Chapter 135

I hid myself being a veil of illusion once again as I followed Cornelia and Helga into the inner keep, amused by the gaping mouths of the defenders as they looked at Helga and Cornelia in shock, trying to understand how two students could make such a difference — unaware that so-called lich was just a decoy, and even then, it was only destroyed due to my efforts.

I was more than happy to let the girls take the credit, of course. The stronger they were assumed, the less suspicious their eventual growth would become.

Most of the shocked gazes turned toward Helga, of course. Cornelia, with her explosive growth and reputation for an even more explosive temper, wasn’t too much of a shock. Well, at least compared to Helga, who had been infamous for her chosen magical expertise, her lack of combat ability, and her commoner status.

As they walked through the gate, Helga’s name had been whispered again and again until it turned to a soft buzz, but no one dared to walk toward her. How could they, when they created such an intimidating visage moments earlier. Cornelia just threw a dismissive glance toward the discussion, too used to such treatment even before her latest power-up.

Helga’s walk turned stiff with shock despite her attempts to appear nonchalant, too unfamiliar with the spotlight to feel comfortable about it. Though, her observers were too distracted to care about such things, lost in their elation about the sudden end of what they thought to be a desperate last stand.

As we got nearer toward where Titania and the other teachers responsible for the defense efforts were, however, the direction of the gaze started to split, half of it gazing toward Marianne, who had just revealed an equally shocking power by delivering an overwhelming assault toward the attacking lich, revealing that she was much more than a healer.

As Cornelia walked closer to Titania, the rest of the teachers looked at their three students with shock, unable to believe their display of power, outclassing the threat they could output even if they had been working together. Some of them looked anxious to question them, but when Titania took a step forward, they stayed silent, aware of the hierarchy between them.

“Good work,” Titania simply said as she looked at Helga, aware of her connection with me thanks to our earlier discussions about the school defenses, before turning back to other teachers and continued discussing the next steps of action. However, as she returned to circle, she made sure to leave enough place for two people to join, wordlessly elevating their position from students to leadership.

With her silent acceptance about their place, the rest of the teachers were unable to say anything. After all, among them, only Titania had direct access to the mysterious Headmistress, meaning her decisions couldn’t be questioned by the other teachers.

Not to mention, by apparently saving them from almost certain death, it was hard to argue that it was not an unearned victory.

With a chuckle, I disappeared toward deeper into the city, leaving Cornelia and Helga to deal with the fallout of their sudden power reveal on their own. After everything that happened, they deserved to have my trust about handling such a situation without me being ready to intervene, especially with Titania there as insurance.

I went deeper into the city, finally ready to cure myself of the annoying wounds I had received in the process of punching through the reality while teleporting, which continued to annoy me even after curing the surface layer of the wound I had received. Combined with the remnants of the decaying energy of the necrotic bolts I had faced against, it was truly a bother.

With that, I once again went to Titania’s room, easily passing through the wards, most of it already established by me in the first place.

With a sigh, I quickly prepared myself a bath and jumped in, even as I filled the water with healing energies. A rather extravagant spending of mana all things considered, but with Zokras’ attack failing spectacularly, I didn’t expect the Eternals to attack. With everything I could detect about their strength, if they had any intention of actually doing so, they could have easily done without Zokras, or could have supported his attack with more than just a few tricks about monster hordes or a few assassins — though, admittedly, quite high-leveled ones.

[-649 Mana]

As the healing energies slowly infused into my body, I dozed off in the bath, waking up only when the healing energies starting to deplete, only to refill it again, repeatedly until I was once again back to my perfect condition, then I started napping.

Only the opening of the door awakened me from my nap. From the darkness of the room, it was clear that it was already evening. I sighed as I stepped out of the tub, using a simple spell to dry off completely. Meanwhile, I could hear the footsteps of four people walking inside, each familiar in their own way. Cornelia’s sharp yet elegant steps were reminiscent of a dagger, Helga’s soft, almost hesitant walk, Marianne’s soft and elegant stride, and Titania’s steady steps are confident enough to lift the weight of the heavens.

The fun was about to start, I thought with a big smile even as I opened the door, not bothering to put anything. At this point, I had nothing to hide from any single one of them, nor I wanted to hide any single relationship from another.

I wanted my magical girls to know each other.

Properly.

As I walked inside, naked, four identical shocked gazes turned toward me, immediately destroying the ethereal and confident aura they had been wearing outside, their blush climbing upward as their gazes bounced between each other. The shyness remained in their gazes, but a competitive expression was added to it.

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6324 / 6324 Mana: 7595 / 7595 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Expert Craft [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 21/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]