39-40

''...It's time to end this. Duke Forbes.''

''YOU!! HOW DARE YOU!!'' Duke Forbes screams on top of his lungs, his sword flashing with mana.

The scream was almost like a screeching noise, causing everyone to frown, some even cover their ears.

''He went berserk! Everyone, prepare to subdue him!'' William shouts.

Duke Forbes charges forward, swinging his sword infused with mana sideway. Three tankers immediately stand in front of his path, raising their shields to take the hit for the mages, who are still casting.

But that only stopped the Duke for a second, the sword sliced through their shields like butter, the shockwave generated from the swing sent them flying back dozens of meters.

Utilizing the gap when he ended the swing, five more attackers using various weapon storm in, but even they ended up flying back after Duke Forbes simply use a technique to blow up the air around him with mana, like a bomb.

All kinds of spells flying in right after, ice spears, fireballs, tornados, earth bullets,... But he just shrugs most of them off, the mana coating on his body is uncomfortably resilient. Some of the more lethal spells he either dodged, or parried with his sword.

At this point, everybody has already realized, this won't be easy. It's their fault for underestimating a 2 star Swordmaster. Furthermore, the elite guards are still a problem, there's still 4 of them, and each one requires 5 to 6 people to match against.

When Duke Forbes is charging straight to a group of mages again, a familiar hissing sound can be heard one more time in the air.

The blue ray pierces the head of a guard, exploding it into pieces, the lifeless, headless corpse falls down with a thud.

Right, we still have this helper, is what they're thinking.

So the battle went on like that for another 2 minutes, with Duke Forbes mindlessly attacking everyone else, sometimes even hurting his own subordinates.

Gradually, all the guards were taken care off one by one, all thanks to the blue rays from the helper. But Christina's team unfortunately lost a few teammates during this period.

Now alone, Duke Forbes is somehow able to face off almost 50 people of the Advance level at the same time, this goes to show everybody present just how absurd the master class is.

But the Duke is not going to last long, his strength has decreased noticeably compared to when the battle started, probably due to his left side bleeding continuously and the ongoing 50 versus 1 against him.

That's good news, but the paladins and the soldiers also can't hold it for much longer, the battle has lasted for almost an hour, the front yard now is nothing more than a mess.

The mages are surpassing their casting capacity, fighting desperately against the headache every second. Tankers and damage dealers getting their limbs cut off, then get healed, and charging in again.

The most exhausted people are probably the paladins, they've been using barriers and heals non-stop for a while now. This also applies to Anastasia, who is drenched with sweat, her cat tail waving annoyingly, healing an injured tanker.

They need a finisher to end this fight.

''Restrain him!! Block his movements so that the ray can hit him!!'' Archbishop Henry shouts.

By this point, the rays have not been able to deal significant damage to the Duke, only grazing him several times, but they have the power to actually finish him. Finish, because now they know they can't subdue him anymore, it's impossible.

So everyone gives it a final push, using whatever they can to stop the Duke's movements, ice magic, telekinesis, whips,... However, it is not very effective against a 2 star Swordmaster, let alone a berserk one.

But then, out of nowhere, two figures, one with a sword, another one with a scythe leap above the Duke, simultaneously slash downwards with incredible speed, forcing the Duke to guard against the double attack with his sword instead of dodging. The golden mana from the sword and the green mana from the scythe press down on the Duke's gray mana.

Unlike before where he could just flung the sword casually to sent his opponents flying, this time Duke Forbes is forced to keep the position for a few seconds, and that's exactly what is needed in this situation.

The now familiar hissing sound can be heard again, a blue ray hitting the restrained Duke in the back of his head precisely, blowing up his entire skull, brain matters and pieces of the skeleton splash everywhere.

The two figures, who were dressed in full black and wearing white masks before, have disappeared into the night again, leaving everyone at the scene stunned.

***** 

And... Headshot!

Phew~, fortunately Liana and Emy came out to help there, else I would have to step in to finish the Duke directly.

Yeah, no, I didn't expect to see Christina's group here at this time, but regardless, I couldn't let them got hurt or anything. There's even the church's force here too, probably Christina roped them in.

