Leave a comment

“Did you guys hear something?”

Lilith’s beloved martial niece, President Diana of the Disciplinary Committee, was wandering about in a lush forest. She had a ball of low-level light spell floating in her palm to illuminate the dark forest path.

She had four other companions with her this time. Each grasping on their weapon tightly as they ventured into the forest cautiously.

The arrangement in Professor Marlin’s proposed plan was to form a small group that comprised three warriors and two mages. However, Diana’s group greatly differed from the rest. Apart from her, everyone else was a warrior. Professor Marlin must have reckoned that Diana could play the role of two mages. Hence, he didn’t allocate another mage to her group since there weren’t enough of them to go around.

The proud warriors from seventh year surrounded Diana, like she was their leader.

There were only two reasons why Diana could boss everyone around in the academy for so long — one because she was the president of the Disciplinary Committee and the second because her master was someone important in the academy.

A capable-looking female warrior promptly responded when she heard Diana’s question, “I think I did. But then again, there’s quite a lot of weird noises in this forest. It’s hard to identify what exactly it is.”

“Is that so? Let me scout ahead first, don’t let your guards down.”

“Right.”

The warriors stopped walking and formed a circle of defense with the president in the middle.

Diana shut her eyes. A beam of green light extended from the soles of her feet. Everywhere it passed through, the plants would gently sway like they were nodding approvingly at Diana. At the same time, they also looked like they were lowering their head to her in submission.

The plants became Diana’s most trusted spies. None of the things that were going on in this forest could escape Diana’s eyes.

All of a sudden, rustling noises were heard. A few venomous red snakes as long and as thin as chopsticks came shooting out from the shrubs.

Then there was the flash of a sword. The venomous snakes were instantly chopped up into a few dozen pieces.

The female warrior who performed this exquisite sword technique sheathed her sword. She cast a glance at the writhing remains of the venomous snakes and snorted coldly, “There aren’t a lot of powerful creatures in these ancient ruins, but there seem to be a lot of these common beasts.”

Despite saying that, the female warrior still kept her guard up. As St. Caroline Academy’s small but most elite group, staying vigilant was an important skill that they picked up in their earliest days.

A few seconds later, Diana frowned and then opened her eyes.

“How was it?”

Everyone felt rather anxious looking at the expression on Diana’s face. They were wondering if something bad was going to happen.

“No need to worry. We’re not in danger, but…”
“But what?”

Before Diana could answer, the sounds of heavy breathing came from somewhere nearby. And this time, everyone heard it clearly. The warriors exchanged looks with each other, then discreetly switched into their battle formation.

Diana shook her head instead. “It’s alright, they’re not enemies.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a few pathetic-looking people appeared out from the bushes ahead. They were none other than Coleman and the others who escaped last night.

Upon realizing that they had bumped into their allies, Coleman quickly scrambled over to Diana’s group. He fell to the ground and was panting heavily. It would seem like they were extremely exhausted.

Diana’s countenance remained unchanged as she waited for them to recover. “If memory serves, you guys are Princess Lesiah’s guards right? Why are you here? Where is the princess?”

“The princess…”

Coleman and the others had a grim look on their faces. Diana couldn’t help but frown at their response.

“Don’t tell me you guys ran into Golden Demon Htilil?”
“Yes, we did.”

Coleman’s eyes reddened and he clenched his fist in frustration, his fingers digging deep into the dirt. He gritted his teeth like a cornered animal. “Not only that, her royal highness…”

……

……

Somewhere in this small world, troops dedicated to exterminating Golden Demon Htilil were gathered in one of the naturally formed huge caves. Everyone surrounded a huge stone table that was hurriedly created through earth magic.

“What?! Princess Lesiah is in captivity?!”

A handsome blonde guy rubbed his temple. “We barely made any progress in Golden Demon Htilil’s hunt and now the enemy has gained another upper hand. And if that Golden Demon really isn’t human as these people have claimed…”

Ding, ding, ding.

“Then we are indeed in grave danger…”

Diana looked at the blonde guy in front of her. “Do you have any idea, senior Durance?”

“I’m very sorry.”

Aneva Durance, the blonde guy who was also the best among seventh year students in St. Caroline Academy, shook his head. “Not off the top of my head.”

Ding, ding, ding.

“I see. Seems like things are getting messier.”

Diana rested her chin on her hand.

“My master has ordered me to kill Golden Demon Htilil with my own hands. Before I even get to her, she has already gained another hostage from our side. Worst of all, that hostage isn’t someone we could just ignore given her identity. How troublesome.”

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

“So even the Great Durance, who is also known as the Golden Flash of St. Caroline, have no idea on how to handle this situation either?”

A tough-looking man with a black behemoth badge adorned on his black uniform sitting across from Durance couldn’t stop a sarcastic remark from rolling off his tongue, “Your marvelous performance from two years ago is still fresh in my memory.”

Durance shook his head with a smile. “I am merely a little stronger than you. I’m not that great.”

At the mere age of ten, Durance was named the next successor by Count Aneva. When he was thirteen, he became the youngest swordsman in the family. By the time he was fifteen, he managed to defeat all his seniors in the academy. As a result, he was crowned the Golden Flash of the academy.

At the age of seventeen, St. Caroline Academy became the champion in the inter academy competitions for two consecutive years under his leadership. Even in St. Caroline Academy where talented individuals gathered, he rose above others. It was safe to say that there wasn’t anyone who didn’t know who he was.

Although no one knew why the Aneva family was suddenly oppressed by multiple powerful parties and was reduced to the point where they had to resort to political marriages to secure their foothold, none of these could stop him from shining brilliantly.

He was the polar opposite of his younger brother, Durango, who only knew how to fool around all day.

The person who just made that sarcastic remark was none other than the Macedonian Military Academy’s representative, Marco Rosdell.

Rosdell was beaten by Durance in the final moment of that competition. Everyone else thought that Durance had beaten him fair and square, but only Rosdell himself knew how insidious the sword that was hidden in his opponent’s left sleeve at the time.

Rosdell still couldn’t get over that incident until now, so it was only natural that his hostility toward Durance would show.

Upon hearing the blond’s words, Rosdell couldn’t help but sneer. “Drop the act. You’re nothing but a coward at critical moments like these.”

“Is that so? Well, why would I be worried? After all, it’s not our princess who is missing.”

“You..!”

As the tension between the two grew, Diana quickly stood up to interrupt. “Enough, this is not the time to bicker. This is ser-…”

Ding, ding, ding.

“This is serious business. We have to figure out a way…”

Ding, ding, ding.

“Figure out a way to rescue Princess Lesiah and defeat…”

Ding, ding, ding.

“Defeat that Golden Demon, then…”

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

SLAM!

Diana finally snapped at the constant interruptions. She slammed her fist on the table and yelled at the hundreds of hardworking workers in the depths of the cave.

“YOU GUYS FROM THE LUMINOUS THEOCRACY! I HAVE ENOUGH OF YOU!”

“Sorry, sorry, we’ll try to be quiet.”

“Quiet my a̲s̲s̲! This is the first time in my life I’ve seen someone coming to the Ancient Ruins to mine! And not only that, there are hundreds of you doing it together! Don’t you all have anything better to do?!”