After eating, Petra packed up the leftovers and returned to the streets—
Leaving the second-floor restaurant, the girls descended a creaking staircase and quickly returned to the disordered streets of the festival. As they walked, eventually, the surrounding buildings began to thin, and the chaotic street opened into a series of wide-open spaces. The crowded market, packed streets, and twisting fairgrounds slowly converged until finally, the girls emerged near the heart of the event, the core area of the Opening Festival!
-
Llynun, Central Square—
"…Whoa!" Lira's eyes widened in awe.
Before their eyes stretched an absolutely massive circular plaza! It occupied the center of the capital, much like the heart of a living machine. The plaza was split into multiple levels and shaped like a clock, however, instead of digits, each of the twelve points was a large park that functioned as an individual part of the square. Countless roads, each leading from a different district, connected directly into the central square from every direction, while enormous, unending waves of pedestrians continuously poured inward beneath the pale morning sky.
Looking around, the entire area had already become a sea of noise and people.
Massive banners stretched overhead between the towering medieval-style buildings, while countless extra, newly built platforms rose high above the central square, carrying nobles, powerful cultivators, and wealthy merchants. Throughout the surrounding square, temporary viewing towers had been constructed, and dozens of layered formations glowed faintly beneath the stonework, creating a complex and almost beautiful compound formation that slowly rotated like some kind of silent light show beneath everyone's feet.
In the center of the square—
A colossal circular platform had been erected!
It resembled a massive ritual stage formed from white stone and black metal, covered in countless spinning rings engraved with ancient runes that Petra couldn't identify. Sixteen pillars surrounded the center of the structure, and they were bound together by chains of floating, golden light that drifted through the air like glowing tapestries with hanging, vibrant red flags. Along each chain hung one hundred silver chimes, long, thin tubes that sang in the wind and resonated with the surrounding spiritual energy to create a silent song.
This was the core stage of the Opening Ceremony, or the gate to the Royal Ring Secret Realm!
The atmosphere felt heavy.
Not oppressive—no, but sacred and beautiful! Even the surrounding crowd unconsciously lowered their voices when looking toward the enormous formation, subconsciously feeling something.
All around the plaza, representatives from countless powers had all gathered.
They were a mixture of foreign races, hidden sects, adventurers, nobles, merchants, scholars, guilds, overseas experts, and countless others. Even strange creatures and spirit beasts occasionally appeared throughout the crowd. This was no longer simply a festival, because today, this place had become a small microcosm for the world of Pillomal!
-
Meanwhile—
Petra had already vanished from the group and run away to play…
"…Hm?" Wind blinked, only to find that the hand she had been holding was suddenly empty!
Several meters away—
"Nyhahaha!"
Mm, Petra ran away…
When Wind looked ahead, Petra was already darting through the crowd like a hyperactive little brat who had been let loose inside a carnival for the first time! One moment, she appeared beside a drifting food stand and stole a skewer, the next, she was peeking over the shoulder of a dwarven artificer. Several seconds later, she somehow ended up climbing halfway up a decorative railing while staring at a distant spirit beast with sparkling, big black eyes.
Before anyone could stop her, Petra hopped back down and immediately ran toward a group of performers juggling glowing rings of fragrant pink fire!
Wind and Mell, seeing all this, had their faces darken.
"…Petra!"
Wind roared, causing Petra to instantly change directions mid-step.
Swoosh!
She ran back, then slipped behind Rose and used her as a human shield.
"…Mm?" Petra, poking out her little head from behind the feline femboy, innocently tilted her head.
Wind narrowed her eyes.
"You absolutely heard me! Come here!"
Petra puffed out her cheeks in defiance!
-
Ahem!
After a quick beating, Petra and the girls continued wandering through the Central Square while following alongside the unstoppable tide of people.
The deeper they went, the denser the crowds became.
Countless quickly built registration stations had been erected around the outer perimeter of the square, each formed from large wooden platforms reinforced with metal frames and a glowing registration plate. Long banners hung overhead displaying special symbols for the different organizations involved in the Opening Ceremony, while nearby scribes and irritated officials continuously shouted instructions toward the oncoming crowds, helping them register.
Petra looked around only to discover that some lines stretched for dozens of meters, while others had already devolved into uncontrolled chaos, even occasionally breaking out into small fights.
It would seem as if maintaining order was more difficult than someone had originally predicted.
