(Alice POV)

"After what happened I lost my position as the prince's fiancée. My and Lapis family didn't receive our current predicament very well so to regain some "pride" they disinherited us, snatching our titles as nobles. Although Lance tried everything to protect us, in the end, he couldn't prevent our fall. I must say, we were lucky that the Fari family are good people, as they supported us even though we lost our positions. I'm very grateful for the help of Fari's family."(Rine)

After hearing the complete story my eyes were completely red from crying, they were forsaken by everyone because of a contract with a low-rank spirit, why was everyone so cruel? I was sad and frustrated by the stupid logic they used to chase away them.

"But... Why did they do that? If you have a low-rank spirit then this could be easily resolved by ranking up your spirits, right?"(Alice)

"If this could be so easy to resolve then Lapis and I wouldn't have been forsaken by our families. Is very rare for a person to raise their stars. One person, if it's lucky enough, can raise their number of stars once or twice in their lives. There are some fictional stories where people raised their stars to ten, but those stories are usually told to the kids to make them work hard.

If this is a miracle for a human then imagine how difficult is for a spirit to raise a rank. They possess an almost infinite life, they wander in the astral plane for centuries and they fight between them to grow stronger and rank up.

Because of this, they take decades, centuries, and even millenniums to simply raise one rank, this is of course if they managed to survive countless bloodsheds. With that in mind, do you think is that easy for a spirit to rank up?" (Rine)

I had nothing to say at Rine's explanation. Because Azazel and I raised our stars and rank so fast I thought it was normal, but now I'm more aware of our abnormality.

"If that's the case, I have an idea of how to surpass that threshold... But I will need time to research if it's safe and plausible."(Fayna)

Hearing an unexpected solution coming out of nowhere made us turn at the witch in shock. Her face didn't show any lie or deception, meaning she had a way to increase the growth of a person.

"Let's set aside that for the future, right now we need to talk about your future training.

Fari Aurum, from your information we know that you belong to the combat department, you possess a lightning attribute, seven stars, a fourth rank spirit, and you are specialized in close combat, but you are weak in long-range combat and under covered missions. From here on now you will polish your close combat skills by training with me. I'll teach you how to fight against long-range opponents.

Rine Undin, you belong to the support department, you possess a water attribute, eight stars, a fourth rank spirit, and you are specialized in healing and medicine, but your grades in combat and other support roles are lackluster. You will be learning from the academy head doctor the theory of medicine and healing arts, your practice field will be together with Fari Aurum. There I will teach you how to support your teammates and Alice's fighting style, after all, I think that her fighting style is very suitable for you.

But you two... Alice and Lapis Sign... both of you are a special case

Lapis Sign, you belong to the engineering department with astonishing grades in every course except forging. But what left me intrigued wasn't your possession of seven stars or your fourth rank spirit, it's your dark attribute. Can you tell me why you, while possessing an attribute fit for under-covered missions, decided to join the engineering department?"(Fayna)

Lapis looked like expecting this question, so she took a step ahead and spoke with determination in her voice while looking at the eyes of the witch.

"Because I love the way the magical devices are made and how much knowledge I can get from them. I don't have a talent for fighting or supporting, but I still want to be useful to my team. Because of this, I opted for the engineering department, I'm certain that, even with a dark attribute, I can make useful magical devices for my teammates."(Lapis)

Lapis's answer left me speechless, I didn't know she wanted so hard to be useful to her team and friends. Her determination surely is backed by heavy emotions, she was the type of girl who is cold on the outside but with a warm heart inside.

"I want to refuse your idea... but looking at your grades I can only retreat in defeat. Still, you need to train your dark attribute for combat, from now on you will train for undercover missions and combat tactics together with your engineer skills.

And finally, you Alice."(Fayna)

Lastly, the witch looked at me with a serious and frustrated expression before sighing in exasperation.

"You recently joined the academy and I know your skills, even your hidden skills... But we need to keep your team informed about you, so I will tell them about your skills and talent. Alice, you possess four stars with a fourth rank spirit, you are specialized in close combat, long-range combat, and exploration but you are weak in the areas of exorcism, protection, and curses... your training will be--- Mn? The three of you, why are you looking so confused?"(Fayna)

"You said curses, right? Isn't Alice a light spiritualist?"(Fari)

It seems we need to start from there... well, I should have seen this coming, as their eyes were demanding answers immediately. Hearing the confused voices of the girls gave the witch a smug smile while feeling satisfied, it was obvious she did this on purpose.

"I left the best for the end. She forgot to explain something about her while explaining her identity, she is an abomination who possesses two attributes, a light attribute, and a devil attribute."(Fayna)

"Who are you calling abomination!!!"(Alice)

"TW-RWO?!?!"(Fari)

"Light and Devil!?"(Rine)

"......!?"(Lapis)

And with just a few words a pandemonium fell in the room, although I was angry at her words the glares of Rine, Lapis, and Fari were so strong I couldn't maintain my anger at the witch.

"Because of this you will be training with the woman at my side, I can't reveal her identity but I can tell you she has even more combat experience than me. It's a shame that I can't train you anymore, I'll miss seeing you suffer from my training."(Fayna)

As always, seeing the cheap acting of the witch gave me a desire of punching the witch in the face from the bottom of my soul, but for the sake of the conversation, I will let that slide. I ignored the smug face of the witch and proceed to look at the masked woman. My first impression of her was... I don't know how to say it, her appearance felt very familiar, almost as if I knew her from before. I focused my attention on her and tried to find the reason for that feeling. Unfortunately, in the end, I couldn't find anything aside from pity for her small chest.

