Go back? There's no going back.

What if there were spies from the Cult of Eternal Night who sneaked in and attacked them during the assessment?

***

On the day before the assessment of the Spark Plan began, a sense of depression permeated the air of the entire royal city.

sunset.

The sun is rising.

The next day.

When a ray of sunlight shone into the bedroom through the window, Su Wei, who had been lying quietly on the bed, suddenly moved.

After a moment, his hazy eyes opened. Looking at the ceiling that had become somewhat familiar, Su Wei rubbed his eyes and slowly woke up from his dream.

Su Wei sat up from the bed with his hands on the quilt, and subconsciously turned his head to look at the wall clock on the side.

At this moment, the short and thick hour hand is pointing to seven, and the longer minute hand is pointing to six.

"Is it half past seven...?"

He stared at the clock with a dull look in his eyes for a moment, then turned his head to look out the window.

"... Could it be that I slept from yesterday noon until now?"

Blinking his eyes, Su Wei was instinctively a little surprised after realizing this: "I slept for nearly twenty hours. Is this reasonable?"

But soon, after remembering his glorious record of staying up late the day before, the confusion that had just arisen in his mind suddenly disappeared.

……All right.

Seems... reasonable?

Originally, after helping the witch move her child to the office building yesterday, Su Wei, who was so sleepy that he could hardly stand, planned to go back to his room to have a good sleep.

Then, he would wake up around the early morning, and he would have plenty of time to practice at the training ground or study his own abilities.

But now... uh.

All I can say is that he seemed to have slightly underestimated the extent of his fatigue.

And, if I remember correctly, today... seems to be the day when the auditions officially begin?

——Isn't it too late?

The next second, as such a thought that made Su Wei's heart stop came into his mind, his whole body froze, and he immediately jumped out of bed and finished washing up in a flash.

Then he returned to the bedroom, opened the wardrobe, checked the safe and found that the fox fairy was still hibernating. After waiting for two or three minutes for ventilation, Su Wei closed the door again, picked up the backpack beside him, and walked quickly to the entrance.

The auditions for the Fire Project seem to officially begin at nine in the morning.

One and a half hours left.

As far as Su Wei could remember, the first venue was about the same distance from the training camp, and it would take about the same amount of time to get there by animal cart.

"It's okay, there's still time..."

Rubbing his hands, Su Wei pushed open the door in front of him and stepped out of the entrance.

However, just after leaving the dormitory, Su Wei saw a familiar figure in his own courtyard.

She was wearing the instructor's uniform of the training camp, and even though her back was facing away from him, Su Wei recognized her at a glance. It seemed... to be the Witch Lady?

What was she doing in her own yard at a time like this…?

"Um, witch-sama...?"

Su Wei blinked, opened his mouth, and walked over subconsciously.

"I thought you planned to get up at noon."

However, the next second, a voice that was completely different from the mentor's voice in Su Wei's impression suddenly reached his ears.

It was a sound that he hadn't heard for a long time, but at this moment, Su Wei suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"If you sleep a little longer, you won't have to go to the audition this time."

The next second, in Su Wei's sight, the figure in the courtyard turned around and stared at him quietly.

At this moment, looking at the face of the other person, a middle-aged woman who looked completely ordinary and completely different from his mentor, Su Wei's expression completely froze.

……Eh?

mom……

Mother……?

Chapter 60: Come, let mommy hug you

The first venue in the royal city, backstage.

"Your Highness, we strongly protest against your reckless arrangement. You are simply playing with the important fire of our allied country—"

At this moment, in front of the Queen of the Empire who had just arrived at the first venue, more than a dozen guardian knights from various countries seemed indignant.

They all stopped in front of the queen and said in unison: "We brought the most talented fire seed in the country all the way here because we trust you. We hope you can withdraw this order as soon as possible-"

"...Alas, rather than trusting me, isn't it because you don't have the confidence to protect them?"

However, facing more than a dozen fifth-rank guardian knights, the Empress of the Empire, who walked out of the carriage alone, remained calm and said, "I have never taken back what I said. If you are dissatisfied, you can return the same way you came."

"... Queen of Tirantia, if you go back on your word like this, aren't you afraid that our king will come to you in person?"

Seeing the Empress's unwavering attitude, a handsome middle-aged man with blond hair among the group of guardian knights gritted his teeth and spoke in a deep voice.

"is it?"

However, the next second, as soon as he finished speaking, he felt a calm gaze resting on him.

In an instant, the blond knight felt an indescribable chill running up his spine and straight to the top of his head.

The expression on his face froze, and his gaze, which instinctively began to tremble, soon met the calm eyes of the Queen in front of him.

"Does your king know that you are talking to me in this manner?"

When their eyes met, the empress of the empire simply glanced at the blond knight expressionlessly, then looked around and asked in a calm tone: "Otherwise, I will help you contact your so-called king now?"

However, as she finished speaking, the originally noisy surroundings suddenly became visibly quiet.

Compared to the group of knights who were blocking the royal carriage at this moment, Krenna was now feeling quite confused.

From the very beginning, when Rah destroyed his country and received requests from other countries in the Covenant, she nodded in agreement, and all she did was to change the originally scheduled Legendary Hunter Seed Assessment to the so-called Spark Plan.

Beyond that, she didn't promise anything.

Rather, it was her kindness to allow these allied nations to send their people to this empire to participate in the assessment of the Spark Project.

As for how to conduct the assessment, she had never sought the opinions of this group of people, and had not even informed them in advance. All the rules were learned by this group of people after they came to the empire and asked around.

Although the newly revised second version of the assessment arrangement does have obvious differences from the first version, but... so what?

