"Your opponent in the Top 13 will be Max! Isn't that interesting?!" 

Hearing this, Jason's frown deepened as he averted his gaze towards Max whose expression was filled with shock, which caused him to wonder how the blue-haired youth even survived on Canir until now.

'Does he even know anything about his clan or family?!' Jason asked inwardly to himself.

If he were, to be honest, a soul contract was nothing bad per se because it could also be a simple contract, preventing party B to become hostile to party A.

A soul contract could also state that the contracted person was not allowed to have contact with certain other clans or foreign races.

In the end, a soul contract was not something Jason was afraid of, but the clauses stated within because they might be devastating and extremely restricting, like Till already told him.

Jason concluded that the big families handled their soul contracts differently, while it was highly likely that one clause would be to stay loyal to party A's big clan or something similar to that.

Another thing, Jason imagined, was that foreign races were unable to form a soul contract with such individuals that pledged loyalty to the big families which caused these races to disregard these humans' whole existence.

This thought was extremely important and thinking about it, Jason found that it was most likely the only reason for foreign races to ignore the big families without trying to lure them over.

Instead of that, they would more likely try to convince them to work together by giving them presents to earn their trust before they would be able to do anything else.

In the end, he also began to wonder how many big clans were backed by foreign races and if that was also the reason for the war between the different countries.

'Did the foreign races intervene in our business, trying to build a monarchy from a single big clan in order to nurture more prodigious youths for themselves'

With this thought, Jason also concluded that everything could turn extremely nasty and chaotic, once a single big clan attained a big advantage over the others clans because the different foreign races wouldn't just let this slide without doing anything against it.

Sighing deeply, he shook his head as he continued to stare at Max, only to see that his expression worsened, filled with shock and even despair, which confused Jason.

Seeing this and also Seron's expression, he felt that it was weird that both youths were so naive, when he finally remembered, that the three of them were only 14 to 15 years old, and he could only sigh deeply.

'Having a joyous childhood was never something I expected to receive but isn't that too much right now?' 

Feeling that the odds were against him, Jason's mood soured, and he was only glad that Till stood by his side, helping him to a certain extent, without waging war against the Drake family.

Old Drake in front of him seemed to have finished his speech and he seemed extremely confident, which was either because he thought that Jason, Shane, and Dalia didn't have any contact with each other or that Shane's injury restricted his combat prowess so that the two sovereigns next to him would be strong enough to take care of him.

There were also other possibilities, but without the Drake family patriarch here, Old Drake seemed to be just too confident, which was definitely weird.

Other than that, his sudden change in attitude frustrated Jason because he initially thought that Old Drake was someone kind, he could trust.

Apparently, that was not the case and when Old Drake told him that he could go, to fight against Greg, Jason simply turned around.

Walking towards the large door, goosebumps covered his whole body as cold sweat run down his back when he felt Old Drake's creepy stare on him.

Gulping down his saliva, he opened the door in order to leave the room.

It was not long after he left the room, that Jason suddenly began to exert his weightless steps technique to rush towards the bathroom that was close to the arena to prevent attracting too much attention.

If Old Drake or one of the sovereigns were to monitor him, it might look like he was anxious or even in despair which might even cause him to vomit.

Jason didn't have to vomit but he felt anxious and uncomfortable as he called his masters through the messenger crystals, disregarding the possibility of someone else entering its frequency.

The runes on the crystal brightened up and Jason waited anxiously for his masters to accept his call, and to hear their reassuring voices…

However, seconds passed….

Half a minute elapsed…

Even after two minutes, there was no answer, as the manifested rune diminished.

The messenger crystal began to crumble and was barely held together by the runes on it.

With this, Jason knew that he had only one call left as he bit his lips with a seed of fear planting inside his heart.

Making the last call on the messenger crystal, Jason bit his lips so hard that they began to bleed and he could only look at the crystal that turned into tiny pebbles after two minutes passed without anyone answering him.

The mana fluctuations released by the messenger crystal were extremely faint and not something to anyone should notice, but Jason felt like he was about to go insane because there was nobody he could rely on as a sudden thought filled his mind.

'Nobody will save me!!…. Will I end up as a slave?'

With this thought filling his mind, Jason didn't know what to do anymore when he heard Greg talking to someone outside and he seemed extremely confused.

"H-Hello Sir? What is that? I don't want to buy anything, sorry! I'm only searching for my friend….huh? He is on the toilet?... How do you know that? I should give him that?.... Who are you? W-Wait!!"

Hearing his friend's voice, Jason forced himself to calm down as he took a few deep breaths.

Even if it was only partially helpful, he didn't want his friend to see him like this right now.

Right now, Jason looked like he was about to go insane with his bloodshot golden eyes and blood running down his lips.

Looking to his right sight, he suddenly jumped up when he perceived Greg's familiar mana core with their particular fluctuations.

However more important to Jason, who crashed open the door as he charged out of the bathroom, was the overly familiar mana fluctuations he noticed from the person Greg talked to.

'Shane!!!'

Running into Greg, Jason was about to rush after Shane only for Greg to obstruct his path, and before he could push his friend away, Shane's concealed mana core disappeared inside a crowd of students, teachers, and citizens whose mana fluctuations overlapped, preventing Jason from seeing anything beyond clearly.

Even if he couldn't see Shane, Jason was still relieved with his whole accumulated frustration, anxiety, and fear dissipating within a single moment, as Greg shook his body violently.

"Jason...JASON!!! What is wrong with you? We have to fight now! You were almost too late...Are you...okay?" 

Trying to figure out what was going on with his friend, Greg only saw the big contrast between his lips where blood still dripped from and his bloodshot eyes that gleamed brightly as if he was overjoyed which looked weird in contrast.

Jason, who remembered that Greg was next to him, noticed a paper in his hand as he immediately asked obtrusive about it.

"I heard you talking to someone outside the bathroom. Is that piece of paper for me?" 

Blinking several times, Greg shook his head, before he handed over the paper, as he said

"Yeah there was an old man that handed me this paper, saying that it was for you...he also said that I can find you inside the bathroom...Weird, right?"

Smiling lightly, Jason immediately opened the piece of paper only to see two simple sentences written on it.

"I'll take care of everything! Don't dare to slack off!!"