This conflict began six months ago, during the entrance exams for Dormant Dragon Institute in the first semester.
Or perhaps it started even earlier, back when the White Abyss and Black Abyss factions were split, each pointing their blades at each other.
‘That bitch...’
Marina ground her teeth.
Six months ago, Marina from Moonshadow Institute barely missed the cut for Dormant Dragon Institute, coming in eighth place — just one spot below the cutoff. All because of Elize.
Even though her crush, Kendreik, was accepted, she wasn’t.
Since then, she had harbored nothing but hatred for Elize.
She had kept it bottled up, swallowing her resentment over and over.
Until she heard some surprising news — news that pushed her over the edge.
“So, you only got half marks on the Dormant Dragon entrance exam written test?”
Elize blinked and answered,
“Yeah.”
“Oh, you’re not even denying it? That’s the problem with you White Abyss bastards. You people crawl your way in with your family’s connections and don’t even have the decency to feel ashamed about it.”
“......?”
Elize, looking confused, shook her head and waved her hands.
“Uh, no, I didn’t get in because of my family....”
“What?”
“I did well in the practical exam.”
“Ha! As if you’re that good at the practical, you crazy bitch. What, are you the only one carrying a knife?”
“.......”
“Hey, answer me. Are you the only one with a knife? What, were you holding a knife while I was holding a spoon to assassinate people?”
Marina’s friends chimed in from the sides.
“That’s fucking ridiculous.”
“What’s she sassing us back for?”
Elize opened her mouth, then closed it, biting her lip.
“Uh... I don’t understand why you hate me so much.”
“Don’t understand? Are you stupid?”
“I don’t hate you. We’ve known each other for a long time.”
Marina snorted, walking up to Elize and pressing a finger against her forehead.
“Still acting all sweet and innocent. Must be nice, living in a field of flowers inside that empty head of yours.”
Elize staggered back a step.
“Honestly, I’m jealous. White Abyss families can still push their kids into Dormant Dragon even when they’re falling apart. Right? My dad couldn’t get me in even after throwing a shitload of money at them.”
“...Maybe he just didn’t have enough money?”
“Yeah? You don’t need money, but I do? Even when my dad spent everything, it wasn’t enough, huh? Because I’m just some Black Abyss assassin nobody’s daughter, right?”
Marina’s breathing grew harsher. She shoved Elize hard in the forehead.
Thud!
Elize stumbled, her body swaying.
“...Stop it.”
“You stop it. Stop pretending to be sweet. Stop acting all innocent. Acting like you’re some perfect angel.”
“.......”
“They say you act sweet every time you get pissed off, huh? What, you want to kill me right now?”
“...I don’t kill unless it’s a mission.”
Marina burst out laughing.
Then her face abruptly twisted into a snarl.
“How long are you gonna keep up the act, huh? Hey. Hey!”
Marina lunged forward and pressed her forehead against Elize’s face.
“...Can we just stop? Please?”
“Keep going. Keep up that fake smile.”
As Marina kept pressing her forehead against Elize’s, Elize stumbled backward.
That’s when the [Trap] activated.
Bang!!
From beneath her skirt, a steel trap clamped onto her calf and shin. Blood spurted out, staining the ground.
‘.......’
Elize wavered, falling onto her backside.
“Hahaha! Pathetic!”
Marina and her gang burst out laughing.
Elize pried open the [Trap] with shaking hands and ripped it off her leg.
A few more words were exchanged after that.
Occasionally, Elize glanced over at the professors gathered nearby.
But they were all neutral professors, and as usual, they stood there watching, doing nothing.
Just like always.
“...Can’t you just let me go? If you keep doing this, I might start to hate you...”
“What are you gonna do about it? Gonna assassinate me? Do it. Stop talking and just do it!”
“.......”
“What? Too many eyes watching? Want me to set up a stage for you?”
Crackle―
Electric sparks leaped across Marina’s body — a sign that she was activating her ability.
Simultaneously, stone pillars shot up from the ground around her.
This was Marina’s main ability — a [Totem-Class] power.
『 Armory of Destruction 』
[Totem-Class]. It was a type of ability that dominated a specific area, granting overwhelming power within that zone.
