“Good morning, Wanderer Tia,” Alnea said, greeting the Wanderer with a smile, as he stepped in front of her counter, with Cecilia and Yuri following right behind him.

  “Good morning, Alnea,” Tia said in return, glancing over the girls with a smile, nodding back to their polite gestures, before turning back towards him. “Is it finally time for challenging the Warrior Trials?”

  “…That’s the only Trial left.”

  “…Are you sure about not challenging the Peak Stage Trials?”

  “We are still just Advanced Stage Wanderers after all…”

  “From the number of records you broke in the Advanced Stage Trials, I would say that you are more than qualified to challenge the Peak Stage Trials.”

  “Not yet,” Alnea said, shaking his head. “Even if we get good results in the Trials, it will not make sense unless we bring our ranks in the Black Desert Trials and the Arena up to par. Besides, we are not confident in breaking the records of Peak Stage Trials. It would be better if we come back after some training. By then, our ranks in other Trials would have also caught up. All that would be left would be just the last sprint…”

  “…If only I had been as steady as you back then,” Tia said with a sigh, before resuming her smile. “May Goddess Ilea watch over you.”

  “…Thank you,” Alnea said, bowing slightly towards the Wanderer, before walking over to the Wanderer on the other end of the counter. The one with his beard tied up in a braid, and his face buried in a scroll. Not literally, of course. Still, unlike the other three Wanderers manning the counter of the Warrior Hall, he seemed to have relatively more free time on his hand.

  “Good morning, Wanderer Ias.”

  Ias sighed, reluctantly putting down the scroll on the counter, before turning his gaze towards the black robed boy in front of him.

  “There is no need for false pleasantries. Just get on with what you are here for.”

  “We are here for the Warrior Trials—

  “That is obvious, or you would not have come to disturb me… Are the three of you together?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. That should save me some time… What are you spacing out for? Do you not wish to go through the Trials anymore?”

  “We do—

  “Then give me your Blood Cards.”

  “…Here,” Alnea said, handing over their Blood Cards to the weird Wanderer. Weird as he was though, the man’s behaviour only served to prove his thoughts. He had not met many Wanderers who had settled down in the Lost City. Yet, all the Wanderers that he had met had something eccentric about them. Like Tia and Martha. While one was overly friendly with them, the other seemed to have a preconceived notion about them. Or at least about him.

  Wanderer Martha seemed to accept Yuri and Cecilia quite easily. Only when it came to him, did she show a sense of hostility and wariness. Yet, even with such obvious partiality, she still helped him, nonetheless. It was obvious that these Wanderers had some motive, a driving force behind their eagerness to help. It was just that their personalities and eccentricity was so different, that it made it hard for him to understand what exactly it was that they were after.

  “You have challenged other Trials?”

  “…We have.”

  “Then you know how this is done,” Ias said, handing the Blood Cards back to Alnea. “The Warrior Trials are on the fourth floor.”

  “…Thank you for your help, Wanderer Ias.”

  “…As long as you leave me alone, and not drag me into your mess…”

  “…Did you say something, Wanderer Ias?”

  “…I have registered you for the Warrior Trials. Come back when you wish to go through Intermediate Stage Warrior Trials. Till then, leave me alone.”

  “…As you wish,” Alnea said, and gave a polite bow to the Wanderer, before leaving with the girls, returning their Blood Cards while he was at it.

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  “…What is his problem?” Cecilia mumbled, pocketing her Blood Card back into the folds of her robe, before glancing back at the Wanderer with a frown on her face.

  “…He probably just wanted to get back to his scroll.”

  “…Maybe,” Yuri said. “But that is not what we should be worrying about right now.”

  “…Right. The Trials…”

  “Are you sure that you want to go last, Cecilia?”

  “You two went last in the other Trials. It is only fair that I go last in the Warrior Trials.”

  “We went last because that was the best way to maximise our gains in the Trials. Physically, I am the strongest of the three of us. Maybe, if we give Alnea a couple of more years to practice the Blood Forging Style, then he might catch up with me. But for now, I have the greatest advantage in fighting without Aspects. Not to mention that I also have best control over my Martial Styles of the three of us. And you know how close Alnea is with his Aspects. Our decisions have always been based on our best interests. If you still insist on fairness, you can go last in the Glyph or Arcana Trials. But for now, it would be best if—

  “I am a Serpian,” Cecilia said, stopping in her steps just as they reached the stairs, prompting Forne to look at her in confusion. “I have to do this.”