But they did pretty good, thanks to their sacrifice my teammates got the slaves, at least, the elves out pretty easily, according to a report I just heard from a member. They are preparing to leave already, I should get to moving as well.

I started to use telekinesis to put the Hecate back into the case, collecting all the mags, as well as the empty casings ejected out of the gun. Either way, that costed me a lot of bullets, and I seriously need to work on another type of bullets to deal with these monsters. I guess I need more muzzle velocity.

Throwing all the things into my space bag, I fly back to our car, where my girlfriends have already waited inside.

''Good job.'' I said, hugging the two.

''Mhmm.''

''You too.''

Alright, it's time to go back.

----- 

When we reached our home, we left the slaves for the team to take care of, and drifted right away to sleep, after a quick bath, of course.

And now, it's morning again, I stretches out my arms and legs, time for a fun academy day, wonder if the news got out yet.

But first. ''Wake up, my darlings.'' I tap my lovers, who are still clinging on me, sleeping.

Welp, just as I expected, they're rubbing their things against my thighs. These ever-horny girls didn't get to do it yesterday after all. 

That's why I'm waking them up earlier today, so that we won't be late for school. I am a genius.

----- 

After some blowjobs and creampies later, we're now at the academy.

Walking into the class, I can see the usual members again, doing their own things, creating a beautiful picture of unadulterated chaos.

After some greetings with Nick and the mage girls, we walk to the back of the class, where Christina and Anastasia are standing together, talking very seriously.

''Hey guys.'' I said, pretending like it's normal.

''Ah, you three.'' Anastasia turns to us.

For a few seconds, I could felt their somewhat doubtful gazes looking at us.

''Hi, Sylvia, Raeliana and Emilia too.'' Christina seemingly smiles like usual, but there's something different about this one.

''You three didn't go to school yesterday, right? What happened?'' Anastasia asked, her cat ears twitching.

Ah~ they're clearly suspicious already, how to deal with this...

*****

Yesterday's operation was largely a success. We lost some of our people, but we were able to secure more than 80 slaves in the basement, plus the ones who worked as maids as well.

When we arrived at the scene, the slaves were already freed from their cages, and upon questioning, they said that a group of black-clothed, masked men and women had released them.

The group allegedly used some kind of strange magic to take down the guards, but the slaves were not able to perceive the magic directly with their eyes, likely due to an illusion magic casted by someone in that group.

Either way, right now, brother William and the other two are preparing to reveal the deeds that Duke Forbes did to the public. It's going pretty well, I'd say.

The only mystery left is the helper, I've never seen magic that strong before, we successfully tracked their location by calculating the trajectory of the rays, but we were one step too late when we arrived.

Aside from that... the two figures yesterday, they looked very similar to Emilia and Raeliana, especially the flatness on the chest of 'Raeliana'. They even used the same weapons. And according to my classmates, all three of them were absent yesterday as well.

Suspicious. Highly suspicious.

Does that mean that they were the ones who attacked our nobles for the past few years? But they just came here recently... Did they hide themselves all that time? 

''Ah, Christina.'' Anastasia greeted, we have become friends after yesterday's work together.

''Anastasia, good morning, did you have a good rest?''

''Mhmm... Not exactly, I didn't sleep very well.''

''That's pretty bad, are you sure you still want to attend class?''

''It's alright, thanks. But... You also saw the two people yesterday, right?''

''... Yeah. I thought they were similar to certain elves we know.''

''I honestly thought so too, but why were they there...''

''Ah, I assume you're not familiar with this, so-

***** 

Hmm, what excuse should I use this time... I probably can't say that I've been trying to make babies with these two the whole day like last time either.

Whatever, gotta be quick, else Liana would flash my tits out like the last time.

''We went on a date.'' I said nonchalantly. ''What's wrong? Did something happen yesterday?''

''...Nothing.'' Anastasia said, squinting her eyes.

''Oh, a date? I'm jealous.'' Christina's eyebrows quirked. ''Can I go on one with you too?''

''Sure thing, I'm always down for more fun.'' I said, going with Christina sounds good.

''Just the two of us?'' Christina looks sideway at my girlfriends, who have already settled down on the nearest table, listening to us.

''Mhmm... Why don't you ask my girlfriends?'' I replied.

