"Tsk! You don't seem sorry at all!" Nova said in a louder tone as she approached Vicente. "Are you telling me that you wouldn't have told me your secrets if you had the chance?"

"Exactly," Vicente said bluntly.

"You!" She felt like punching the guy in front of her, seeing how bold he was to answer her like that.

"What about Nina? Does she know who you are? Are you hiding the truth from her as well?"

"Of course. Nina is a child. Why should she know who I am? As far as I'm concerned, she will never know my identity as Cesar, just as I wanted it to happen with you. Unfortunately, I couldn't protect you from this information."

"Protect me?" She made a more irritated expression. "I don't want to be protected that way. Besides, if I had known who you were from the beginning, you wouldn't have had half your problems so far!"

Vicente smiled. "Oh? Would you have helped me?"

"No. I would have put you on the right path. Vicente, with your powers, you don't need to sully your name by acting under Cesar's identity! You'd be successful at anything! Why did you choose this way?"

"I did what I knew how to do. I was successful, so why should I have thought of other things? I'm sorry, Nova, but not everyone wants to or can live to serve others. The things I want to accomplish can only be accomplished if I have my freedom and plenty of resources at my disposal."

She knew this because she had already started investigating the situation of the names Vicente had asked her to look into earlier.

She turned her back on him, not knowing how to debate it. "Then I could have at least advised you. If I'd known everything before, I could have helped you in some situations. Do you know I got you into trouble because of my mistrust of Cesar?"

"I know."

"That wouldn't have happened if I had known who you were." She said.

Part of the trouble she had gotten Cesar into had come from her instincts. She had no proof to make the situation difficult for him. She would still be a fine soldier if she hadn't used her instincts in connection with those incidents.

That would have made things easier for Vice and kept other soldiers from suspecting anything about Cesar.

"That proves how much I didn't want to corrupt you," Vicente said as he smiled at her, showing this woman that he had only made one mistake: hiding the truth.

She couldn't argue with that. "That seems to be the case... Still, I'm very disappointed in you."

"I'm sorry. When we get back to Millfall, we'll talk more..." He was saying when she cut him off.

"I'm not going back to Millfall, at least not yet. I'm in the middle of my army promotion test. After absorbing my pentagram, I should return to the soldiers who are overseeing this test and prepare to finish my exam in Saltstar City.

Once the whole promotion exam is over, I'll have to wait for the results in that city and then go wherever they decide to send me," She explained.

"I see... Then maybe we won't have much time to talk about it. Sigh, I'm really sorry, Nova. I know I kept something important from you, but I did it for your own good. Knowing about my identity as Cesar could and probably will get you into a lot of trouble." He said what he had to say.

'Now you have to decide for yourself what will happen between us from now on.' He closed his eyes, feeling he was almost ready to begin absorbing the green-grade pentagram.

But before that could happen, not only Vicente but also Nova felt a powerful aura rising near them.

As Nova left her conflicted thoughts to look at this newly arrived aura, the frontal rock that kept them hidden in the cave moved.

As Vicente hid deeper in the cave, Nova saw the figure of a tall, muscular man in an army uniform appear in front of her, floating in the air.

"Colonel!" She exclaimed as she saw the military rank of that white-haired, unshaven man quickly taking up a position of greeting.

"Hmmm? Captain? Oh, I see. You're one of the soldiers on exam in the area." The man who had just passed Vicente and the Hawk's place of confrontation commented as he realized the situation.

"What are you doing here, Captain? I sense you've already absorbed your third essence. Why haven't you completed your test yet?"

Nova replied as she looked down at the floor. "I finished absorbing my pentagram a few moments ago, Colonel. But while I was looking for the supervisors, I found my colleague injured. I decided to help him until he recovered. He also found a pentagram compatible with him, but he's waiting for the right moment to absorb it."

The Colonel looked in the direction where he had already sensed Vicente and noticed more deeply the young man sitting in a meditation position at the back of the cave.

'This young man is wounded and has only two pentagrams...' He easily understood Vicente's situation.

"Where is his pentagram? Does he have a special storage device?" He asked Nova.

"Yes, that's the case. Fortunately, he managed to kill the beast that left him in this state."

The Sovereign didn't doubt it when he saw that Vicente was dressed in army uniform, which was badly damaged and stained but not bad enough to be unrecognizable to this expert.

'It seems that they really are just soldiers taking the promotion exam...' The Sovereign believed Nova's story, feeling that his senses had led him in the wrong direction.

'It seems that the person behind that other aura is better than I imagined.'

He turned and said before he left. "Captain Bain, well done. Even though this is a competition, we must protect our army colleagues. I won't forget your good deed today."

After these words, the man disappeared, leaving Nova, who didn't know what to do in this situation since she had probably protected an enemy of the army and still gained morale for it.

She turned to Vicente and asked him. "Are you going to explain to me why you're wearing an army uniform?"

"No. I'd better not." He said sincerely.

"Sigh... All right. Start absorbing your pentagram. I'll protect you until you're done. After that, we'll separate."

"What about..."

She said. "We will sort out our situation in the future. For now, just give me some time to think about everything."

With that, Vicente would wait just long enough for the Sovereign not to feel the green pentagram and finally start absorbing his third essence!