“Whacha think of the match?”

  Ezra stuffed kernel after kernel of a strange, soft substance into his mouth, the sound of his chewing snapping Aaron out of his trance.

  As he turned off his Mana Vision, he used to follow the match, his blurred eyes cleared, and the searing migraine pounding inside his head vanished.

  At the same time, the blond boy's presence became more apparent as he deactivated Absolute Tranquility, a safety measure he had used to protect himself under the watchful gazes of three Kings.

  “Oh… Umm… What were you—”

  He was still disoriented from the deactivation of his skills, but he didn’t even get the time to finish his sentence, interrupted by loud cheers echoing through the arena as the announcer came back onto the stage.

  “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!”

  The blond boy tuned out the noise as they continued to read off the bracket for the remaining week of matches, his friend beside him turning serious.

  “Guess my match is tonight…”

  Aaron turned his turquoise eyes over towards Ezra, who fondled the blade he had recently commissioned.

  Observing the words written close to the hilt of the metallic blade, the blond boy spoke aloud, questioning the weapon.

  “You got it imbued with an emblem yet, or are you sticking with a seal?”

  His friend took a moment to respond, sighing hard as he did.

  “I ain’t got no money so I gotta stick with this crusty ass seal.”

  He tapped the engraving lightly, and miniature chains of fire wrapped around the edge of the blade, consuming it in a low blaze of mana.

  “When I ain’t got no mana and mana ain’t work on me, this is the next best thing.”

  Cracking a small smile, he passed the weapon over to Aaron, allowing the boy to inspect it with his Mana Vision.

  As he activated the ability, he felt a strong urge to look over the crowd that lay beyond his gaze, an overwhelming amount of mana threads coating the edges of his eye.

  However, he resisted the temptation and focused on the blade in his hands instead, as well as the friend sitting next to him.

  Looking up with his brow furrowed in concern, he didn’t even have a chance to pose his query as the black-haired boy already started explaining.

  “Guess my ole’ curse ain’t so bad when it comes to this. According to Lispentine, it's a disadvantage, so I get this lil thingy to help!”

  Widening his grin, he deactivated the external supply of mana, shutting the blade down and resheathing it along his hip.

  “You ain’t one to talk either, Mr. Pegleg. Ain’t no Apex in the world that got a weak canine tooth, and you got one right up your—”

  Akari’s sudden interruption cut him off, her pink hair getting blown into Aaron’s face by the harsh wind rising from the clown show that played out on the stage.

  “Did you see those punches? Each one was like a mountain breaker mixed with lightning!”

  The raw enthusiasm shocked both boys, who just silently stared at the wide-eyed girl, her body freezing as she realized how excited she had been acting.

  “D-Do you have any thoughts?”

  Tossing the spotlight off herself, she turned her attention to Aaron, whose eyes had not wandered away from the freshly finished fight for even a moment.

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  “It was incredible… To mirror Havok’s sixth form of Lightning Assault was a brilliant move by Beatrix; however, overexerting her mana in a close-range fight completely fried her defensive capability. By the time her had absorbed the targeted quantity, the fight had already been decided through raw strength and agility.”

  Still having more to say, he looked up at his fellow challengers, who just stared at him with blank expressions.

  “Oh… Maybe my details were too complex…”

  There was a brief pause as Ezra and Akari looked at each other, then laughed loudly, the girl speaking first.

  “No, no, no. It’s just that we both thought that…”

  She trailed off, searching for the black-haired boy to continue.

  “Well… We both kinda thought that you ain’t…”

  Again, he stopped himself, engaging in a back-and-forth staredown between him and the cherry-haired challenger.

  “I ain’t what? Smart enough to understand all that fighting? Just because I lost my memory doesn’t mean I haven’t studied every martial art under the sun…”

  Aaron paused, realizing his embarrassing confession about his evening habits had just been revealed to the two.

  “You know every martial art?”

  Akari reacted to his comment in a puzzled, tentativevoice, trying to make sense of what she had just heard.

  “Yeah… I ain’t buying it…”

  Ezra echoed her sentiment, casting even more doubt on the turquoise-eyed boy’s claim.