A Level 6, top-tier totem manifested. The air ripped open, revealing a dozen gun barrels.
All the barrels were aimed directly at Elize.
“Die!”
The barrels erupted with gunfire.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!
In an instant, a storm of bullets rained down toward Elize.
Elize staggered but swiftly widened the distance, evading the bullets.
“See! How is your practical any better than mine?!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!
Elize activated her [Movement Skill], dodging every bullet and widening the gap between them.
But amidst the barrage, a stone shard the size of a human head shot out and smashed into her injured leg.
Thwack!
Of all places, it struck the same leg that had been caught in the trap earlier. Blood splattered, and Elize’s upper body hunched forward in pain.
Even so, Elize just staggered with a despondent expression, making no move to counterattack.
That is, until...
“Your [Stealth] is a joke too, isn’t it?”
“...What?”
“Your [Stealth], it’s a joke, isn’t it? Maybe that’s why your father got himself killed like a loser.”
Marina finally hit a nerve.
Snap.
Something inside Elize broke.
“.......”
Elize’s world went silent.
Her pink eyes, which had been unfocused and staring at the ground, slowly lifted.
She met Marina’s blue eyes directly.
“Hey! Look at her! The fake bitch finally dropped the act!”
Realizing that the real fight was about to begin, Marina expanded her ability.
Rumble―
Two more totems manifested.
From the air, three pairs of cannon barrels, a staff charged with magic, and several swords and spears emerged.
One of the totems unleashed a surge of mana, enveloping the surrounding area in a dark, spherical illusion.
『 Dark Barrier 』
If no one could see who killed whom, the crime would be lessened.
At the same time, Marina’s gang members activated their own abilities, causing enormous bursts of mana to erupt around them.
Crackle-!
They, too, were using [Totem-Class] abilities.
Now, a total of five totems stood in place.
“.......”
Staggering, her upper body swaying, Elize erased all expression from her face and reached for her waist.
Shrring ─
Something materialized as if being drawn from thin air, scraping against reality itself.
It was invisible, a weapon forged from pure murderous intent, a [Legendary I] grade weapon.
「 Formless Sword ○ 」
The reason she had been avoiding the fight was simple.
She didn’t know how to fight without killing.
If she committed murder outside a sanctioned assassination, she could face immediate expulsion.
But now, such thoughts had evaporated, leaving only a blank, white void.
Elize closed her eyes.
“......”
Time froze around her.
This was a secret ability inherited from her family.
『 Thorned Path Through the Woods 』
Marina and her gang saw this as their chance. They drew in their mana, preparing to launch an all-out assault.
Crackle-!
“Kill her―!!”
A scream filled with malice echoed through the air.
Now, they were truly aiming to kill each other.
In that instant, as violence was about to erupt─
‘Huh?’
...Something unexpected happened.
Something began interfering with the entire [Totem] field.
─── .
The weapons, once under Marina and her gang’s control, began to twist.
The sword tips, the staff’s end, the barrels of the guns — all of them.
‘What the...’
The weapons, which had been aimed at Elize, slowly started turning... aiming back at their own wielders.
‘Huh? Wh-What the hell?!’
Even the thick cannon barrels began to creak and twist. Marina and the cadets’ faces contorted in horror.
‘Wha... What the fuck is this?!’
They couldn’t understand.
This was their [Totem] field.
A [Totem] was a domain-type ability designed to assassinate every presence within a specified area.
Within this space, the difference in mana between inside and outside was over threefold.
In other words, within this space, they were practically gods.
And yet.
‘Why... why is my ability...’
A surreal sensation — like having a gun suddenly pressed against your own mouth.
A sense of losing complete control over one’s own body.
In that fleeting moment.
Elize opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Marina’s back.
Schlunk ―
The tip of a sword pierced through Marina’s waist, bursting through her stomach.
Splat-!
Blood erupted forth.
The other cadets hadn’t even registered what had happened yet.
It was so fast that even in the instant Marina’s abdomen was punctured, nothing had been seen.
A half-second later, Marina felt the foreign object in her gut.
She looked down at the sword protruding from her belly and paled.
‘―When?’
But Elize didn’t stop.
