Chapter 120 A Glimmer of Hope

In the middle of the bedroom, Rance Hyperion and the Imperial Princess sat on either side of a long oak table.

Their gazes met over three sheets of paper on the table, as if the secrets of the entire Cretea Empire were hidden between those pages.

The night was deep, the outside world as silent as if forgotten, only this room, isolated from the torrent of time.

The fear that had almost overwhelmed Alexia faded with the disappearance of the Poet of Great Love. She gasped as if rising from the seabed, finally able to control her emotions.

A long while passed.

"I believe your information is accurate, but... what exactly are you?"

Princess Alexia's eyes were strained, her lips slightly stiff, and her words still couldn't shake off an unspeakable tension.

"I'm an ecologist, currently working on a project about the vampires."

Rance's eyes were sharp as knives, each word heavy as if carrying weight.

Although he could join the Icrete Academy with his platinum-level card maker status in the future, there was still a long way to go to become the principal.

Currently, the position of principal of Icrete Academy is vacant. Professor Bolaao, the dean of the Magic Engineering Institute, has no interest in power. The dean of the Knights Institute is a retired employee. Dean Loren of the Wise Men's Institute has to serve as the high priest of the Goddess of Destiny Church and does not have that much time, while the dean of the Alchemy Institute is constantly involved in lawsuits due to copyright disputes in his newspaper and may go to jail at any time.

To take office as the principal of such a top-notch school, prestige in academia is essential, because the school not only belongs to the Hutton Kingdom, but is also the official certification and highest-level direct agency of the Southern Continent Shadow World Management Association and the Southern Continent Kingdom United Council. Along with many powers and conveniences, the requirements are naturally extremely high.

One particularly difficult condition is that they are required to have a paper assessed as the highest level of academic value in the Southern Continent.

Looking at the entire Icrete Academy, only a few professors meet this condition, which shows how demanding it is.

So, the most difficult academic research Rance can think of at the moment is "On Ecological Balance and Vampire Governance."

He is not sure whether this topic will be recognized by the academic circles of the Southern Continent.

But doing academic research should be this attitude: wholehearted and reaching the pinnacle.

"?"

Alexia had never heard of an ecologist who could deal with vampires.

Hyperion was peeking at Rance, her eyelids twitching wildly, feeling that this guy was going to do something big again!

The North Continent Slate Search project scheduled for the winter vacation has not yet begun, and he is already planning the next step of research on the ecological environment of the Cretea Empire!

You really, if you don't become the principal, no one else is worthy.

Moreover, even if Hyperion didn't want to drag Rance into the Duke's mystery case, Rance himself would have to get involved in the very center of the Cretea Empire's disputes!

After hearing Rance's answer, Alexia took it as a joke. She pondered for a moment and asked again:

"What is your relationship with the vampires?"

Alexia was quite wary and tense.

This boy knows too many secrets.

There are only two possibilities.

Either he is a lackey of the vampires.

Or he is the mortal enemy of the vampires.

First of all, Alexia is sure that Rance himself cannot be a vampire. Vampires are the easiest race to judge, because they will directly become weak in the sun, and at noon they will even be weakened to only one-tenth of their strength. It is impossible for Rance to be as lively in the sun as he was all day.

But Alexia couldn't judge whether Rance was a vampire's familiar!

Compared to believing that he has an overly unreasonable ability of precognition, a more reasonable explanation is that Rance, who knows vampires like the back of his hand, is on the side of the vampires!

"It's okay, you'll know what my relationship with the vampires is tomorrow."

Rance spread his hands helplessly, as if he understood Princess Alexia's concerns very well.

Indeed, his source of information cannot be explained.

But it doesn't matter.

The question raised by the princess can be proved to her tonight.

"Tomorrow... even if you know more, what's the point?"

The strength that Princess Alexia had originally mustered seemed to be pulled back to the cruel reality by Rance's brief words, and completely dissipated.

If she met Rance outside the Shadow World, she might still try to seize this glimmer of hope and struggle to the end.

But in this Shadow World, which is bound to die, it is a foregone conclusion that everyone will die at the hands of the seventh-tier Vampire Earl.

Even if all the challengers risked their lives, there was no way they could survive under the Earl until the arrival of the sixth dawn.

"..."

Rance tapped lightly on the table with his hand, the sound echoing in the quiet room, cutting through the silence of the night.

He seemed to be thinking about something at the moment.

"A mere Vampire Earl has scared you like this. If the royal family of the Cretea Empire are all like you, no wonder the country was so easily occupied by them."

Finally, Rance spoke.

Hyperion looked at Rance in surprise.

She had never seen Rance say such harsh words to a girl.

However.

After hearing Rance's words, Alexia moved again like a clockwork doll.

She glared at Rance, her eyes red, as if the most inviolable part of her heart had been touched.

"You... you can say I'm a useless princess... but you are not allowed to insult the Cretea Empire!"

Her eyes were filled with tears, which was her last bit of stubbornness.

She had already given up, but for some reason, some things just couldn't be let go.

"Don't you think there is no tomorrow? Then what's the point of arguing?"

Rance looked at her as if she had restarted and smiled reassuringly.

"I will remember the crime of insulting the royal family, I will not forget it..."

Alexia kept wiping her tears and was still warning Rance.

"Then I'll wait for you to sue me, I'll let you see what the Southern Continent's undisputed champion is."

Rance said with a calm smile.

"Then go and kill this Earl first! You're just a guy who only knows how to talk big."

"Then if I really hunt this Vampire Earl, what will you say?"

"Then I'll do whatever you say, anyway, you can't do it."

"..."

Although in Hyperion's view, Rance's teasing tone was constantly mocking Princess Alexia, but it seemed that these words constantly aroused the stubborn will in Alexia's heart.

Even Alexia herself, who had unknowingly awakened her desire to survive, had not noticed it.

"Okay."

Rance stood up with a smile, pushed the chair back under the table, and the sound of the wooden chair legs rubbing against the stone floor echoed in the wide room.

Then he and Hyperion walked towards the door of the bedroom together.

There was no need for the princess to participate in the fight against the Earl tonight, or rather, to let the people in the real world think that "the princess has never been trusted by all their other challengers, and the matter of intercepting the vampires has nothing to do with her."

After all, she still has to go back to the Cretea Empire and spend some time with those vampires.

It would be bad if it aroused the vigilance and suspicion of the vampires.

Rance brought the door of the bedroom closer to Alexia.

"Please rest well tonight, Your Highness. I promise the sun will still rise tomorrow."

The door was slowly closed, and through the gradually shrinking door gap, his face was gradually covered by the door as the words faded.

Alexia stared blankly at the already locked door and Rance's disappearing figure.

Although Rance's promise before leaving was as ethereal as an impossible lie.

But for some reason, she, who had almost lost heart, felt a fire burning in her chest at this moment.

She looked out the window.

When the starlight is very blurred, it seems to indicate that this night will be very long.

If she can really see the sunrise tomorrow.

Then how much worse is the person who can give her this dawn than the sun?

"Save me... no matter what kind of sun you are..."

Alexia murmured, looking at the cage-like night sky as if praying.

(End of this chapter)