CH 455

Translator: The Light

Edits by Kenny

The Phoenix Island, the Aldridge Empire’s famous seacoast holiday destination at Oldrango City’s coastal region. At Victor Magic Ruins, the competition grounds of the “Night of the Witches” semi-finals, the participating academies moved into the six magic towers. The positions of the Magic Towers were placed according to the common standard magical array - the Six Point Star Magical Array. Each tower was located at the individual points.

Although the Victor Magic Ruins was a re-creation of an ancient ruin, it was extremely well replicated. The region had an exotic atmosphere as strange magical buildings could be found everywhere. Unlike the preliminaries and quarter-finals, where the mode of the game was considered “PvE,” and the humans had to fight against machines in the demonic beings’ invasion of the magical tower. During the grand finals this time, it would be in a “PvP” format where the competitors would go head to head. This meant that the battle would definitely be much more exciting.

The magical tower that the academies used had been vastly improved as well. During the preliminaries and quarter-finals, the magical towers were just regular ones with no special attributes. However, during the semi-finals and the grand finals, the magic towers had individual magical attributes based on their color. There were the red, blue, white, black, green, gold, purple, and rainbow towers. The participating academies would send a representative to draw lots to determine which magic tower they would have to protect. Each magic tower had a corresponding magical attribute.

For instance, the red tower would boost fire magic’s attacks and defenses. Using the same logic, the blue tower would boost ice magic, and the white tower would boost light magic. It was the same for the black tower and dark magic, the green tower for earth magic, the gold tower for metal magic, and the purple tower for illusion magic. The only difference between those towers was their attributes, as their overall magical energy was the same. Other than the rainbow tower, there were no significant magic suppressing effects.

The most perverse one was the rainbow tower, also known as the Seven Colored Magic Tower. This was the ultimate magic tower that could boost all types of magical attributes. Throughout the history of the “Night of the Witches” competition, the rainbow tower had only been drawn twice - once by the Kerklav Academy and once by the Alexis Academy. With the almost perversely powerful support of the rainbow tower, those two non-magically inclined academies were eventually crowned the champion of their year’s “Night of the Witches.” Due to this, it was obvious how ridiculously powerful the rainbow tower was, as it meant that any academy that drew its lot would definitely become the champion.

This year was the third time that the extremely rare rainbow tower had appeared in the “Night of the Witches” competition. However, Bella and the others were not the ones who picked it. Instead, they had gotten the purple tower, which was the magical tower that boosted illusion magic. Although it looked the most dreamy, its magic boosting abilities were definitely less insane than the rainbow tower. The academy that had drawn the rainbow tower was the Alessandra Academy that shared the same competition grounds. To Bella, this was the last thing she wanted.

The Alessandra Academy’s points were extremely close to the Olsylvia Academy, which was currently in first place. The Olsylvia Academy could not afford to lose these two ultimate team battle competitions - the “Night of the Witches” and the “Light of Dawn.” Otherwise, the academy would kiss their dream of being the reigning champion for three years in a row goodbye. Bella had already taken President Isaman in as a temporary maid for one month. However, their other long-term agreements were still in effect. If Bella managed to clinch victory for the Olsylvia Academy, President Isaman would have to be less critical of Bella’s “tricks.”

On the other competition grounds, the Olsylvia Academy made use of the abilities of the God Chosen Knight Scott and the other male Saviors to pull the point difference a little further. To the Saviors who were participating in the exchange tournament, this was definitely one of the worst “gameplay experiences” they ever had. As there were too many of them, there was a huge surplus of “cheat participants.” Once cheats became too common, it became harder for them to act in a pretentious manner.

The academies that were going up against Bella’s team were the Listabel Academy (Magic Teachers), Dimiost Academy (Wizards, Sorcerers), Kerklav Academy (Swordsmen), Sainsbury Academy (Archers), and the Elitechra Academy (Warriors). Bella and the others had gotten the purple magic tower, which was at the tip of the Six Point Star Magical Array.

