After their little father-son talk, Reivan and Rodin eventually met back up with the others.

It wouldn’t have been much of a family night if they all split up and minded their own business, after all. After they reunited, they all led the others to fun stalls that they discovered when they had been split up.

For some reason, nobody else was keen on trying the mystery meat skewer stall that Reivan suggested.

‘These guys lack the spirit of adventure…’

He internally clicked his tongue and shook his head in disdain at his family’s lack of courage. But although Aizen was an absolute monarchy, within the royal family, there was only democracy. Since the vast majority didn’t want to try out the mystery meat stall, Reivan could only give up and go along with everyone else’s idea.

Of course, since they were all quite full, they usually bought one of each dish and shared a bite with everyone else.

After a very festive first night of the yearly week-long celebration of Aizen’s founding, it was eventually time to go home—though the festival would continue on for the normal citizens. The rest of the disguised royal family went home while Reivan escorted Elsamina to their little love shack.

Unfortunately, the red-haired beauty was a bit too full for any nightly escapades, and Reivan hadn’t held back his gluttony either. So he tucked her in, kissed her goodnight, and left.

He had more work to do, after all.

“Good evening, Your Highness!” One of Grimharbor Penitentiary’s many wardens saluted with his back ramrod straight.

“At ease, good sir.” Reivan nodded at the diligent guard with a smile. “Not attending the festival?”

The old guard sheepishly smiled as he let the tension out of his body. “I’ll be taking the fourth and sixth day off, Your Highness. Already made some plans with the family.”

“That’s good.”

“A shame I won’t be there to witness the tournament on the third day.”

Reivan scratched his head, his smile turning crooked. “That’s also good. You won’t see me get beat up.”

The guard seemed to think he was joking and laughed in good faith. “Oh! I almost forgot, Your Highness. What brings you all the way over to our cesspool on this fine occasion?”

“I’d like to borrow an empty cell to meditate in.” Reivan raised a brow. “That’s okay, right?”

“Of course, it’s okay, Your Highness. The royal family can go anywhere in Aizen.” The guard gestured for some others to take over his duties and led Reivan deeper into the largest prison in the kingdom. “Kindly follow me. I know an empty room nearby. Just cleaned it too. I’ll set it up for you, Your Highness.”

“Thank you very much. Please do.”

Reivan and the kind old guard quickly reached their destination, one of the many cells in Grimharbor Penitentiary that cut off all senses while inside. Of course, Reivan had perfect dark vision and a very keen nose, so two of his senses wouldn’t be affected. There were enchantments to kill sound, invalidate tastes, and numb the touch though, so he would still have most of his senses hindered.

‘It’s the perfect place to seclude oneself in their thoughts.’

Perhaps a normal person would have easily gone mad while inside, but for those of greater fortitude, the utility of these rooms was massive. In fact, ascendants trying to reach the next realm would often stay in such places for years at a time.

Reivan could have easily borrowed such places, but he preferred Grimharbor Penitentiary’s facilities.

“There we go…” The guard fiddled with some glowing runes on the side wall of the room and smiled at Reivan. “Well, I think you already know how these things work, Your Highness. If they stop working, feel free to just break the door like last time.”

“...Yes, thank you. I can take it from here.” Reivan cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment, recalling what happened a few months ago. He’d rather not dwell on the bad memory though, so he focused on the task at hand.

The guard bowed once again and left, closing the door to the cell behind him.

A thick darkness immediately filled his vision, as all sound disappeared. He couldn’t even taste the bits of food stuck to his teeth after pigging out so much in the festival. Nor could he feel the clothes he was wearing.

‘Right, let’s begin.’

Reivan could still see despite the utter lack of light, so he made his way over to a bed meant for a prisoner’s use and sat cross-legged on top of it. He took a couple of deep breaths, marveling at the lack of feeling—he didn’t know if any air was actually going inside his lungs or if it was actually being exhaled.

‘No wonder everyone comes out weird after staying in one of these for a while.’

It was the perfect disguise for the aftereffects of what he was going to do though.

[Glimpse of Eternity] has activated.

“You’re here again.” Karuna looked at him with a bored expression. In front of her was a table filled with various dishes that Reivan had seen or sampled from the festival stalls.

‘Well, isn’t she having fun. That’s a good thing, though.’

Reivan smiled at her. “I just don’t want you to be lonely.”

The white fairy rolled her eyes in disdain. “Sure. Anyway, judging by how you’re using one of those nutjob-producing rooms in that crazy prison, I guess you’ll be spending a few years here, huh?”

“Years…” Reivan echoed her words in a mumble and nodded. “Yes. Maybe a bit more than that this time. This little tournament is more important to my father than I initially thought. I don’t want to let him down.”

