When Arc teleported Elaine and himself, he used her as the medium—meaning, he was not aware where they would end up. Instead, as long as the destination was within the general vicinity of the capital, they would end up wherever she had desired. 

Still, it wasn’t hard to figure out that they were actually at the academy. It only took him floating above some trees to get a sense of where they were at. Still, Arc found it strange. Elaine should be helping the guards keep order as students moved into the academy. 

‘Was she called in? Wait, don’t tell me they woke her up. Oh shit, do I need to get some popcorn?’ 

Even with his mind racing, Arc didn’t stay still. He drifted above everyone and began counting the knights. There were about two dozen of them. However, besides the one from before, none of them greeted Elaine; instead, they glared at her and had itchy hands on their weapons.

“Big sis, how bad of a boss are you that your own subordinates have open hostility towards you. I mean, I’m not an expert but I have dabbled a bit and…”

Elaine tilted her head towards Arc and sent him a telepathic message to explain herself. ‘I’m as flabbergasted as you are... I was just promoted. Sure, I am lazy and like to sleep in, but I haven’t even started working as the Commander of The Guard. Actually, it was supposed to be my day off and I was supposed to sleep in…I mean take Yue to the academy today.’

Arc realized that although Elaine said she had slept in, it didn't necessarily mean she had work. In fact, Elaine had told him previously that she was going to start her work today, so naturally he assumed that she was going to be late because she slept in. However, it turned out she wasn’t supposed to work. If he had to guess, Elaine lied and wanted to surprise himself and Yue, but at the last minute, someone contacted her and told her to come here. 

‘What is this messed up situation?’

Arc frowned and turned his attention back to the knights. The knight that was doing all the talking didn’t notice Elaine’s attention was focused elsewhere and he continued to explain the current situation to her. It seemed he was about to get some answers. 

However, it turned out to be bullshit just like he expected. If there was one thing, Arc found the man’s thick skin to be commendable. 

The man was stone faced and actually just ignoring the snickers of his fellow knights while spewing bullshit out of his mouth about the Third Princess. Basically he told Elaine about a very convoluted plot that made so little sense that Arc tuned it out. What was clear was that Elaine and himself were dealing with a mini coup staged by the previous commander. 

Perhaps, the knight would have stopped his useless babble if he could see Elaine’s face contorting under her helmet though. To say she wasn’t impressed by the excuses for summoning her would be an understatement. 

Arc, expecting a show, didn’t hesitate and took some popcorn out of his pocket dimension. Well, maybe it wasn’t serious but Elaine’s plated fist was already twitching. He hummed in anticipation and even hovered closer while licking the salt off one of his fingers when suddenly, Elaine’s fist moved and slapped the man across the face. 

The rest of the men stopped snickering but perhaps because they didn’t expect this outcome they stood still. 

On the other hand, the victim held his face in shock. “You just hit me?!” 

“It was an accident. I just got a thought…this guy must have eaten something so terrible that he was left with a defunct brain.”

Elaine then raised a finger. It was like a mother scolding a child except it was the middle one. With no shame, she acted like she was teaching them an obvious fact. 

“Furthermore, out of the shock of your dietary habits causing me to lose out on my blissful sleep, I mean my wonderful day off, I mean…”

Elaine shifted back and forth, ignoring her surroundings while trying to think of how to phrase what she wanted to say next. 

“Anyways, that is why I couldn’t control my own hand.” Elaine coughed. “Alright, all of you are to resume your original duties. We are not needed here…”

Arc laughed, “Don’t you just want to go back to sleep.” 

‘No.’ Elaine looked in the opposite direction while sending a response. It wasn’t very convincing. 

“You just hit me?!” The knight repeated, belatedly. 

“So?” Elaine turned to the man and grabbed him by the ear as if he was a child. His face crumbled as he kept letting out noises of pain. “I’m sorry…you reminded me of my spoiled brats…”

‘You say brats, but the fact you used your middle finger, meant you were thinking about me…’ Arc coughed. He had to be careful not to choke on the popcorn.  

“Boss?”

“Yes?” Elaine tilted her head and the sudden address, unaware that the man’s gaze was elsewhere.

“Not you bitch. I mean the real bos—” The man’s vision went black and he keeled over onto the floor. Despite the quickness of the blow, the man took a while to collapse and there was even a little bit of froth dripping down his lips.

“Whoops. I lost my patience…and next thing I knew…I mean is this my fault…he was just so weak.” Elaine looked at the rest of the knights, seeking confirmation. Seeing their expressions, she tilted her head in thought. “I can’t be the one in the wrong, could I?” 

As she seriously contemplated her own actions she heard Arc and got hopeful.

“The fact that this isn’t intentional….munch…munch…munch..is impressive.” 

“I’m not wrong am I?” Her eyes pleaded. It was sort of cute, especially since she was unconsciously in a boxing-like stance. 

