In the blink of an eye, another three months have passed since the Royal Academy of Saltstar City applications.
Nothing problematic has happened to Vicente or his plans. On the contrary, his family has grown even more during this time, reaching 3 new cities and adding another 150 new members controlled by his subordinates.
Now, more than 500 men work for the Mazzanti family. At the same time, 50 of them are public members of the Fuller family, the Mazzanti family's parent company.
Of the 50 public members of the Fuller family, several had advanced in strength, with the emergence of the group's first Mages in addition to those closest to Vice or those recruited already at the beginning of the 3rd stage.
Among those who had advanced was Eve, who had finally become a Low-level Mage.
She and the newly promoted family Mages still had to go out to hunt their pentagrams, but Bart and Rory were already organizing their hunt.
Meanwhile, Vicente had improved his strength and finally reached the absolute peak of the 3rd stage!
It would still take some time for him to advance to the 4th stage because advancing wasn't just about reaching maximum mana. He also needed to have a good understanding of his elements.
Vicente had a great affinity for his elements, but in order to advance, he needed to have insights and ways of using his elements to the maximum that a High-level Mage could have or use.
That was very important for advancement and also the reason why magicians of the same level and affinity, as well as pentagram configuration, sometimes had very different magical abilities.
One magician at a given level might be at the peak of understanding that they could achieve at that level, while the other might still have room to learn and use their abilities in a better way.
That was what Vicente lacked now. When he reached this requirement, he could immediately attempt to advance to the 4th stage and become a Sovereign!
Given the level he had reached, he was naturally eager to set out in search of his revenge.
But Vicente was still in Saltstar City, caring for his local affairs and Nina.
Nina had graduated from the basic academy and turned 10. She had taken the entrance exams for the local Royal Academy and had placed 11th out of the 180 places available for new students this year.
As such, she was already preparing to begin her studies at the local Royal Academy in the coming days.
In the meantime, she was on vacation, but she didn't lack things to do. She now spent many more hours studying with Newton than she had before.
In addition to her almost daily meetings with that man, she had also been learning more and more from her older brother while accompanying Vicente on some of his routines.
In addition, Nina's physique began to show signs of leaving childhood behind.
Between the ages of 10 and 14, young people mature and go through adolescence. Therefore, it was natural that from then on, her body would show more and more feminine signs, with her curves becoming more accentuated while her charm would increase greatly.
Vicente was aware of this, and every day, he looked at his sister and sighed, thinking that his little girl would soon become a woman who would give him some headaches...
But she would give him more headaches than he expected!
During those months, Nina had been spying on a meeting between Cesar Mazzanti and Professor Newton, learning about the man's vital status and becoming suspicious of certain things again.
Because of that meeting about three weeks ago, she became increasingly interested in spying on her brother.
...
While Vicente was working in the basement of his estate, Nina was now hiding there, watching him as he used his skills to forge weapons for his group.
Vicente couldn't notice Nina because she didn't have much mana in her being, and he had no reason to always scan his surroundings.
The Fuller estate was very well protected, not only by Vicente's men but also by the defensive formations and metal structures that Vicente himself had created. That was a place where he could relax enough to open gaps for Nina to explore.
Just then, she saw her brother's pentagrams and realized he had the same ability as Cesar.
'I knew it!' Nina clenched her fists as she thought there was no way Vicente could deny who he was anymore. 'I was right! Eve and the others lied to me to protect him!'
She wanted to help the family and get more involved in Vicente's business, so with the confirmation of her theories, she took courage and stepped forward.
"Brother!" She shouted, catching Vicente's attention in the noisy, dark basement.
Vicente felt as if he had missed something very important as he looked back.
'Shit!' He saw Nina standing behind him.
"Nina... What are you doing here?"
Nina took something out of her spatial ring and threw it to Vicente. "This is yours, right? Are you the one behind Cesar's mask, big brother?"
Gulp!
Vicente wanted to protect Nina from this, but now all was lost.
"Nina, it's not that simple." He said as he brought his pentagrams back to himself and felt the difficulty of having his identity discovered by a little girl.
How would he explain himself to her? How would he explain to his sister that he was a cruel man with many deaths on his record? How would he tell her that he was a criminal?
But Nina was different from what Vicente thought. "Big brother, tell me the truth. I just want to help the family. I don't care about the things you've done."
'She's right...'
"Sigh... There's no need to hide it now." Vicente said before offering a word of advice. "All right, Nina, I'll tell you everything. But you must assure me that you'll never spy on anyone again. What you did to me could have been very dangerous! Don't do it again!"
She smiled at him, eager to hear the truth. "All right, I promise."
"I'll believe you this time... Anyway, I started acting as Cesar to get resources while keeping my real identity protected. In our society, Nina, people will use other people's weaknesses, like family, against others whenever possible.
That's why we must keep our identities secret when we do dangerous things. That's how Cesar Mazzanti was born."
"But why these methods, brother?" She asked him naively.
Vicente said. "In this world, only family matters. The kingdom doesn't care about you or me. The academy where you will study doesn't care about you. Nobody cares about the suffering of others.
Some powers want us to die. That would be best for them.
So you only have your family. And then you have to do what is best for your family.
I had the opportunity to do what's best for us by doing what you know, so I did it. I don't regret anything I did, and I'm willing to break the law again if I have to."
