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　Soon after, Diana and Rose arrived hand in hand.

　After three months apart, Diana still seemed as carefree as ever, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that... she had suddenly grown taller!

　"Speaking of which, Diana is already fifteen years old..."

　Girls usually mature earlier than boys, but Diana's only difference is her "height," clearly indicating that she is a "late bloomer."

　Given her developmental stage at one point, Dark almost thought she wouldn't grow any taller.

　But now she has finally broken through Dark's "prejudice" and proven herself with outstanding growth.

　Rose Aphrodite, on the other hand, had a completely different aura. Although there had been signs of this in the past, seeing her again after three months was still stunning.

　She already possessed the aura of a "goddess." Yes, the kind of girl Darke liked. Quiet, intellectual, and somewhat aloof. Yet, her inner nature was gentle and graceful.

　Just like the feeling that Pandora gave off at first.

　Although Rose's divinity is restrained, she is clearly already the "chosen one" of the "Goddess of Stars".

　Diana, on the other hand, is like a sword yet to be drawn, becoming more unadorned and simple.

　mid-July.

　Diana has formally become the disciple of "Valkyrie". She is now a student of Aylvit.

　Arvit has taught many students, but most of them are maids in a maid troupe.

　Diana can be considered the only official disciple. And then, in mid-August, a month later...

　Diana accepted the trials of the "Zodiac" and ultimately gained the approval of the "Taurus" and received the inheritance of the "Taurus Armor". The "Taurus Armor" is one of only four armors that have been "deified" and can be called the "Golden Armor".

　The other three "golden divine armor" pieces are "Capricorn", "Pisces" and "Aries".

　Upon returning to the capital from Alvit, many things happened at the Duke's mansion. Among those things were surprises and unexpected events.

　The "Aries Palace Divine Attire" was "divinely crafted" by Oli, who had some free time, in early August.

　After the "Celestial Tea Party," Janice, the head maid of the "Pisces Palace," acted unusually, no longer displaying her usual laissez-faire "fishing" mentality.

　During the time when Aylvit was away from the manor, she shouldered a heavy responsibility and, together with Ollie, upheld the dignity of the Duke's manor.

　In mid-August, after Diana accepted the "Zodiac Trials," she once again challenged the "Zodiac Trials."

　The transformation of her mindset and the strengthening of her will finally brought about new changes. Janice passed the trial of the "Pisces Palace" and gained the recognition of the "Pisces Palace Divine Gear".

　Alvitt was also very generous, giving the "Golden Divine Armor" of the "Taurus Palace" and the "Pisces Palace" to Diana and Janice respectively.

　At this point, all four pieces of "Golden Divine Armor" have found their owners.

　Two new inheritors have been added to the "Zodiac Twelve Houses". Of the twelve "Golden Armor" sets, only the "Cancer", "Gemini" and "Capricorn" sets remain vacant.

　Since the "Capricorn God Armor" has become Arvit's preferred weapon, only two weapons are actually left unused.

　If Darko also wants to try his luck, he'd better act quickly.

　That night.

　Opening banquet for the new school year.

　Dark, along with Diana and Rose, sat down in their seats in the fourth year of the Noble Academy.

　As they grew older, their seats became closer and closer to the stage.

　Upon entering the banquet hall, Dak noticed that the seating area for first-year students had become significantly longer.

　By comparing the lengths of the tables, we can roughly calculate the number of students this year.

　Dark suspects that each house in the first year might have to be divided into two classes.

　From four departments and four classes, but now with eight classes in four departments, the competition within each department will become increasingly fierce.

　If we take it a step further and divide the two classes within a department into a good class and a bad class, and give them different treatment based on their grades, then a true meritocratic classroom will be achieved.

　However, St. Mary's Academy's educational style hasn't reached that point yet. So even if they were divided into two classes, there shouldn't be a significant difference in quality.

　Dark's gaze swept around the room before turning to the stage, awaiting the start of the Sorting Ceremony.

　A faint sense of doubt welled up in his mind.

　Among his familiar students, apart from Aurora and Nix not being present, the two little princesses were also absent from the opening banquet.

　Although the situation in the kingdom was indeed strange, Anna and Angie had been well protected and had not been involved in the royal disputes.

