"You said you didn't want revenge." Michian swallowed the last spoonful of creamy soup and spoke softly, so quietly that even Rocky, who was sitting close by, could barely hear him. "But you still came to this banquet."

"For a mid-level priest who earns less than twenty gold coins a month, there's no reason to refuse a luxurious feast." Rocky symbolically nibbled on a piece of flatbread throughout the meal, showing no interest in the abundance of food on the table.

"You know very well that this is not just a 'luxurious feast.' It's a microcosm of power. People come here for more than just a meal. Don't kid yourself." Rocky wanted to say that there were people like that, like Alice who was currently enjoying her meal with gusto. She appeared slim and delicate, but her appetite was comparable to that of a lion who had been hungry for half a month. She grabbed a pork elbow with her bare hands and stuffed it into her already full mouth, shocking everyone around her. It was as if she were treating the banquet as her own personal buffet.

But Rocky didn't want to associate himself with that person. He shouldn't let others think that he had anything to do with the gluttonous individual.

"There are only two types of people here: those who hold power and those who are about to hold power. If you still yearn for power, it means you haven't really let go." Michian turned his head and looked at Rocky, speaking so softly that Rocky doubted whether he had misheard. "I can help you."

"I'm full... Excuse me, Prince Michian." Rocky pushed his utensils forward and stood up, leaving without looking back. Although he knew that he had disappointed the person behind him yet again.

As he was about to exit the hall, he stopped. His gaze fell on Alice and stayed there. He didn't want to interrupt his disciple's meal. He stared blankly at the vacant chair behind Alice, which was engraved with her name.

Suddenly, he turned back and startled Michian, who was about to leave. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Rocky averted his gaze and quickly glanced at the glasses on the table. Then, he walked straight towards Cyrus.

He had overlooked something important. Every chair and every glass here was customized for a specific person. If the Student Union had invited him just to humiliate him, why would they bother preparing a set of cutlery for him?

There were only two people who had the authority to invite a student on behalf of the Student Union—the President and the Vice President. Since the Vice President didn't welcome him, it was clear that the person who had initially sent him the invitation wasn't Cyrus Caligula Celine, but his brother, Krius Caligula Celine, the President of the Student Union who couldn't attend the banquet.

"I want to see your brother." Rocky skipped all the pleasantries and went straight to the point. "Where is he?"

Cyrus ignored his words and continued to chat and raise his cup with the other members of the Student Union.

"Your brother must have told you what to do. Vice President Cyrus, please don't act recklessly." Rocky rudely put his hand on Cyrus' shoulder, but the latter didn't object. He just stopped talking to his companions.

Of course, he wouldn't dare object. The hand placed on his shoulder by Rocky was quickly gathering water elements. Despite the late summer night, Cyrus felt an unusual coldness. He realized that he had made a huge mistake—provoking a mage without any precautions, ignoring his brother's advice. Regardless of how powerful the Celine family was, at this moment, his life was firmly held by the blue-haired teenager behind him.

"My brother... is... waiting for you... at the entrance of the academy." Cyrus trembled, feeling the coldness and fear flowing into his body from the bony, pale hand. Every word he spoke was squeezed out of his teeth. "You're already... too late. He said... he would only wait for you... for twenty minutes, starting from the beginning of the banquet."

"You should have told me this at the beginning of the banquet, instead of preparing all those fancy ways to welcome me, shouldn't you?" Rocky leaned down and whispered softly, as if he were talking to a close friend.

Cyrus's companions noticed the abnormality between the two, but they didn't realize the seriousness of the situation. They only thought Rocky was asking for forgiveness from the host of the banquet... Well, this wasn't new for a renegade like him."I..." Cyrus felt his tongue freeze, but in the next moment, the icy feeling disappeared and the summer heat returned. He took a deep breath, his shirt soaked with cold sweat. It was only when he turned around angrily that he realized Rocky had already disappeared.

******************************

Rocky used all the acceleration magic he had to speed forward. The dense wind elements around him almost lifted him off the ground. He swiftly passed through the college's forest, his black ceremonial robe fluttering in the wind like a night owl flying close to the ground.

In the end, when he arrived at the entrance of the college, the alchemical motorcycle with the student council emblem was still there. The side door of the motorcycle was open, with a wind lamp hanging on it, silently welcoming its visitors.

"I thought you would only wait for twenty minutes?" As soon as Rocky got on, a attendant emerged from the shadows and closed the door for him. The alchemical motorcycle started with a low rumble and quickly disappeared.

