The black shadow faded, and the world returned to the silence of primordial chaos, as if only black and white remained.
The black dragon stood motionless in the center of the Ruins.
The gaping wound in its chest had been replaced by a massive hole.
Looking through it, one could see the cracked rock wall on the other side.
Yet when it reached out, it touched nothing but empty air.
The dragon lowered its head and brushed its claws over the missing part of its body.
Disbelief and relief mingled in its crimson eyes, along with what seemed to be lingering regret.
But alas, fate had already been sealed, and there was no turning back.
Its massive body began to sway, and the earth trembled with each movement.
At last, its vision blurred, and the once-invincible Calamity of Ruin crashed to the ground.
Boom!
The muffled crash echoed throughout the volcano as dust spread in every direction like a rain cloud.
The crimson dragon began cooling rapidly the moment it fell.
The scorching heat faded from its scales, and their eerie red glow returned to its original black.
The end-of-the-world light in its eyes also vanished, leaving them a dull yellow.
Its eyelids closed, cutting off the dragon’s last traces of life.
The black clouds dispersed, sunlight broke through, and a brilliant dawn arrived.
The raging volcano grew calm again.
The lava, with only residual heat left, rumbled a few times, as if mourning the fall of its former master.
“Did we… win?”
As she watched the black dragon crash to the ground, Tunzuo was overcome by an intense sense of unreality.
She couldn’t help thinking that a forbidden being wouldn’t be so easy to kill.
Could this be some kind of scheme, with the black dragon only pretending to be dead?
But the terrifying pressure that had truly vanished from her body, along with her gradually relaxing muscles and nerves, all told Tunzuo that what she was seeing was real.
The powerful dragon’s aura that had been pressing down on her heart and making it hard for the witches to breathe had truly disappeared.
To put Tunzuo at ease, and to check the witches’ rankings, Olivia took out her Grimoire.
Her slender fingers swiped rapidly as she checked the competition website’s live updates.
A moment later, Olivia closed her Grimoire and turned to Tunzuo with a relaxed smile.
“It’s all over, Xiao Youling. The points from hunting the king beast have been added to both our totals. In other words—”
“We won!”
“Hooray!!!”
Olivia’s confirmation of their victory broke the silence at once.
The witches’ excited cheers filled the entire volcano crater, as if their celebration might trigger another eruption.
Hard work had paid off.
After a long and grueling struggle, the witches had worked together to avoid the miserable fate of being blown into the sky like fireworks, reduced to dust, and then waiting through a revival countdown.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted! If anything like this happens again, I’m not doing it. Someone else can handle it.”
After fighting nearly the whole time, Tunzuo let out a breath and slumped to the ground as if someone had pulled out her spine.
As she complained, she shot Olivia one glare after another, still holding a grudge over Olivia’s earlier head-knocking punishment.
“My whole body’s sore, and I still have to get scolded. What a life! It’s only a tiny bit better than my wage-slave days in my previous life…”
Tunzuo grumbled in a voice just loud enough for Olivia to hear, her cheeks puffed out like a puffer fish.
Unfortunately, Olivia had no intention of giving an inch to the unrepentant Tunzuo.
Smiling, Olivia walked over and looked down at her reckless little ghost.
Then she crouched and began repeatedly kneading Tunzuo’s dust-smudged, pale cheeks.
There was no reason to go easy on Tunzuo when she was still talking back.
Olivia twisted her into all sorts of ridiculous expressions, half joking and half concerned as she gave her another scolding.
“You get all fired up at times like this! You don’t care about how the other witches feel at all. Tell me, weren’t those two smacks I gave you just now too gentle?”
“What, you think I was wrong to punish you? You charged in like a suicide bomber without a second thought. You’re lazy most of the time and can’t be bothered to do anything…”
Olivia nagged like a mother hen, each remark hitting Tunzuo right where it hurt.
Before long, she had nagged Tunzuo into surrendering and giving up on arguing with her.
“Stop, stop! I get it, I was wrong, okay? You perverted dragon, quit nagging!”
Watching Tunzuo hurriedly cover her ears and let Olivia bully her cheeks, Olivia couldn’t help laughing.
The tension that had held her tight finally eased.
After nagging Tunzuo a few more times for good measure, she let go and fell silent, giving Tunzuo some peace.
“All right, everyone, gather over here.”
Olivia clapped her hands and called out, drawing the witches’ attention.
After a battle of extermination came the much-anticipated spoils-sharing.
Tunzuo and Olivia had done the most work hunting the king beast, and the two of them had dealt the final blow together.
