Kiernan stood under a streetlamp, its light falling over him like a spotlight on a stage.
It seemed like it was night, but the people of the city seemed to never sleep and continued their business as always.
While waiting for his friend to return from his scouting trip, he saw school students walk by—they were wearing uniforms in the school colors.
The male students had full red uniforms—blazers and trousers—while the female students had red skirts and white blouses.
Nightingale had only one school, but it was world-famous for the powerhouses of talent it produced.
While Nightingale was tier 2 island in strength, its talents usually go to tier 1 countries to hone their skills even further.
Kiernan looked away and sipped his energy drink.
Then, he saw Julian on the other side of the road—he came from the direction of Abracadabra Castle—he then crossed the street with a jog.
"What did you find?" Kiernan asked.
"One-way entrance," Julian said. "A bridge. It's usually raised, but it was down when I got there as it looked like some of the Abracadabra children returned from school.
"However, I saw that there were a lot of servants in the castle—like a lot—probably in the hundreds, which isn't really a surprise because the Abracadabra family is enormous."
"Hmm, so sneaking inside isn't an option." Kiernan frowned. "Go in as a servant?"
"That's a no-go; the guards have a list of all servants, and they always ask for identification papers before entering. They are taking the security very seriously."
Kiernan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, considering his options.
"How will we find your mother?" Julian asked. "We don't know anything about her."
To answer his question, Kiernan brought out his phone and showed his camera app.
"I thought about taking pictures and sending them to father for confirmation. It has been a long time since he has seen her, sure, but I feel like he hadn't really forgotten about her."
Julian nodded and then shrugged his shoulders.
"I really don't have any idea how to enter that castle. Your mother is bound to leave that castle one day, right? We can stay on standby, take pictures of any adult women who leave the castle, and send them to your father."
"Yes, but…" Kiernan clicked his tongue. "I don't know."
"Shall we go back to the inn? I heard they sell some banging bacon cheeseburgers over there. I don't know about you, but I am starving!"
"You go ahead, Julian." Kiernan said and took a sip of the energy drink. "I'll catch up with you later."
Julian patted him on the shoulder and headed back over to Foaming Drink Inn with his mouth almost salivating at the thought of the bacon cheeseburger.
Kiernan crushed the energy drink in his hand and absent-mindedly tossed it away, but when it flew for about a meter, it disappeared into thin air.
It entered his inventory.
Kiernan then slipped his hands inside his pockets and walked down the cobblestone road. He listened to the laughter of the students happily enjoying their after-school hours.
"Should we go visit the Game?" A male student asked with a smirk. "I feel like doing my personal best today!"
"You still trying to do a sub-ten-minute run? How long have you been at it?"
The female students giggled.
"Today will be the day!"
The students then waved their hands to attract the attention of the carriage driver, hopped in, and then left.
Kiernan stopped by the sidewalk and saw another carriage coming down the road. He raised his right hand and waved to hail the driver.
The carriage stopped by his feet.
"Young man, there's already two passengers, if you don't mind company!"
Kiernan moved his hand in the pocket and raised his feet to climb into the carriage.
"I am going to the cemetery. How much?"
"5 gold coins, please!"
After handing the driver the round-shaped gold coins, Kiernan opened the carriage driver and came across a male and female student—they turned to look at him in awkward silence.
It was already silent before he came, but now it felt even more tense.
'What the hell is this tension?'
Kiernan stepped into the carriage and sat next to the male student while the horses neighed loudly in the background.
The wheels of the carriage began moving.
The female student sat silently with a sullen look on her face. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, trying to hold up her rack of flesh as the carriage jostled down the bumpy road.
Kiernan noticed the male student awkwardly moving in his seat. He was doing everything in his power to avoid the female student's gaze.
'Am I in the middle of some kind of love drama?' Kiernan rolled his eyes and looked out of the window.
"Ahem~" The female student cleared her throat and looked at the male student with a daggery stare.
"H-hey, what's your name?" The male student turned to Kiernan.
'Don't drag me into this.' Kiernan let out a deep breath and said, "Kiernan."
"Cool, cool," the male student nodded. "You're also going to the Game?"
When the Game was mentioned, the female student's gaze turned almost deadly. She clearly hated that word with passion.
"No. What's the Game?" Kiernan asked with a frown.
He remembered that those students at the street also mentioned that.
"The Game is amazing, y'know!"
The male student started excitedly talking about it.
"It's a challenge who can clear a course the fastest. It's by the Amaranth Forest. You should definitely try it out sometime!"
'Doesn't sound that interesting,' Kiernan thought.
"I am currently going there to try to beat my personal best. I've beaten it in 12 minutes and 43 seconds. It's not that good compared to the best times, but I have the third fastest time in my class.
"The special thing about the course is that in that course, all martial ranks are nullified. Thus, everyone will do the course as an Unranked martial artist. How cool is that?!"
'Huh?' Kiernan's interest piqued. "Is that so? How is that done? I didn't know there were ways to nullify martial ranks."
"I don't know if anyone really knows." The male student laughed. "It's just something to do with that cave where the course is. It's mostly used by students to try to beat each other's time.
"You can receive a reward if you achieve a top 10 time. I heard that you can even have a tour in Abracadabra Castle if you wish so!"
"Is that so?" Kiernan raised an eyebrow. "I'll have to check it out then."
"You should, bro!" The male student said excitedly. "I can see that you're strong, right? Maybe you can do under twenty minutes time at your first turn."
"As you can see, the Game is so important to him that he would rather go there than go on a date with me."
The female student said with a cold smile.
"Uhm…" the male student scratched the back of his head, and laughed nervously.
'Oh shit.' Kiernan looked away with a wry smile.