Felix looked back at the civilians who had fallen to the ground, wailing and bleeding profusely, his eyes full of helplessness. He then looked at Emilia, who was ready to attack at any moment, and could only sigh helplessly, whispering: "I apologize."
With that, Felix left without looking back. Emilia's change was too great; this matter had to be reported to Lady Crusch.
Watching Felix leave, Emilia only glanced coldly at her retreating back. She didn't speak, simply withdrew the ice spikes behind her. She then looked at the people lying on the ground, sneered coldly, and walked right past them.
The situation here had already been discovered by those knights, who were likely rushing here now. However, it would probably take quite some time. After all, today was the day of the Royal Selection, and those knights were all busy in the royal capital. There wasn't much spare manpower, and it would take a significant amount of time to get here. Emilia wasn't afraid of exposure; she hadn't intended to hide anything before doing this.
"Well done, Emilia!"
Walking on the road, Fujino praised Emilia.
"It was nothing." Facing Fujino's praise, Emilia's face turned slightly red. If one had to say what Emilia's weakness was now, it was only Fujino.
"Let's go, the time for the Royal Selection is about to begin." Teresa spoke from behind.
"Mm, let's go." Emilia nodded and walked towards the royal capital, with Fujino and Teresa following closely behind.
The news of Emilia's drastic change in personality had already reached Crusch's ears through Felix. When Crusch herself learned of this from Felix, the expression on her face was quite colorful.
"Felix, you aren't mistaken, are you?" In the royal capital, Crusch, who had arrived early, asked, looking at Felix seriously.
"I saw it with my own eyes. Lady Emilia seemed like a different person; she attacked the civilians directly. And looking at the injuries of those civilians, they are quite severe." Felix poured out everything he had seen.
"A drastic change in personality, why?" Crusch stood up and looked out the window. In her line of sight, Emilia and the others had arrived at the gate of the royal capital.
Looking at Emilia in her line of sight, Crusch frowned slightly. Even from a distance, Crusch actually felt a chill from Emilia.
"It seems that something really has happened." Crusch's frown deepened. But after a second thought, her brow relaxed. With Emilia making such moves now, she was essentially giving away her position in the Royal Selection. Harming civilians—once this was known, the chance of passing the Royal Selection was almost zero. And most importantly, there was Emilia's extremely sensitive identity as a half-elf.
"Felix, don't worry about this matter. Let's go." After thinking for a moment, Crusch turned back and said to Felix.
"Eh! Oh, oh!" After a brief moment of surprise, Felix hurriedly said, and then went to prepare.
Following Felix's departure, Crusch turned back to look out the window. By now, Emilia and the others were gone, having entered the palace. Crusch's brow furrowed again. This time, she didn't know why, but she tilted her head slightly upward; the originally sunny sky had been covered by a layer of dark clouds.
A bad premonition suddenly arose in Crusch's heart—a bad premonition about this Royal Selection.
"Is the weather about to change?"
The Royal Palace had suffered significant damage during the earthquake. However, because of the upcoming Royal Selection, half of Lugnica's resources were being poured into repairing it.
Fujino and the others walked down the ornate corridor and arrived before a magnificent golden gate. Pushing it open would lead to the site of the Royal Selection.
"It's the same sight as always," Teresa whispered, looking at the door before her. As the Sword Saint who had quelled the Demi-human War, she had come here many times in the past.
"It will look very different before long," Emilia, who was ahead, turned back and smiled at Teresa.
"Alright, Emilia, let's begin." Fujino smiled slightly, feeling a hint of excitement about what was about to happen.
"Mm." Emilia nodded and pushed open the heavy door.
"Is that her!?"
"Yes, that's her!"
"She really looks exactly like that Witch."
As soon as the door opened, Fujino and her group heard whispers from some people in the corner, all of which were about how Emilia shared the same appearance as Satella.
"How noisy!" Emilia's eyes narrowed, and she spoke in a cold voice. The temperature plummeted to the extreme, silencing the whispers instantly, leaving those people shivering uncontrollably from the cold.
"Emilia, stop!" Crusch, one of the Royal Selection candidates, hurriedly said. Even with magic to resist it, she wouldn't be able to endure such low temperatures for long, and currently, she was the only other Royal Selection candidate present.
"Hmph!" Emilia snorted, and the temperature instantly returned to normal.
"You Witch!" a man suddenly shouted. It was an elderly noble with significant power in the Royal Palace. He was hugging himself, and even though the temperature had returned to normal, he hadn't recovered from the cold so quickly. Accustomed to being high and mighty, he was furious at having been treated like that by Emilia just now.
"Damn it!" Hearing the noble's outburst and seeing Emilia's furrowed brow, Crusch knew things were going south. She had just asked Emilia to stop, and now this noble dared to speak to Emilia like that—wasn't he just asking for death?
Crusch now fully realized that the Emilia before her was no longer the seemingly weak Emilia from before. Recalling what Felix had reported to her earlier, Crusch dared to say that Emilia would absolutely kill this noble!
However, Crusch also had a doubt in her heart: did Emilia dare to do this because she wanted to give up on the Royal Selection!?
"Die!" Just as Crusch had predicted, Emilia made a move against the noble, but it wasn't Emilia herself who struck, but the woman behind her who was wrapped up tightly!
Although that person was wrapped up tightly and the mist made it hard to see her face, it wasn't difficult to tell from her figure that she was a woman.
A long sword emitting a cold, chilling light pierced through the noble's chest. Blood dripped from the blade that had impaled his heart, staining the white floor red.
Fast! It was so fast that, apart from Fujino and Emilia, no one present had seen when Teresa made her move.
From the moment they heard the word "Die," the next thing they saw was the long sword piercing the noble's heart.
Just then, the door opened again, and Fujino suddenly furrowed her brow, looking up at the ceiling.
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