Chapter 163: The Third Prince Arrives At The Gathering
The Proving had always drawn more than just the participants themselves.
There were guild representatives who stood in a small and watchful clusters near the edges of the gathering.
Then there were independent adventurers who made a living spotting talent leaned against pillars or sat on low walls with their eyes moving constantly to analyse every participant present here.
The officially recognized knights and warriors from across Winterfang territories occupied the better vantage points and each of them were present for their own personal reason.
Everyone wanted a connection to the next generation of talent.
Many of the youths who performed well here would later receive formal invitations into the CBI academies.
The period between the end of the Proving and the start of academy training was short most of the times, but it was long enough for factions to make offers.
They offered them resources, protection, early access to restricted techniques and much more.
In exchange the youths brought future loyalty and the prestige of having claimed a rising name before the Institution fully claimed them for the next few years.
The arrangement benefited both sides equally.
That was why the gathering always filled with more than participants and their immediate families.
Almost everyone who intended to be present had already arrived.
The crowd had settled into a restless waiting.
Conversations continued but the focus had shifted to a certain someone.
Eyes kept returning to the main approach road, like they were waiting for someone.
The one person still missing was the reason half of them had come in the first place.
A youth from a minor household near the front finally voiced what many were thinking.
"Where is he? It is almost time, if he does not reach here soon he is going to miss the final assembly."
A sharp laugh answered from the Bloodworth section.
"Hahaha! We already knew that he was never going to come here."
"It was obvious from the start, he just did it as a publicity stunt."
"Yes, was a typical Abyss behaviour I guess, he registered in public to collect all the attention and then stay home when the real risk began."
The words carried clearly across the open space.
Several heads from the Winterfang and Abyss sides turned at once.
The easy noise of the gathering tightened into something dangerous.
The youths who had been standing in loose groups shifted their weight, all of their shoulders squared at once and the air between the two sections grew sharper.
All the glances turned into open stares.
A few hands moved closer to weapons that were still sheathed.
The tension that had been sitting under the surface since the Bloodworth and Abyss groups first took their places began to climb in plain view for everyone watching.
And just as it seemed the first real confrontation of the day might break out in front of the entrance, a different sound cut through the noise.
It was the noise of wheels on stone, the low and steady rhythm of a heavy carriage moving at controlled speed.
A large royal carriage bearing both the Abyss and Winterfang symbols came into view along the main approach.
The dual crests were unmistakable even at a distance.
Every conversation died in waves as more and more people noticed it approaching.
By the time the carriage reached the edge of the open space and slowed to a stop, the entire gathering had gone quiet enough that the final roll of the wheels was clearly audible.
Everyone held their breath, because this was the moment.
The door opened slowly.
Alexander Abyss stepped down onto the stone in the black CBI assigned Proving suit.
Zara walked beside him, she was walking right beside him in the position she always took in public.
The suit fit him cleanly.
His abyssal black hair moved with the light wind that crossed the open ground.
His face was handsome in the sharp and composed way that made age difficult to read at a glance for many people.
His eyes were the detail that held attention longest, they seemed to contain a depth of black that had nothing to do with ordinary colour of black, but something out of abyss itself.
The aura around him was subtle, and that was the most concerning part for many who noticed that.
Because his aura did not press outward the way many young Rank 1 awakeners leaked mana without realizing it.
His mana control was tight enough that the ambient flow of energy around his body remained clean and contained and that is why those with keener senses felt the difference immediately.
This was not the uncontrolled signature of a fresh rookie who had only formed a core by accident and had not control over it.
That amount of restraint itself made Alexander Abyss’s presence more unsettling than any open display of power would have been.
For a moment no one spoke.
Then the reactions began.
"W-Wooh! How does he look like that? And those eyes!"
The girl who had spoken stood near the middle of the crowd and she was staring openly at him.
The boy beside her turned with an expression of pure irritation.
"Hey! He is a 12 year old child! And you are supposed to be my girlfriend! Why are you praising him like that?"
She did not even look at him when she answered.
"Hmm? So what if he is a child? Cannot I compliment a child? And who are you to say anything about him? I bet you could not even win a duel against him, Hmph!"
"Y-you! How could you change sides so quickly?!"
The boy’s voice climbed into a mortified range.
Similar exchanges were already breaking out across other parts of the gathering.
People leaned toward one another, speaking in quick and low voices while their eyes stayed fixed on the figure in the black suit.
Speculations about him seemed to stacked on top of each other without pause.
Some focused on the hair and the eyes.
Others tried to read the exact density of the aura.
A few simply stared without offering any opinion at all.
One point of agreement formed faster than the rest.
The Third Prince could not be a Level 0.
No ordinary Level 0 carried presence like that.
No ordinary Level 0 controlled their mana tightly enough that it refused to leak even under the pressure of thousands of watching signatures.
The way the ambient energy moved around him was simply wrong for someone who had never stepped past the first threshold of formal ranking.
A few of the more experienced observers in the crowd exchanged brief and assessing look.
The difference was not dramatic from what the rumours had said about him, but it was consistent and consistency at that age was harder to fake than raw power, somehow he had been growing consistently.
The observation spread through the crowd in murmurs and shared glances.
In the Bloodworth section the reaction was quieter and considerably darker.
The open mockery from earlier had vanished completely.
Faces that had been set in superior amusement were now closed and cautious.
Several of the older Bloodworth representatives exchanged short and dark looks.
The boy they had been prepared to dismiss as a publicity stunt had arrived and the first impression he gave was not the one they had wanted.
Alexander Abyss has dominated the field without saying a single word.
Alex walked away from the edge of the carriage’s shadow with Zara at his side and let the weight of the gathered attention settle over the open ground without reacting to it.
The final participant had arrived.
The gathering was complete.
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End of Chapter 163: The Third Prince Arrives At The Gathering
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