"I just hope you'll be on time, after all, this thing is precious to anyone." Crey sat beside him, smiling as he played with a sealed letter in his hand. He looked similar to his brother, with brown hair and a slightly higher nose bridge that hooked at the tip. However, his eye sockets were deeper, his eyes darker, almost black, giving him a somewhat gloomy appearance. The smile on his face was not attractive at all, lacking warmth and sincerity, making people feel uncomfortable.

"But you were half an hour late... It seems mischievous Cyrus was throwing a tantrum again. I will scold him properly." Crey may not be much older than Cyrus, but in terms of speaking, he sounded like Cyrus' elder.

"Thank you for your help." Rocky nodded. "But aren't you worried that I won't come?"

"You will come, no matter how late. You are a person trapped in a well."

"Oh?"

"A person trapped in a well has no choice but to either grab the rope hanging down or sit and wait for death, be it a hemp rope or a venomous snake. Rocky Oxias, who would kill his own sister to save himself, is not the kind of person to sit and wait for death."

"Sounds like if I don't come tonight, I won't survive tomorrow."

"It won't be that extreme, but there won't be too many 'tomorrows' for you." Crey gave another chilling smile. "You have appeared in front of the important figures of the empire again. They are not blind... You have become an inheritor mage and infiltrated the Messiah Holy Academy. It's obvious that you've come back for revenge. I wonder how many important figures can't resist the urge to crush you."

"I am grateful for the Church's forgiveness. My people have committed grave crimes, and death is what they deserve. I have no grievances to settle." Rocky spoke these words for the third time in the past few days.

"If you don't say that, you won't survive two hours... One of those hours will be spent listening to the judge reading out your charges, which are tens of thousands of words long."

Rocky raised an eyebrow, not giving a definite answer. He looked out the window, and it was clear that the car was heading towards the outskirts of the city. The architecture style and materials were transitioning from noble to commoner. "Where are we going?"

"Prison." Crey said, "the Black Prison, the largest and most secure prison in all of Nomenge, even in the entire Reles Empire. It houses the most dangerous criminals who have caused immense harm to the country."

"Am I one of those dangerous criminals?"

"Of course not." Crey shook his head. "You are a hero of suppressing the rebellion. The Senate and the Pope personally pardoned your sins... But you need to meet certain people there, people who can only be found there."

"You mean the prisoners of the Oxias family." Rocky said. "Why do you want me to meet them?"

"This starts from the extermination of the Oxias family..." Crey said, "The Senate appointed the Sela family to divide up the remaining assets of the Oxias family. Anything useful will be handed over to the treasury, and anything worthless will be destroyed." Crey unfolded the letter in his hand, with densely packed numbers written on it, as if there were a nest of ants crawling inside the paper. "It took the Sela family three whole years to complete this... The Oxias family, known as the Cross Lament that shed blood for the Church for three hundred years, possesses wealth that could buy the entire Nomenge... We cleared all the visible assets, and the Senate is very satisfied with this.""Celine's family tried their best to seize the opportunity to clear the Oxias family's legacy, but wasted three years and achieved nothing, right?" Rocky read more from Criere's words.

"Well, you could say that," Criere nodded and admitted. "But the senior members of the family unanimously believe that the Oxias family still holds a fortune, which is the goal of the Celine family... This goal was hinted at recently and is hidden in this Oxias family's treasury account book. Do you want to take a look?"

Rocky didn't want to look at the family's account book. Being able to find clues from so many scattered accounts, the Celine family was indeed determined. "Just tell me."

"Well, to put it simply, we checked every large sum of money in and out of the Oxias family's accounts for the past three hundred years, and we found that there was a significant amount of money disappearing every year, and it was concealed by a large number of accounts, making it less noticeable."

"How much gold coins?"

"How much gold coins?" Criere repeated Rocky's question, then tightly clenched the list of account book in his hand. "Two hundred thousand gold coins per year, uninterrupted for three hundred and seventeen years... a total of six million three hundred and forty thousand gold coins, even more than the Imperial treasury. It's truly wealthy enough to rival a country."

"But I don't know where this money is."

"Of course, because the person who controls this money should be the future clan leader. The Oxias family has always been a matriarchal clan, and there are not many qualified candidates to inherit the position of clan leader. The one with the purest bloodline is your sister and your younger sister, but as far as I know, Laylie Dolaville Oxias is obsessed with magical research and doesn't care about material possessions at all. So, there is only one person left."

Criere turned his head to look at Rocky, his eyes seemed to darken a few shades, deep and cold, like the night outside the window. "The person you are about to meet now is your own younger sister - Lilia Dolaville Oxias."