The spectator area was packed.
High-ranking members from Abyss stood along the left observation platform in clean ranks, their black-and-silver colors forming a solid block of quiet discipline.
Winterfang officers and household retainers occupied the center platforms, some already murmuring.
On the right, a smaller but deliberately visible contingent from Bloodworth held their own space.
Red accents marked their clothing.
The physical distance between the Abyss and Bloodworth sections was only a few meters of stone railing, yet the tension that filled the gap felt thicker than the air itself.
The two groups simply existed in the same hall and refused to acknowledge the other beyond the cold necessity of shared space.
Alex continued walking without the slightest change in posture or expression.
Many from the Abyss and Winterfang sections watched the steady advance and were quietly impressed.
The boy was twelve.
He had stepped into a hall full of ranked fighters, household heads, and political eyes that would report every detail of the morning, and he moved as if the weight of those gazes did not matter to him.
The controlled aura he carried did not waver.
It simply occupied the space around him and forced the room to adjust to it rather than the other way around.
He reached the Abyss section first.
The entire group straightened as one.
The senior figure at the front, a man whose presence marked him as one of the household’s higher retainers, stepped forward half a pace and then all of them bowed.
"All things fall into the Abyss. The Abyss falls to you. We greet the Third Prince Alexander Abyss!"
The formal line rolled across the platform in a single unified voice.
Alex stopped in front of them and let the words settle.
"Raise your heads," he said.
They rose.
Several of the younger retainers still carried the faint surprise of people who had not expected the Third Prince to look this composed under so many watching eyes.
A few of the older ones simply nodded once.
Alex turned next to the Winterfang group.
They offered the standard greeting without the deeper ritual the Abyss household used.
"We greet the Third Prince Alexander Abyss!"
He returned a measured nod.
Nothing more was required, and nothing more was given.
The Winterfang officers settled back into their observation positions, already filing the encounter into whatever private reports they would write later.
Then he faced the Bloodworth section.
Their greeting came a half-beat later than the others, the reluctance visible to everyone who cared to look.
The words were correct but the tone was not.
Alex did not linger on the delivery.
His gaze simply moved across the group until it landed on a young man standing near the front of the Bloodworth contingent.
Deep red hair.
A clearly menacing aura that sat around him like a second coat.
The same red eyes that appeared in every description Eclipse had ever given when the subject of their step-brother came up.
The moment their eyes met, recognition arrived complete and absolute.
’Valerius Bloodworth, so the time has finally come.’
Alex finally understood why Eclipse had always warned him about this person.
The man’s presence carried the quiet confidence of someone who had never once doubted that the world would eventually rearrange itself around his preferences.
The smirk that curved his mouth only confirmed it.
Valerius spoke first, his voice was light and deliberately casual.
"Oh, look who’s here, my little brother."
"It’s a pleasure to finally see the one everyone has been talking about for years."
The words carried just enough warmth to sound polite and just enough edge to make the politeness a performance.
Several of the nearby Bloodworth retainers shifted their weight, already sensing the direction the exchange would take.
Alex replied evenly, the same controlled calm still locked in place.
"I too am glad to finally see the one my sister talks so much about."
The smile on Valerius’s face did not fade, but something sharper moved behind his eyes.
"Oh, Eclipse? Well, she has been a lot busy lately and I can’t blame her."
"The Sol Kingdom border is not exactly a holiday destination these days, so I imagine she has more important things to occupy her time than worrying about family reunions."
Alex let the comment pass without rising to it.
He asked the next question in the same even tone.
"What brings the Bloodworths here this morning?"
He had not questioned the Abyss or the Winterfang section, and everyone could clearly see it.
Someone from the group behind Valerius started to invent an excuse to deflect the question.
The man opened his mouth, already shaping an answer, but Valerius cut him off with a single raised hand and a glance that ended the attempt before it fully formed.
He looked back at Alex and answered directly.
"Just watch if what you claimed yesterday is true or not."
The words landed clean and public.
No attempt to soften them and effort to dress the challenge in the language of neutral curiosity.
Valerius simply stated the reason and left it sitting in the open air between them.
Alex filed the man away at once.
’Hmm...he is someone I must keep a careful eye on, the way he looks at me like the outcome of the next few hours already belongs to him.’
He gave Valerius a single, measured nod of acknowledgment and nothing more.
His controlled aura never shifted.
The conversation, such as it was, ended on Alex’s terms rather than Valerius’s.
He turned away from the Bloodworth section without further comment and continued toward the central sparring circles.
Zara fell back into her usual position half a step behind him, the Viper’s Spine box still held steady in her hands.
Through the open bond she carried the same quiet focus he was projecting, matching it without needing instruction.
The packed spectator area watched him go.
The tension between the Abyss and Bloodworth platforms remained exactly where it had been, thick and unmoving.
High-ranking eyes from all three households tracked the Third Prince’s progress across the floor.
Some of them already revised whatever private assessments they had brought into the hall that morning.
Alex reached the edge of the nearest circle and stopped.
The Level 10 recruits were not yet in position.
The morning still held its breath, waiting for the next piece of the day to arrive.
He stood there with the same calm, controlled presence he had carried since the threshold, the weight of dozens of gazes resting on his back and shoulders without once forcing him to adjust.
Valerius Bloodworth remained on the platform, the smirk still faintly present, red eyes fixed on the boy who had just walked away from him as if the entire exchange had been nothing more than a necessary formality.
Alex did not look back.
He simply waited, the message of what he was already beginning to settle into the air of the hall for anyone who cared to read it.
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End of Chapter 135: Little Brother
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