He quickly placed a fake smile back on his face. "How did you know I was a first year?" He asked quite firmly.

She wasn't offended by his tone; if anything, it looked like she was amused. "Oh, you always end up hearing things from people. Even more so when it pertains to someone who is friends with the likes of Lily, Derek, and the daughter of Fiona Crysalia," the woman answered with a smirk.

Just as he was going to speak up again, he felt a psychic nudge from Lily, and he quickly accepted the telepathetic link.

Be careful, she warned him.

Who is she? He sent back over the connection.

Noelle Willow. She is the daughter of Duchess Willow. She is also one of the most likely candidates to inherit House Willow when Duchess Willow passes over the reins. She is not a bad person, but very cunning, Lily quickly explained to him.

He instantly processed her words and immediately threw on an act. He scratched his head awkwardly and laughed. "Yeah, I do have some amazing friends. I am just riding their coattails for the time being. I am nothing too special myself, just lucky."

It was easier than expected to be genuine. It helped that he actually had some amazing friends, plus, he didn't think he was that special. People like Derek and Reinera had more talent than he did anyway. He was simply a person who had gotten lucky.

Lady Willow stared at him for a few brief moments. "Lucky, huh?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just lucky. That's all."

She smirked. "They say luck is a talent of its own."

He scratched his head again. "I don't know about that," he said, sending some fire mana through his body to force a blush.

"You're saying I am wrong?" She asked challengingly.

He waved his arms in a panic. "No, no. Of course not."

He could feel that she was going to press him some more when a man in her posse suddenly walked up from behind her and whispered something in her ear.

Julius wasn't able to overhear because the man had swiftly created a very delicate isolation barrier between his mouth and Lady Willow's ear. He also used some kind of illusion magic to obscure his lower face, so that nobody could read his lips either.

What he said to her must have gotten her attention because she immediately changed her focus and gave a slight bow toward the two of them.

"I apologize, but it would appear I have to take care of something. Lily, you and Julius should come over to see me later. I would love to catch up with you and see how you've been," Lady Willow said with a genuine smile toward Lily.

Lily replied with a bright smile of her own. "That sounds nice."

Lady Willow nodded and looked at Julius. "Well, it was nice to meet you. I will hopefully see you soon, and I promise I will be watching your matches with bated breath to see your 'luck' in person."

Then, before Julius could respond, she was already heading off in another direction, the group of people following behind her.

"What was that?" He asked Lily once she was gone.

"I'm not sure. But she seemed interested in you," she responded.

"Is that a good thing?"

Lily put her palms up. "I'm not sure. At the very least, she doesn't think you are an enemy. But be careful, everyone from House Willow is known to be cunning foxes. They aren't inherently bad people, but it's challenging to discern their true motives. More importantly, where did you get this?" Lily asked while holding up the meat pie she had been holding this entire time.

Julius was a little nervous by the intense look in her eyes.

"Why do you ask?" He asked carefully.

"Because I want to open up a shop and sell meat pies myself," Lily said with a roll of her eyes.

Julius ignored her sarcasm. "Oh, really? Are you interested in a business partner? I might not look like it, but I have a steady supply of meat pies," he said with a pleased smile.

She pinched her nose. "No, seriously, where did you get them?"

He shook his head. He hadn't told her or the others about his soul evolution yet, nor the soul-bound item he had received. There had been too much stuff going on, and he had forgotten. "I'll tell you later when there are fewer prying ears around, okay?"

She looked like she wanted to argue, but let out a depressed sigh. "Fine, but don't run away from me later."

He promised her, and they continued to enjoy their food together when someone else approached them. It wasn't Lady Willow, but it was someone that Julius recognized, and he found himself practically running to meet them halfway.

He heard a laugh as he barrelled into Rebecca, and she caught him in her arms. He had not been expecting to see her here. He honestly didn't expect to see her for some time. Blumand was far away, and it wasn't as if they had any kids who might be attending the tournament. Cory was still just a little kid. He had many years until he got his chance.

After a few moments of a warm hug, she held him at arm's length by his shoulders. "I thought you might be here," she said with a playful smirk.

Julius chuckled. "Me? What about you? Why are you here?"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I have some family who will be participating as well," she answered with a laugh.

"I didn't know Cory had gotten that strong. Oh, how they grow up so fast," he said with a sigh.

She shook him lightly before bringing him in for another hug. "It's not Cory, silly."

"So who is it?"

"My brother's son."

"Wait, which brother?" Julius asked slowly. From what he recalled, she had three brothers. Aden, Charles, and Valen. He had heard some interesting things about Aden, but didn't know if the man had any children of his own.

"Charles," she said.

"He has children?" Julius didn't remember hearing about that.

"Yeah, he has three of them," she said with a gleeful grin, but she quickly switched her attention from Julius.

Julius might have left Lily to run over to Rebecca, but she had finally come over as well, and Rebecca rudely pushed Julius to the side to greet her. "I'm guessing you are Lily Violet. I could recognize those eyes anywhere. Julius has told me a lot about you. My name is Rebecca Easten," she said with a bow toward Lily.

Lily's eyes sparkled. "Rebecaa? Oh, I remember, Julius told us a lot about you and your family as well. Thank you so much for taking care of him when he was with you guys."

Rebecca waved her hand at Lily. "It was our pleasure. We had our fun as well, plus it wasn't like we did it for free. He also helped us out a lot," she added. Julius had almost forgotten, but he had indeed helped House Easten out with the Conclave thing.

