A few hours after the brawl at the bar started, I poked my head out of the cellar door to check if the coast was clear. Most of the patrons were sleeping like logs over the bar floor, as if there was a massive slumber party going on.

It would’ve been cute if not for the fact that these were thirty-to-fifty year old ugly, muscular, and smelly sailors.

I found Lard sleeping comfortably around a bearded pirate’s arm, and it took some efforts to pry him off. I lugged him across my shoulders like a hunter carrying a dead boar.

The whole bar was a mess, and some sections of the wall were missing. “Will this place be alright?” I asked Clouds, who was following me behind like a puppy.

“Yes, milord! I’m already used to this. This is the only bar in the whole place so a few sailors would come and fix the damages.” She nodded.

“What about you?” I turned back to Clouds.

“Oh, don’t worry, milord! I don’t live here anyway, so thanks for the concern!”

“No. Not that,” I muttered as I looked at her right hand.

“Ah! This? Don’t worry about it, milord! You’ve already cast regeneration on it, and this much isn’t big of a problem!” Clouds smiled as she waved her hand.

“If that is so, then I’m off. Be careful, Clouds.”

With that out of the way, I left the lower depths of Cahalot after saying my farewell to Clouds. By the time I arrived back at the academy, it was early in the morning, with an hour or two to spare before my class would start.

I went into the academy grounds then went straight for my dormitory when I heard an explosion in the distance. Mana in the air fluctuated only slightly so it meant that there was some form of magic.

I ran towards my dorm so that I wouldn’t get caught in the mess that was about to brew up, but two of my students managed to bump into me. They had a panicked look and were panting from running around. One of them was none other than Boye.

“Sir! We need your help!” Boye said in a straightforward manner.

“What happened?” I asked.

“My classmates were about to train for Advanced Magic Class in the practice rooms, but something went wrong. Please, sir. We might not have much time, the injuries looked serious,” Boye pleaded.

“Alright, but let me put my assistant down first,” I said as I poked the fat boy I was carrying.

I gently let Lard down, then tucked him nicely and comfortably into the trashcan next to me.

“Let’s go,” I ordered.

After a series of turns and hallways, we finally arrived at the practice room. The rooms were meant for practicing spells so they were made to be spacious, and they also had some equipments laying about. While the musclemancers had gyms, the sorcerers of Cahalot had these labs.

Outside of the practice room, I noticed there was a student guarding the door. It was a large, muscled guy who only spoke in grunts. He greeted us with a nod, then guided us into the room.

In the middle of the room, two boys were sprawled on the floor unconscious. Next to them were their personalized wands.

“What happened here?” I questioned.

“He was the first one here, so he explained everything to me.” Boye turned to the muscled guy then back at me to explain what happened.

In summary, the two boys and the muscled guy wanted to have a warm-up duel before Advanced Magic Class starts so they went to a practice room. Just as the two boys cast a spell using the practice room’s wands, a small bright explosion erupted in both of the wands and knocked both of the duelers unconscious. Afterwards, the muscled guy went to get help.

“Is this true?” I asked as I crouched down to inspect the victims.

“Grr!” the muscled guy replied.

Some professors and students began gathering outside of the room so I sent the muscled guy to keep everyone, including the professors, out.

I looked at the boy closest to me, then placed my hand above his chest. “He’s still alive. It doesn’t look like he’s in great pain, either. I don’t think this is life threatening.”

“That is good to hear,” Boye remarked as he nodded in relief.

“Really, you shouldn’t call me if it’s just a small accident like this-...” I stopped myself when I checked the boy’s wrist. I would’ve gulped hard if I still had saliva, so I opted to gasp instead.

“What is it, sir?” Boye interjected.

“This is a lot more serious than I anticipated…” I muttered.

“Will they be alright?” Boye asked.

“Alright?! More like they’re in paradise!” I angrily retorted.

The muscles of the boy were so relaxed that it would had been comparable to sleeping on a bed made for emperors, surrounded in fluffy pillows, and a nice cool air so that the temperature wouldn’t be too high or too low.

I shook the boy to wake him up, but he only managed to mumble “Five more minutes…” before returning to sleep.

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“This is bad,” I concluded and explained the details to the students in the room.

“But didn’t he just say ‘five more minutes’? We could just wait, then,” Boye replied.

“You fool! This ‘five more minutes’ is actually ‘five more days’! This is some form of advanced sleep magic,” I responded before checking the other boy’s situation.

“Can you dispel it?” Boye asked.

I didn’t answer and checked the wands instead. It only took a touch to confirm my theory. The sleep magic didn’t use mana, since the only time the mana in the air fluctuated was when the two boys were about to cast their own magic... probably.

“Teacher! I heard something serious happened!” Blackhair shouted after bursting through the door. Behind him was Aera in her full gear with the ribboned bracers around her forearms.

Oh, good! I thought I would have to play investigator just like that one time in the Dwarven Fortress-City of Azkator, but with Blackhair here…

“I will be blunt. This is muscle magic, which means I can’t do anything about this.” I shook my head dejectedly. I probably could dispel it, but I was too lazy to research it.

“Muscle magic?! That explains it all!” Boye exclaimed.

“What do you mean, boy?” I asked.

“In less than five days, it’ll be the first selection for the Interstate Sorcery Academia Games. They’re trying to sabotage the best candidates, which are the students of the Advanced Magic Class,” Boye theorized.

“What? It’s that early?” I was taken aback by the sudden conspiracy.

