Science/Magic

The words of the headmistress were like a hammer hitting the chests of the remaining students.

Complete silence filled the place. Neither the B-Ranks that fought Bloed, Liu Ying, and Aya, nor the C-Ranks and D-Ranks observing everything from the distance opened their mouths.

It was not that they did not want. It was that they could not.

For a few seconds, the place remained like that.

Until an excited voice broke the silence.

"We won!" With a loud cheer, Liu Ying jumped on Bloed's back and hugged his neck. "Bloed, we won!"

"We did. I don't want to participate in this kind of impossible game again, though."

Seeing Bloed's bitter smile, Liu Ying giggled and tightened her hug around Bloed's neck.

"Well, I think it was pretty exciting. A shame we did not manage to beat all the B-Ranks."

Bloed did not know whether to laugh or to cry when he saw the glowing eyes of his demon girlfriend.

This girl… They barely managed to survive against all these enemies, but Liu Ying was still thinking of beating them.

He was even forced to use [Door of Nothingness]. Otherwise, they would have been unable to remain standing after receiving the full-powered attack of five B-Rank mages.

"Sigh… Well, next time you can fight them by yourself. As expected, it's much better to spend time in my experiments."

Liu Ying rolled her eyes with a wry smile.

Soon, though, she felt a heavy sense of fatigue hitting her body.

Now that the tension of the battle had left her body, she realized she was much more tired than she thought.

"… Hey Bloed, can I sleep on your back?"

Bloed was speechless. Before he could reply, he felt Liu Ying kissing his cheek and closing her eyes.

Even though she did not really fell asleep, it was obvious she was dozing off.

Smiling wryly, Bloed adjusted her body on his back to a more comfortable position before heaving a long sigh.

Only after that did he pay attention to the two B-Ranks in front of him.

"Well fought," Bloed said with a smile.

Alex smiled wryly and opened his mouth. Nonetheless, he was unable to speak.

Not just him. All the other B-Ranks could not talk. They just looked at Bloed, Liu Ying, and Aya with complicated expressions.

Only several seconds later Alex managed to say something.

"Congratulations."

He then turned around and walked away.

Bloed stared at him for several seconds and shook his head. He then turned around, only to see his cat friend walking towards him.

"Well done. We would have lost if not for you." He said genuinely.

Aya nodded silently. She then stared at the demon girl resting on Bloed's back before fixing her gaze on Bloed.

She stared at Bloed, and stared, and stared without moving his gaze away.

Bloed could not help but feel awkward after being stared at like that.

Smiling wryly, he lifted his hand and put it on the cat girl's head.

"Well done." He said again, this time patting his head at the same time.

Aya froze. Her face quickly turned completely red as she lowered her gaze in panic.

At the same time, her tail wagged left and right repeatedly, showing her happy mood.

'As I thought, she is sometimes more like a dog.'

Smiling gently, Bloed patted Aya's head a bit more before opening his mouth.

"Let's go. We need to meet with Sara and Gina."

"Mm."

…

Several kilometers away, Sara and Gina were inside a house, gazing at the sun up in the sky.

They had entered this house after eliminating the twelve members of team blue. It was because Sara and Gina were, in fact, part of team blue as well, so they needed to be eliminated for Bloed to win.

And entering a house meant they were disqualified from the game.

Seated on the window, Gina held her face in her hands as she smiled happily. Behind her, her sister was standing straight with a concerned look.

"Then, how was it?"

"Hehe, our hero won, of course!"

"Is it so? What a relief."

Gina looked at her big sister and giggled. She then gazed at the distance, her eyes glowing as though she could see what was happening several kilometers away.

"We did a good job this time. I wonder if I can ask for a reward from our hero… Mm, a kiss would be nice."

Sara frowned.

"Gina, stop bothering our lord. As his subordinates, our work is to help him, nor to trouble him."

The honey-haired girl looked at her big sister with complicated eyes and let out a big sigh.

"Sister, if you continue like this, you will never marry our hero. You must be aggressive. Do you understand? A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!"

Speechless, Sara decided to ignore her lovestruck little sister.

At the same time, she decided she had to keep an eye on her in the future.

Otherwise, she could not imagine what kind of silly plan her little sister would cook.

…

In the plaza.

Students and teachers were discussing the game excitedly.

None of them could avoid mentioning the impressive performance of Bloed's group.

Among them was a group of beastmen.

One of them was a wolfkin young man. His name was Arlan, and he was the Peak B-Rank that invited Aya and Prince Calisto to [Beast Brotherhood].

Right now, though, he was standing respectfully behind another beastman.

"So they are the ones, huh."

"Yes, leader." Arlan nodded with a complicated expression. "To be honest, I did not think they were so strong."

The leader fell silent. He stared at Bloed's image on the screen for several seconds before sighing.

"Stop any plan against him. There are a demon and a beastmen in his group, so he most likely will not join any racial club. At most, he will join a neutral club."

"But leader, about the prince…"

"There is no need to offend such a genius just for this little thing. Plus, the fact that the prince is with him means it will be easier for us to befriend him. That young man will most likely become the next Mu Quan. Someone like that will be an excellent ally."

"I understand, leader."

"Mm… I'm sure the other clubs must be racking their brains to recruit them. Hahaha, Academy City will become livelier."

…

"Truly an interesting group." A young woman chuckled softly. She watched the blue-haired young man on the screen with an expression of interest. "To think they managed to win even when I interfered in the game."

Just by her appearance, she was just a very beautiful girl. You could not feel the slightest mana fluctuation in her.

If you looked closely, though, you could see that her feet were not touching the ground. She was hovering several centimeters over the ground silently.

Such a feat seemed like nothing difficult for this girl.

However, nobody would consider it strange when you took into account her identity.

Her name was Isabella Castor.

The second strongest student in Academy City. At the same time, the leader of [Genius Society].

People called her [Singing Witch].

After observing the group of three on the screen for several seconds more, the girl looked at the demon young man beside her.

"Mu Quan, what do you think?"

Mu Quan, however, did not reply.

In fact, right now, his gaze was completely fixed on the demon girl on the screen.

When the young woman saw that, her eyes twinkled playfully.

"Could it be that you took a liking to her? She seems to have a boyfriend already, though, so you will have it hard."

Mu Quan frowned. Immediately, the aura around him became heavy.

The young woman's expression stiffened immediately.

She then hmphed coldly and walked away.

"How hateful. Wait until I become a bit stronger. By then, I will snatch first place from you."

Mu Quan did not reply. Instead, he focused his gaze on the demon girl once more.

"… Could she be the princess? But her aspect is different… Am I mistaken…?"

His soft mutter was taken away by the wind.

…

A middle-aged man was staring at the screen silently. He watched everything from the start to the end without changing his expression.

Only when Aya eliminated the last member of team blue did he smile.

"You are becoming more and more interesting…"

Nobody could know about the number three tattoed below his clothes.