Arc ignored her. He didn’t want to lie, and so he smiled and told himself he couldn’t let the man have it easy after causing big sis so much stress. He floated down, popcorn in his mouth, and kicked the man in the face. He then finished off the popcorn in his hand and proceeded to slap the man’s face back and forth. This is what he lived for. Justice. Rooting out the dregs of society.

Arc looked up from his assault.  

“Don’t worry big sis, these bastards must have shit for brains and broken eyes.” He slapped the man one more time. 

He was careful to make sure he didn’t get any of the man’s spittle on his hands. Hell, he even sanitized his hands when he was done. 

Elaine nodded in an ambiguous manner. It wasn’t quite clear what she was nodding to, which made it quite cute. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the men hesitated and looked at another knight standing in the back. He was the boss that was being referred to earlier. His attire matched Elaine’s perfectly; however, the man made the helmet look more like a house cat than a lion. Yet, all of the knights followed his step. 

“To think you would result to barbarism so quick—”

Elaine turned to the man and didn’t even let him speak. “Barbarism? Hmph. Barbarism is forcing me to wake up early after you are given face! You just had to quietly retire from your position, but instead you come to me with some random bullshit!” 

The commander tried to calm his voice as he spoke. “I summoned you urgently because, as it was stated to you, the Children of Sin might move on the Third Princess…”

“They might be impressive, but they are a gang of thugs. How would they bypass the academy’s defenses and…” Elaine threw her arms up in the air and stopped bothering to explain how illogical everything sounded. “You know what fuck that bitch and fuck you. I should be asleep right now!” 

“Big sis, I don’t know if your priorities are… how I should say it…sound…or proper…or respectable…”

“...”

Elaine was right, but Arc just wouldn’t miss the opportunity to tease Elaine if he could. He did wonder though where they got the courage to behave so stupidly. Perhaps, it was precisely their stupidity that caused their brazen actions.

Speaking of moronic behavior, the old commander stepped forward and stuttered with hesitance in his voice. 

“I’m still officially in charge…and I’ll have you punished for insulting the imperial family and assaulting a knight.”

The cowardice that he showed caused Arc to laugh. He chucked a kernel at the man and it bounced off his helmet, but it went unnoticed by everyone save Arc and Elaine.

Although Elaine wore a helmet, she mouthed at him ‘really’ before turning back to the commander trying to give the air of seriousness that Arc was denying her.

She drew her sword and pointed it at them.

“Better watch out.” Arc took a large gulp of popcorn. “She’s angry! Wait, did you perhaps want some?” 

He was about to hand her some when she redirected her sword at him. “Pretty sis, I don’t like the way you are looking at me. I’m not the one who woke— ”

She started swinging.

“Wait, is this about the popcorn?” Arc shouted, “I'll give you some.”

She kept swinging, but while evading he cried out some more. “I said I would share. There was no need to throw a tantrum!” 

It wasn’t just one or two strokes but at least a dozen. Ultimately, Arc had to float a good distance away.  Elaine glared at him as Arc gobbled popcorn out of her reach. He wasn’t even sweating. He even stuck out his tongue as if mocking her for not having her own snack. He was truly an infuriating specimen.  

One of the knights whispered, not quietly, to another knight. “I think she’s crazy?”

“To think this is the person replacing our boss.”

“I actually…don’t mind this that much…” Someone laughed.

A man glared at the person who just laughed. “Shut up, Greg. You fucking pervert.”

Elaine acted like nothing happened and pointed her sword back at the old commander. In reality, Arc knew that getting insulted by these trash knights was quite the vexing experience. 

For better or worse, the tensions resumed with Elaine's next words. “You really aren’t fit to be the commander.” 

Arc tilted his head. “I can’t imagine what they must be thinking. I mean…after your graceful performance before I don’t think you're very convincing….”

But Arc ate his words. The man was third rate through and through. 

“You dare?!”  The commander had shouted like he didn’t expect any of this to happen, but luckily for him the two dozen men began encircling Elaine without his orders. 

Seeing this the man steadied himself with false composure. “My men are still loyal.”

Meanwhile, Arc frowned. “Ah, so we are just going to pretend that she didn’t just try to assault an innocent bystander.” 

Elaine scoffed but ignored Arc again. “Loyalty? Doubtful. More likely trash just congregates around trash. It would surely explain the smell.” There was a look of triumph on her face as if all her actions had become truly justified.

‘Why are you looking at me with sparkling eyes…’

The man growled, but he was at least smart enough to realize he wasn’t going to win any arguments. 

But before they got close Elaine put her sword away. “It would be a waste to dirty my blade on trash after all.”  She looked at Arc. “Ghost.”

The single word caused the air to chill and the men to freeze. Ghost, the phantom of the empire, was quite the infamous figure. 

