Everything will be my way!

Chapter 536

　　The tournament of the best came to an end, and the applause of the audience in honor of Elsa's victory over Dick did not subside for an indecently long time. Well, and the girl was beaming with happiness, waving her hand to everyone with a brilliant smile on her beautiful face. Being the center of attention for her is a priceless reward. She was grateful to the messenger of the goddess for giving her the first place, well, he was grateful to her (although she didn't even know about it) – for a portion of bright emotions.

　　Finally, the applause subsided.

　　The imperial representative gave the closing speech and headed to the palace together with Elsa, Dick and another participant who entered the top 8. All the other winners will soon be brought to their senses and sent there as well.

　　Soon the guests found themselves in the grandiose chic Russell palace, in all its dazzling beauty. The tallest and most expensive building in the entire empire, where the bloody empress Lanatelle lives.

　　The guards let the column of people inside. The winners were escorted down a long corridor and left to wait for the remaining participants in a large room.

　　30 minutes later the others joined in. Pretty shabby Clementine and Seraphima simultaneously burned Dick with a hostile look. The beautiful Juno went inside without even looking in the direction of her older sister. She looked aloof. Roman's face was wrapped in a thick layer of bandages. He looked at his ruthless wife with horror. Rose didn't show up at all. The injuries he sustained were apparently too serious.

　　When seven of the eight winners gathered, they were escorted to the throne room, located on the penultimate, 12th floor of the palace. The visitors saw a spacious room entirely finished with white marble, with cyclopean-sized columns decorated with skillful carvings, and magnificent statues towering near the walls of the hall. A bright scarlet long carpet stretched along the steps from the entrance to the luxurious throne on which the empress sat…

　　More than a hundred people were also present in the hall, whose task was to witness the oath. All of them occupied extremely high positions in the empire: the elders of the Russells; the patriarchs of the families of the first ten; the head of the analytics department – Milan Valentine, a bespectacled intellectual; fifty junior disciples of the empress, most of whom are the Russells. Many of them stared at Elsa in shock, and it wasn't because of her gorgeous irresistible appearance, but because she would become the empress' senior disciple, which meant they would have to treat her with respect.

　　However, two persons demanded special attention:

　　The senior disciple of the empress and the patriarch of the Hunters (3) - Asagi Hunter, a courageous blond man with a short beard. Now the guy was staring in surprise at the fat man, who almost two years ago was suspected of harnessing a white tiger.

　　And also another senior disciple of the empress and the elder brother of Rose Valentine – Stein Valentine, a long-haired, stocky blond man with an appearance that women considered extremely attractive. Handsome, as if from a romance novel, only his gaze was strangely detached. He even looked at Elsa with absolutely no interest, as if he didn't care about anything. Or maybe he was worried about something else. By the way, Stein, like many other disciples of the empress, did not honor the tournament of the best with his presence, so he was not aware of the latest news, did not know about the humiliation of the Valentines and the power of Dick.

　　But the empress, of course, was running the show.

　　Lanatelle looked more like a delicate sculpture created by a great master of antiquity from nephrite of the highest quality than a living person of flesh and blood. Every line of her amazingly beautiful snow-white face could attract attention for long hours. Long silver hair, thin arched eyebrows, coupled with piercing silver eyes completed the picture of a strict and ruthless, but charming tyrant.

　　The image of the empress perfectly harmonized with the imperious aura emanating from her, which, like a mountain, pressed on the heads of those present, forcing them to bow before her majesty. You need to have truly incredible fortitude to resist the indomitable will of this woman.

　　Now Lanatelle coldly looked at the bent young people, carefully studying the appearance and manners of each of them. She seemed to be reading them like an open book, slowly deciding whether they were worthy of becoming her disciples.

　　Kyon's insides froze at the sight of this woman, not from fear, but from hatred and a desire to punish her. However, he skillfully restrained the thirst for blood rushing out and, together with the rest of the young people, bent almost to the floor.

　　Soon the empress nodded, and the imperial representative took an oath of allegiance to her majesty from the audience. He gave a separate speech especially for Elsa.

　　Each of the participants of the tournament, putting the fist on the heart, firmly said "I swear". Everyone who was absent from the tournament looked at the fat man in surprise. How could the noble phaser at the middle stage become a junior disciple of the empress? How could the mouse get into the heavenly hall?!

　　The witnesses clapped after another nod from Lanatelle. From now on, the empress officially had 7 junior and 1 senior disciples more. Here they were, the "dragons" of the empire.

　　The young people were escorted several floors down, where they queued up for the formacy office for the imposition of the official formation of the empress's disciple.

　　Elsa was, of course, the first in line. Entering the office, the girl looked around and sighed sadly. She expected to meet her master here - Julius Russell, whom she had not seen for a month, but the formacist was an unknown man to her.

