Five days later.
On the morning of July 21, the Royal Academy's carriage convoy finally came into view of Edessa.
At a glance, Edessa's overall style wasn't all that different from the capital—no surprise, given how close it was.
Edessa sat at the foot of Demacia's Uralus Mountains. Because of the terrain, there was a natural hunting ground near the city—vast in scope, rich with many kinds of magical beasts.
Whenever hunting season arrived, plenty of people would travel to Edessa on their own to hunt.
And that was when the city became the liveliest.
The road to Edessa wasn't occupied by the Royal Academy convoy alone. Along the way, they also ran into all kinds of merchant caravans and hunting parties.
Since it was the Royal Academy convoy, they didn't need inspections at the gate and were allowed straight in.
After traveling through the city for a while, the group arrived at one of Edessa's branch campuses.
For the next stretch, food, lodging, and everything else would basically revolve around staying at the branch.
The moment Luke stepped down from the carriage, three figures ran over and surrounded him.
"Your Highness, you brought so much luggage—want me to help?"
"Your Highness, for the hunt in a bit… can I team up with you?"
"Your Highness, team with me—there are lots of hunting techniques I want to learn from you…"
Three young noble ladies stood before him, bright and pretty, their eyes full of expectation as they stared at Luke.
From the very first day the convoy set out, they'd been seeking him out—warm, bold, and relentlessly enthusiastic.
Enthusiastic to the point Luke could barely take it.
Now, facing the three of them again, Luke gave a polite smile. "No need. You should go handle your own things."
That one courteous smile instantly made all three of them light up, thrilled beyond belief.
None of them had any intention of leaving. They stayed close around Luke, chattering one after another.
Luke had no choice but to respond now and then while walking toward the Academy's gathering area, and he still didn't signal for Yurna to start unpacking.
Suddenly, one of the girls "accidentally" leaned into him with a little yelp, as if she'd slipped, and grabbed Luke's arm to steady herself.
Except… she didn't let go. Her chest even pressed against him as she blushed and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Your Highness. I slipped."
Luke smiled back gently. "As long as you're okay."
Her face turned even redder, momentarily dazed by that dazzling smile.
Luke used the opening to pull his arm free and kept walking.
The other two girls shot an annoyed look at the "slipped" one for trying to steal a march, then hurried after him.
On the way, they kept finding ways to "accidentally" take advantage of him—creating little moments of physical contact here and there.
Over these five days, that kind of thing had happened more times than Luke could count.
Finally, once they reached the gathering area, the three girls behaved a little more.
Luke breathed out in relief, but thinking about the way those three had been looking at him, he couldn't help thinking—
Yeah. He couldn't stay at the Academy too long.
If he stayed here a few nights, who knew what day he'd get ambushed after dark.
Losing his innocence wouldn't be the worst outcome. Ending up with a marriage contract he couldn't refuse—that was the real disaster.
To be fair, those three noble ladies were good-looking. Not a single one of them was ugly.
But compared to Fiora and Lux… it was like comparing dust to the sky.
Back in the capital, Luke was extremely popular among the girls. His face alone had absurd stopping power, and the royal status only added an even brighter halo.
But at the capital's Academy, he spent all day with Miss Crownguard—Lux was so dazzling she naturally blocked a lot of attention, so the other noble girls could restrain themselves.
The moment they left the capital and Miss Crownguard wasn't there, everything snapped loose.
In five days, Luke had resisted more temptation than he cared to remember.
Now, once all the hunt participants had gathered, the instructor in charge announced, "Get ready. Ten minutes from now, we head to the hunting grounds."
It seemed like the moment they arrived in Edessa, the hunting competition was about to begin.
Still, the road here had basically been five days of rest, so there wasn't much reason to rest more.
Ten minutes later, fully equipped, the Academy team set out and went straight to the forest entrance about six miles south of Edessa.
Looking out, it was a dense, thriving woodland connected to towering mountain peaks. The quiet between the trees carried an unknown, almost ominous feeling.
This was the natural hunting ground.
And the competition would be held here.
The instructor spoke with a stern expression. "During the competition, cheating is strictly forbidden. Each of you will have a professionally trained ranger assigned to follow you. They are your judges. If you encounter danger you cannot handle and require the ranger to intervene, that will count as elimination."
The rules were simple: participants entered the hunting ground ahead to hunt, and the Academy would award points based on the prey.
Scoring also considered multiple factors—how intact the prey was, its rarity, its value, and its strength.
There were twenty-three Royal Academy participants in total, including Luke.
They were essentially the Academy's standout students.
During the competition, their personal attendants were not allowed to follow them inside.
Even Yurna, responsible for Luke's safety, wasn't allowed.
If something truly went wrong inside—something even the accompanying ranger couldn't control—then death would be real death.
Of course, hunting itself never came without risk.
