"Y-you... have the fungal larvae on your body been cleared away already?" Kael hesitated, but still walked over to Wai's side. Among a group of formal wizards, he instinctively preferred staying near Wai, who was also an apprentice.
Wai said nothing and merely nodded silently.
Though Kael found Wai's reaction somewhat strange, he did not think much of it and casually asked, "Didn't they say they were difficult to remove? How were they suddenly all cleared out?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Kael sensed that something was off about the atmosphere, because he happened to catch sight of Dox standing opposite him.
Dox had a fist pressed to his mouth, his face turned aside, his shoulders trembling. He looked as though he was... secretly snickering?
Kael looked blankly to the other side. Angel wore no particular expression, merely watching him with a deeply meaningful gaze.
With the atmosphere so strange, Kael suddenly felt at a loss. He turned to ask Wai, only to discover that Wai, who had been silent before, had his head tilted up at a forty-five-degree angle as he gazed into the pitch-black void. Through the light source above the arena, Kael could faintly see that Wai's eyes were slightly damp, as though watery light was misting within them.
Wai was... crying?
Just as Kael wondered whether he had seen wrong, Black Earl's voice suddenly came over.
"You'll still go up for the next round, but someone else will replace you for the round after that."
There was no room for discussion in Black Earl's tone, and Kael naturally did not dare refuse. As for who would take the field instead, there was no need to think about it. Only Wai could go.
Could the reason Wai was crying be that he was resisting the