The shopping area of the academy is rather more crowded today, due to the New Year celebration event. Instead of decreasing, the crowd is increasing even more as time passes. Some people are shopping alone, some are with friends and some are couples shopping for the New year.


    The atmosphere seems to be a bit romantic today. You can see several couples, all around the area. Enjoying their date, while some are still waiting for their partners toe.


    The small artificial pond has be the famous waiting and meeting ce for those who are waiting for their partners toe, here. This area is also a bit crowded but not as much as the shopping area.


    Among all those who are waiting, there one such fellow with ck hair and ck eyes. He is also waiting for someone toe; his face is as expressionless as ever. He is sitting on a desk, near the small pond.


    The scenery today is really peaceful, if it was on Earth, this peace could have been maintained for a rather long time but such things are not true for this chaotic world, where powerful people are present everywhere.


    Putting the depressing things away for now, the weather is also very good today. A clear Blue sky, a warm sunshine and slow-refreshing breeze of air, which is making the trees rustle every once in a while. A perfect day for love-birds to have their way around.


    A luxury car arrived at the entrance with several ck cars following behind it. Someone important hase here. But this has be amon sight now. During this time of year several big figures like to visit the academy.


    The cars stopped and a team of bodyguards in ck suits, rushed down from those ck cars. They cleared the road and one of them walked towards the luxury car to open the door.


    The door opened and a beautiful girl in a breathtaking dress came in sight. She started to walk towards the artificial pond, heading towards a particr desk. The extravagant clothes and the amazing entry of a beauty certainly caused amotion.


    The looked at the guards and as if they understood her, the guards immediately cleared the way and after their work was done, they bowed towards her respectfully and left without further dy. Seeing this the girl had a satisfied look on her face, she started to head towards the desk on which a particr boy was sitting.


    "Such extravagant entrance, are you trying to make trouble for me, by making me the target of others envy?" (Rio)


    A little blush appeared on the girls face after hearing his yful tone. She red at this idiot, muscle-head rather fiercely but that expression made her even more cute, several random guys around the area are already going crazy. She sat down on the desk while still ring at Rio:


    "Hmph! Who cares, I just wanted to re-reach the ce faster s-so, I took the car. I-its no-nothing else." (Lia)


    "Well anyway, you look rather good today." (Rio)


    Seeing the grin on Rio''s face, she had the urge to punch this idiot on his face but she decided to just intimidate him with a death re. Even though, the re didn''t really work on him at all, maybe due to his thick skin or shameless personality.


    Just as they both were busy talking to each other, it was impossible for Rio to not get envious stares, some people even seemed to be talking bad things but Rio ignored them for the time being. He knew from the moment Lia arrived, that it was impossible that such a situation would not happen. After a small talk, both of them got up and walked towards the shopping area.


    Unknown what gave the people such courage, a youngster tried to approach them. Rio noticed that the guy had drool dripping from his mouth and even his eyes was staring at Lia with a rather bad intention.


    Rio felt an insuppressible angering from the bottom of his heart he stared at the approaching youngster and used a little amount of his aura on the guy. The guy''s perverted look was instantly reced with a face filled with horror. His legs gave away and he copsed down, his whole body drenched in sweat.


    Seeing this Rio just shook his head and ignored the guy, he nonchntly followed along Lia as if nothing happened at all. Without Rio''s knowledge, he has be really protective over Lia, maybe this is the side-effect of being alone for two lives or maybe its something else, which he himself is unaware of yet.


    After Rio and Lia both left the area, the ce remained silent for a while before amotion started:


    "Oh! Who was she, she''s so beautiful?"


    "Maybe she is a student of the academy."


    "Heh, what do you know she is the daughter of an S-ranker, her name is Lia, I saw her on tv, with her father during an interview."


    "Amazing! She must be really talented then."


    "Yeah! It is said that she has the talent to be an S rank in the future."


    "But who was that boy with her? Do you know him too?"


    "Nope, I don''t know."