Assigning a ranger as both judge and protection was already a significant mercy.
Once the instructor finished explaining the rules, one ranger after another stepped forward in armor and was assigned to the participants.
These people could be called rangers, mounted scouts, or recon troopers—a special kind of unit.
They were responsible for gathering intelligence, the kind of troops known as the eyes of war.
Every ranger had undergone professional training. Large-scale battles were their weakness, but they excelled at fighting in the wild.
Some even partnered with a bird companion, used for scouting and delivering information.
"Good morning, Your Highness. My name is Quinn. From here on, I'll be accompanying you."
A cool, crisp female voice suddenly came from behind Luke.
He turned and saw a young woman in light armor bowing in front of him. Even under the armor, it was obvious she had a strong figure.
Under her helmet, a few strands of brown hair fell along both sides of her shoulders. Her refined, striking face looked almost mixed-heritage in its features, and her amber eyes were bright—steady, composed.
She was even prettier than Luke remembered.
The woman standing before him was the famed hero—Demacia's Wings, Quinn.
Luke glanced upward and, sure enough, he spotted a blue-feathered eagle circling freely in the sky.
Valor.
Luke hadn't expected to run into Quinn here.
He smiled and said, "All right. I'll be relying on you."
Quinn was also studying the prince in front of her. His smile briefly caught her off guard—his handsome face and refined, gentle aura made it hard not to look twice.
But she didn't let herself linger and quickly pulled her gaze back. "You may begin hunting whenever you wish."
"Mm." Luke nodded, then looked to Yurna and instructed, "Today, find a place for us to stay in the city. Somewhere quiet."
Yurna nodded lightly.
"Once you find it, just buy it outright. Go."
After giving the order, Luke headed toward the hunting ground without speaking further to Quinn.
During the competition, participants weren't really supposed to chat with their rangers.
Quinn also deliberately kept some distance as she followed behind him.
Luke had only taken a few steps when he felt three scorching stares drilling into him. A bad feeling hit him immediately.
Without hesitation, he used Godspeed Shifting Steps, his figure surging forward in a short burst that opened up a huge gap.
Quinn's eyes widened. She sped up at once, nearly failing to keep pace.
Behind them, the three noble ladies who wanted to team up with Luke watched him vanish into the forest in an instant, faces full of disappointment.
After putting some distance between them, Luke slowed back down to a normal pace, breathing steady.
Behind him, Quinn—having reacted too late and hurried to catch up—had to take a few sharp breaths before settling.
Once she steadied herself, her gaze fixed on Luke's back, curiosity flashing in her eyes.
That footwork he'd just used looked extraordinary—she'd never seen anything like it.
Now she gradually hid herself, using a stealth technique to reduce her presence to nearly nothing, keeping a measured distance as she silently followed him.
"It's a good day for hunting, for traveling—good fortune," Luke muttered as he walked, casually reading the next few days' luck. Then he frowned. "But the signs for the coming days… aren't good, but aren't bad either. Weird."
To Luke, "not good, not bad" was basically the same as "bad."
A balanced result like that meant even the smallest thing could tip the next few days into better or worse.
So Luke found it mildly irritating.
Still, it wasn't a big problem. He just needed to stay steady.
Some time passed.
From Quinn's perspective, Luke wandered around with no clear purpose. He even yawned, didn't keep a weapon in hand, and didn't look like someone here to hunt at all.
He was admiring scenery like it was a spring day outing.
Quinn's brows knit slightly. It felt strange.
Along this stretch alone, because Luke's pathing was so casual, he'd already missed at least three solid hunting opportunities.
If he kept this up, he might not hunt anything all day.
No prey meant no points.
Just as Quinn was thinking that, a silver-furred rabbit appeared in her view, its coat glossy and eye-catching.
She was a little surprised.
If she were still the same ranger from a hunter's household, she would've acted instantly, doing everything she could to catch it.
This rabbit was called a Silver-Ear Rabbit, a rare magical beast. Its silver pelt had extremely high value, and its meat was exceptionally tender—practically impossible to buy even with money.
In other words, it was a walking treasure.
Naturally, Quinn couldn't interfere—she wasn't allowed to affect a competitor's hunt.
But with how Luke was behaving, even if he noticed the Silver-Ear Rabbit, he probably wouldn't catch it.
Silver-Ear Rabbits were famously sharp-eared. The slightest disturbance—wind in the grass, a snapped twig—wouldn't escape them. And they were incredibly fast.
That difficulty was part of why they were so valuable.
With Luke's careless posture, even if he used that earlier footwork, he'd likely spook the rabbit in an instant.
At that moment, Luke clearly noticed it too.
And Quinn saw something genuinely bizarre.
In her view, Luke didn't use footwork to close in quickly.
He simply walked straight toward it.
Under normal circumstances, that would be laughably foolish.
