“By the way, Servant, Hill—do you two want to go to school?” Her words dropped like a pebble into the warm noon hush.

“Eh? What’s school? Is it fun?” Hill spoke with greasy fingers, the roasted wing shining like amber in her hand.

“Mm, school?” My mood rippled like a lazy pond. “Whatever. If Xinuo wants to go, we go.” My voice drifted like steam off rice.

I’d never seen an academy since childhood; the thought felt like a blank page, white as winter snow. If Xinuo wanted it, I’d walk that path with her.

“Good, then you two should try academy life.” Xinuo sipped her soup, a moon-bright calm in her eyes. “The best one on the Eastern Moon Continent is Egisia Academy, with ties to the Eastern Moon Empire wound like a thousand threads. We’ll visit the Empire’s king and have him handle the paperwork.”

“Master, do you know that king of the Eastern Moon Empire?” Hill finished her wing, her pale fingers reaching like a curious sparrow for another.

Smack! I tapped her small hand with my chopsticks, sharp as bamboo breaking.

“Waa! Boss, why’d you do that?” Tears pooled in her eyes, glittering like dew before dawn.

“What else? Hill, you’ve eaten five wings already.” My tone landed like a light drizzle. “Xinuo and I only had one. Don’t be greedy; leave some for us.”

I lifted a fried meatball, round as a harvest moon, and popped it into Hill’s mouth. “So eat something else.”

“Oh! This meatball’s great too.” Her grin bloomed like spring flowers. “Since Boss said so, I’ll eat other stuff.”

She chewed and swallowed, the motion smooth as a tide rolling back, and went hunting the table like a lively squirrel.

“Don’t know,” Xinuo answered at last, her calm rolling back in like night tides.

“If you don’t know him, how do we get his help?” Confusion drifted through me like mist on a river.

“Who says you can’t ask just because you don’t know him?” She shot me a glance, sharp as a crescent blade. “We’ll tell him, and that’s that.”

“Uh… true.” I exhaled, the thought settling like dust. With Xinuo’s power, a mere king was a reed in the wind; even a God King or Demon King would bow like stalks in a storm.

“School, school!” Hill’s cheeks puffed, stuffed with food, cute as ripe peaches in summer.

“Academy life? I’m a little excited.” Interest flickered in me like lantern light. Egisia Academy… that name rang like a distant bell.

I shut my eyes and dug through memory like a miner in the dark.

“Ah! Got it!” After half a minute, the answer rose like a trout breaching. But joy didn’t follow; a shadow fell like rainclouds.

“Hey, Xinuo—Egisia Academy is a girls’ school, right?”

“It is a girls’ school,” she said, calm as a still lake. “What’s odd about that?”

“But I’m a boy!” I pointed at myself, alarm flapping like a startled heron. “How can I attend a girls’ school?”

“Oh, that’s all?” Her laughter rang like silver bells. “Servant, you’re adorable. Put on a skirt, and you’re top-tier beauty—no one will know. Besides, girls’ schools are paradise for men, a peach garden behind a veil. Don’t you want a peek?”

“Yeah! Boss in a dress is super cute and super pretty!” Hill thumped the table, the sound popping like firecrackers. “I guarantee you’ll charm a whole crowd!”

“…” Their words left me mute, the silence heavy as snow.

I didn’t know if a girls’ school was paradise, but one truth stood like a mountain—girls’ schools are full of girls.

A boy in women’s clothes, studying in a sea of girls… Every thought felt like a fish swimming upstream.

But Xinuo’s word was iron in frost; once she decided, the road carved itself. Hill’s sparkling eyes were stars tugging at me.

“Fine,” I sighed, my will bending like bamboo. “I’ll go to Egisia Academy with you.”

“Oh oh! I get to see Boss in a dress again!” Hill’s delight leapt like a kite in wind.

“Servant, as it should be.” Xinuo’s smile was sunrise on water.

“Uuu.” My sound drooped like a droplet sliding down glass.

Amid easy chatter, lunch slipped away like sand through fingers.

Because of the morning, we didn’t feel like shopping; our mood cooled like evening shade under a tree.

After I washed the dishes, we spent the afternoon in our room, playing cards and Monopoly-like games, laughter shuffling like leaves in a breeze.

Time flew like migrating swallows, and night fell with velvet wings.

In the great hall of the Kage Family manor, lamps burned like small suns, and shadows pooled like ink.

Seats were filled with many people, most in Dark Demon black robes, the fabric dark as moonless water.

Sacred Realm experts crowded the hall like a forest of spears—more than a dozen—including Gu Aoson, Anying, and Shahun, names whispered like wind through pines.

“Vice Leader, greetings!” Aisha, Traus, and Traufa rose together, their voices rippling like banners.

“Gu Aoson, welcome.” Jiafa and Asasia stood as well, respect straight as drawn bows.

“Mm.” Gu Aoson swept the room with a hawk’s gaze and nodded, short as a tap of rain. “You’re acting tonight?”

“Yes. Midnight.” Elder Jiafa’s words were steady as a drumbeat.

“Oh? Then who will lure them out of the Eastern Moon Empire?” Gu Aoson’s tone slid like a blade under silk.

“Vice Leader, leave that task to us.” Aisha pointed to Traufa and Traus, then faced Gu Aoson, respectful as a spring kneel in grass.

“Good. Then it’s yours,” he said, voice firm as iron. “Tonight must succeed. For this, the Leader offered an artifact-class wand—Shining Heaven. Aisha, you’ll keep it for now.”

He drew a wand from a spatial ring, light bending around it like water around stone, and handed it to Aisha.

The wand was half a meter long, every inch etched with runes that glowed like embers, energy humming like thunder behind clouds.

At its tip sat a prismatic rhombus gem, colors melting like sunrise, pressure rolling out like a storm front to weigh on every chest.

“Yes, Vice Leader! I will complete the mission!” Aisha took it with trembling hands, resolve kindling like a torch in wind.

“Do your best.” He patted her shoulder like a steadying hand on a mast, then stepped to the center, gaze sweeping the hall like a tide.

“Rest your minds and steel your bodies,” he said, each word a bell at midnight. “Tonight’s action must succeed, not fail. Our name—Kage Family and Dark Demon—rides this like a banner in battle. Understood?”

“Understood!” The roar surged like a wave hitting cliffs.