章節 57: End Of The Entrance Ceremony [2]
*Click*
The sound of a bathroom door unlocking caused everyone in the room to go silent, and the moment Lloyd walked back into the room, he could not help but feel like something had changed.
"You took awfully long in there. What were you doing?" Layla asked with narrowed eyes.
"You know you shouldn't ask a teenager that question without giving them context, right?" Lloyd asked, causing Layla to contemplate his words until-
"Oh you little- Mmmmmhmmm." Before she could mutter another word, she felt a hand seal her mouth before someone else spoke on her behalf.
"Lloyd, we know..." Benjamin spoke before a tense silence fell on the room, causing everyone to hold their breath for a moment, waiting to hear Lloyd's answer.
"You know?" Lloyd asked with a solemn expression.
Seeing this as a sign of Lloyd being guilty of something he did, Benjamin carried on-
"Hey... don't worry. You're not in trouble, and we're not judging you.
We just want you to talk to us. Tell us your troubles so we can help or even fix them for you..." Benjamin spoke in a soft and caring voice, one that would have made most trust them with their life the same way a group of adventurers trusted their captain.
"Really?" Lloyd asked with a look of hope on his face.
"Yes! Of course. I am your uncle Ben, remember? You used to tell me... You used to tell us everything, and now we feel like you're keeping your distance." Benjamin explained, making tears well up in Lloyd's eyes.
"You can trust everyone here. Noah and Olivia are your parents and will love you no matter what. Ana and Elana are your older sisters and, despite their harshness, love you just as much as your parents do." Benjamin looked at them, causing them to all nod with a smile. However, before he could continue, Zack quickly stepped forward.
"You might not think the same, but you are my best friend and like a brother to me. We might fight here and there, but that's what brothers do." Zack smiled, making a warm feeling go through Lloyd's heart.
Zack is his best friend... Hell, Zack is like a twin brother Lloyd never had. He's always been there for him, so Lloyd has always done the same and been there for Zack.
Turning around, Benjamin Looked at Layla so she could say something, yet all she did was stare at Lloyd with narrowed eyes, as if she was eyeing her prey.
Her eye did seem to twitch when she heard Zack, but Benjamin felt that it wasn't the words themselves that caused the reaction...
Her expression seemed to morph into one mixed with guilt, pity, and confusion... And even though her husband couldn't understand why she would make such an expression, he continued to watch as everything unfolded, waiting for Lloyd to finally confess.
"Is this room sound-proofed?" Lloyd questioned.
"Now it is." Lloyd's father snapped his fingers before giving his son a warm and encouraging smile.
"Uhm... Well..." Lloyd scratched the back of his neck before finally closing his eyes and blurting out-
"I've been secretly going to dungeons with this girl I met!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Wow... It feels so good to finally say it out loud. Well, I guess you guys already knew..." Lloyd looked around with an aloof expression before a look of suspicion washed over his face.
"Hey, wait. Why do you guys seem surprised?" Lloyd asked.
"Is that it?" Elana couldn't help but blurt out, causing everyone but Layla and Lloyd to glare at her.
"Well, I expected something a little more... How do I say this?" Ana scratched her chin.
"Life changing?" Elana rolled her eyes.
"Well, thank god it was only that. For a second there, I thought he was about to tell us he swings the other way." Delly sighed in relief, making everyone look at her suspiciously.
"I can't believe I was tricked into telling you guys..." Lloyd muttered before finally deciding to turn around and walk out of the room.
"So when do I get to meet this girl? Don't worry, I'll try to hold all this charm back so she doesn't fall for me or anything." Zack snickered while everyone other than his mother rolled their eyes at his comment.
"Now that you're talking about it, how about we invite her over? Maybe we can get to know her better." Ana smiled, yet that only made Lloyd more terrified of what Ana would do if he had actually gotten a girlfriend behind their backs.
The killing intent laced behind her words almost killed him sixfold already, so what would happen if they actually met her?
'Well, it's not like this girl is real anyway. I kind of just thought of rosepetal so it wouldn't come out as a lie to Mrs. Glade.' Lloyd inwardly facepalmed before facing his sister-
"I don't think that would be a good idea. We're not a couple or anything, so you don't have to worry about me. We just kinda have a squad of our own, and we have been conquering dungeons here and there." Lloyd explained.
"So why did you single her out, huh?" Elana asked, this time with a smug smile on her face as if she was trying to get him in trouble.
"Ooh? So you like her? That's my guy!" Zack let out a vibrant smile before wrapping his arm around Lloyd and walking out of the room.
The moment Lloyd left, they all let out a collective sigh of relief. Everyone but Layla...
"What's wrong now? Did he lie again... Please don't tell me he lied again!" Olivia asked as a look of exhaustion washed over her face before tears filled her eyes.
"He didn't lie... Everything he said was the truth." Layla explained, yet despite her words, they all felt like something was wrong with the way she was saying them.
"Mom. Why are you making that face?" Delly asked.
Layla wasn't stupid, but she was more of a true neutral than someone who would actively fix things whenever they saw them. That was simply her personality, and despite wanting to get to the end of the situation with Lloyd, the urge to sit back and watch everything unfold was much greater.
She knew that Lloyd was hiding much more... She could see it in his eyes, and she could feel it in the hurricane that he called his emotions.
She felt his heart switch from a calculating one to one filled with warmth when he heard everyone speak...
Yet, it also meant that she felt as his heart change instantly, morphing from a warm and fuzzy sensation that would shine hope of everything around it, to one filled with guilt, sadness, and acceptance.
She felt as if she had watched a boy's heartbreak right before her before that same heart formed once again as it accepted the hand it had been dealt...
"Because despite that fact that I know he was telling the truth...
