Eternal Thief

Seeing the Mortal Emperor, everyone except Jenna and the two Princes kneeled and greeted, "We pay our respect to His Imperial Majesty, the Mortal Emperor!"

Meanwhile, the Empress and the two princes slightly bowed in respect.

Antonio nodded in acknowledgment, "Rise everyone. You all are the future hope of my empire, and I'm very pleased to see you all as well."

Then he smiled gently at Jenna while nodding, "It's been hard on you."

"Your acknowledgment is enough for me, Your Majesty." Jenna gently stated as she walked beside the Emperor and stood beside him in her rightful place while the two princes impassively stood behind the other imperial children.

On the other hand, Riana and Evie remained with the other Imperial Students. Although Riana was already engaged to Carlos, she still wasn't an official part of the Imperial Family yet, so she remained with the school crowd.

Antonio looked at Riana and Evie with an amiable smile, saying, "Princess Riana, I hope Carlos has been taking good care of you in these past months."

"Thank you for Your Majesty's care. His Highness has been very good to me." Riana nodded with a somewhat impassive look on their face, while Carlos, who was standing with his other siblings, smiled broadly upon hearing this.

Antonio nodded in satisfaction before looking at Evie, "Little niece, Evie, you have grown even more powerful these past few months since I last saw you. It seems Honorable Principal Zack has been taking good care of you. I hope you also received my gifts and they were to your liking."

Darren suddenly smiled when he heard this since he was the one who was tasked as the gift bearer, or it would say he had volunteered. After all, despite Zack's rejection, the imperial family would never let go of Evie so easily.

The second prince, Darren, has been 'working' tirelessly to woo Evie and has completely given up on Riana.

The only problem was that the Crown Prince had also joined the fray, and he didn't care about how Riana would feel; in his eyes, he could do anything because he was the future emperor.

Moreover, Riana never acknowledged his advances and still treated him coldly. If it were before, he would've tried his best to win her heart, but he didn't care anymore after Evie's appearance.

Since Riana was bound to be his, he decided to win over Evie as well, whether Riana liked it or not. He wanted to obstruct Darren as much as he could from gaining a powerful helper.

Even the Empress and Emperor secretly allowed it since what mattered to them was keeping Evie within the Imperial Family, not the method, as she was even more important than Riana now.

"I like them very much, Your Majesty," Evie replied in a gentle tone.

"Oh please, you can call me Uncle in the future. There's no need for pleasantries." Antonio laughed heartedly. This privilege wasn't even given to Riana in the past.

"You're quite popular, I'm jealous." Ace's teasing voice rang in Eva's mind at this moment.

Eva replied playfully, "What do you think only you are capable of infiltrating high-class targets? Still, it's very stressful to pretend to play like a docile girl when I can walk all over their heads."

Ace couldn't help but smile wryly, "Well, it was you who wanted to be a thief. If you get tired, you can always give up and let me take care of you."

"Tsk, fat chance." Eva retorted, but she was very stratified with Ace's response, and happiness bloomed in her heart.

At this moment, Eva suddenly glanced at Sofia, who happened to be looking at her with a hint of curiosity.

"Is she the one who got away?" She asked Ace with a hint of coldness.

"What do me 'got away'? She escaped before she could complete the deal. I'll make sure she won't break her promise with someone ever again." Ace coldly replied as he had already spotted Sofia.

Although her aura was hidden, he could tell she had become somewhat stronger. Her space abilities were the first and best Ace had ever seen. She wasn't an easy target as long as she decided to flee, even if he could not stop her, just like the last time.

"I think she would be a very good addition to our ranks. After all, I've heard from my master that Sofia might not be any less talented than me. Of course, he didn't know my true limits, but she had secretly climbed the 96th staircase of the Heaven Reaching Devil Staircase five years ago.

"No one knows about it except for the Emperor, Empress, and my master. This was a well-hidden secret of the Imperial Family. Sofia is their secret weapon, and if my master is not wrong, then she might be the first-ever Mortal Empress of the Empire in history.

"As for the crown prince and the second prince, they are actually just a smokescreen to protect Sofia, but they didn't know about it. My master told me all this because I suddenly showed interest in those two idiots. He was very worried that I would be tricked and fall into the quicksand-named imperial family.

"So, what do you think? Wouldn't the future empress of the Mortal Heart Empire be a good addition as your subordinate? Well, of course, it is under the condition that she would be my maid as well!" Eva directly revealed her true intentions.

However, Ace was surprised by this revelation as he had never expected this at all. The imperial family was really vicious to their own as they had been tricking both the first and second princes all this time. They were just clowns fighting for something that would never be theirs in their entire lives.

It was quite ironic and the truth of the world of power. Since Sofia was going to be powerful beyond belief, how could the first prince and second prince hold their heads high against her?

But Ace was still somewhat baffled by Eva's suggestion and couldn't help but smile wryly, "If you want a maid, you can get it. You don't have to ask me. Didn't I've already handed Livia to you? As long as they can serve their purpose, it doesn't matter if they are under you or me; it's all the same."

"How can that be? My maids will have the status of maid in waiting, so in a sense, they are still yours." Eva laughed evilly with a hint of coldness.

'She's testing me.' Ace instantly knew and quickly replied, "What are you, an Empress? Stop playing around."

"We'll see." Eva left those ambiguous words before she became silent.

While they were talking, Antonio was giving a speech about the Sky Abyss, which was aligned with Jenna's earlier speech.

From start to finish, Antonio didn't even glance at the other Imperial Students since they were not worth the effort. Moreover, he knew these imperial students already had secretly joined his sons, and their masters were under him except for a few of them. So, he didn't need to pretend to earn their loyalty.

After giving the speech, he then turned at a masked giant as he nodded solemnly.

The giant moved forward towards an ancient altar in the top center corner of the hall, and he began to place peak grade-8 Qi stones and soul crystals on it.

The next moment, he clasped his hand and shouted, "Open!"

The ancient altar suddenly began to shimmer fiercely as a powerful aura filled the entire hall. The next moment, a black vortex suddenly formed over the altar, and an ancient voice rang.

But the language it speaks was unknown, and its words were nothing but mumbling to others. Not even the imperial clan knew the true meaning of these words.

However, today, there was something who could understand those words, and when he heard it, he was shocked.

"Vampyre Clan Army Class Trial for Common Vampyres has been opened!