章 44: Outstanding Affinity

"No, I don't blame you anymore." Schwartz shook his head and continued, "To tell you the truth, I was also suspicious about this whole thing. Because I read in my family records that the black dragon empire was our empire's enemy, you were alive. But the current empire had a friendly relationship with it, and the royal family would ignore even when the black dragon empire's people humiliated or killed our empire's people and exploited our lands. It all seemed unnatural to me, and after learning the truth, I don't have anything to blame you."

The crimson monarch sighed and murmured, "It seems that bastard turned my empire into a plaything of black dragon empire."

He then asked Schwartz about the current situation in more detail and asked about his family etc.

While they chatted, everyone waited patiently, and no one showed any dissatisfaction after learning about their story and knew that they had a lot to talk about.

Max looked at them chatting and noticed that there wasn't any tension between them any longer, and as his thoughts trailed off, he sighed, "Worst that can happen to someone is to be betrayed by the person you trusted in."

....

...Viscount Mansion, Max's room...

Lilly came back with her stuff in the room. Although she didn't take caiyi's words to her heart and tried to ignore them, Her mood undoubtedly soured. She wanted to hug and talk to Max to calm her agitated heart but was disappointed when she didn't find him in the room.

She then looked toward the bathroom, and after arriving near it, she asked aloud, "M-Max, are you in the bathroom?"

When she didn't hear any response, she peeked inside to see whether he had fallen asleep in the bathtub because he was tired after walking around the market. Unfortunately, the Bathroom was also empty.

"He must have gone out." She sighed and lay on the bed, exhausted. "He loves me, right? Or Would he not care about me anymore after he got bored of my body?" She murmured, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

...

Max didn't know that a young maiden's heart who loved him the most and had given her everything was feeling weak and was having doubts regarding their relationship after someone pointed on their relationship.

He was waiting for Schwartz and Crimson Monarch to finish their talk so that he could also take the test and check his affinity. For some reason, he had a feeling that his affinity would not lose out to Schwartz.

If any of the people present knew what he was thinking, they would surely laugh at him. It was already good to have a six-meter halo of affinity, let alone seven meters or more, and he was thinking that he had affinity surpassing Even Schwartz.

After chatting for a while, Schwartz came back to his altar. The crimson monarch then looked at Max and said, "Come, kid, It's your turn." His voice wasn't rigid like before, and his expression was also not too serious.

Max jumped down and walked toward him and bowed slightly in respect, and introduced himself. "My name is Max. An unofficial two-star mage."

The crimson monarch looked at him with slight surprise. "I didn't expect the successor ring to choose a two-star mage. You must have outstanding talent, kid. Go on, test yourself."

Max walked forward and put his hand on the crystal orb. After that, he controlled his mana and directed it towards the orb. His control wasn't good, but fortunately, he was able to insert his mana.

The Crystal orb started glowing with red light and slowly became brighter. Max took a few steps back and watched as the halo expanded around the orb.

Half meter... one meter... two meters... four meters... five meters... six meters...

Crunch!

Max clenched his fists so tightly that it made a crackling sound. "Keep expanding..." Max muttered in a low voice.

Six and a half meters...

Aaron gritted his teeth when Max's halo reached six and a half meters. He didn't expect a little two-star mage to have such high affinity. Even though he knew that age or strength level had little effect on one's elemental affinity. Moreover, the red halo didn't show any sign of stopping yet.

Seven meters...

Margaret stared at the seven-meter halo and then Max's back, who was focused on the halo. She couldn't see the expression he was making, but she was sure that he must be ecstatic now. "Well, he deserves to be happy when his affinity is comparable to mine." But she was shocked to realise that the halo was still slowly expanding.

Seven and a half meters...

"Haha, I knew this kid had good talent, but it seems he is even brighter than I expected." Schwartz laughed.

A little less than Eight meters...

Boom!

Everyone felt a shock similar to before, but this one didn't send anyone flying. Schwartz and others looked at the source to see the Crimson monarch with an ecstatic face looking at Max as if he was a priceless treasure.

After reaching eight meters red halo stopped expanding, and the crimson monarch's face had a little disappointed look for a second before it returned to a happy one again.

Phew!

Max exhaled the breath he was holding in. He was satisfied with his result as his affinity turned out to be higher than the rest of the successors. But at the same time, he was a little disappointed as it couldn't reach eight meters.

He had realised the fact that his affinity with the fire element was quite good when he made the [ Fireball ] spell without anyone's help. That time anna and Emily were very surprised by the fact that he could cast an attack spell without learning it before.

"Kid, you have a great affinity with fire. There are only a rare few who has such high affinity without practising any special technique. I expect good performance in the next trial too." The crimson monarch praised.