  “…We know that you are a Serpian, Lia,” Alnea said, turning back towards the girl staring at him and Yuri with a grim face. “But you are not just a Serpian. You are Cecilia Serpia—

  “Stop trying to gloss over things with your slick words. I am not going to fall for you tricks this time.”

  “…He is not wrong though. You are not just a Serpian. Or have you forgotten the promise you made to me?”

  “…It is exactly because of that promise that I must do this. I became a Wanderer nearly a month ahead of Alnea. Yet, he became an Advanced Stage Wanderer before me. If not for the Fortune Spring, I would still have been just an Intermediate Stage False Wanderer right now. The difference in our potential is already starting to show… I must do this. Not just to maintain ‘fairness’, but also to prove myself.”

  “…You do not have to prove anything, Lia. We—

  “That is not something you can decide,” Cecilia said, shutting him up with glare, before turning back towards Yuri. “You understand why I must do this, right?”

  “…It is really not necessary, Cecilia. I am not going to change my mind just because you are a little slower than me in walking your path. That is not how things work.”

  “Maybe, for you. But what about your clan? Will they accept someone who cannot even keep up with you? And they are right, aren’t they? If cannot even walk by your side, then what would even be the use of that promise?”

  “…Like I said before, just because you are walking a little slowly in the False Rank does not mean that you are not qualified to be by my side. Wandering the Origin Sea is not a race.”

  “…That may be true, but we—I do not have much time, do I?”

  “…What are you two talking about?”

  “…Who I choose is up to me. Even my mother cannot interfere with my decision, let alone some stuck up elders, still revelling in the glories of their past.”

  “…This is not just about whether they will accept me or not. I need to do this to prove it to myself. That even if I am not as talented as either of you, I can still keep up. That I… still have a future. And this is the only way that I can prove myself in the time that we have left.”

  “The Warrior Trials are going to be different from the other two Trials.”

  “I know.”

  “You will be tested on everything that you have gained on the path of Warriors.”

  “I know.”

  “…Do you understand what will happen if you fail?”

  “…Since I brough this up, I understand the consequences of my actions.”

  “…Are you really sure that you want to do this?”

  “…If I cannot compare to you in the field that I am best at, then I will never be able to keep up with either of you. In that case, staying back and forgetting about everything might very well be the best choice for me.”

  “…Seriously, what are you two talking about? You have even scared Forne…”

  “…So be it,” Yuri said, ignoring Alnea and the dumb cat, before turning around and walking up the stairs. “We will follow what we had discussed earlier. Alnea and I will go in first, while you wait outside for us to complete our challenge.”

  “…Thank you,” Cecilia said, with a bright smile melting away the grim look from her face. It could not do anything to the determination in her eyes though, or the solemness in her voice.

  “…Forget it. You girls can go play all you want. Let’s go Forne, let’s ignore them, and go play on our own.”

  The dumb cat, too stupid to notice the good will in his words, scoffed at him, before following Cecilia. It was no wonder that Fortune Devouring Cats were so rare. If the rest of its kind were also just as irritatingly arrogant as the cat tottering around Cecilia’s legs, it would be a surprise if they could survive in the wild. Or anywhere for that matter.

  Even though Alnea already knew the consequences of killing the cat, he still had urges to beat it up from time to time. If it waltzed around those who did not know about its special nature, its fate would not be too hard to predict. Unfortunately, he already knew how special the cat was. And even if he did not know about it, Cecilia would never let him beat it up. Maybe some of its stupidity was rubbing off on her…

  “We are here,” Yuri said, as they stepped off the stairs on the fourth floor. “We can still turn back now.”

  “…We—I cannot—

  “Will you two stop being so melodramatic?” Alnea said, walking towards the gigantic doors. “I don’t know what you two are worried about, but I can be certain that you are hyping things out of proportion. It is just a Trial. So what if things don’t go as we planned? Worst case, we would just have to fight against whatever you two are worried about. And when have we ever backed down from a fight?”

  Ignoring the dumb look on the girls’ faces, Alnea stepped into the Trial Space.