Lily smiled, but there was something hidden behind it that he couldn't quite grasp. Julius felt a weird tingle in his spine when Lily gazed at Rebecca. He didn't know if he liked the look in her eyes. It felt like she was up to something already. He was tempted to separate them immediately.

"Is anyone else here?" He quickly guided the conversation before Lily could do anything strange.

"No, Richard had other stuff to do, and Cory stayed back in Blumand. He wanted to come, but he is still a little young. Maybe in a few years, I will bring him to see the tournament," Rebecca answered him.

Julius nodded in understanding, but it was a shame. He really would have liked to see the other two as well.

"I see you have continued to improve since we last saw each other. Your aura control has become quite impressive," she complimented him.

He preened. She had been one of the first people to help him gain control over his ruinous aura when he had acquired it from the challenge rift. Thus, her praise was very nice to hear.

"But there is something else about you that is different as well," she said slowly as she examined him more closely, and he let her explore his aura without hiding too much.

"I had only recently advanced last time I saw you, to be fair," he said to her.

"True, but it has only been several months since then. It almost feels like your Emblem has filled out by quite a lot," she noted quietly, almost like she was talking to herself.

"You can notice that?" He was surprised by her accurate analysis.

"Sort of, but mainly because I had felt your Emblem when you had just advanced. You must have done a lot in the last several months if your Emblem has this much weight," she said in disbelief and shook her head.

He simply grinned at her. He had indeed been doing a lot of stuff in the time since they last saw each other, and he was glad that not only did she notice it, but she was impressed by it.

"Come on, let me take you to meet my brother. He and his son, Luken, should be around here somewhere. I think you and Luken will get along as well. He is quite shy, but he is a nice boy and quite a brilliant mage already," Rebecca said to him.

"I would love to meet them. Let's go find them," he said with a smile.

***

It actually took them quite a long time to find them. There were so many people that it was hard to distinguish one from another. It wasn't that bad either; it gave Julius a reasonable amount of time to catch up with Rebecca. They discussed what had happened in their lives, and Lily even started to get along with her quite well.

By the time they found Charles and Luken, it seemed as though the two of them were best friends. It was Julius who felt like the third wheel, instead of the other way around.

"Hey, you two, look who I found," Rebecca said when she saw them. Julius inspected them and could tell right away that they were related to Rebecca. They each had the same blue eyes. Her brother was just a beefier version of her. As for Luken, he looked… uncomfortable.

She said that he was shy, but the other boy looked absolutely overwhelmed by everything. He suspected that was partly the reason they were hiding out back here in the corner.

"Who is this?" Charles asked, looking at Julius and Lily.

"This is Julius I told you about, remember?"

Charles looked confused for a moment, but must have remembered something because he suddenly chuckled. "Ah, I see. That Julius."

He turned to look at Rebecca with a frown. "What did you tell them about me exactly?"

"Nothing too important, just small things," she replied.

"She said that you were a walking contradiction and a mentally challenged battle junky," Charles ratted out to his sister immediately. Julius could basically sense the teasing grin hidden beneath his stoic face.

"I did not say he was mentally challenged," she shot back fervently. Julius let out a sigh of relief, thankful that she hadn't actually called him mentally challenged; that would have hurt his feelings.

"I said he was a mentally insane battle junkie. There is a difference," she said with a scoff.

He slowly turned to look at her. He did not think that made it any better; in fact, he might have preferred the first one. At least it didn't make him sound as crazy.

"Seriously?" He asked her with a flat stare.

She shrugged at him. "Do I have to remind you of what you did to complete that course before you left?"

He lifted up a finger to argue, but when she mentioned that, he quickly put it down and conceded to her point. He couldn't exactly dispute that logic. After all, he had blown off his limb during that last attempt.

"See?" She said to him with a victorious grin, but she didn't gloat and quickly introduced him to her other family.

Julius found Charles to be a pleasant person from the start. He obviously enjoyed teasing his sister, but what kind of older brother wouldn't? He also clearly cared for her.

Luken was an odd one to read. The other boy would barely look up in his eyes or at his chest. They spent half of the time stuck on the floor.

His father gave him an encouraging slap on the shoulder and laughed. "Don't worry about Luken; he is quite shy around new people, but he opens up once he gets to know them."

Julius shrugged. He didn't mind. Luken seemed like a nice enough young man.

For the next hour or so, they all hung out together as they found themselves a small, quiet nook. Julius asked about some of the things happening in Blumand while Lily tried to get the other boy to open up, and unsurprisingly, it worked. Who knew that a pretty young woman had an easier time getting him to open up than someone like Julius?

Eventually, they had other duties to report to, and Derek had found Julius hidden away. He swiftly abducted him. He said a quick goodbye to Rebecca and promised to see each other during the tournament.

Derek then went on and forced Julius to meet several people whom he barely remembered. There were just too many faces and too many names to remember at once.

When they finally left the event, Julius's brain was fried. He had tried to find Reinera, but sometime during the event, she must have gone somewhere else, as he was unable to locate her.

Hopefully, he would have a better opportunity to see her when the tournament began. He also thought it was more likely that she would find him. He had some questions for her and honestly just wanted to catch up.

However, that could wait. He needed some sleep, and with the tournament just around the corner, he was confident that he would need it.

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