For some reason when that thought crossed my mind, I felt for an instant a wave of strong anger and sympathy coming from her. I didn't dare to think about it so returned my sight to the witch.

"To end this, you still need to complete some missions and fight with other teams to qualify for the tournament. You still need two more members but in the meantime, we are going to follow this plan. This is all for now, you can go back to your rooms."(Fayna)

We nodded at the witch while leaving her office, making me excited about what was coming.

---

(Athena Hol POV)

"Aren't you going to hit me?"(Fayna)

Hearing Fayna asking for punishment was something new, I'm used to seeing her do awful things to accomplish her goals, but...

"... How could I hit you when you are making that face."(Athena)

At first, I had a great impulse to stop her when she pressured and threaten Alice. Even though I knew this was the plan from the beginning, when it started I almost couldn't endure watching it. But after Alice passed the test and left the room the expression on Fayna's face changed, I can say this is the second time I had seen her so sad.

Because of my response, Fayna looked at me with a sad smile.

"But are you ok with helping another nation? If someone knows about this you could be accused of treason you know?"(Fayna)

"I don't care. I claimed the title of the strongest to protect my family, not a nation."(Athena)

"You really are... can you even be a little more delicate about this?"(Fayna)

I don't care about a nation or other things. Ever since I claimed the title of the strongest I was resolved to use that power to protect my family.

"But, were you serious when you said you have a way for improving their ranks and stars? You know very well that the nova-stones are scarce."(Athena)

That doubt was in my mind ever since Fayna mentioned it. The only way I knew to increase the rank of a spirit in a short time was via nova-stones, but if we used that way then we would end up without money before they would reach a desirable level.

"I had more or less a hypothesis of how to resolve this problem, but I can't say is one hundred percent safe. I believe you remember Orie right?"(Fayna)

"Yes, I still need to punish you for what you did to her."(Athena)

I was confused by her question, why would she bring out Orie? Fayna fell in silence for a moment while looking like she was searching for a way to say what was in her mind.

"I don't know the full details, but when I met Orie she only possessed two stars and a water attribute. You could say it was the normal talent displayed from a commoner, but after training her for three years she reached a total of six stars and managed to make a contract with a fifth rank spirit."(Fayna)

...What? ...Wait... what... Wait a minute!? What kind of monster is she to reach six stars in only three years!?

"But how?! Even us, who are considered the most talented spiritualist in our generation only managed to raise two stars and one rank of our spirits in our entire life!"(Athena)

"Do you still remember the sudden increase of six and seven stars spiritualists in the prophets?"(Fayna)

"Don't tell me...."(Athena)

I couldn't believe what she was saying. Years ago, there was an unbelievable increase of powerful spiritualists in the ranks of the prophets, they devastated everything on their way and sacrificed many innocent lives. Because of this sudden invasion, the three nations were forced to join forces against them. That war was the first battlefield for Fayna, Chris, and me.

While the war was in progress, we managed to discover how they became stronger so fast. They devoured the flesh of a spiritualist and consumed their spirits, the worst part was they needed to eat the heart of a living person directly from their chest while being possessed by their devil spirits. I won't forget the sight of countless corpses scattered around their bases, all of them filled with despair.

"It's not what you think, they were under my supervision for three years so there is no way for them to do that. But strangely enough, this conversation reminded me of the previous leader of the prophets."(Fayna)

"Why is that?"(Athena)

"You know my flames are based on the concept of regeneration, right? Not only do they have healing and restoring properties, but they also are destructive and corrosive. I remember the time when we fought against the previous leader, as my flames barely managed to burn him. His powers were very strange, something we didn't see before... until now."(Fayna)

"So... you are saying that the prophets have a power related to the power inside of Alice?"(Athena)

"Not exactly... I would say that their powers are a degraded version of Alice's power. Think about it, if we fought against that kind of power at that time, then we wouldn't be alive today. After all, even my flames can't burn the unknown power of Alice." (Fayna)

Fayna was right. If the prophets had that kind of power, they wouldn't be struggling to destroy the world.

"Returning to the point. Orie's sudden gain of strength might be related to that power, but the drawbacks are very dangerous. I made her not tell a word about this or her true skills to Alice, as she still doesn't need to know this. That goes as well for the other three girls, it's too soon to talk about this. I don't want to hurt their friendship by telling them that Alice was the reason for their despair." (Fayna)

"You seem to like Alice a lot"(Athena)

Fayna shivered a little from my words, I knew she was too shy to reveal her feelings. Even though she always acts like a witch in front of Alice, in reality, she loves her so much that she looks at her like she is her own child.

"But you were really surprised when you met her. You couldn't believe that Alice would be so similar to you, right? Her attitude, her expressions, and even her worries about her chest----."(Fayna)

I silenced Fayna with a fast punch on her face, I couldn't endure her talking about my chest like that.

"If this is all you have to say then I'll see you later. I need to prepare the training session for Alice." (Athena)

"Yeah, see you later."(Fayna)

I left the office and went to my assigned room, I was going to give Alice better training than the one Fayna gave her.