Lia Goethe stared at the envelope icon that had popped up on the card, and a sudded sense of foreboding stirred within her.
But after hesitating for a moment, she finally pressed her fingertip to it.
As magic power flowed in, the envelope opened, revealing its contents.
[Ophelia Brad, come to my office.]
[Sarah Silf]
Lia Goethe fell abruptly silent.
Without a word, she swiped the "notice" away, then flipped the gate card over and tapped her fingertip down.
A drop of crimson blood seeped from her fingertip, snaking its way across the back of the gate card as if it possessed a will of its own.
In mere seconds, an extraordinarily intricate Blood Magic Circle sketched itself into being.
Then Lia Goethe tapped her fingers in rapid succession, and just like that, the forging began.
In an instant, threads of congealed blood engulfed the entire gate card!
...
Watching this, Joseph Bruno—standing off to one side—felt his pupils contract sharply, a flicker of dread rising in his heart, and he couldn't help but feel grateful that he hadn't rashly made a move.
Still, he had not been entirely idle...
"You're still not leaving?"
Suddenly, Lia Goethe looked up and spoke.
Joseph Bruno instinctively swallowed, but in the end he chose to trust reason.
He said in a low voice, "I trust you, but you absolutely must not forget your promise, otherwise..."
Lia Goethe, however, was no longer looking at him. "Otherwise, you'll tell everyone everything you know. That's fine—you can even go find your professor right now. Alright, bye-bye."
As she spoke, she raised the gate card and waved it at him.
On the back of that gate card, a crimson spider had now attached itself.
The spider's eight legs clung to the edges of the front face, faintly radiating a red glow.
Joseph Bruno glanced at that gate card once more, then quietly retreated half a step, before abruptly turning and striding away at a brisk pace.
As the saying goes, the expert watches the technique while the layman watches the spectacle.
To an ordinary Magic Guide Master, Lia Goethe's method looked like nothing more than the "re-forging" of a Magic Guide Card.
But Bruno had recognized at a glance that it was a mysterious method of "Blood Sacrifice," and those who mastered such a method...
His face paled slightly, and he walked faster and faster.
...
It was only after Joseph Bruno's figure had completely vanished that Lia Goethe finally revealed her hesitation, wavering.
Even though she had already used the "Blood Spider Seal" to seal the gate card's inbound and outbound communication functions, she still couldn't escape the fact that Professor Silf had discovered her.
What she simply couldn't fathom, no matter how she tried, was how Professor Silf had figured out it was her.
In theory, she shouldn't have exposed even the slightest trace linking to her true identity.
"Could it be that Medea sold me out?"
"Impossible."
Lia Goethe… no, Ophelia Brad, almost immediately rejected that guess.
Medea had no reason whatsoever to betray her.
"But if it wasn't Medea, then who could it have been?"
As Ophelia mulled it over, she was already setting off on foot.
In any case, this was no place to linger.
As for Professor Silf's "notice"…
"She doesn't actually think that sending me a notice like this means I'll go, does she?"
...
Half an hour later.
Professor Silf's office.
Ophelia Brad knocked on the door.
...
The conclusion of the Easter Dueling Festival did not cause the festive atmosphere to vanish along with it.
After leaving the dueling hall, the students largely split into two streams—one heading for Traveler Street, the other for the Canteen.
Although the Canteen's dinner still came with complimentary Easter eggs, most students, after cracking open "boiled eggs" two times in a row, had lost all interest in the Canteen's eggs. And since the competition had just ended and their excitement hadn't yet faded, they figured they might as well enjoy the festivities on Traveler Street.
So the number of students who chose the Canteen dwindled considerably.
Dark and his companions, chatting and laughing, nevertheless made their way into the Canteen.
The Canteen's Halfling Cooks spotted the blond youth with a bat familiar in the line, and, unable to help themselves, exchanged a few whispered words, breaking into smiles one after another.
When it was Dark's turn in line, the halfling auntie in charge of the eggs winked at him, then took out an egg painted with red petals and, right before his eyes, placed it into a pile of eggs.
Watching the halfling auntie's brazen act of cheating, Dark was genuinely stunned for a moment.
The halfling auntie then offered her congratulations: "Congratulations on the championship."
Dark suddenly understood, and without any false modesty, he simply reached out and took that egg.
Of course, DemiDevimon didn't forget to pick one out for himself either.
The Canteen's menu tonight was extremely lavish. Great platters of meat sat on the trays behind the serving window, and the rich aroma of meat wafted all around, mingled with the fragrance of desserts.
While selecting his food, Dark also discovered bottles upon bottles of fruit wine.
This world had no rule forbidding minors from drinking.
But out of consideration for the students' protection, the fruit wine the Canteen provided was very low in alcohol content.
Dark casually grabbed a bottle and placed it on his tray, then continued his hunt for food.
After all, he had won the championship, so he was prepared to treat himself well, and thus the pile of meat on his tray grew larger and larger.