Directly across from them was the Sainsbury Academy’s green tower. In contrast, the Listabel Academy’s white tower and the Dimiost Academy’s black tower took the two left points of the Six Point Star. Everyone wondered if the organizers had done anything to the lots as those two magical academies ended up in such close proximity. If it were any other competition, they would have already begun to attack each other.

Due to Bella’s influence this year, those two academies could not pick a fight with each other. The beautiful student union presidents from the respective academies had shared a romp in the sheets, greatly diminishing the animosity between them. There was a possibility that they would lose on purpose as well. On the right side of the Six Point Star Magical Array stood the Kerklav Academy’s red tower and the Elitechra Academy’s blue tower.

Bella was standing on the roof of the purple tower. She held a golden telescope in her hand as she carefully observed the other magic towers. The Puppet Master Elaine sat at the center of the tower’s roof with a crystal crown atop her head to indicate her status as the witch. The main mission of this “Night of the Witches” competition was to protect the Puppet Master Elaine and prevent her from being chased off her position on the roof.

“Elaine, how do you feel? The crystal crown truly suits you.”

“Bella, stop teasing. You’re obviously more suitable than I am. When it comes to being a witch, you’re more powerful than I am.”

“Elaine, you shouldn’t try to malign a good person. How am I a witch? Have you ever met a witch who chooses to bully pretty girls instead of harming others?”

“Never mind, the competition is about to begin. I’m not going to continue this conversation with you. Bella, you need to be careful of the Alessandra Academy. They have the rainbow tower, which is much more powerful than our purple tower.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have my ways to handle it.”

Bella held on to the telescope and continued to carefully observe the last two academies that she had not interfered with. After some time, she felt a little regret. The Sainsbury Academy specialized in the Archer profession while the Elitechra Academy specialized in training Warriors. The student union presidents of these two academies specializing in combat professions would never appear near the magic towers. After all, they were not of the appropriate profession. This was a competition for those of the magical professions. Like the other academies specializing in combat professions, they simply sent a haphazardly gathered team of second rate girls from their magical faculty.

The Sainsbury Academy’s student union president was the oldest princess of the Kristoff Empire. To date, Bella had only met two of the princesses from this empire. The first was one of her first Human maids, the Archer Princess Annie, while the other was Annie’s younger sister, Anya, the vice-president of the Alexis Academy. Bella was extremely curious to find out what the oldest princess actually looked like.

The Elitechra Academy was located within the Gabriel Empire, which meant that its student union president was a princess from the empire’s royal family as well. However, unlike Kriss and the other Swordsmen, those beautiful girls of the Warrior profession were not directly related to Kriss and the others. They were merely cousins.

Once the semi-finals of the “Night of the Witches” commenced, the six magic towers within the tournament grounds swiftly began to send out a flurry of magical attacks. The spectators outside were expecting that the Listabel Academy and the Dimiost Academy would learn their lesson from the previous year’s competition and work together to take out the Olsylvia Academy’s purple tower before battling each other for the championship.

However, the unexpected happened as the spectators’ jaws dropped. Somehow, it was as though the black and white towers were working together. In almost perfect synchronicity, the dark magical attack “Dark Ripple” and the light magical attack “Aurora Blade” shot towards Sainsbury Academy’s green tower. The green tower’s defensive magical shield, the “Green Curtain,” did not even manage to open fully before it was pierced by the black and white rays of light. Upon impact, the entire roof exploded and blasted the witch out of the tower.

The Sainsbury Academy had initially planned to attack the Olsylvia Academy’s purple tower. In fact, they had assumed that the other academies would work together to attack the Olsylvia Academy. Little did they know that their green tower would be the first one to be hit. The other academy that was planning to attack the purple tower was the Elitechra Academy’s blue tower. The “Frost Invasion” that they had launched was intercepted by the Kerklav Academy’s red tower located next to them.

