As I head to my room to grab the stones and prepare for my afternoon, night, and the next day with the goblins, I run into Sol.

She's alone.

The hallway is deserted as well—just her, me, and the guard escorting me a few steps behind.

Still caught in the lingering calm and yearning from my conversation with Vincent, it takes me a moment to snap out of it and seize the chance to tell her a few truths.

She, when she sees me, looks at me with arrogance and something that feels like hatred.

Immediately, those eyes—such an intense shade of pink they almost look red right now—stir something inside me.

The calm, the peace, the romance… all vanish at the memory of what she did to me, and without thinking, I grab her arm as we pass each other to stop her from walking away.

"You," she spits, more than speaks, staring at my hand like I'm some filthy lizard daring to touch the noble sister of the future queen.

"Me," I reply, my tone sharp as steel.

"Let me go."

"Not until you listen to me."

"How dare you?" she raises her voice, but there's no one here—only my bodyguard, who will only intervene if he believes my safety is at risk.

That doesn't seem to be the case.

I smirk with confidence.

"How dare you? You've tarnished my name and honor with false rumors. If I had solid proof, I'd challenge you to a duel."

Okay, maybe I got a little carried away there. That's from Earth, and women weren't the ones issuing challenges.

"What are you talking about? Duels are forbidden between students unless they're part of combat class training or preparation for the games. Honestly, I don't understand how Ash and Caroline have put up with a girl as brainless as you for so many years."

"You know what? You're going to fall. And I'll be there to see it," I threaten, though I don't even know why.

Maybe it's because I hate her in this moment. Look at her—so perfect, so composed.

I've always admired the beauty and elegance of villains, but she… she embodies everything vile, and I can't stand that.

"You can't say anything about those rumors. Not when I'm my father's daughter," she laughs, covering her mouth with her free hand.

A true villain. A total cliché.

"And you can't do anything with your false rumors either. Something I assume you've already figured out if you tried complaining to the headmaster about me."

Her mortified expression makes it clear that she has. My status as an exceptional student protects me from her schemes.

I smile at her with delighted malice.

"Turns out, the headmaster supports me. Oh, poor second daughter! You won't be in the games—I will. In fact, I can win a duchy with my achievements in the games, establish a new noble house, or even elevate my family's rank and become the heir myself. But you… what's your plan? Marrying Vincent?"

Because I know about Kai, but I'm not going to say anything. I already know that, for now, her title protects her. Just like his silence does.

She looks at me with such raw anger that her perfect, diva-like façade cracks into pieces.

She slaps me.

The guard moves to intervene, but I stop him with a gesture of my hand. I don't take my eyes off Sol.

"You won't win. You have no idea who you're messing with."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I'd say you're the one who has no idea," I reply, my voice steady and unwavering.

We stare each other down for nearly a minute.

As much as I want to, I don't slap her back. I take a deep breath and let go of her arm. She adjusts the sleeve of her dress—it's Saturday, so uniforms aren't required—and fixes her hair. She scoffs and continues on her way.

I stay there in the hallway for a little longer, thinking.

An idea, a resolution, sparks in my mind. Healing magic. I'm going to start injuring myself to improve it. (Because when I train with the healer, he brings me an injured animal. Casting it aimlessly, without someone to heal, barely improves my skill.)

For what I have in mind, I'm going to need my healing magic.

And Miss Villain, you're about to find out that I won't let myself be trampled.

I don't need a Dark Queen's contract to beat you.

By the time I reach my room, change, grab my things, and head out to meet poor Ronan, I have already calmed down. Honestly, Sol really gets under my skin. I don't like reacting to her that way.

Near the door of the room Catrina lends us, Ronan is leaning against the wall, reading a textbook. I can't tell if he's bored or genuinely interested.

"Ronan, sorry for being late."

"It's no problem, my lady."

For a moment, the way he interrupted me with Vincent flashes through my mind. I feel myself blush slightly, and my friend looks at me, puzzled.