Since when does she need to obtain consent from this group of people to change the rules she set?

Thinking of this, Klenna inexplicably felt that there was something humorous about this group of outsiders blocking her way.

"I am a little curious now."

After a few seconds of silence, she opened her lips slightly and looked at everyone with a confused look: "Have I been too gentle to you in the past few years, or have you reached your rebellious stage?"

"...!?"

Hearing the Empress's gradually cold voice, the middle-aged man felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

At this moment, he suddenly remembered something.

A long time ago, before the Corruption Disease spread on a large scale, there were no so-called Covenanted Nations on this continent.

At that time, as the four major royal families of Tirantia were suddenly defeated and an outsider with no blood relationship ascended the throne of queen with an absolutely strong attitude, all forces in the entire continent were suppressed to the point of being unable to breathe.

The countries closest to the empire have reached the point where they have to send envoys with resources to pay tribute every month.

But even so, the queen's attitude towards the outside world has never become more friendly.

It was rumored that during that period, she had even planned to annex the neighboring countries first, and then gradually extend her hand to the entire continent to complete complete unification.

However, one day later, for some unknown reason, the feeling of oppression that had been hanging over all forces on the continent like a dark cloud suddenly dissipated.

The reason for this is that the ruler of Tirantia, the formerly ambitious queen, had inexplicably become passive and lazy in both her policies and tactics.

At that time, it was widely rumored that there was something wrong with the Empress's practice.

It is very likely that because the path to the Holy Spirit is now blocked, his failed attempt to break through has caused problems with his body.

It was at that time that the countries, which had been living in fear, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In addition, not long after, the Cult of Eternal Night began to spread the Corruption Disease on a large scale, and the covenant of mutual assistance was established little by little.

But now, looking at the Empress of the Empire in front of him, the blond knight felt that everything in front of him became a little hazy.

When the empress of the empire stirred up the turmoil on the continent, he was still very young, only in his twenties.

As a witness who had personally witnessed his own king submitting to the queen at the time, he had also felt disappointed by the sudden "fall" of the queen.

But now, looking at Krenna in front of him with an indifferent expression mixed with a hint of arrogance, he seemed to see the arrogant queen again...

At this moment, after meeting the queen's eyes again, the blond knight felt his scalp tingling and the blood flowing in his body froze.

"I'm so sorry, it's me...I said something wrong."

The next second, he lost all his strength, his legs softened, and he fell to the ground with his head touching the ground: "All this is just my one-sided words, please don't take it out on our king..."

With the sudden surrender of the blond knight, the guardian knights from other allied countries were all stunned.

But soon, as the second knight who reacted faster followed suit, the rest of the people also realized something and quickly bent their knees and lowered their heads.

"..."

Looking at this scene, the expression on the face of the Empress of the Empire did not change much.

Her eyes swept around calmly, she walked past the crowd and walked into the venue with her sister who also walked out of the carriage.

"...!?"

At the next corner, the two passed by a girl walking towards them.

Unlike the Queen who was bowing her head in deep thought, Klina, who was following the Queen, blinked her eyes. After noticing the arrogant look on the girl's face and her dress that was different from that of her country, she quickly realized that the other party should be one of the "sparks" sent from the Allied Country this time.

Their eyes met, and when Klina saw the girl, she subconsciously looked at her.

However, the reactions of the two sides were very different.

Unlike Klina's scrutinizing eyes, the girl, who originally seemed to have a sense of superiority in her bones, suddenly froze when she met the two people head-on.

Not to mention the Queen who hadn't paid any attention to her from beginning to end, even when she passed by Klina beside her, an uncontrollable feeling of inferiority arose in her mind. She almost instinctively lowered her eyes and walked quickly past the two of them.

In the back, until the silhouette of the Empress of the Empire completely disappeared after the handover, a group of knights still kept their heads down, and there was complete silence.

"Teacher Yule! What's wrong with you? What happened?"

After a moment, as a somewhat hurried voice came from the side, the leading blond knight slowly raised his head.

Looking at the girl who had quickly run to him, who was also the royal bloodline of the current Sainton Empire, he was stunned for a moment, then shook his head subconsciously: "Nothing happened, but, I'm very sorry, the arrangement of this assessment may not be changed."

“…It doesn’t matter. If we can’t change it, forget it. We have a quasi-sacred weapon, and it will be the same from the beginning of the audition.

Compared with the arrangement of the test, the girl was obviously more concerned about the blond knight in front of her, and there was no trace of love in her eyes.

After noticing the latter's sweaty face, the girl, who had just lacked the courage to even look at the empress of the empire, suddenly frowned and said, "She is obviously the empress of a country. Did she attack a guardian knight like you?"

"...No, it's not the Queen's fault. I was the one who made the mistake..."

Hearing this, the knight immediately shook his head, subconsciously stood up staggeringly, with a look of having survived a calamity.

"Are you... okay? Didn't I hear that the queen had problems with her training... How dare she act so arrogantly in front of us now? Do you want me to ask my father to come over?"

Seeing the middle-aged knight like this, the girl felt distressed. She couldn't help but look back and said in a low voice: "She only bullies the weak and fears the strong. How can she be the leader of the Covenant Country?"

"Shh! Shut up!"

However, after hearing what the girl said, the originally embarrassed look on the blond knight's face suddenly changed, as if he was frightened by something, and glared at the girl.

"...That's how it is. If my father were here, would she still treat us like this?"

However, in response to her knight's response of preferring to suffer injustice rather than asking her to shut up, the girl's eyes became even gloomier as she looked towards the direction where the Queen left.

***