mental spells or any form of mind attack mechanic." She could understand as to why her father would come to such a conclusion.
"Oh! Then what is it then if not such?" He asked as he looked at her. For one to cast such spells, sure they consumed less mana as they were more solely focused on the mental state of the individual casting it but for her, there was no mana required.
As she stretched her hand open, a small black golden void rift manifested itself which took Thalion by surprise. Julian on the other hand wasn't at the very slightest pleased to see that. Because it would signify that that monster was still present.
Bestowing her with a curse and a gift at the same time. "Wh- What is that?!" Thalion exclaimed in shock as he saw this. A person manipulating void means was absent in this world thus this came as a shock to him. He could feel a threatening aura emanating from the rift which made him subconsciously look away.
He was tier four expert on the fifth array, a half step away from attaining the renowned tier five. What had been limiting his breakthrough was also what grew it, his position. He was known as one of the twenty nobles to which was considered impressive in the social class.
Above him were individuals who were another rank of royal nobles, all having tier five ranks. One could ascend to become a royal noble through merits and contributions which he fell short on. But despite this, he kept on doing his work diligently nonetheless.
Thus for him to perceive the rift as dangerous from a tier two was peculiar. "Father, this is a spatial rift, a product which one can use to traverse through spaces." She said calmly which intrigued his father even more.
Without a doubt, if he could get his hands on this, then it would be groundbreaking for him without a doubt. His name would drown in fame and reverence for constructing such a potent spell. "Hand over the spell, I want to further inspect it!"
Vivienne seemed tense as she heard that. "Father, upon reading the spell, the book instantly burst into flames thus it cannot be retrieved. As for the spells that I am aware of, I have no accurate records of some of them as they were omitted."
Thalion's eager face fell when he heard this. "Didn't this mean that his daughter would get all the fame? Sure it would be beneficial for the family. 'Perhaps that bitch if a queen will actually raised my rank to that of a royal noble.
He gave out a defeated sigh as he heard this. "But since it would seem that the both of you have forgotten your combat capabilities, I'll allocate Elowenethra and Elowen to have you trained. They should be here by tomorrow so try to get some rest." He said as he dismissed them both.
"And don't be doing anything stupid from now on that will endanger you. Keep your guard up." The two paused as they spoke in unison. "Yes father." They walked out of the room before they both gave out sighs of relief.
They made their way to a marvelous garden that had been showered with attention and care form the servants as numerous flowers littered the place which were pleasing to the eyes. They sat at a gazebo to which they were prepared tea by the maid before she scurried of.
"From now on, we should focus on getting stronger." Vivienne said as she took a sip of her tea. "…What about Andrew?" Julian asked as he kept on admiring the bouquet of flowers everywhere. "As for him, we'll have to try and avoid him."
She said hesitantly even though a part of her knew that hiding was useless. She felt that he would find them provided that she had the system, functioning as a GPS, constantly alerting him of their location. "But against such a monster, do you think that strength will suffice?"
Julian asked as he felt a bit of anger and resentment in his tone. A part of him was mad that they were helpless in their situation. "Even if he is strong, he can't go against an entire kingdom. We just have to make the entire world hate him."
Vivienne thought about this. If they couldn't kill him, they might as a well make his life unbearable. As for the repercussions of doing this, they were fucked either way so might as well give it a shot.
However a part of Julian felt a bit of jealously at Vivienne. She already had something that gave her an edge at the competition while he was as average as it got. It was clear that their father was going to present this matter but as they would be in training, he would have to put a pause in it for the time being.
"Regardless, we can't be in a vulnerable state for him to catch us unguarded." Vivienne said as she stood up. "I'm going to train." She said before she escaped Julian's peripheral vision. He glanced at her figure as he fell into contemplation.
'Why am I always the unlucky one?' He thought as he gave out a defeated sigh.
"Hah!"
'Are you still not satiated with your position? You are a noble and yet you think that you're unlucky?' A voice rang out to him as he remained seated at the gazebo. "What?! Who is there?" He asked in confoundment and bewilderment as he looked around.
He was the only one there and the voice was definitely not his sister's. "Consider me your benefactor." The voice said again taking him by surprise forcing him to stand up. He looked like a lunatic as he conversed with no one but luckily no one was here to see him make a fool of himself.
"You look like you have gone insane! Hahaha!" The voice mocked as it gained amusement from his fiasco. 'Have I really gone insane?' He quizzed as he looked around.
'Maybe with how many times my head has been hit, I really might have.' He concluded as he sank back into the chair with a look of defeat and hopelessness on his face. He was going against a literal horror above his comprehension, at a disadvantage of lacking any combat skills and his sister had the better ordeal.
For him, it wasn't all that great. "But luckily for you, I think that we have a common goal. And that is to see Andrew dead." The voiced spoke once more but with Julian's dejected mood, he didn't respond as he was questioning himself.
'I guess I really have gone insane.' He thought. "Okay! You haven't gone insane!" The voice shouted as it saw his mood. "How about this, I'll lend a sliver of my power and then you'll know that you truly aren't descending into madness.
Julian had started ignoring the voice as he got ready to leave however a strange light wrapped around him. Following right after…
*Thud*
His figure collapsed to the ground. However for him, he was no longer in the garden as a grandiose lake was presented in front of him. 'I guess I really am losing it.' He thought as he stood by at the shore.
At the middle of the lake, there seemed to be a small boat drifting aimlessly as it had no one on it. He didn't pay any attention to this as he looked around, trying to deduce on how to get out of here but after searching for hours, any viable path to get away from this lake always led right back to it.
'I might as well go to the boat…' He mused as he sat at the loamy soil.