Harem System In A fantasy World

"What do you mean?"

Maximus asked, a frown forming on his wrinkled face as he looked at Cain steadily, and inwardly he was already thinking, maybe I am mistaken, even as he feigned ignorance on the surface.

Because if Cain had truly seen what he thought he had seen... Then that put his plans in jeopardy.

Cain sighed, and there was something almost disappointed in the sound, as if he could hardly believe the old man standing before him was forcing him to spell it out.

"You really have lost all your edge, old man," he said calmly, his voice carrying just enough scorn to make the surroundings feel very uncomfortable. "Very well, let me explain myself." He sighed.

By now, the crowd was growing restless because everyone wanted an explanation, and the shock that had frozen the arena a moment ago was quickly turning into a boiling confusion that spread from row to row.

People stood from their seats, craning their necks, whispering loudly, some shouting questions from below, demanding to know why a duke had just attacked a student in the middle of an open academy tournament.

The other professors had been slower to react, but they were entering the arena now as well, most of them forced to approach on foot because they could not fly.

Their robes fluttered as they hurried across the battlefield with dark frowns on their faces, while Halbrecht and a few others floated in from above and took up positions to the side, all of them watching Cain closely as they waited for him to speak.

No one moved to check on Elion, though.

And that alone said a lot, because even though some of them were disturbed by what had just happened, they were all hesitating, some because they feared there was more to this than they understood.

If the duke was right about whatever he was implying, then the smartest thing to do was keep their distance until the truth was known, and no one wanted to be seen rushing to the side of a boy who might suddenly turn into the center of some far uglier problem.

Of course, some of them couldn’t help but think something else entirely, that perhaps Dawncrest had simply done all this because he could no longer stand to watch his son be humiliated so openly, because no matter how he dressed it up, that was what everyone had just witnessed, and it was the easiest conclusion to come to.

Meanwhile, lodged in the broken outer wall, Elion coughed up mouthfuls after mouthfuls of blood, his chest spasming with the effort as the sharp copper taste flooded his mouth and ran down the side of his chin.

His head felt hazy, heavy, like the whole world had been wrapped in thick cotton, the sounds of the arena coming to him distorted and far away as he struggled to stay conscious.

The world spun slightly around him as he struggled to focus; the pain in his body felt unbearable, and it was unrelenting.

His abdomen felt worse than every other part. With every shallow breath he took. For a moment, the sounds of the arena felt distant, muffled, like he was hearing them from underwater.

It felt like every single bone in his body had been shattered, and the pain came in waves that overlapped and collided with each other until it was difficult to even separate one injury from another.

There were deep cuts across his arms and torso and legs, and blood was leaking freely, not just from his mouth but from his head and his sides and places he could not even properly feel anymore.

All that from just one blow.

’What just happened...’

The thought came slowly, like it had to fight its way through the haze clouding his mind, because his vision was blurred and darkened at the edges, and blood was running into his eyes, making everything smear and distort, and yet even in that state, he knew one thing with certainty.

It wasn’t William.

Up until the very last second, his eyes had been locked on William, and he remembered that clearly, remembered the exact angle of his blade, the exact moment before impact, and whatever had struck him had come from outside that frame, from somewhere he had not even perceived.

’It was too fast...’

His body shifted slightly, and the broken stone around him crumbled as he slipped out of the man-shaped crater that had formed around his impact point, and he fell forward weakly onto the arena floor.

His hands caught him just barely as his arms trembled under his weight, and another mouthful of blood spilled from his lips as he choked and coughed, his chest tightening painfully.

He lifted his head slowly as his vision flickered.

He saw nothing but shapes and blurs, and then they focused into multiple figures standing in the distance.

’What... the fuck is happening now...’

His body felt like it was on fire and frozen at the same time, but beneath all of that, there was something else, something working quietly, because he could feel it.

The slow and steady pull of recovery, his body trying to mend itself, trying to stabilise the damage, even if it was only just enough to keep him conscious.