Meanwhile, some low-level cultivators, fallen nobles, rogue mercenaries, and wandering adventurers moved through the square carrying luggage, weapons, sealed cages, special beasts, tools, and sometimes entire carts of supplies. It was clear that 'a very specific group of people' planned to try and stay in the Secret Realm for much longer than the opening time allowed. This was not too uncommon, because for some people, especially those who had nothing to lose, staying in a sealed world capable of supporting life was a good way out. These people might have powerful enemies, lack direction, or simply be terrified of the coming calamities. In a certain sense, running away to squat in a secret realm was not a bad idea.
But Petra still watched them pass silently, wondering if these people were crazy.
She knew about these people; Mell had told her before…
How was this any different from locking yourself in a prison?
Just the idea of isolating herself from the outside world, at least in a way that was completely out of her control, made her feel sick to her stomach. Unlike her, who retreated to a small, hidden territory in the middle of the forest where she could advance and retreat whenever she wanted, these people planned to seal themselves away and throw away the key!
Just thinking about it made Petra feel a tinge of claustrophobia, not to mention disgust!
Shivering slightly, she didn't notice that behind her, Levy was looking at her from the corner of her eye.
With a relieved smile, Levy turned away silently.
Mell, walking at the front, calmly glanced around before she began to explain everything to the others.
"The Opening Ceremony officially begins at noon," she said while guiding the group through the crowd. "But before that, everyone entering the Secret Realm has to 'register' their identity, cultivation, and primary affiliation. Then, we'll all be given 'entry tickets', and later we can use these to walk directly into the Secret Realm..."
Lira blinked from the side.
"…Affiliation? What does that mean?"
Mell nodded patiently, then explained for those who didn't know, "Entering the Royal Ring Secret Realm technically counts as joining the offensive against the Third Calamity. To be more accurate, those who want to enter the Royal Ring Secret Realm need to 'pay' by 'enlisting', promising to protect the continent in the future. It's an open secret that this doesn't exactly mean sailing out to sea, but the general consensus is that those who choose to enter must help calm the waters after the calamity begins."
"As for why one's affiliation matters, this is naturally so that they can treat certain people with special identities with more care. They probably don't want those arrogant young masters and young misses from before drowning at sea, only to then become the target of their families' revenge in the future."
Rose snorted.
"So they're using the Secret Realm to recruit cannon fodder, then turning around just to slap those same cannon fodder with a big fat double standard? Neh-nehu! Spit!"
"…Pretty much," Mell replied casually.
She pointed towards the several enormous banners hanging above different registration platforms.
"Regardless, the treatment you get after joining also depends on which army you join. The three major armies are the newly formed 'United Army', the 'Imperial Army' under the empire, or the 'Free Army', which was created for those who want more freedom and don't like to be ordered around."
"Is the Free Army like a mercenary army with no leadership?"
Mell nodded at Wind, then continued speaking—
"The United Army is the alliance formed between the major factions on the Cross Continent that fought in the Second Calamity, the Imperial Army is directly under the Hellion Empire and will likely be managed by the Royal Guard, and the Free Army is mostly a mix of independent cultivators who don't want strict oversight, and those guys from overseas that won't bow their heads to the cross continent."
Petra immediately raised her hand.
"Mm! So, which one are we joining?"
Mell looked at her with a weird expression.
She seemed to be saying: 'Since when did you plan to join the army?'
"…None…" She responded after some time…
Petra blinked.
"…Hm?"
Mell shrugged.
"I'll just register us, take the entry qualification, enter the Secret Realm, then we can leave whenever you, Petra, feel like it." Her expression remained perfectly calm, as if saying: 'wasn't this your plan from the start?' Mell didn't plan to fall into the pit…
"It's not like they can realistically chase us anyway, right?"
Petra: '…'
Silence…
Petra finally gave a big nod, "You're right! I knew I could trust you to handle things! Hehe! So what if we don't pay up? Do they have time to chase us across the ocean? Hahahaha!"
Petra burst out laughing!
At the same time, two Imperial Guards standing beside one of the registration stations turned their heads toward the group. Their expressions visibly darkened after hearing the words of Mell, who was standing a mere meter away... The surrounding cultivators pretended not to hear anything, but the guards stared at Petra and the others with obvious faces filled with displeasure.
Petra had unknowingly said the quiet part out loud…
What a brat!
One of the guards narrowed his eyes at the little green-haired girl.
He really wanted to beat her!
Beat her into a pig's head!
Damn brat!
Fuck!
Mm, under normal conditions, even if people intended to abandon the army after entering the Secret Realm and skip out on enlistment, they would at least pretend to care! But this child, this little brat, she had openly declared it in public, burst out laughing, and didn't even lower her voice!
They glared, wanting to bore a hole in her head, but unfortunately—
Petra didn't care in the slightest!
