Spanning across several times the length of big sis Serena’s mansion back in Anneve, the main lobby of the Blood Hall was an exceptionally large hall. More so than any of the halls he had ever seen. It was so large that let alone False Wanderers, even True Wanderers would have to rely on the senses of their Spirit to observe what was happening in one corner of the hall from its other corners. Though using the senses of their Spirits in such a crowded place would have its own problems.

  Wanderers regarded their privacy with utmost importance. Sure, the Blood Hall was not a place to talk about anything that they might want to keep private, but unfurling the senses of one’s Spirit in a public place could be considered as an open provocation. So, even though the counter for the Law Enforcement team was not too far from the stairs, it was far enough for Alnea to let go of his guard, and say the things he had been holding back.

  “Everyone must be curious about why I gave the dagger away,” Alnea said, glancing at his teammates, as they began climbing the stairs. “First, let me apologise for making my own decision without taking your suggestions into consideration. Even though everyone said that we should keep the dagger—

  “Are you still worrying about that?” Zain said, waving his hands to express his dismissal of the matter. “You were the one who was stabbed with the dagger in the first place. Of course, you had all the rights to dispose it as you wished.”

  “Still, I—

  “To be honest, the way you gave away the dagger so easily did bother me a little at first,” Fran said, holding a pensive face. “A dagger which can fool the defences of our enemies, and even cause their wounds to fester… It surely is a good weapon. Our enemies must have spent quite a bit to procure it. That was probably one of the reasons why they were so adamant about the dagger. Even if it was all just a ruse, keeping such a weapon for our team would not have been a bad idea. But…”

  “But there were many disadvantages to keeping the dagger,” Karl said, shaking his head. “Since it was the Lotus clan who came with the dagger, they probably already have a way to deal with its weird abilities. Keeping it with us would not have done us any good. On the contrary, the other clans would have become more wary of us because of the dagger. Not to mention that if you had not given up the dagger, then we would still be down there, arguing with the Wanderers of the Lotus clan, and not going to the Final World.”

  “…Although I am glad that everyone can understand my decision, it still does not justify me taking the decision by myself. I—

  “It is alright, Alnea,” Vestia said, raising the edges of her lips in a smile. “Although you can be stupid and reckless at times, when it comes to the team as a whole, you have never disappointed us. Just that fact alone is enough for us to believe in you.”

  “…Thank you,” Alnea said after a few moments, before turning around to face the way he was climbing the stairs, hiding the smile blooming on his face. In vain.

  “Are you feeling smug about yourself?”

  “…Not at all. I am just suppressing my emotions to act with a calm head in all situations.”

  “…I will be keeping my eye on you.”

  “Of course. That is my punishment.”

  “…The beatings of life and the Lost City has still not washed away your cheekiness.”

  Alnea smiled for an entirely different reason, as the Star Seekers climbed up the stairs. Twelve flights of stairs. It was a long way. And he did not wish to spend that time in silence. But he did not wish to test the nerves of his teammates by talking about the Final Trial either, so he asked about what had happened after he had fallen unconscious.

  “Yuri was the first one to see something was wrong with the Purplebud girl,” Cecilia said. “You were practically hugging that girl—

  “I was not hugging her. I was just lending her my shoulders to cry.”

  “—so we could not see what was happening. It was when we heard Yuri shouting your name, that we realised something was wrong. We rushed to your side the next moment, but by then, she had already stabbed you.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Fortunately, the Glyph Arrays on your robe reacted after they discovered your injuries—that is the only explanation we can think of— and pushed her away from you,” Vestia said. “Had she been allowed to push the dagger further into your stomach, or twirl it around a little, then we would have had to give up the Final Trial to save you.”

  “It was not just that,” Ralph said. “The Healer later told us that had your body hit the ground directly, then the impact might have pushed the dagger further into your stomach, or might even have sent it cutting into your other organs. And even after that, had Vestia not removed the dagger in time, and stopped your bleeding with her potions, you might have had to face severe consequences. It is all thanks to Yuri and Vestia’s quick thinking that you are already up and walking.”

  “…Indeed. I will have to thank them later.”

  “If you want to thank us, then just take care of yourself.”

  “…I will be careful.”

  “That’s what you said last time. And then ended up getting stabbed just a few moments later.”

  “…I did not think that they would have figured out a way to get past the defences of my robe…”

  “Leave aside the Glyphs of your robe for now. Did you not prepare some Blood Spirit Tears for yourself?”

  “Right, the Blood Spirit Tears. I had almost forgotten about them. Glyph Tokens that can block full out attacks of average Peak Stage False Wanderers.”

  “The Purplebud girl is just an Initial Stage Wanderer though.”

  “Now that you mention it… Why did we not see the Blood Spirit Tears activating when you were in danger?”

  “…The Blood Spirit Tears are just some False Ranked Glyph tokens. That dagger, on the other hand, can fool even the True Ranked Glyph Arrays on my robe. How do you expect my Blood Spirit Tears to stop it?”

  “Does that mean that the Glyph tokens you have given us will not work if our enemies use similar means?”

  “…Probably. Unless you activate them manually.”

  “We can activate the Blood Spirit Tears manually?”

  “…No matter what form it is in, its essence is still that of a Glyph. Just pour in some Oren, and it should work the way it is supposed to.”

  “…Then why did you not activate yours?”

  “By the time I realised that I was getting attacked, I had already been stabbed.”

  “…Let me get this straight. You are telling us that you could have activated your Blood Spirit Tears in time to avoid getting stabbed, but failed to do so because you were too busy trying to comfort the same girl who stabbed you.”

  “…I did not know that she was going to stab me.”

  “…For some reasons, the anger that I had cleared away a while ago is beginning to resurface.”

  “What a coincidence. I am feeling the same way.”

  “Can we beat him up?”

  “…Beating him up on the stairs would not solve the problem. Let’s wait until we enter the Final World. We will have an entire hour to ourselves. That should be enough to teach him a lesson.”

  “…You should not talk about beating people when walking next to them.”

  “You should also not be underestimating your enemies just because they are girls.”

  “I have never underestimated girls, enemy or not. It is just that Amira was a little too weak…”

  “So, you agree that you were underestimating her?”

  “…Maybe a little.”

  “Stupid.”

  “Idiot.”

  “Fool.”

  “I have already promised to be careful. I will never underestimate our enemies anymore.”

  “…We will see about that,” Yuri said, pursing her lips, as if she was sure that he would break his words once again.

  “…I will not break my word this time.”

  “…Like I said, we will see.”

  “I will let you see all you want. Not just till I regain your trust, but for all the time to come.”

  “…Anyways, after giving you first aid treatment, we caught the Purplebud girl, and brought you to the Healers. That was when the Law Enforcement team showed up, along with the Wanderers of the Lotus clan and their allies, demanding that we give them the dagger as part of the evidence to convict the girl. Obviously, we did not agree. And so, we argued back and forth for a while, till the Wanderers gathered around us got bored and left, and you woke up from your coma. You know how the rest of the story went.”

  “…I just had a guess before, but now I am certain that giving up the dagger was the best decision we could make in that situation.”

  “Like Vestia said earlier, we trust you,” Cecilia said. “There is no need to give us an explanation.”

  “…You just want to be lazy, right?”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said, thank you for trusting me,” Alnea said, trying to wash away his slip of tongue with his laugh. And when that did not seem to work, he quickly pointed to the empty landing ahead of them. “Why is the place so deserted? Are we the only ones here? Even the doors look different. This must be the twelfth floor then. Time sure does fly fast when we do not pay attention to it. Anyways, we are already late as it is. Let’s not waste any more time, and just go directly to the Final World.”