"The Match Begins!"

As soon as the match started, Egiir opened a pocket dimension and summoned three skeletons.

Kamibarez curled her right hand like a gun and aimed at Egiir, ready to unleash her 'Blood Stream Bomb'.

"I'm sorry!" she said, even while attacking.

A blood-red magic circle spread from the tip of her index finger, and with a recoil, the Blood Stream Bomb shot out.

"Ah, Egiir has an important feature too," Dick said.

Just before Kamibarez's exploding Blood Stream Bomb hit Egiir, his skeletons blocked the way.

Boom! A bright red explosion erupted, engulfing the surroundings.

Kamibarez shrank her shoulders and watched through the smoke.

[Kamibarez: 100%]
[Egiir: 100%]

There was no damage at all.

As the smoke cleared, three large skeletons holding golden shields revealed themselves.

"Egiir is an incredible rich man," Dick said, brushing his bangs aside.

"He gave his skeletons shields worth hundreds of gold each. Plus, his summoned creatures aren't just any skeletons; they're from the Vanilla brand 'Snowfield Play'."

"Hey! That's a super important feature!"

"Of course, I told Kamibarez about it."

After guarding against the long-range attack with expensive skeletons and shields, Egiir now floated a pitch-black arrow in the air and launched it.

"Ah! Ah!" Kamibarez darted around, trying to dodge the attack.

At that moment, everyone watching the match, young and old, had the same thought. '...

So cute.'

'What’s cute about that?' Although she didn’t get hit, Kamibarez fell to the ground with a pouting face while trying to dodge the last pitch-black arrow.

Egiir changed his mind. 'She moves better than I thought.

I can't catch her with just a pitch-black arrow.'

Egiir withdrew the pitch-black arrow and drew a new magic circle in his palm.

Dick's eyes widened at the sight.

"He's preparing a curse! Kamibarez! Do something!"

Kamibarez gritted her teeth and fired a Blood Stream Bomb in a kneeling position.

However, no matter how explosive the Blood Stream Bomb was, it was just a straightforward attack and was blocked by the skeletons with golden shields.

At this rate, the curse would be completed.

In the end, she also stopped her attack and began to draw a new magic circle.

A tense atmosphere filled the air as both Kamibarez and Egiir prepared their magic circles, leading to a spell duel.

The first to complete the dark magic was Kamibarez.

A carpet made of blood fluttered from her fingertips and surged forward.

"Ugh, this is a blunder! What do you plan to do with such weak magic?" Dick muttered while scratching his head, and Meilin snorted.

"If you can't see it, just trust and watch, you fool."

Kamibarez pulled out three potions she had made in her pocket dimension.

The Blood Silk wrapped around the potion bottles and rushed toward Egiir.

'Something's coming.' Egiir immediately sent his skeletons to swing their swords.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

But perhaps because he wasn’t a summoning major, the control was rough.

The flailing movements couldn’t stop Kamibarez's magic, which slipped away like an eel.

'Just a bit more!' The moment the Blood Silk got close, Egiir barely completed his curse.

A curse shaped like a black lightning bolt shot out from the magic circle.

Kamibarez, who was controlling the Blood Silk, couldn’t dodge and was hit directly by the curse.

However, she continued to control the Blood Silk until the end.

The carpet of blood spread wide and shattered the potions, splattering them all over Egiir's body.

Crash! It happened almost simultaneously.

"......!" Egiir, drenched in potion, tried to move his arms, but his body felt extremely numb. 'Could it be that the potion Kamibarez prepared was a paralysis potion too?' Egiir frowned in confusion, while Kamibarez gasped for breath, her legs trembling.

Both were in a paralyzed state.

'The curse and the potion.

Naturally, the one that breaks first will be the potion.

And above all.' Egiir, sensing victory, stretched out his right arm. 'There are no skeletons left on this side!'

Egiir connected with the thoughts of the skeletons and issued an attack command.

At the same time, he prepared the next Remake Paralyze spell with his left hand.

