"I accept."

As soon as I heard the words, a smile appeared on my face. It wasn't the same fake smile my flaw always forced on me, this one was real.

Oh, goddamn, how much I adore myself.

I really have to admit it… I'm one glorious bastard.

I mean, come on, I just convinced the daughter of the Demon King, a future walking calamity, someone strong enough to challenge gods at her peak… to be my bodyguard in exchange for a few bars of chocolate.

"Good doing business with you then, Arza."

I extended the chocolate bar toward her. She took it immediately without any hesitation at all, her attention already locked on the sweet instead of me.

I didn't bother talking anymore.

My attention shifted to the figure floating lazily above the crowd, scanning us with bored eyes.

Azriel.

That bastard had been there for a while now, watching with that same fucking expression he always had.

I could guess the reason for silence… he was probably waiting for the rest of the students to arrive.

The teleportation circle beneath us still glowed faintly, its light pulsing as it pulled in more students one by one.

The process dragged on for a while.

After all, the teleportation took time, each student arriving based on how far they had been from the entrance.

When it finally ended, Azriel's gaze swept over the crowd once more and then his voice boomed, echoing through the clearing.

"Congratulations to all those who survived."

His voice carried no emotion whatsoever.

"The orientation will be tomorrow, at seven in the morning, in the First-Year Orientation Hall," he announced."Further details will be provided there and those who are late will receive a penalty."

He vanished the moment he finished speaking.

Tsk. This fucker.

Why the hell was he even here in the first place?

I wasn't exactly surprised by the punishment part, though. That bastard phrased it that way on purpose.

Noxvalen Academy — the academy for demons. It was famous for its brutally difficult curriculum.

A curriculum so intense it could make even demons cough up blood.

That's how every survivor or graduate, depending on how optimistic you are, described it.

But beyond the brutal coursework… was its location.

The thing that made even demons hesitate.

The academy was wrapped in countless illusory arrays, each one designed to mimic the landscape of the Forest of Unmasked.

Not the monsters but the effect.

The ever-shifting maze.

Even with countless genius minds working on it, they could only ever replicate about thirty percent of its complexity.

Apparently, that was the limit of a "mortal mind."

Or at least, that's what those self-proclaimed prodigies liked to whine about while crying over their failures.

The landscape inside Noxvalen was eerily similar to the Forest of Unmasked, the same shifting pathways, the same distorted sense of direction but unlike the real forest, this one had… loopholes.

Long ago, the Demon King of that era had a rather ambitious idea.

He wanted to turn this space into a perfect trap, a weaponized maze.

So, he gathered the brightest minds of his time and ordered them to recreate the Forest of Unmasked.

His plan was simple: he built an artificial floating island for deception of treasure and anchored it just beside the real forest, hoping to siphon its stray energy and bind it within this illusionary domain.

But thanks to the geniuses' spectacular failure, a single, glaring flaw remained.

The mana paths.

The location's mana paths were dominant at some places and to a trained eye, they could find those locations and make their exits easily.

The demon king furiously killed all those geniuses and made this 'flawed' place into an institution for creating countless such geniuses.

He kept the illusionary array and made it into a curriculum for students.

Yeah… and that same curriculum was gonna screw me over hard.

I mean, who the hell needs to wake up early for an academy only to get lost in a maze?

But, of course, Noxvalen, in all its generosity, provided a little help. It gave everyone a faint sense of how the mana felt at the dominant locations and left a few subtle threads to trace them.

Still, for young adults who had barely awakened their mana, it was like trying to catch a dinosaur with a stick. Technically possible, if you knew the exact spot to stab otherwise, you would get eaten before you even tried.

But who would tell it to those bastards?

They made it into the curriculum.

Those who reached the designated place at the right time wouldn't get any reward but those who were late? Oh, they would get a penalty.

A penalty like… spending a week alone in the Cave of Self-Reflection.

Now, kind and humble people like me might think that sounds like a peaceful place, a cave for meditation, self-awareness and maybe understanding mana better.

But nope.

Those demonic bastards turned it into a nightmare.

Inside that cave, a monster would chase you endlessly. You either kept running… or you got eaten. You wouldn't need food or sleep, sure, but the mental exhaustion? Yeah, that part was all yours to deal with.

Hence, the oh-so-poetic name.

But their sadistic nature didn't end there.

The cave's monster grew stronger with every visit, every penalty, until eventually, no one came out alive.

So yeah, it was highly advisable not to rack up too many punishments in this academy.

Because trust me… the Cave of Self-Reflection was just a child compared to what waited beyond it.

I looked around, finally taking in the real number of survivors. Not many had made it through… at least, not humans.

Out of a hundred and fifty-one humans, barely fifty survived the entrance test and even among them, some were missing limbs.

Physical wounds could be healed soon enough.

The psychological ones, though, would never really fade.

Some of them would give up.

Others… would grow stronger.

A sigh escaped my lips.

It was annoying, honestly, seeing so many people of my own race die like that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not racist or anything, but life is life and watching a bunch of seventeen-year-olds die pointless deaths just felt… weird.

Unlike demons or dragons, who were trained and hardened by death from childhood, humans were soft.

They laughed.

They smiled.

They lived simple and happy lives.

And then they were thrown into this pit.

I wasn't being a hypocrite.

Yeah, I had killed a few people in the forest and I was going to kill more in the future but that was survival and I would carry that weight for lifetime, not out of guilt but because it's mine to bear.

Even now, what I felt wasn't sorrow or some sense of justice, all I felt was determination.

In this world, death waits around every corner and if I ever grow weak, I'll fade just like the nameless humans who died today.

Still… I closed my eyes for a moment, hoping that those who had fallen would at least find some peace in death because the ones still breathing weren't getting any.

Among the crowd, aside from the fifty or so humans and maybe ten dragons, there were hundreds of demons.

I mean, this was Noxvalen, the Demon Realm's own academy.

Unlike us, who were here as exchange students, the demons were locals. Their numbers alone completely dwarfed the other two races.

For demons, getting into Noxvalen was a guaranteed success, not just for them but for their families too.

It was the most prestigious academy in the entire realm and those who managed to graduate were hailed as prodigies.

So naturally, every demon, noble or commoner, dreamed of becoming a student here and they trained their whole lives for it.

My gaze swept through the crowd of demons, most of them chatting among themselves, a few glaring daggers at me.

Can't really blame them, I guess. Having Arza beside me, nibbling on chocolate like some peaceful death goddess, would piss off anyone and then, through all that noise and hostility… I spotted a girl waving at me energetically.

Viola.

Seeing her, a smile tugged at my lips and I waved back. She practically jumped over the barricade and sprinted toward me.

Yeah, yeah, come on, I knew it. You poor thing probably couldn't survive a day without basking in my glorious face. I'll even allow you to hug me… one last time.

Or at least, that's what I thought but unlike my overexaggerated expectations, she ran right past me as if I were just… a gust of wind.

I turned around, definitely not hurt, thank you very much, just in time to see her throwing her arms around the girl standing quietly behind me, beside Bearlo.

Seraphina.

"Thank God you're okay, Sera!"

Viola hugged her tightly.

Seraphina didn't say anything and just stood there, stiff and uncertain on what to do.

Typical introvert behavior.

So, being the considerate and selfless person I am, I decided to help her out.

"Thanks for caring, Viola," I said, smiling. "I'm alive as well."

Viola turned toward me with a frown as if only just realizing I even existed and then she spoke.

"Who are you?"

For a moment, everything went still and my mind blanked.

Did the Trickster's power… made her forget as well?

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