"Um, they're in here," Luu said as she pointed to the door in front of herself, Lone, and Professor Dana which led to a private arena.

Lone raised an eyebrow. "You're allowed to use these subspace arenas for personal use?"

Professor Dana nodded. "There's a fee, but it's pretty small. It's fairly common for students to rent them out after classes are over or on the weekends. They restore themselves when damaged so they're good places to test your abilities unrestricted."

"Huh. I suppose that makes sense," Lone responded as he stroked his chin.

Luu kept one of her two tails close to her chest as she opened the door and stepped inside. Lone and Professor Dana quickly followed after her.

"Lone!" Of course, Soph immediately sensed his mana the moment he stepped into the sub-dimensional arena, so she bolted towards him.

Sighing and smiling helplessly, Lone swished a few of his tails to his front which Soph promptly collected up into her arms.

"I missed you," she mumbled through the fluffy fur that was covering her face.

Luu was beyond embarrassed by this display of affection, as were most of the beastkin that were on the other side of the arena waiting to challenge Soph.

A beastkin's ears and tails were very precious parts of their bodies that they didn't let others touch lightly, so seeing this display between an idolised foxkin and a - in their eyes - lowly human girl, well, it made many of them feel shocked or sick to their very souls.

One such beastkin, a young bearkin boy, took particular offence. "Lord Ninetails! Please step away from that human!"

A few of the teachers that had gathered to watch Headmaster Erion's disciple be challenged frowned after hearing the inflexion in the boy's voice when he said the word 'human', while the human students that had also gathered and were standing at the opposite side of the arena scoffed at the bearkin's tone.

Lone frowned. "Who're you?"

"Ah." The boy looked incredibly embarrassed upon realising that he had yet to introduce himself. "I'm Barry Brownpad. I apologise for not stating my name earlier, Lord Ninetails."

Lone shook his head and muttered under his breath, "Really, if you're acting so respectfully, can't you respect the girl that I love as well?"

The only people that heard this whisper were Soph, Luu, and Professor Dana. All three of which began blushing, though for slightly different reasons.

"Shameless," Professor Dana whispered.

Luu squeezed her tail as she thought, 'D-Does it feel good to have someone say that they love you?'

'I love you too, Lone,' Sophie replied to Lone's mutterings in her head as she buried her face even further into his tails.

Lone sighed grandly then moved Soph's fringe out of the way before he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Good luck. Try not to kill anyone, 'kay?"

Soph smiled from ear-to-ear while still blushing. "Mmm, I won't... I... I'll make you proud!"

"I've been proud of you constantly for almost 3-years now," Lone answered casually with a smirk.

Luu hugged her tail slightly harder as her thoughts mimicked Dana's words from a moment ago. 'H-How shameless...'

Out of the corner of her eye, Soph saw Luu's actions. 'She's cute. I wanna cuddle her tails. Do you think Lone would mind?... So long as we do not go overboard or spent more than a few minutes harassing her? No, I think he shan't mind... Hmm...'

Luu's entire body suddenly shivered for some reason unknown to herself.

Regardless of all of this, Soph gave Lone's tails one final squeeze for good luck then she turned around to face the group of demis again. "I, uh, I'll go easy on you..."

Lone chuckled at that then moved to the side that the teachers were at. Professor Dana followed him while her eyes remained on the lexicon in her hands. With no other choice really since the other side of the room was full of humans, Luu followed Lone and Professor Dana.

Barry Brownpad wore a furious expression. "It will be us that will be going easy on you. You have seduced the saviour of the beastkin and our idol. We won't forgive you for that, but in consideration of his care - even if it has been tricked out of him by you - we shall not leave you permanently injured."

"Ha!" Lone's obnoxious snort drew many eyes towards him. "Ah, sorry. I'm weak to funny jokes."

Soph wasn't very happy that Lone's feelings for her were being put into question regarding if they were genuine or not. "Your feelings for Lone are the ones that are one-sided!"

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Seeing all eyes now quickly turn towards her made the girl suddenly become aware of her surroundings once again. Soph was in a room with roughly 50 strangers in it, which made her very uncomfortable. "Um, Lone loves me for who I am... Me being a human means nothing..."

"It means everything!" Barry yelled in response, to which, the beastkin group behind him all nodded or snarled in agreement. "Enough talking! Lord Ninetails! Watch as we defeat this vixen and break the spell she had no doubt put you under!"

Grinning, Lone put his hands up to his mouth in a cone shape and cheered, "Go, go, Soph! Go, go, Soph!"

Many of the teachers and professors around him glanced at him like he was mentally ill.

'Can you see that you are only increasing the tension here, Child?'

'I feared this might happen... I really don't want to forcefully stop these heirs to the beastkin clans... I've dealt with enough political backlash in my life already as it is...'

'That motherfucker Erion! His student's a total nutcase!'

'... Does he have more of the object that Professor Dana is fiddling with? I heard how powerful it was this morning during his first earth magic lesson... I'd love to obtain one for my research...'

Well, not all of the teachers disliked Lone's careless and openly supportive attitude towards the girl that he loved, in particular, the far older ones or the female ones.