Kamibarez's judgment in response was, '......

One stack is still okay.

I can move.'

She charged forward.

Egiir's skeletons swung their swords to block her, but Kamibarez lowered her posture to dodge, and for the attacks she couldn’t avoid, she took them head-on and kept running.

'Could it be a close combat?' Egiir urgently stopped the curse and floated a pitch-black arrow in the air.

Kamibarez covered her head with her arms and charged fiercely.

The pitch-black arrows grazed her all over.

[Kamibarez: 58%]
[Egiir: 100%]

'Is she taking all those hits to get in?' Feeling the seriousness of the situation, Egiir hurriedly gathered pitch-black energy into his fist.

He was confident he could hold his own against a small girl like her.

Moreover, they were both in a paralyzed state.

"Ahhh!" However, the moment Kamibarez got right up to him, Egiir realized something was wrong.

Her pupils were slit like a beast's eyes.

With a leap, Kamibarez spread her arms wide and jumped onto Egiir, sticking to him.

Egiir staggered and fell.

"W-what's going on!" A flustered Egiir blushed, while Kamibarez opened her mouth wide, her fangs glinting as she let out a sharp cry.

Snap! Then she bit into Egiir's nape.

Of course, the barrier of the protective suit applied to her nape, so it didn’t hurt.

'What is she doing, biting me?' Egiir pushed Kamibarez's head away with a dumbfounded expression.

But she clung on like a leech and wouldn’t let go.

"Ugh, hey! What are you doing in a sacred duel evaluation...! Huh?"

[Kamibarez: 58%]
[Egiir: 84%]

Just by biting, the gauge was dropping! Egiir, who finally grasped the situation, wrapped pitch-black energy around his fist and struck her head repeatedly.

However, a bluish barrier applied to her, only reducing the gauge without causing any damage.

[Kamibarez: 51%]
[Egiir: 64%]

'......

This is insane!' The gauge was dropping at a crazy speed.

The biting power was no joke.

Flustered, Egiir tried to hit Kamibarez and throw her off, but she wouldn’t back down.

[Kamibarez: 43%]
[Egiir: 21%]

"This is crazy! What the hell is this! Get off!"

With the paralysis effect and her stance being disrupted, he couldn’t put any strength into his punches.

The gauge loss was accelerating rapidly, and finally...

"Match Over!" the referee shouted.

The final results were announced.

[Kamibarez: 37%]
[Egiir: 0%]

"The winner is student Kamibarez!"

Everyone was left speechless by the unexpected turn of events. '...

I lost.' Egiir wore a blank expression.

The moment they both fell into paralysis, he had been confident of victory, but he never expected to be so easily overwhelmed by a single charge.

'In the end, it was my carelessness.

I thought too lightly of it.' Just as Egiir sighed inwardly, Kamibarez, who was biting his neck, carefully pulled away.

'Wait, did I almost get bitten by a vampire?' Egiir felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at Kamibarez.

By now, she was blushing all the way to her earlobes, looking teary-eyed.

"I'm so sorry!" she shouted, bowing her head.

"I'm really sorry! I got too carried away wanting to win...! Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Uh, no."

"Uwaah! I'm really sorry!"

"No, it was a fair duel evaluation, so what’s there to be sorry about? You made a really good judgment."

Suddenly, the loser Egiir found himself comforting the winner Kamibarez.

Laughter erupted from the audience as they witnessed the scene.

Seeing Kamibarez tearfully checking her own wounds, Egiir suddenly felt a warm feeling rising within him. '...

Wow, I didn’t know there was such a cute girl in Kizen.'

As time passed and Kamibarez calmed down, both stood up from their spots.

The staff were cleaning the floor with mops, preparing for the next match.

'Should I say a few words?' Egiir, who wanted to get closer to her, approached Kamibarez cautiously.

"Kamibarez! Are you okay?"

At that moment, a male student’s voice rang out from the audience.

Kamibarez, who had been hiding her face in her palms out of embarrassment, quickly turned her head toward the sound and waved her hand.

