“Warrior, Ibuki Rei.”
Ibuki Rei sensibly stepped forward, bowed to everyone, and gave a concise self-introduction.
“Invited by Your Excellency, from today, we’ll be in the same boat.”
“Magician, Cavenir.” Kalinina returned the courtesy, observing the woman before her.
Black hair, crimson eyes, loose robes—an outfit that could only be described as the very model of an Eastern warrior.
A wound at her waist suggested she’d just come from a fierce battle, yet she could still strike decisively and cleave the bear monster’s weak point.
Such presence was not something an ordinary noble could possess.
“Truly, an excellent move.”
Kalinina was not stingy with her praise.
“You flatter me.”
Ibuki Rei was also observing the “man” before her.
Handsome, courteous in his actions, the very air of a high noble—meaning…
Her earlier judgment hadn’t been off the mark.
So this so-called blossoming really did correspond to that sort of relationship—
This man named Lomio was most likely acting on behalf of some big player, seeking a business partner.
“Assassin, Annie.”
Annie curtsied, but her gaze darted toward Lomio.
Another deception? Or perhaps something even more despicable?
What would he do next?
Annie could hardly imagine it—after such a bitter fight, carrying her injuries, and having spent so much magic power on meaningless magical beasts.
Just how did Lomio plan to seize the “King”?
But then, that was fine.
If he failed and the plan affected Her Highness, Annie would never let this man live even a second longer.
“The situation is sudden, time is short. I ask everyone to work together.” Lomio interrupted the conversation. “We must set out at once, heading southwest as planned.”
Was that necessary?
He’d certainly noticed Annie’s murderous glare.
Wasn’t it just making your master hold the beast tide for a while?
Landmine-type fangirls are just impossible to deal with…
“Southwest? That’s where I just came from. There’s a whole stretch of swamp over there, thick with miasma. Why are we going there?”
Ibuki Rei was puzzled.
“Is this part of the King’s plan as well?”
Thick miasma meant elimination risk at any moment. With two members of the team already wounded, it would only make the magical beasts more restless.
No matter how you thought about it, it didn’t seem like a good choice.
“You’re all thinking this is a foolish move, aren’t you!”
Everyone’s thoughts were interrupted as Lomio spoke, striding to the front of the group.
“When the time comes, you’ll understand.”
“Mm, let’s go.” Kalinina followed right after.
Using the swamp as a test question… What would his model answer be?
So mysterious…
As Lomio’s face flashed through her mind, Kalinina shook her head hard, reminding herself not to lose her respect for the examiner.
“This isn’t right.”
No matter how charming he was, he was no mere pretty ornament!
Strange…
Ibuki Rei suddenly found herself puzzled.
Just a single light sentence, and the supposed leader followed him?
Shouldn’t this man be a servant-dog to high nobles? Why was he now leading people around by the nose?
These kinds of people… Ibuki Rei had met them before!
Seemingly a pawn on the front lines, yet actually controlling the whole situation in person!
In fact, she herself had suffered a big business loss to just such a person!
Not only did he trick her into revealing all her cards, but he also manipulated her into signing a burdensome, unrewarding contract!
From how things looked now, he must have some hidden identity or remarkable skill that forced this noble to yield!
“I’ll have to watch and see. Anyway, he’s definitely no ordinary man!”
Having made up her mind, Ibuki Rei recalled the moment he saved her and revealed his true face.
He could even shake the heart of a warrior… What a grievous sin!
Better watch him a few more times to build up immunity…
“Hmph, just guess away.”
Lomio had already run through what would happen next many times in his mind.
According to the game’s original script, nearly every SSR-level character would have a powerful team capable of challenging the “King.”
At this moment, judging by the elimination info shared by the Academy badge, the other end of the swamp must already be in the throes of a group battle.
Very soon, when the ultimate victor brought their battered team and the “King” piece into the swamp to escape pursuit, they’d run straight into—
Beatrice’s team.
That’s right, in the original entrance test script, there wasn’t any so-called solo fight at all—it was all about the small teams and their silent coordination.
Beatrice had ridden this victory and the prestige brought by the “King” to become a hotshot among the first-years, quickly gathering a massive faction centered on the capital’s nobles.
She had thus ascended to the seat of the game’s second major early antagonist.
As for the first…
Lomio Arkadi.
A man who caused havoc in a yuri game—even if he died a thousand times and was trampled on ten thousand, the players would only cheer.
Even in special event stories, trampling on Lomio had become a beloved pastime!
“Is this script a little off?”
Just thinking of Beatrice’s cringe, cookie-cutter personality left Lomio speechless.
Was this any better than letting the little head rule the big one?
Just because she was a woman, that kind of villain could take the “King”?
The writers practically spoon-fed her cheats, never even explaining the cause and effect, leaving plot holes everywhere!
But now?
Lomio clearly remembered how he’d just set a trap and blasted one of her team to pieces!
“Let’s see how you play with one less teammate from the start!”
Lomio was utterly satisfied with his current team!