But when he turned around, holding a tray heaped with meat, he was astonished to discover that among the three people following behind him, two of them had trays piled with meat like small mountains!
He lowered his head and glanced at his own tray, then looked up again at the trays held by Diana and Pandora, and couldn't help but let out a sigh.
Truly, one person could not be spoken of in the same breath as another.
...
If at noon Diana and Pandora had still held back somewhat because they weren't very familiar with each other,
then tonight, they let loose completely.
Besides, as long as they used "celebrating Dark's championship" as the reason, no matter how much meat they took it wouldn't look out of place.
And so, atop the dining table of the four of them, a mountain of meat soon piled up.
DemiDevimon stood on the table, gazing up at the mountain of meat with a dumbfounded look. Beside him stood Pandora's familiar, the "Young Wyvern," wearing a positively gluttonous expression, and off in one corner was a drowsy Chinchilla Grass.
"Alright then, let's crack the egg first!"
Dark moved the egg painted with red petals in front of him, already unable to wait.
"Mm, then let's crack the egg first."
Pandora echoed, but she made no move to touch her own egg, merely staring at Dark.
Dark swept his gaze around and discovered that everyone was staring at him—not just the three at his own table, but even the students at the neighboring table were watching.
"Hey, stop hesitating, hurry it up!" a senior student from the Knight House hollered impatiently.
The others chimed in one after another.
Dark couldn't help but smile. "Looks like everyone wants to know what this cheat egg can turn out."
Diana, who had been holding it in for a long while, finally couldn't resist saying, "It's definitely a phoenix egg!"
Rose said softly, "Didn't I already tell you? There are no phoenix eggs."
Dark advised, "We'll know once we crack it open."
So he reached down and pulled out one of the champion's rewards—a little golden hammer—and struck the egg hard.
"Crack!"
Over the course of this whole day, Dark had already opened quite a few eggs, but this egg's shell was undoubtedly the hardest.
Striking it so hard, he had only managed to knock out a single hairline crack.
He furrowed his brow, put more strength into it, and struck twice more.
Yet after those two blows, all he had was two more cracks.
"Channel magic power into it," Pandora reminded him.
So Dark poured magic power into the little golden hammer, and struck hard once more—and just like that, he activated the magic circle attached to the hammer!
A rainbow-colored halo instantly rippled outward, drawing even more attention.
Then that goose-egg-sized painted egg indeed shattered apart.
More than a dozen gazes instantly focused in.
From within the remaining third of the shell, a teardrop-shaped gemstone slowly rose, emitting a red glow like fire.
"What is this?"
"A fire-attribute gemstone?"
As the murmurs rose up, the gemstone suddenly blazed with firelight, and the surrounding temperature shot up sharply!
"Splat."
Pandora casually reached out and grabbed it, snuffing out the gemstone's firelight.
She brought the red gem up to her face for a look, then handed it to Dark, laughing, "An unexpectedly good thing—don't go losing it."
Dark took the gem, and without much of a look, stuffed it straight into his card pouch. "Alright then—let's eat!"
...
The matter of Dark Demon cracking a gemstone out of a Canteen egg was merely a little interlude during dinnertime.
As soon as he swiftly put the gem away, the people around quickly moved past it, each chatting freely among themselves.
Pandora, Diana, Rose, and DemiDevimon all cracked open their own eggs afterward, and DemiDevimon actually turned out another credit voucher!
Although it was only a thirty-point credit voucher, it was already enough to make him happy.
With this, DemiDevimon had once again rounded out a total of 200 credits.
He merrily shared the meat with his fellow familiar, the Young Wyvern, in an exceedingly cheerful mood.
Under DemiDevimon's infectious cheer, the atmosphere on this side grew all the more joyful.
The mountain of meat on the table shrank at a visible rate.
Diana ate with grease all over her mouth.
Pandora, by contrast, was quite refined, yet her eating speed was not the least bit slow.
Dark had long known of her appetite, so he wasn't surprised.
By the time this meal was finished, it was already eight in the evening, and only then did the four of them leave the Canteen fully satisfied.
Sunday evening—a rare bit of free time.
After leaving the Canteen, the four did not return to the dormitory, but instead strolled leisurely along the castle paths, treating it as a way to digest after their meal.
Before they knew it, they had arrived on the "Lover's Bridge" that lay between the castle towers. Leaning against the bridge railing, they felt the caress of the night breeze and squinted as they took in the night scenery.
It was very quiet all around.
Perhaps because most people had gone to Traveler Street, tonight's "Lover's Bridge" was, remarkably, undisturbed by anyone.
The youths savored the tranquil atmosphere, as if in some gap between the flow of time, engraving an unchanging, eternal scene.
...
After a good while, Dark was the first to speak. "Senior, that experiment you mentioned before..."
Pandora brushed aside a strand of hair and said softly, "A little experiment. I'll call you when it's needed." Dark nodded and asked nothing further.
