In the blink of an eye, a whole week has passed since the fall of The Faceless Ones.
News of the fall of the second-largest faction in the local underworld has spread throughout the province.
Even the major powers in Saltstar City were aware of the matter, with some individuals interested in the power vacuum left by The Faceless Ones in Ironcrest. In contrast, others were simply curious about what had happened in the city.
Why in the world would The Faceless Ones start a battle against members of the Congregation of Revelation?
That was the question on everyone's mind in the major cities of Scott Province.
Amidst the rumors circulating throughout the area, the Congregation of Revelations had already put out several bounties on the fugitives of The Faceless Ones and had begun moving their forces around the province.
For the first time in a long time, a local power had dared to challenge the continent's most celebrated religion. Now, this force wouldn't stop until it had eliminated everyone involved in the problem!
Given how it had happened, with witnesses seeing members of The Faceless Ones initiating the previous fight, there would be no more in-depth investigations. Such a faction was guilty and had to be completely eliminated!
At the same time, the royal army was following the same line of reasoning as the Congregation of Revelation, and the soldiers from the capital in Millfall had already completed their investigations into The Vile Altar incident and the death of Christopher Hogan.
The Faceless Ones had been found guilty of the deaths of the four army Commanders, and the Martial Court had already tried them and placed bounties on their heads.
While groups of soldiers began searching for the fugitives from Ironcrest, the soldiers from the capital in Millfall still had work to do on the ground.
As much as the mystery surrounding the deaths of the four Commanders had been "solved," there was still the fall of the Symons family for them to investigate. As a result, the group that had arrived in Millfall earlier was still in town and would remain there for some time.
But their presence in Millfall would help the Mazzanti family more than it would hinder them!
So, the city was at peace and without any significant power struggles to get in the way or create future problems for the people currently led by Rory.
At this rate, the family was using their resources and growing stronger, improving their dominance over the city, while their relationships with the local nobles were becoming more beneficial to them.
The situation for the family was so good that the family's biggest 'enemy' at the moment had left the city days ago and had no date to return.
...
Somewhere in Scott Province, Nova followed a group of 11 people down a dirt road in a densely wooded area where the horizon was barely visible.
It was the middle of the day, and the heat in this area was making even the High-level Mage leading this group of soldiers sweat.
Several insects and mosquitoes were in the vicinity, causing some of these soldiers to use their powers occasionally to chase them away.
However, insect-like beasts were difficult to fend off, and these people could only bear the presence of these small creatures close to their bodies.
Fortunately, such small beasts posed no danger to these 3rd stage individuals.
All of the eleven people in the group were at the 3rd stage, and there were four Low-level Mage, five Mid-level Mage, and two High-level Mage.
They were traveling in a carriage and 6 magical beasts, heading to the Wolfrior Forest, an area that was now only a day away from them.
This was the group of soldiers that Nova had heard about a few days ago, who were going to Wolfrior Forest to start the first part of the promotion test for 3rd-stage soldiers.
In this group of eleven, the four Low-level Mages were newly promoted individuals who would hunt their pentagrams in this forest area and compete for the commander positions currently available in the province.
Whoever scored the highest in this test, which would end at the army headquarters in Saltstar City, would win the best battalion to command.
What did it mean to win the best battalion to command? Simply, it meant living in a better city, where quality services and resources were easier to find and more affordable, but also having better growth opportunities.
There was a big difference between being the Commander of a Saltstar City battalion and being the Millfall post-Commander!
Therefore, the four Captains couldn't help but look at each other as rivals while in the carriage with the supervisor of this test.
That was especially true for one of Nova's old acquaintances among the three, a blond fellow who had studied in the same class as her during her early years in the army.
'Nova, Nova, Nova, you'll pay for embarrassing me on our test in Dryhaven.' The blond thought to himself, 'Let's see how far you get this time... I helped you with the test to become a Captain, but this time will be different.'
While this individual was thinking about dangerous things, Nova knew she had to be careful with the man in front of her.
'Does Eric still have those thoughts about me?' She asked herself as she saw the young blond man looking at her mysteriously. 'Maybe I should tell him about my relationship with Vicente? That way, he maybe will stop following me? No, I'd better not. The way he's passionate, it's possible he might try something against Vicente in the future. I'd better deal with him the way I always have.'
Nova and Eric had been friends in the military academy. But he was in love with her, while she felt nothing for him.
The last time they had been together, Nova had made it clear to Eric that she had no interest in him and that he should get on with his life without thinking about her in that way.
Unfortunately, this had happened in front of a dozen people because Eric thought he could easily win Nova's favor after helping her hunt for her second pentagram.
He had exposed himself because of his great confidence and ended up humiliating himself in front of many people.
That might not seem like a big deal to many people, but Eric was someone who cared very much about his reputation and hated to hear bad things said about him.
After such a situation, his opinion of Nova had changed 180 degrees!
While these two were thinking about each other, the other two Low-level Mages who were preparing to hunt their next pentagrams were sitting next to Nova and Eric.
One was a young man with brown hair, and the other was a blonde woman, the only one of the two who knew Nova and Eric's story.
She thought to herself. 'This will be my chance. Nova and Eric will probably have some kind of problem with each other on the hunt. That will be my chance to take over Saltstar City place!'
