St. Marian's Library.
Pandora was on duty at the front desk as usual. Surprisingly few people came to the library this afternoon, so she appeared quite leisurely.
"So that's how it is. Is this the origin of Valentine's Day?"
She carefully read the words in the History of the Development of Valentine's Day, seemingly gaining some understanding.
The Valentine's Day of this world originated from a certain God of Love. That was a male deity. His beauty surpassed that of goddesses, and his voice could intoxicate people. But love is not something that can be exchanged for merely a good-looking skin and a pleasant voice.
The male deity fell in love with a pure shepherdess; however, the shepherdess only had eyes for the flute-playing youth.
He pretended to be a passerby to approach them. Although he received warm hospitality from the shepherdess and the flute-playing youth, he was completely unable to insert himself between them. As the sun set in the west, he could only leave in loneliness.
But at the moment of parting, as a return for their hospitality, he left precious gifts for the shepherdess and the flute-playing youth.
The shepherdess received a flute possessing magical power. The flute-playing youth received a sheep that could speak.
That night, the shepherdess gave the magic flute to the flute-playing youth. And the flute-playing youth gave the divine sheep to the shepherdess.
The God of Love, hiding in the sky, sighed, left his final blessing, and finally departed.
...
Later, the flute-playing youth became the King. The shepherdess became the Queen. The two then designated the day they exchanged gifts as "God's Grace Day" to thank the God of Love for his benevolence.
...
Even later, after several evolutions, God's Grace Day became the current Valentine's Day. The tradition of exchanging gifts was also passed down.
...
"Life in this world is truly fraught with danger everywhere."
Pandora shook her head slightly.
[Love God Suoluo's Magic Flute] and [Love God Suoluo's Divine Sheep] were both very famous Secret Ritual Cards, and also fatal traps.
Among them, the effect of [Love God Suoluo's Magic Flute] was Domination. The effect of [Love God Suoluo's Divine Sheep] was Charm.
...
Turning to the next page, Pandora's gaze gradually drifted, the words on the book becoming blurry in her field of vision. Her thoughts drifted far away.
"What exactly is love?"
...
"What exactly is love?"
Emma, inside the reading room, repeatedly mulled over this sentence. She was still affected by the surrounding atmosphere, her state of mind becoming disordered as Valentine's Day approached. But she had no intention of giving a gift to anyone.
She just occasionally wondered, would she receive a gift from someone? If she did receive one, how should she respond?
...
Some people took love lightly, thinking that that floaty feeling was love. Some people took love heavily, feeling that choices made easily could not be considered love at all. The former enjoyed momentary love. The latter yearned for lifelong love.
...
Sara Swati felt puzzled that the students around her could so easily determine the recipients of their chocolates. But she would not obstruct them because of this.
Twilight.
The students who had spent the afternoon on Traveler Street returned one after another.
After spending a large amount of credits, Robert finally pulled the Magic Guide Chess piece he wanted. By selecting a few more from the original fixed set of chess pieces, he successfully assembled a barely usable chess piece combination.
He would use one day to familiarize himself with this combination. Then, on Sunday, he would issue a letter of challenge to Dark Demon!
Although his set of chess pieces might not be strong, he believed he could use technique to make up for the gap in piece strength.
Moreover, according to the news heard so far, apart from that pirated [Vampire Vlad], Dark had no other overly outrageous pieces. Therefore, as long as he prevented him from raising his level to three during the match, [Vampire Vlad] could only lie quietly in the chess box.
Robert seemed to have already seen victory!
"Is there really any meaning in doing this?"
Virt had accompanied Robert in drawing gachas for the entire afternoon. in the end, he also couldn't resist doing a few ten-pulls, barely scraping together a set of chess pieces.
"There is definitely meaning!" Robert answered very decisively.
But if one asked him further what the meaning was, he likely couldn't answer.
...
Although he had also assembled a set of pieces, Virt had no intention of playing against Robert. Upon returning inside the castle, he parted ways with Robert and rushed to the meeting venue of the "Marine Biology Research Department."
That was an unused classroom located on the fourth floor of the castle. They were temporarily using that classroom as a provisional meeting place.