"Yes! Simon! I won~!" She jumped up and down, smiling like sunshine.

Then, she turned back to Egiir and gasped, suddenly looking apologetic.

"Ah! I’m sorry! I didn’t even notice you were next to me! I’m so sorry!"

Egiir nodded, assuring her it was fine, while inwardly he felt like crying. '...

Ugh, even though it was a short time, I liked her.'

Meanwhile, the audience was buzzing with discussions about Kamibarez.

"Hahaha! Amazing! Only Kamibarez could win like that in Kizen!" Dick burst out laughing.

Simon added, "The decision to charge while taking all those hits when she was paralyzed was incredible."

"Yeah, I agree! Come to think of it, the paralysis was a strategy for this!"

"Our Kamibarez can really do it when she puts her mind to it!"

Just then, Kamibarez climbed up to the audience, looking very light-hearted.

"Everyone~!" As she bounced over, everyone stood up to welcome her.

"Good job, Kamibarez!" Meilin hugged Kamibarez tightly.

"Ugh, so small and precious~!"

"M-Meilin! I can’t breathe!"

Simon and Dick also approached, laughing loudly as they patted Kamibarez's head and congratulated her.

Thus, all four members of Group 7 achieved an important first victory in the duel evaluation.

They all began their duel evaluations in the intermediate squad.

Now, a happy weekend awaited them tomorrow.

Having been running without a break for so long, Simon thought he would take it easy this weekend, maybe go to the Rochester Necromancer shop for some leisurely window shopping...

"Uh, no time to rest."

Meilin cut him off.

"You know the midterms are next week, right?"

"Uh...?"

When he came to his senses, there was only about a week left until the midterms.

Simon felt like he had been hit on the head, having only focused on the duel evaluations.

Moreover, there was the mission to surpass his summoning class grades that he had confidently told Meilin about.

'This isn’t the time for that.' Simon realized he was in a hurry.

As soon as he returned to the dorm, he tucked his textbooks under his arm and headed to the study room.

'...

Wow.' They say people are all the same.

Even though it was the night after the duel evaluations and the weekend was tomorrow, the spacious study room in the dorm was packed with students.

Everyone was studying in such silence that it felt chilly around them.

Feeling the urgency, Simon quickly took a seat in the last remaining empty spot.

'I'm somewhat confident in summoning studies.

Today, I’ll focus on my weak subjects.' He opened the textbook on dark magic and began to study.

About ten minutes later...

'...

I-I learned this in class, right? Why don’t I understand any of it?' It was different from the summoning magic training he had been doing all along.

Studying alone made the limitations painfully clear.

He needed some kind of countermeasure.

The next morning.

"Yawn."

Meilin, still in her pajamas with a toothbrush in her mouth, was walking down the hallway with a sleepy expression.

'...

What takes her an hour to shower?' It was obvious.

Midterms or not, she was probably off to meet some boys in Rochester.

As Meilin grumbled and headed to the communal bath, a dormitory staff member she knew came running up to her.

"Student Meilin!"

Meilin stopped and turned to her.

"There's a male student waiting for you at the dorm entrance!"

"Y-yes? Who is it this early in the morning?"

"I didn’t catch his name, but he was a cute-looking boy. He said he would wait at the entrance until you come out."

The dormitory staff winked at Meilin as she passed by.

Meilin made a face of disbelief. '...

No, I only know two boys.'

The communal bath was too far away.

Meilin quickly dashed back the way she came to her dorm room.

The bathroom door was still firmly shut.

Meilin kicked the door hard and shouted, "Get out already, you brat! I need to use the bathroom!"

"Ahhh!"

After forcefully chasing her roommate out, Meilin quickly finished her makeup, looking effortlessly beautiful.

Then she threw on her Kizen uniform jacket and dashed out.

A moment later...

"......."

Meilin let out a bewildered smile.

"That cute boy is you?"

Simon scratched his head.

"Who said that?"