Yilaisi opened a Magic Barrier, her mana surging with fury. She looked serious.
“Hey, you’re not really going to start a fight in the school, are you?”
Man En kept provoking Yilaisi with words while effortlessly dodging her attacks.
“Shut up! You insolent brute! Have some decency!”
Her mana drained rapidly, and soon she was panting. In contrast, Man En looked completely relaxed.
“Are you calmer now? I just confirmed your ears—why such a big reaction?”
“What, do you have a custom where if someone sees your ears, you have to marry them?”
Hearing this, Yilaisi’s face turned even redder.
Man En was taken aback by her reaction.
‘Could I have hit the mark? I said I was joking—would you believe me?’
“Aaaaah!”
“I’m going to kill you!”
Yilaisi erupted again, launching a fierce assault at Man En, even though her mana was nearly depleted.
“What? Still coming?”
Man En felt irritated and prepared to counter.
Soon, the sounds in the classroom abruptly ceased.
Man En had once again pinned Yilaisi down firmly.
“Come on, let’s stop this, okay?”
“Pervert…”
Yilaisi lay weakly on the floor, tears falling drop by drop.
“Fine, I give up!”
On second thought, she was a teacher after all. Pinning a teacher to the ground in school was a bit unreasonable.
“I’ll let you go now, but you have to promise not to attack me again!”
“Mm…”
A faint voice reached Man En’s ears. He carefully released his hold, then quickly pulled his hand back, making Yilaisi, who tried to bite him, miss.
“I knew you’d try to bite me again!”
“Hmph!”
She snorted and turned her head away, refusing to look at Man En.
“Had enough fun? Let’s talk business.”
Man En pulled up a chair and sat in front of her.
“Did you come here for the Armor of Time?”
She remained silent.
“How many of your people are here?”
Still silent.
“So you’re not going to say anything?”
“…Pervert!”
“…”
‘I’m… Fine, you want to play like this? I’ll have to step it up!’
“Have you forgotten you’re in the Empire, which hates Demihumans the most? If I leak this information, how big would the backlash be?”
“W-what do you want?”
Yilaisi curled up, staring at Man En in terror.
‘Sigh, now I’m completely seen as a pervert… But at least we can negotiate normally.’
“Nothing much. The Heretic God Sect stole your treasure. Likewise, I have some scores to settle with them.”
“So on that basis, we have a common enemy and the same stance.”
“So you want… to cooperate against the Heretic God Sect?”
Man En nodded.
“How do I prove you’re telling the truth?”
“Haven’t you already felt it? The aura on me is their doing.”
Every time he brought this up, Man En couldn’t control his emotions.
“But that alone still doesn’t make me trust you.”
Even though she could tell from his aura that he wasn’t lying, it was always wise to be cautious.
Yilaisi thought about it, hesitated, and finally spoke:
“Unless you swear by our High God Helgort!”
Hearing that familiar name, Man En barely kept his composure.
‘So Helgort is their high god? No wonder she cares so much about the Armor of Time.’
And he never expected Yilaisi to be serious enough to swear an oath.
After all, in this world, swearing by the gods was an extremely serious matter, and breaking an oath would bring punishment.
Though as long as you didn’t make rash oaths, it was fine.
After they both swore oaths, they finally established a tentative trust.
Man En helped Yilaisi up and guided her to a chair.
“So tell me about your situation.”
But Yilaisi seemed hesitant.
“Actually, I’m the only one from my tribe searching for the Armor of Time… The others don’t care much about it.”
“The only one? How is that possible?”
“It’s related to an ancient prophecy. It predicted that the Armor of Time would be lost in the future and told us to let it be.”
As she spoke, her face filled with resentment.
“But even if they gave it away or returned it to its rightful owner, I could accept that. But having it stolen—I can’t accept that!”
“Because that’s trampling on our honor.”
Hearing this, Man En’s opinion of her changed somewhat.
But he still didn’t understand why the Elf tribe had secretly commissioned the Griffin Mercenary Corps behind her back.
“Any progress so far?”
“Unfortunately, I’ve been tracking them here. I ran out of money, so I took this temporary teaching job.”
‘I see. That explains why she was so eager to distance herself from me. Probably to avoid complications.’
Though her own investigation had yielded nothing.
“In that case, would you like to join us? More hands mean more power.”
“You… you’re really willing to help me? Even though I couldn’t provide useful information?”
“Actually, we’re not much better off. We’re basically starting from scratch. Don’t feel burdened. And I need your help with school matters.”
“Since investigating the Heretic God Sect will take up most of our time, we won’t have much left for school.”
Yilaisi lowered her head and thought for a moment, then finally agreed.
“Alright. I’ll handle the school enrollment thing. Also, tell me the location of your camp. I’ll visit when I have time.”
“What’s there to wait for? Let’s go now!”
Saying that, Man En directly lifted Yilaisi onto his back.
“Hey… hey! What are you doing?”
She struggled fiercely on his back, but it didn’t affect Man En’s movement, so he simply ignored her.
“What else? Going to see the boss!”
‘In the original novel, you two were bound to meet anyway.’
Thinking this, Man En selectively filtered her complaints and dashed toward the Student Council.
Yilaisi was helpless. Though she felt embarrassed and wanted to get down and walk, her mana was nearly depleted, so she couldn’t.
But upon reflection, she realized that maybe Man En wasn’t as bad as she thought. He might just be efficiency-oriented and not bothered by formalities.
Though it was a bit uncomfortable.
Soon, the two arrived at their destination. Sophien was already waiting for them at the entrance of the Student Council.
Seeing Sophien for the first time, Yilaisi’s body twitched involuntarily.
“What? Scared by her mana?”
Noticing the person behind him, Man En couldn’t help teasing.
“Her mana… it’s endless… I never thought someone like that really existed.”
‘It’s okay, you’ll get used to it.’
Man En silently remarked to himself but didn’t say it aloud.
“Feeling better? I’m going to put you down.”
“Remember, don’t mention the Armor of Time to Sophien.”
“Mm…”
Seeing them arrive, Sophien walked over.
“Hello, I’m Sophien.”
“Yi… Yilaisi… Nice to meet you.”
Sophien noticed her stiffness and smiled gently.
“No need to be nervous. Let’s go inside and talk.”
But before they could take a few steps, Man En’s Communication Artifact suddenly rang.
“Thunder Light, the Guild has found a team that needs people. Come quickly.”
That was fast.