"Everything okay with Vincent?"

"Yeah, let's go."

I open the door to the room, we step inside, and the guard remains outside. Once we're deep in the forest, far from prying ears, I continue talking.

"I told him about my elements. He was really surprised. Obviously, he doesn't know about the seed of darkness, or any related information like the goblins or the fact that you and I can communicate mentally."

"I see. Should I summon the bears?"

Straight to the point. Good. I don't really feel like continuing the conversation about the prince—especially not the nonverbal part…

As for the bears, he unsummoned them this morning. Since we were coming back today, it would have been more mana-efficient to just leave them hidden nearby. The guards have already seen them anyway. I don't know, maybe he just wants to keep practicing the spell to level it up, the same way I've been working on mine.

"Yes, please," I answer.

We mount the zombies and ride to the goblin village. The females' bellies still look the same. I'd say "thank goodness," but it's only been a few hours since I last saw them. What's really talking is my fear—that I'll come back to find them about to give birth before the three weeks are up.

Because no matter how much I think about it, if I have to take care of them as my vassals, I can't just send them back to the other human kingdom and let them reclaim their lands. That would be one way to reduce their numbers, but a good queen wouldn't do that.

Hmm… though a goblin queen might, considering their strength comes from their numbers and how quickly they multiply.

Either way, since I took down the giant papa bear that ruled over the forest and this side of the mountain, they won't be facing many dangers around here. I wonder how they'll react to an order forbidding them from being intimate once we reach the numbers needed for the settlement.

In any case, the evening routine is pretty similar to last night's: Ronan stays with the goblins, helping them set up the forge, while I head off with two small zombie bears to carry the pup through his training.

Not wanting to waste time, I burn through all my mana using splash and breath control spells, as well as healing. Mostly the splash spell, since I'd really like to level it up. And even though I was determined earlier, I still can't bring myself to injure myself on purpose, so I ask the pup to step away from one of the wounded boars he's hunting. Once the bear holds it still, I heal it a little before continuing with my other two spells. When I run out of mana, I use one of the pup's licks to recover, then drain my mana again.

Since they're doing just fine without me, I decide to meditate near the entrance of the goblin cave—a safe spot, given that both the goblins and the bears are there to protect me from any wild animals. I try not to lose myself in a trance for three hours like last time. Keeping part of my mind focused on only meditating for an hour, I almost manage it. One hour and twenty minutes. That's four mana points recovered, and I think next time I'll get it right.

The next thing I do is head to where I left the seed and the bears. They haven't strayed too far, so I find them easily. The first thing I do is ask the pup to share his stats with me.

It looks like the afternoon has been productive in terms of the number of prey caught. Just like last night, a few goblins are taking them away. Since it's getting harder to level up, the pup hasn't leveled up this time, but he's already at 54% toward reaching level 6. As for me, I manage to level up minor splash. Another message pops up as well, informing me that I no longer have any restrictions on leveling up earth control.

So, since I should have leveled it up back in the desert dungeon, I decide to test it out. I want to see if it's just about to level up. I cast the spell, and immediately, a third notification appears.

Congratulations! Your Minor Splash spell has leveled up. It is now Low Splash. Its range has increased by 20%.

Congratulations, by improving your basic air and water spells, you have surpassed the limitation imposed by your aetherblade specialization. You can now upgrade your basic element spells to high level.

Congratulations! Your Intermediate Earth Control spell has leveled up. It is now High Earth Control. You can now move, loosen, compact, and shape up to 25 cubic meters of earth. Range: 50 meters.

From 5 cubic meters to 25 and from a 10-meter range to 50?

Hell yes! That's what I call productive.

You can really tell that high-level spells are on a whole different scale.

Of course, I shouldn't get too excited, because leveling up spells to low level is much easier than advancing them further, so training is going to be less efficient from now on.

Grinning from ear to ear, I let out a shout to call the wolf pup, and both he and the bears follow me back to the goblin cave.

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