　Although their line of succession is quite high, there are still people ahead of them. Unless those ahead of them meet with some unexpected event, it's certain that it won't be their turn.

　Their age is their shield; to this day, no one has paid any attention to them.

　But if that's the case, why would they miss the opening banquet? In any case, dropping out of school is out of the question.

　They had no reason to drop out of school. So it could only be because they were "late".

　So, what caused them to be "late"...?

　Dark's gaze involuntarily shifted to Ellie, who was standing not far away. Ellie was the younger sister, and Aisha was the older sister.

　Both of them were students at St. Marian College.

　Usually, Ellie, as the younger sister, stays at the academy to attend classes. Ashe, as the older sister, stays in the capital as Dark instructed, or goes elsewhere to gather information.

　Thanks to the "telepathic connection" between the twin sisters, Dark can obtain real-time information from the capital as quickly as possible when needed.

　Dark narrowed his eyes and used telepathy to ask Ellie if anything unusual had happened in the capital that night.

　Ellie wasn't surprised. She told Darke to wait a moment, then closed her eyes and cast "Telepathic Connection" to connect with Aisha, who was far away in the capital. Soon, the information was transmitted from the academy to Duke Dimon's mansion.

　Then it was relayed back to the academy from the Duke's residence.

　Dark used his mental powers to obtain Ellie's thoughts.

　"Strange, am I being paranoid?" Nothing unusual has happened in the capital tonight. At least, nothing major has been announced. "Go and confirm Anna and Angie's locations," Dark ordered.

　Royal Capital, Duke Dimon's Mansion.

　Sitting in the room, Aisha suddenly blinked.

　She was on leave tonight and originally wanted to attend the opening banquet remotely through the "Telepathic Technique," but before the banquet even started, she received a task from the young master.

　But since it was a task assigned by the young master, it was naturally the first priority. She immediately changed her clothes and went out, also informing a maid from Scorpio Palace to be on high alert.

　The maid then relayed the information to Auli. Without hesitation, Auli informed Alvette and Claire.

　The vast ducal mansion came to life in just a few breaths.

　Dark had no idea that a casual remark had triggered a full-scale operation by the Duke's mansion.

　As the clock struck seven o'clock in the evening, his attention quickly returned to the opening banquet.

　The opening banquet at St. Marian Academy was the same every year. But he hadn't attended one for two years. Even so, he'd only missed one in between. From the moment the bell rang, he officially entered his fourth year of study at St. Marian Academy.

　The professors, whom we hadn't seen for a long time, entered one after another from the back of the stage and took their seats in the faculty section in the side corner.

　Immediately afterwards, the piano placed in one corner of the stage started automatically, first playing a light and captivating melody, then more and more instruments joined in, gradually making the opening music of the banquet more solemn. A melodious song rose amidst the music, emanating sacred hymns from trumpet-shaped instruments. Above the stage, the velvety, silky black curtain was quietly pulled back slightly, revealing pairs of curious eyes—the first-year students waiting behind it.

　Meanwhile, the students who had been waiting for a long time looked up at the stage. Sure enough, they saw Principal Arte appear.

　—Perhaps the only surprise at this year's opening banquet will be how Principal Arte appears.

　The students only saw countless swords suddenly fall, the chilling aura of the swords accompanied by solemn music, exuding a rarely seen sharpness of war, radiating cold light.

　As the students were astonished, Principal Arte appeared silently above the swords inserted in a bouquet shape in the center of the stage.

　Her figure moved like a fluttering butterfly, landing lightly on the hilt of a long sword.

　Suddenly, the swords exploded, turning into countless starlight and fireflies that scattered in all directions and flew into the sky.

　Principal Arte descended gracefully, as elegant and charming as ever.

　The freshmen behind the curtain were probably so stunned by the dazzling performance that their eyes practically popped out of their sockets.

　But the experienced students were no longer intimidated by the principal's little quirk.

　A moment later, they finally heard those familiar words: "Welcome to St. Marian Academy!"

　The words had barely left his lips when the atmosphere in the banquet hall changed dramatically. Smiles bloomed on the students' faces, and the hall was quickly filled with a joyful and happy ambiance.

　The college sorting ceremony finally began.

　This year's new students are once again attracting much attention.