'What a sweetheart. She's probably embarrassed, but she should be happy to have such a loving boyfriend at her age. She's a bit on the... ripe side, but love knows no bounds...'

'Ah, if only my husband would cheer for me like that during my public fights in tournaments... He's such a shameful wimp when he's with his friends too... Ha-ah...'

'That's endearing. You can tell he's seriously rooting for her and has no doubts in his mind that the girl will win... Well, she is the disciple of Headmaster Erion as well, so I suppose his support may not be born out of a pure desire to see his loved one do well but may also stem from his knowledge of her magical talents...'

'His buttocks look rather firm...'

Thankfully, unlike his sister, Lone wasn't able to read minds, and could he, no doubt he'd wish that he weren't able to in this situation.

Barry Brownpad, on the other hand, was only further angered by Lone's cheers for Soph. 'I need to one-up her somehow... That's the only way that Lord Ninetails will start to doubt his false feelings for her... She had good potential for water magic as far as offensive magic went during her entrance test, right? And I doubt she actually knows any at her age... I need this to be fair for anything to get through to Lord Ninetails, otherwise, he's just going to hate us... She must somehow know powerful illusion magic at the very least to have him wrapped under her thumb... That, or charm magic... Both very dangerous schools... Hmm...'

"Human, What magic do you know and how powerful is it? We shall match your magic as best as we can to prove that we are better than you. We shall also fight you one at a time," Barry offered.

Soph put her finger to her chin and cocked her head to the side cutely. "Um, I only know Barrier Magic, really. Ah, I can teleport too. I, uh, also have another magic skill, but it's really restrictive..."

Soph didn't want to talk about her Minor Time Control since it wasn't something that she was supposed to mention to others according to Lone. Out of all of her unique skills, Lone had told her that Minor Time Control was the only one that she should never confess to owning.

His reasoning was that it was far more dangerous and powerful than any of her other skills, and while even one of her unique skills was so strong that it was to the point of being unbelievable, he saw no reason to expose such a desirable ability like the one to reverse time by 2-hours.

'Barriers? So, advanced enchanting magic? And teleportation? Well, that's a non-issue since even if she's mastered a teleportation formation of the space magic school, it would take her months to set it up. Okay, let's do that,' Barry concluded in thought.

"In that case, we shall only use enchanting magic and crude offensive spells. Do you have any issues with that?" the bearkin boy asked.

Soph scrunched up her face as she wondered, 'How would Lone respond? I'm not good in situations like this... How would he act, you ask? Simple. Question their confidence. Act like they are nothing in the wake of your ability. Challenge them all at once. At least, that is what we think Lone would do,' Sophie answered the unsure girl.

Nodding faintly, Soph steeled herself. She coughed softly then said, "C-Come at me all at once!... Uh, um, I-I can beat you all wi-without even moving!"

"That's my Soph! Go, go, Soph!" Lone cheered supportively.

Infuriated, Barry Brownpad scowled greatly then responded, "Very well. You say you can defeat us all on your own and without moving at all? Prove it!"

The group of beastkin fanned out and readied their wands and staves. Seeing no movements from Soph, Barry yelled, "Attack!"

"Lesser Magic Power Enchantment!"

"Lesser Magic Damage Enchantment!"

"Lesser Evasion Enchantment!"

"Lesser Illusion Resistance Enchantment!"

"Lesser Charm Resistance Enchantment!"

With the selected enchanters finished casting their spells, the rest of the beastkin immediately began launching their offensive magic skills at Soph.

"Crude Fireball!"

"Crude Waterball!"

"Crude Earth Spike!"

"Crude Boulder!"

"Crude Snowstorm!"

Soph's body became impossible to see under the torrent of spells. While weak in nature, some of those spells were very large and explosive, particularly the Crude Snowstorm, Crude Boulder, and Crude Fireball.

A few worried voices were raised amongst the beastkin when they saw that Soph actually hadn't moved even an inch.

"D-Did we kill her?"

"I... I don't want to be a murderer, even if she's a human..."

 "Will Headmaster Erion expel us?"

"S-She isn't dead, is she? Charming Lord Ninetails is one thing, but death is another entirely..."

Many more of them were happy at the chance to rid the world of one more filthy human, but those people kept their thoughts to themselves. It would do them no favours to speak ill of the human species in front of so many human teachers and professors.

Barry glanced over at Lone who was still chanting 'Go, go, Soph!' happily, and seeing him continue to do so despite all of the magic that had hit his 'lover' only served to worry the boy. 'Lord Ninetails is a respected master soul oracle, so there's no way he wouldn't know if she was dead or not... If he's so calm, that means that she's alive, and even worse, probably okay...'

Barry's fears came true as soon as the effects of the various magical skills died down. Soph was sat cross-legged in mid-air with a glowing green barrier sphere surrounding her.

She smiled in embarrassment as she said, "Um, you can use more powerful skills, you, um, you know?"

She closed her eyes and her smile turned wry. "I don't really like pain, so I put up my Barrier Bubble. It's, um, kinda hard to break... Do you want me to attack now, or would you all like to try again?"

Silence filled the arena. Well, that was until a certain man shouted, "That's my Soph! Go, go, Soph!" which only further embarrassed the almost 1,000-year-old girl.