But now, it felt unsettling.
Because as Luke drew closer, the Silver-Ear Rabbit didn't seem to notice at all. It stayed tucked beneath a tree root, happily eating a rare mushroom.
A few more steps, and Luke entered the rabbit's twenty-meter danger radius.
Silver-Ear Rabbits were extremely alert—twenty meters was basically where they should bolt at the first hint of trouble. Yet it still didn't react, as if it couldn't sense Luke's existence.
For a second, Quinn thought, Is it… a stupid rabbit?
But she rejected it immediately.
This Silver-Ear Rabbit's coat was bright, its ears were long, and it clearly wasn't a juvenile. It was an exceptional specimen—if anything, it should've been even more cautious than normal.
It couldn't be "stupid."
But as Luke closed within ten meters, disbelief flickered in Quinn's eyes.
From her angle, Luke was practically marching right at it.
And the rabbit just kept eating, completely unaware.
The scene was eerie.
As Luke drew nearer, moving with calm, unhurried steps, Quinn found herself getting tense without realizing it.
As an experienced ranger, she wanted to say this was wrong.
At this range, even the faintest sound should make the rabbit explode into flight.
Yet until Luke stopped directly behind it, the Silver-Ear Rabbit didn't react at all—as if the mushroom was too delicious to abandon.
The next second, Luke reached out and lifted the rabbit by the ears.
"Guh! Guh!"
Only then did the Silver-Ear Rabbit realize Luke was there. Its small red eyes filled with terror as it let out a sharp, frightened squeal and struggled wildly, its legs kicking so fast they blurred into afterimages.
But it was far too late.
Quinn stared, shock written across her face. She even had the impulse to rush up and demand an explanation.
Why did the rabbit only react after being caught?
She couldn't understand it.
There was only one possibility: Luke had used an extremely high-level concealment technique.
But a concealment technique that let you walk up behind a Silver-Ear Rabbit and lift it like that—how absurd would it have to be?
Luke smiled as he watched the Silver-Ear Rabbit struggle until it started losing strength. Even he hadn't expected to catch a rare magical beast the moment he began hunting.
He knew exactly what a Silver-Ear Rabbit was.
And precisely because he knew, his evaluation of the Divine Veil Technique rose even higher.
These past days of check-ins had given him two ordinary skill upgrade cards and one intermediate skill upgrade card, and he'd used all of them on the Divine Veil Technique.
At Lv. 6, the Divine Veil Technique had undergone a true transformation. With subtle adjustments to his breathing rhythm, he could approach close enough to reach out and grab the rabbit—without being detected.
These beasts had incredible alertness, but even so, it couldn't sense him while he was veiled.
This skill was excellent.
Luke knocked the Silver-Ear Rabbit unconscious with a palm strike, stuffed it into the prey pack he carried, and continued on.
As he walked, he also took a silver recurve bow off his back.
He'd tested Divine Veil already. Next, he wanted to test the Godspeed Tracking Arrow.
He hadn't found suitable prey to test his archery on yet, and he ignored a few low-value animals along the way.
He wasn't interested.
After some time, two silver shadows flickered through the forest ahead, catching Luke's attention.
With his current eyesight, even distant movement was clear—and those flashes were unmistakably two more Silver-Ear Rabbits.
Luke felt a surge of delight.
Seems today really is good for hunting.
He drew an arrow, set it to the string, and advanced with light steps. Soon, one Silver-Ear Rabbit came into view.
It was even larger than the one he'd caught—about the size of a dog. Its silver fur almost seemed to glow between the trees.
It was foraging.
Luke was roughly a hundred meters away. Trees blocked much of the line, making a clean shot difficult.
Even so, Luke raised the bow and aimed. He held his breath, focused, and slowly drew the string back, the bow giving a faint creak.
Then he released.
The string snapped forward with a humming vibration.
With a sharp whistle, the arrow shot out.
The sound startled the feeding Silver-Ear Rabbit. It reacted almost instantly, driven by instinct to flee.
But after its agile body flashed twice through the woods, the arrow slammed through its skull mid-leap.
A clean kill.
Luke had already nocked a second arrow. He found the other Silver-Ear Rabbit—also spooked—aimed for a brief instant, and released.
Another whistle—then, almost immediately, the dying screech and the thud of a collapsing body echoed out.
Behind him, Quinn was completely stunned.
If those were ordinary rabbits, nothing here would be strange.
But those were Silver-Ear Rabbits—
One of the fastest-reacting magical beasts in existence.
Could you at least show it a little respect?
Even Quinn didn't have confidence she could pull off those two shots. The accuracy was unreal.
If Luke's first impression had been "dangerously handsome," then over this stretch, he'd become something far more unsettling—mysterious, unfathomable.
Just the few techniques he'd shown were enough to qualify him as a top-tier ranger.
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