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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“Hey Michelle. Are you okay?”
Isabell asked worriedly, as she followed the intermediate class group led by Roerte.
However, Michelle herself remained calm.
“What do you mean?”
“Well… that guy from the intermediate class spoke so rudely to you.”
Charlotte, Isabell, and Lotten, who had followed Michelle, were actually more concerned about Michelle’s reaction.
“I don’t care”
Michelle answered sincerely.
Honestly, no matter what words were used to belittle or taunt her, she wasn’t particularly bothered.
One demonstration was worth more than a hundred words.
That was enough.
Would Michelle be vulgar, as Roerte suggested?
Michelle knew very well that this was absolutely not the case.
That’s why she remained indifferent.
However.
‘He’s a bit cunning.’
‘He must have observed my condition thoroughly.’
He must have noticed to some extent while watching the training process.
That Michelle’s body was unstable.
Moreover, even now, wasn’t the time she spent in the failing class extending minute by minute, second by second?
He had noticed.
Michelle Meinens wasn’t staying in the failing class for a simple reason.
Moreover, the Meinens family was undoubtedly a prestigious one.
Roerte didn’t insult Michelle because he disrespected the Meinens family.
Rather, he must have said it precisely because he knew too well how great they were.
Could Michelle immediately take offense at the insulting remarks?
No, she couldn’t.
It was actually advantageous for Michelle not to do so.
She wasn’t currently showing a demeanor befitting the status of the Meinens family, so if she made the issue public, Michelle would be the one to lose.
It would only highlight the fact that Michelle was staying in the failing rank.
Then the duel with Hamila would be mentioned again.
That in itself would tarnish the reputation of the Meinens family…
‘So I have no choice but to do this directly.’
If they challenged her to a contest, she had no choice but to win on her own merit.
She wouldn’t use her family’s status to suppress them.
She was Michelle Meinens, after all.
She would definitely become the next head of the Meinens family.
If she won this contest, she would punish them directly.
She would shame them directly.
Accomplishing such a feat would be befitting of the next family head, and it was necessary.
At that moment, Laertes and his group, walking far ahead, came to a stop.
“I wondered where you were taking us that was so great, leaving the academy grounds. Was it this?”
Michelle frowned.
“I’d say this is quite impressive, Michelle”
Roerte said with a wicked grin.
‘A dungeon.’
What laid before the students was a cave filled with an ominous aura.
Following this would lead to a dungeon.
While dungeons were proven to help improve magical abilities, they were also proven to be extremely dangerous.
Naturally, entering without a supervising professor was a violation of academy regulations.
Michelle’s expression soured.
“I have no intention of violating academy rules.”
“It’s not a violation. You have your principal’s master card, don’t you?”
“Hmm.”
Michelle let out a low hum, but Laertes’ words weren’t entirely wrong.
The failing class always used the master card to access the training grounds, and he seemed to have observed this.
“How will we determine the winner?”
“Whoever reaches the teleportation magic circle at the end of this dungeon first wins. How about it? Simple, right?”
“Wait.”
Michelle turned around to look at her group. Charlotte, Isabelle, Lotten, and Tia.
‘Tia?’
Come to think of it, why did she follow us all the way here?
She must have followed Charlotte again.
“The sign in front of the dungeon says it’s a low-level dungeon. I think it’s quite doable, but what do you all think?”
“I absolutely want to do it,” Charlotte answered.
Although she had avoided fights due to her promises with Adrian, Charlotte also harbored a strong dislike for the intermediate class.
But if it wasn’t a contest where they beat each other up, it seemed perfectly fine.
She couldn’t help but want to do it.
If it was a low-level dungeon, it wouldn’t take much time to clear either.
It wouldn’t significantly interfere with their training time for today.
They just thought of it as having a little less break time.
“What about the rest?”
The others nodded in agreement.
With this, it was decided.
Michelle approached Laertes.
“We’ve decided. We’ll do it.”
“That’s more like it.”
Roerte nodded, looking extremely pleased.
He pointed his index finger at the cave entrance.
The cave entrance was divided into two holes, like nostrils.
“As you can see, there are two entrances. We can enter separately. Which side do you want? I’ll let you choose first.”
“Then, the left.”
“Alright, alright.”
Roertes’ eyes scanned Michelle’s legs once.
“You go first~ Your legs seem to be in bad shape, so I’ll give you that much of a head start.”
“Don’t complain later.”
Michelle coldly retorted and entered the left entrance of the dungeon first.
Tia scratched her cheek for a moment before following with quick steps.
Laertes and his group watched the entire scene with malicious smiles.
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“Good, good~ Things are working out too easily”
Roerte stretched, seeming relieved.
“Wow. I didn’t think they’d fall for it so easily. I heard the failing rank students haven’t even seen much of the academy, but I guess it’s true. How can they not tell the difference between a high-level dungeon and a low-level one?”
“Exactly.”
