Arianna froze completely, standing there as if her feet had been nailed to the ground. Her red eyes watched me with a mixture of disbelief and something deeper, something she herself probably could not understand.

Inside her heart there must have been a storm of emotion. She should have been angry, she should have exploded and attacked me with her flames, but strangely she could not move. Her body refused to obey the rage she believed she felt. Instead, an unfamiliar tremor spread from the spot where I touched her and slowly traveled through her entire body.

While watching her remain frozen like a beautiful statue shocked into silence, my thoughts drifted toward a larger plan.

Ophelia Blazinger—Arianna's mother, the Blazewalker, the head of Nine Stars Academy. If I could conquer her, then this entire academy would fall neatly into my grasp. My revenge against everyone who ever humiliated me would become far easier. No one would be able to stand in my way.

But conquering someone like Ophelia would never be simple. She was an SS-rank hunter, one of the strongest of her generation. And from what I had learned from dealing with my stepmother and stepsister, reaching one hundred percent domination was never accomplished merely by humiliating and violating them repeatedly.

There needed to be something more, something that broke them fully. Something that made them surrender completely, accepting their fate as mine without the slightest hint of resistance. Something that severed the last threads of pride and the desire to fight back.

And to achieve that with Ophelia, I needed Arianna.

That thought reminded me of something.

"Arianna," I called out, pulling her out of her chaotic thoughts. "You told me before that you challenged Yukie to a fight, didn't you?"

Arianna flinched, as if waking from a trance. She nodded quietly.

"How did it go?" I asked, though I could already guess the answer.

Arianna lowered her gaze, her hands curling into tight fists at her sides.

She remembered the fight with Yukie vividly. It happened a week ago in the training arena. She could feel how Yukie underestimated her.

Taking advantage of that arrogance, Arianna waited for the perfect moment. When Yukie launched a simple attack with her right hand, Arianna swiftly grabbed her wrist. Flames burst from her palm, burning fiercely and ready to devour Yukie's skin and flesh.

But what happened next left her stunned.

Before the fire could spread, Yukie calmly froze her own arm. An incredibly dense and frigid ice engulfed it, forming a thick protective layer. When flame and ice clashed at that level, the reaction was violent.

CRAAAK.

A sharp cracking sound filled the air, followed by a small explosion. Yukie's ice-covered arm shattered into pieces. Yet what truly shocked Arianna was how Yukie's expression did not change at all. Her face remained emotionless and her pale eyes stayed cold, as if the hand that had just broken apart did not belong to her.

Before Arianna could even process what had happened, Yukie moved. With her remaining hand she grabbed Arianna by the throat and slammed her onto the ground with ease. From that distance, Arianna could clearly see Yukie's eyes. Those pale eyes seemed to contain no trace of humanity, like living shards of ice.

Remembering that moment now made Arianna's body tremble slightly.

"I lost," she said, frustration in her voice, yet tinged with fear. "Yukie... that woman is not human. How could her expression stay exactly the same even when her hand shattered?"

I nodded as I listened. "Then why challenge her? She already reached Rank S. You are still Rank A. You had no chance of beating her."

Arianna exhaled sharply, her fists tightening again.

"I know that," she admitted honestly. "But I challenged her because of the inter-academy Hunter tournament next week. I want to be one of this academy's representatives."

I paused. The inter-academy Hunter tournament next week? I had no idea the event was that close.

If I recalled correctly, the tournament was held every year for third-year students from all Hunter academies around the world. The purpose was to showcase the best talents who would soon graduate and enter the true Hunter world.

Nine Stars Academy had dominated the tournament for years, making it a tradition they were proud of.

The tournament was a massive event eagerly anticipated by everyone, ordinary citizens and Awakeners alike. But what mattered even more than the victory was the attention from countless large and small guilds. They all aimed to recruit the strongest rising talents they saw in the tournament.

For the participants, this was a golden opportunity to make their names known, receive offers from elite guilds, or even get recruited immediately after graduating.

Once the tournament ended, many internship letters usually arrived. The timing was arranged specifically a few weeks before the internship programs started, giving the winners time to choose which guild they wanted to join.

"But that's only for third-year students," I pointed out. "You're still in the second year."

Arianna nodded, but her eyes gleamed. "I asked my mother for permission. She said if I can defeat one of the third-year representatives ranked fifth or above, I can participate."

She took a slow breath.

"I could have chosen someone easier," she said softly. "But..." her eyes shone with fierce ambition, "I was curious. I wanted to fight the strongest student in this academy seriously. When will I ever get the chance to fight Yukie again?"

And Arianna had another reason she did not tell me. Back then she was looking for me because she had a plan: she wanted to subdue me—who she saw as Yukie's dog—and then order me to give Yukie a stomachache poison before the duel. That way, her chances of winning would increase dramatically. But who would have expected things to turn out like this instead.

Meanwhile, my own thoughts began to spin. What if I joined the tournament as well? What if I became one of Nine Stars Academy's representatives? With my current power, I was confident I could become a representative.

Just imagine—me, Adam Socheron, who just weeks ago was being trampled and humiliated, now standing in the tournament arena representing Nine Stars Academy.

I would be fighting, and perhaps even cooperating, with the very people who once tortured me and looked at me with contempt. The irony was absolutely delicious.

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