I don't want to be an elf!

"Instead of wasting your time arguing with me, why don't you go and urge your chairman to send you the money quickly?" Irene said weakly. "I don't even know how much longer I can hold on, maybe a few minutes, maybe a few seconds. Don't let me down."

“Give up. The chairwoman of Quinvy Girls’ Academy is not going to spend nine hundred million dollars for you,” Diluc interjected. “More than an hour has passed since the first duel began, and you haven’t received any response. This is enough to show that she is unwilling to spend a lot of money on someone as insignificant as you.”

"..."

"Heh, you've been completely used as a tool, haven't you, Irene?" Diluc said with a sneer. "This is the price of blindly trusting others. In the end, Izayoi Miku didn't pay anything, but you lost everything."

Irene pursed her lips and gripped the sword hilt tightly.

For a moment, she wavered.

However, it only lasted for a moment.

“Hey, I can trust you, right?” she asked the person behind her in a deep voice.

"Of course, I always keep my word."

"very good."

Having received an answer, Irene took a deep breath, her eyes revealing a resolute determination.

She raised the Slaughtering Duke, squeezing out the last of her stellar power and pouring it into it.

Fearlessly, they challenged this never-ending duel.

"You really are the best toy. It's such a shame that you're broken like this."

Miku Izayoi smiled slightly, and a huge pipe organ appeared behind her: "Fighting alone looks rather boring, so let me add some music to make the duel more interesting."

As soon as she finished speaking, lively notes rang out from the Broken Army Songstress.

The piercing alarm sound has inexplicably disappeared.

The ethereal music seemed to be playing from the depths of the soul.

At this moment, the oppressive confinement room seemed to transform into a secluded pond in the forest.

Profound, ancient, and deeply moving...

Oh, please don't let me die.

【WaitingForYourTouch】

【NoDon'tGiveUpOnlife】

【ThisEndlessDeadEnd】

The song spirit stretched out its throat and sang a ballad that seemed to come from a distant abyss.

So gentle, so cold.

It was as if it possessed the power to freeze the soul, drawing out the chill from the very bones.

Even though this is not the time to appreciate music, some music lovers closed their eyes and savored the melody.

Irene's pupils contracted slightly.

She has no taste in music.

The reason for her surprise was simply that she felt waves of power, seemingly from nowhere, rising within her body and surging through her veins.

That unknown power flowed to every part of his body, mobilizing all the remaining power within him, turning streams of water into a vast river.

The poignant melody gradually rose in pitch, revitalizing Irene's dormant senses.

The excruciating pain and the exhaustion from the long battle vanished under the gentle caress of the song, and a surge of power coursed through her body, causing her to grip the greatsword tightly.

The depleted starlight was replenished, and with the infusion of power, the Aosha Gong once again shone brightly.

Irene grinned broadly.

A violent aura rose up, seemingly taking on a tangible form, stinging the opponent's skin.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and enjoyed the surging tide of power within her.

"Pretending!"

The challenger, wielding the giant hammer, sensed something was amiss and, to prevent Irene from adapting to the power, seized the initiative and launched an attack.

He wielded his hammer-shaped weapon with great vigor, unleashing a powerful, all-out attack with immense wind pressure at Irene, who was standing still.

"boom----!"

A solid, impactful sensation came through the hammer, and the impact shattered the floor beneath my feet, sending up layers of debris.

The challenger pressed his advantage and was about to swing his hammer a second time when he discovered that he could not lift his weapon no matter what he did.

Amidst the obscuring dust, a pair of eyes flashing with blood-red light suddenly opened.

Only then did the challenger realize that a blood-stained hand was gripping his hammer like a claw.

"That's it."

A suppressed, impulsive voice rose from the dust, sounding an alarm bell in the challenger's mind.

However, before he could make a move, the purple-glowing blade cleaved through the dust and slammed heavily into his body.

Flying straight over Diluc's head, the forty-first challenger, the eleventh of the twelve from the beginning, landed awkwardly dozens of meters away.

With a ferocious expression, he clutched his bloodied and mangled arm, letting out a painful roar, completely incapacitated.

"next."

