Christmas Banquet [3]

All the guests fell into a deeper silence upon hearing his words. Their minds were still grappling with the revelation Azriel had just shared.

Feeling the weight of every gaze upon him made Azriel uncomfortable, though he didn't show it.

He couldn't afford to break now. He had to play his role perfectly.

The role of Azriel Crimson, the prince who survived the Void Realm on his own.

The role he had been acting for the past two months without a break.

It had reached the point where he was beginning to believe his own lies.

But...

He couldn't allow himself to get lost in the role. Every day, he reminded himself that as much as he was Azriel Crimson, he was also Leo Karumi.

He couldn't lose that part of himself.

Not yet.

In front of every eye in the room, it took everything he had not to make a single mistake.

A single mistake was all it would take for the strongest here to notice something odd.

He couldn't afford that.

Everything had to be perfect.

The way he carried himself, spoke, looked, and moved—there couldn't be a single flaw.

Also...

His gaze shifted towards Solomon, who sat at one of the tables, watching him with excitement.

'It looks like he got his wish in the end, huh...'

He recalled Solomon's desire for Azriel to reveal himself back at the military base.

His wish had come true.

His gaze shifted to a woman standing next to him, and Azriel found himself momentarily breathless.

Her black obsidian hair cascaded in sleek waves, perfectly complementing the elegant black dress she wore. Her rose-colored eyes, striking and vibrant, contrasted sharply with her pale, porcelain skin.

Her face was stoic, her eyes betraying almost no emotion as they locked with his.

Almost…

He could detect a glimmer of curiosity hidden deep within her gaze.

'Freya Selene…'

The headmistress of the Hero Academy.

A Grade 1 Saint.

Azriel allowed a brief, soft smile to form on his lips—a smile that only he, Solomon, and Freya fully understood.

'All is still going according to my plan.'

For now.

Even though he hadn't been able to train physically for the past two months, he hadn't been idle.

He had been meticulously planning using his knowledge of the book, just as he had strategized with Solomon back in the café.

But…

'Always expect the unexpected. I can't rely solely on my plans. There's a high chance something will go wrong. No, with my luck, which matches the protagonist's, something will definitely go wrong.'

He was certain of that.

His luck, as Leo and Azriel combined, matched or perhaps even surpassed that of the protagonist.

Finally, he turned his attention back to the other guests, surveying them with a composed and confident demeanor.

And so...

Azriel's lips parted.

"When I was in the Void Realm, it reminded me of a story I once read."

It was a story Leo's mother had told.

He made sure his voice was soft yet powerful enough to reach every ear in the room.

Everyone listened intently, even his family, who had not heard a single word about his time in the Void Realm, nor had they asked.

Naturally, they were focused on every word he spoke.

"It was about a little boy who found himself in a land of unimaginable horror. Picture a place where the sky is perpetually black, and the air is thick with the stench of rot and death. A land where the trees were twisted, gnarled hands reaching out to snatch anything that dared come close. Every shadow hid unspeakable terrors."

His words were met with confused stares, as though he were recounting a child's fairy tale.

Which...

He was.

"This boy was utterly alone. His family... they were gone, consumed by the very horrors that now stalked him relentlessly."

Despite its origins as a children's story, Azriel found himself connected to it, perhaps because, like the boy, he had lost his family once.

"But he kept going. He had to. He built a fragile shelter from debris, barely enough to fend off the biting cold, but it was something. Every meal was a desperate scavenging mission, living off scraps that barely kept him alive."

A hint of emotion crept into his voice, recalling the time he had to struggle for every meal as Leo.

"And every night, he lay awake, listening to the monsters outside, their claws scratching and growling, trying to get in. Yet, he held on, clinging to a fragile thread of hope."

"One day, amidst the rubble, he found an old, tattered book. It was a storybook, filled with tales of heroes and bravery, so out of place in that nightmarish world."

His gaze swept through the room once more, eventually meeting Celestina's. She, like the others, was now listening with rapt attention.

This made Azriel smile wider.

"He read it over and over, drawing strength from those stories, imagining himself as one of those heroes. In the darkest moments, when he felt like surrendering to the darkness, he'd think about those heroes and their courage, how they never gave in no matter how dire the situation."

He paused, taking a deep breath.

"He survived. Emerging from that land of horror battered and scarred, but alive, with a heart that still beat with hope."

Some looked at him with confusion, not yet grasping the meaning behind the tale, while others were beginning to understand.

"And do you know why that boy survived?"

"Was it sheer willpower? Was it a miracle? Or was it simply the indomitable human spirit—the part of us that refuses to be crushed no matter how horrible things get?"

"...!"

Everyone in the room looked at him with wide eyes.

"The answer to that question is all of it. We humans will do anything to survive. Every obstacle, every challenge, only fuels our fire. When pushed to the edge, we don't just adapt—we evolve, we conquer, we blaze a trail where there was none before."

"...."

"Just like the boy, I have survived a land of unimaginable horror… the Void Realm. In my time there, I learned one extremely important thing."

He paused, letting the weight of his words build as every gaze remained fixed on him in anticipation.

"The strong devour the weak."

In the Void Realm, if you were weaker than your opponent, you were as good as dead. It was as simple as that.

Ragnar was right—being weak was a sin, both in this world and in the Void Realm.

"Of course, I've learned other things as well, but strength is what matters most in both worlds. If we humans remain weak, the Void will consume us. And so... I will be joining the Hero Academy."

"!!"

A fresh wave of shock swept through the room, all except for those closest to him who already understood the implications. 

Azriel was widely known for being the only prince who had never trained to become a hero. The idea of him joining the Hero Academy was normally unexpected, to say the least.

A mischievous smile tugged at his lips as he glanced at his sister, who was already glaring at him. 

'Looks like she's already figured it out, huh… Sorry, but even I need to stretch my legs.'

He mentally apologized to his sister as he prepared to address the room.

"It seems my sudden appearance has cast a shadow over this joyous party… how about we brighten things up? The Academy is about to start, and since there are some students, or soon-to-be students here, I have a proposal."

He lifted his glass of wine, which he had not yet touched, and raised it for everyone to see.

"Let's have some duels!"