Facing those musclebound men with solemn expressions, after a brief silence, Muen pulled out a fruit knife from behind and shouted fiercely with a vicious look on his face:

“Don’t come any closer, I’m very strong...”

Before he could finish speaking—

Clack clack clack.

The muscle men silently drew their two-meter-long greatswords.

The blades gleamed coldly.

Pointed straight at Muen.

“......”

Muen looked at their two-meter-long greatswords, then looked at his own twenty-centimeter short dagger.

He forced out a smile.

“Don’t come any closer, I’m very weak, okay? If you don’t believe me, I’ll commit seppuku right now and show you.”

“......”

The muscle men still remained silent. They didn’t seem good at talking, but only someone like Muen, who could spot that trace of shyness in their eyes, would realize that this group of pure-hearted meatheads simply had never talked to a girl before.

But no matter how pure-hearted they were, there was no way they’d just let Muen go.

The muscle men closed in step by step, and Muen could only retreat accordingly.

It wasn’t that Muen didn’t want to use Shadow Step to flee immediately, but Shadow Step wasn’t actual teleportation—it couldn’t ignore obstacles—so in this surrounded situation, it was genuinely hard to escape.

Moreover, Muen had used Shadow Step during the martial arts class earlier—if he used it now and Ariel recognized it and started guessing his identity...

Thinking back to all those cringey lines Ariel had just said to him, Muen didn’t even want to imagine how many pieces she’d chop him into once she realized it was him.

Either way, it wouldn’t be a small number.

“What do I do... what do I do... If I get caught and dragged back, all my efforts will be for nothing.” Cold sweat beaded on Muen’s forehead. Without realizing it, he’d already backed up against a cold wall, cornered with nowhere left to go.

So many muscle men had come upstairs—the defense downstairs would only become thinner.

Which meant the heroes would charge in even faster.

And when that time came...

To die socially in front of the entire school—that’s just not okay.

“Muen junior~”

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out.

Muen froze for a second, then couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

A surge of joy, like finding life in desperate straits, flooded his chest.

“Senior?”

Muen turned to look around.

“Where are you?”

“Don’t move, okay?”

That soft voice echoed by his ear.

Just as the muscle men were puzzled by Muen’s sudden self-talk, a shadow, formed from where the wall and ground met, suddenly darted out like a snake.

A whip. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

A long whip swayed flexibly, as if it had a will of its own, and lashed toward the muscle man closest to Muen.

That muscle man reacted quickly, raising his blade to block, but the whip that looked soft suddenly burst with a strength of ten thousand pounds. The man’s greatsword visibly bent under the force.

And under that overwhelming blow, the muscle man let out a miserable cry and was sent flying without suspense.

A gap opened in the encirclement, and the whip quickly recoiled, wrapping around Muen’s waist and dragging him through the opening at speed.

His body thrown off balance from being pulled, Muen instinctively panicked a little, but before he could even struggle, he felt himself embraced by a warm hug.

A familiar light scent filled his nose, and the soft pressure from behind made his heart flutter uncontrollably.

In the dark corner, Muen felt a pair of hands wrapping around his waist, a pointed chin lightly resting on his shoulder, warm breath brushing past his ear, ticklish and tingly.

“Junior, you’re so pretty.”

Muen heard that devilish little voice from the senior ring beside his ear, and even his heart began to float a little.

“It’s all because of you, senior,” Muen said with a bitter smile.

“I never wanted to end up like this.”

“Really? But I think you’re quite happy. Standing so conspicuously in front of everyone’s eyes like that—are you trying to gain popularity first and then debut as the Academy idol?”

Senior Anna chuckled softly: “I think you’ve got real potential. Just look at your current popularity—those younger male students get all riled up the moment they see you. If you debut now, it might not be long before your fame even surpasses that of the Student Council President.”

“No way I’m becoming an idol!”

Muen covered his face and shouted:

“I’m a hundred-percent pure muscle man, okay?!”

“But if you put on a little dress right now, I think you’d look even better than me.”

“......” Muen was numb. Didn’t even want to talk.

“Giggle, alright, I’ll stop teasing you now.”

Anna patted Muen’s head and said with a delicate laugh:

“While that big guy’s distracted, let’s go.”

“Yeah yeah, let’s go, let’s go.”

Muen nodded repeatedly, even a little misty-eyed.

After being tormented for so long, he could finally...

Boom!

Not even a single tear had time to fall yet.

A familiar figure was suddenly hurled through the air and crashed hard against the wall beside Muen.

“Cough cough...”

Through the swirling dust, Ariel clutched at broken stone and slowly sat up with difficulty—then spat out a huge mouthful of blood.

“Damn it... As expected, even if I used a forbidden technique to temporarily boost my strength, fighting someone two tiers above is still pushing it too far...”

Under Muen’s dazed gaze, Ariel turned her head, her face lighting up for a moment when she saw him—but then, noticing the senior holding him, she froze, then flared up with fury:

“Who are you?! How dare you act faster than me!”

“......”

Muen’s mouth twitched. He had no idea what to say.

But at that moment, the senior behind him suddenly let go, turning into a shadowy blur and darting forward.

The High Priest had arrived.

“Oh? Another woman?”

The High Priest, gripping a blood-stained greatblade, looked toward the oncoming Anna with a twisted smile.

On his chest was a massive wound, as if burned by fire—but he showed no reaction at all, as if to him it was as insignificant as a fallen hair. Even though... he didn’t actually have any hair.

“As I thought, women are nothing but trouble!”

The High Priest’s face twisted with rage, and he once again raised his greatblade and slashed down!

The cold blade gleamed as it stirred up a violent gust—he showed no intention of sparing beauty, like he was simply chopping meat on a cutting board clean in half.

Under this terrifying blade light, Anna looked as fragile as paper.

But suddenly, Anna twisted her waist, her entire body seeming to have no bones at all—her lithe figure instantly bent into a pose even professional dancers would envy, nimbly dodging the High Priest’s strike.

In the next moment, before the High Priest could swing again, Anna lightly stepped on his paused greatblade and leapt up like a black cat, her figure tracing a graceful arc in midair—then flipped and extended a finger toward the High Priest’s head.

On her charming face, a rare trace of coldness appeared.

“Explode.”

Her red lips softly parted.

A spell, skipped of chant, instantly constructed at her fingertip.

Fierce light burst forth in an instant, along with terrifying heat infused with destruction, rushing toward the unguarded High Priest.

Even if the spell’s power was significantly reduced due to skipping the chant, at such close range, the explosive magic known for its raw power was not something a flesh-and-blood body could withstand.

And so—

Flesh and blood flew.

Even though the ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ High Priest twisted his head at the last second to avoid a fatal blow, the heat and flames still instantly devoured a large portion of his flesh. His shoulder was completely blown apart, and the hand holding the blade now drooped like a tree branch broken off by a mischievous child—barely clinging on by a few threads of flesh.