Valentine's Day was not a good day for the Marine Biology Research Department. They often served as the background boards during Valentine's Day. Among the full 16 cult members, only Virt alone was troubled by "whether to send a gift."
But they did not feel jealousy because of this; instead, they were very willing to offer him advice and suggestions. Probably because doing so made them feel like they were also participating in Valentine's Day!
Betty Murray, wearing a moray eel suit, was a fourth-year student from the Magic House and a classmate of Pandora. Virt had obtained a lot of information regarding Pandora from her. But the more he knew, the more he could feel Pandora's excellence. And Virt felt increasingly correct about falling in love with such a person.
After chatting for a while, Virt said apprehensively, "Although I have thought about persisting in sending gifts every Valentine's Day, if I really do that, will it cause her to feel aversion?"
Betty looked at his mood and said very seriously, "I think not."
"Really?"
This was obviously the answer Virt wanted to hear; his voice coming through the sponge suit sounded somewhat happy.
But Betty immediately added, "It's like this. There is a high probability she won't notice that you sent a gift."
Virt was instantly stunned. "Why?"
Betty said, "Because every Valentine's Day, the gifts she receives can fill an entire cabinet. I think she probably wouldn't specifically notice you from that small mountain."
Virt: "..."
A senior wearing a pufferfish suit spoke in a muffled voice, "Targeting the Silver Dragon Lady right from the start, the difficulty is too high! How about we change to another one?"
[Squid] Scott subconsciously retorted, "Love isn't something you can change just because you want to."
Amidst the intense discussion, Virt revealed a bitter expression.
After returning to the dormitory later, he played Magic Guide Chess with Robert all night.
Noble House Tower. Dormitory 201.
Dark Demon let out a breath and put down the pen in his hand. The progress of compiling the Arithmetic Class teaching materials was smoother than expected. Perhaps it wouldn't take much longer to complete.
He stood up to stretch his muscles and bones, then sat back down. For the next two days, he would go all out!
...
That night, Dark extracted [Lust] once again. The next day, Saturday, he extracted it one more time.
At this point, stored within the Insect Tree were 0.5 points of [Greed], 3 points of [Pride], and 7.5 points of [Lust].
With this, this month's quota was considered fully extracted. The indicators for both [Pride] and [Lust] had been controlled to just over 100. [Greed] was even below 100.
The stored [Pride] was enough to craft a new [Pride II]. The 7.5 points of [Lust] were even enough to cultivate a [Fruit of Lust].
But in the current situation where he had already cultivated two [Fruit of Lust], Dark chose to temporarily store this portion of [Major Sin].
February 11th, Sunday.
After a full day of effort on Saturday, the framework for the first-year Arithmetic Class teaching materials had been completely built. Eighty percent of the key content that needed filling had also been filled.
He was mainly responsible for writing the knowledge points and example problems; the subsequent expansions and accompanying exercises were Professor Lily's tasks.
"If it goes smoothly, I should be able to get it completely done by the end of today!"
Dark couldn't help but rub the center of his brows, letting his taut nerves relax slightly. Compiling teaching materials was truly a drudgery. For someone like him, who was practically writing down content from memory, it was already this hard, let alone for an original creator.
"I just hope these teaching materials can truly help the first-year students!"
To this day, Dark found that he had actually developed a bit of a sense of mission.
He couldn't help but smile, then continued to bury his head in hard work. But at noon, just after he finished the lunch brought by DemiDevimon, he discovered someone knocking on the door outside.
"Who could it be?"
Dark opened the door and looked at Doron standing outside with some surprise, asking involuntarily, "Is something the matter?"
Doron mysteriously pulled a letter from his chest pocket and handed it over.
Dark's face immediately darkened. "If I remember correctly, Valentine's Day hasn't arrived yet, right?"
Doron was stunned, then hurriedly said, "What are you thinking? This is a letter of challenge!"
Dark asked suspiciously, "Yours?"
Doron: "No, you'll know once you read it."
"Okay."
Dark took the challenge letter, then conveniently closed the door, turned around, and walked toward the desk, preparing to sit down and take a good look.
Doron was shut outside.
"He took it?"
The little fatty Pistan popped out from who knows where. He looked quite excited, practically having the word "Amusement" written on his forehead.