Mage, warrior, throw in a maid-dog to bite people, and he just had to toss cards to support.
He could revisit the story any time and scoop up every reward that should be his!
Was there any better way to live a wonderful life?
Did it exist?
If there was, it had to be stepping on every other villain and becoming the biggest, baddest villain while everyone else thanked you for it!
“Hehe, I can’t even imagine how many people will get trapped in student loan schemes!”
“What are you scheming now?”
Lomio’s relaxed and pleased smile unsettled Ibuki Rei.
Her gaze flickered between Lomio and Annie several times, and she was now certain—these two were utterly incompatible!
Was it because of Cavenir?
“Can I really reach the King by running with this crowd??”
Ibuki Rei had no particular The further they advanced, the damper and more putrid the air became.
Twisted roots arched up from the muddy ground, slick with a coating of green moss.
At last, everyone stopped at the edge of the swamp.
There was no road ahead.
Murky black water gave off a stench of rot, while thick green miasma rose slowly, shrouding their vision. Even from a distance, just looking at it made one’s body instinctively recoil.
On the other side of the swamp, there was a brief flash of dazzling magical light piercing the miasma.
Immediately after, a deafening roar shook the earth.
“What an astonishing clash of magic.”
Karenina’s expression turned grim; she could clearly sense that beyond the miasma, at least several powerful individuals were locked in fierce battle.
With every passing second, tremendous magical power collided and was obliterated.
Ibuki Rei’s right hand never left the hilt of her blade. Her scarlet eyes swept the surroundings warily as she lowered her voice:
“The miasma is poisonous. Staying too long will inevitably lead to corrosion… Unless someone risks crossing the swamp and happens to run straight into us, it’ll be hard for anyone to show their true strength.”
“Alright, then… let’s rest for fifteen minutes first.”
Lomio sprawled under the shade of a tree right outside the miasma:
“The team fight isn’t even over yet—what’s the rush?”
Ever since advancing his class and unlocking more alchemy talents, Lomio’s sensitivity to magical fluctuations had improved dramatically.
Relying on his memory, he could even “see” that on the far side of the swamp, several elite squads led by SSR Characters were fighting with all their might for the sole “King” piece, pushing their competition to a fever pitch.
In a little while, someone would try to escape into the depths of the swamp with the King, while the rest would back off, wary of other squads swooping in to reap the rewards.
On top of that, with the twist in Beatrice’s squad, this was the perfect setup for a heist!
Besides…
Lomio checked the card he’d just snatched through his inventory.
[Second-Tier Magic: Wind Blade (Excellent)]
“Ranged ability. Nice.”
Others might look down on this sort of sneaky skill, but for an assassin?
It was perfect!
Who wouldn’t love firing off a surprise spell from the shadows?
“Oh? That’s certainly a unique decision.”
Ibuki Rei could also faintly sense that aura.
It was hard to imagine this level of pressure coming from a first-year student who had just enrolled!
This batch of students was far from ordinary. If they recklessly joined the fray, their full roster would immediately make them top competitors—potentially forcing the other squads to unite against them.
Even though the chances of getting the King were slim, it made perfect sense to lay in wait on the swamp’s edge rather than charge in.
What’s more, Lomio knew she still had a “Knight” piece as a fallback.
Everything was carefully calculated—not reckless at all!
“Yeah, I need to recover my magic too.”
Karenina took out a purification potion and drank it, then moved over to sit near Lomio, a short distance away, and began meditating with grace.
Before closing her blue eyes, she snuck a glance at his handsome profile lying on the ground.
To come into close contact with such a mysterious person, feeling his presence and decisions, was itself a kind of mental training—
She had already convinced herself of that.
As for the sudden break…
“Probably meant to warn me not to act rashly.”
Annie held back her words, quietly wrapping her wounds and wiping her blade behind the shade.
In the “harmonious” squad atmosphere, no one would suspect that Lomio’s trap card inventory had already been completely emptied.
Every trap had been strung together into a series, lying in ambush along the path they’d come from, ready to spring.
“They’re starting to pause.”
After a few minutes, Karenina was the first to sense a change on the battlefield and stood up.
“Time for the main course.”
Ibuki Rei approached the mist warily, taking her place at the front of the team.
Since she’d accepted this fate, she had to shoulder her responsibility.
As a martial artist and a merchant, this was the way.
“Until the flower blooms and bears fruit.”
Annie still said nothing, simply taking up the rear as her figure faded into the background.
“Three minutes.”
Lomio wasn’t worried at all.
Beatrice hadn’t even triggered a trap yet, how could things possibly—
Boom!
…
“Aiya, isn’t this just unlucky?”
“Another one?!”
Beatrice was trailing smoke!
Who was so evil?
First paralysis, then explosion!
The traps even had combos!
They blew her shield cards to pieces!
Three thousand magic crystals each!
That’s nearly as much as several hours’ tax revenue for the chamber of commerce!
“Why are there more traps?!”
“This… This whole trip has been nothing but trouble. Shouldn’t we just go after another piece?”
The two remaining teammates looked a bit dazed.
