All of a sudden there was an inexplicable tension that filled the air. Clarence’s attention moved from Victor to Sylvester who stood there smiling at this face. Sylvester’s appearance somehow caused a very minor but noticeable change in this almost routine dance, and the crowd could not help but get excited.

“Hey hey William. Who’s that guy and why do those two big shots know him?” The pink haired Julia asked.

William at first didn’t recognize Sylvester but after scouring his memories for any sort of information he suddenly remembered the day of the trials.

“I remember now.” William then paused as he looked at Sylvester more closely. “It’s the man who qualified for the S-rank trials.” He explained.

“I was close by when I saw that big S-rank sign pop up over his body and the Headmaster’s loud announcement.”

“I see. S-rank huh?” Julia replied.

“That guy is in the same class as me. Basic spell combination techniques 101." Mary suddenly interjected.

“So what’s he like? How come he made that Clarence guy go all uppity and mad?” Julia continued her questioning.

“If there’s a word to describe him? Normal. He even had a little trouble with chain casting for a few days.” Mary then paused.

“But during our tests he went and donned this persona of a showman.” She explained.

“Showman?” The petite girl Sharn suddenly joined the conversation.

“Yes, showman. Our test was simply to demonstrate what we learned by doing a long chain of spells while also controlling the space of the classroom.”

“Wait, your professor let you use the control cube? Damn I should have taken that class as well.” William replied, expressing a bit of envy over Mary’s experience.

“Just for the test. Anyway, Sylvester Clearsight went ahead and took that demonstration to a whole new level by “performing” like a magician, wearing a tophat and coat and all. Really, all that was missing was the eerie and cheesy music.”

“So you’re saying he’s kinda weird? Cause you made it sound like he’s some sort of weirdo.” Julia suddenly interjected.

“No, I didn’t mean it that way! He’s just a bit strange.” Mary defended herself.

“So yeah, weird!”

“Uggh, fine whatever. Call it what you want.” Mary chose to simply resign and drop the subject altogether.

Meanwhile over at Sylvester’s side, tension was starting to rise.

Clarence glanced over Sylvester, inspecting him from head to toe. He also looked to the three other people who followed close behind him.

“What are they planning? Didn’t the headmaster explicitly say that you can only work together in a group if you’re all in the same organization?” He silently pondered. Sylvester seems to have noticed Clarence’s intense stare and decided to acknowledge it.

“What? I know I’m kinda good looking but please, stop staring. It’s kind of embarrassing!” Sylvester then rubbed the back of his head, acting bashful.

“Tch, you really seem to have a way of getting on my nerves mr Sylvester.” Clarence replied.

“Still, this is quite a group you have here huh? All four of the students who qualified for the most difficult test gathered together.” He stopped and smiled.

“But did you forget that all four of you can’t join as a group? You will all have to enter individually and even if you win, the reward won’t be shared!” He proudly declared.

“Yes we know, now please can we just go and register?” Sylvester dismissed him.

“What?”

“You heard the man! Get out of our way and piss off!” Another voice called out.

It was Artian who now had an annoyed scowl on his face, staring down Clarence right in the eyes. Something that Clarence really didn’t like.

“Yeah Artian! Go tell him!” Estelle then joined in, her words adding fuel to a potential explosion causing Rossa to shake her head quietly in disappointment.

As the scenes continued to unfold, the low sounds of indistinct murmurs began spreading like wildfire.

“Oh wow, that guy has a lot of guts, suddenly talking down the representative of the Clarentum Inquisitors like that.” William commented, while the crowd around the plaza seemed to have taken quite a liking to this new development.

For the first time, the balance was disturbed. Even for a brief moment, a third player seemed to have showed up to stir the pot.

As the tensions kept climbing, Victor suddenly let out a loud and cheerful laugh almost single handedly dispelling the heavy veil on his own. He also managed to get the attention of everyone at the plaza.

“You really are an interesting fellow Mr Clearsight! You have found yourself quite the unique group if I say so myself.” He exclaimed.

“Well, thank you, I guess mr Victor. Now can we please pass through?” Sylvester asked politely.

“Sure, go ahead and be my guest.” Victor said as he stepped back and made room for Sylvester and his friends to pass.

“Thank you.” Sylvester smiled and made his way towards the stall and faced the twins.

“Good day mr Sylvester!” Nitri greeted him in her usual bubbly and cheerful demeanor. “I assume you’re here for the festival.” While Tinri gave him the opposite treatment.

