“Damn it, this lady…”
Facing Xiliya, who held her staff with an expressionless face, Mira, panting and somewhat disheveled, closed her eyes and bit her lip in reluctance.
Was she really going to be eliminated so early here? No way! Without even passing, how could she face her family…?
Mira had some confidence in her own strength at first, but after clashing with Xiliya, she dejectedly realized that she was outmatched in both power and combat experience. In the end, she could only flee in embarrassment—until her magic power was depleted and Xiliya cornered her in a dead end.
But Mira trembled as she waited a long time, yet the Teleportation Magic Device still didn’t activate. She cracked her eyes open slightly and discovered that Xiliya had already walked far away.
“What the heck! Are you messing with me?!”
Mira froze, her face flushing red as the fear of Xiliya from moments ago vanished. The indignant young lady puffed up her cheeks and chased after her.
“What, or would you rather I blast you out and eliminate you?”
Xiliya glanced back at Mira, who shrank her neck in fright.
Xiliya had originally wanted to use this chance to get revenge on Mira, but upon second thought, Mira hadn’t done anything excessive to her in this lifetime. Bullying her first might earn her a grudge.
Besides, with Mira now being her roommate, after some deliberation, Xiliya just beat her up once and let it go.
The fight with Mira hadn’t taken much time, so she could still hurry to the barrier’s edge. Xiliya thought to herself and quickened her pace.
…
Not long after, Xiliya couldn’t hold back anymore. She turned around with a dark expression and looked at Mira, who had been closely following behind her.
“Are you determined to get eliminated by me? Why are you sticking to me?”
“It’s just that…” Mira fidgeted a bit. “The exam rules don’t say anything about not teaming up…”
“Do you think our relationship is good enough for an alliance? Besides, my goal isn’t a high score. Following me won’t help you.”
“But… but after fighting you for so long, my magic power is all used up. If I don’t stick with you and a magic beast jumps out, I’ll still get eliminated…”
Xiliya: “…”
Mira’s face turned red as she finally spoke the truth. It was embarrassing, but she had already gone all out in the fight with Xiliya and couldn’t win. She hadn’t expected Xiliya to be this strong! Now her magic reserves were completely empty.
Xiliya rubbed her temples with a headache and finally gave up on shooing Mira away.
“Fine, follow if you want.”
With that, Xiliya turned and walked off. The memory of Mira picking on her in her previous life was still fresh; not blasting her away right then was already Xiliya being nice.
Mira pouted at her back… What a disagreeable person.
This made Mira think of the new task Melrose had given her a couple of days ago—after school started, if the chance arose, she should deliberately pick a fight with Ximo.
Mira knew Melrose’s plan: simple good cop, bad cop to win Ximo over. She just didn’t know what had caught Melrose’s eye about that little maid… But now, Mira felt that if she messed with Ximo, Xiliya might rush over from eight hundred miles away to beat her to death.
Mira hadn’t wanted to follow through with that task anyway, but considering how she’d recently botched the auction task from Melrose… she really didn’t dare refuse.
“What’s there to worry about? We might not even run into a magic beast. We haven’t seen a single one so far…”
Halfway through, Xiliya suddenly stopped in place, and Mira nearly crashed into her from behind.
“What’s up? Why’d you stop suddenly?”
“…Yeah, magic beasts—why haven’t we seen a single one?”
Xiliya frowned, sensing something wrong.
Logically, the Mist Forest had plenty of magic beasts, and as an exam venue, the barrier should have enough for students to hunt.
But up to now, aside from the magic puppet and Rift Sky Leopard at the start, despite all the noise she and Mira had made in the woods, they hadn’t encountered another magic beast?
And even if the magic beasts were hiding, what about the magic puppets the academy had deployed? Those were placed in the forest specifically for the exam, yet they hadn’t seen a single one in half a day?
This wasn’t right.
Normally, Xiliya wouldn’t care about such vague details, but knowing an accident would happen during the exam made this abnormality feel suspicious.
“Do you have enough left to cast a spell?”
“Huh? My magic power’s recovered a tiny bit. If it’s just a simple spell…”
“Then buff yourself with [Agility] and keep up. I’m going to start hunting magic beasts now.”
Mira blinked. Hadn’t Xiliya just said her goal wasn’t a high score? Why was she hunting magic beasts now?
Could it be… this Xiliya was actually a tsundere who said one thing and meant another?
—
Outside the barrier, Jackson and his two cronies appeared in the Teleportation Array, cursing under their breath. Jackson’s face was liver-colored with rage as he slammed his staff onto the ground.
“Didn’t expect a student to get eliminated so quickly this year.”
The Principal, sipping tea nearby, seemed unfazed by the scene.
“Teacher Shirley, how’s the exam going?”
“Well…”
Shirley, holding the teacher terminal, operated it for a moment, her face twisting into a strange expression.
“Principal, something seems off.”
“Hm?”
Shirley Teacher handed the terminal to the Principal. It recorded all students’ real-time scores, but after half a day, nearly three-quarters of the students still had zero points.
Even the top-ranked ones hadn’t exceeded double digits.
The Principal frowned slightly. This was odd. In past years, after half a day, top students could have fifty points, and others at least some.
Everyone at zero meant… the magic beasts in the forest were gone.
“And no data’s coming back from the magic puppets we deployed earlier,” Instructor Shasta added from the side. “This doesn’t feel right. Should we pause the exam, Principal?”