　Besides those demi-humans with long, pointed ears, there are also many descendants of great nobles among the first-year students.

　Among them, a few were renowned from a very young age and were often given the titles of "genius" or "prodigy".

　Rumors circulated that many reclusive families sent their eligible children that year, who then passed the entrance exam and were admitted to St. Marian Academy.

　The students in the audience might not be able to identify the "geniuses" based on the rumors. But that didn't stop them from cheering for the arrival of each new student.

　"I know you've all been looking forward to the college orientation ceremony for a long time. Now, let's move on and invite the first freshman whose name we call to come up to the stage."

　Principal Art always managed to end the conversation before the students got bored.

　She smiled, raised her wand, and with a gentle tap, an ancient scroll rolled into a cylinder appeared out of thin air.

　The scroll hung in mid-air and unfurled automatically, its surface densely covered with the names of the new students.

　Principal Arte raised his wand again and tapped it lightly. A tear appeared in the middle of the scroll, and the tear quickly wriggled and turned into a mouth.

　Then, from that mouth, came an extremely shrill voice: "Sharin Karenina!"

　Just two or three seconds later, a pretty young woman with a refined and ladylike demeanor lifted the curtain and walked in gracefully.

　As the first student to appear at this year's Sorting Ceremony, Sharin Karenina showed no signs of nervousness.

　The students in the audience could feel a powerful confidence emanating from her simply by looking into her eyes.

　“Salin Karenina, the Duchess’s daughter,” Dark whispered, announcing her identity.

　The Kingdom of Yunic could certainly not have only two dukes.

　Shalin Karenina comes from a distinguished family that has guarded the western border for generations and made great contributions to resisting the invasion of the demon race.

　But they didn't survive until the end of the war.

　The Karenina family was almost completely wiped out in the decade or so before the war ended, leaving only the elderly Duke and the last descendant of the family, Salynn Karenina.

　Even Shalin Karenina fell into a deep sleep due to the curse of the demon general, causing her body to stop growing until she was able to awaken a few years ago.

　Therefore, her actual age is much older than it appears; it was simply changed on the kingdom's household registration form.

　Excluding the years she spent in a coma, she is exactly twelve years old this year, the perfect age to start school.

　Because of her past experience of being cursed and slumbering for many years, Sharin was given the title of "Sleeping Beauty" after she awoke.

　She doesn't like the title, but she doesn't get angry when others call her that.

　After explaining the Sorting process to her, Principal Arte guided her to activate her Sorting Card and complete the Sorting process.

　"boom!"

　Fireworks erupting from the Sorting Card coalesced in the air to form the shape of a crown. The first student to appear this year was unsurprisingly assigned to the House of Nobles.

　More and more students then took to the stage to complete their college assignments. The cheers from the students below the stage were almost nonstop, and the atmosphere in the banquet hall grew increasingly intense.

　Dak was unaffected by this, and simply calmly and clearly memorized the faces and names of the new students.

　During this time, he saw a moon elf assigned to the Magic Academy, a small behemoth assigned to the Knights Academy, a member of royalty assigned to the Nobles Academy, and a goblin smaller than half a goblin assigned to the Fools Academy…

　Children of noble families, children of sages, children of knights, children of renowned duelists, children of famous adventurers, children of bestselling authors, children of demi-human tribal chiefs...

　There were even children of the "Holy Church" archbishops!

　The pair of twins, a boy and a girl, whose father was the Archbishop of the "Holy Church," possessed an extremely pure aura of light.

　Their appearance surprised the students in the audience immensely, even more so than when they saw Behemoth enroll.

Chapter 1724 Darkdemon is fifteen years old and has a twelve-year-old daughter (3/3)

　St. Mary's College seems to have truly achieved "education for all," as even students who openly claim to be from the Holy Church are allowed to enroll.

　The admission of the twins was so outrageous that when they were assigned to the Knights Academy, the students there momentarily forgot to cheer and were restrained for a few seconds before they started clapping.

　After waiting for nearly half an hour, Dark finally witnessed the appearance of Christina, the "Feathered Serpent Goddess".

　He shares a "bond of life" with Christina, so naturally he cares for her deeply.

　But as Christina lifted the curtain and walked onto the stage, Dark's expression suddenly changed, and he immediately became stern.