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The training grounds were bustling with activity as the competition unfolded.

Seated in the waiting chairs were Luna and Yui, staring in shock at Luke’s usual antics, which somehow seemed even more bizarre today.

What was “usual” referred to the fact that his strange behaviors were indeed a common sight; however, the scene of him sucking on a person with a straw was something completely new to them.

“Wow… Even vampires wouldn’t suck like that…”

“Yui, a normal person doesn’t suck blood.”

Maybe because they had been together for longer than expected, their sense of reason seemed to be changing. For a brief moment, Yui wondered if humans originally did suck blood.

Such thoughts shouldn’t even be crossing her mind, but here we are.

On the training grounds, Luke held the professor from behind and was greedily sucking the professor’s blood with the help of a shadow and a straw.

He probably didn’t suck directly because of his limitations. This shadow, which had become usable at some point, vaguely resembled Luke but wasn’t a human at all.

Naturally, inside it was completely empty, lacking organs like a heart, so no matter how much blood he sucked, there would be no limit to his satiety.

After all, Luke wasn’t even a vampire and had no reason to drink human blood. Especially not from a muscle-bound man like the professor.

“But when do you plan to finish doing that?” Luna asked.

“Who knows.”

Perhaps he didn’t plan to stop at all. He had the character for it.

Turning her head, Luna noticed other candidate professors seated in similar chairs. Some she recognized, but others were unfamiliar.

All of their expressions seemed to convey disbelief, as if they were watching a madman, and it was actually the norm; it was strange that Yui and Luna were casually holding a conversation amidst the chaos.

During the first round, Luke had turned someone into a mummy, so if that hadn’t sparked any thoughts, those professors would have to be at least on par with Luke or worse.

Five minutes into the second round, and he showed no signs of stopping his blood-sucking spree.

What could possibly happen from a mere human sucking blood through a straw? Naturally, the professor was struggling to break free from Luke, bewildered by the situation.

But he was probably weaker than Luke. He looked like a child wriggling in the grasp of an adult.

Another twenty minutes passed.

Even though such a ridiculous act might seem trivial, if it went on for nearly thirty minutes, the amount was significant.

As evidence, the professor, who had initially struggled vigorously, was now lying limp as he was being drained of blood.

It was likely that he had gone pale from the continuous blood loss.

Moreover, at that rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ended up dead. That muscle-bound professor had enough blood to stay alive, after all.

“I somehow feel like I’ll be next…” Yui murmured with a shiver.

While Yui trembled at the unsettling sight of a vampire draining blood—something that defied logic—such bizarre actions were unique to Luke.

“Just stay obedient, and everything will be fine,” Luna remarked.

Ever since they began associating with him, following that advice had kept them safe.

“Hopefully…”

But honestly, she couldn’t guarantee it.

It seemed she had overlooked the fact that Luke could kill both Luna and Yui at any moment.

After all, neither Luna nor Yui had the courage or the reason to do anything against him.

Comparing how she treated Yui when they first met to how she treated her now, she realized she had become much more lenient. Initially, there had been threats of death at the slightest defiance.

But the moment they crossed any line, Luke would swing his sword without hesitation. He was thorough in such matters.

In an instant, the neck would be cleanly severed… or rather, he could trap Luna and use her tail to make a fur coat, or he might wonder whether it was faster for Yui to stop him or for him to drain her blood himself.

As Luna and Yui reflected on their situations, the second round had quietly come to an end.

Even the announcer stumbled over words in confusion, while the muscle-bound professor, now devoid of color, was carried away on a stretcher.

Upon leaving the training grounds, things returned to normal, but that didn’t mean the professor’s lost consciousness would return, leaving him to be taken to the health room.

And soon, the third round began.

As Yui watched a professor ascend the stairs to the training grounds, she couldn’t help but express pity.

“Oh… The third sacrifice has arrived…”

“To be honest, the further along we go, the worse it seems.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, what has come up until now has been relatively mild.”

Setting oneself on fire and drinking someone’s blood. It was behavior a normal person would never exhibit, but they had seen Luke attempt these actions at least once.

These were within the range of what Luke deemed “normal.”

As evidence, the third professor had lost all five fingers right from the start.

In an instant, shocked by the turn of events, the professor stood there dumbfounded before finally acknowledging the pain and screaming.

As seen with previous professors, injuries healed completely once they exited the training ground, but that didn’t mean the pain would vanish.

So what was he planning to do with the severed fingers?

“Professor, don’t you wonder? Once you step outside, you’ll return to normal, right? If you walk out with your fingers messed up, will you return to normal or not?”

Conversations within the training grounds could be heard outside. They only needed to whisper; all dialogue was audible from the seats close to the training area.

“Welcome to the Training Grounds Glitch.”

Using bizarre terms that only he understood, Luke pulled out needles and threads from his inventory.

But just seeing what he took out made it painfully clear what he was planning.

It would have been better if they didn’t know at all.

“Yui, I recommend you cover your eyes.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I just wanted to warn you that it’s going to be really brutal.”

Despite being older than Luna and Luke, what was about to take place would likely be too gruesome for innocent Yui to witness.

As she tightly shut her eyes and covered them with her hands, coincidentally, a scream erupted from the training grounds at that moment.

