Chapter 144: [X] - 144: Alex Is A Forest Hermit! [ We Hit 1000 Library Collections! ]
It was the next day.
Alex and Zara moved through the palace hallways toward Vespera’s study.
The corridors were quieter than usual at this hour, but not empty.
Servants and lesser retainers still passed in both directions, and every one of them stepped aside with more care than ever before.
The change in atmosphere had not faded overnight.
If anything, the previous day’s public match had settled into the walls themselves and into the way people measured their steps when the Third Prince appeared.
Zara glanced sideways at him as they turned a corner into the wider family wing.
"What are you planning to do next?"
Alex kept walking at the same steady pace.
The cut on his arm from the previous day’s match had already closed under Adaptation’s quiet work, leaving only a faint line that would be gone in another day or two.
He had not bothered with formal healing.
There had been no need, and the healers had long since stopped arguing the point.
"I am going to participate in The Proving."
She did not look surprised.
The bond had already carried the direction of his thoughts yesterday, and she had clearly decided the conversation was overdue.
"You already knew I was thinking about it," he said.
"Obviously." Zara’s tone stayed dry.
"Do you even know the rules and conditions? Or anything at all about The Proving beyond the name and the fact that it sounds important enough for every household?"
"I heard that anyone below Mastery Rank can enter the competition. If their performance meets the standard, they can get into the academy."
Zara let out a short, unimpressed breath that was almost a laugh.
"Even a beggar on the outer streets would know something that basic. That is the promotional line the CBI puts on every public board and every recruitment poster across the capital. You are not impressing anyone with that level of information, Alex."
Alex glanced at her, unbothered by the mockery.
The bond carried no real irritation on either side, only the familiar rhythm of their usual exchanges.
"Then you must know more about it."
"I know what happens in general," she said.
"I saw it a few times when I was a child."
"The Curse Bloom Institution uses those large mana projectors to promote itself across the capital and the surrounding cities."
"They even show highlights of previous Provings so every ambitious family starts preparing their children early and starts calculating which talents are worth investing resources into before someone else claims them."
"The broadcasts are hard to miss if you actually leave your rooms."
"Then why have I never seen it?"
Zara gave him a look.
"If you ever decided to go somewhere else instead of just your own training ground behind the abandoned forest and your own room, you might find out that a world exists outside those two places."
"You will not even go to royal banquets or family gatherings unless your mother physically drags you there by the collar and refuses to take no for an answer."
"Of course you have never seen the projectors."
"Most of the capital has watched at least one full broadcast by the time they are ten years old."
"You have been too busy trying to break trees and argue with your own mana pathways to notice the rest of the city exists."
Alex considered that for a moment as they passed another pair of retainers who bowed deeper than necessary and kept their eyes lowered a second longer than politeness required.
"I will improve on that field too in the future."
"I hope that future comes early," Zara replied.
"Preferably before the rest of the capital decides you are some kind of forest hermit who happens to hold a royal title and occasionally leaves the trees long enough to beat three Level 10 recruits in public and then disappears again for weeks."
"You don’t need to go into such details..."
"Oh I definitely need to, or who else is going to tell you, huh?"
They kept walking.
As they moved through the wider corridors closer to the family wing, the people they passed treated Alex with careful, almost exaggerated respect.
Bows were deeper.
Greetings came faster.
Eyes lingered a fraction longer than politeness required, measuring the boy who had walked out of the training hall the day before with three defeated opponents behind him and a Shadow Mantle that no one had expected to see from a reported Level 0.
What caught Alex’s attention more was the way those same people now greeted Zara properly as well.
Not the brief, formal acknowledgment given to a Shadow Guard on duty, but actual recognition.
A nod.
A spoken greeting.
The kind of attention that only appeared when someone decided the person beside the prince might matter enough to remember later when favors were being calculated.
He snickered under his breath.
"These people have already started to butter me up."
"And now they are suddenly treating you like you exist instead of just being a Shadow Guard following her duty and standing beside me in case I decide to do something inconvenient."
Zara did not bother looking at the retainers or acknowledging the change in their behavior.
Her expression stayed the same as it had been since they left their rooms.
"I do not care about these people."
"Their respect lasts exactly as long as they think it benefits them."
"When the wind changes, so will the bows, I have seen it before."
They reached the door of Vespera’s study without further interruption.
The heavy dark wood was closed, the corridor outside it empty of any waiting attendants.
Alex raised a hand to knock, the motion automatic after years of the same approach to this particular door.
The door opened by itself before his knuckles touched the surface.
Both of them stopped.
Alex looked at Zara.
She looked back at him, then gave a small shrug that carried no surprise at all, only the practical acceptance of someone who had long since stopped being startled by the way Vespera operated inside her own territory.
"Let us go in."
They stepped through the doorway together.
Alex was surprised to see—
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End of Chapter 144: Alex Is A Forest Hermit!
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