One Last System

Mia slowly pried her eyes open.

She woke up the second the sun reached the right angle to cast its rays right on her face.

'It's like the shuts are designed to wake one up at this precise hour,' Mia thought, dissatisfied with such an inconvenience.

But there was no downside to waking up early.

Mia pushed her legs off the edge of her bed and jumped down on the floor.

'So this is the day,' she thought, stretching her arms up and watching how her bust pushed her undercloth up.

There wasn't any sign of anxiety on the girl's face. She calmly walked over to the shelf, pulling out the set of elegant clothes provided by the sect.

'How stiff,' Mia thought, casting a glance at the robe.

Contrary to the usual set, the challenger robes were all white with a bit of black and red decal on their shoulder pads.

'This is going to be one hell of an uncomfortable ride,' Mia commented as she pulled her suit up and prepared for the day.

Once done with her robe, Mia moved to the middle of her room, looking through the last few papers that she did yesterday night.

Her work for yesterday was done, but she still liked to connect to what she did previously. In this way, she wouldn't need to get into the proper mindset when going to work later, as she would be already in the know.

Mia grabbed some fruit pieces on the go, sending them down with a few gulps of water from the cup she prepared yesterday night.

The look on Mia's face... was tense.

Still, without any clue about what happened to the auction hall, unsure whether Arthur had already arrived at the sect or not, Mia wasn't just anxious.

She was distressed to the limits of her sanity.

'But no matter what, I can only help by drawing attention to myself,' Mia thought, steeling herself for what was about to happen.

Knock, knock.

"Mia, you there?" a familiar voice reached out through the gaps of the door.

"Come in," Mia replied, recognizing the voice on the go. "I'm almost ready," she added before the guest could even attempt to open the doors.

Veila entered the building, only to carefully close the doors behind her. She then took a glance at Mia's face only to avert her eyes a moment later.

"It was... weird," Veila said, not sure how to put her feelings in words.

"Huh?" Mia shrugged, the surprise forcing her out of her tense state of mind. "What do you mean, weird?" she asked, keen to learn more details.

"Apparently," Veila swallowed down her saliva, "there was a huge fire at the office wing of the auction hall building," she reported obediently but refused to look Mia in the eyes.

Veila then shook her head.

"This was the official explanation of the event," Veila informed, gulping down. "But it didn't match what I saw," she added a moment later.

"Speak clearly," Mia said, twisting her lips in an ugly grimace. "What did you see?" she pressed the issue.

She was unable to obtain any news for the entire night. Only now she could finally learn something about the recent news.

In other words, Mia didn't have a lot of her patience left.

"The guards were all over the place," Veila finally moved on to the main point of her report. "There is no way the place would be guarded so much if it was just a simple fire incident," Veila added, lowering her eyes as she started to think over what she saw.

'Well, that's unless you know what I am,' Mia thought, stopping herself from releasing a deep sigh of exhaustion.

'Still, the only thing I can do now is to draw Sangakarts attention away,' she told herself, shaking her head and turning towards the doors of the house.

"Shall we get going?" Mia asked, moving towards the doors. She then looked to the back at Veila's face. "The ceremony is right around the corner!"

Mia moved out of the building. She passed through the one alley that separated her lodging from the training grounds with just a few steps.

"Morning," Sander raised his hand in greeting. Behind him, the young couple of their group continued to make out just like they always did, not paying any attention to the world around them.

"Are we all ready?" Mia asked, taking a quick glance at her friends before looking over to where they would go soon.

"Yeah, all set and ready to blast!" Sander smiled with a satisfied look on his face.

His hand caressed the pommel of his new weapon, a saber crafted as per order Mia placed at the auction hall.

"Let's not waste our time, then," Mia nodded her head, turning her eyes away and pushing towards the outer part of the sect.

Their group finally encountered the two other participants from their sect only at the entrance to the plaza where the event would take place.

'Don't let them set you off,' Mia lectured herself, wary of traps that the sponsored two could lay for her.

Yet, despite all the conflict they had in the past, neither Dirk nor Kathia acted suspiciously.

"Are you ready?" Veila suddenly nudged Mia's back before asking in a low voice.

"Huh?" Mia shrugged. "Ready for what?" she asked, puzzled by the sudden inquiry.

'Did she realize that this is all just for show?' Mia's initial thought ran through her head, trying to connect the dots.

'Nah, there is no way,' Mia calmed down a little, raising her eyes and looking up at Veila's face.

"What do you mean, for what?" Veila echoed Mia's words, a wide smile forming upon her lips. "You are about to meet that oppressor of yours, aren't you?" she brought up, her smile widening.

'Ah, so that's what she's going about,' Mia thought, enlightened by the few words of explanation.

"Aren't you excited to see who you are going up against?"

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