“He’s here?” The old commander stammered as he looked all around in a panic. Obviously, he couldn't find Arc. As if to reassure himself he spoke aloud. “He’s just an urban legend.”

Arc licked his fingers and stashed away the popcorn. It seemed like he was going to get serious but he instead acted ignorant. He even pointed to himself. “Me…? Big sis, you want me to take care of them after everything you have done to me?”

‘You initiated all this, didn't you.’

Arc gave a cute and innocent pout towards Elaine, who rolled her eyes in response. He was offended. It was true though. He was the one who uncovered the corruption residing in the Aoi Torii Kingdom and brought it to light, but to put the blame on him was a little much. It wasn’t his fault the previous Commander of the Guard was a corrupt piece of shit. 

Arc continued to feign being hurt, but Elaine merely clicked her tongue again. “Get them out of my sight.”

Without any further instructions, Arc gave an adorable little head tilt. 

She sighed. “Any method is fine.”

“If you say so.”

But before Arc could act, that one knight called Greg got on his knees. “See, I said earlier that I didn’t mind the new boss. I’m not a pervert… I knew the whole time that Ghost was here.”

 A random knight asked, “But why would she try attacking Ghost?” 

“Greg’s just an idiot. Obviously this bitch is just crazy! There’s no way…” No one but Elaine noticed as the man was sent flying to the side with a handprint across his face. 

“He deserved it.” Elaine explained, seeming happy to finally expose Arc but also annoyed at being called a bitch again. But again happy because Arc punished the man. 

“Maybe I should have been stabbing instead of slashing though…” Elaine, not caring anymore about the situation, began mumbling something dangerous. 

At the same time, the commander shouted, “Enough you pieces of shits—”

A knight turned away from Elaine and turned his blade towards the commander. “Now hold up here. Who are you calling a piece of shit? I'm with Greg and the new boss. You can go fuck yourself.” 

Arc, intent on watching the show, grabbed a new bag of popcorn from his pocket dimension. 

Elaine frowned. “Where are you getting all this popcorn? You know what, nevermind. Can you just take care of them, please… so I can go back to sleep.”

“But even if we handle them…you can’t just go back to sleep.”

“Is that so…”

“I’m sorry.” The heartbreak and sadness in her eyes was hard to watch. 

“...” Elaine’s helmet tilted to the sky and she didn’t speak anymore. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll punish them with the exception of Greg and the other guy.” Arc snapped his finger and instantly all the other men, almost two dozen, were teleported into the air only to come crashing back down into the earth. There were even a couple knights with bruised faces that seemed to wake up mid fall. They were the previous victims that were slapped, unnoticed by everyone. 

All of them died on impact, causing their bodies to vanish. The only thing that was left was a couple dozen caskets. They could be brought to a priest for resurrection, where they could then be interrogated on the spot. Otherwise, after a day or so, the knights would naturally resurrect at the nearest temple. 

Greg and the other surviving knight gulped. They started to practice the art of being invisible and didn’t move a muscle. 

“And the princess?”

“Leave her. As if she would actually be in danger.”

“It will be awkward if something does happen though.”

“Stop trying to give me more work.” Elain pouted. “Like you actually care…”

“...”

“Ah fine.” Elaine waved her hand. “Do whatever you want. Just first send me and these caskets to the Vice Commander. I doubt he is even aware of what transpired. He isn’t an idiot like these people.”

Arc floated directly above Elaine, and made eye contact. It seemed like he was looking past her helmet. “Big sis is really pretty after all.” 

Elaine sighed. “Complimenting me won’t make me feel better…” Despite saying that, she was smiling underneath her helmet. 

Arc hummed to himself and snapped his fingers. 

Left alone, he began to survey the scene. Although he was munching on popcorn and wasn’t paying attention, Arc could still recall some of the bullshit that the knights said earlier. 

The Third Princess had escaped her royal escort and made her away to a dungeon behind the academy. But to actually believe that she escaped her escort which was composed of experts chosen by the Jade Emperor himself was a ridiculous thought. 

Thus, it was obvious that the Emperor’s faction had their own plans, which may have changed because of Arc’s actions. Nonetheless, some idiots took their bait. But such a cheap catch surely wasn’t worth it.  

Arc could only scratch his head. He lamented the situation. He had only wanted to make sure nothing could interfere with Yue’s growth. 

Arc sighed. He knew deep down that he might have gone overboard because it was fun. He sighed again and focused his thoughts. He turned his attention to a glowing door a short ways off amongst a group of trees. 

It really was an inconspicuous thing. Arc was unconsciously drawn towards it. 

This wasn’t anything new. He had always felt a natural draw to dungeons, and yet he learned that he couldn’t utilize most of his powers within them. He assumed it was because the dungeons existed in a separate space. 

As such, he hesitated slightly, but knowing his strongest asset of being unable to be detected could still work, he entered the dungeon.