"Give him a second chance. I know he can do better." The voice echoes in my head.

It's Aratsuki talking softer than usual, trying to convince the Captain.

No. Someone else.

The Dean? When did he get there?

The pictures are blurry, then go completely dark, and the next thing I know is I'm in my room again, tucked in bed.

I passed out at the practice.

At the very beginning, before finishing the first task.

How pathetic can you be?

And how did I get back to the dorms?

Don't tell me the Knights carried me here. How many girls saw me?

My first reaction waking up is to pull the sheets over my head, trying to hide.

But the sheet has none of it. Someone rips it from my hands, and her cackle forces my eyes open.

"Who—" I don't need to focus.

Big crimson eyes float right ahead, filling my entire vision.

They look like hellfire, the iris is alive, shifting like flames, staring into me, and I wake up with a start.

"That was quite the show, Maxwell Baker." Her voice is deep, her words flow like smoke.

It's soft but menacing as if it could suffocate me without trying. A chill runs down my spine.

It's the girl with the pinkish skin, but it's much darker now, and her hood doesn't cover her face.

Her long black hair is darker than the deepest well at night, and she has a pair of horns.

There are no questions about it, and I want to yell, to warn everyone, but no sound leaves my throat.

I'm already under her spell and she only stares at me with those red eyes.

The sorceress, Greed in the flesh. How did she walk in here?

And I don't mean my room, the entire Academy. All she did was hide her horns.

She put on the hood and made her skin paler.

"How come nobody noticed? Is that what you want to ask, Maxwell Baker?"

Her lips are almost white, stretching into a suggestive grin.

"People only see what they want to see."

That's not an explanation, but she smirks. Her looks change even as I stare at her, petrified and stunned.

Her hair loses color, turns dark orange, and then shapes itself into twin buns.

Her face gets paler, freckles dotting her nose, and it becomes sharper.

The only parts that don't change are the crimson eyes, but the rest is a perfect copy of Aratsuki.

"She's who you want to see? The Princess Knight. Of course." She looks into a mirror before changing back, her skin becoming an even darker red than before.

It's unsettling and beautiful.

I have so many questions, but she won't let me talk. I'm under her spell, she could kill me with a blink, and she doesn't even have to tell me. It's all in her eyes, and it burns into my brain.

"Tell me, Maxwell Baker, why did all the Knights protect you in that strange world? Is it because you took them there? And how did you summon me against my will?" Her lips no longer move.

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All her questions appear inside my head, and the answers surface from a sea of thoughts even if I try to resist.

Are these her powers? Of course, they are. She's the main bad guy after all.

"So that's how you see me? That's what the people of this world want to see. But you're not part of it. And you were able to drag these people into another world and back. Interesting."

My head is in chaos.

What is she doing? How is she doing it? And what's most important, why?

Should I wreck my brain about these things, or empty my mind, so she can't read it?

"Oh, feel free to struggle, Maxwell Baker. It's more fun to get what I need while you fight. But I'll get what I want either way, that's why they call me Greed." Her smile is stunning and deadly.

Well, good luck getting anything out of me. It's not like I know how I do these Dive things, or what they are. The only thing I'm sure about is that the spell that starts it doesn't exist here.

Everything I know comes from Aratsuki, and I'm still undecided. Should I trust her words?

The demon's smile widens. Shit. I thought about Aratsuki and now she knows who to attack next.

"Ah, no, the Princess Knight is too much hassle. I couldn't suppress her with a single glance as I do with weaklings like you. But your connection to her is interesting." Her voice is unshakeable.

"So you can only get out of this place if she falls in love with you. How adorable. And you lied that the goal is to become stronger than her. Oh, sorry, she calls it the Trigger. Hmm, hmm."

She extracts everything she wants from me and more, and I don't even move my mouth.

No. It's more accurate to say, I can't move my mouth, even if I want to scream and warn the others.

And the more I struggle, the wider her grin becomes. She's having a blast, this evil demoness.

To rub salt into my injury, she replays the embarrassing scene of me collapsing in the morning.

I can see the same event from many new angles, including mine, hers, Aratsuki's, and the Captains.

She reveals their thoughts too. Annoyance, disappointment, panic, shame.

"That was a hilarious way to introduce yourself. I pity you, Maxwell Baker. I want to help you clear that trigger to make up for it. It's too bad, it's not as easy to overwrite Aratsuki's feelings as yours."

Then the spell is over, and I'm back in control of my body.

I gasp for air as she jumps off my bed, the hood back on her head, and her skin turns lighter pink again.

She walks out of my room.

My mind is blank, and I'm even more tired than when I collapsed earlier.

Where am I? How did I get here? What happened a moment ago?

"Give him a second chance. I know he can do better."

Aratsuki's sweet voice echoes in my head, and I've no idea what she meant by that.