Predecessors

"Your Highness, you should be getting up now."

A golden-haired, armored knight walked into the bedroom of an ordinary residence and gently woke the young man snoring on the bed. Hearing the call, the young man opened his eyes and calmly sat up.

He had lustrous golden hair and a beautiful face, but those did little to mellow down his sharp, solemn, sapphire eyes. With his light armor donned, he emanated an air of valiance.

Wade Xeclyde, the first in line to succeed the throne of the Saint Mesit Theocracy, as well as the highest commander of the allied armies.

"Felder, what time is it?"

"It's already 6 in the evening, Your Highness."

"I see… Speaking of which, is there a need for a marquess like you to wake me up personally?" replied Wade as he looked at the young knight standing before him.

Anyone who didn't know better might have thought that the young knight was a logistical soldier attending to Wade, but in truth, he was actually one of the marquesses of the Theocracy, a powerhouse who wielded immense military might in his hands.

Felder Elric, the patriarch of the Elric Marquess House, one of the Five Eminent Noble Houses. He was only in his twenties, but he was already a powerful Origin Level 3 transcendent. He was also Wade's closest aide and friend.

Regardless of which country one was in, any transcendent who was able to reach Origin Level 3 was considered to be a top-notch expert. The gap between Origin Level 3 and Origin Level 4 was considerable, such that tens of thousands of transcendents found themselves never able to overcome this boundary.

Felder was a certified genius to be able to reach this height at such a young age. His talents ranked at the top amongst the nobles. On top of that, the Elric House was also currently the strongest amongst the Five Eminent Noble Houses, making Felder one of the most powerful figures in the Theocracy.

Yet, Felder showed no disrespect to the young man who had just awoken from his slumber. In response to the latter's question, he placed his fist on his chest and bowed slightly.

"Of course, it's my honor," said Felder with an earnest smile.

He might have been considered a prodigy by his peers, but compared to the young man sitting before him, all of his accomplishments seemed like nothing in comparison.

Wade Xeclyde was a man of many talents despite his young age too. He had learned his martial arts from one of the royal knights of Knight Kingdom Pendor, and his reputation was widely known amongst the scholars of Brolne too. By his 18th birthday, he had already reached Origin Level 3.

Such a liege was someone Felder deemed worthy of serving, not to mention that Wade shared the same ambitions and dreams that he did.

"How is the search for Victoria going?"

"There are no results for the time being. As we had guessed, she has gone into hiding with Ponte. I believe that she has no intention of fighting us anymore."

Wade was much more energized after two hours of rest. He glanced out the window and looked at the fog-shrouded region not too far away.

Ever since Ponte set up this labyrinth, Wade and Felder had only been sleeping 2 hours every day. They took turns leading the armies into the labyrinth to search the area, with Felder taking the morning shift and Wade taking the night shift. They were pushing themselves beyond the limits and exhausting themselves, but they were still unable to get a handle on the enemy's location.

"Time isn't in our favor. We can't drag it out any longer, or else an issue might crop up with the Holy Eminence. Do you have any good ideas on how we should handle this situation?"

"No, I haven't thought of…"

"Your Highness, emergency military report!"

A soldier suddenly barged in and interrupted Felder's words. However, the two of them didn't lose their temper due to it; instead, a smile broke out on their faces. There weren't any enemy formations in the labyrinth at all, so any emergency military report couldn't possibly be about an attack. If so, there was only one possibility…

"In the depths of Locke Street, we found a reaction to the royal bloodline. It's Princess Victoria!"

…

"What's going on? Is this tool malfunctioning?"

In a beautifully decorated room, a black-haired man looked at the detection tool on his table and frowned. This royal bloodline tracking device was an invaluable magic tool, and there were only three people in the world who had it. The one that the man had in his hand at the moment belonged to Princess Victoria Xeclyde.

In other words, it was the possession of his pupil.

This black-haired man went by the name of Ponte, and he was the patriarch of the Ascart House. He had chosen to take the side of his pupil in this battle, and with his help, they managed to build up a defense line and stabilize the situation.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long as their defensive line was soon breached.

There was nothing that he could do about this. Prince Wade was already a fearsome opponent on his own, and the backing of the Elric House's patriarch only made him even more unstoppable.

Even Ponte, despite having reached the peak of Origin Level 3 and already on the verge of making a breakthrough to Origin Level 2, had to admit that they were indeed monstrously talented youths.

Yes, very different from this spoiled princess with a nasty personality!, retorted Ponte as he snuck a glance at the woman sitting on the sofa behind him.

She was a woman who looked like an angel. Her beautiful looks and her graceful demeanor made her an unforgettable silhouette in the hearts of many. Ponte's eyes scanned the sleeping beauty from head to toe before taking out his little booklet and began writing down:

Today's Victoria is like an angel too, but her chest hasn't been developing over the past few months. What a pity.

After writing down those words, Ponte closed his booklet and sighed deeply. His actions may appear weird to others, but he was really not a 'man of culture' who went about writing perverted diaries!

This was actually the price he had to pay for his magic spells as a Wisdom Origin Level 3 Chronicler.

Transcendents had to pay a price for their powers. Evil cultists usually had to take the lives of others whereas heretics differed from case to case. In comparison, the Three Main Origin Attributes that were deemed to be more suitable for humans had a lower price to pay.

For Ponte, the price was to record reality down. However, the issue over here was that the 'reality' he had to record wasn't a transcript of events but the reality of being a man.

"Are you writing those stuff again?"

The whisperings coming from behind made Ponte's body stiffen. Victoria had already woken up, and she was looking at him playfully with an arm propping up her head.

"To actually be interested in your pupil's body, you sure are perverted. I would love to hear the contents of your diaries one day. Personally from your mouth, that is," said the golden-haired woman with a bright smile on her face.

Ponte sighed deeply in response. His pupil was quite an incredible person, having both the aptitude and character to achieve great things in the future. It was just that she had a weird sadistic streak that loved seeing him in a troubled position.

"Heh, that's a good expression you have there. I would love to continue teasing you, but let's stop with this for now. I'll hold myself back for the time being."

Seeing that Victoria had decided to stop her offense, Ponte exhaled deeply in relief. He placed his pen down, turned to her, and said.

"Victoria, come and have a look at this. Your magic tool appears to be acting up."

"What?"

Victoria stood up and walked over to take a look at the magic tool on the table. Her eyebrows slowly furrowed as she saw two unmoving red dots on it.

"Locke Street? Who could this be?" muttered Victoria to herself full of doubt.