The whole way here, they hadn’t run into anyone, but someone’s traps kept them stuck in the forest, forcing them to explore with utmost caution.
They’d barely made it out, when Beatrice got some kind of message and led them straight to the swamp’s edge.
And then—boom! Another trap!
Who does that?! Watching the pit?!
“No worries, it’s just a minor setback!”
Beatrice pulled out another shield card and poured magic into it.
Her pockets jingled; a whole pouch full of cards was her greatest asset.
“So rich… This is the strength of the Cromwell family?”
“With so many cards, if you ordered these outside, the price would probably be twice as high.”
“Where does she get all that money…”
Even as fellow nobles, her teammates couldn’t help but cast jealous glances.
The duchy was strict about alchemy card management.
Every card’s production had to be registered, and the taxes on transactions were exorbitant, keeping most people out.
But for this young lady, it seemed like if she wanted something, she’d always get it!
“Heh.”
Noticing her companions’ stares, Beatrice, her face still smudged with soot, couldn’t help showing a trace of pride.
Not everyone had such a gentle, caring older brother who arranged everything for her!
Thinking of that, the frustration from the explosions was swept away.
As long as she followed her brother’s guidance, everything would turn out fine!
“Let’s go. We’re almost there!”
“Cough… cough!”
Kexia coughed violently, stepping onto a floating piece of rotten wood, then using the last of her strength to leap onto a slick stone covered in moss.
A metallic tang of blood welled in her mouth, the burning pain in her chest from magical wounds still vivid.
She knew that in ten minutes—no, probably just five—the badge on her chest would judge her as unable to continue and teleport her out, eliminated.
“It took so much… just to get here…”
She was the only one left.
The three teammates who had once fought by her side had fallen in that brutal skirmish just now—barely a moment, and they’d become sacrifices for someone else to seize the “King” piece.
All that remained for her was the cold, heavy piece.
“Even if I get out… what hope do I have?”
Kexia felt as if she could already see her academic path ending here and now.
Mutual conflict, mutual devouring—this wasn’t the academy life she’d hoped for at all!
The academy hadn’t even warned them: this placement test was actually a brutal elimination match!
There was only one way left!
Kexia looked ahead at the single winding path revealed in the poisonous miasma, formed of stones and stumps.
Time wasn’t on her side.
Before the other squads could respond and completely surround the swamp, she had to make it through in one go.
Otherwise, only elimination and expulsion awaited her.
And only this most dangerous, yet quickest route offered her even the slimmest chance of survival!
“One last charge, Kexia! Do it for your expelled teammates!”
Clenching her teeth, the girl pressed on into the heart of the mist.
The miasma flooded her lungs; the taste of blood grew stronger.
She could no longer hear the distant sounds of fighting behind her, and she saw the wall of miasma thinning as the end of the path appeared.
Swish!
She broke through the haze, escaping that deadly swamp.
“I made it…”
Gasping for breath, Kexia relied on her hunter class’s natural recovery to slowly regain her strength, hoping the academy wouldn’t judge her as eliminated.
Holding her breath, running, injuries—under all these conditions, she could barely move, or even stand.
Luckily—
She’d brought the King out.
“Well done.”
“Mm, yeah… huh?”
Kexia opened her eyes to see a black-haired boy smiling at her.
Handsome!
Their gazes met for an instant, and only one word popped into her mind!
What a stunning face!
Even the best male performers in the royal city couldn’t match his beauty!
Was he a fairy tale prince?!
“Well done.” Lomio grinned and reached out. “You have the piece, don’t you?”
“Ah.” His words shattered Kexia’s illusion: “So you’re not Prince Charming—just a handsome bandit?”
“Hey… you sure know how to make people happy.”
“I don’t think that was a compliment!”
Kexia was on the verge of collapse!
She’d barely escaped death, only to meet such a beautiful man!
How did two good things end up like this?!
“Did we really just catch her?”
Behind Lomio, Karenina and the others came over, all staring at the girl lying helpless on the ground.
Fair skin, blond hair, blue-green eyes—if you ignored the mud, she could be called strikingly handsome.
But!
She had no sense of presence at all!
To call her bedraggled was no exaggeration!
“This… this is it? She has the King?”
Ibuki Rei relaxed her grip on her blade.
The other girl was clearly unable to resist. A single kick could probably send her packing back home.
From her leather armor and the short crossbow on her back, her class was obvious—a hunter.
As a ranged kiting class, at this distance she posed no threat to Ibuki Rei as a warrior, or to the team as a whole.
This…?
Ibuki Rei instinctively stepped half a pace away from Lomio.
Did he calculate even this?
Was it possible?
about Lomio and Cavenir.
As for Annie…
She just hoped Annie could put aside personal feelings and make more rational judgments.
“We’ll just have to play it by ear.”
Gripping the “Knight” under her clothes, the girl who walked the path of the warrior had no intention of backing down before fate.
Even if luck ran out, if she could use this “Knight” to keep everyone’s student status, that would be enough to repay her debt of gratitude.
That’s how it would be.