''Girlfriends?!'' Anastasia exclaimed, turning to me. ''You have more than one??''

''It's pretty common in high nobles, you know, and Sylvie is a princess.'' Liana shrugged.

''Is that so... Wait, Christina is joining too?!'' This time the cat turns to Christina, who is still looking at my girlfriends.

''Well, do I have the permission to monopolize Sylvia for a day? Dear girlfriends?'' Said Christina.

''Mhmm...'' Liana ponders.

''...If you can beat me once.'' Emy suddenly commented, looking straight at Christina's eyes.

''Oh? That sounds good.'' Liana said.

''...Sure. But how do we do it?'' Christina narrows her eyes.

''Two matches a day, after school.''

''Deal.''

Mhmm, it does feel pretty good to have people fighting over me. Oh well, I'm such a trash. Anyhow.

''Ah, also, do you guys know what's going on today? I saw a bunch of staff running around the main sparring area.'' I said.

Anastasia turns to me. ''Ah, I just heard from a professor earlier, it seems like the headmaster is doing a special lesson for all students of A classes today.''

''That old geezer is? I thought he doesn't teach.'' Liana injected.

''Ahahah...'' Anastasia smiles awkwardly.

----- 

It looks like the news is not out yet, because everyone is acting very normal, no one talks about the Duke at all.

Regardless, currently we're learning history, which is pretty boring so far, it's all about conflicts and glorifying the empire, standard stuff.

I don't really know why they do this either, I mean, I get it, you're trying to do a PR for the empire to bait the talents around the world into your country, but clearly it's not working very well, evident in how none of us is actually listening, at all.

Aside from that, it seems like we're still not off the hook of these two detectives over there. Christina and Anastasia would occasionally take a glance towards us during the class. Mhmm, I thought we distracted them enough earlier.

But that's fine, I think, they don't have any evidence, so.

----- 

''Sylvia.'' Christina said, turning to me.

''Hmm?'' We're now moving to the sparring area, where Stephen - The headmaster will be teaching us something very soon.

''Do you know any magic that has very high speed and penetration?''

''You mean, like, ice spears?'' I see what you're doing there, miss.

''No, but more like, a ray, faster than ice spears.''

''Isn't that more like divine magic? I remember seeing something like that on the offensive category.'' I pretend to think, quirking my eyebrows. ''Right? Anastasia?''

''Eh? Um, there is, but I think the one Christina is talking about is different.''

''Hmm... I don't really know.''

''I see...'' Christina squints her eyes.

You won't be able to catch me, girl.

----- 

All five of us are now sitting on the seats around the sparring platform.

The platform itself is slightly elevated from the ground, square-shaped, and big. I assume that it was made from some kind of metal, looks pretty hard to break.

There's quite a lot of people here, on each side of the platform is one row of chairs, for each A class, I suppose. There's four A classes after all.

The ones from other years look very odd as well, but not nearly as odd as our circus over here. I guess second year is really different, like Stephen said.

Talk about Stephen, there he is, walking in from the distance.

Instantly, I can see the third and fourth years stand up and do 45 degrees bows towards the man. Actually, our classmates are also doing that, minus me, my girlfriends and Christina. I guess he is really respected, huh.

Confused, the first year students also stand up after a dozen seconds, imitating everyone else.

''Relax.'' Stephen addresses everyone with a dignified voice, walking to the center of the platform.

After everyone has settled down, he opens his mouth again.

''Today, I am honored to be able to guide all of you, the youth of this world, to hopefully defeat the evil and reclaim our long lost land.''

''All of you present here are the best of the best, the hope of the whole continent, the ones who will accompany the Saint to face off the demons. For that, please know that you're very special.''

''But, that doesn't mean that you can be complacent, it would only bring failures. Have confident in yourself, but also know despair, that way you can grow further.''

''So for that-

Okay, dude, you're giving us a whole house of nothing burgers here, you're not doing a high school presentation, get to the point. Who the hell did this guy learn from?

-Because all the things you need to know have already been integrated into the curriculum already, we will be doing something different today.''

Finally.

''All of you will doing mock battles against me. Solo, team, whichever you want.''

So just sparring, then, say that from the start, you geezer.