I have a feeling that he fooled us all."
***
It had been almost a week since the entrance ceremony, and Lloyd had learned many things since then.
Firstly, Zack did not forget to show off the fact that he had gotten first on the second exam, yet when Lloyd heard the information, he made sure to promptly explain to Zack that the only reason that he had gotten 1st had been because he had the perfect team...
A [Berzerker] with an [Anti-debuff] passive, a healer with a lot more brains than brawns, a third person capable of taking care of a mini-boss on their own, and two fodders to throw at the bosses whenever they needed. Who could ask for more?
Anyway, besides that, there was something else Lloyd found much more fascinating than Zack's little win.
Secondly, apparently his performance had been good enough to wow the hearts of 5 of the top 6 academies, one of them being both the Royal Elizabeth Academy, run by Principal Windsor.
Of course, Lloyd also got invitations from higher academies, such as Discordia University, run by no other than Principal Relworth, as well as the Crimson Lightsinger Academy, the Caraxes academy, and the Crow Academy.
However, there was one application that caught Lloyd's attention before the rest, literally because they had come several days before the rest had come in, including Relworth's.
[Military Academy - Special Invitation]
[We would like to invite you to join the military academy. This is not only a way to reach new heights, but it's also a way for the youth to find a way to serve the human race while accomplishing their goals.]
[We do not look at your political power, nor do we look at your family background. While anyone past the initial stages of the first commandment is allowed to join the academy, after watching your spectacular performance at the entrance ceremony, you have decided to send you a special invitation where you will be taught by the best of the best and groomed into a powerful warrior.]
The invitation went on and on for a bit about all the resources they could give and all the important people who graduated from the academy, mainly 7-star Generals and above.
Since Lloyd was reading all this on his watch, he quickly swiped past a lot of the information he deemed unreasonable and promptly reached the images and thoroughly analyzed them, looking through pictures of the facilities, teachers, and prizes for being the top student of the year.
For several days, Lloyd looked through the list of academies that invited him, yet by the 7th day, he could not help but sigh with restlessness.
He had practically done nothing for an entire week.
He had been struggling with the trauma of basically dying, but over the last seven days, it had been getting better and better. Of course, he knew that sitting around and doing nothing wouldn't help him get over the trauma, but what could he do.
His every move was being watched, and he couldn't leave the house without supervision or everyone panicking whenever he was gone for a single second.
On the other hand, he was not about to mope around and cry himself to sleep, so he did the only thing he could.
Of course, he trained with Benjamin, Zack, his sisters, and even his parents at times, but they all always had their own things to do, and none of them stayed awake the entire night.
Lloyd could feel his progress stagnating, and now that he once again found himself doing nothing but looking at the ceiling, he finally made a decision...
'Zack and his father have been going to dungeons basically every day... Why shouldn't I do the same? They might be watching me, but...'
A smile extended across Lloyd's face before his shadow extended and an exact replica of Lloyd began to come out of the ground.
'What if I never left?'
***
Deep within a world held together by lightning, a bare-chested man floated in the sky with golden lightning crackling around his body, and shooting into the sky and ground depending on which is closer.
The man's aura was that of a king's. No... It was that of a monarch, capable of destroying planets with a single swipe of his hands. Yet, from a single glance, one could tell that he was a warrior as his body was littered in scars, each one telling a different story about a worthy enemy who had forced the man to fight to his heart's desire.
However, in that very moment, one could not see his warrior spirit, nor could they feel his powerful aura that would have made most kneel...
After all, how could they feel the man's aura when its being squashed by the sheer presence of another figure?
"Eris! What is the meaning of this!" The man roared, causing the winds around him to pick up while the sound of thunder echoed around them.
"Calm yourself, Thor." The woman spoke, instantly silencing the rumbling clouds with the sound of her voice alone.
"Calm myself?! Have you gone mad?! How could you give a newborn so much power!?" Thor's voice was filled with malice as it thundered through the skies, yet, despite the rage boiling within his veins, he couldn't help but take a step back as a pair of violet eyes stared into his soul.
"You would never understand..." She smiled wickedly, making a shiver go down Thor's spine the moment he saw it.
"One day... One day the universe will bathe in chaos..."
"And my weapon will be in the center of it all." Eris spoke while turning around and opening her arms wide, revealing the sight of the once tall lightning mountains that spanned for dozens of miles, now reduced to nothing but scorched rubble with the burned corpse of a three eyed goat laying in the middle of it all.
***
Looking at his watch, Lloyd stared at the purple blinking light before looking up at the portal spanning at 3 meters in radius, between a forest of trees in the middle of one of the bigger parks in the city.
After having walked in circles for half an hour, he had finally found it, and despite expecting a crowd to be outside it, waiting for the officials to let them in, Lloyd was surprised to see absolutely no one there, which was one of the reasons Lloyd found it so hard to find the place.
His map wasn't very reliable when it came to areas without buildings.
"Oh yeah... Purple meant unauthorized, didn't it..." Lloyd smiled before placing his hand a few inches away from the spacial tear before closing his eyes. Of course, the scene of his body being scorched by his own mana entered his mind straight away, yet despite not being used to it, he forced himself to put it to the back of his mind as he absorbed some of the mana from the spacial tear to see how strong it was.
"Mid-Stage First Commandment... So most monsters will be around the initial stages of the first commandment, and the boss will be at the late stages of the first commandment... Which I think I can deal with? I'm not sure if that wasp counted as a boss-level late first commandment..." Lloyd scratched his chin before simply shrugging and walking into the spacial tear, completely oblivious to the fact that this would be a turning point in his life...
Unaware of the fact that this very dungeon would change everything up until this point.
{End of Volume 1}
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