Go back? There's no going back.

Hearing this, the blond knight felt a suffocation in his chest. He took a few deep breaths and reminded the girl in a relatively calm tone: "Have you forgotten that we came here this time to become the fire, and we originally had to rely on the queen--"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about this."

However, before the blond knight could finish his words, he was interrupted by the girl in front of him.

"I have decided that I will not participate in this plan. I will go back after the auditions are over today."

As she said this, the girl snorted nonchalantly, "If my father and brother hadn't been annoying me, I wouldn't have wanted to come here. Is our own family so bad?"

"..."

The blond knight's face froze.

Looking at the girl in front of him, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of powerlessness rising from deep in his heart.

But...it's okay.

As long as the princess doesn't plan to stay here any longer, then if I go back now, maybe I can still get rid of this problem.

Moreover, the Saint-Dun Empire is the second most powerful country in the alliance. As long as I go back, the Queen... should not pursue the matter in the Saint-Dun Empire.

"Since you have decided to go back, then let's go now—"

Thinking of this, the blond knight took a deep breath and spoke to the girl in front of him.

"Huh? I can't go back now."

However, the girl in front of him shook her head again: "If I leave now, wouldn't I be a loser who didn't even make it to the audition and has to go home in disgrace? That won't do."

"I have to get through all the auditions today and then go back."

Under the gaze of the blond knight, the girl gently patted the long sword at her waist that was faintly surrounded by holy light, and said confidently: "When the time comes, it won't be that I failed and didn't pass the audition, but that I looked down on this Fire Seed Project and withdrew on my own."

"..."

Seeing this, the blond knight fell completely silent.

"Then...you should take the next few tests well and don't anger the Queen again, okay?"

Finally, realizing his own identity, he could only remind her like this.

"...Haha, don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

However, the only response he got was the girl's smiling expression.

***

A few moments.

"Klenna! Klenna, Klenna Klenna Klenna—you bitch, bitch!!"

In the huge conference hall, you could hear a pin drop, it was eerily quiet.

Watching the images being relayed once again from the giant recording device, and seeing the Imperial examinee in the image with his eyeballs rolled up, his lower body soaked with unknown stains, and his hands holding his head and screaming loudly, everyone present had their hearts stop beating, and they instinctively looked up at the highest seat in the venue.

Because everyone knew that at this moment, on that high platform, the Queen of the Empire was sitting there quietly.

At this moment, even Eve and the silver-haired woman who were not far away in the stands frowned imperceptibly.

Although they all disliked Krenna, it was still a bit unpleasant to see a troublesome guy they recognized being attacked in the face by a little bug.

Almost subconsciously, both of them raised their heads slightly and looked towards the platform.

"..."

On the other side, facing the gazes of countless people below, the empress of the empire remained expressionless, but Klina beside her could no longer sit still and stood up suddenly: "I'll go take care of it."

"Sit down, Klina."

However, just as she finished her words, she heard her sister's calm voice: "How are you going to deal with this? Bullying the weak, or trying to cover up your mistakes?"

"..."

Klina fell silent for a moment, but still gritted her teeth and said, "What should we do? Should we just ignore her and let her insult you in front of so many people... This is already the third round of auditions?"

“…It’s just the sound of insects.”

The expression on the face of the empress of the empire remained unchanged. She held her chin with her right hand, and calmly looked at the picture on the camera. She moved the corners of her lips and said, "And, Yu... um?"

However, at this moment, the calm voice stopped abruptly. Klenna suddenly opened her eyes little by little and stared at the list of spectators on the camera.

【Fourth round of auditions】

[Ring No. 9: Forward-looking Training Camp·Su Wei (Level )] vs. [Saintun Empire·Millie (Level )]

"……what?"

After being stunned for a long time, the scene she saw at this moment brought a much greater shock to Krenna than the moment she faced the insect just now.

"Wait...why, why is that child also on the audition list?"

Blinking, Krenna subconsciously thought it was another person with the same name.

But soon, after noticing that Su Wei Na had the same prefix as her sister, she was stunned.

——She knew that a certain kid who particularly liked to speak sweet words had already cultivated to the second level.

——She also knew that a certain kid had chosen the same training camp as her sister.

However, she didn't know that Su Wei was the only one who had passed the preliminary test and participated in the audition of the Spark Project.

...No, wait?

This little brat, has he only started practicing for a few days?

As soon as he arrived, he ran into an opponent with a quasi-sacred weapon... ?

Recalling the miserable failures of the previous candidates, Klenna subconsciously clenched her relaxed knuckles and stared at the spectator list.

At this moment, her originally calm mood began to fluctuate noticeably for the first time.

……

Waiting hall.

As the new round of match list emerged, Su Wei, who had been staring at the picture silently for three rounds and had been given a bye for some reason, slowly stood up.

"Hey... Hey, buddy, be careful, that woman's methods seem a bit scary--"

At the side, the white-haired young man who also saw the list was shocked and reminded.

"Yes, I will."

Nodding, Su Wei turned around and walked straight towards the ring outside the waiting room.