As Luna turned her gaze towards the source of the sound, what greeted her was a professor connected by clumsy stitches with fingers in mismatched positions.

Some students couldn’t hold back and ended up vomiting in the middle of the audience, unable to bear the horrific sight.

This was someone who had done whatever they wanted from the start, and with the absence of any responsibility, he went completely off the rails.

There was no way even the Emperor of the Empire could stop that.

“Oh, but symmetry seems a bit off.”

Luke remarked before he chopped off both the professor’s arms and reattached them in reverse, making even the intact fingers mismatched.

Now, when the professor’s arms were fully extended, his palms naturally faced upwards. A peculiar aspect remained, however, where, although the palms faced up, the fingers pointed outwards, sideways, and inwards in all directions.

“What do you think? Isn’t it magnificent?! The professor’s arms are the pinnacle of Germanic intelligence and pride! In other words, it surpasses all humanity! The angle at which a human can never return!”

…She couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.

Luna gave up understanding.

The sight of the professor’s grotesque condition was beyond what even the strongest mental fortitude could handle. Especially knowing it was his own body.

Ultimately, the professor, now resembling a mad scientist’s experiment, couldn’t stand it for more than thirty minutes before fainting, only to be carried out on a stretcher.

Fortunately, when they exited the training grounds, everything returned to normal, but she expected he’d suffer from trauma for quite some time once he regained consciousness.

“Yui, you can open your eyes now.”

“Uh… What? Is it over already? Wasn’t there still a long way to go?”

“You got lucky. Your opponent fainted and had to be carried away.”

Only ten minutes had passed since the third round began.

Though there were still twenty minutes left, she had been fortunate enough that the opponent fainted, allowing her to finish early.

“Wow, wow… What kind of terrible things did you do?”

“Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.”

Yui, filled with curiosity over what had occurred, expressed her thoughts, but Luna had no intention of ever divulging any information.

In fact, she would have liked to have an eye removed from her own sight as well.

Amidst all this, she glanced towards the headmaster’s seat, wondering what the organizer of the competition was doing. To her surprise, the opposing headmaster looked utterly distressed, biting their nails, while beside them, Lucia was smiling brightly.

Seeing the highest-ranking officials of the academy acting that way made Luna rethink whether the academy was truly functioning well.

Maybe, as Luke mentioned, it was best to avoid associating with the academy altogether.

*

The fourth round featured a female professor, and Luke repeatedly slapped her face while making bubbly sounds until she lost consciousness from a concussion.

The final fifth round brought forth a male professor who wielded a sword; he seemed to be the only one who could somewhat hold his own against Luke.

Thus, the punishment for the last professor was particularly brutal. Luke forced fairy tales down his throat until he couldn’t vomit, then yelled, “Let’s hit the jackpot!” as he mercilessly punched the professor in the sternum.

The professor involuntarily spat out the fairy tales, and the fewer pages that came out, the more times he was struck.

Exactly twenty-six minutes passed. With four minutes remaining in the match, the last professor rolled his eyes back and fainted, being carried off on a stretcher.

Such was the extent of the torment he faced; when the last professor was dragged out and the announcer declared Luke’s victory, not a single cheer could be heard.

Originally, the lengthy thirty-minute battle was meant to showcase numerous combats, but Luke had spent that entire time torturing each of the five professors until they had all been stretchered out.

The meaning of a martial arts competition had completely been lost.

Afterward, Luke descended from the training grounds and reunited with Luna and Yui, who were waiting in their seats.

“Fifty gold coins, how easy is it to make money?”

“Wasn’t the last professor a bit too much?”

Compared to the things they had seen, the last professor seemed trivial, yet he would suffer the most lingering aftereffects.

While external and internal injuries returned to normal upon exiting the training grounds, the fairy tales that had been forced down his throat couldn’t just disappear.

The final professor would surely be busy throwing up the fairy tales once he woke up.

“I mean, I wanted it to end quickly, but when he hung in there, I suddenly became angry.”

“You say it’s not anger, but honestly, is there an issue with your anger management?”

“I think so too…”

“If I really had issues with anger management, you all would be dead by now.”

Luke mimicked slicing his throat with his thumb.

Then, without wasting another second, he moved towards the waiting room, signaling that this was the end of their business here.

“Anyway, let’s hurry up. It’s almost time for the payout.”

“Payout?”

“I killed five people, so I need to collect my fifty gold coins from Lucia as promised.”

Luke swiftly walked on, and as he followed him into the waiting room and sat down for a moment…

Clunk.

Lucia walked in through the door, heading straight for Luke.

She handed him a thick purse filled with coins, the motion so natural it sent chills down his spine.

“Here are your fifty gold coins. As a token of appreciation, I added an extra ten.”

“Hehehe… Just call me, and I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”

With that remark, Luke’s face bore the expression as if he had just finished a hit job.

“I feel like I’ve seen something I shouldn’t have…”

“…I feel the same way.”

If Luke had been in their position, he might compare the scene he witnessed to that of a transaction involving suited men, but Luna and Yui had no way of knowing that.

Thus, the competition concluded with the jingling of sixty gold coins held in Luke’s hand.

 

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