Unlike the adults, the first floor was mostly filled with young people interacting with each other.
Among them was Leonard Tarvian, standing amidst a group of youths.
"By the way, how is the World Academy?" one of them asked Leonard.
"It's fine," Leonard replied, maintaining his smile.
Osbert had made sure that his son knew how to act in every social event.
No one would look at Leonard and think he would be scheming their demise while smiling and conversing with them.
Leonard's friendly nature was one of the reasons Kevin decided to join him when they would leave the World Academy.
Although Reece being friends with Leonard was a significant factor for Kevin joining them.
"By the way, I heard Reece Williams will be coming to the Gala as well?" one girl asked Leonard.
"He told me that he would come," Leonard replied.
While Leonard continued conversing with these young people, who hailed from families powerful enough to be invited to the Kalvas Gala, he made sure to pick out people that could be useful for him.
"I heard your family found a new way to use certain artifacts," Leonard asked one of the boys standing there.
"Oh, it seems the word got out quite fast," the boy replied, pleased that his family was being praised.
"But our research is still focused only on support type artifacts, and it will take years until it can be implemented," the boy added.
While Leonard was conversing, other elite families' children were sitting with their own groups.
At one of the big tables, Damian and Amelia were talking with each other, sizing up the people they were seeing.
Amelia was chatting with Damian when she saw Lucas and Livia coming down to the first floor, guided by a servant.
Livia cheered up as she spotted Amelia, who was sitting at the table with Damian.
Both twins and Nate headed towards their table and sat with them.
Their arrival did not go unnoticed as a few people were looking at the twins.
"Did you get bored?" Amelia asked Livia as she sat beside her.
Damian was smiling, but he noticed Nate's expression.
"Did something happen?" Damian asked.
"We met some woman named Casie Hargrave who was rude to them," Nate said with an annoyed look.
"Casie?" Amelia echoed.
'Is it Uncle Ivar's fiancée?' Amelia remembered hearing about her once.
"Big Sister," Livia said as she poked Amelia's hand.
"Yes?" Amelia answered.
"Was that woman really engaged to our father?" Livia asked Amelia, looking slightly saddened.
Lucas looked at Amelia, as he too wanted to know the answer.
Even Amelia didn't know the full details about it, but she knew that it was not better to hide things from the twins.
"If I remember correctly, Uncle Ivar was forced into an engagement with Casie Hargrave because of a promise between the families," Amelia said.
"It was only a verbal agreement as Uncle Ivar didn't want to marry that woman," Amelia continued.
"But even I don't know the full details," Amelia said as Livia took a deep breath.
Even Lucas felt a bit happy without knowing why.
But Damian knew a bit more about this topic as David had once told him during their training session.
'I should keep it to myself,' Damian thought as there was another reason Ivar couldn't break off the engagement even if he wanted to.
As the promise was about one Greville marrying a Hargrave, there were two people that fit the bill.
One was Arthur and the other was Ivar.
"When you guys go back, make sure to avoid that woman," Damian said, looking at the twins.
"Okay," Lucas replied while Livia just nodded with a smile.
'I think they don't understand why I am saying this,' Damian thought as he looked at the facial expressions of the twins.
Even Amelia wasn't that worried because she didn't know much about Casie Hargrave, but Damian did.
David would usually tell Damian about Ivar, as he grew up and this made Damian very curious about Ivar.
And that curiosity made Damian realize how dangerous the rumors about Casie Hargrave were.
But he decided not to tell them until he asked his father about it.
As they were conversing, Amelia ordered various treats for the three kids, and they were enjoying their quality time when a few people started coming their way.
"Are these the famous Ivar Greville's children?" one of the guys asked as he looked at Lucas and Livia.
Amelia looked up and saw they were the same people that were conversing with Leonard Tarvian previously.
The guy glanced at Amelia and admired her beauty.
"Hey, I am -," He was going to introduce himself but Amelia spoke first.
"We didn't invite you here," Amelia said, her cold gaze falling on them.
"Uh?" The guy was confused by her reply.
"Okay," He said as he turned to leave, causing the others to leave as well.
Amelia squinted her eyes, as she noticed all of them were looking down on the twins.
It wasn't hard to guess that they only used the twins as an excuse to get closer and talk with Amelia, who was one of the most beautiful girls present there.
And seeing a group of four guys going back as soon as they arrived, a few others with similar ideas gave up the thought of approaching them as well.
Amelia continued talking with the kids as they watched various artists perform. Many of them even amazed Lucas and Livia.
As this floor was only meant for young people, Cristina made the music and performance cater to their tastes.
"I think we should go back," Lucas told Livia, who was happily spending her time with Amelia.
He looked at the time and the formal dance was about to begin in half an hour.
"Okay, but take care. Mom and Dad would have come back from the gathering as well by now," Amelia said as she called two servants to accompany them back to the second floor.
The twins and Nate waved goodbye as they returned to the second floor.
Amelia had already messaged Sylvie about sending the twins back and included the fact that they had encountered Casie Hargrave.
At this moment, Reece and Raelyn had entered through the portal and were making their way to the White Castle.
"This is different than I expected," Raelyn said as she observed the colored waves of mana traveling throughout Mzelm Island.
Reece was also a bit surprised with Cristina's work, as the previous Gala he attended wasn't like this.
"Let's take the portal to the White Castle," Reece suggested, looking at Raelyn who nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I don't want us to be too late," Raelyn replied.
With a smile, Reece extended his hand to Raelyn, who accepted it as they walked together towards the portal.
***
At one of the operation towers built by the World Association, a man was sitting in one of the surveillance rooms, recording the mana readings around the surrounding area where the building was located.
"Make sure that the connection with the Kalvas Gala remains stable," the Head Chief said, looking around.
"With so many SSS Rank people gathered in one place, the mana connectivity might become unstable," he reminded them.
The formal dance would be shown to the whole world, and it wouldn't reflect well on them as they were responsible for maintaining the channels where the broadcast would be held.
"I have set the mana sensitivity, we just need to get permission from the people at the Kalvas Gala," one of the men working on a device spoke.
But as they were speaking, the man in charge of surveilling a certain area squinted his eyes.
"Why are the mana readings increasing?" He muttered in confusion.
Instead of decreasing, the mana readings did not stop at all; they kept rising to ridiculous heights.
Seeing that, the man's hand began shaking with fear, as he knew what this meant.
"H-Hey," As he was trying to gather other's attention he turned his head, but the sight he saw shocked him.
"WHAT?!" He shouted as he saw a single masked man killing everyone in the room.
"Shush," The masked man spoke as he put his finger on his lips.
The man tried to reach out to a certain button but he died before he could even move his hands forward.
"I got the control over this room," Dane said as he looked around a room full with dead people.
<Nice, make sure to turn off the Alert Program the way I taught you>
Dane heard Tom's instructions and he started messing with the controls.
"Is it done?" Kai asked as he carried the dead body of Erwin.
"Yeah," Dane replied.
Kai surveyed the mess Dane had created in the room, but it was necessary for their plan.
After all, bringing Erwin here using the teleportation artifact was part of their strategy.
<I'll give you the timing to start it, but make sure to leave as soon as I say so>
Tom reminded them.
"Okay," Dane and Kai replied in unison, now at ease following Tom's instructions.
After all, Tom's guidance had saved their lives too many times, leading them to believe that Tom was as much of a professional as they were.
However, what they didn't know was that the source of Tom's advice was Asher.
