After bidding farewell to Isxila and the teachers,
Ye Xu followed the main group of classmates toward the dining area, intending to finally sample the foods that had caught his eye at noon.
The moment he neared the zone, lively clamor filled his ears.
The place Teacher Hera had taken them for lunch was a very high-end restaurant — knives, forks, medium-rare steaks, all sorts of delicate little desserts. The taste and atmosphere were excellent, and she’d even covered unlimited portions.
But Ye Xu had eaten far too much of that sort of thing already.
Just being inside a venue so overtly styled after the Radiant Sun Empire made him feel uncomfortable from head to toe.
So the instant he entered the dining area this time, he skirted widely around that restaurant and headed straight into a street that looked far more down-to-earth and approachable.
Stalls lined both sides, selling snacks from every corner of the continent.
Ye Xu bought a burger, some fried chicken, then a cup of bubbling drink that looked exactly like cola and sat on the curb to eat.
— Honestly, aside from the different name and ingredients — it was called “Black Fizz” — it tasted no different from cola.
It had been ages since he’d had such authentic junk food. Ye Xu nodded in satisfaction, feeling comfort spread through his entire body.
And right then, a somewhat familiar voice reached his ears.
“I’m telling you guys — that greatsword was literally centimeters from my kidney!”
“If I’d reacted even a fraction slower, you wouldn’t be seeing me today!”
The tone was exaggerated and boastful.
Ye Xu turned and saw a figure red from head to toe — not only short red hair and red eyes, but a leather jacket, jeans, and clothes emblazoned with a pattern he knew very well…
A teenager whose gender he couldn’t quite pin down?
No helping it — inside the machine, the voice had been mechanically distorted and leaned masculine.
Now disembarked, the natural voice was extremely neutral — even slightly feminine.
From the side, the waist looked impossibly slim.
Yet judged by girl standards, the speech and mannerisms were far too rough.
“You guys gotta admit — something went wrong with how you fought, right?”
“If from the start you’d built around me, kept my ‘Flame Demon’s Roar’ hidden longer and created an ambush chance, how could our group have ended up with the worst score!”
At those words, Ye Xu immediately recognized the person — clearly the pilot of the “Infernal Prison” knight he’d faced on the trial field.
He also recognized the design on her clothes: the left half was a simplified profile of “Flame Demon,” the right half the weathered, mature face unique to Rawi — the brooding knight.
“You’re the pilot of the Magitech Knight called ‘Infernal Prison,’ right?”
Ye Xu finished his snacks in a few quick bites, licked his lips, then walked over and initiated conversation.
— Since she admired that guy Rawi, she probably wasn’t bad-tempered. Might as well get to know her.
“Huh? Who?”
Also a freshman today, unaware of who at the academy might greet her, the teen turned in confusion — then spotted the familiar night-purple figure.
“I-I-I-I-I go—!”
“Y-y-you’re the pilot of ‘Nightfall’…!”
The instant she saw him, the teen — now confirmed by Ye Xu to be a girl — wore an expression of utter shock.
— No choice; with the slight chest rise and smooth, unpronounced throat, even if Ye Xu struggled to believe such a rough noble young lady existed, he had to accept it.
“Yeah, that’s me. Name’s Ye Laixi · Nal — younger brother of Count Nal from the Ross Kingdom.”
“Is that pattern on your clothes the ‘Flame Demon’ from the Eternal Night Knights?”
The way to build rapport was to appeal to interests.
Feeling a bit awkward for having gone so hard on a girl, Ye Xu steered away from earlier topics and pointed at her outfit.
“Hm?”
The moment the words left his mouth, Ye Xu felt the girl’s eyes light up.
Next instant, she completely ignored her newly met comrades who’d fought alongside her that afternoon and launched into enthusiastic conversation with the day’s final boss.
“Y-y-you know Lord Rawi too?!”
“Let me tell you — Lord Rawi and his ‘Flame Demon’ are just too cool!”
“I once, in the southern part of the Empire…”
Her fervor reminded him a bit of Irina.
The difference was that Irina appeared normal until the topic came up — then went full manic without brakes.
This girl seemed far more intense at a glance, yet spoke calmly, describing her admiration with composed sincerity.
If he had to describe it, it was the difference between a secretive superfan and a devoted, level-headed supporter.
Her reverence for Rawi stemmed genuinely from his character and strength.
Ye Xu learned that she’d once faced a crisis in the Empire’s south.
A rebel group, cornered by imperial forces, had taken an entire city’s civilians hostage to pressure the Empire into letting them escape.
She’d been among the hostages.
By chance, Rawi — under the Third Prince’s command — was on a mission nearby.
He rode alone to the count’s castle in the city to negotiate with the rebel leader.
And then…
Came a scene the girl would never forget.
A terrifying pillar of flame containing apocalyptic power shot into the sky.
From the hellgate torn open by that pillar, a demon wielding flames ripped through a spatial fissure and slowly revealed itself.
With a single knight, Rawi annihilated sixty-seven enemy units inside their lines and saved the entire city.
Hearing this, Ye Xu nodded.
It was one of the rare events known only to the few who’d fought alongside the Eternal Night Knights.
Unlike other Magitech Knights stored in hangars and deployed when needed,
The Eternal Night Knights’ bodies were normally kept within the Night God Throne.
When a recognized pilot summoned them, they used authority to transmute into mana state, teleport, and reconstruct around the pilot.
Because that authority warped reality, an Eternal Night Knight’s manifestation often triggered phenomena — large or small.
Evidently, Rawi had been enraged to the extreme by these so-called rebels who treated lives like grass, creating that vision of a demon tearing open hell’s gates into reality.
Of course, the girl before him didn’t care about such details.
To her, the Eternal Night Knights were truly divine emissaries — as the rumors claimed — because only agents of a god could wield such terrifying power.
She believed anyone who’d truly witnessed them would feel the same.
Thus, she deliberately emulated her idol: cut her long hair short, dyed it red, and even spent a fortune customizing the personal Magitech Knight assigned by her family.