Inside the dimly lit classroom, flesh and tentacles crawled from places no one could see.

  Marcelline and the other students didn't know what they had just woken up.

  Eyes grew on the walls. On the floor. On the ceiling. Blinking. Watching. Hungry.

  The students were lucky the room was too dark for them to see such horror. But the air grew heavy, smelling of ozone and old blood.

  Elira took a step.

  "Do you think you can go against me?" Marcelline shouted, oblivious to the shadows stretching toward her ankles.

  Elira took another step.

  "See! This is what you get when you dare to cross me!"

  Calm down.

  Not here.

  Not now.

  The tentacles writhed in protest. They wrapped around a wooden desk in the darkness. They squeezed so hard the wood turned to dust and splinters instantly. But no sound escaped. The magic devoured the noise just as it wanted to devour the students.

  No one noticed.

  Finally, Elira reached Arlen's body.

  There were wounds all over him. Bruises. Cuts. But his chest was rising.

  He was alive.

  They were really, really lucky that he was still alive.

  Elira picked Arlen up effortlessly. The insults, the glares, the laughter... it was all just background noise to her. The only thing Elira cared about was getting Arlen to the infirmary.

  With each step Elira took toward the exit, the flesh and tentacles shrank back into the corners. By the time Elira walked out of the classroom, the monsters were gone, retreating back into her nightmares.

  "..."

  "..."

  "Achoo!"

  A student sneezed, breaking the silence. "Is this room always this dusty?"

  What would you do in a time like this, Arlen?

  Elira sat next to the white bed, her hand gripping Arlen's cold hand. Her eyes were fixed on his peaceful, sleeping face. The nurse had healed his physical wounds, but he still hadn't woken up.

  From afar, the school nurse watched them with worried eyes.

  The nurse was a veteran. She had gone to war before. She had seen many monsters on the battlefield. She knew what a killer looked like.

  And just now, sitting in that chair, Elira reminded her of those monsters.

  Each Brand Magic was one of a kind. The pinnacle of its field. But not all fields of magic were dangerous. The nurse had assumed Elira’s Brand Magic was something academic or harmless, considering how much she got bullied.

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  She was wrong.

  The girl seemed much more dangerous than any student here. Perhaps even more dangerous than the teachers.

  The nurse could only lament in her heart, wishing that Princess Marcelline wouldn't go too far. For the Princess's own sake.

  "As expected of you, Princess Marcelline. You put those losers back in their place."

  "Yeah, I still remember the look on her face! Hahaha."

  In the cafeteria, Marcelline enjoyed her luxurious lunch while listening to her lackeys bootlicking.

  Thinking about what she did, a smirk formed on her face. But beneath the smirk, there was something ugly. Jealousy.

  "That girl... who does she think she is?" Marcelline stabbed her fork into her steak. "She is just a lucky peasant. A rat that got her Brand Magic on a whim of the Mana."

  She looked at her hand, clenching it.

  "I am the Princess. I have the bloodline. I have the training. Yet the Mana blessed that filth with a Brand before me? It is a cosmic joke."

  "You are right, Princess! She doesn't deserve it!"

  "She is probably cheating somehow. Or maybe her magic is trash, that is why she never uses it."

  The cafeteria doors swung open.

  The noise died down.

  Elira entered. She didn't look at the floor today. She didn't hug the walls. She walked straight toward the center table.

  Marcelline’s smile grew wider when she saw Elira approaching.

  "Look who we have here. Done taking care of your boyfriend?" Marcelline leaned back, crossing her arms. "Did he cry when he woke up? Or is he still—"

  Thwack.

  Elira pulled a leather glove from her pocket and threw it. It slapped across Marcelline's face with a sharp crack.

  Silence descended on the cafeteria. Absolute silence.

  "Princess Marcelline," Elira said, her voice cold and steady. "I hereby challenge you to a duel tomorrow."

  Marcelline’s smile dropped. Her eyelid twitched.

  She wanted to scream. She wanted to order her lackeys to beat this girl to death right here. But in front of hundreds of students, she couldn't lose her composure. She had an image to maintain.

  "You have guts," Marcelline hissed, standing up. "If you want to get humiliated before the whole school that much, then I will grant your wish."

  "Noon. The Arena," Elira said.

  She turned around and walked away.

  The sun rose. A new day arrived.

  Elira rose from her bed after a sleepless night.

  On her way to the infirmary, everyone kept glancing at her. Elira could hear their murmurs. They were talking about how crazy she was. They were placing bets on how fast she would lose.

  Elira couldn't care less about what they thought. She kept walking.

  She opened the infirmary door. The nurse didn't react. She kept her eyes glued to the book she was reading, though Elira didn’t notice that the nurse's hands were shaking lightly.

  Elira sat next to Arlen's bed. He was still in a coma.

  She just sat there in silence, staring at his face.

  I hope our preparations work.

  But don't worry.

  I will win.

  I have to. For you... and for me.

  "Are you ready to get your ass beaten in front of the academy?"

  Marcelline stood on the other side of the arena. She was decked out in battle garments: enchanted leather, reinforced steel pauldrons, and a staff tipped with a high-grade mana crystal. It was the best gear money could buy.

  "..."

  Elira stood there in her standard school uniform. No armor. No staff. Just her hands.

  If killing didn't have such grave consequences, I would have killed you a thousand times already.

  Elira came here to fight. That meant she would use her cursed power if she had to. She pushed the monster down, but kept the door unlocked.

  The referee stepped between them, raising a hand.

  "The duel is between Princess Marcelline and Student Elira! The rules are standard! No killing. No permanent curses. No maiming!"

  The crowd cheered.

  The referee swung his hand down.

  "BEGIN!"