Irene emerged from the dust, tossed aside the hammer-shaped Blazing Weapon in her hand, and beckoned to the increasingly uneasy crowd.

Under Diluc's increasingly gloomy gaze, the smile on her lips grew even more manic.

The people behind Diluc exchanged glances and shoved each other, but none of them dared to step forward to fight.

After all, the power to knock away one of the twelve strongest members of the Beginning Page with a single sword strike, rendering him unable to fight, was something that these unknown nobodys couldn't possibly contend with head-on.

Even though the opponent underestimated her and didn't expect that Irene, who was already exhausted, could unleash her power a second time, a loss is a loss, and a loss that was utterly humiliating, with even her weapon taken away.

Although it's unclear why Irene was able to recover her fighting ability, strength, speed, and even her Star Power in such a short time, her achievements have already caused many people to lose their will to fight.

"Silver Eyes Number Three, you go," Diluc said calmly. "It's just a temporary burst of energy, it won't last long."

The Black Cat Agency is divided into two departments.

A black cat with golden eyes that faces the outside world, and a black cat with silver eyes that faces the inside world.

Gold Eyes is mainly responsible for dirty work such as stealing intelligence, kidnapping and extortion, and poisoning, while Silver Eyes is responsible for suppressing discontent and resistance within the academy.

Although both Golden Eyes and Silver Eyes are members of intelligence agencies, every Black Cat in the Black Cat Organization is also a powerful figure among the Star Pulse Generation.

Unlike the students, they were trained not for the Star Dance Festival, but to take lives.

But even assassins are not at a disadvantage in a head-on confrontation.

They were Diluc's most trusted and crucial asset, his most valuable asset.

"Yes."

The man known as Silver Eyes Number Three bowed slightly to his master.

He drew the dagger-shaped weapon hidden in the shadows and stepped into the arena, looking at Irene.

"Let's finish this quickly then."

Chapter Thirty-One: Bad Woman

In fact, the battle with Silver Eyes No. 3 ended very quickly.

Under the fierce sword light of the killer, the elite black cat lost consciousness in just three minutes.

But then, under Diluc's orders, even more members of the Black Cat Organization flocked to the scene.

All twelve black cats lost their fighting ability in less than thirty minutes.

"The fifty-third."

After knocking out the last black cat, Irene wiped the blood splattered on her face and breathed heavily again, exhausted.

Among the intelligence organizations of the six academies, the Black Cat Agency, which is considered one of the strongest, was wiped out by her alone, with nearly half of its members being eliminated.

However, the price she paid was enormous.

Many deep wounds, revealing bone, appeared on his skin, and his sharp, sword-like aura was completely exhausted. For some unknown reason, his recovered strength was depleted again by the twelve black cats.

Seeing the battered and bruised Elena, many students' previously suppressed desires resurfaced.

Driven by the desire to snag a bargain, one challenger after another stepped onto the arena.

Soon, one after another, they were thrown into the ranks of the losers.

As Irene grew weaker, the speed and power of her sword swings also decreased, and the number of challengers she defeated gradually increased.

Then came the sixtieth, the sixty-first, the sixty-second...

After each swing of the sword, the power contained in the song gradually withered away.

"The hundredth..."

The tip of the sword that had been used to kill the Duke stopped at the opponent's forehead, Irene murmured hoarsely.

The hundredth challenger, frozen in place, slowly withdrew his Radiant Armor, nervously swallowing hard, afraid of showing the slightest hostility.

Under Irene's cold gaze, he retreated step by step and withdrew from the battlefield.

"Clap clap clap..."

Applause came from behind.

Miku Izayoi, who had been watching the show from the back, stepped forward at this moment.

Standing in front of Irene, she said to Diluc, whose face was grim, "I have bad news for you. I've given you the money you wanted. This duel can end now."

Diluc opened the virtual interface, his expression immediately tightening.

He did indeed receive 900 million corporate coins in his account.

"What did you say to Pedra that made her change her mind?" Diluc asked, frowning.

"No, she hasn't changed her mind. She'll do her best to fulfill any request I make," Miku Izayoi said calmly. "After all, I'm her most popular and promising idol. How could she possibly refuse something that would do me a favor?"

"Then why did it take her so long to reply to you?"