The Nature of Rules

"Anvis, you said you wanted to know the entire process of my breakthrough to the Ninth Rank?"

In the study of Moonrise Fortress, Duke Carlot sat behind the heavy Black Dragon Blood Wood desk, his brows slightly furrowed as he watched Anvis standing before him in an academy cloak and white gloves, looking composed. His azure eyes narrowed slightly.

After the Empire's civil war truly began, it was not only Carlas Province and Azure Dragon Territory, which were directly engaged in battle, that had been affected, but the entire upper echelon of the Empire.

Neither side had any treaty forbidding them from targeting the other's family members. Other than safe zones such as Pamir Academy, protected by Ninth Rank Experts and Mystic Locks, everywhere else was at risk of attack.

Yet Anvis had braved the dangers of war and quietly returned from Pamir Academy to Moonrise Fortress just to ask him this question? "Before I answer you, Anvis, you must answer me truthfully. Is this really a question you wish to ask yourself, or is there someone else who wants to know?"

As he asked this, an invisible pressure radiated from behind Duke Carlot, filling the entire study.

Even the air seemed to stagnate slightly, making it difficult to breathe.

But what startled the duke was that under the sudden pressure he exerted, Anvis's composed posture did not change in the slightest. Even his body did not sway at all.

"This is entirely my own question, Father."

With a textbook-perfect smile on his face, Anvis lightly placed a hand over his chest and bowed, as though the duke's pressure were no more than a breeze brushing against him.

"To be honest, it is still too early for you to ask this question. Unless you already possess strength at least approaching