But Pandora spoke again: "Inside the gemstone you cracked out at the Canteen, a drop of a fire-attribute monster's blood is sealed."
"Could it really be a phoenix?!" Diana's eyes lit up as she exclaimed in delighted surprise.
Pandora said leisurely, "That's not necessarily the case, but since it's one of the rewards the academy specially gives to the champion, that monster's rank won't be low.
Otherwise, a single drop of blood couldn't possibly give off such an intense fire-element resonance. My suggestion is that you go ask a professor directly."
Dark nodded. "Then I'll go ask Professor Kazel tomorrow."
Pandora asked again, "You seem to be on good terms with the professors?"
Dark smiled. "So-so."
Pandora said, "There are indeed benefits to getting on well with the professors, but you also mustn't rely on them too much. I think you can strike a good balance."
Dark: "Of course."
A trace of languor showed in Pandora's eyes, and then she drew in a deep breath, her presence rippling outward as she lifted her spirit along with the air.
She said, "It's getting late. I should go. You all should rest early too."
Then she stepped back a couple of paces, waved at the three of them, and said with a smile, "Good night."
Dark and the other two also waved with smiles. "Good night."
...
"Hey."
After Senior Pandora left, Diana grew lively again, and she declared spiritedly, "So, where to next?"
Dark: "Back to the dormitory."
Diana: "Huh?"
Dark said with a smile, "I mean, we can go sit for a bit in the common room."
Rose took Diana's hand and walked toward the bridgehead with a smile. "Let's go."
The three of them thus returned to the Noble House tower, and after sitting for a while in the common room, they didn't head back to the dormitory until Rose showed obvious signs of drowsiness.
"See you tomorrow, then."
"See you tomorrow."
...
Dark pushed open the door to Room 201, a hint of weariness in his eyes.
Continuous high-intensity magic duels actually took a great toll on a duelist, especially mentally.
After entering, he first summoned the "Magic Guide Scribe," then handed over the entire heavy task of summoning the other Magic Guide Spirits to it, while he himself flopped down onto the bed without any regard for appearances.
Feeling the cool of the bedding pressed against his cheek, he merely dozed for a moment before carelessly drifting off to sleep.
When he jolted awake, he instinctively sat up, only to see that the hour hand of the wall clock had already swept past eleven.
"Eleven o'clock… it's already eleven o'clock!"
Dark was suddenly startled, then instinctively looked all around.
The Magic Guide Spirits, who had been quietly going about their tasks, all turned to look at him.
But after Dark's gaze swept across their faces, he still wore a look of bewilderment.
"Truly, nothing has happened at all..."
"So what did Professor Medea's warning even mean?"
"Or could it be that something really did happen, and I just didn't notice?"
"Or perhaps..."
He sat there pondering for a good while, then suddenly remembered that today was the first day of April, so he mechanically picked up the magic-brain dropper and drew a drop of "Greed" from his mind.
After going through this dueling festival, his "Greed" had indeed grown quite a bit.
"In any case, this month's top priority is to forge "Greed III." Everything else can be put off."
"There are still 2 points of "Greed" stored up from last month, plus today's 1.5 points, that makes 3.5 points."
"To gather the full 10 points, I still need 5 days."
"In other words, I can get to work on the forging next weekend."
...
After drawing it out, Dark injected this drop of "Greed" into the Bug Branch, then sorted through the day's gains, placing the models of DemiDevimon, Gatomon, and the Pure White Dragon Princess on the bookshelf.
As for the Troll's model, that he put in the drawer for now.
After that, he washed up as usual, returned to bed, and before long fell asleep once more.
Perhaps because of the fatigue caused by the duels, or perhaps because they didn't want to wake their master—
tonight the Magic Guide Spirits did not burrow into his covers.
And the "Drifloon," "Leomon," and "Meowth" were, as always, taken into their Magic Guide Cards and then placed on the little rack atop the desk.
"Leomon" sat cross-legged within its Magic Guide Card, not having gone to sleep.
It felt deeply ashamed over the fact that, during today's dueling match, it had nearly been controlled by the "Parasitic Demon Seed," and attributed this to a lack of willpower on its own part.
It clearly possessed an Ultimate Move like the "Heart of Justice," yet it couldn't grant immunity even to this degree of mental interference.
It was truly unworthy of the name "Hero."
Unlike Gatomon, who paid it no mind, "Leomon" actually cared quite a lot about the so-called "Hero Aptitude."
It hoped that it could, in the literal sense, become a true Hero capable of protecting everyone.
But today's experience had proven that it still fell short.
Yet after recognizing its own shortcomings, how was it to make up for them?
Leomon felt lost about this.
Just as it was lost in thought over this, a familiar movement suddenly came from beside it.
A glow rose up on "Drifloon's" Magic Guide Card.
At first it paid no attention.
On nearly every night in the past, Drifloon would slip out from within its Magic Guide Card.
It had long grown used to this.
Until the glow emanating from that Magic Guide Card grew all the more intense!
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