Doron hesitated. "He took it, but will he go? Honestly, he looks extremely busy."
Speaking of this, Pistan also became somewhat unconfident. "Dark indeed doesn't seem like someone who would pay attention to this kind of provocation... but I've already spread the news..."
Doron asked in astonishment, "When?"
Pistan: "Just now."
After Dark sat down, he used a letter opener to open the envelope and took out the letter paper inside.
Sure enough, just as Doron said, this was not a love letter for confession, but a letter of challenge! The sender was Robert Broheim. The duel location was the Dueling Class classroom.
As for the content of the duel...
"Magic Guide Chess, best of three?"
Dark glanced at the Magic Guide Chess set gathering dust on the corner of his table for several days, realizing that a fish had taken the bait.
But why would the fish biting the hook be Robert?
Dark didn't think for a moment that the "invisible person" would be Robert.
"Wait, Robert and Virt both have prior records of night wandering! And in Harry Potter, Harry Potter had an Invisibility Cloak. Could it be that Virt Gold has one too?"
Thinking of this, Dark couldn't help but hesitate. If that "invisible person" was really Virt... then his and the professors' actions would appear overly cautious.
In the past, if the incident with Vampire Vlad hadn't occurred, even if the professors discovered someone wandering at night while invisible, they would only treat it as a student's disciplinary violation and wouldn't pursue it too much.
It was just that the incident with Vampire Vlad had happened. So being cautious was not excessive at all!
"Regardless, since a fish has bitten the hook, I have to go take a look."
Dark thought for a moment, brought the Magic Guide Chess set over, and re-familiarized himself with the pieces and rules.
Robert's challenge time was at seven-thirty in the evening, after dinner. Since he decided to accept the challenge, Dark naturally didn't want to lose. When it came to cramming at the last minute, he was a professional.
Sunset in the west; the clouds on the horizon rolled like waves, billowing orange-red, magnificent as a rainbow.
Wait until the sky was about to turn dark, only then did Dark pick up that box of Magic Guide Chess. Like a solitary warrior heading to the exam hall after three days of desperate cramming before the test, he walked out of the dormitory, walked down the stairs, and entered the common room.
The onlookers, led by Doron and Pistan, had been waiting in the common room for three years upon three years. Seeing him walk down at this moment, they immediately boiled over.
"He's coming! He's really coming!"
"There's a good show to watch!"
"The opponent is that Robert, right? The Robert who is only good at Magic Guide Chess."
"Dark is a beginner; the only person he has played against so far seems to be Doron? Uh... and he won."
"It is Doron, after all."
"What's with that? Being bad at Magic Guide Chess isn't shameful!"
"He's anxious, he's anxious!"
"Don't keep making fun of him. Dark can win relies on that [Vampire Vlad]."
"It's too strong, that piece!"
"I've always felt this chess match is unfair."
"Yeah, for Robert."
...
Dark never expected that he would one day become the melon for the melon-eaters. Perhaps this was the karma of the melon!
He simply waved to Doron and Pistan, saying with a smile, "Walk together?"
Doron immediately said with joy, "Together, together."
Then, a team of first-years mixed with a few upper-year students walked out of the Noble House tower, marching mightily toward the Dueling Class classroom.
When they arrived at the Dueling Class classroom, they found that a large group of people from the Knight House were already waiting in battle array inside the classroom!
Robert, wearing a dry smile, was sandwiched in the middle. He had originally only wanted to find Dark alone for a decisive battle. But he didn't know exactly which link had gone wrong, leading to everyone in the Knight House knowing about it.
Just like this, the first-year boys of the Knight House had all gathered here, just waiting for the opponent to arrive.
With so many people, there were many things he wanted to say but couldn't.
Robert had originally wanted to tell Dark through the game that victory relying on pirated pieces could not last long. His starting point was absolutely good.
However, information related to Vampire Vlad could not be spoken of. So he couldn't tell others the reason he believed that piece was pirated. Moreover, he actually didn't want to mention this matter to others.
Letting Dark's reputation suffer would do him no good. He would even feel guilty because of it.
One had to know, Dark was his savior. And three times at that!
But at this moment.
The arrow was already on the string.
It had to be fired!
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