"You gonna leave just like that?" Max asked when he saw that Elly was about to leave after eating.

"What? You need a good night kiss now?" Elly asked as she looked at Max.

"As if you would give it to me?"Max shook his head with a wry smile.

"How about we talk a bit about our past? After all, that's the first step to get to know each other better..." Max said as he looked at her. He had other intentions as well. He just wanted to hear Elly's side of the story….

"I am tired now….how about we do it at a later date. We have 10 years to talk after all…" Elly said with a smile.

Max didn't force her and walked her out of the door. It seemed he wouldn't be talking to her anytime soon, the competitions were on the head.

He was going to leave the mansion and go back to the Academy. Other students who were going to be the participants would be staying in the Academy as well.

Elly obviously wasn't selected as she wasn't strong enough. Max didn't know about Aria, her situation was still not confirmed. Lisa got selected because she transferred to Arcane as they were lacking people.

Of course most of the students would be moving to witness the competition but it wouldn't be like being part of the team.

…

The next day arrived and Max left along with Lisa and Aria. It turned out Aria had been selected as a reserve.

Max realised that they hadn't thought about reserves. But looking at the circumstances, did they have anyone worthy to be in reserve? They could basically pick any other guy apart from the main team and it still wouldn't make any difference….they wouldn't be able to do anything…

Most of the students were in the Low Tier category, and a few might have been in the Mid Tier category…..

Max had heard that they were going to be provided a luxurious treatment. The Academies will looking after all the needs of participating students.

Well, the competition was on a different level compared to previous one. They would definitely not be cheap this time around.….

Max was just about to enter the Academy when a group of reporters surrounded him and bombarded him with several questions..

The Academy hadn't allowed these people to meet the participants. But like in hell they were going to give up...they had been sitting outside to block every participants and conduct an interview...

Max was especially one of the main targets today. He was currently a hot topic in the world. There were a thousand different stories about him...

But how could these people keep Max by their side? Within a second, he was gone like wind…

Standing inside Max looked at two people who had just plotted him a second earlier.

Lisa and Aria had asked him to go ahead for some reason. Max didn't pay much attention to them and went ahead only to be ambushed.

It seems this reporter mess wasn't new. The two were aware of it and used Max as bait to sneak inside the Academy.

"Well, I will see you later…" Lisa said as she looked at Max. After all, the staying place were separated according to gender.

"Well, I won't be seeing you two. Next time we meet will be as opponents and I won't go easy on you guys...so be prepared…" Aria said as he looked at both Max and Lisa.

" I won't lose…" Lisa said with confidence.

Max shook his head. She wouldn't win against Aria.

….

Max walked towards the Arcane area and could feel several piercing gazes on him.

These were not only students from Trinity Academy but Blue Water, Ocien and even Orca as well.

It had to be Wilson…

Max continued walked down the streets leading to the dorms when he saw a few tents across the street. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The headmaster wasn't going to let them enjoy the competition's luxurious treatment it seemed.

As Max walked near the tent, he was surprised to find Mark talking with August.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with a smile.

"I just turned over to Arcane…" Mark replied with a smile.

Max shook his head helplessly. Mark was once dying out of happiness for getting accepted in Orca Academy and now he...just left it like that…

"Why don't you tell him about the havoc you caused?" August said as he looked at Mark.

"Havoc?" Max shifted his gaze from August to Mark.

Mark forced a smile on his face as he glared at August. But August didn't pay any heed to it….

"This guy was selected as a participant for Orca but after they decided the event and their strategies...he defected to us…" August laughed as he slapped Mark's back who had an ugly look on his face.

Max was dumbfounded. Wasn't this crossing the line? They will allow him to go just like that….probably not..

But why did Mark do that? He wasn't that evil….at most he would have just turned over to help Max….Max couldn't think that Mark was capable of something so sinister…

Someone else had to be behind it....

It wasn't Max for sure....Bahamut wasn't handling this thing….all that left was Lear and Axel…

Max suddenly remembered that Axel had indeed said something about getting information on Orca's plans….he seemed extremely confident that day…

"It's Axel's idea...isn't it?" Max asked.

Mark nodded with a wry look on his face. He didn't like the idea, but he had heard that winning this completion was extremely important...hence he proceeded with it…

"Where is Axel?" Max asked.

"Probably crying in some corner... " August replied with a smile.

"Why?" Max asked in confusion.

"His girlfriend dumped him…"

Max's face twitched. They broke up…..but why?

"That idiot told her about yesterday….it would be a surprise if he didn't get dumped.." Wilson walked in on them.

Max sighed. Any girl would dump him for that as long as it wasn't any of the girls Max was entangled with after all they all had their own special circumstances...except for Andriel who just didn't think like humans..