The Ancient Genes

The Day in the Academy passed smoothly, there were continuous classes with little to no break in between. Max spent most of the theoretical classes in the spirit world absorbing the darkness and training. 

No one could even think what Max was doing in their wildest dreams. Even to Tyler who was sitting right beside him, Max seemed to be a normal guy dozing off with his head on the desk and the book on it's base kept upright in front of him. A simple and commonly used technique.

Tyler was a bit annoyed at Max, but Max had helped him on a couple of occasions, hence he hadn't done anything. He wasn't the type to bully people but his loner nature and behavior coupled with the fact that he was from a Noble House made people scared of him.

"Let's end the class here today…" the Instructor spoke as he looked at the time and spoke a few more words before moving out of the class.

Tyler looked at Max who still seemed to be asleep. He was thinking about whether to wake him up or not.

In the end, he didn't do anything and turned around to leave.

"You aren't even going to wake me up?" 

Tyler suddenly heard Max's voice and turned around to see him packing his stuff. 

"This b*stard he wasn't sleeping at all…" Tyler muttered under his breath. His voice was extremely low, but in front of a person like Max, you had to speak in your mind if you didn't want him to hear.

Max smiled as he looked at him, 'Ah! I will definitely beat the crap out of him one day.'

Right now, it might not be a good time. Beating someone who wasn't your friend will automatically make you an enemy. 

Tyler ignored Max and walked towards the exit. Everyone immediately opened up a path upon seeing him. Max too used the opportunity and followed behind to get out of the class quickly. After all, no one even dared to walk near Tyler except Max who was walking side by side with him.

"Hmmn?" Max suddenly saw Namen getting up to leave. She seemed to be sorting her stuff and hence was late in leaving the class.

Max immediately activated his senses and observed Tyler's eyes. It was only for a moment, a very slight moment, but his eyes indeed quivered.

He checked her out.

It was obvious that if he stared at her, she would have obviously felt it. And at this position, she could clearly see who the person was. Hence, Tyler was so quick or maybe he lost control for a moment.

On the other hand, backstage were safe. No matter how much he looked at anyone, no one would be able to tell who was looking at them.

Max had been thinking about it for a while but this guy... was he really having thoughts about his sister-in-law?

He really had nothing to comment on it. It was his choice. As long as he wasn't doing anything wrong, it didn't matter. After all, you can't make someone love you.

Alas, the poor guy, the girl like his brother….or maybe not…

Max suddenly had a thought. When were marriages done on the basis of love? Well, there were but not many. 

Max suddenly had an interesting idea. He raised his figure as the spirit energy began to flow out of the spirit world. The next moment, Tyler's shoelaces came out of their knots.

When Tyler was about to cross Namen who was on the first row, Max pulled his finger in and the shoelaces froze in mid air.

Tyler suddenly felt his body turning upside down, his upperbody had moved ahead while his lower body didn't. He reacted quickly as he wielded the wind, but suddenly he realised that the girl was right beside him. 

If he made a wind right next to her, there were several situations that could have taken place. The strong wind needed to stop his fall might have hurt her or even left her dress riddled with gashes. After all, his wind was sharp.

"Bang!"

In the end, he stopped himself from doing anything and fell face-first onto the ground.

The whole class immediately turned silent, no one even dared to laugh.

Namen looked at him and stood up, when Max expected her to speak something, she left as if the guy on the floor didn't even exist.

Max couldn't help but smile at this, 'Interesting…'

This situation led Max to believe that there was definitely something going on.

It seems she didn't want the marriage. After all, if she really was in favor, she would have acted all nice and chummy. A perfect sister-in-law. At least on the face.

Or, was there something else….

Max smiled as he looked at the guy on the ground and purposefully stepped on him.

"Ah!"

Tyler screamed as he glared at Max in anger.

"Sorry, I didn't notice…" Max apologized as he walked by the side leaving him behind.

….

Max got back to his apartment and Aria was still not back. He used the opportunity to take shower and get fresh.

He didn't know when this apartment problem was going to be solved. He had given the owner a dozen calls but he wasn't picking up. Max didn't know where to find him.

On the other hand, Aria had someone talk to the House Agency as well. The one which had helped her in getting the place. They had backed out of the problem saying that it wasn't related to them and had to be solved between the owner and tenant.

