Hulim introduced Miko to Alicia:

  "Sorry, Alicia, I didn’t have time to tell you in advance. But Miko will be teaming up with us from now on. Don’t worry, Miko is very strong—she won’t hold us back. I hope you don’t mind."

  Before seeing Miko fight yesterday, Hulim hadn’t been sure of her exact strength. But after witnessing her battle with that gang, she realized Miko was quite powerful even among Rank C fighters.

  Most of the gang members were Rank D. Although the leading mohawk-haired man wasn’t very strong, he was indeed Rank C. Yet in the end, they were easily defeated by Miko.

  This level of strength meant she either reached Rank C shortly after enrolling or was already Rank C before entering the academy......

  Alicia shook her head.

  "No, of course I don’t mind. In fact, I’m more than welcome!"

  "But......"

  Alicia looked at Miko.

  "I didn’t expect it to be Ms. Miko Kedar......"

  Miko felt a little uncomfortable under Alicia’s gaze and said awkwardly:

  "T-That...... Hello."

  "Hello, Lady Miko. It’s an honor to team up with you. I’m Alicia Seryons—you’ve probably heard of me. Please take care of me from now on!"

  Alicia said with a smile.

  "U-Uh...... I have heard of you...... T-That...... Ms. Alicia...... Please take care of me too......"

  Hulim: "?"

  From their conversation, Hulim sensed something odd.

  "Alicia, why do you say that? Is there something about Miko that interests you?"

  "Hmm? You don’t know, Hulim?"

  "Know what?"

  "Ms. Miko Kedar is a member of the White Cat Royal Family!"

  "? Huh——?"

  Hulim turned to look at Miko, who quickly looked away to avoid her gaze.

  "......"

  "Miko——"

  "Why didn’t you tell me this?"

  "Eep, but...... Well, you never asked me......"

  Miko said softly.

  It was a perfectly valid reason. But hadn’t she asked where Miko was from before? Miko had claimed to be from some plain tribe......

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  No matter how she recalled it, not a single word about the royal family had been mentioned.

  It’s not like she would randomly ask if Miko was a royal, right?

  Come to think of it, when she was deliberately isolated at the academy, even though the other Special Class students were affected, Miko—her own roommate—hadn’t been affected at all. At the time, she’d thought the isolation tactics hadn’t worked on Miko.

  Now it made sense. It wasn’t that the tactics hadn’t worked—it was that no one dared to do anything to Miko......

  "Sigh——"

  Hulim sighed.

  Of course, she was also at fault. Looking back, most of the books she read were about ancient epochal history, as well as Himril’s geography and biology. Very few of them included details about Himril’s current political situation.

  Although she knew that the Cat Beastmen were one of the upper members of the Indam Federation Council, and that their royal family was on par with the Pasara Empire’s imperial family, she hadn’t specifically learned the names of these council members. That’s why she’d never known her roommate was a White Cat Royal, equal in status to Alicia.

  It seemed she needed to learn more about this in the future. Otherwise, it would be embarrassing if something like this happened again......

  "Miko, from now on, don’t brush off things like this during introductions!"

  Hulim rubbed Miko’s cat ears vigorously to vent her dissatisfaction.

  "Ouch, ouch, ouch...... I know I was wrong, sorry! Hulim, let me go!"

  Watching the two messing around, Alicia couldn’t help but envy Miko. As a member of the royal family, everyone around her had either curried favor with her or harbored malicious intentions since childhood. Almost everyone who approached her had some kind of agenda. She had few people she could trust, and almost no one she could call a friend.

  Yet Miko, with the same noble status, could do whatever she wanted and fool around with friends freely.

  "Hulim and Miko get along really well......"

  Hulim stopped what she was doing, glanced at Alicia, then tapped Miko on the head.

  "......I’ll forgive you this time. Don’t let it happen again."

  "Ouch, ouch...... Hulim, you’re too harsh, meow~!"

  Miko looked at Hulim with a wronged expression.

  But Hulim ignored her, walked straight to Alicia, and patted her on the shoulder.

  "Alicia, what are you moping about alone for? You have us now, don’t you?"

  With that, Hulim waved her hand and walked toward the depths of the dungeon.

  "Let’s go! Since we’ve gained a reliable combatant today, let’s test how strong the dungeon lord on the deepest floor is!"

  "Eep! We’re going to fight the dungeon lord?! Yes, yes! Wait for me!"

  Miko, who had looked wronged just a second ago, immediately perked up and hurried to follow.

  "......"

  Alicia stood rooted to the spot, Hulim’s words still echoing in her mind.

  "Alicia, hurry up and catch up!"

  Hulim’s voice came from behind.

  "......Okay, I’ll be right there!"

  At that moment, a genuine smile appeared on Alicia’s face.

  "Wait for me, you two!"

  ......

  Deepest Floor of the Luminous Dungeon.

  Boom! Boom! Boom......

  "Ahah——! It’s coming! It’s coming! Help me——!"

  Miko screamed and fled as a huge, terrifying roller approached her at an alarming speed from behind.

  "Miko, fly into the sky quickly!"

  "Ahah——, the sky? Right!"

  Boom——!!!

  "Wings of Wind!"

  At the critical moment, Miko cast the Rank 3 Wind Attribute Magic "Wings of Wind" and flew into the air.

  Almost as soon as she took off, the terrifying roller brushed past her feet and crashed forward.

  Thud——!!!

  With a deafening crash, the terrifying roller slammed into the stone wall.

  The immense impact shook the entire underground.

  "S-Scary! I almost thought I was going to die!"

  Miko said with lingering fear.

  Click, click, click......

  As a strange sound echoed, the huge roller slowly unfolded, revealing the true form of a Mountain Drake.

  "Roar——!"

  After a roar, the Drake’s scaled tail lifted a massive boulder and hurled it forcefully at Miko in the air.

  "Ahah——!"

  Miko quickly controlled her Wings of Wind to dodge, narrowly avoiding the attack.

  But the Mountain Drake seemed to have set its sights on her.

  Boulder after boulder was lifted and thrown at Miko, who could only keep moving to evade.

  "Good job, Miko! Keep distracting its attention like that!"

  "Eep, me? Alright, I’ll try my best——Ahah!"

  "Alicia, let’s go!"

  "Got it!"

  Taking advantage of the Mountain Drake’s attention being completely focused on Miko in the sky, Hulim and Alicia launched their attack on the ground.