In reality, this dungeon wasn’t a low-level one, but a high-level dungeon.
Roerte and his group had cleverly replaced the sign beforehand.
At Rahel Academy, the failing class was like that.
They were completely cut off from interactions with other classes and lived like an isolated island.
In other words, it was a class that was hard to hate even if you wanted to because there was no chance of even encountering them.
Originally, they would have never crossed paths for the rest of their lives.
It would have been better if they had just continued not meeting, but why did they have to overlap with the intermediate class and act so annoyingly?
That’s why they were being treated this way.
At least, that’s what Laertes thought.
“But Roerte,” his twin sister Roel asked worriedly.
“What will you say if things go wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“If they get seriously injured, won’t we be in trouble too?”
“What wouldn’t those desperate failing class losers do? They even have their master card. We can just say they recklessly used the master card trying to quickly improve their magical abilities.”
“I see…”
Roel nodded.
“But shouldn’t we do something too? After all, we agreed to a contest. What are we going to do about that?”
“Roel.”
“Yes?”
“We recently completed a dungeon field trip, right?”
“That’s true. Though it was a mid-level dungeon.”
Roerte smiled slyly.
“We have the loot we collected then, don’t we? We can just stay near the entrance and then come out. We can make it look like we cleared this place too. Easily.”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that. They probably haven’t even experienced clearing a dungeon anyway.”
“Exactly. You only see as much as you know, right?”
A subtle smile appeared on the faces of the intermediate class group.
“Well, putting that aside, your point was really valid, Roel. They might actually die. This high-level dungeon is classified as very dangerous.”
“What’s in there that makes it so dangerous?”
Roel tilted her head.
“You must have heard about it. It’s that dungeon rumored to have real demons. The failing class students are really something. How can they be the only ones not to know about such rumors?”
“Ah, was it the rumor about vampires?”
“Exactly. Given that it’s a high-level dungeon, it must be at least a high-rank vampire, right?”
“A high-rank vampire… Just hearing about it gives me chills.”
“Who cares, it’s them who’ll face it, not us. Shall we get moving too?”
Laertes and his group started moving with light steps.
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“N-now that we’re actually inside, I’m getting nervous…”
As they walked through the dark passage, Isabel kept looking around nervously.
Thanks to Charlotte’s incantation, it wasn’t difficult to illuminate the area, but the dungeon’s atmosphere itself was gloomy nonetheless.
“Don’t be scared. Dungeons are ultimately meant to enhance a magician’s abilities.”
There was no particular standard principle for how dungeons were created.
That’s why they were classified as anomalies, but at the same time, that’s why they were considered challenging places for many magicians.
Michelle maintained a calm expression to prevent the others from getting scared.
In fact, she wasn’t very afraid.
It was just a low-level dungeon after all.
As expected of a low-level dungeon, there were no traps or sudden appearances of magical beasts.
“But for a low-level dungeon, it’s extraordinarily long. We’ve been walking for at least a few hours.”
No student disagreed with Lotten’s words.
Despite walking for hours, there was still no end in sight.
The failing class students, who absolutely had to win this contest, couldn’t help but feel impatient.
But as they say, speak of the devil and he shall appear. It was then.
“Oh? I think it’s the end.”
The long passage finally came to an end.
What finally appeared was a wide space like the training ground inside the academy.
Hope dawned on the faces of the group.
“We’ve finally arrived!”
It was a strange space that wasn’t dark, as if light existed, even without using an incantation magic.
The students immediately spread out to examine various parts of the space.
“Where could the teleport magic circle be?”
If they could find that first, this contest would be over.
Looking at the side of the passage they had come through, there was another passage that was still quiet.
What could this mean?
The failing class had arrived first!
Paaah—!
But at that moment, suddenly, a red barrier inscribed itself on the passage they had come through.
It was a barrier originating from black magic.
“Black magic…?”
Just as Michelle muttered this.
Suddenly, an androgynous voice was heard.
It was a voice that evoked an uncanny valley feeling.
It felt even more unpleasant, as if it was whispering right next to their ears.
“W-what?”
“What is it?”
Lotten and Isabel shouted, but Charlotte and Michelle knew.
This aura was identical to when they encountered demons in the training ground.
It was that aura they felt when they faced vampires!
“Everyone, stay calm. Don’t make a fuss and look around.”
Michelle advised, but it didn’t seem to have much effect.
“T-the sin of pride?”
Charlotte muttered in confusion.
Having lost her parents to demons, she had studied books about demons quite thoroughly.
If it was a sin, wasn’t that classified as one of the highest ranks among demons?
Swoosh!
Finally, it revealed itself, spreading what looked like giant bat wings.
The students froze in place, terrified. In their sight was the figure of a vampire spreading its enormous wings, gliding through the air.
And just as it seemed about to pounce on them.
Its eyes met with Pertel’s, who was next to Charlotte.
‘What’s this one doing here?’
Pertel tilted her head sideways.
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