Orca Academy, Capital.

Max quietly returned to the Academy along with the man who was in charge of supervising the teleportation circle. There wasn't much to talk now that they had given him the next task. He would soon be informed about the rest of things quickly and would have to wait until further instructions for now.

When Max returned to the Academy, everyone kept staring at him. Well, it was quite obvious that his recent performance had shot him up in fame placing him way above anyone else in the younger generation. There were quite a few people who even ran towards him scaring Max.

Max obviously didn't stay around to meet them. They were either reporters or crazy fans, both were people he didn't want to get involved with.

"Did you catch him in the camera?" One of the guy asked his colleague.

"Yeah, but why is he wearing a blindfold? People all over the Internet are asking the same thing?"

"Isn't he just training like that? Or is it some kind of fashion?"

"Who cares as long as he looks cool?"

It seemed that Max was soon going to become a fashion icon or at least he would be know for weird taste in fashion.

…

"Did he really get eliminated?" Terry asked looking at August. He really was confused after seeing what had happened.

"Who knows? Most people online are saying that he might have been poisoned. I too think that there wasn't any other way. Because no matter how you look, I didn't see him getting hit.." Riser said as he shook his head.

Max's elimination was currently the most trending topic online and many people were unhappy with how he got eliminated. Somewhere saying it was fishy while there were a few of the opinion that Blood Eating Bat's were poisonous so it might have been the poison that gotten Max.

Only August kept staring at the screen which was showing the highlights of the whole day.

'He was too strong. I doubt its as simple as poisoning.' August seemed to have his doubts about this event. He knew much more than these people after all. Only Max could clear his doubts and confirm his suspicions.

"Max is here!" Rias said with a smile when her eyes caught Max at the door.

"You were so close!! What happened there? You don't seem to be poisoned." Terry led a round of rapid fire as he and Rias checked Max all over.

Max didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he had just come out of infirmary before arriving here. His body was practically covered in bandages, just what could they find from him in that state.

"What's with the blindfold?" Rias asked as she looked at him in curiosity.

"I got hurt in my eyes, its pretty bad. I have medicine in here…" Max said as he turned to face her.

'The people whom I already know are easy to make out …' Max muttered inwardly. Even though he couldn't see her, she was close to him and this allowed him to make her body lines out in his mind even if his eyes were close. After all his senses were way past the norms, even with his eyes close he could make out things vaguely if he concentrated enough.

But this was really tough when he had to make out people's distinct physical features in his mind like someone's face. It was very tough for Max to identify people's faces like this especially with those whom he was not familiar with.

"So, what happened there?" August asked looking at Max.

"I was already injured actually and then ran out of stamina. It was the best I could do. So I forfeited before it got worse.." Max replied with a helpless smile.

He was asked not to give out the truth. You can't just say to the people he was too strong. This will not only cause outrage among them but even make the student's feel inferior and affect their confidence levels.

So, it was planned that Max would use injury as reason to back out of the competition and his place would be take by someone whom Max wanted to use as a replacement or the Zatch Family would provide someone to fill in the position.

"Oof! So close!" Terry said with a sigh and the rest were the same as him. It was indeed a pity. If Max could have held on, they would have surely managed to slay the beast.

"The rest are still there and you guys are going in tomorrow as well. I am sure we will still win this thing." Max said with a smile as he looked at everyone.

"Leave it to us.." Rias said in a cheerful and confident voice.

Max then quietly went at the back of the room and sat on the couch beside August as the group continued to watch the broadcast.

"Where has the Headmaster gone? I didn't see him around." Max asked, he had gone to headmaster's cabin but didn't found him.

"He is busy.." August's expression seemed turn grave for a second as if he had remembered something. He actually knew what the Headmaster was busy with.

"What's wrong?" Max asked in confusion.

August shook his head and instead asked him, "You lied right? It obviously wasn't as simple as losing stamina."

Max smiled, it seemed he didn't manage to fool everyone.

"Did you meet those people? The one in charge?" August asked.

"The Ancient Families?" Max asked looking at him with a smile. At this point the Ancient families were already aware of his presence, there was nothing wrong with August who was still a friend to know that Max was one of those legendary figures that he had hear in fairy tales since he was a child.

"You know about them?" August obviously was surprised.

"Yeah, my Master is Stark Zatch. A good friend of your elder brother Leo Von." Max said as he looked at him, he knew that his brother who was also Derek's Master who was missing after what happened last time.

Max had his doubts long ago about Leo and August being brothers as at the time when Leo disappeared, August seemed to have left Academy due to his family problem and as Max's strength had increases and his senses had develop he seemed to have this vague feeling that August was different.

Later, he had asked Stark and had indeed confirmed it that he was right all along.

"You are that Dwarf's student?" August asked in surprise and his words almost made Max choke on air. It had been a while since he heard someone calling his Master by that name.

"No wonder, that person kept giving me those smug faces when talking about his amazing disciple.." August really didn't know how to react.

Max then told him that he was one of the five wielders of the Artifacts further shocking him. But that wasn't it, he went ahead and told him that he was pulled out for being too strong and had just met a group of people whom even the Lord of the Ancient Families had to bow before. He actually wanted to ask August about the identity of those people but who would have thought that August would go blank after hearing it.

Only after a few seconds did he responded as he sprang out of his seat, "You met with the Five Progenitors!!!!"

Max felt his eardrums bursting, even people three blocks away would have probably head it.

Everyone turned around to look at them.

"Uhmn..we were just talking about the recently launched game.." August coughed and somehow managed to disperse there attention from him.

But the cost made him bled, he would now be looked upon as game crazy fellow.

"So, they are called Progenitor?" Max finally seemed to have a bit of an idea about them.

"What do you even know? They are the strongest we have! Even I haven't ever managed to catch a glimpse of them. Most people even think that they are just myths…"

"Is that so.." Max didn't just know how strong these guys were. But it was evident they were at the peak.

"Anyway, its good to know that we are in these together.." August said with a smile when suddenly a thought seemed to have crossed his mind. "Have you told anyone among us about this?"

Max didn't know how to reply that. There group had grown a bit after all this time.

"What's with that expression? Is this what I was feeling odd about all this time? No, wonder I felt that something was going on between you people. So, was I the only one kept in dark until now?" He really seemed pissed now.

He always felt they were hiding something from him. There were times when everyone went silent as soon as he entered room or times they would stare at each other as if communicating telepathically.

That was really annoying to him...

"Well, we weren't sure about the Ancient Families stance you know. And we thought that it might be hard on to you if we ended up on opposite sides.." Max replied with a helpless smile.

August's expression turned dim a bit, "Its true though, the people in my father's generation are always pointing their blades at each other and are not so cooperative.."

"But, I follow my brother's steps. He had always worked together with his peers. And I am sure that he knew about you as well. After all your Master and my brother were best friends. So, how could I not be on the same side as my brother and its not like our friendship is any less than theirs…" August said with a smile as he looked at Max. It seemed he was very aware of things through his brother.

Max had never much doubted August to begin with and now that the Progenitors had come out to take the charge, he was sure that even the people with evil intentions in the Ancient Family would not move against him out in the open.

Basically, the problem wasn't with the entire Ancient Family anymore but a few people most probably who might not be happy with his arrival.

His tensions had eased a bit now.

Max looked at August and said with a smile, "Well, then I will be looking forward to having you on board…"

And the next instant, August's eyes constricted as a pop up appeared in front of him.