His passive abilities were working wonders for his recovery.

Meanwhile—

Cain began to speak.

"I have reason to believe," his voice rang out, loud and clear, carrying across the entire arena without obstruction, "that this young man you have been keeping in the academy... is a filthy heretic who has signed a contract with a demon."

At first, there was a stunned silence, which swiftly changed to shock as every eye widened at the implication of what had just been said.

And almost instinctively, they all turned toward Elion, who was lying there in a broken and bleeding state.

They all stared at him as if searching for obvious signs of this absurd accusation. They all wanted to see something, to see if there were any obvious and visible signs of this supposed demonic contract.

They expected to see something monstrous. Perhaps it had passed over them because they had not been looking for it. But they found nothing of the sort.

Whispers broke out.

"A demon...?"

"No... that can’t be..."

"But the duke—"

"He wouldn’t say something like that without reason..."

Suspicion. It spread faster than logic.

Maximus narrowed his eyes.

"And what proof do you have to support this claim?" he asked, his voice low but heavy, cutting through the rising noise like a blade.

Because if that were true, he should have seen it long ago, the very first time he had looked into the boy. The very first time he had peered into his being.

So how could Dawncrest have seen something he had not? Maximus’s gaze sharpened.

A part of Maximus quietly sighed in relief, because if Cain had not sensed the Origin Core, then his plans were still intact for the most part, and that alone was enough to ease a fraction of the tension that had built up in his chest.

However, that relief did not last long, because the situation unfolding before him was no less dangerous, perhaps even more so in the eyes of the public.

Making a contract with a demon was the highest form of treason a resident of this world could commit, and even though most of the people in the stands had long since forgotten the brutal war that had taken place centuries ago, there were still those who remembered.

There were records, stories, and scars left behind by that era that had never truly faded, and while the war had ended in victory and the demons had been sealed away into another realm, the cost had been catastrophic.

Entire regions and races had been lost, entire bloodlines erased, and because of that history, the mere mention of demons was enough to stir fear and hatred deep within the hearts of the people.

And yet, even after all that, there were always fools, heretics, and those who believed they could gain power by betraying their own kind, and every now and then, such individuals would emerge, trading their humanity for power by forming a contract with these demons and causing chaos before being put down.

Just being accused of such an atrocity would mean very thorough scrutiny.

"Proof?" Cain scoffed, his voice dripping with disdain as he looked around at the gathered professors and spectators, clearly unimpressed by their reactions.

"It is because everyone is so blind that heretics like him manage to cause havoc now and again," he continued, his tone sharp and unwavering as he pointed subtly toward Elion’s broken form.

"You are all fortunate that I managed to weed out this threat before it became any stronger."

A murmur spread through the crowd again, louder and more restless this time, as people exchanged glances and began to reconsider what they had seen earlier, trying to fit it into this new narrative.

"I do have proof, however," Cain added, his gaze returning to Maximus as he spoke, his voice steady, confident.

"It is simple."

He gestured toward Elion.

"The boy you see here is no longer human," he said, letting the words hang for a moment before continuing, "technically, he is only half human, but that is not the point."

The murmurs grew louder.

"It is only a matter of time before his demon side completely takes over, and when it does, he will begin committing the same kind of massacres we have seen before from those lowly creatures."

Maximus’s eyes narrowed, and around him, the reactions were immediate, because disbelief rippled through the arena like a shockwave, some people shaking their heads, others staring at Elion with suspicion, fear, or outright hostility, as the idea began to take root in their minds.

Meanwhile, Elion could now hear and see everything. The haze had lifted just enough for him to be able to use his visual and hearing senses.

And what he heard and saw made him laugh.

"Heekh!"

Or at least he tried to.

It came out as a pained wheeze that made his chest tighten as blood bubbled at his lips, but the sound still carried along loud enough for every single person to hear him.

Cain’s frown deepened as he looked down at him. "What is so funny, demon?" he asked in a cold tone.