2.5.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Iona, Schwii's personal maid."

The maidservant promptly bowed. Her dark red hair was neatly tied into a bun behind her, a maid dress with plenty of frill on the white apron draped over her body. Following that, she rose back up and looked at the three of them with her dull gray eyes; an indifferent expression on her face.

"N-Nice to meet you," Ro stuttered.

"Nice to meet you.." Lilian kept glancing at Schwii.

"..." Sequencee remained silent, sensing something off about this maid in front of him.

"Sequencee?" Schwii called out to him.

"Nothing. Let's get along Iona," Sequencee said.

"It is as you say."

"Iona, you may take that room there," Schwii pointed all the way to the end of the hall.

"Hm? Are we not going to share the same– umph?!"

It was nice to have a maid around to handle the house chores as they focused on class. Back at Mane's Home for Disaster children where Sequencee stayed, they had to manage their rooms and clothes by themselves. Iona's presence could put an end to these sedentary duties though, seeing Schwii restrained Iona and whispered something into her pointy ear, Sequencee wondered if he was imagining things when the maid's ears turned red, squirming in Schwii's thin arms as if she were enjoying it. Schwii released her hold from behind.

'This maid is definitely a succubus..'

"Pardon my rudeness," Iona promptly bowed again before moving to her assigned room.

Earlier, it was after the appraisal that Schwii said that she had something she needed to do and went somewhere after a late lunch. Ro, Lilian and Sequencee stayed back at the apartment without anything to do. They had the idea of perhaps exploring the campus a little more but Sequencee wasn't in support of it as he wasn't sure when Schwii would return. On the off hand risk that she would return earlier than expected, he chose to stay. He didn't want her to come back just to find herself alone. Ro and Lilian didn't mind Sequencee's suggestion and simply laze around after the morning session of appraisal.

Just like that an hour passed when Schwii returned with the succubus maid Iona.

"Schwii, who exactly is she?" Sequencee asked in a whisper, taking care so that Ro and Lilian wouldn't overhear.

"My maid. What else is there to it?" Schwii cutely tilted her head.

'There's absolutely no way she's just your maid..'

Her gesture made Sequencee difficult to continue so he accepted her excuse for now.

Iona finished unpacking her stuff and came out wearing casual clothes. It was a snug fit to her mature figure which naturally drew the eye of men. Black ornaments adorned her drapery dusk red hair which she had let cascade down, coupled with dreary silverish eyes only did more to arouse a sense of wanting to possess her. Not to mention her cold expressionless face, making her all the more mysterious.

"Would you prefer that I cook? Or do you have other plans?" Iona looked at Schwii.

"Hm.. what do you think?" Schwii turned to the three.

"Um.."

"We're supposed to use our own money aren't we?"

Schwii pouted at their response.

"It seems you've gotten attached to other companions," Iona said without any change in intonation. It was unknown if her words were meant as a joke.

"Forget what I said about that. If you need anything just ask. It's beyond me to treat you any less after pushing you here.. just grow up to become great people.." Schwii began a winding lecture with the purpose being to 'don't worry about money I'm here to back you if you need it', going against her previous argument.

Ro and Lilian looked at each other in confusion.

===

It was the late evening, past 10 pm when everyone had gone to sleep– well, almost everyone.

"Where are you going?"

"You're still awake?" Sequencee who was about to leave the apartment turned around and saw Schwii in her nightgown. It had a different design from the one she wore yesterday, this one was less revealing but the way it curved around her body didn't fail to deliver the seductive impact it was intended to. Sequencee dared not to look at her for too long.

"Yes I'm awake. So where are you going?"

"I'm going to the training theater."

"At this sort of time?" Schwii placed both her arms on her waist.

"Yeah."

'You can lecture me all you like, I'm not going to bend.'

Sequencee had already made up his mind to train at the theater. Beyond his basic fundamentals, he could practice his magic without restraint, something he hadn't done in a long time.

"When are you coming back? It's going to be quite late."

"Probably tomorrow morning."

"..."

"I'll be fine."

"Do you not sleep?"

"Demon lords don't need to sleep don't they?"

"Demon lords need sleep."