The next target — the arm of another girl.
Thwack-
A dull sound echoed as the cadet’s arm was severed at the shoulder, completely detached.
And Elize didn’t stop.
The next target — another cadet’s thigh.
Thwack-
A monotonous sound as the thick femur was cut clean through, the body collapsing in a diagonal heap.
And Elize didn’t stop.
The next target — Marina’s head.
Those blue eyes.
They were suddenly right in front of her.
All of this happened in less than two seconds.
Elize only stopped because the last attack was aimed at someone’s head.
And because the ‘human’ she had recently grown fond of had stepped in front of her.
Looking down at her, his pink eyes met hers.
Her heart pounded like a puppy caught making a big mistake.
“Professor.”
She ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ froze in place.
Time, which had been suspended, resumed.
A piercing, high-pitched scream echoed.
Marina clutched her stomach and collapsed to her knees.
Elize remained motionless.
But her hands trembled violently, unable to contain the excitement that was still surging within her.
“Please move... just a little.”
Dante narrowed his eyes. “Stop.”
But Elize shook her head.
“I-I can’t. I can’t stop myself. You have to move, Professor.”
Her hands shook.
Her pupils trembled even more violently.
Her breathing was ragged.
Her legs twitched, as if ready to pounce at any moment.
Drip-
Blood started to trickle from Elize’s nose.
She wasn’t calm.
This situation was like trying to restrain a raging beast with a single thread.
Elize knew it.
When she reached this state, she couldn’t stop.
Only her father had ever been able to stop her when she was like this.
Since then, no one had ever managed to bring her to a halt.
“Professor... Please... move....”
She begged him to step aside.
Before that one remaining thread of sanity snapped.
Before she lost herself completely and attacked even the one person she liked.
But what came instead was a single, chilling command.
So cold and severe that it penetrated her very soul.
“Sit.”
For an instant, Elize’s entire being froze.
Like a runaway train crashing into a mountain wall.
“......”
The trembling in her eyes ceased.
The strength in her fingers dissipated.
The invisible blade dropped to the ground with a heavy clang.
Clang!
Slowly, her body, drenched in another person’s blood, sank to the ground.
Elize knelt.
Like a good dog, obedient before her master.
Meanwhile, Marina wiped the blood that was dribbling from her lips.
Too many things had happened too quickly, leaving her dizzy and disoriented.
Her gaze locked onto the man standing in front of her.
‘That man is...’
She had seen him before.
The new professor that even Kendreik — the man she had a crush on and considered stronger than most — had repeatedly expressed inferiority toward.
Their eyes met.
Hiccup.
Beside her, one of the cadets hiccuped.
Marina clenched her jaw, using mana to staunch her bleeding.
‘Fuck. What the hell. What the actual fuck?!’
This couldn’t be how it ended.
Elize was from Dormant Dragon and the White Abyss.
Picking a fight with her meant Marina was in deep trouble too.
So she tried to endure a bit longer.
The professor who had just calmed Elize down walked toward her and gave her a command.
“Deactivate your totem.”
A chilling voice that sent shivers down her spine.
Even though 『Dark Barrier』 was her own territory, his words bore down on her like an unmovable weight.
“...Why? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“......”
“She started it! That bitch started it! With her noble status as a White Abyss Dormant Dragon! That fucking bitch was the one who looked down on me first...!!”
Marina desperately tried to defend herself.
The professor looked down at her, speaking slowly.
“Deactivate it.”
Those pink eyes... she couldn’t bear to look into them.
Marina lowered her head.
“.......”
Finally, the 『Dark Barrier』 surrounding them dissolved.
Like soap bubbles slowly popping.
The [Totem]s she had summoned crumbled away, disintegrating into dust.
Dante then turned to the neutral professors gathered nearby and barked,
“You there. Handle this situation.”
The neutral professors stood frozen in place.
Only a few new, slightly more motivated professors moved to action.
They called for the medical unit and the disciplinary committee.
They reported the incident to both the Black Abyss and White Abyss factions.
They began to isolate the cadets.
Fortunately, there were no deaths.
The injured were also in a condition where they could recover.
And just like that, the emotional conflict that had erupted in broad daylight came to an end.