Popularity is everything; I play a super genius

The guess was confirmed, and Tsukimi's lips twitched.

He never expected his senior brother to be so bold.

The fire stolen by the fire thief has remained in the City of Fire ever since, never leaving...

Seeing that Tsukimi-sensei seemed to be sensing his own echo core, Hōki became a little nervous for a moment.

After Yuejian removed his armor, he eagerly pressed on with his question:

"Teacher, how is it? Has my echo core reacted?"

When will I likely awaken?

Looking at Hiki's expectant expression, Tsukimi opened her mouth, but for a moment she didn't know what to say.

"Teacher? Say something!"

Only after being repeatedly pressed did he finally speak:

"Huomu, you'd better be mentally prepared—"

You're probably...

I'll never be able to awaken the echo in this lifetime.

"Huh?"

Upon hearing this, Huomu was struck dumb, as if by lightning.

"...why?"

yeah why?

Tsukimi also wanted to know why.

But asking Huomu about this issue was useless.

What can a man do if someone takes advantage of his own son?

……

Karentia.

Isolde.

After a few days of rest, Charles was finally able to move around normally.

However, the damage to the spirit body is far from recovered, so using Echoes in combat is out of the question right now.

Xia Er invited several members of the Sea of ​​Consciousness team to his home.

After everyone arrived, Charles clapped his hands, and servants immediately brought over a treasure chest.

This treasure chest bears a striking resemblance to the others in the Sea of ​​Consciousness.

It is a "conceptual creation" modeled after its form.

Using this specially made container to store the Echo Fragments can delay the "dissipation of spiritual energy" of the fragments to the greatest extent possible.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Charles opened the treasure chest.

In an instant, the unique splendor of the epic fragments filled the entire hall!

The treasure chest contained exactly four fragments, no more and no less.

Charles waved his hand generously and said:

"This unexpected incident in the Sea of ​​Consciousness was due to my lack of foresight."

The Isolde family never shortchanges their friends.

Each of you can pick up these fragments; consider it compensation for this unexpected event.

"real or fake?!"

When Rina saw this, she thought she was dreaming.

What she lost in the Sea of ​​Consciousness was merely a blue fragment, but now, Lord Ciel is compensating her—

It's an epic!

epic!!!

That's so meticulous!

That's so cool!

Rina immediately beamed and offered a sincere compliment:

"Lord Ciel, you are too kind! It is our honor to serve you, especially since you are so considerate of us... The Isolde family is indeed generous!"

Rina was the first to accept the compensation.

After a moment's hesitation, At and Wumaling each picked out the fragments of their respective lineages.

Art glanced at Charles, and his impression of this playboy changed slightly, which was rare for him.

As for Wuma Zero, although his face still had that expressionless look, he quietly said "thank you" when he accepted the fragment.

Of all those present, only Dorothy was truly unhappy.

She has been immersing herself in alcohol these past few days, and it has only been a little difficult for her to emerge from the shadow of the stolen legendary fragments.

And now, to make matters worse, those dead memories are coming back...

'That damn fox-faced guy, I'll...'

Ciel noticed Dorothy's expression, which seemed rather strange:

"Miss Dorothy, what's wrong? Are you unhappy?"

Ciel called everyone here mainly for Dorothy's sake.

While four epic fragments may not amount to much for the Isolde family, they represent a significant financial loss for Sharl personally.

The reason he gritted his teeth and spent such a huge amount of money was to salvage his image in front of Dorothy.

"I...I'm happy..."

Faced with Ciel's confused gaze, Dorothy could only manage a forced smile thanks to her superb acting skills.

Although at this moment, she really wanted to tell Charles—

What I lost was a legendary fragment! A legendary fragment!!!

But if he said that, not only would Charles not believe him, but the rest of the team would probably secretly despise him, thinking that he was greedy and trying to take advantage of them.

Dorothy is, after all, a very popular idol, and she can't let go of her idol image.

