SPIRIT SOUL

Turning towards the direction of the voice, his emerald eyes stared directly into the dark brown eyes he was overly familiar with.

Long eyelashes highlighted her large eyes, and the pretty facial features of the black-furred Lohar, whom he knew very well.

It was Selene, who was standing in front of her, causing his eyes to widen in astonishment.

Kyle had not expected to encounter her so quickly, and he could barely suppress his overflowing emotions of joy as he looked at her.

She didn’t seem to have grown much, and was still 1.7 meters tall had a slender body, and long legs that captivated many men.

Right now, Selene was wearing the Glory Knight academy’s uniform for nobles and was looking at him with a subtle smile.

This astonished the majority of students around her as Selene was known for being cold to nearly everyone.

She was always kept to herself be it training, studying, or cultivating.

Thus, owing to the rare darkness affinity she possessed, many called her cold and unapproachable.

Because of this, her current behavior felt odd to them as the young Lohar’s eyes were gleaming full of vigor as happiness was clearly visible in them.

Yet, within moments, her expression changed as she cleared her throat before asking him an unexpected question.

“I heard that your name was Kyle, right?

Either way, why are you trying to create trouble for the Head of the student council, if you are sensible enough?

Don’t you have a healing ability? I was pretty sure to have read something about that in the report about the Brawl. So why don’t you heal him?”

From looking at Kyle with happiness gleaming in her eyes, Selene’s eyes suddenly turned cold.

Yet, what Kyle perceived was different to everyone else as he knew that the little girl wouldn’t talk to him like this, not under normal circumstances, at the least!

‘So we are keeping it a secret that we know each other? Are you trying to save yourself after the little faux pas?’

Smiling inwardly, Kyle’s facial expression also changed, and he put on a poker face to mask his true emotions.

He was ready to strike a conversation with Selene while acting to his best capabilities, only for Selene to add,

“And you like helping, otherwise you wouldn’t have saved Alice Silvermoon, right?”

Her voice was sharp enough to subconsciously force even those who were curiously observing them both flinch.

Kyle could only swallow nervously when he heard her comments.

He took a few deep breaths, before sensing that a droplet of sweat trickled down his temples.

‘What is going on between these two?!’ Merl Lion suddenly wondered while looking from him to her.

His interest in Baroness Selene had never been high, to begin with.

However, as head of the student council he still knew about her, and some hazy details of her background, if one could call it as such.

She was just a commoner, who had been graced by the fortune of having awakened her Maest cultivation vein as well as the darkness affinity seed within her.

As such, when her talent was discovered, the Lahin kingdom immediately promoted her to the rank of a Baroness according to the kingdom’s laws.

Afterward, she entered the Glory Knight academy a few months later when the new term started.

Since then an entire year had passed, and Merl hadn’t heard much about her.

Selene was not willing to make any friends, and she didn’t seem to trust anyone.

In fact, if he remembered correctly, Selene was known to be the only one who solved the academy’s group assignments alone.

And it didn’t even matter whether the group assignments were to go out and hunt beasts to gain more experience, or to create a presentation about some complex topics that had to be explained to other students.

Because of that, Selene’s appearance on the academy’s grounds today, on the first day of the exam session for the application of new students, was quite unexpected.

But it was even unusual for her to act like a stranger in front of Kyle, but that was understandable in the opinion of all present Lohars.

”I heard she was enslaved in her past. Looks like she hates anyone whose appearance resembles the Aldra race even a little bit.”

One of the few Lohars whispered and the others nodded in understanding, and they didn’t show any hostility towards her.

Her past mattered to the old-fashioned and traditional nobles, but that was not the case for many other, progressive nobles.

After all, in recent times, more commoners had turned into nobles because they had awakened their second cultivation vein.

There were only a handful of them, who were capable of becoming nobles after being born as commoners, but most of them had powerful Maest cultivation veins that provided a great foundation to become powerful pillars of support for their kingdom.

Meanwhile, someone like Selene, who had awakened a darkness affinity was even rarer.

And she was working relentlessly, which lead her to be liked even though she intentionally became an outsider.

Thus, their interest in the conversation between Kyle and Selene was piqued.

“Of course, I saved Alice Silvermoon. I hoped to be able to enter the Lahin kingdom, after all.

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙɴ(ᴏ)ᴠᴇʟ.ᴄoᴍ ᴏɴʟʏ.

I had to look for someone, who I got separated from a while ago. I would go to great lengths to fulfill the promise I made to someone very important to me!”