She simply stared back innocently with her big black eyes, standing right there holding Poya's hand.
"…Mm~?"
The guard's eyelid twitched, not knowing what to do.
Before the situation could get out of hand, something Wind could clearly feel coming—because Petra had already dipped her hand into her pocket, Wind immediately grabbed Petra by the collar and pulled her away before she could escalate things to an extreme!
"Stop provoking people! Behave yourself today!"
Smack!
She was smacked!
Petra puffed out her cheeks while rubbing her head.
Her eyes glistened with tears, looking very wronged.
Wind: '…'
Mell: '…'
"Tsk!" After realizing that they weren't buying it, she dropped the act and clicked her tongue, before swaggering away with her hands in her pockets and disappearing into the crowd.
The girls quickly moved on…
-
After walking for several more minutes, Rose frowned slightly.
"…Now that I think about it, isn't it strange that nobody recognizes you after all this time?" she asked while looking toward Petra. "Isn't half the continent currently hunting you? What's going on?"
Petra, currently 'playing' with Poya, immediately giggled.
"Hehehe!"
She proudly puffed out her chest, a cute action that was immediately mimicked by Poya.
"That's because I'm using a dark-element spell called 'Concealed Shadow!'"
Wind sighed.
"Ah… Of course you are! Now that I think about it, that should be why you sicced the church of light on those people from earlier, right? You didn't want them to feel the dark-element elemental energy on you and disturb our breakfast, so you found a scapegoat..."
Petra grinned smugly, then nodded.
"You got it right! This spell makes people subconsciously ignore details about me and only remember vague things like my silhouette." She pointed at herself proudly. "It's very useful! It's basically a passive spell that makes everyone face blind, but only towards me!"
What she didn't say was that it was actually an extremely advanced Fourth-Level Mage spell related to perception and the mystic field. (Mental)
Normally, mastering such a spell required an extremely deep understanding of Mystic Energy and how consciousness interacted with Mana (Natural, Spiritual, and Elemental Energy). Most dark mages struggled to learn it because the spell required constant small adjustments, but Petra was a freak who was learning from a freak and came from a family of freaks!
In other words, Petra was absurdly compatible with it!
While Wind was still thinking that there were far better ways to hide one's identity—
Just at that moment—
Wobble-wobble-wobble!
A tiny figure suddenly waddled out from the crowd…
It was a little lolita that was roughly seventy percent similar to Petra! She had the same green hair, same big black eyes, and the same vaguely guilty expression. This was one of the twelve Ant Avatars that were wandering around on autopilot behind the scenes…
The small girl silently walked over, then proudly handed Petra a large black walking stick before immediately turning around and disappearing back into the crowd.
Poya looked at number three with curiosity, but Petra was completely focused on this super cool stick!
She blinked.
"…Where did you get this?"
The little Ant Avatar, valiantly leaving, froze slightly.
Before Petra could ask again, she unhesitatingly sped up, then disappeared completely!
It was only then that Petra remembered that number three was the kleptomaniac…
To make the Ant Avatars more interesting, Petra decided to change two things. First, she planned to try and turn them into the next generation of the Warlord Ants, her twelve generals, at least, she would try and see if it was possible, because these twelve had stopped being 'ants' a long time ago! The second thing she did was add a negative trait to each of them, you know, for fun and all…
Mm, each of the twelve little sisters had one of these traits: Kleptomaniac (Thief), Pyromaniac, Megalomanic (God Complex), Gluttonous, Symmetrophilic (Symmetry), Plutomaniac (Wealth), Narcissistic, Perfectionist, Monologuer, Cowardly, Lazy, and Myrmecophobic (Hates Bugs)…
As for number three, she was naturally the kleptomaniac, the one who loved to steal things!
Petra looked at the cool stick in her hand.
It was a carved staff engraved with flowing runes that rippled faintly with an oceanic light. This artifact was undoubtedly a high-level staff! Upon closer inspection, it kind of looked like a walking stick…
She wondered whose it was…
"…Mm!"
Without hesitation, she immediately began swinging it around like a weapon!
"Nyhahaha! Bonk stick! Big Bonk stick~! Muhahahaha!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Several nearby pedestrians hurriedly ducked out of the way as Wind's face darkened.
"…Give me that!"
Before Petra could even protest, Wind instantly confiscated the weapon with a terrifying speed!
Petra dramatically gasped, then hopped a few times to try to retrieve it.
Naturally, she failed.
"My stick!"
"No!"
"Big bonker!"
"I said no!"
"Tsk!"
Bonk!
* * *