If she had really shown her own face, the agency would have probably given her a new place at an instant. But Aria didn't want to. After getting admitted into the hospital, the fact that she had moved out of the dorms to the apartment was made known to her father. 

If she changed the place with her own identity, they would know it in an instant. That's the reason she was using one of her servants living in the Academy Dorms to get the place.

….

After a while, Max called Stark and informed him about the matter regarding the space stones.

"Are you sure those are space stones?" Stark's heavy voice came from the other side of the phone.

"I think so.." Max replied with a tensed face.

"I see." Stark replied. His tone didn't seem good. It was a matter of worry after all. "I will inform the Lord."

"I am sending you the message of Master, go and meet him by this week. We still have to make sure whether it really is a space stone or not." Stark further stated.

Max nodded, it was better to be 100% sure about it. There wasn't anyone beside Grandmaster who could possibly know about it any better.

Max talked to him for a while. Talking about their daily routine and simple things. 

"One more thing, Anna and Derek might be leaving capital sooner than expected." 

Max was surprised,  it hasn't been that long. He thought that they would be spending a minimum of half a year to year there.

"So soon?" Max asked.

"We have found some clue regarding Leo. We might be making the first move within the next 3 months." Stark replied. His voice sounded a bit heavy. Leo was his best friend after all.

Max understood the situation, if Ethena and Stark left for the raid. Derek would definitely cause chaos knowing about it. So they were basically sending him to the capital to get him away from it.

"What if he finds out? Besides, it's not like I can't understand his feelings." Max spoke, if something like that happened to Stark he might be behaving no different than Derek.

A sigh came through the other end of the phone before Stark finally spoke with a calm and caring tone, "I expect you to make a wise decision, Max. Feelings are not bad, but never let them interfere with your decisions when you know that you are not only throwing your life away but other's life as well."

"Besides, what do you think will happen if something happened to that Kid and Leo made it alive. Would he be able to live like that?" Stark asked. He had felt the pain in Max's absence. The regret of not being there was immense even when it wasn't something he could control. How would it be if it was his fault?

The thought itself was….

The voice of the main door opening suddenly entered Max's ears and he bid his farewell, "It seems a friend is here Master, I will call you later."

…

Max walked downstairs expecting to see Aria but the person he saw was Lisa.

"What are you doing here? And why do you know the code?" Max asked with a frown.

"Umn.. I remember it from yesterday." Lisa said with a forced smile. It wasn't a proper thing to do. "I am just here to take my purse which I left yesterday. I had been calling Aria but she didn't pick it up."

"So you barged in?" Max asked with a calm face.

"It's Aria's house, I can come and go whenever I want." Lisa said with a rightful face.

"Tsk...she had just forcefully taken over. This place is mine…" Max said in dissatisfaction.

"Where is Aria?" Lisa asked as she looked at Max.

"You are her friend, why ask me?" Max didn't know why she was asking him that.

"You two live together? Why can't I ask you?" Lisa retorted.

Max's face twitched as he replied, "We aren't doing it at will. We have been forced to. Do you think I am her boyfriend?"

Lisa didn't argue any further but she still could help but speak, "But she said she was going home…"

"Just go and take what you want." Max waved his hand.

But as Lisa walked up a couple of steps, Max suddenly stopped her, "Wait!"

Lisa turned around to look at Max staring at her with a dark face.

"What's wrong?" Lisa asked with scrunched brows.

"I remember giving you some morning workout routine." Max said as he stared at her.

"Umn...I-I did it.." Lisa replied with a smile.

Max wasn't buying that. She was clearly not the physical type. Just concentrating on her mana training. No, she was just consuming resources to level up. That was how this easy going Miss of Noble House was.

And look at her now....

Max clearly remembered giving her sit ups and push ups as well.  On Max's very first attempt at morning training, he was practically paralyzed and here she is climbing the stairs like nothing had happened at all.

"Go and run 5 km…" Max said as he opened an application on his phone to calculate the distance and threw it to her.

"5 Km!!" Lisa asked with wide eyes.

"You don't need to if you don't want to. But remember that one day, I might not be able to help you if you don't cooperate." Max said as he walked up the stairs leaving her behind.

Lisa looked at the phone with a painful look before finally walking down the stairs and going out.

Max smiled as he looked at her dash through the window…