Teresa Moon, 18 years of age, 2nd Princess of the Demon Royal Family. The Demons had their own ‘academy’, but Teresa Moon chose the Nemia Academy, which was the better option.

Despite knowing she will be subjected to racism, and ridicule, Teresa was stubborn and eventually convinced her parents, the King and the Queen.

Expectedly, the Principal welcomed her with open arms and helped her as much as she could. Moreover, Teresa didn’t suffer as much as she had anticipated, though it wasn't due to the lack of arrogant and racist students.

No, it was because she towered over her peers, particularly in talent. It was common knowledge that the Demon Race was inherently good at using Magic, and Teresa was no exception. Furthermore, she hailed from the Royal Family, thus making her superior to her own kin.

She was gifted in Magic and was blessed with a strong body, which allowed her to become a force to be reckoned with. In fact, out of all the Third Year students, she was confident in defeating all but the strange Nader Coach.

Her constant deadpan expression notwithstanding, Teresa was the adventurous type. Deeply obsessed with fighting and constantly wanting to improve. Alas, the Nemia Academy offered her little to no challenge, either in terms of worthy rivals or education wise.

The only exception, Nader, was a loner and would respond to her incessant challenges with one or two words before walking away.

Therefore, she gave up on persuading him, though only because of the appearance of the new Close-Quarter Combat teacher, Khalil.

Teresa had exceptionally perceptive senses, so much so that she noticed the familiar ‘aura’ emanating from Khalil. It was distinct and not dissimilar to Nader’s, which only made her more determined to find out more and possibly challenge the teacher.

Alas, Khalil was harder to find than Nader. He was constantly moving from one place to the other and because challenging teachers was prohibited, she couldn’t ask his colleagues about his whereabouts.

Just like that, the game of cat and mouse started and lasted for several days. Unfortunately for Teresa, even when she caught sight of her target, she wasn’t able to follow him.

There were many circumstances that hindered her search; Either the annoying students who would block her path to mock her, or Melissa Crimson who frequently patrolled the campus, or the fact that Khalil generally left his residence late at night.

During a purely coincidental occasion, when Teresa was going back from her daily training in one of the advanced facilities available to all students, she saw Khalil retire to his room. That, in itself, wasn’t anything strange, but Teresa didn’t give up.

She distanced herself from the building in which the teachers lived, making sure that no one would notice or sense her.

She hid in an inconspicuous spot hundreds of meters away and kept her gaze fixated on the half-open window of Khalil’s room. Time crept by and, finally, she saw a green mist rise in the air and head toward the dormitory for the first years.

Afraid that she might be seen, she stayed far behind and tried her best to follow the mist. It wasn’t an easy task as she had to avoid being seen by any of the patrolling teachers and, especially, the Dean.

Teresa ended up losing sight of the mist for ten minutes only to catch a glimpse of it later on, heading North-West.

It was thicker and bigger than before, but it moved in a strange way and seemed to merge with the darkness of the night.

The painstaking pursuit continued but the mist was creeping closer to the Blue Blossom Forest, though it stayed close to the Western coast.

Yet again, the Demon lost the mist and had to search the whole region. One hour, two hours… she didn’t stop scouring every corner in search of her target.

At some point, she lost focus and heard an explosion from the other side of the island, but she ignored it and continued her meticulous ‘investigation’.

When an orange hue covered the sky and the sun started to rise, Teresa found a narrow entrance to a cavern.

After a momentary hesitation, she stepped inside only to see a blond-haired student lying on the ground. His four limbs were tied to a wooden chair.

“G-gracious demon lady… help me out, eh?”

For a couple of moments, Teresa was stupefied and didn’t respond. She looked down at the haggard and pale-faced youth, numerous thoughts raging in her mind.

“Someone t-took me here… please help!”

Feylord’s desperate call snapped her out of it. She knelt on the ground and proceeded to remove the bounds.

“Who took you here? Did you see their faces?”

Feylord didn’t have time to respond as he hastily moved his one free hand and tried to quickly get rid of the ropes.

In half a minute, he was, at last, unbound and standing on his feet. While querying lips, he moved his hand and signaled for Teresa to leave as he sprinted toward the close exit.

Woefully for the young man, a silhouette calmly appeared out of nowhere, blocking his exit. It was the same face from before. The kidnapper.