By rights, the Witch Academy of the Vast Sea City could have kept all the king beast’s points without any issue.
But in the spirit of making friends and keeping their options open, Tunzuo and Olivia chose not to keep everything for themselves.
They distributed the points fairly, according to the principle that everyone should get what they had earned.
After some discussion, the king beast’s points were split in half.
Tunzuo and Olivia took one half, while the other witches divided the rest equally.
Everyone was pleased.
The Ashen Mountain Heavy Industry Academy team had been looking downcast, but this let them escape the prospect of coming in last.
Their ranking returned to normal, sparing them the shame of being carved onto their academy’s pillar of disgrace.
“Waaah, thank goodness. We’re not in last place…”
“Now we don’t have to write a report!”
Landon and her teammates hugged each other and cried, leaving the other witches unsure whether to laugh or cry.
“All right, now…”
Seeing that everything had settled down, Tunzuo brushed the dust off herself and walked up to the black dragon.
She pulled a silver sword from Huanye and waved it around the dragon’s huge eye socket, a mischievous smile curling at her lips.
Olivia, puzzled by Tunzuo’s strange behavior, asked her about it.
“Xiao Youling, what are you doing?”
Tunzuo answered as if it were obvious.
“I’m harvesting materials! This big guy was so strong, so it must have plenty of valuable stuff on it. Dragon scales, flesh, teeth… Heh, I can’t let a chance like this go to waste! I might need them someday. It’d be a waste not to take the good stuff!”
The witches’ mouths twitched as they watched Tunzuo’s enthusiasm.
They could all think of what Tunzuo had thought of.
But why hadn’t these highly intelligent, genius witches gone to do it themselves?
According to the academy competition’s rules, any monster materials obtained during the event had to be returned to the organizers.
The rule was meant to stop young witches from lining their pockets during the competition.
The adult witches were far too shrewd to let them get away with taking even a small advantage.
“Miss Oulis, the materials obtained during the competition…”
Bessislana was about to tell Tunzuo not to bother, when she noticed that Olivia, the person closest to Tunzuo, wasn’t trying to stop her. Instead, she watched Tunzuo with a smile, her eyes full of indulgence.
“Olivia’s a veteran. There’s no way she doesn’t know the rules, unless…”
After thinking it over, Bessislana remembered something.
Her eyebrow twitched, and she said no more.
Right, the organizers and sponsors of this competition were those two young ladies.
What did it matter if they took a little of their own property?
There was no need for us to meddle!
Meanwhile, unaware of Bessislana’s thoughts, Tunzuo had found the spot where she wanted to cut.
She greedily licked her lips, gripped the sword with both hands, and stabbed down hard.
“Heh heh, black dragon’s evil eye, here I come!”
Just as Tunzuo’s grin grew more and more unhinged, a shadow flashed by and blocked the tip of her sword before it could strike the black dragon’s eye.
Clang!
The clear clash of metal rang out.
The smile froze on Tunzuo’s face.
She stared blankly at the dragon claw in front of her, which should have been completely dead.
Tunzuo:!!!
“Gah! The dragon’s come back to life! Everyone, run!”
Tunzuo’s hair stood on end.
With a startled yelp, she dispersed into black mist and retreated far away.
Then she hid behind Olivia, putting Olivia in front of her as a shield.
The other witches reacted as if facing a powerful enemy, spreading out in a circle with their staffs glowing as they took up battle positions.
But even after a long while, the black dragon lying on the ground showed no other reaction.
It didn’t roar or breathe fire.
It seemed the raised claw had been nothing more than a muscle reflex from the corpse, or some kind of strange nerve spasm.
“…Nothing?”
Tunzuo peered out from behind Olivia and timidly approached the black dragon.
She gently poked its foreclaw with her silver sword and asked in a small voice.
“Are you dead?”
The black dragon reacted at once.
It lifted its foreclaw and scratched rapidly at the ground, writing several crooked words—
[I’m dead]
Tunzuo: (*ﾟﾛﾟ)!!
Olivia: (O_O)
The other witches: (u”OXu”OX”u”)
The worst thing was when the air suddenly fell silent.
“Wait, why are you pretending to be dead?! What’s the point?! Is this fun for you?!”
The veins in Tunzuo’s temples bulged as she stared at the three words written plainly on the ground.
She felt as if she’d been played for a fool and her intelligence deeply insulted.
But the black dragon lying on the ground and pretending to be dead paid her no mind.
It continued its performance, spitting out a glittering golden card as its answer to Tunzuo’s questions.
With suspicion written all over her face, Tunzuo picked up the card and looked it over.
