Chapter 92: Three Princesses Join the Battlefield [14]
St. Marian’s Castle, if we don’t count the basement whose depths are unknown to most, has a total of nine floors. The area where students take their classes occupies only a small portion of the entire castle.
Even graduates who have spent six whole years in this castle rarely manage to explore all the surface areas shown on the map.
Without events like the masquerade ball, this number would be even smaller.
This was clearly a good opportunity to explore the map.
…
While a large number of students were flooding into the castle,
Under Principal Altair’s accompaniment, the kingdom’s only three princesses also entered the castle.
Princess Eliza, the eldest daughter.
Princess Anna, born three seconds earlier due to an advantage.
And Princess Angie, who lost three seconds and consequently her life.
The three princesses changed into disguising costumes for the masquerade.
Principal Altair expressed concern, “Do you really not need me to accompany you anymore?”
Princess Eliza slightly nodded, “This is a rare chance to relax. I want to walk alone. If possible, please take care of my two younger sisters; they can be quite mischievous.”
Princess Angie, who was trying hard to fit herself into a teddy bear costume, sharply lifted her head and pouted, “Sister, didn’t we agree not to expose my weaknesses in front of outsiders?”
Princess Eliza gently pinched her soft, almost melting face, with a look of indulgence, “Principal Altair isn’t an outsider.”
Angie still puffed out her cheeks.
Anna suddenly reached out and playfully said, “An immature little sister.”
Angie angrily retorted, “You’re the one who’s immature!”
Anna raised her neck proudly like a swan, “I’m the older sister, so I won’t bother with the younger one.”
Just as they were quarreling, Princess Anna suddenly turned and asked, “By the way, Aunt Cynthia, is that detestable Dark Demon here too?”
Principal Altair smiled gently, “Yes, he just enrolled this year. By next year, he’ll be your senior.”
“Really?” Princess Anna seemed to have just remembered something and stiffened, “Then can’t I just skip coming next year?”
Eliza lightly tapped her forehead, “Nonsense. Didn’t you say you wanted to graduate from the same school as your older sister?”
Anna replied, “Times change, oh!”
“Haha, little kid, not thinking about the big picture!”
Angie took the opportunity to put on a costume and ran away, giving her a light smack.
Anna immediately chased after her!
Princess Eliza quickly looked at Principal Altair, “Principal.”
Principal Altair nodded gently. Then, two small Elementals carrying selection cards flew out from beside her, quickly catching up to Anna and Angie.
Princess Eliza slightly relaxed and put on a delicate mask revealing only her nose and mouth, “Then Principal, I’m off too.”
…
In the southwestern part of the castle, on the second floor.
Dark couldn’t shake off Dianna and Rose amidst the crowd, so he had to temporarily travel with them.
Second-year students and above had experience and thus had clear objectives, quickly heading towards various parts of the castle.
First-year students were completely disorganized.
“Dark, should we chase after them?”
Dianna looked anxious, as if she feared someone might snatch away her candy.
Rose also looked toward Dark.
Dark slapped his forehead;
It seems he did indeed need to guide them for a while.
So he patiently said, “Don’t worry, the professors must have prepared plenty of ghosts. At the beginning of the ball, even if you don’t seek them out, they will come to you.”
As he spoke, he pointed upwards.
Dianna suddenly looked up and saw a long-necked hanging ghost descending from the ceiling!
“Woah—”
“Ahh!”
Dianna immediately drew her magic card and excitedly summoned her [Magical Beast: Polar Bear]…
The polar bear landed in a flash of white light and immediately stood on its hind legs, grabbing fiercely at the hanging ghost!
Rose screamed in fright and instinctively grabbed Dark’s arm.
Dianna made a judgment in an instant, grabbing Dark’s other arm.
Caught by both arms, Dark helplessly watched as the polar bear’s claws passed through the ghost’s ethereal body, then the ghost stretched out its blood-red tongue and licked the polar bear’s back viciously.
The polar bear shivered in rage!
“Hehehe!”
The hanging ghost laughed, repeatedly teasing the polar bear with its tongue, never tiring.
And the polar bear acted like a kitten chasing butterflies…
A pure physical attacker like the polar bear and a ghost were a terrible match.
Even a one-star hanging ghost tormented them greatly.
Finally, Rose gathered her courage and summoned [Magical Beast: Snow Rabbit], sending it to the sky with a burst of ice mist.
After the ghost vanished, a piece of candy fell down.
Liberated, Dark bent down to pick up the candy, peeling off the wrapper with a hint of suspicion.
The candy itself appeared to be ordinary toffee, but the wrapper was intricately engraved with fine patterns.
Dark realized, “So the wrapper is the actual thing!”
Seeing his delighted expression, Dianna asked, “Dark, did you find something?”
Dark initially wanted to throw away the toffee wrapped in the paper, but seeing Dianna staring at him, he held onto the wrapper and handed over the toffee.
“Ahhh!”
Dianna bit into the toffee.
Only then did Dark carefully examine the wrapper.
“It’s a disposable magic card, presumably pre-charged with mana, lasting until midnight.”
Dark was very interested in this craftsmanship, so he carefully stored the wrapper.
“Let’s go, continue.”
…
Half an hour later.
The trio crossed paths on the second floor.
Dark reached out to wipe the cream off Dianna’s lips and collected the thirteenth wrapper.
Most of the ghosts encountered were one-star or two-star, some dropping toffee, others apple candy, and others a small slice of pumpkin pie… all wrapped in exquisite wrappers.
“What a peculiar treat for the ball.”
After finishing the last bite of pumpkin pie, Dark said to Dianna and Rose, “Next, let’s split up. Hmm, let’s meet in the grand hall on the first floor in five hours.”
Dianna obediently replied, “Okay, see you at the ball!”
Rose also smiled, “Don’t worry about us.”
During this half-hour, Dark barely intervened, mostly guiding Dianna and Rose in catching ghosts.
Unbeknownst to them, the two had climbed to the top 12 rankings in the first-year noble academy.
It seemed that even though they were handling low-level ghosts that popped up along the way, their progress was faster than many others.
As for Dark himself, he remained at +0.
…
Though Dark himself didn’t care, there seemed to be someone in a corner of the castle always keeping an eye on his ranking.
Wit ranked third in the first-year knight academy. Seeing that Dark’s name wasn’t on the ranking list of the first-year noble academy, he became even more excited.
“We need to keep working hard, Robert!”
“Alright!”
