"Hey, what do you think you are doing? Do you have any idea how precious this thing is? What if you ended up damaging this mother's pearl? Are you going to pay for it out of your pocket?"
Amelia asked as she held the mother's pearl close to her heart. She could feel it pulsing in her grip.
But despite having the pearl in her grasp, something did not sit right with her. There was a feeling of unrest that she could not put behind her.
"The elder's pearl is an artifact and it will not break so easily. You just got spooked for no reason and are taking your anger out of me. That is not fair of you."
The masked figure pouted when he spoke. Amelia, who had been oblivious until now, suddenly seemed to recognize this white-masked figure.
"Y-Y-You are from the tournament. The over-looker who told us about all the rounds. What are you doing here?"
Amelia asked the question in quick succession. She wanted to know what this man was doing here.
After all, she had not seen this man anywhere outside the tournament before. So naturally, she was spooked a little bit.
Moreover, she could not sense any kind of power coming from this man. And that made her even more nervous.
She could not explain the reason she was facing such a diverse sense of uneasiness when she stood in front of this man.
"Oh shit. Amelia, back down. This man is not human. He had divine powers and…"
Adrian suddenly yelled but Amelia had no time to back away before she was struck by the masked man and went down.
The mother's pearl rolled out of her hand and the white-masked figure picked it up once more. His hands closed around the pearl and he observed the pearl.
"I told her she did need to be careful with the pearl, right? See, there is not even a single scratch on its surface. Would you like to try and find out for yourself?"
The masked man asked as he held the pearl out for Keith and Adrian to take.
Keith wanted to take the pearl but his attention was split between the pearl and Amelia. He needed to find a way to save both.
"Hey, I have an idea. I will go after Amelia while you go after the pearl. This way, we will be able to save both."
Adrian's plan seemed to hold merit. Keith was ready to try it out once.
"On the count of three. Three."
Adrian's counting sucked but Keith felt himself jerk forward and grab a hold of the pearl while Adrian grabbed Amelia and picked her up.
The shite-masked figure did not look startled but he chose not to follow Keith and his companions.
"You will get to make your choice soon. Chose to go home and forget all about this place. Only then would you be able to live a peaceful life?"
The masked man whispered to Keith. But Keith felt his words come in from one year and go out of the other.
In simpler words, he was not interested in listening to what this masked man had to say to him.
"Where should we go from here? This place feels like a giant trap we need to escape from."
Adrian admitted as he tightened his hold on Amelia. His face was flushed with sweat and his breath was heavy with exhaustion.
It was clear that Adrian was having a tough time with wanting to go out but being unable to. This place was like a maze, having connected caves and similar structures.
"We should take this road. I have a feeling that it will lead us outside."
Keith pointed toward a random direction, only to face the wall. Keith was embarrassed after that but his thick face did not show his expression.
"Hmm, going this way would be a little difficult to do. I don't have the power to cross walls after all."
Adrian tried to be funny but his tone only came out as sarcastic.
"Give me a moment. Get away from the wall."
Clair's familiar voice spoke from behind the pair. They quickly parted, only for a fist to come flying and take the door down.
There was no need to even ask what happened. Clair stood in front of knocked down the door with her fists held at ready and the door knocked down.
"Hump, this was easy enough. I guess I will not need to use my ultimate move over this."
Clair walked over to the pair in front of her with a calm expression. It showed nothing on her face but there was an uneasiness to her steps now.
She looked injured but Clair refused to show her discomfort on her face.
"Clair, are you alright? You look a little roughed out."
Adrian asked Clair, not even noticing the change in her appearance at first. But once he did, Adrian flinched and looked away.
Keith had seen all kinds of people until now. He had even seen naked people so he was not as put off by the change in Clair's appearance. Her grown-by self did not look that different from her normal self anyway.
"Stop staring at me. The only thing that changed with me was my age. I am still the same person you knew otherwise. If you do not stop staring at me, then I will be forced to take extreme measures with you."
Clair warned Adrian and he instantly looked away from her. He was not interested to get beaten up by Clair anyway.
As for Keith? Well, he could only look at Clair with a surprised expression. He had not expected Clair to grow up this fast.
"I was originally like this. The only reason I took that childish body was because it was convenient for me to move around in. so don't be so surprised."
Somehow, Keith wanted to tell Clair that he was not surprised. But he was not able to open his mouth in the end.
Clair punched the wall and it caved in. Clair had easily opened the door toward an open world.
"Let's hurry up and go. I am getting a bad feeling from this place."
Clair warned and Keith felt that bad feeling overcome his senses. He could feel the danger that this place was emitting as well.
"Let's hurry up and leave."
Keith ordered. He had only taken a few steps outside when he felt an unfamiliar presence standing behind him.
"W-Where are you going, grandmaster? Did you come here to steal from me? Huh, I found you out."
It was Lady Olivia. She was red-faced and panting when she came after Keith. He could also see how she was lagging.
Master Shinzou was standing behind Lady Olivia with a calm expression. But he was ready to knock the lady out if she did anything out of the normal in front of him.
"Lady Olivia, calm down. Are you trying to stand up against the grandmaster?"
As expected, Master Shinzou, became a wall between Keith and Lady Olivia. But Lady Olivia seemed uninterested in listening to his words.
"Shut up. I don't care if my opponent is the grandmaster. I will not allow anyone to take away my hard-earned prize."
Lady Olivia seemed to be going through a hard time. Her voice cracked when she yelled and her eyes shook when she looked at Keith.
Somehow, Keith had a feeling that Lady Olivia's obsession had some sinister intentions behind it.
"Hard-earned prize? I thought that this pearl was a stolen item. How can you call it a prize?"
Adrian asked with a confused expression. He also tightened his grip on Amelia and held her carefully.
"Stolen? Ah, maybe it looks 'stolen' in your eyes. But for me, it was an adventure. It was something I heard earned by carefully planning things out and finally succeeding in bringing the pearl here. How can you call it a theft."
Lady Olivia asked with quivering eyes. In all honesty, it was the theft she was describing. But she did not seem to think of it as the same.
"Look lady, you are either out of your mind or you are delusional. I would think you are a little bit of both right now. How about you take a calm breath and think over what you did now?"
Lady Olivia looked even more pissed off than before. If anything, she looked ready to scratch Adrian until he died.
"You will not understand my feelings…"
"We don't want to understand your feelings. How dare you steal from me? Do you not have fear for your life?"
Keith suddenly spoke up and everyone turned toward him as one. Lady Olivia seemed taken aback, almost as if she had noticed his presence until now.
"G-Grandmaster, are you here as well? I did not notice you at all."
Lady Olivia stuttered as she stepped back. But then she became determined suddenly.
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