When he arrived at the door of the waiting room and pushed it open, he happened to meet the girl who stood up from another seat.

"Thank you."

After noticing Su Wei's appearance, the girl's eyes, which had originally been cold, brightened slightly, and she suddenly spoke to him in a gentle voice.

"polite."

Su Wei nodded and walked out the door.

"Hey, wait a minute, my name is Millie, Millie Sainton, and I'm a princess from the Sainton Empire. What's your name?"

Seeing that Su Wei's attitude towards her was not as enthusiastic as she had imagined, the girl quickly caught up with him and asked innocently, "Which ring are you going to now?"

When she spoke, the girl stared at Su Wei's profile with her cheeks slightly red.

It was the first time she had seen a boy who looked more eye-catching than her teacher when she was young. In addition, she was quite disappointed with the teacher's increasingly useless reactions today. She couldn't help but want to communicate more with the boy in front of her.

Of course, if she had to say, she still liked her teacher who had been with her for so long. Now, at best, uh... it was just picking wild flowers?

"I'm going to ring number nine."

Su Wei kept walking and turned to look at the girl.

"Number nine? What a coincidence, I'm number nine too... eh?"

Hearing Su Wei's reply, the girl subconsciously opened her mouth, but her voice suddenly stopped.

At this time, the two of them had arrived in front of the arena marked with the number nine.

"...I never thought that you would be my opponent in this round."

Soon, she and Su Wei each walked to a corner of the arena where a space magic circle was set up, and the expression on the girl's face restrained a little.

"Hey, I'll give you a chance. Just give up."

After a moment of silence, as if she suddenly thought of something, the girl kindly reminded Su Wei in front of her: "By the way, when you give up, it's best to learn from the previous few people and shout out what you really think in your heart."

"Don't worry about any consequences. If you are obedient, after this audition is over, I can take you back to our Sainton Empire. I promise that you will live a better life than if you stayed here, okay?"

After saying this, the girl blinked and waited quietly for Su Wei's reaction.

"...The strange reactions of the people in front of me, are they really related to you?"

However, what disappointed the girl was that the young man in front of her seemed to have focused on the wrong thing and had completely missed the point.

"Who knows? Isn't that the aftereffect of the illusion they were under? They said everything they were thinking?"

The girl sighed, shook her head, and reminded the young man in front of her again, word by word: "Did you hear what I just said? If you give up now, I can allow you to go back to Sainton with me later--"

"Thank you, I won't need this."

This time, the girl was interrupted by the young man in front of her before she could finish her words.

"I'm living well here, and... right now there's something else I want to do."

As the girl said this, a shy look gradually appeared on the face of the young man in front of her: "I'm sorry."

"Well, since you can't seize the opportunity given to you, there's nothing I can do."

Seeing this, the girl sighed again, and the expression on her face gradually became colder: "It will be too late to regret later."

"Ah."

Su Wei nodded.

"Well, shall we get started?"

"Well, let's get started."

Su Wei nodded again.

The next second, as the two of them activated the magic power in their bodies at the same time, the sensing array on the entire arena shook slightly and was immediately activated.

[Ring No. 9: Forward-looking Training Camp·Su Wei (Level )] vs. [Saintun Empire·Millie (Level )]

【The assessment begins.】

The moment the characters constructed by magic power appeared above the arena, the girl's eyes focused, and the illusion that was ready to be released was poured onto the young man in front of her without reservation.

But the next moment, when she saw the young man with his eyes tightly closed, she was stunned and couldn't help wanting to laugh out loud.

The eyes are the windows to the soul. The most effective way to avoid illusions is to close your eyes and avoid eye contact with the caster - this is common knowledge among practitioners.

But that is only the most preliminary solution. If there are no other means in the future, you will still be slowly pulled into the illusion under the influence of the other four senses.

Besides, how can you fight your opponent if you close your eyes during a fight?

The aura of the whole body suddenly subsided, and Millie smiled. She didn't think that a mere second-level practitioner could break the concealment magic that was passed down by the royal family...

Chi——!

However, the next second, the temperature in the entire ring rose sharply, and Millie was shocked and suddenly came back to her senses.

Her breath was caught in her throat when she saw the scarlet vortex that formed around the young man in front of her in just two seconds.

But before she could react, the scarlet vortex, carrying a huge heat wave, suddenly swept towards her direction!

Composite element magic...?

No, this is definitely not a second-level compound magic...!

Her heartbeat suddenly stopped, and the girl, who had received royal elite education since childhood, reacted very quickly. She quickly drew the long sword at her waist and swung it towards the enemy.

The brilliant sword light that suddenly burst out from the quasi-holy weapon and the vortex of wind that was close at hand suddenly converged.

However, the intangible wind vortex in front of her, which was composed of the two elements of wind and fire, did not disintegrate as easily as the girl had expected.

Triple Elements meets Magic?!

Realizing this, the girl's pupils suddenly shrank.

As that ray of burnt yellow element merged into the wind vortex at the moment it intersected with the sword light, she watched helplessly as the wind vortex, which was about to dissipate at the touch of a finger, actually held on for two more seconds under the fifth-level sword light.