The magical attack, “Celestial Fire,” that the red tower had launched neutralized the blue tower’s magical attacks. While the red and blue towers were busy fighting against each other, the black and white towers joined hands to use both their magical attacks to destroy the blue tower’s roof. Once the blue tower had fallen, the red tower surrendered as well. Throughout the entire semi-final, the Olsylvia Academy’s purple tower simply breezed through the competition and advanced into the grand finals without even lifting a finger.

The audience was rendered speechless. They thought that they would be able to see some classic magic tower battles during this semi-final. No one knew that the black and white towers, which had the most combat abilities, had shared some unspeakable pact with the purple tower to destroy the green, blue, and red towers on their behalf.

“Oh my goodness, this was possible? If I had known, I would have put my money on the Olsylvia Academy instead. Damn it!”

“Objection! This is not the competition we want. We object to the secrecy… What are you trying to do? I…”

“Everyone, please continue to watch the competition. This is just a routine action.”

There was an uproar in the spectator stands as those who had placed their bets on the wrong academy began to blow their whistles to show their objections. In that same moment, the Manasvir Empire’s Royal Secret Guards, who had been planted incognito within the audience, sprang right into the action and arrested those who tried to incite trouble. The other audiences seemed to snap out of their reverie as they recalled whose territory they were on. Although Phoenix Island was located within the coastal regions of the Aldridge Empire, the Manasvir Empire was the one managing the island. This was absolutely embarrassing for those that tried to cause trouble as they were thrown out of the island.

On the other side, the competition progressed extremely quickly as well, and the results were not surprising at all. Since the magically strong academies had all gathered on Bella’s side, the Augustus Academy and the Frederica Academy were the only academies that knew a little bit of magic. It was no surprise that both academies managed to progress to the next round of the competition. The Alexis Academy (Assassins), the Ophelias Academy (Sky Knights), and the Ogleria Academy (Earth Knights) were all wiped out by the Alessandra Academy, which possessed the Seven Colored Rainbow Tower.

The moment the competition began on that side, the other five academies instantly banded together to attack Alessandra Academy’s Seven Colored Rainbow Tower. However, they were completely helpless against their opponent’s insane amount of power. The Alessandra Academy instantly began to act out the “1v5” trope. Within moments, the Alessandra Academy had smashed through the defenses of the three magically weaker academies’ towers. If it weren’t for the fact that the competition required three academies to advance to the next round, they would have taken out the remaining two as well.

The six academies advancing into the grand finals were the Olsylvia Academy (purple tower), the Listabel Academy (white tower), the Dimiost Academy (black tower), the Augustus Academy (gold tower), the Frederica Academy (blue tower), and the Alessandra Academy (rainbow tower).

The grand finals of the “Night of the Witches” would be held that night when the moon was at its peak and at its roundest. With the moonlight as their witness, the six magic towers would fight for the spot as the victor of the “Night of the Witches.” At the moment, the stakes were obviously on the Alessandra Academy. After all, they had the Seven Colored Rainbow Tower, which was claimed to be the “appointed item” of the champion. This meant that it was obvious that the Alessandra Academy would win. Throughout history, any academy that drew the Seven Colored Rainbow Tower’s lot would win the “Night of the Witches” that year, no matter how bad they were at the magic.

In terms of magical ability, Alessandra Academy was quite strong. In fact, the exotic race’s magic was on par with the Humans. Also, many secret magics were limited to the exotic race, which the humans had never heard of before. Although it was not the most moral thing to place bets on the exotic races, gamblers did not care about racial dignity at all. As long as they could win the bet, it did not matter if the opponent were the devil, they would still place their bets without any hesitation.

The gambling organization that had been secretly interfering with the results of the competition must have felt that there was no way that the Olsylvia Academy would be able to “turn the tables.” They did not try to rig the results of the “Night of the Witches” this time. It was clear that the Alessandra Academy would be the winner to them. After all, the Olsylvia Academy only had the advantage of magical team competitions like the “Night of the Witches” and would lose that advantage during the “Light of Dawn.”