Feylord fearfully backed away and raised hands, seemingly surrendering.

“I…I…”

He wasn’t able to speak coherently. He nearly choked up as he kept backing away until he fell on his butt.

As for Teresa, her eyes turned cold and strange violet flames enveloped both of her clenched fists.

The man didn’t speak, he extended his left hand toward the young demon and unleashed a burst of green mist.

Teresa immediately retaliated and shot toward him, but mid-charge, her complexion changed and she crashed to the ground, gasping for breath.

[Air Decay] robbed her of air and incapacitated her instantly. Before she could recover, a hand pressed on her head, bringing with it an excruciating agony.

She fell unconscious, the flames around her hands vanishing and her body turning limp.

Feylord didn’t fare any better as he was subjected to [Mind Blast] and lost consciousness.

…

‘Teresa Moon?’

As the mist returned to his body, Arthur looked at his hand, which was trembling ever-so-slightly. He walked to the girl and examined the relatively small earring on her right ear. There was a minuscule living eyeball dangling from the earring, pure black with an abnormally dilated red pupil.

It was an eerie magical artifact, and it was looking straight at the parasite.

‘Creepy stuff.’

He stretched his hand and tried to remove the earring, but he felt a strong electric shock invade his body.

“That hurt, you fucking…”

Arthur controlled his anger and pulled his hand. If it was a normal student, that single electric shock would have killed them on the spot.

Fortunately, Arthur had [Magic Resistance] and [Tenacity], so the damage was considerably reduced. Still, he felt a bit of pain, which meant that it wasn’t a normal Magical Artifact. After all, he seldom felt genuine, agonising pain when fighting.

‘She’s seen Feylord and she could have been sent by either Jan, Sonia, or Jonathan. It’s not a risk I’m willing to take. But… Can I kill her? [Mind Blast] worked on her, but when I had attacked her, I wasn’t going for the kill. Should I test the efficacy of this artifact? Since she’s part of the Royal Family, it’s definitely some manner of defensive artifact.’

Since he could not kill her himself, Arthur was going to try indirect methods such as drowning her in the sea. However, amidst his deep contemplation, his vision turned red and Teresa’s body swiftly rose up.

Her clenched fist, enveloped in violet flames, struck his face but it didn’t make him budge.

He used [Freeze], letting out a chilling and cold aura, which glued her to the ground.

Half of his face was burning, the skin melting and the dried blood inside of his vein leaking out in a disgusting manner.

Teresa, who thought she succeeded in killing him, was dumbfounded. Half of the man’s face was burned and though the fire was extinguished almost instantly, he was still unfazed and nonchalant.

The bones of the chin and jaw were revealed, some of the teeth too, which made the parasite look horrifying, to say the least.

With his remaining eye, he stared down at the petrified girl and said,

“You’re fast, Your Highness.”

He grabbed hold of her neck and pinned her to the ground while his other hand pressed against her head.

He used [Mind Blast] again, but the eyeball reacted and unleashed another shock.

The host’s veins burst out and his internal organs sustained heavy damage, nevertheless, Arthur was immovable as his grip was tight and unbreakable.

‘It could sense if I’m going to kill her or not. It’s troublesome… and annoying.’

Teresa thrashed around for a couple of breaths before her face turned purple. She was suffocating under his strong grip and even though her artifact was retaliating, it didn’t seem to work.

The parasite, half of his face burned and scorched, leaned closer to the girl.

“Who do you work for?”

He loosened his grasp over her neck, but she just coughed and desperately gasped for breath.

‘I doubt that my strongest attack would kill her. That earring is not normal… it’s as if it’s a living being.’

Feeling his body breaking apart from the inside, Arthur backed away and directed his hand to the ground.

He used [Wither Touch] to absorb the energy from his surroundings and regenerate. The effect was quick and the electric currents that invaded his body were overwhelmed by the influx of Mana, but the ground around him withered and turned soft like mudd.

‘contact of barely a minute yet it ruined this body.’

While sitting up and holding her reddened neck, Teresa kept looking at the undying man while stutteringly saying,

“K-Khalil… I..I k..know it’s you. I…” She coughed multiple times then took a long and deep breath before exhaling and speaking more coherently.

“I saw you.”

‘Okay. So she doesn’t work for Sonia. Verno is dead so it can’t be him. Either it’s Jan or Jonathan, but neither of them have any reason to suspect the new Teacher.’

