At the same moment, at Icerite Magic Academy.

Vice Principal Roen, who was originally teaching in the classroom building, immediately announced an early dismissal with a grave expression after receiving an urgent message. He rushed to the conference room in the Sage Institute's main building.

Pushing open the heavy door.

Although the decor of the conference room was in soft tones, the tense atmosphere seemed to be frozen in this enclosed space. Every teacher's face looked particularly serious, their eyes fixed on the magical screen at the center of the room.

"Loren, how are they doing?" Vice Principal Roen asked anxiously as he sat down next to Principal Loren.

Originally, Roen thought a second-level Shadow World would be no challenge for Lanqi and Huberrian. Even a third-level one, they should be able to handle.

After all, given their ranks as a team, they would either enter a more difficult second-level Shadow World or a simpler third-level one.

However, Roen never imagined that these two pure novices, on their first Shadow World challenge, would be swept into an exceptionally dangerous fourth-level Shadow World -

The Demon Realm of an unknown time and space, a place where normal humans could not possibly survive.

Being matched to a Shadow World far above one's own rank had two possibilities:

The first was simply extremely bad luck triggering a low-probability event, but in such cases, the other teammates would often be stronger than average.

The second was that there was a violation - a high-ranker deliberately teaming up with low-rankers, wanting to absolutely crush a low-level Shadow World, which interfered with the normal matching mechanism.

"...Normally this would already be a serious accident, but if it's those two, they may not necessarily have poor compatibility with this Shadow World," Principal Loren of the Sage Institute said thoughtfully, staring at the magical screen in the center of the conference room, which was broadcasting images from the Magical Engineering Institute.

Vice Principal Roen nodded upon hearing this.

He roughly understood what Loren meant, but there were some things Loren could only express indirectly as the principal.

Most challengers, especially those below Platinum rank without much experience, would be unable to perform normally in extremely dangerous Shadow Worlds. Their wisdom and mentality would be greatly diminished due to the abnormal environment, bizarre rules, and excessively bloody and insane historical scenarios.

But there were also those who could demonstrate "talents difficult to display in the real world" in increasingly insane Shadow Worlds.

In the realm of demons, there were no human laws.

Once Lanqi shed the constraints of law...

They weren't quite sure how to evaluate it.

...

In the Sage Institute's area, a small tower designed like a library.

Tall, ornate carved bookshelves extended along the walls to the ceiling, like the ramparts of an ancient castle.

On the second floor of this building, there was also an independent magical screen, which could even actively select from the rotating images.

"Hahaha, Modan, you were fooled by an idiot today," a young woman in a black dress sitting in the main seat laughed, holding her stomach and kicking her legs as she watched the images on the screen.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

This was the building owned by their team, and also the unique activity venue permitted to them by the school.

Although Modan was a Gold-rank challenger and the leader of this team,

It was obvious at a glance who the real boss was here.

The woman wearing a long black gauze dress was a fourth-year Platinum-rank student, with power and status that most teachers could not match.

"Yeah, looks like we won't be seeing him anymore," said Modan Gasigus, the son of a marquis, whose expression had also lightened considerably from its previously gloomy state.

"But you should also be prepared in case he's not an idiot, you know?" the woman added.

...

In an independent laboratory belonging to the Magical Engineering Institute, the spacious and bright space was exquisitely designed, with a color scheme dominated by white and gray, giving a sense of tranquility and focus.

Light from the high ceiling fell evenly on every corner, and magical screens were embedded in the entire circular wall to display various data and information.

On the variously shaped workbenches throughout the laboratory, there were also magical engineers engrossed in their research.

"No way, is this the guy Lady Vivian mentioned? The top student from the Sage Institute this year?"

In the distance.

Hearing the voice of a companion standing in front of the magical screen.

A handsome young man wearing work clothes and heavy protective gloves, who was repairing magical equipment, lifted his goggles and also looked at the image on the screen.

"It's good we didn't recruit him," said a girl nearby, wearing a different style of uniform from the Magical Engineering Institute.

Unlike the young man, she had a silver-level registered card maker badge from the Card Makers Association pinned to her collar.

"This young man's thought process is said to be different from ordinary people, maybe he did it on purpose," the young man mused, scratching his head in confusion.

Girl: "But..."

The current scene in the demon exam venue, with its mechanism completely destroyed, looked like a dead end no matter how you looked at it.

"You don't understand, do you?" said the young man, taking off his protective gloves, putting down his tools, and sitting on the table, looking thoughtfully at the magical screen.

He had the same light golden hair color as Princess Vivian of Hutton, but dressed very plainly and unpretentiously, in a style that could be seen on any commoner.

Usually, unless he returned to the palace, he would dress like this.

Then people would often fail to realize he was actually a prince, only feeling that he had an extraordinary aura.

Girl: "Did you see something?"

Young man: "I don't really understand either."

"..."

The girl said nothing more, just stood aside with her arms folded and turned her head to the side.

If it weren't for the fact that beating up royalty would cause problems, she would have already taken action.

...

In the dormitory building of the Knight Institute.

Students who had just finished a day of study gradually emerged from the corridors and stairwells, hurrying through the lobby, some looking refreshed and others tired.

As it was close to the end of classes and dinner time, there were noticeably more people in the corridors than in the afternoon.

"Hurry to Gera Memorial Square, or the steps will be full."

"I didn't expect there to be pure brutes in the Sage Institute too."

Not far away.

At the entrance of a dormitory at the corner of the first-floor corridor, a student with grayish-white hair, his sunglasses perched somewhat arrogantly on the bridge of his nose, was holding two nails in his mouth as he fixed a plaque engraved with [Frey Detective Agency] next to his dormitory door.

Passing students who inadvertently noticed Frey all had slightly surprised expressions.

Let's not even mention why there would be a detective agency in the school for now.

Knight Institute - why would there be a detective?

But when the passing freshmen saw that it was that white-haired, purple-eyed man with the explosive power of a wild wolf, they didn't find it strange anymore.

"..."

Frey stared at the plaque, pondering silently.

He didn't know what had suddenly happened in the school to cause such unusual commotion tonight.

From earlier, he had already heard several students put their books back in their dormitories and run out, saying similar things.

"Well, I'll go check it out later," Frey said, continuing to focus on the task at hand.