Chapter 162: Uncle Velen Arrives
The grand structure that served as the gathering place for Winterfang’s Proving participants rose ahead of them, its wide stone face already framed by a massive crowd.
Velen Abyss, Alex’s Uncle, and Ella Winterfang, Alex’s Aunt, stepped down from their own carriage and paused at the edge of the open space.
The entrance was huge and it was designed to handle large numbers but today the area in front of it had filled far beyond the usual density.
Youths in varied combat gear, family members in household colours and a scattering of higher ranked observers stood packed together in shifting groups.
The noise of so many voices formed a continuous low pressure against the ears.
"There is such a huge crowd today." Velen let out a short sigh and looked across the sea of heads.
"It is the Proving, so of course there is a crowd, but today it is almost overcrowded because everyone wants to see the Third Prince in the flesh, I guess that is the real reason the numbers are this high." Ella stood beside him and her gaze already moving over the different clusters in the area.
"This might finally be my opportunity to get rich." Velen’s mouth curved into a small grin.
Ella’s expression tightened at once.
Her mouth twitched and she was deciding how seriously to take this comment of his.
"Velen, do not even think about using our hard earned money on whatever bet you are already forming in your head, because if you do, I will break your limbs myself and I will not feel sorry about it afterward."
Velen ignored the threat without any hint of concern and started walking forward into the crowd.
Ella matched his pace and the warning she had given him was left hanging between them.
They moved through the dense press of bodies.
Youths from different households stood in loose clusters, some adjusting the last straps of their gear, some speaking in low voices with the family members who had come to see them off.
A few younger participants looked openly nervous.
Others held themselves with the stiff readiness of people who were trying to not show their weakness to anyone present in the public for their image.
The air carried the mixed signatures of many active mana cores and the sharper edge of nerves that always appeared before a major competition like the Proving.
Almost immediately people from Winterfang and Abyss began to notice Velen.
Many of the faces turned towards him and several of them stepped forward with open recognition and genuine warmth and the ease with which the crowd parted for him was noticeable even in the packed space.
"Velen!"
"You actually came."
"Hey, it is good to see you here."
The greetings came easily from many people.
They had short exchanges passed back and forth as he walked by.
Velen answered each one with the same relaxed and slightly exaggerated cheer that the public had come to expect from him.
Ella watched from a half step behind and to the side and her expression polite but a little distant.
’He always does this,’ she thought.
’The easygoing and slightly crazy public face, most of these people only ever see that version of his.’
’The ones who have actually stood on a battlefield with him know the other face entirely, the precision, the speed and the complete absence of the grin.’
’But he keeps them separate on purpose and he has said it more than once, usually after a fight when the blood is still drying, to never let the battlefield enter ordinary daily life and to treat them as two different things and never let one bleed into the other, well, it is very much like him.’
She had seen both versions more times than she cared to count and she preferred the public one for days like this because it kept the wrong kind of attention away from their household and from the nephew they were here to support, because the nephew in name was already a ticking time bomb.
They had not gone much farther before a different set of figures approached.
High ranking officials from both the Abyss and Winterfang sides moved through the crowd with the kind of space that opened automatically around them.
Their expressions when they looked at Velen carried open wariness rather than the earlier warmth the people before showed him.
One woman from the Winterfang side spoke first.
"Velen, I never expected you to be here when there are already such border tensions going on."
Velen’s grin widened a fraction.
"Hmm? What? Are you saying I cannot even come to support my nephew from now on? The borders can wait, I have found something much more interesting to look after."
The officials who knew the true weight behind that easy tone exchanged brief glances.
One of the men from the Abyss side stepped forward slightly.
"Velen, I really hope you do not cause any trouble this time, you do know the Third Prince has already placed our household in a difficult position by participating in the Proving, I am not against it, but the attention is already heavier than we wanted in out current predicament."
Velen’s answer came without any loss of the public cheer he was carrying around but the words underneath it were solid as stone.
"Do not worry about that kid, believe me, I have seen him, his will is quite extraordinary, and I think the CBI will have to trade a limb if they do not want to become just another one of his stepping stones."
One of the officials gave a short sound of acknowledgement.
"Well, we will know it when the Proving starts."
The group lingered only a moment longer before the press of other duties pulled them away again, some went to their descendants who will be participating, others went to inquire about the CBI officer who will be here at the gathering, and many other things.
Ella waited until they were out of easy hearing range, and then leaned slightly closer to Velen and spoke in a low voice.
"Even your dear friends showed up today."
She tilted her chin toward a particular section of the gathering.
Velen followed the direction without making the movement obvious.
The space continued to fill around the area.
Household colours mixed and separated as more groups arrived.
But two clusters stood out more clearly than the rest.
On one side, a dense gathering of red haired, red eyed figures carried themselves with an open aura of superiority and focused intent.
The Bloodworth presence was impossible to miss for anyone.
On the other side, a smaller but sharply defined group of youths with abyssal black hair and matching black eyes radiated a quieter and heavier pressure.
The silent and deathly quality of their collective aura made the space around them feel thinner than any other group.
The tension between the two groups sat in the air like a drawn wire, and everyone present could feel it.
Velen’s gaze moved past the younger participants and settled on the Bloodworth higher ups standing some distance behind their own section.
The red hair and red eyes were distinctive even at range.
For a brief moment a cold look passed through his eyes, it was sharp enough that Ella felt the shift in the air beside her.
It was there and then gone, he smoothed it back into the same easy public expression he had worn since arriving, now was not the time to cause trouble.
He muttered under his breath just loud enough for Ella to catch.
"Yeah, I guess they will be a pain in the ass."
Ella said nothing in reply, she had warned him beforehand so he wouldn’t cause any trouble when she wasn’t entirely focused on him.
She simply kept walking at his side as the crowd continued to shift and the last of the major household groups finished taking their places.
The noise level remained high as before and the mixed auras of so many young awakeners pressed against the edges of every youth’s perception without pause.
The gathering was almost complete.
Now only one arrival still remained.
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End of Chapter 162: Uncle Velen Arrives
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