Karuna stopped eating and frowned with her entire face as she squinted at him. “I’ve already warned you about spending too much time here.”

“I think I can take it.”

“That’s what I thought too. D’you think I’m doing well? Hm?”

Reivan scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. “Relax… I’ll dilute the time properly… The next twenty-four hours for… twenty-four years?”

“Hey, if you wanna kill yourself, can you be more considerate of people who’ll die too?”

“Just twenty years then.”

“You crazy nutjob!”

Reivan chuckled as the fairy fumed, but both of them knew that his mind was already made up and there was no stopping him now. “Talk to me every couple of years, alright? It helps.”

“Whatever.” Karuna turned away from him, waving him away like he was an annoying fly.

But Reivan knew that her coldness was an affirmation, so he created a small private dimension and began his practice.

‘Since it’s been confirmed that I’ll be facing a half-ascendant, I probably can’t hold back too much. Still, I can’t show off a bunch of my powers since Argonia might try extra hard to assassinate me if they knew just how much I’m benefiting the county.’

That meant he had to have an absurd amount of skill level with everything that he could use.

[Chaos Origin] has been activated.

Reivan felt the power within him transform into something different—something more. It was both painful and exalting, making him wince and revel in the power it gave him access to. Had he used it outside, he would have had to face constant risk of the energy going berserk and probably doing something bad to his body.

But in this imaginary realm, there were no such things as risks. The outcome would almost always be under his control.

‘I need to get used to the pain.’

He was used to ordinary physical pain, but having [Chaos Origin] activated felt… different. Maybe it damaged his soul, or maybe some sort of ethereal organ, or maybe even something else Reivan couldn’t fathom. What Reivan knew was that it hurt like hell.

‘Ah, maybe I should also try to see what happens when chaos energy goes out of control. If I get used to that too, I might be able to come up with a remedy. Or at least something to mitigate a portion of the side effects…’

There were many things Reivan would have to learn within the next two decades within his skill. Hopefully, his bounty would be enough to bring him triumph.

As he controlled his breathing and chaos energy ran rampant in his body, rows upon rows of tall shelves sprouted from behind him. Within the shelves were all the aetherblade art manuals hidden in the palace archives. Reivan had only ever focused on learning and mastering the arts of the lightning, ice, and darkness attributes since those were the only attributes he naturally had.

But the aetherblade art manuals on the shelves behind him belonged to various other elements, such as water, earth, fire, wind, and light. There were also manuals for attributeless aetherblade arts that each had strange and unique uses that only seemed to be useful in specific situations.

‘I can’t possibly learn them all within twenty or so years.’

And he wasn’t planning to.

Jiji was grumbling to herself as she gracefully made her way deeper into the penitentiary.

‘Gah! That idiot, making me fetch him like this… I can’t believe he spent a day in one of those crazy rooms. We put prisoners in there for a reason, y’know!’

She knew ascendants used those for mental training too, but mortals didn’t need such intense mental training—that’s what she knew, at least.

As a mortal, they were just supposed to train their bodies to their maximum growth limits, learn how to fuse magic power and qi into essence, and then let that essence permeate the body for a few days or a week at most.

If all goes well and your body’s durable enough, then you’d become an ascendent.

None of that involved mental growth to the extent you had to spend so much time in such a stressful environment to meditate. Sure, it was maybe useful for becoming a Transcendent, but Reivan was so far away from that realm that he shouldn’t even think of such intense meditation yet.

‘Not that anyone will stop him, though.’

Despite the inefficiency, nobody would stop Reivan since he was the favorite child. Well, he was also Jiji’s favorite family member, so she was just as bad as everyone else.

“This is the place, Your Highness,” a young guard said as he saluted.

Jiji ignored the somewhat heated glances she received from the young man and nodded. “Thank you. I’ll take it from here.”

“Understood.”

Once the warden was gone, Jiji moved to open the cell, only to be surprised when it opened by itself—or rather, someone on the other side opened it.

“Jiji?” Reivan raised his brows and smiled when their eyes met. “Did you come to pick me up?”

“Yes, Yani. Though it seems like I didn’t really have to.”

“It’s nice of you to do so anyway,” he said while taking a step toward her. Unexpectedly, he gently wrapped his arms around her and brought her closer.

“Wh-what are you doing…?” Jiji, the recipient of the sudden hug, was naturally very confused. She was no stranger to hugs with Reivan, but somehow, this time felt a bit different. “L-let go of me…!”

“Eh? It’s fine, no? Just a little bit.” Reivan chuckled and tightened his hold on her, resting his chin on her head. “Man, I miss you so much, Jiji.”

