Two floors above the training room, there is a secondary tower in Milt Academy. The tower is not particularly noticeable in the entire castle, it serves as a support point for the castle's defensive barrier. Normally, the tower is maintained by magic instructors, and it also functions as a storage warehouse for magic materials. There are hardly any students who come to this side, and even most of the faculty have little knowledge of this place.

So basically, no one knows that there is a small detention room here, and their headmaster is even locked up in a dark room for copying books.

"Siera, are you done copying?" Lucius hesitated for a moment and asked in a low voice.

There was no sound from behind the door.

"Hey, can't we stop being mad at each other?" Lucius sighed. "Even though it was you who sneaked out first, why does it feel like it's my fault?"

Yet, there was still silence from behind the door.

Mad, are they mad at each other? What a joke! They are both Holy Ranks who have lived for who knows how long. How can they be so childish! Lucius shook his head, it's impossible, impossible.

But it seems a bit excessive to copy the headmaster's work manual. It's not just about the workload, it's the meaningless repetition that is a waste of time. Lucius only thought about this punishment because he was frustrated by Siera's irresponsible attitude at that time.

For a Holy Rank powerhouse, it is indeed difficult to accept being punished by someone whose strength is inferior to their own in such a way that only elementary school students would be punished. After all, even if Siera is usually carefree and playful, she is undoubtedly the Holy Rank powerhouse who has guarded Milt for the longest time.

It seems that I have indeed not respected her enough. Feeling a bit guilty, Lucius started to think that it may be his own fault:

"Well, I apologize. This punishment is indeed a bit excessive, but next time, please pay a little attention, Headmaster..."

At this moment, a breeze blew in from the corridor that connects to the main building of the castle. The door that should have been tightly locked was gently blown open.

The face of the director of instruction immediately turned dark, and he hurried forward to push the door with force.

Sure enough, there was no one in the dark room. Walking to the table used for copying, a thick stack of paper was filled with various doodles, with a short message on the top.

"The little one wanted to keep us locked up for another hundred years ha ha ha! We'll just take the things in the material storage. Salute!"

There was even an emoji of a dog's head, and it looked so damn similar!

So, what was he doing, apologizing through thin air after thinking it through?! His first reaction was to look back and see if anyone saw his unfortunate appearance just now. Lucius was so angry that his hands trembled.

...

Today, in the bulletin boards located on various floors of the academy city, which are usually used by students for gossip, there was only one message left: TO! DAY! IS! THE! COM! BAT! FEST!

A few fireworks blossomed in the sky, adding a touch of joyous atmosphere to the already bustling streets.

Today's academy city is obviously different from usual. As a city established on the basis of the academy, Milt has infrastructure comparable to the capital city, but it is not a mainstream big city after all. Therefore, both the streets and architectural styles are more like a pastoral town.

To be blunt, this may be the liveliest time in Milt apart from the academy's foundation day, which only happens once every ten years - it can't even compare to New Year's. In fact, many students choose to go home and reunite with their families during the New Year, so it appears even quieter.

As certain residents living here would say, "It's like a ghost town at night."

Today, with the bustling scene of brightly lit streets and crowded people, one might think that the New Year had just passed.

"It's quite lively, isn't it? I thought it would just be students from different academies fighting each other."

Tiran stood on the second floor of the castle gate tower, overlooking the lively street scene across the long bridge connecting the castle of Lakeheart Island Academy to the outer city. It was a stark contrast to the quiet castle behind him. About seventy percent of the students had slipped out in the morning after the announcement of the start of the Martial Arts Festival, just like a holiday.

Although he had already seen some clues when he looked at the planning proposal brought by the Students' Union, he never expected there would be so many people. The number of people flooding in today might be comparable to the annual population of the academy's outer city under normal circumstances.

"Because it's the annual martial arts extravaganza."

Petra, who was accompanying him, explained. Now, this child had almost become the princess's full-time secretary and tour guide, providing answers to any questions about the academy at the earliest possible time.

"In contrast, someone still proudly holds the title of my official secretary. It's truly shameful to the point of death..." The princess sighed dramatically, revealing an expression of "my advisor, I am so heartbroken."

Aya, who had been admiring the scenery nearby, had become accustomed to being inexplicably implicated. She felt like saying "Damn it, you little brat, are you hinting at me again? I won't argue with you today."

"Besides the specially invited top academies, many battle academies also send representative teams. In the past, dark horses have emerged from these academies and made their way to the top matches. At the same time, the Martial Arts Festival can be considered the pinnacle duel of the younger generation. Almost all major forces will have someone come to watch. If they encounter outstanding students, they might try their best to recruit them immediately, or at the very least, they will be put on the list for future alliances..."

Lucius's voice came from behind. The headmaster had somehow climbed up to the city wall and greeted Tiran with a smile. "Besides that, there are also tourists, common people, adventurers, and all kinds of people. After all, humans have always loved excitement."