And even if Ciel believed it, so what?

Sharl will compensate her with the epic fragments; there's no problem with that.

But Ciel would never be so generous with the fragments of the legend.

Therefore, Dorothy had no choice but to suffer in silence, unable to express her pain...

Seeing Dorothy smiling so happily, Ciel was finally relieved.

She thought to herself that her impression of Dorothy must have improved a lot.

To be honest, I did a pretty good job on this!

They perfectly turned an unexpected event that might have lowered their approval rating into a positive one!

By now, Dorothy must have been completely captivated by her own charm!

This young master is truly a genius!

Charles reveled in his own thoughts for a while before bringing up another matter:

"In ten days, the Tidal Competition of the City of Fire will begin."

Our goal in this trip to the City of Fire is, without a doubt, to secure all ten seats!

At this point, the image of the person wearing the fox mask flashed through Charles's mind, and his expression visibly darkened.

"Do you remember that fox mask that hid in the Sea of ​​Consciousness? That beast, he is the City of Fire—"

Before the words were finished, a crisp, muffled sound was heard.

Charles's slicked-back face suddenly turned to one side.

It felt like being slapped hard by the air.

"?!"

Realizing something, Charles covered his swollen cheek and immediately looked towards the door.

But it was his sister Vivian who happened to be passing by in the corridor, casting a cold glance at him:

"That's your brother-in-law. Don't let me hear you call him that again."

Compared to his younger brother who was of foreign blood, Ciel was closer to his older sister Vivian from a young age.

However, due to his sister's icy aura, Ciel couldn't help but both respect and fear her.

Upon hearing this, Charles suppressed all his dissatisfaction in a second and obediently nodded.

However, she couldn't help but mutter a small, aggrieved remark:

"Sis, my classmates are all here, please give me some face..."

Vivian didn't reply to him; the sound of her high heels hitting the ground was unhurried and gradually faded into the distance.

Only after the figure completely disappeared at the end of the corridor did everyone in the room seem to regain their breath.

"That's Isolde's..."

Someone murmured half a sentence, then swallowed the rest.

No one responded.

In Calentia, Vivian's name is always preceded by a series of awe-inspiring titles—

"Vector Witch", "Silver-Ash Tyrant", "Deflection Princess", "Zero Queen"...

Despite his fame, most of the people present were seeing him in person for the first time.

Being overwhelmed by that terrifying aura to the point of forgetting to breathe is hardly shameful.

Everyone averted their gaze in awe, except for Art, who stared blankly at the doorway, Vivian's words replaying in his mind—

That's your brother-in-law...

In an instant, a huge uproar erupted in my heart!

He looked at Charles in disbelief:

“Charles, the brother-in-law that Miss Vivian just mentioned…”

The Isolde family had their mythological fragments stolen by the Thousand Faces family's Su Shi. Not only did they fail to recover them, but they also ended up handing over the family's most dazzling jewel.

It's a rather unpleasant topic to talk about, so the news of the marriage alliance between the two families is currently only circulating in a small circle.

But since his older sister had just said it in front of everyone, Ciel no longer needed to hide it.

"That's right, that beast... that damned Su Shi from the Thousand Faces family... is the fox from the Sea of ​​Consciousness before! My current brother-in-law... it's all my fault, I caused my sister's..."

Charles slammed his fist on the table in frustration.

When Ciel first learned of this, he was also greatly shocked and it took him a long time to finally accept it...

When Atreus confirmed the news with Charles, he was struck dumb.

His childhood goddess—

That Vivian Isolde, so high above, so unattainable, the one he had looked up to throughout his adolescence...

She's actually going to marry Su Shi, some kind of Thousand-Faced Master.

A nobody I've never even heard of!

The reason why Atreus disliked Ciel, yet still spent so much time with him, was for only one reason—

He had admired Vivian since he was a child.

He never even dared to hope for any outcome; simply watching from afar was enough.