Several particularly eye-catching details were printed on it.
[Legendary Dragon Species—Black Dragon Breeding Permit]
[Name: Miralboreas]
[Keeper: Antuoxi Otilis]
**[Permit Number: ]*
After reading the card, Tunzuo had no idea where to begin with her complaints.
In the end, she could only glare furiously at the black dragon lying on the ground.
“Seriously? Is there any justice in the world?! So you’re my Mommy’s familiar, not mine, huh? Just you wait. I’ll make your life miserable!”
At Tunzuo’s scolding, the black dragon reluctantly opened its dull yellow vertical pupils.
A humanlike look of apology and embarrassment showed in its eyes, and its meaning was clear.
There was nothing it could do, miss.
It was the chief’s orders.
She said to hit you hard.
Everyone’s having a rough time, so please be the bigger person and let bygones be bygones, okay?
“That Bad Mommy…”
The black dragon’s explanation made Tunzuo clench her fists, her anger flaring up at once.
But she didn’t dare confront Antuxi directly.
With no choice, Tunzuo had to find another target for her anger, and there happened to be a perfect one right in front of her.
“You beat me up this badly. You owe me compensation! Hand over the good stuff, or I’ll punch a few holes right through you!”
But the black dragon had clearly prepared for Tunzuo’s threat.
It extended its tail and pointed at the dragon horn Tunzuo had cut off earlier.
Tunzuo froze, about to argue, when a spatial rift suddenly opened in front of the black dragon.
It swallowed the massive dragon whole and quickly closed.
“…Hey! You!”
Tunzuo stared at the dragon horn stuck in the ground, then realized what had happened.
“No, that doesn’t count! That’s my own spoils! You…”
She didn’t even need to guess who was behind it.
“Ah! I’m so mad!”
“All right, Xiao Youling, it’s over. At least we’re free now, aren’t we?”
Olivia struggled to hold back her laughter as she went over to comfort Tunzuo, who was hopping mad.
It took her quite a while to get Tunzuo to calm down, after which Tunzuo grumpily put the dragon horn away.
“Tch, I’ll remember this! Next time I see that black dragon, I’m settling the score! By the way, you perverted dragon, how many days are left in the competition?”
At Tunzuo’s question, Olivia took out her Grimoire and flipped through it.
Before long, she found the answer Tunzuo wanted.
“Two days. Don’t worry. With our points, no team can overtake us. You can get some rest.”
“Sigh, I hope I can get a good night’s sleep tonight.”
Tunzuo sighed and tossed her troubled thoughts into the recycling bin for the time being.
With the main quest out of the way, the witches, who had been rushing around and fighting for days, decided to camp out at the volcano crater and throw a barbecue party, using the lava’s heat to relax.
With both a chef and a gearhead on the team, preparations for the party went quickly.
Before long, smoke scented with grilled meat rose from the volcano crater.
The witches of the Ashen Mountain Heavy Industry Academy showed off their impressive construction skills.
They cleverly used the broken walls among the Ruins to build a temporary fire pit, then applied alchemical techniques to use heat from the earth’s veins to cook the meat.
They laid out all kinds of ingredients at once.
After the meat of various monsters was lightly marinated, they arranged it neatly on scorching stone slabs.
The witches of the Morningstar Culinary Academy cooked everything with care, and the meat began to sizzle like a beautiful symphony.
Fat seeped out and ran along the grooves in the stone.
The golden-brown surface was cooked just right, giving off an irresistible, smoky aroma.
The witches sat together.
Some brought out secret spices, some sang lively songs, and a few even snuck out all sorts of liquor that clearly violated the school rules.
They ate and drank their fill, and after a few rounds of drinks, the mood was lively.
But Tunzuo didn’t seem to enjoy the noisy festivities.
Holding a plate piled with grilled meat, she moved away from the witches playing drinking games and settled down in a quiet corner.
The volcano had settled, and a vast starry sky stretched above the river of flowing lava.
Of course, Olivia had followed her too, as inseparable as a dog’s tail.
“What, don’t you want to go have fun with everyone?”
“No, I’m a bit of a wallflower. I’m not used to that sort of thing yet.”
Olivia sat beside Tunzuo and accepted the grilled meat Tunzuo offered her, teasing her with a smile.
She looked up at the bright moon hanging in the sky, enjoying every second she spent with Tunzuo.
Just as Olivia was taking in the scenery and enjoying the company of a beautiful girl, a light remark from beside her left her stiff with nerves and drenched in cold sweat.
“Tell me, you perverted dragon. What have you been hiding from me?”