Chapter 40 – Under-the-Table Manipulation
“As payment, I want you to thoroughly defeat her. Best case? Crush that baseless confidence of hers so she doesn’t even dare step onto the Crown Tournament stage.”
“In addition, I’ll provide you with all her enrollment data and background information.”
“You… can rig the match draw?” Irene’s eyes widened slightly.
“What happens behind the scenes isn’t your concern, Miss Irene. All you need to do is focus on the match and defeat her with everything you’ve got—without causing serious injury.”
“Well? What’s your answer?” Frand smiled faintly, as though he never doubted she’d accept.
And sure enough—
“Since Professor Frand has gone this far, it would be ungrateful of me to refuse.” Irene, who’d been desperate for a chance to personally humiliate Teresa, was overjoyed by his proposal.
“No need to thank me. You want to give that Wild Divine Princess a harsh lesson. I want to keep her out of the Crown Tournament. Our goals align.” Frand clasped his hands behind his back and turned to leave. “Your match is scheduled as the third bout tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be there in person to watch. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I understand. Thank you, Professor.”
Teresa, don’t blame me. You’ve simply made too many enemies—there are far too many people who want to see you suffer.
As for how Frand knew about the rift between Irene and Teresa? That was simple. Ever since he learned Teresa had joined Dylin’s group, he’d been monitoring her—and her class—closely, tracking her every move.
It had to be said: this half-elf’s obsession with Dylin was nothing short of pathological. He was dead set on forcing her out of Coleman Academy.
***
“Headache incoming...”
Back in his dorm, Dylin removed his hairpin and began preparing for the upcoming Freshman Divine Princess Trial.
He laid out all the tools he could possibly use: daily sign-in items, weekly and daily quest tokens—20 tokens in total. He’d earned 16 from dailies and weeklies over 20 days, used 2 during the orc battle, and still had 14 left. With sign-in bonuses, he’d accumulated 20 in all.
Sign-in rewards offered tokens, but rarely—most of the time it was Blindness Potions, low-grade offensive alchemy potions, and the occasional Booming Alchemical Flask.
He never missed his weekly free pull either, but the results were consistently underwhelming—Blindness Potions and the occasional flask.
At this point, Dylin felt like a human flashbang. In actual combat, his main contribution would probably be chucking potions nonstop—blinding everyone, allies and enemies alike.
But all of that was useless now. Why?
Because the Divine Princess Trial prohibited any item not directly related to Divine Authority, Domain, or the Divine Princess’s native weapon. That meant: no alchemy potions, no magic scrolls, no staves—nothing.
This was meant to purely assess a Divine Princess’s inherent combat abilities and Domain. Using outside tools would defeat the entire purpose.
Which meant Dylin’s only usable weapon tomorrow would be...
He turned his gaze toward the corner of the room, where an old, worn-out flintlock rested against the wall.
Thanks to how easy guns were to handle in this world, his marksmanship wasn’t bad. But a Divine Princess duel wasn’t something that could be won with aim alone.
Even if he landed perfect headshots every time, Divine Domains could absorb those attacks without trouble.
Nearly every first-year at Coleman had completed their Divine Awakening. At their age, those who hadn’t were vanishingly rare.
A pre-awakened Divine Princess was on a completely different level than a fully awakened one—it wasn’t even close. And Teresa? She hadn’t even unlocked her Domain.
Dylin could already picture tomorrow’s match: getting backed into a corner, crouched and shielding his head.
That year, I kept both hands in my pockets... and still got beat too hard to fight back.
If he got matched against someone even a little bit strong—no, even if they weren’t strong—just bullying a weak little loli like him would be enough for a good show.
He sighed. Even with the cheat-like Golden Chalice Gacha, there was no shortcut to raw combat power. Some pain was unavoidable. All he could do was take it.
Now, he just had to hope he wouldn’t get matched against someone with a grudge. Not that he worried much—there were so many participants, what were the odds?
To be fair, Teresa wasn’t one to pick fights and hadn’t made any real enemies. But the “proper” Divine Princesses always looked down their noses at her and gave her a hard time.
Most of the time, it was just self-defense. She liked peace and didn’t talk much, but she wasn’t a punching bag.
Her stance was clear. She never picked trouble—but if it came to her, she wouldn’t run.
The match assignments were a randomized mix. With so many contestants, the odds of running into someone familiar were slim.
Or so Dylin thought—until the evening, when the match schedule was delivered to each Divine Princess.
Dylin stared grimly at the paper he’d just picked up from outside Teresa’s dorm door.
Due to the sheer number of matches, events had been divided across multiple arenas. Each Divine Princess received only the schedule for their own venue.
Dylin ignored most of it. He only looked at one section—tomorrow afternoon, the match with Teresa’s name.
Venue 23, Indoor Arena — Afternoon Schedule
Match 3 (3:00 p.m.): Teresa vs. Irene Cardifen
“...F*** me,” Dylin muttered after a long silence.
Strange. His recent gacha pulls hadn’t yielded anything good. His luck should be stable—not rock-bottom. So how’d this mess happen?
He quickly figured it out.
This wasn't a coincidence. No way this was a coincidence.
Come on. Who would actually believe that?
This had to be rigged.
There was no doubt in his mind—someone was pulling strings behind the scenes. But even knowing that, what could he do? There was no evidence.
If he tried to report it, the event organizers would just claim it was “a normal random assignment” and that the schedule was “fair, just, and transparent.” End of story.
Even if he did have evidence, there might not be anyone willing to take his side.
When it came to Divine Princesses, Divine Authority and Domain meant everything. That was just how the world worked. Dylin was reminded of that bitter truth once again.
He clenched his fist, gripping the Golden Chalice Gacha tightly, and stared at the countdown for his Divine Awakening.
9 days, 5 hours.