  “Well, not all of them, just the popular ones… C’mon, Akari, you really think my mentor wouldn’t drill that stuff into my head? I’d be licking the decks clean if I hadn’t spent at least thirty hours a week just studying…”

  Yet again, he understood his own words too late while elaborating on a point he should’ve left to die.

  Once again, his two friends simply exchanged a knowing look before bursting out laughing, obviously doubting Aaron’s memorization ability.

  Sighing and relaxing in his seat, he waited for the intermissionary clown show to finish, the midday sun still high in the sky.

  Thinking of the pair of white-haired twins who were nowhere to be found, he pondered a thought for a moment before dismissing it as insane.

  …

  Hidden away from the intense noises coming from the arena, two boys of identical appearance faced each other in the cover of shadows.

  Sewage pipes leaked into the space, creating a vicious smell; however, as the words of the first teenager echoed out, such displeasures seemed trivial.

  “Kneel.”

  Alaric faced Raphael with a snobby look of arrogance that could’ve made even the most distinguished noble yield.

  The fifth-ranked challenger simply stared at his twin brother, not moving an inch nor even blinking.

  “I SAID KNEEL!”

  Raising his hand to slap his brother across the face, Alaric ground his teeth together, rage bubbling beneath the surface.

  His earlier humiliation at the hands of Aaron Grimstall had left him the target of bullying all around Chrone Castle.

  While that so-called ‘bullying’ he endured was the occasional snicker from a guard as he passed by or the disobedience of a servant, he still felt personally attacked and utterly defeated by the commoner boy.

  As he prepared to strike his brother to at least partly relieve his suppressed anger, he felt a slight disturbance in the air, a warmth pressing down upon his back.

  He did not stop at the presence, moving his hand in one swift motion that would streak across the pale face of the one before him.

  However, as the blow was about to connect, he was stopped by flames of unknown origin, which burst into life around him, washing over his form.

  Alaric flinched backwards, clutching his outstretched hand close while glaring at his twin brother with vile hate in his heart.

  “You dare…”

  His body was flung backwards against the stony alleyway wall, and a loud explosion of dust and debris fell over the area.

  The heir of the Steinfeste family opened his eyes slowly, an extreme pain digging into his throat along with biting agony coursing through every one of his limbs.

  Raphael held his arm outstretched, cupping his brother's neck in his grip while squeezing tightly enough to restrict his breath.

  Alaric struggled to get free, but another wave of that blazing heat engulfed his form, a sickening crack coming from his left hand as it was snapped in two pieces.

  Grabbing at the hand that pinned him against the wall, he attempted to claw his way out, only to be met with even more scorching flames, licking his flesh.

  “AGH!”

  His younger twin cast a layer of flame magic over his grip, searing his neck with such torturous intensity that he nearly lost consciousness.

  Only when the skin was about to tear did he stop, letting go of his brother and looking down at his sprawled form.

  Alaric panted heavily while screaming in pain, his hands trying to wrap around his own throat to cool the burns.

  Standing over the injured boy, Raphael spoke solemnly, not a hint of concern in his eyes.

  “Kneel.”

  His brother froze, his golden eyes staring up, lips curled in a pale sneer, as he trembled from the agony coursing through his veins.

  “W-what?”

  A kick slammed into his skull, knocking him down, and crimson blood dripped from his nose and mouth.

  Attempting to get up, Alaric felt another blow collide with his stomach, then his arm, and finally his neck.

  “Kneel.”

  Raphael repeated the command as he beat his brother, not an ounce of mercy shown as he waited for the answer.

  Slowly, his injured twin moved into a low bow, his body prostrating as he flinched away from even the smallest of Raphael’s movements.

  “I used to wonder why you beat me without reason.”

  The fifth-ranked challenger leaned over, whispering into his brother's ear.

  “Now I know why you did.”

  For the first time in the exchange, Raphael smiled, right before he dug his knuckles into Alaric’s jaw, sending him spiraling into the wall.

  “It’s fun to beat trash.”