CHAPTER 39: The Prince and the Demon
Julian Garcia was not the kind of person who sought people out.
He didn't need to. People came to him — instructors with careful words, nobles with practiced smiles, students who positioned themselves nearby and hoped proximity to the Prince of Garcia Kingdom would mean something for their future.
He found it exhausting.
So when he pushed himself off the wall outside the seventh training ground and fell into step beside Lucius van Venus after the evening session, it was not a small thing.
Not that anyone watching would have known that.
Julian Garcia carried himself with the kind of effortless presence that made rooms adjust to him rather than the other way around.
Tall, with golden eyes that caught light in a way that felt almost unnatural. His hair was a striking gold, the same shade as the lightning that occasionally flickered around him like a second skin.
His features were sharp and composed — the kind of face that looked like it had never once been caught off guard.
He looked like he was simply walking in the same direction. Hands relaxed at his sides. Posture easy.
Lucius noticed him the moment he moved.
He didn't acknowledge it immediately. He kept walking at his own pace, his eyes forward, letting the silence sit.
Julian let it sit too.
For about thirty seconds.
Then —
"You're not going to ask why I'm walking next to you?"
"No," Lucius said.
Julian glanced at him sideways. Something that might have been amusement passed across his face.
"Most people would."
"Most people aren't paying attention," Lucius replied. "You've been watching me since the class assignment. You waited until after Hans left to approach. You're not here by accident."
A brief pause.
Julian smiled. It was a slow, lazy thing that didn't quite reach his golden eyes.
"Hm."
They walked in silence for another moment. The corridor was empty at this hour — the kind of empty that felt deliberate rather than coincidental. Julian had chosen his timing carefully. That told Lucius something about how seriously the Prince was actually taking this conversation despite his relaxed exterior.
"What did you feel?" Julian asked.
Lucius glanced at him.
"In the arena," Julian continued. His tone had shifted slightly — still casual, but with something underneath it now. "During the tournament. When you used that technique against Kaelera."
A pause.
"And again in the corridor outside the examination hall two days ago. I was passing through. You were walking ahead of me."
Lucius said nothing.
"I've felt a lot of mana in my life," Julian continued. "High level. Low level. Structured. Wild. I know what a Talent system feels like from the outside."
He looked at Lucius directly now. The lazy quality had pulled back from his eyes, replaced by something sharper and more genuine.
"Yours doesn't feel like that."
Silence settled between them.
They reached the end of the corridor and turned together without discussion, continuing along the outer passage that ran beside the academy's west wall.
"What does it feel like?" Lucius asked.
Not defensively. Just — asking.
Julian thought about it for a moment. Which itself was interesting — a Prince who actually considered his words before speaking.
"Older," he said finally. "Like something that existed before the system was built around it."
A pause.
"It made me uncomfortable. And very few things make me uncomfortable."
Lucius processed that without expression.
Julian had felt the Old System resonance. Without knowing what it was, without having any framework to name it, he had sensed it accurately from a distance. That level of sensitivity wasn't something that came from training alone.
"You have strong perception," Lucius said.
"I have strong everything," Julian replied. The arrogance was back — light, almost self-aware, like he knew exactly how it sounded and had decided he didn't particularly care. "But perception especially. It's part of the bloodline."
He paused.
"The Garcia bloodline doesn't just carry Thunder. It carries recognition. The ability to identify things that don't belong to the natural order."
His golden eyes moved to Lucius.
"You don't belong to the natural order of this world's power system."
It wasn't an accusation.
It was an observation. Delivered with the same casual certainty Julian seemed to apply to everything.
Lucius met his gaze evenly.
"And what do you intend to do with that observation?"
Julian shrugged. A genuine, unhurried shrug.
"Nothing yet."
"Yet," Lucius repeated.
"I'm lazy by nature," Julian said. "I don't act without reason. Right now I'm curious. That's all."
He looked away, his eyes drifting toward the dark courtyard visible through the passage windows.
"Besides," he added, "you're more interesting than anyone else in this academy. Including that Brett girl, who seems to believe her wolf makes her unpredictable."
Something shifted slightly in the air at the mention of Arianna.
Not from Lucius visibly. But Julian caught it anyway.
His eyes returned.
"History there," he said. Not a question.
"That's not your concern," Lucius said.
"Fair enough."
Julian accepted it without pushing. Which was itself another data point — he knew which lines to stop at. That kind of social intelligence paired with genuine power made him considerably more dangerous than someone who was simply strong.
They walked in silence for a moment.
Then Julian spoke again, his tone returning to its usual easy register.
"The written examination."
"What about it," Lucius said.
"You came fifth."
"I'm aware."
"Theory gap," Julian said simply. "Your practical knowledge is built from experience rather than academic structure. It shows in how you move and how you answer. The answers are correct but they arrive from a different direction than everyone else's."
He glanced at Lucius.
"You'll close it quickly. You're already doing it."
Lucius looked at him.
"You studied my examination responses."
"I studied everyone's," Julian said. "I like knowing what I'm working with."
"And what are you working with?"
Julian was quiet for a moment. The lazy smile returned — but smaller this time. More genuine.
"Something I haven't seen before," he said.
They reached the end of the outer passage. The corridor split — left toward the noble dormitories, right toward the general student quarters.
Julian stopped.
He turned slightly, his golden eyes catching the torchlight one last time.
"One more thing," he said.
Lucius waited.
"In the arena. When the dungeon appeared." Julian's voice was even. "I felt it before the fragments shattered. A few seconds before. The spatial distortion starting to form."
A pause.
"I could have moved everyone away from the pull radius."
The air between them was very still.
"Why didn't you," Lucius said.
Julian looked at him for a long moment.
"Because I wanted to see what you would do," he said simply.
Then he turned and walked left without another word. His footsteps were unhurried. Completely at ease.
Lucius stood at the junction and watched him go.
The torchlight settled back into its usual rhythm.
Lucius turned right.
His expression hadn't changed.
But something behind his eyes had shifted — the particular recalibration of someone who had just encountered a variable they needed to account for far more carefully than they had been.
Julian Garcia was not simply a rival.
He was something considerably more complicated than that.
And considerably more dangerous.
"Interesting," Lucius said quietly to the empty corridor.
Then kept walking.
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To Be Continued…..