Rozen, on the other hand, did not care.

"And that is why you are my pride today," Rozen said to his son. "Today I see greatness in your movements. Today I saw how contagious your harmony can be. Today I witness the greatest dancer of the rising sun in this Empty Land!"

Everyone around celebrated the speech of the High Master, which drew smiles, exaltations, and good praise from the people who he governed. There - with those last words - artists, traders, and passing customers turned their attention to Rozen.

"Today, I have seen our economic and social policies bear fruit in a soil punished by the tragedies of the past!" Rozen raised his tone of voice, now speaking to the people who devoted their vigilances to him. "We insisted on fixing old mechanics of our finances, old social habits, and we left aside certain traditionalisms that had no more space in this organized society! But today, with the circus that I founded for my citizens myself, we managed to unite in a single prosperous identity! A fraternal and egalitarian community! A cradle that paradise came to conceive! An unprecedented economy! The most enviable of the kingdoms of Gaeath!"

The crowd exploded in euphoria with Rozen's monologue, always celebrating with music and dance how privileged they were to live in a time as fertile as that provided by the High Masters. The terror of many years of droughts, famines, and suffering had been left behind with the rise of Rozen and the other High Masters to the Verozean government, which only came to leverage the progress that the city was going through in its social gears.

However, some secrets were not discussed by the people who were distracted by the entertainment of Verozys, let alone by the Regiment Council of the Verozean city: an alternative reality, which existed through the underworld of the night and the threat idealized by suspicious people.

Ruzorh could now see that this could be very worrying.

He was unable to swallow, this time, the much-loved improvements that his father had made in the history of his government, as if what Druko had said some months ago was infecting his perspective on the things that operated on those commercial streets. The evidence was increasingly clear that, although entertainment remained intact to distract citizens from reality, the tentacles of ancient evil still lingered on the nights of Verozys, where many crimes and immoralities were covered by the darkness of the desert. He knew this very well, even for having, one day, participated in the so hidden perversities.

That speech gave a bitter taste in his mouth because it transformed the fragments of his recent joy into the dust of disillusionment.

"Nukaya! Xarcondra! Let's go!" at that moment, amid the speech that his father was making to show how much he was part of his own people - in addition to using the moment with his son as a forced political lever - Ruzorh, without a hint of contentment, sought the students each one with one hand. From there, he would make way for the crowd and depart from that network of lies that the most influential people fixed in the minds of others.

"But dad! Now the event will be cooler!" Xarcondra said, even being dragged by his own father's arm.

"Be quiet!" Ruzorh insisted, firming his grip more tightly on the students' fists. He was unable to hold his anger at his ascendant since everything revolved around how well regarded he was, even if it meant making fun of his only family.

"Dad! You're hurting me!" Xarcondra, now, tried to withdraw from that embarrassment.

"Xarcondra!" Nukaya looked at her friend seriously, fixing her gaze to her so that she understood that she should trust her ascendant. "Do not complain. There are many things that you don't know yet."

Somewhat sad to abandon the magic of the artistic environment, Xarcondra gave in to the words of her closest colleague, despite the fact that Nukaya wasn’t struggling.

Ruzorh's face affronted all those who dared to look back at him, insisting on believing that those could be the hypocrites who would be celebrating untruths and illusions. However, the most important thing was to keep his students and himself away from that daydream. That fantasy they were part of.

He was not the only one not to have fun there since Druko was always attentive to what was happening in that crowd, even a little away in the shadows of a small commercial stand.

He denoted the dissatisfaction of belonging to a stage infected by the contagion of malice, but at least he could feel a trace of satisfaction in knowing that his older brother now created some sense.

Druko released a sigh of satisfaction, even though his lips showed no contentment.