Tafel opened the door to the dining room while yawning. She stepped inside and looked around before sitting next to Alice. “Where’s everyone else?” she asked, taking a piece of bread off of Alice’s plate. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“Have you thought about our bet?” Alice asked, meeting Tafel’s eyes.

Tafel flinched. “Why is that the first thing you bring up?” She shook her head. “Let’s eat first, okay?”

“Hmm.” Alice stared at Tafel with a lukewarm expression before grabbing a knife. She dipped it into a piece of warm butter and spread a layer over a piece of bread. The two ate in relative silence, just the sounds of chewing echoing through the room. Alice waited until Tafel was about to swallow before saying, “Vur’s training outside.”

Tafel choked. Bits of food flew out of her mouth and nose as she coughed and sputtered before glaring at Alice. Tafel wiped her face with a napkin, maintaining eye contact with the guild master, who had a smug smile plastered across her face. “That wasn’t a very funny joke,” Tafel said with a snort. “Vur never trains. I bet he’s taking a nap.”

“Really?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why don’t you take a look at the garden outside?”

Tafel stared at Alice, trying to read the guild master’s expression. In the end, Tafel opened a portal beside her and stuck her head inside. The other end of the portal was connected to the sky above the garden. Below her, Vur was napping while Alora, Stella, and Mervin were chatting in a patch of grass that was surrounded by an area that seemed like a wildfire had run through it. Tafel furrowed her brow before pulling her head back and closing the portal. She grabbed her cup and drank a sip of water before facing Alice. “I was right. Vur’s taking a nap.”

“You’re not even going to question why the land’s burnt like that?” Alice asked. “It’s because Vur stayed up all night shooting lightning bolts out of his fingers.” She smirked at Tafel. “I noticed last night while you were sleeping, and I even gave him valuable advice on the benefits of training. To me, it seemed like he was upset at tying with Mary in power. Maybe he sees her as a rival and doesn’t want to fall behind.”

The cup in Tafel’s hand shattered, spilling water over her clothes, but she ignored it, her hand clenched into a fist. “Ri…val?”

“You’re making a really ugly face right now,” Alice said. “H-hey?”

Tafel stood up without saying a word.

“Where are you going?” Alice asked as she stood up, chasing after Tafel, who had stomped towards the door. “It’s pretty obvious that you’re mad, but if you’re thinking of venting your anger on either Mary or Vur, you’re going to lose.”

“I’m not mad!” Tafel said and bit her lower lip. “I’m going to train. In the garden. Where Vur is sleeping. With giant exploding fireballs that make lots of noise. I’m going to lose to Mary? Do you think that’s such an obvious conclusion?” She reached into a portal and pulled out a reddish stick with a red jewel mounted at its tip. “If I can’t beat her as a spellblade, then I’ll go back to being a black mage.”

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“You remember she can cut apart magic, right?” Alice asked, sweat running down her forehead. Heat radiated off of Tafel, distorting the air around her and causing the room to feel like a sauna. “How is giving up the only thing that can hurt her going to help you beat her?”

“I thought about it a lot. Mary’s really strong, but that’s all she is: strong and fast. For her really outrageous abilities, she needs blood to use a lot of her outrageous abilities, right?” Tafel gripped her staff. “She cut her tongue and spat blood on it to cut apart my magic. If there’s one thing I’m confident in, it’s my absurd amount of mana. It might not be as much as Vur’s since my imprint didn’t awaken, but it’s most definitely more than the amount of blood Mary has in her body, right? I’ll make her bleed to death from self-inflicted injuries with an overwhelming number of spells.”

Alice wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. “Speaking of evil empresses that have to be removed from thrones…, are you sure you should be leading a kingdom?”

Tafel glared at Alice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Alice cleared her throat. “Nothing,” she said. “Please stop radiating heat. You’re melting the floor tiles. And you’re making a lot of assumptions about Mary. What if she has a healing ability that replenishes her blood? She has an imprint too that’s supposedly on the same level as yours and Vur’s. Aren’t you taking her a bit too lightly?”

“I’m not,” Tafel said, shaking her head as the air around her cooled. “That’s why I have to practice. I have to engrain these phoenix abilities into myself until I’m doing them without thinking. I’m not like Vur who grew up with an imprint. I know I’m not strong enough to be his rival, but I refuse to let him see Mary as his!” The air around her heated up again as she left the room, heading towards the garden outside.

Alice scratched her head and turned towards the side where a suit of armor was standing with its back resting on the wall. “She was a lot easier to provoke than I thought.”

“Isn’t she?” Mr. Skelly asked back, raising the helmet covering his head. “Do you really think this’ll work?”

“That ancient book on devil summoning was right, wasn’t it?” Alice asked. “Then I don’t see a reason why this book’s methods wouldn’t work.”

Mr. Skelly rubbed his chin. “Well, it can’t hurt to try,” he said and shrugged. “But to think you’d help Tafel get stronger. I didn’t expect that from you after hearing about how thoroughly she beat you in a fight.”

“What?” Alice asked, placing her hands on her hips. “Just what kind of person do you think I am? Tafel’s a precious party of mine. I might be a little bitter about losing to her, but she worked hard to get to where she is. She also received a lot of help and had a great background, but let’s ignore that for now. I want her to get stronger and become a true demon lord even if it means she leaves me behind.”

Mr. Skelly patted Alice’s head and smiled. “This is why I love you.”

“That hurts!” Alice said, pushing his hand away, her face flushed as she glared at him. “Don’t rub my scalp with metal armor.”

“But to think there’d be a book on becoming a demon lord that was written thousands of years ago,” Mr. Skelly said, his voice low. “I thought demons were exclusive to the central continent. They’re not a naturally occurring species, you know? They’re humans who’ve robbed fairies of their mana.”

Alice shrugged. “Civilizations rise and fall. Maybe someone will independently develop a way to summon demons as well. It’s not impossible.”

“Yes, it’s not impossible, but it’s certainly very fishy…,” Mr. Skelly said. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Are we going to the library again today?”