“Yes. Since the academia games selection is very strict, especially in Cahalot, the time for selecting the competitors is limited. It’s common for candidates from every academy to be chosen early so that they could choose the best competitors to focus their resources on,” Boye explained to me.

“Then even a blind man can see that there’s a musclemancer trying to sabotage us. Blackhair, I want you to investigate into this matter,” I ordered.

Well, isn’t this what heroes do anyway? Solve mysteries and finish quests?

“I’ll do my best!” Blackhair pumped his fist up and nodded.

“I’ll help,” Aera added.

“Count me in,” Boye offered.

“Good. Then, off I go.” I waved and bolted straight for the exit.

“Wait, teacher! What about you?” Blackhair shouted.

“This is your problem now! Goodbye!” I didn’t turn my back as I went straight for my room. A few professors tried to ask me what happened, but I redirected them to Blackhair instead.

There was still an hour before my class would start, so that meant I still had time for a nice relaxing nap in my room.

When I finally reached the door to my room, I pressed my hands together and thanked whatever divine being was watching me from above for letting me have my nap.

I grabbed the knob then felt a chill crawl up my spine.

Was I mistaken?

When I twisted the knob, then gently pushed into my room, I saw a shortie in a black and red dress tying up a wood nymph. Satel looked at me then pleaded to me through her eyes.

Of course, that shortie was none other than the damnable vampire Ellysa. The moment I entered my room, she stopped whatever she was doing, then got onto a leaping position.

With a kick, she threw herself towards me whilst screaming “MY LOOOOOVE!”

With a calm and carefully planned move, I sidestepped and held an amulet out. As Ellysa passed through, the amulet was neatly slipped around her neck just before she crashed into the wall.

Coughing as she fixed herself up, Ellysa attempted to touch the amulet but it burnt her finger the moment it met the glassy ornament.

“My dear? I know it looks very pretty, but why does this amulet hurt me when I touch it?” Ellysa turned to me with a big smile on her face.

“As expected. An angel’s blood could also weaken a vampire lady. I need to return Clouds the favor a hundredfold.” I nodded satisfactorily as I watched the weakened Ellysa stand up.

“Blood of an angel?! W-Where did you get such wretched thing?! Why would you do this to your beloved wife?!” Ellysa looked at me dejectedly with puppy eyes.

“Please don’t call it wretched. You know angels are hard to cut so I had to use a near-divine spell to cut Clouds’ hand. Even with regeneration, it would still take a while for her hand to heal,” I snapped back as I walked towards Satel.

“Wait! Be careful! That’s not a nymph! That’s a demon!” Ellysa cried out.

“Don’t call my lamp-... I mean, my companion a demon please.” I sighed as I let Satel’s restraints loose. “How did you get beaten by Ellysa?”

Satel’s head dropped along with her mood then coughed awkwardly. “I… did not expect her to be that strong.”

“My loooove! Please take off this amulet off me! It hurts!” Ellysa moaned as she walked towards me sluggishly. She looked like a lamb that took its first steps just after its birth.

The effects of the angel blood was stronger than I expected. Strangely enough, it seemed to only affect vampires… unless of course, I was an exception to this rule.

I sat down on my bed and quietly watched as the dwarf approached me step by step. Once she was close enough, I swooped my hand behind her neck then lifted her up with one arm.

“This is embarrassing! How could you do this to a vampire lady and your wife!” Ellysa complained.

“Listen, Ellysa, I know that you want to marry me because of my powers, but I will tell you now, I don’t share my full power with anyone, not even my own companions,” I explained. “Even Satel, whose power is on par with me, is on her own when controlling her powers.”

“Eh? That demon is the same as you? You must be joking! She’s as weak as a mosquito!” Ellysa sneered as she turned to Satel.

“Hey! I was holding my powers back! I didn’t know that other than having ugly teeth, another side effect of being a vampire was being blind!” Satel mocked back.

“I have nothing to say to you, demon!” Ellysa harrumphed and faced away from Satel, then turned to me. “Anyway, while it is true that I wanted your powers, but after I thought about it, I… I couldn’t… get enough of those… disdainful eyes…”

As Ellysa stared directly at me harder, drool started to form on her mouth.

“Wait…”

“Ah! The way you rejected and hate me so much! I had become so idle and bored in my pedestal, then out of nowhere, you’ve come and knocked me over!”

“Hold on…”

“The way you treat me like trash and slapped me around! I… I…”

I shook Ellysa like I was trying to get a cat to spit out a stolen tuna.

“By chance, Ellysa, are you a masochist?” I shot out a question at the… thing I was holding.

Ellysa froze up, then glanced to the side. With a soft voice, she replied, “N-No?”

Even though I was wearing a mask, she still tried to take a peek at my face, trying to gauge my reaction. I was starting to get a killer headache, but when she opened her mouth, it got worse.

“D-Do you want me to be?”

I wanted to tighten my grip around the back of her neck, but realized that if I did, she might enjoy it. I was thinking of ways to get rid of her when I remembered something important.

I was getting tired of raising my arm, so I placed Ellysa onto one of my laps, but still kept my grip on her. The vampire got confident and reached out to me but I slapped them away like annoying mosquitoes, causing her to pout.

“Ellysa, what do you know of the Undead Republic?” I asked.

Ellysa’s temperament became serious and closed her eyes briefly. She straightened her back then crossed her arms before answering, “How could I not know? The Undead Republic is one of the biggest enemies of not only the demons, but also the vampires!”

What a turn of surprise.