    Nobody knew much about Rio who was apanying Lia. Rumors started to spread around rather fast. Afterall this was the first time Lia appeared in the public. Before this she was only seen on tv.


    The guards who were still monitoring the situation around also found it strange. They had assumed that Lia would havee here to just buy something or for a walk maybe. They were all confused when they found that Lia was apanying an unknown boy.


    They immediately took photo and a thorough investigation started on the unknown boy''s background. One photo was even sent to Lia''s father as a report and asking for his further guidance. This time Rio really have triggered a big event.


    Unaware of theing disasters, the two continued their way towards the shopping area. While Lia was blushing from all the attention she was catching, Rio was rather indifferent and had the same expressionless face.


    But Unknown to Lia several young men had already copsed along the way due to someone''s dangerous aura being released on them. The two became the cause of talk for people. Yet, both of them still maintained their pace.


    .


    .


    Somewhere near an S-rank dungeon. A burly man was standing there looking at the portal in front of him. He was totally unfazed by the dungeon''s mana and was lighting a cigar in peace. He had a huge broadsword hanging behind his back. And he was wearing light armor.


    The man seemed to be in his forties. He had a rather rough and barbaric appearance. A huge scar was on his face making him even more intimidating to look at.


    Suddenly a man in a butler''s outfit came running towards him and respectfully bowed towards him. The person seemed to be in hurry to report something. Seeing the butler in such a strange state the burly man was surprised.


    "What happened, why are you so out of breath?"


    "Master, see this photo. It has been taken about a few hours ago."


    The burly man looked at the photo with a confused look. But after he saw the photo his confusion was suddenly reced by a surprised look. He looked towards the butler:


    "Is this even real?"


    "Yes, Master"


    The burly man was even more dumbfounded by this. The photo had a girl and a boy in it. They seemed to be a good couple in a nce. But the most surprising thing was that the girl in the photo was smiling. Yeah, she was smiling.


    As if understanding his puzzlement, the butler replied:


    "Young Lady seems to be rather happy in the photo"


    "Yeah…"


    The burly man put the photo in his pocket and he started to stare at the horizon with calm eyes. Several old memories resurfaced in his mind but he suppressed those unpleasant memories.


    He knew that ever since his wife has died, he and his daughter became very distant but he couldn''t do much about it. When she was young, his daughter had a pleasant smile on her face every time but after her mother''s death, his daughter has lost her smile and happiness.


    He is happy that his daughter can smile once again and is recovering from her depressed self but as a father he need to make sure that his daughter is not being deceived by someone.


    As if he had already decided he ordered the butler:


    "Did you investigate the boy''s background?"


    "Yeah, he is an orphan and seem to be one of the top 100 rank students."


    "Top 100 rank, that means that he has the potential to be an A rank or above in the future. Anything else?"


    "Uh, Well, there''s not much extraordinary about him, but his past seems rather depressing…He is a survivor of the drift city massacre"


    Hearing about the event, the burly man suddenly recalled some old memories. He remembered the day when he was in that city…suddenly he shook, his head and stopped recalling that horrible memory. He doesn''t want to remember that event, afterall his wife had died around that time too.


    The butler spoke again:


    "And well it seems he have saved our youngdy''s life once during that S-rank dungeon event. They must have grown familiar around that time, I think."


    "Oh, why don''t I know that my daughter was in a life-threatening situation?"


    "Well, uh, i-its be-because she w-was rescued safely,ter, s-so…" (Butler)


    "So, what''s the name of that boy?"


    "Uh, his name is Rio, Rio sh"


    Suddenly the burly man faced towards the butler and looked in his eyes, he had a serious look:


    "What name did you say?"


    "I-Its Rio sh" (Butler, while a little panicked)


    The burly man again looked in the distance nkly, he was lost in his thoughts again.


    "It brings back old memories hearing that surname..."


    A name suddenly leaked out of his mouth unconsciously:


    "Kevin sh, the ''Soul splitter''...."