Felix didn’t mind the candidates’ exclamations, but he ran his eyes through the long queue looking for a familiar face.
Thankfully, the person Felix was searching for knew he was searching for her and excitedly waved at him with a bright smile from somewhere in the back of the line.
Felix smiled as he spotted Kelly and waved back at her. He began approaching her, dragging his briefcase behind him on its wheels, when a group of people suddenly rushed to him from the side, which made Felix pause in confusion.
He wasn’t alarmed because they were in the Sage HQ—the safest place on Earth. He only thought they might have been reporters looking at their last-minute dressings.
"Felix Thomasville?" The man who looked to be the team leader asked.
"...Yeah?" Felix replied in uncertainty.
"My name is John. And this is my team, specially assigned to getting you, Felix Thomasville, ready for the world," just like Felix thought, the man introduced himself and his team. "Kindly come with us," he added with a smile.
Felix turned his head to see the other S-Ranks being ushered away by similar people towards a direction, and turned back to John.
"Ok. Just to be clear, I just need to hit the shower and dress up in a similar outfit. I don’t need any ’highlights’ or ’touch-ups.’ And, give me a minute." Felix said to them and tried to keep walking towards Kelly, when the team rushed to block his path.
"I’m sorry, Felix. But due to your late arrival we’re already running out of time. And we have a lot to do with you," John explained.
"A lot to do with me?" Felix was baffled, "I already said I don’t need any makeups. And give me a minute to go talk to someone, will you?" Felix said and tried to walk around them, when he heard John sigh and say, "Grab him."
Felix thought he might have imagined that part, or that John must have been referring to something else, when he suddenly felt himself go airborne as one of the team members casually lifted him like a feather and onto their shoulder like a sack of potatoes and someone else grabbed his belongings, and they began running in the direction the other S-Ranks had been ushered to.
Felix was first stunned, before he recovered and tried to free himself, only to realize he couldn’t and his carrier’s grip was strong, and that they were likely to be a Sage.
"Y’know we were briefed this would happen, so we came prepared—haha." John’s voice reached Felix’s ear and he was even more stunned.
Just what had that old man been feeding the council about him? Why would a makeup team have to come armed to provide their services to him? Follow current novels on novel_fіre.net
Felix wasn’t about to let himself get manhandled by these people and kept on struggling and screaming for them to let him go. Everyone in the reception hall had to pause to steal a glance at the screaming mad woman they were carrying out of the hall. And one old woman had even muttered in pity, "Oh dear, poor thing."
Felix had refused to even take a shower and just sat there with the door locked, requesting a change of team. Only when John finally relented and gave him a sneak peek at his schedule—with a bit of haggling—did Felix become cooperative.
John was bound to get a promotion, and Felix was bound to become filthy rich.
Unlike the other candidates that had less endorsement and more private training sessions for the upcoming tournament, Felix was basically on a vacation and would be getting a ton of endorsements with major brands, collaborating with major artists and celebrities, and even getting a role in a movie bound to become a hit.
Felix was now the one rushing the team to stop holding him back and advising them to do their best and he’d treat them to somewhere nice for dinner, after calculating his daily revenue (in six-digits, if you’re curious to know).
Felix’s combat outfit turned out to be different from the rest of the candidates. His was red, with luxurious paddings, and a red cape.
His brand personality was ice cold queen.
Felix was prepped and all in fifteen minutes with his team working at lightning speed, and when he looked at himself in a full-body mirror, all he could utter was, "Damn."
The last piece to complete his dress-up was a cool sword. But when Felix pulled out his Deathrizzler in all its shining glory, John had thrown the one they prepared for him into a nearby trash can.
When Felix stepped out into the reception hall once more, he instantly stole the spotlight. Everyone had to pause to stare in awe as he approached the beast prepared for him too—an actual beast from a dungeon, tamed from a hatchling.
Felix had never ridden even a horse before, and had to be helped up the huge thing that looked as ferocious as him in his outfit.
The S-Ranks were stepping out one after the other now, and Kelly was already long gone.
The script was to walk down the aisle beyond the Sage HQ doors without sparing a glance for the fans on both sides, slowly ride the beast to the end of the long aisle and gracefully hop off. A luxurious car would be on standby and he’ll majestically step in, then be transported to the hotel where he’d be staying for the period.
Felix had frowned and asked when he could see his family, but John assured him he’d meet up with them at his hotel, but won’t be returning with them.
Felix didn’t have a problem with that one as he knew the reason for that was because his family house was small and not really situated in a good neighborhood. And the first thing he planned on doing with his money was buying a mansion for his mother. Then, they wouldn’t stop him from living with her.
Just as Athenae stepped out, with only Aaron left now standing, as they were giving the SS-Ranks more alone screentime than the other candidates had been given, he turned to look at Felix with a smirk, before being ushered out in the open.
Felix wasn’t sure what he found funny, as he probably couldn’t be scheming anything at such a time, in such a place, right?
What Felix didn’t know was that as the candidates stepped out, every media station out there was displaying a throwback picture of them before they went to Vastoria, and a picture of them now. And just as Aaron stepped out and his throwback picture was matched with his current video of him walking down the aisle, smiling, greeting fans, signing autographs, taking selfies with fans’ smartphones, the picture of the last known Sage candidate for that decade came up.
It was the picture of a smiling boy with messy black hair and a bit above average facial features—Felix. The entire media was burning as they speculated he was likely to be the SSS-Rank candidate the Sage council had announced, as he was the only one yet to be seen walking down the aisle.
In the vast, luxurious lobby of the Kings Hotel, the smart TVs mounted above were also streaming the live event happening outside the Sage HQ.
A woman was sitting alone in one of the resting areas, her dressing was a bit off from the hotel’s aesthetic and those who frequented it.
She was fidgeting nervously, as she hadn’t seen her son yet walking down the aisle, and wasn’t quite sure why she’d been summoned to the hotel, when the familiar face of her son suddenly lit up on the screen with the indication of the SSS-Rank candidate the Sage council has announced.
The woman was stunned for a good minute, but suddenly broke down the next moment crying as the memories of Felix claiming he was going to be the greatest Sage humanity has ever seen resurfaced in her mind. She tightly clamped her mouth to avoid wailing loudly and disturbing the hotel’s ambiance, as tears of joy rolled down her eyes.
She sat up, eager to see her son and how he now looked. To see if he was healthy, or if he had been skipping meals again to save money.
But what Mrs. Thomasville wasn’t expecting was the strikingly beautiful young lady on a beast ride, that had stepped out in place of her son as the anticipated SSS-Rank candidate. Her heart instantly dropped.