"I think it's just out of habit. Anyways, that's how it has always been for me so..."

"No way. I forbid you from staying up the whole night!"

Schwii wanted to grab Sequencee but her hand touched an invisible field around him.

"I'll make sure to take care of myself," Sequencee opened the door and..

"Wait–!"

Shut it behind him.

Schwii who watched him leave pouted in frustration.

'Just what's up with him?'

"Did something happen?" Iona peeked out of the corner.

"Do demon lords not need sleep?"

"Demon lords? I'm sure they do need some degree of rest."

"Does rest imply sleep?"

"No."

'So I've been wasting my time sleeping all this time?!'

When she was ruling the nation, she would drop dead at night because of the exhaustion during the day. Who would've thought that the exhaustion was but an illusion in her mind!

'I feel sleepy though..'

"Iona, let's follow him."

"Understood."

===

The training theater was a humongous dome structure where students came to develop themselves. The gym, bubble battlefields and even a dueling area. Unlike the colosseum, the different sections of the building were partitioned, and there were no spectator seats except for the larger dueling areas which could be found on the uppermost floor.

Sequencee went to the gym and completed his basic set of a thousand pushups, situps and squats. He also observed how the students here operated these unusual machines, but in the end, he couldn't comprehend their use.

'Maybe simple is best.'

He proceeded to the bubble fields, the one where he took out the golem earlier in the morning and began practicing his mother's spearmanship footwork. The bubble had the surprising property of muffling sound and blurring the happenings inside the field on top of its barrier property. So even though the other students that were present were making a huge commotion in their own space, it merely showed up as flashes of light with low rumbles.

Sequencee recalled the humiliation of being tossed out of the academy. How he wasn't even able to retaliate against that old elf before he was sapped of everything. It was an unpleasant memory that fueled him; a reminder that strategy was as important as strength.

It's likely that the old elf had already predicted that Sequencee would fight back, so the countermeasures arranged were just right to prevent any backlash. Quick and efficient.

'It must be a system ability. Like an anti-magic thing.'

Sequencee still remembered how his magic was extinguished the moment he tried to coalesce something.

'Or was it a stun?'

He remembered blanking out at that time. As if his ability to think had been temporarily been rid off.

These thoughts flashed through his mind as he swung his spear in familiar motions. His spatial magic tripped off as someone approached him.

He stopped and turned to the person who stood just outside the bubble.

It was Iona the maid. Surprisingly, she was wearing her maid uniform. It gave off an incongruent yet enchanting vibe. She went over and operated the control panel from the outside, the bubble surrounding the field vanished.

"What is it?" Sequncee didn't feel comfortable seeing Schwii's maid like this.

"Isn't it lonely?" An unexpected question came out from her mouth.

"Lonely? Isn't it supposed to be lonely?"

"Follow me," saying nothing more, Iona turned around and walked. Sequencee furrowed his brows. Crumbling the earth spear, he tailed behind her.

They reached the topmost floor– the dueling area. Of the five present, there were four not in use.

"Do you know how to operate this?" Iona beckoned, pointing to the different control panel.

The dueling area was different from the field bubble in that it had an emergency teleport protocol in place should the student suffer any life threatening injuries. It was similar to the one at the colosseum except at a smaller scale. Anyone who is gravely injured will be teleported to the nearby medic bay where there is a priest or priestess on standby 24/7.

Sequencee fidgeted around with the interface and successfully brought the system online. A golden field wrapped around the space.

"You want to fight?" Sequencee asked.

"I'm only here to do what I must."

'Do what you must huh?'

"Where's Schwii?"

"She slept midway through your training. I relieved her to her room."

'Well.. that's unexpected.. no wait what?'

"So you guys stalked me?"

"Yes," Iona said without a shred of emotion.

'I shouldn't be surprised there. Schwii had been stalking me since the first time I met her at the capital..'

"Iona, who are you exactly? You're a demon too, right?"

"Why don't you guess?"

Killing intent rippled across the duel ring, sparks of red could be seen flickering intermittently in the surrounding space. Sequencee felt the pressure, he narrowed his eyes and prepared his spells.

'She brought me here to fight.'