Chronicles of Forgotten Extra-Chapter 302: First Day of Tournament [1]

Meanwhile, far away from the two cosmic lovebirds reunited after thousands of years, Alden snapped his eyes open.

He took in a sharp breath, body drenched in sweat as he stared up at the ceiling above his lavish bed.

"What the fuck was that...?"

The image was still burned into his mind of Caera reaching for him, pulling him inside that shadowy surface.

And the feeling of something inside him being slowly severed. His chest felt heavy as he could still feel that unpleasant sensation clinging to his body, refusing to let go.

That thing was the same thing Caera had been trying to cut away when she was pulling him out of the world.

Although she didn’t succeed, some part of it was gone, he could feel it clearly.

So what the hell was it?

Alden pressed a hand to his forehead, breathing slowly.

Strangely enough, his thoughts felt clearer.

The cold and overly rational mindset that had gripped him recently felt... more normal now as if a weight he hadn’t even realized was there had finally been loosened.

And that realization made him more uncomfortable than the nightmare ever could.

But there was something that bothered him even more.

The voice.

The one he had heard just before Caera’s power could fully swallow him.

"...Who was that?"

No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the memory stayed. That calm and amused voice brimming with strange mischief as if he were nothing more than a pawn being nudged across a board for someone else’s entertainment.

A god?

Or something pretending to be one?

Was he the one my future self warned me about?

Alden frowned.

...If he was already powerful enough to interfere with the system itself, then why didn’t he just kill me?

Is that because he can’t do it yet?

Or does he simply want something else from me?

The questions just kept adding one after another, each one heavier than the last.

Alden didn’t understand what was happening but one thing was painfully clear, something was messing with him and whatever it wanted... was anything but normal.

But for now, there was only one thing he could do.

Focus on the problems right in front of him and keep growing stronger.

Because he had no idea when the mysterious entity’s amusement would turn into an ember for his destruction.

Just then, his ManaSync buzzed on the table beside his bed.

Alden picked it up immediately.

A message from Azriel.

—

Where the hell are you, bro? Matches are starting soon.

—

Alden glanced at the time.

It was already ten in the morning.

His own match wasn’t until the afternoon slot but after a brief pause, he got up anyway because he had promised to be for the matches of his friends.

There goes another day of sleep down the drain.

He had slept for nearly fifteen hours... and yet it didn’t feel like rest at all. Most of that time, he had been awake inside that space where Caera had summoned him.

So instead of feeling refreshed, he felt even more exhausted as if his body had slept... but his mind never had.

Alden didn’t know whether some cosmic force was messing with his life or not but it was sure as hell messing with his sleep schedule and he was ready to go to war because of that.

—

After freshening up and taking a cold shower, Alden got dressed and stepped out of his room.

As soon as he exited the residential area, two familiar figures caught his eye in the crowd.

Amyra was heading toward the arena as well while Kyun perched lazily on her shoulder. For the first time since yesterday, Alden felt... different.

With that unnaturally cold, rational edge receding just a little, the situation between them didn’t feel as clear-cut as it had before.

That didn’t mean he developed some feelings for her in a day.

Most of his thoughts were still the same and he still didn’t believe he owed her an explanation and yet there was a faint sense of guilt for how easily he had dismissed the idea that she might have been hurt.

So he decided to be a bit soft and greet her first.

"Hey, Amyra."

He lifted a hand and waved toward her.

Normally, she would have responded with a soft smile or maybe a nod and a brief greeting but this time... She glanced at him only once and then she turned away.

Her expressions were cold and distant unlike anything he had ever seen on her before.

Damn... that was brutal.

He had honestly expected her to get over her feelings after seeing Nyx hug him that day.

But still, wasn’t this change a little too fast?

Alden exhaled and shrugged it off.

Maybe this is just her way of dealing with heartbreak.

Everyone handled it differently.

He just hoped they could still be friends even if he couldn’t return her feelings because whether he liked it or not... He had been influenced by her and by everyone around him and he didn’t want to lose those connections now.

Just then, a charming voice drifted from behind him.

"Did the princess finally leave you? Well that was to be expected given your personality."

Alden turned around, recognizing the voice even before he looked.

How could he ever forget the voice of his ever so loving half-sister, Seles?

"And here I was wondering," Alden said softly,

"where that annoying, trashy smell was coming from."

Alden sighed internally.

He had felt her presence earlier but he had chosen to ignore it and he honestly expected her to do the same.

But of course, she had to defy his expectations.

Sometimes, Alden genuinely wondered if the creator of this world had some twisted crush on her because every single time he even remotely considered erasing her existence, she somehow survived.

Not through strength but because he got dragged into something else.

Even now, he had had a perfectly good plan to kill her during the inter-academy and then, that bastard Jeremy started acting out and everything derailed.

And just like that, Seles was spared once again.

If the world were some kind of novel, then she definitely had absurd plot armor wrapped around her, the kind so thick it made Alden wonder what kind of twisted affection the author must have had for her.

"Naturally," She scoffed, "only pigs are attracted to trash."

...Yeah.

Even Alden had to admit it, her comeback was brutal.

"Well," he shot back without missing a beat, "good thing this pig has a strong stomach. Otherwise, nothing could survive something that stinks this bad."

Seles’ smile twitched.

But this time, she didn’t continue the battle.

Instead, she sighed softly.

"It truly breaks my heart," she said with exaggerated regret, "that you and the princess are separated."

She even shook her head. "I was rooting for you two, you know."

...Huh?

Since when did she start caring about that?

What Alden didn’t know was that she didn’t care about him at all. She only wanted to see the devastation on his face when she took everything that bitch Amyra had and then killed Alden with her own hands.

"Well, you should worry about yourself. Who knows, maybe Lucien will grow a nose one day and finally run away." He shrugged lightly.

But Seles didn’t fire back, she just smiled.

"We’ll see about that."

With those quiet and unsettling words, she turned around and walked away.

And for some reason, that smile bothered Alden far more than any insult ever could.