Bella packed up her things and led the Mage Ariel and the others out of the magic tower. Ariel was still sulking as she had wanted to take this opportunity to show off some of her magic. However, the competition ended when the other academies fought between themselves as the Olsylvia Academy did not even get to participate before swiftly advancing to the grand finals.

“Ariel, what’s wrong! Aren’t you happy that we won the competition?”

“I’m not really unhappy. It’s just that I thought we would have the chance to exchange a couple of blows with the black and white towers. Who knew they would work together to help us?”

“Don’t be so anxious, Ariel. Just wait till the night of the grand finals. You will definitely get the chance to show off your skills when we go up against the Alessandra Academy’s rainbow tower.”

Bella held on to Ariel’s hand in an attempt to comfort her. Ariel was still wearing the cape that would conceal her true appearance, which meant that no outsiders knew that she was a silver-haired beauty on the same level as Kriss. The Puppet Master Elaine and the Priest Isaman followed behind them. Elaine kept a poker face while Isaman could not help but look a little uncomfortable. She was still confused about when Bella managed to hook up with the beautiful student union presidents from the other academies.

Based on President Isaman’s memory, Alephia, the president of the Listabel Academy’s student union, and Gladdis, the president of the Dimiost Academy’s student union, were constantly at loggerheads with each other. They could never agree on which one was the authentic magical profession, the Mages or the Wizards. Due to this argument, both of them nearly became sworn enemies. How was it possible that they were suddenly amicable and worked together to deal with the other academies’ magic towers?

Bella turned to look at President Isaman. There was no need to make any explanation regarding her doubts. Alephia and Gladdis had spent the night together. It was merely a disagreement regarding magical philosophy and not some deep-rooted animosity, so it was quickly resolved. When Bella walked past the Sainsbury Academy’s green tower, Bella saw that their student union president had arrived to comfort the girls who had lost the competition.

As her back was facing Bella, she did not manage to see how this student union president looked like. However, she had made an unexpected discovery. The back view of the student union president of the Sainsbury Academy looked like the beautiful female prince who had approached Bella to ask for two rings after she had robbed the Radiant Church’s grave. However, Bella did not manage to see that female prince’s true appearance either.

As Bella was a fashion designer before she traveled to this world, she had an occupational habit and could easily differentiate between different beauty’s figures. It was obvious to her that this student union president and the mysterious female prince were one and the same. However, the female prince had magical knowledge, but this student union president was clearly an archer. Bella could not tell what profession the female prince belonged to, but she was sure that it was one of the magical professions. It was impossible for those of combat professions to pick up such high-level stealth skills like Soul Invasion. It just did not make sense!

Could it be possible that she was a double major and was both an Archer and a magical profession? Bella continued to think as she walked. The beautiful student union president had Bella’s inquisitive gaze bore into the back of her head. However, the student union president refused to turn around. Bella noticed that she seemed to be using some form of illusion magic. No matter where she walked, the student union president’s back was always facing her as Bella could not see her from the front at all.

Under the public eye, it was not convenient for Bella to simply run up to her, so she eventually gave up. Either way, the student union president would have to participate in the “Dawn of Light” tournament, so they would meet there anyway. By then, Bella would want to find out what secrets that beautiful student union president was hiding.

Until Bella left the competition grounds, she did not manage to catch sight of the student union president of the Elitechra Academy at all. She did not come to comfort the girls from the academy who had lost the competition. It was not surprising at all. The Warriors had never gotten along with the Mages as they could not stand their arrogant attitudes. Unfortunately for Bella, this meant that she would miss the chance to see her true appearance.

The grand finale of the “Night of the Witches” was happening that night. Bella had planned to have a secret rendezvous with the other four student union presidents from the Human academies before the battle to discuss how they could work together to deal with the Alessandra Academy’s Seven Colored Rainbow Tower. After all, they were all on the same side.