A shiny yellow-ish barrier appeared around Teresa, startling her. It entrapped her in a small space and didn’t physically hurt her, so the earring didn’t react.

‘Since it came down to this, perhaps a civil talk will do. Assuming she’s willing to talk, that is.’

“So what if I am Khalil?”

“Why do you look different? And why did you kidnap a student?”

“Am I to reveal my plans simply because you asked?”

Seeing the smirk form on his burnt face, Teresa looked horrified. She was almost sure that he was somesort of Undead, but she couldn’t determine what type exactly.

She wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about the Undead, and her knowledge was limited to Zombies, Lichs, and Wraiths. However, the man’s ‘characteristics’ didn’t fit any of the aforementioned three.

A Lich cannot change its appearance and the thought of one roaming the Nemia Academy undetected was absurd. Fire Magic and Holy Magic was the nemesis of Zombies. Wraiths were immaterial and incapable of using proper Magic, such as the Ice-aspected Spell she was hit by a minute ago.

Arthur paced around the Sanguis barrier while poking his melted face, which looked like a half skeletal face with a bit of coagulated blood, gore, and charred skin.

“I wonder, what does the 2nd Princess want with me? Or even better, what role does she play within this sea of lies and feast of spies.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She refused with a furrowed brow.

“Sure you do, Your Highness. Why else would you be here?”

“I was tailing you.”

“And why is that? For fun?”

“Curiosity, mostly.” She gave an honest reply while touching the barrier, seemingly testing it.

“I wanted to challenge you. That was it.”

Arthur halted his feet and gave her a meaningful and cold stare before chuckling,

“That’s such an idiotic reason I almost fell for it. You expect me to believe that you went through the trouble of tailing me all the way here just to ‘challenge’ me? Come on, Your Highness. You’ve got to try harder. You’re making a fool out of yourself.”

Teresa gritted her lips and lowered her head, clearly angry and insulted. She tried to talk back but didn’t and just stood there, like a disheartened and wronged child.

Truthfully, Arthur expected a better formulated lie, or a believable recounting, but Teresa’s reaction surprised him.

He approached the barrier and spoke again,

“Really? You’re this stupid?”

“What’s wrong with wanting to fight you? You beat me during that spar or whatever but it’s because I wasn’t prepared! I’m definitely superior in close-quarter combat.”

“...”

Seeing her lash out in frustration, Arthur’s eyes opened wide. He was genuinely rendered speechless.

Admittedly, this could be a deliberate act like that of Jan’s, but it also could be the truth. Not everyone was a master manipulator like the Witch of Izakan, and not everyone could keep such an act after all that happened.

“Remove this barrier and I’ll show you what I can do.”

“Why should I endanger myself and set you free? There’s a limit to stupidity, Your Highness.”

“What?” The girl snorted and banged on the barrier, “We’ve cleared the misunderstanding, so we’re no longer enemies. I don’t know what you’re up to and I honestly don’t care.”

“Fine. If you take off your earring, I’ll get rid of the barrier.”

“Are you dumb? The Eye of Malediction is what kept me alive so far. You could kill me the moment I take it off. I'm not that idiotic.”

“...”

Having had enough of her weirdness, Arthur facepalmed himself and sighed.

‘What’s with her obsession with challenges? And why must I deal with one mess after the oth-... no. A smart person will turn a curse into a blessing. The Eye of Malediction, I’m guessing physical contact isn’t necessary for it to retaliate. If that’s true, maybe I can use her along with Feylord. First, I have to bridge our differences and persuade her, which, I think, shouldn’t be hard.’

“Your Highness, you’re so talented and strong. Are you sure you can face me in close-quarter combat? Because I’m the best of the best.”

“I can and I will! But not before you remove the barrier and tell me what you are.”

“That, Your Highness, will take some time to explain. Now then..”

Arthur waved his hand, causing the barrier to vanish. Teresa reacted swiftly and took a fighting stance but was dumbstruck to see the parasite offer his hand for a handshake.

“Can’t we be friends, Your Highness? No bridge is too big to cross.”

The girl felt creeped out by his abrupt change of behavior, but the urge to fight him had drowned her suspicion, shock, and tinge of fear caused by his appearance.

A genius without peer, a talented Mage and powerful fighter, Teresa Moon, was, indeed, a stupid person.