With a subtle smile on his face, Kyle revealed the truth to Selene, while leaving everyone else confused.

They had no idea who he had been looking for, and who this so-called important person was.

Yet, Selene could clearly recall the promise Kyle had made to her, and that he was now standing in front of her, after having fulfilled it.

As such, she could hardly contain her joy, and a grin appeared on her lips that she tried to cover with her hand while making it seem as if she was coughing.

“But now, it looks like I have to take care of this young man as well, he won’t be vigorous enough to sit for the next exams, right?”

Kyle was overjoyed to reunite with Selene, but she was correct.

If he wanted to help the young Lohar, who was still unconscious, he needed some Soul energy.

As such, he looked at Selene intently, before throwing a short glance at the noble instructor.

‘Looks like the traditional and conservative Lohars will be quite a hassle!’

But through that, he also realized that his time in the Glory Knight academy might be more interesting than he initially thought.

He had already reunited with Selene, even if they had yet to be able to speak with each other properly.

Thus, he hoped her to lead him to the exam where he could fight and kill beasts.

Yet, before Selene could say anything further, Merl Lion stepped forward and suggested,

“I might not be able to allow this young Lohar to sit for this particular exam at a later period, but if I can help him join his next exams, I would gladly help.

If it’s not too much to ask for, I would gladly accompany you, and help you out!”

These words caused both Kyle and Selene to squint their eyes.

Earlier, Merl had been stressing on the importance of abiding by rules, only to offer his help all of a sudden.

If they were to know that the head of the student council got interested in Kyle, the ability he read about in the report, and the weird conversation and awkward exchange between the young man and Selene, the two would have changed their way of approaching the situation.

Even Beatrice and Yasmine noticed that something was going on, and they presumed that the young black-furred Lohar was Selene, the woman Kyle had been looking for.

But they remained quiet, and simply observed the situation that unfolded in front of them with keen interest.

Yet, subconsciously, the two women moved closer to Kyle, which was something Selene noticed.

Her expression didn’t expose what was on her mind, but the eyes that seemed to turn into daggers that wanted to pierce into him then and there were a clear sign of her opinion about the situation.

Oddly enough, Kyle didn’t notice any of that, and only the two women by his side noticed her gaze.

Through this, their guess was now proved to be correct, and they looked at each other with a faint smile on their lips.

Meanwhile, Kyle wondered, ‘Does he know something about my Nurture ability?’ while looking at Merl with squinted eyes, oblivious to what was going on around him.

He didn’t know what was written in the report about the Brawl, but if it included every little detail of the things he did inside the dome, it would be quite frustrating.

From Kyle’s point of view, Merl wanted to find out more about his secrets, which was quite an inconvenience.

It annoyed him further because it destroyed his attempt to leave the student council alone and accompany Selene to the exam that involved fighting beasts.

However, instead of showing his displeasure, Kyle just shrugged his shoulders before saying,

“In that case, you can pick up the young Lohar right there.” That being said he approached Selene before bowing lightly.

“If it’s not too much to ask for, I would be happy if you could lead the way to the beast arena, or the place where the exam is being held.”

In response to his request, Selene simply nodded her head before turning around and walking off.

Kyle quickly followed, and so did Yasmine, Beatrice, and Merl, who willingly carried the young, injured Lohar.

The female noble who had tended to the injured Lohar’s injuries quickly followed suit as well, worry gleaming in her eyes.

‘Does he want to kill the patient, I just saved?!?’ She thought dreadingly.

Meanwhile, the other students of the council began to walk in the direction everyone walked as well, only for realization to strike one of them.

“Wait…are we supposed to follow them, or are we now responsible for the elemental affinity exam?!” One of them just asked, causing the others to halt in their tracks.

“I don’t…know?” One of the female Lohars just answered, confusion visible in her eyes.

While the other Lohars of the council were confused about the entire situation before finally deciding to return to their station to conduct the other exams, the others arrived at the beast arena, where an exam was being held.

After having been told what he had to do, Kyle approached one of the students, who was seated in front of a desk with a few files.

He appeared in front of a Lohar, who continued to fill multiple files at once, mastering the chaos in front of him.

“Hello, your name and cultivation rank please,” the young man asked in a monotonous voice.

“Kyle Lrae, Low Vitae stage.”

“Number of beasts you want to fight and their cultivation, please,” The Lohar asked again without looking up, and accidentally dropped his pen when he heard Kyle’s answer.

“I want to fight 10 Late rank Vitae stage beasts, at once please!”