“Yes. Solo entry of course. Have to obey the rules.” Sylvester replied as a cheeky little grin formed on his face as he looked back at his friends and gave them a sly wink.

“I see. Please hand over your ID.” Tinri then stretched out her hand.

Sylvester then gave his ID over as Nitri swiped it on the scanning device in front of her. She then immediately returned it afterwards.

“Thank you for registering for the Festival of the beginning!” Nitri said as Sylvester placed the ID inside his pocket.

“Alright thanks.” Sylvester said and then gave the twins a salute. Once Sylvester moved out of the way, Artian was the next in line for the registration. Without speaking a word he handed over his ID to the twins.

“Registering for the Festival as well as a solo entry?” Tinri asked.

“Yes please.” Artian replied immediately.

Rossa and Estelle then did the same set of actions and registered themselves for the event, causing more whispers and murmurs to erupt from the crowd.

“Wait, are they all planning to enter as a solo group and still work together? But why? Three of them aren’t going to get any rewards!” Julia asked.

Charn scoffed at Julia’s question, causing her to gain the attention of their group.

“It’s kind of obvious what those four are planning to do.” Charn said in an annoyed voice.

“Oh really? Please do tell! Because to me it seems like those four are simply setting themselves up for failure.” Julia responded.

“Did you forget about that one other reward?” Sharn asked the clueless Julia.

“Which one? The one where you can ask to be exempted for a rule- Oh I get it now.” Julia suddenly had an epiphany when she remembered this fact.

“Yes, it seems those four intend to make use of that request and make their own organization. That way they can have a sort of loophole to get by and ignore the rules.” William explained.

“But why though? Won’t it be easier to just join a bigger organization?” Julia asked.

“Yeah sure, but sometimes people just don’t want that and there's probably a more in depth reason for their decision.” Sharn answered. “Still, I’m more surprised that that Sylvester guy managed to get Miss Argentum to his side. Not only that but they seem to have a good relationship.”

William and his friends shifted their attention toward the girl with the Crimson eyes who stood there in silence. Her presence seemed to stand out even while a confrontation was brewing between Sylvester and Clarence that everything else might as well just be background noise.

“Yeah, now that you mentioned it. Wasn’t Miss Argentum that girl who glared at William a few days back?” Julia recounted.

Those words caused William to choke on his own saliva as it brought back memories of his encounter with Rossa. He was being chased by Letisia and in his distress he tripped over and almost fell on Rossa who was passing by.

Thankfully Rossa managed to move out of the way while he and Letisia only received a very stern warning from her in return. He could still feel her icy cold glare piercing into his soul, like he was being judged silently for his actions.

“Oh yeah, when we managed to catch up to you we were treated to a show of you and that rude girl, standing quietly all afraid. It was funny how not even the self proclaimed great Letisia was unable to stand her ground against our guest.” Mary recounted.

“Yes.” Sharn then interjected. “Even if this isn’t her home she still gives a powerful presence that demands respect. I can tell she trained for a long time to achieve that level of poise.”

“Yeah, I can see that too.” William agreed.

“I wonder what that Sylvester guy did to get such a scary person to be his friend.” Julia said as she placed her index finger on her cheek. “From how Miss Argentum acts you would assume the crowd she would attract would be like Letisia, the snobby types.” She added.

“Now you’re just being rude.” Sharn interjected.

“Well for one, Sylvester probably didn’t almost fall over her and accidentally touch places that shouldn’t be touched. Right, William?” Mary said in a sweet voice that was oozing sarcasm.

“I-it was an accident I swear!” To which William immediately tried to defend himself.

Once Sylvester’s group left the scene, the usual routine took place with the Clarentum Inquisitors and the Guardians of truth submitting their list of participants while the rest of the smaller groups submitted theirs.

But not all of the organizations in Inanis Orbis were interested in the festival, for some, they only went to the plaza to observe in silence, waiting for something interesting to happen.

Among the crowd, there was a small girl silently spectating amongst the crowd.

She was wearing the school uniform but was downsized to suit her stature. On her hand was a small black parasol made from a thin almost see through material that didn’t seem to be able to block the sun’s light.

Her gaze and attention however, was solely focused on one group.

“Birds of the same feather, flock together. It seems like that saying also applies to monsters as well.” She said as she twirled her parasol.

“What a wonderfully odd batch we have this year. I almost feel sorry for the rest of them.” The little girl then smiled as she slowly walked away.