“I think we can fight here without any interference,” Tim directed those words toward Lily, who furrowed her brow in confusion.

“What the hell are you talking about?” She had no idea what was going on and asked with a fed-up tone, but Tim replied with a casual smile,

“Yesterday, I was told you were running around the dorms looking for us. So as one of the kings of Rezen, I will gladly take you on.”

“Ah, that…” Lily seemed at a loss for words as she turned to her side and stared at me.

“You said it wasn't a test!?”

“It wasn't.”

She seemed to think I tricked her into this, but I straight up denied it without hesitation, making her even more worked up.

“Yeah, but you said—wait, Ian, where's your sword?”

She seemed to have picked up on this at a very critical time. If she thought back to the time I ordered her to hunt down the ten kings, then it felt like this whole situation was completely planned. I'm sure even Tim was convinced that's the reason she came, which was why he immediately brought us here. Even right now, Lily was the only one among the two of us carrying a sword, as if itching for a fight.

“It's in my room,” I replied with a shrug, causing a frown to appear on her face.

“Huh? So you set me up—!”

“Tim, I have a suggestion for you.” I ignored Lily's cries and focused on Tim, who was watching our back-and-forth with a calm expression. He was probably just as confused as Lily, but because of his title, he wouldn't show any weakness in front of us.

“Suggestion?” he asked while eyeing me suspiciously.

“That’s right. If Lily wins, instead of becoming king, you'll continue your reign but report to me.”

He grabbed his chin in contemplation as he tilted his head to the side. After coming to a decision, a smile appeared on his face as he responded,

“I see, so you only want the benefits. Is it the information network? Numbers?”

He was right on all guesses; both information and numbers are what I wanted. In order to investigate Dante’s death and monitor the other spies around the academy, I needed a much broader information network. I could probably use my classmates for this, but since many of them are already part of different 'king' factions, it would be hard to control them fully without raising suspicion among the other kings.

“If that's the case, then we don’t have to fight. If you work directly under me, I can share some of my resources with you.” Tim continued as he brought his hand forward.

It sounded like a great offer, but agreeing would mean I would have to share all my plans with him, which was one thing I couldn’t do. If the individuals I’m trying to hunt down became aware of me, then I might be killed before I could even find them.

“No, I'd rather you work under me, and I will share my resources with you,” I replied with a similar statement, causing a small sigh from him as he responded,

"Then let’s keep it simple. The winner decides the fate of the loser. Sounds good?”

“That’s right.” I nodded my head and turned to Lily, who was just blankly staring at me. Even though she would be the one doing the actual fighting, I hadn't even asked for her opinion on the matter. When my gaze fell on her, she shook her head and turned to face Tim.

“You'll owe me big time for this.”

I didn’t answer and stepped further to the side of the room to avoid getting caught up in their fight. While Lily pulled her sword out, Tim on the other side calmly placed his hands into his pockets as he stared at Lily. She kept moving her body slowly, trying to gauge her opponent’s reaction, but Tim simply played it cool and never reacted in any way.

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She’s underestimating him.

I quickly cast [Future Sight] and continued to watch them, and in less than a second, Lily’s head was suddenly engulfed in a ball of water. I acted quickly and cast [Time Perception] on her, and from her point of view, everything around her must have slowed down. Since she was already familiar with my authority, she quickly crouched down and dodged. A ball of water suddenly materialized where her head should've been before boiling instantaneously and evaporating into steam the next second. Lily didn’t waste time and kicked the ground from her crouched position, dashing toward Tim at an incredible pace. But despite this, Tim’s expression was still calm.

“A rabbit with good eyes, huh,” he simply muttered to himself as Lily quickly approached him. When she was about to reach him, another ball of water suddenly materialized in front of her, but with seemingly inhumane reflexes, she killed her momentum and jumped backward to dodge, but…

Behind her.

Another ball appeared just behind her head, and as if sensing it, she bent her body forward on instinct and transitioned into a lightning-quick front flip. She then landed on one hand and used the momentum to propel herself to the side.

“Oh?”

Tim looked genuinely surprised as he watched Lily’s agility at full display, but he didn’t seem worried. That was because in the direction Lily’s body was heading, close to ten water balls materialized, surrounding her from all directions. Judging from his earlier attacks, if even one of them landed, they would instantly boil her skin.

Swish~!

In one swift motion, Lily’s sword sliced through all of them in one go, causing the water balls to drop to the floor without evaporating. It was as if their source of magic was completely cut from them. Lily slowly turned around to look at Tim, revealing a pair of slit eyes which menacingly glowed bright green as she opened her mouth.

“Let’s end this.”

More than shock, in that very moment, Tim had the biggest smile he'd shown today. He responded to the taunt with an equally terrifying force. A blue hue of mana rose from his body as a thin, hot steam covered the entire room, causing our bodies to start sweating. Breathing became more strenuous as Tim responded in a calm tone,

“Then, I will end it.”

In the next second, hundreds of water balls appeared in the air above him and quickly rushed toward Lily. She tried her best to dodge most of them, cutting those that came close to her vitals using minimal movements, but even with that, it didn’t take long for her to start panting. I wasn’t even moving from my spot, and yet I was already breathing heavily. What Tim displayed wasn't an overwhelming authority against nature, but an insane level of mastery over his authority and mana.

“C’mon, don’t tell me you're already done.” Tim scoffed as he looked at Lily with a smile. It didn’t seem like the steam was affecting him at all, and because he hadn’t even moved from his spot, he wasn’t exerting any physical energy.

What will you do now?

I looked toward Lily, who was wearing a frustrated expression as she glared at Tim. Although I was familiar with her authority, it didn’t mean that I knew all the skills she had in her arsenal. I didn’t expect her to struggle this much, but at the same time, a sudden revelation came to mind.

Does she not have the skills to restrain someone? Maybe this was a bad idea.

Each time I’d seen Lily go all out against an opponent stronger than herself was really something straight out of a horror movie. It was like watching a cornered beast making its last stand, which was far from the Lily I was currently watching. In terms of ranking, the two of them should've been around the same level, with Tim having slightly higher stats.

“Sigh.” Lily suddenly heaved a sigh as she released her battle stance. This didn’t go unnoticed by Tim, who suddenly took his hands from his pockets as the smile on his face disappeared, replaced by a serious expression.

As expected of one of the ten kings.

There was no change in the mana surrounding Lily, but he was able to realize something was off. His instincts were spot on. Lily casually placed her sword back into its scabbard as she looked back at Tim while saying,

“Don’t die.”

A chill ran through my spine as I heard those words. Tim’s eyes wavered at the sudden warning as he immediately took a fighting stance, and at the same time, all the mana he’d spread throughout the room immediately started to return to him. The temperature immediately dropped, but not back to normal. Instead, it became extremely cold.

“[Tear],” Lily muttered in a low voice, but Tim’s reaction was quick. A wall of ice suddenly materialized in front of him, blocking the incoming attack, or so he’d thought.

Slush~! A wide, diagonal arc of blood appeared across his chest as the attack hit its mark. The ice wall in front of him started to crumble as his mana disappeared from the atmosphere. Tim looked at the ice wall with widened eyes as he stumbled back and fell to the ground. He had defended his whole body with the ice wall, but despite that, the attack managed to somehow reach him. Not only that, the ice wall itself wasn’t hit at all, as if the attack was meant for Tim’s body alone.

An attack that phases through objects.

Scary.