"The implications in these words seem... so full of superiority." Feilin, a member of Tiran's secretary team, still didn't have a good expression when she saw Lucius. Aya had always been curious about this. Weren't they siblings? Why such a deep grudge?

—"It's not necessarily a grudge. Look, my brother and I don't really have any grudges, but he still wants to kill me, right?" That's what the princess said when she heard Aya's confusion.

"... I'm sorry." Lucius could spend hours lecturing other students who were disrespectful to him, and they would eventually admit their fault—probably because they couldn't hold their pee anymore. But for Feilin, he could only say these three words.

Lucius was not the only one who came to the main entrance of the academy. There were about a dozen people gathered outside the grand open gate, standing loosely. They looked no different from ordinary tourists, but when it came to combat power, they were capable of overwhelming a hundred enemies and defeating a thousand troops with a single rider.

About a third of the regular teachers were here.

As for the remaining two-thirds, some were conducting special training for the students participating in the competition, while the rest were simply too lazy to come.

That's how casual it was. The academy's freedom given to these teachers, who had an average strength above Level 8, was simply boundless. Needless to say, their treatment was excellent. As long as they fulfilled their duties as teachers, they could do whatever they wanted. Even if they provoked someone outside, the academy would step in to resolve it, and no one would pay attention to whether they greeted representatives from other academies or not.

"A convoy is here."

Because Feilin refused to take care of herself, Lucius was somewhat embarrassed, but luckily he had sharp eyesight and quickly changed the subject when he saw the convoy on the other side of the bridge.

The regular college convoys would stay in the city area, and only four colleges that were directly invited by the academy could enter the Lake Heart Island area.

The first one to arrive was the Temple Church's convoy. Although they did not raise any flags, the pure white horses and the cross emblem branded on the carriages indicated their affiliation.

"The main focus of the church's academy is to cultivate Theurgists and holy knights. In general, the holy attribute has certain advantages over ordinary Chi and Magic, but lacks offensive power. Making use of this aspect can be effective."

Crossing his arms, Lucius turned to Petra next to him and said, "But you guys need to be careful. This time their leader is not a traditional clergy, but someone from the Arbitration Agency. It's not advisable to see them with the usual perspective towards holy practitioners."

"No worries, no worries. Regardless of their identity, just follow my lead and smack them, it'll be stable for sure." Tiran also patted Petra on the shoulder and raised his thumb.

"It's because Your Highness's tactics that I'm worried!" Petra said helplessly.

Next to arrive was the Orc Kingdom's PET Lóngyuè. As for why there were letters, it was said to be some incomprehensible characters obtained somewhere, and nobody understood their specific meaning.

Of course, when Tiran saw this word, he was like, "What? A pet? Hmm, if it's a beast ear girl, there doesn't seem to be any problem."

So when he saw the distinctly styled convoy, Tiran also breathed a sigh of relief. Although they were orcs, apart from their beast-like features, the differences in appearance with humans were not significant, and beast ear girls never disappointed at any time. Cutely surpassing expectations! If they were like the orcs in "The Lord of the Rings" that only appeared in illustrations, ugly and beyond treatment, it would be too disillusioning.

"Hey, your drool is about to fall…" Aya reminded with a face full of black lines.

"Oh, right, I'll be more careful." Quickly wiping the corner of his mouth, the princess straightened up. At this moment, she represented Mirt's reputation. After all, they had taken her in as a safe haven. It was better not to do anything that would ruin her reputation.

But soon she couldn't maintain her composure.

"Elf clan, Kaloulan. The Elf clan excels in archery and natural magic. Zalude should have already taught you how to deal with this, so I won't say much about it. But among the people who came this time, there is... hmm?"

Lucius had not finished speaking when he noticed a shadow above. Hmm, an Elf? And it seems like...

"Big sister!"

The figure from above almost fell like free-fall and directly pounced into Tiran's arms, the tremendous impact directly knocked the princess to the ground and stunned her for three seconds.

"Huh? You're here too?" Aya widened her eyes. Oh right, the Elf clan.

"Uh... head... eh? Coco?" Feeling the existence of two solid masses pressed against his chest, Tiran finally recognized the girl in front of him and let out a sigh of relief.

If she was some kind of enemy, he wouldn't be able to tell and might have knelt before her.

"Jeez, so it's Coco. Be more gentle next time, I can't handle being bumped like this right now."

"Ehehe..." The girl cutely stuck out her tongue and rubbed Tiran's cheek, "Because big sister has never come to see me, I really miss big sister!"

Lucius Petra standing by was equally dumbfounded, never having known that Tiran and Coco had already diverted everyone's attention.

"Your Highness Tiran? What is this...?"

"Hold on a minute, Aya-senpai, when did that guy start seducing naive girls again?" Little Angel's expression turned to shock.

"Aya-ge, do you know what's going on?" Feilin couldn't help but widen her eyes, looking towards Aya, who was most likely to know the truth.

"Let's just watch and not say anything." Aya laughed awkwardly twice.

What happened? I have no idea what methods this Princess used that night!