“We just saw each other yesterday though…”

Reivan grew silent for a moment before he mumbled. “Yes. But it feels long.”

Jiji also grew silent. She guessed that her brother meant that they’d spent a long time apart because Jiji started avoiding him—which, contrary to his initial belief, was no fault of his.

It was Jiji’s fault.

Back when she had her first mating season, her mother had been in charge of making sure she didn’t accidentally hurt herself. And while restrained by Vianna, Jiji’s lust grew to a boiling point… and in that state, she had unconsciously thought of a certain person.

‘AAAAAGH! I’m definitely not telling anyone about that. That secret’s coming with me to the grave!’

She would tell no one that even after her mating season had passed, she had still unconsciously thought of her brother. Of course, in the deepest parts of her heart, she never actually considered Reivan a brother. Just a nice older boy that she really liked spending time with.

Still, fantasizing about him for so long was way too embarrassing. Logically speaking, it was perfectly normal since Reivan had been the only boy close to her age she didn’t view with either hatred, disdain, or indifference. Even in hindsight, Jiji understood why her brother was the only face that came up when she thought of a potential partner.

‘Even so! It was way too much!’

For so long, her dreams had been filled with all sorts of fantasies. It would have been one thing if she’d only fantasized about lewd things, but she’d even envisioned a literal family with Reivan. Heck, she’d even come up with names for at least ten sons and daughters!

‘I’m fucking crazy!’

And that’s why, for a while, just looking at Reivan or getting a whiff of his scent made her recall all sorts of things she’d rather not. She was just a young maiden at heart. Staying too close to someone who made her feel that way was too difficult.

Jiji naturally chose to distance herself from her brother because of that. But she’d failed to consider how it would hurt the poor innocent Reivan.

‘Geez… This cute bastard. He’s like a puppy or something…’

“You’re so annoying…” Her lips teased into a grin as she also wrapped her arms around his body, stroking his back. She followed her natural urges and buried her face into his chest. “It can’t be helped. I guess if you miss me that much, I’ll entertain you.”

Reivan laughed and even lifted her up for a bit, making her squeal in joy and kick out with her feet. But he eventually let go of her and asked. “Tomorrow’s the third day of the festival, right?”

“Huh?” Jiji was somewhat annoyed that he’d ended their little hug on his own terms but nodded. “That’s right. You should stop training and get a good rest before your big day.”

“That’s true. I’ll do that. Thanks for picking me up.”

“It’s nothing. I was just passing by anyway,” she lied.

“God, I almost forgot how fucking cute you were.” Reivan laughed and stroked her head. "I really love you, you know that?”

Jiji’s heart skipped a beat and she averted her gaze. She knew he didn’t mean it that way, but it annoyed her how happy it made her feel to hear it anyway. “I… I love you too, Yani.”

“I know. C’mon, let’s go.”

Wishing to hide her face from his scrutiny, instead of walking by Reivan’s side, Jiji fell into step behind him as they made their way out of Grimharbor Penitentiary.

That’s why she couldn’t notice the bizarre glint in Reivan’s eyes.

Reivan went back to his room and got a good night’s rest before waking up at the crack of dawn. He didn’t bother the maids to help him make his preparations since he’d already undergone the motions countless times.

‘There’s no need for too much armor.’

The purpose of this event was basically to show off. Wearing too much armor to the extent that it blocked his features and obscured his body too much was counterintuitive to his desires.

Taking this into account, he opted for his usual sparring attire—a fitted black gambeson with golden linings and embroideries, made of some sort of thin but durable linen-like material and fastened on his left instead of the middle of his torso by golden tassels. The rest of his outfit also followed his favorite combo of a black base with luxurious golden decorations. He secured his waist with a nice leather belt sporting a buckle shaped like the Aizenian Wolf.

Of course, as the prince, his outfit—though relatively simple—took aesthetics, utility, and comfort into consideration.

‘Looks good. Black just suits my hair, I suppose. Just like how white matches Father’s and Brother’s looks.’

Everything was ready.

He’d spent quite a bit longer than he’d planned, but he wanted to believe it was worth it. Though his physical stats hadn’t changed at all, his mind now contained more techniques than memories with his family.

In his mind, he’d fought beings like Stella, a hypothetically older Helen, and a greatly weakened version of Vianna. He even created imaginary foes with all sorts of skill sets out of the vast library of aetherblade arts he had access to.

‘I’ve… I’ve done everything I can, at this point.’

Even if he still lost, he could still proudly say that he’d gone above and beyond what was normal to obtain victory—that he had done all he possibly could.

‘Not that I plan to lose, of course.’

Reivan would win.

And he would do it like no one else had ever won before.