　　Kyon was the last in line. When he walked into the office, his eyes bulged in amazement, because the imperial formacist turned out to be none other than… Stephanie Russell, the granddaughter of the Minister of Finance, to whom he gave individual lectures in the order!

　　{What is she doing here?!} – Lovr was really surprised and even involuntarily shivered, because, judging by the male voice in Elsa's ears, the formation was clearly imposed on her by someone else. No one left or entered the office during this time. Then how did she get here? What is the disciple of the order doing here, whose father seems to have disappeared?!

　　{Stop… What if she's… The empress?} – Kyon's forehead was sweating at the thought. Judging by the fact that Stephanie somehow appeared here, and also given her cold-blooded rational temperament, high formacist and alchemist skills, as well as the chill that arises in the veins when you are in close proximity to her, this guess may be true.

　　A lump of regret formed in his throat because of the memories of how Lovr once offered her sex in exchange for individual lessons. However, he clearly remembered that when the girl fought Juno, the emanations of the royal phaser at the beginning stage came from her. Concealment bracelets immediately reveal the real development of the wearer when he uses energy… Even if one orders the soul to reduce its development, only the density of energy will decrease, but not its true level… However, there are formations that forcibly suppress the development. Kara wore such a thing, suppressing 6 stages of development. But even a rank 1 formacist, being a supreme phaser (10), will not be able to create a formation capable of suppressing more than one phase.

　　{Or maybe she is the daughter of the empress?} – Kyon suggested. Say, since the unique body of Lanatelle is somehow connected with blood, then it was inherited by her daughter. However, something still doesn't add up. If the empress had a husband, everyone would have known about it long ago.

　　Since it was impossible to come to unambiguous conclusions, he decided to get at least some information on his own. Clearing his throat, he said with an amiable smile: «Lady Stephanie, what an unexpected meeting! Do you work as an imperial formacist? Why haven't I heard about this before?»

　　«Because you didn't ask me about it.» – the girl said coldly.

　　«I see… How's it going? Are they paying you well?»

　　«Give me your hand.» – the lady demanded.

　　{I won't get a clear answer from her…} – Kyon reluctantly stretched out his wrist and clearly felt the vibrations of the royal phaser at the beginning stage. So she's not the empress? He can't be one hundred percent sure of that. In any case, now he will have to be extremely careful, because the formation can follow him. Each time, getting into a place that no one should know about, he will have to physically extract the ball of flesh with the formation inside, as he did to deceive Valeera after joining her clan.

　　By the way, Lovr knew that Lanatelle's unique body was somehow connected with blood, so he slightly changed the composition of his blood before entering the palace. However, the internal energy of the blood can not be changed in this way, so it is unlikely to help. It's better than nothing else.

　　At the end of the procedure for applying the formation, Kyon still decided to do something: he looked into the girl's eyes and activated "The sovereign's stare".

　　Stephanie's eyes widened and filled with horror, and her body trembled slightly. She instantly turned from an ice queen into a cowardly silly bunny, which was completely absurd, because her impassive behavior earlier was not a mask.

　　Suddenly, the girl rolled her eyes back and passed out.

　　Lovr managed to catch Stephanie. He immediately noticed that the chill emanating from her disappeared, but after a second it reappeared, and the girl sharply opened her eyes full of cold.

　　«Are you okay?» – Kyon asked worriedly.

　　Stephanie waved him away, stood up and said in an icy tone: «You are free.»

　　«Ah… Okay… All the best to you.» – Kyon left the office, mentally trying to cope with the shock. – {Why did she act like nothing happened?! And how could she recover so quickly?!}

　　Lovr was puzzled. There were more and more questions. He was sure of one thing: he needed to be on his guard with Stephanie, and it's better to stay away from her. Well, now the most important thing is different: from now on, he is officially the empress' junior disciple! So he was one step closer to saving Valeera, which gave him some hope.

　　Becoming a disciple of the empress is like being a dragon in a zoo. Among the privileges, in addition to the high status in society – financial assistance of the Russells in development. For example, if Elsa had become a disciple of the empress before breaking into the imperial phase, she would have been given transformation medicine for free, as well as the medicine of "Enzymes". And the girl got it for her birthday from her boyfriend – Rose.

　　Junior disciples also have the right to see the empress in person, though only for 10 minutes a year. For senior disciples - once a month for 30 minutes. During this time, they can talk to her about anything: take advice or ask for help in some objectively important problem. And it is very difficult to get an audience with Lanatelle, even for patriarchs, and the reason must be weighty.

　　However, in exchange for all of the above privileges, the disciples are required to act as representatives of Rosarrio, participate in inter-imperial tournaments and much more. Rosarrio rose from the 7th rank to the 6th during the reign of Lanatelle for a reason. Also, the disciples must succeed in development or another craft, otherwise they will have to carry out responsible tasks for the Russells, or even work for them.