94 – Could It Be Her?

The knight girl pulled her Earthen Aegis Greatsword from the ground, the blade’s massive width echoing the heaviness of its name. Her amber twin-tails, cascading like silk to her knees, swayed with her movement as she bent forward.

“That makes it just two teams left now.” The knight girl turned her gaze to the mountain summit, as if her eyes sought someone there. A rare glint of excitement flashed through her beautiful eyes. “Astrid, just like last time—you’d better make this worth my while.”

“Lady Felicia, the teams you just eliminated were Teams 90 and 81. By deduction, the remaining teams aside from Lady Astrid’s should be Teams 77 and 30,” explained the ponytailed Divine Child with glasses, neatly compiling the intel they had so far.

“Who’s in Teams 30 and 77 again?” asked a black-haired girl dressed like a nun, holding a divine staff. Tilting her head, she looked adorably curious.

“I’m afraid I don’t quite remember. My apologies,” the Divine Child said, shaking her head.

“It’s alright. You’ve done plenty already.” Felicia reached out and patted her Divine Child’s head.

“Princess Felicia...” A soft blush spread across the Divine Child’s face as she enjoyed the touch, like a cat basking in its master’s affection.

“Actually… I think I might remember,” the nun-like Priest Divine Princess spoke up shyly.

“Oh?” Both Felicia and the Divine Child turned to her.

“Before the match started, when we entered the secret realm, there were several entry tunnels. I happened to share one with the lady from Team 30,” the Priest said thoughtfully, pressing a finger to her lips. “If I recall correctly, her name was... Teresa.”

“Teresa?” Felicia froze momentarily upon hearing the name, recalling the stubborn, golden-haired girl from the preliminaries.

“Teresa? That’s not a name I recognize,” the Divine Child frowned slightly. She had done her homework thoroughly to be worthy of Felicia—collecting intel on all the promising freshmen. Anyone who’d shown even modest results had been documented, not to mention the true standouts.

But there had been no Teresa among them. If there had, she would have remembered instantly.

Only two possibilities: either Teresa had hidden herself exceptionally well, or she had been completely average—so much so that she hadn’t warranted the effort to gather intel.

But how could someone “average” break into the top ten—even the top five?

As guilt crept up on the Divine Child for this lapse in intelligence gathering, Felicia was already deep in thought.

Along the way, she had occasionally heard Teresa’s name come up in the broadcasts.

Could it be… just someone with the same name?

“Anna, do you remember what this Teresa looked like? You don’t have to be specific—just give me a few traits.”

“I do, I do! She was super eye-catching! Had really beautiful blonde hair, and her eyes were emerald green—like peridot,” the nun said, waving her hands for emphasis as she described.

Blonde hair. Emerald eyes... Each trait overlapped with the girl in her memory.

But—very beautiful?

“Did she have… a scar? A particularly unfortunate blade scar on her face?” Felicia asked.

“A scar? No, not at all. Her face was smooth and flawless, like mutton-fat jade—no way there was a scar,” Anna recalled.

“No scar?” Felicia’s brows furrowed for a moment—but then she stopped thinking about it.

There was no need to overthink. As long as she stayed put here, they’d meet eventually.

“What a shame Lillin got eliminated. Otherwise, we could’ve taken on Astrid’s team with a full lineup,” the Divine Child said, sounding regretful.

“Casualties are to be expected. Everyone here is top ten material. No one is special—not even us,” Felicia said calmly. In her view, as long as someone was defeated fair and square, there was nothing to complain about. If there was anything to blame, it was one's own lack of strength.

“I didn’t expect the enemy to have a backup plan,” Felicia added with a sigh.

“This wasn’t your fault, Your Highness. If my Divine Appraisal had been more advanced, I could’ve prevented that slip.”

“Um...” As the two started shouldering the blame together, Anna wondered whether she should confess to some mistake too...

But before she could speak, Felicia and the Divine Child suddenly fell silent, as if struck by a realization.

They’d been through plenty of battles already. After a brief moment of confusion, Anna too figured it out.

The enemy had arrived.

Not far ahead, two figures emerged on the mountain path, their shapes growing clearer by the second.

Felicia’s gaze focused on the blonde girl with the longbow. At the same time, that golden figure was observing her too.

Their gazes locked.

The golden-haired girl stood calm and composed at the front, with the ash-blonde cat-eared girl following close behind.

Even though her appearance had changed, Felicia was sure—this breathtakingly beautiful golden-haired girl was the same stubborn young girl from the preliminaries.

There was no doubt. She had undergone Divine Awakening.

And not long after awakening, she had carved a path through battle after battle, all the way to the top five.

The last person to rise so quickly after an awakening… had been Astrid.

How interesting.

A smile tugged at the corners of Felicia’s lips.

“Lady Felicia, that ash-blonde catgirl is Wenfu Silesse, one of the most promising Priest Divine Princesses in this year's class.”

“I see. Partnering with the rising star of priestesses—that’s a very wise decision.”

“But...” Anna frowned. “Lady Felicia, if I remember correctly, Teresa’s teammate was a male Divine Child. She didn’t have a Priest Divine Princess with her.”

“I also recall that Wenfu Silesse already had a prearranged team. Teresa wasn’t part of it,” the Divine Child added, clearly puzzled. “So unless something changed, they should be from different teams.”

“They teamed up,” Felicia concluded. It wasn’t hard to guess—Wenfu, left alone after her team’s collapse, had likely found Teresa, who was also without teammates. The two had formed a temporary alliance.

Whether it made sense or not, it clearly wasn’t against the rules—otherwise the judges observing the match would’ve intervened already.

But Felicia wasn’t particularly concerned with those details.

What she was interested in… was Teresa’s gaze.

It was fluid as a rippling lake, calm and collected, resting on her without tension, nor deliberate provocation. Just a natural, composed focus—like she regarded all her enemies this way, and Felicia was no exception.

There wasn’t a trace of bravado. Now that was interesting.

Staring at the proud, golden-haired girl standing tall before her, Felicia couldn’t help but feel a thrill rise within.

The Knight Princess of Whiteglass loved battle. Loved powerful opponents. Loved being evenly matched. And loved the feeling of—Ah, no. Let’s phrase that better.

Loved the feeling of defeating strong opponents.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.