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Everything fell silent.

All eyes were on the thing that Brave raised high up in the air and everyone subconsciously held their breath.

Even without being told anything, they knew how dangerous that moment was.

“Impossible, that’s impossible!” the Golden Demon yelled at the top of her lungs.

The pointer was just one tick away from completing its last rotation. That meant in just less than one second, the powerful bomb that she had planted would have exploded. The Holy Dragon Empire would have been reduced to dust and became history.

This would have greatly affected the neighboring nations and weaken the human’s military performance at the front enough for the demons to overwhelm them. As a result, mankind would have perished.

It would have been a perfect plan, if it was not foiled by this b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ in front of her!

“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲…”

There were all sorts of negative emotions in the Golden Demon’s voice—anger, helplessness, despair, hatred. Even so, she did not let these emotions cloud her judgment at a time like this and responded to the situation in the wisest way possible.

“You better remember this, Brave! I, the Golden Demon Htilil, will definitely come back! By then, you and the rest of you will eventually kneel at my feet and lick my toes! Ahahahaha…! Just wait for it…!”

After saying that, the Golden Demon turned into black mist and vanished.

Brave remained still. He lifted his head and gazed into the distance. He was still shining, as dazzling as a rising sun in everyone’s eyes.

The vice dean seemed like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind.

“You wanted to ask why I didn’t go after her, right?”

The vice dean was slightly surprised, but still said truthfully, “L-Lord Brave… You’re more powerful than that Golden Demon Htilil, why did you not get rid of her once? If you leave her alone, she will definitely come back with bigger trouble.”

“I know, but I can’t go after her.”

His answer stunned the vice dean. “Why?” he asked.

Brave turned his head around and said, “How can I be sure… that this isn’t a trap to lure me away?”

The vice dean fell silent, only feeling the tingling sensation in his nose as tears nearly streamed down his face.

“You… You’re doing this… because of us?”
“I’m doing this for the entire human race.”
Brave swept his gaze over the people who were watching him. “And all of you just happen… to be part of them.”

The vice dean could not speak. He merely looked at Brave, thinking to himself how dazzling the man in front of him was.

Ah, this must be how a real hero looked like.

A real hero… named Brave.

Time ticked away. No one dared to get any closer to Brave, as if they were afraid to tarnish the pure and dazzling light surrounding him.

“Looks like this isn’t a trap. I’ll get going now.”

Brave was about to turn around and leave, when something suddenly struck him.

He turned back and said, “I’ve been inside those Ancient Ruins too.”

“What?”

The vice dean was puzzled by Brave suddenly telling him that.

Was he being sarcastic about the academy’s poor defense because they did not even know someone had gone in?

“No one lives in those ruins. The so-called natives there were not real. Now that the ruins have been destroyed, they naturally cease to exist.”

The vice dean’s eyes went wide.

This…

Could it be…

Brave continued talking, “I even rescued a few… remarkable young ladies from the Golden Demon while I was in there.”

The vice dean’s breath got caught in the throat and cold sweat immediately drenched his forehead.

In that case…

The impostors that they captured were actually…

Brave gave the vice dean a meaningful look, then slowly said, “No one in this world is capable of a flawless disguise, no matter how powerful or skillful that person may be.”

The way Brave said that sounded like he was hinting at something.

The vice dean wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and was about to say something when he suddenly realized that Brave had already left at some point.

He could not help but let out a deep sigh.

“Experts are really unpredictable and always doing things at their own pace.”

Just then, the ground shook violently. A massive dragon climbed out from a pile of rubble. In a blinding white light, he transformed back into a big and scruffy man.

“That person…”

Taylor shook the dust off his body. His injuries were not serious in the first place so they had almost fully recovered by now. He raised his head and looked in the direction where Brave had disappeared, then mumbled to himself, “Why does he seem so familiar? Is it just my imagination?”

……

A group of leaders led by the vice dean of St. Caroline Academy sat on one side of the long table, while a group of youths led by Lesiah sat on the other side.

Naturally, Diana and Durance were absent. After all, they could not possibly find trouble with their own academy. Even so, the aura of those youths sitting across from the vice dean still overpowered him.

Lesiah rested her chin on her hand. Her beautiful eyes swept over the professors standing behind the vice dean and lingered briefly on Professor Marlin.

“So, how are you going to compensate us?” she asked slowly.

The vice dean wiped his cold sweat and stammered nervously, “Since no harm was done… Perhaps we can do without compensation?”

“Well, it is true that there was no harm done to them, but I am the crown princess of the Macedonian Empire.”

Lesiah slammed her hand on the table and shouted, “Me, a princess! Imprisoned for a full seven hours, thirty-five minutes and twenty-four seconds in St. Caroline Academy. Do you think this is not a big deal?”

The vice dean jolted, then shrank in his seat.

He had never felt this small before. Yet there was nothing he could do either. After all, this was the high and mighty princess. He had no choice but to lower his head before her. When he brought this matter up to the emperor, the emperor merely told him to clean up the mess that he started himself.

Now that the victims had come knocking on his door, he must find a way to appease them, especially because one of them was someone important.

At the thought of this, the vice dean could not help but grit his teeth and turned his gaze to Professor Marlin, who was standing nervously at one side…

The vice dean could only let out a long helpless sigh. Well, Professor Marlin’s intention was for the good of the academy. He was just too overly cautious, which was reasonable, considering the given situation earlier.

“What would your royal highness like to suggest?”
“I understand that everything was just a misunderstanding, so just a small punishment would do. After all, I still have a reputation to uphold.”

Lesiah curled a lock of silver hair around her finger and said nonchalantly, “I’ll name my price, let’s go with one hundred million gold coins.”

“One hundred million?!”

The vice dean nearly passed out. The other professors in the room also had an extremely troubled look on their faces.

“Your royal highness, do you know how much funds the central government allocates to my academy annually?”

The vice dean pounded his chest and said, “Fifty million, only fifty million! How can our academy possibly give you the one hundred million you requested?”

Lesiah narrowed her eyes at him. “The academy has a glorious history of a thousand years. How can you not be able to produce only this much money?”

The vice dean shook his head vigorously.

“The so-called glorious history is our students! That has nothing to do with money! In fact, our accounts are in the red almost every year! If it weren’t for the extra income, we wouldn’t even be able to pay our professors’ salaries.”

Upon hearing the vice dean’s confession, Lesiah’s lips immediately curled into a smile. “That’s wonderful…”

“Huh? What did your royal highness say? You were speaking too softly, I didn’t hear that.”

“Ahem.” Lesiah cleared her throat and quickly put on a serious face. “In any case, one hundred million gold coins, not a single gold coin less. I will grant you a month. If you fail to make the payment, then be prepared to resolve this at a diplomatic level.”

After saying that, Lesiah stood up and left. Naturally, the others from her group followed behind her.

The vice dean visibly shriveled and slumped back into his seat with an ashen face.

While he was mulling over how he could gather such an astronomical figure on time, he realized that a petite blonde was still sitting in the seat across from him.

“You’re Lilith, right? Why are you still here?” the vice dean asked curiously.

Lilith smiled sweetly at him.

“As a member of the academy, it is only right for me to stay behind and relieve the academy of its burden.”