Alice ended up having lunch with the trio. Violet was not a chatterbox but because Ethan and Alice hardly spoke, she dominated conversations. Stephan was the next in line for always responding to Violet either by teasing her or giving proper responses. Alice only replied whenever she was asked something. Ethan was... largely ignored. Violet only paid attention to him when he says something proactively. [Should you talk to him a little?] BaoBao felt a little sorry for him. /What for? Such is the fate of the second male lead./ Alice told BaoBao. BaoBao kept quiet. He truly did not have a reason to give. /Besides, he's happy enough being near the female lead. Just leave him be./ Alice decided to be kinder to BaoBao who was only being sympathetic. With Alice's reassurance, BaoBao felt enlightened and thought to himself. [Is this what it means to think from their perspective?] Nigh

Since this was her final night sparring with Violet and Stephan, she spent more time sparring with them. Still not trusting Stephan to be alone with Alice, they made it a doubles match after her spar with Violet. The improved relationship and chemistry between Stephan and Violet made it harder to defend against their attacks and attack them. However, the lead couple could not gain much of an advantage over Ethan and Alice either. They already shared good chemistry and their abilities were tricky and flexible in nature. Alice's improvement was what levelled the playing field somewhat. As a result, they were caught in a stalemate for almost the entire hour. Ethan sent a tidal wave that travelled a lot faster than what would happen in nature. Alice covered his blind spots in the meantime. At the same time, a loud crack suddenly rang throughout the hall. Recognising the sound, Ethan's head snapped up and found the black cloud right above Alice. His body reacted before he could t

BaoBao flew around the trees and above water to enjoy the view while Alice practiced her martial arts. She focused her spiritual energy into different parts of the body that she attacked with. This made her attacks so strong and fast that it caused the fallen leaves to fly up and dance around her. The sun was halfway below the horizon when BaoBao suddenly disappeared. Alice knew that it meant Ethan had returned.  The scene that greeted Ethan took his breath away. Amongst the chaotic yet enchanting mess of colourful leaves, and past the deadly moves being executed, Alice looked soft and serene. It brought calm to his heart and lifted his sour mood. His gaze softened as he announced his arrival, "I'm back with dinner." Alice caught a whiff of the tantalising smell. "Seafood chowder?" "Mm." He nodded with a small smile. Alice went over to get it from him. Just as she did so, her stomach growled. However, she did not seem to be bothered by the possib

Finally, the dance segment of the party came. It was the final line-up of the event before it ended. BaoBao reported to Alice the number of envious and disappointed gazes directed at Stephan and Ethan. Being a Blessing, Stephan was naturally more popular but the number of Ethan's admirers was not small either. She instructed BaoBao to keep an eye on all of these people. [Sure, but why?] /Just to be sure of something./ Alice gave him a noncommittal reply.  BaoBao felt tempted to ask her for more details but decided that it was better to focus on his task as a couple of them already began moving around. Stephan took Violet's hand and headed to the center of the field while slow music played. Ethan looked at the dancing couple and felt a little solemn. However, the longer he stared at the dancing couples, a different desire slowly surfaced in him that made him forget his solemn feelings. He shifted his gaze onto A

Multiple carriages had already gathered at the entrance to the North forest when the carriages that Leah and Alice were in reached the destination. Alice immediately headed to the side of the crowd to leave the sea of people while Leah wondered seemingly aimlessly around the crowd. It took quite awhile before each of them found what they wanted. Alice jumped up onto a low tree branch to take a breather. Leah had the expression as if she finally found their rendezvous point with the other three.  "Sorry for taking so long! There are just so many people." Leah apologised then peeked at Ethan only to see that he was paying attention to anything else besides her. "Nothing to worry about. They still have not signaled the start of the exam." Violet reassured her with a small smile. "But they would anytime now." Stephan said without hiding his irritation. Leah lightly bit her lower lip.  Just a few seconds after Stephan talked, a loud explo