Above the arena, the hastily made red banner, with "Ranoa Alliance" scrawled crookedly across it, snapped in the chilly autumn wind.
Meanwhile, in the Special Talent Students' classroom, the two "deputy leaders" who had been so swaggering and full of themselves just moments ago now looked like a cat and dog caught by the scruff of their necks, ears drooping and heads bowed.
No humiliating people in public.
"B-Boss..."
Linia cautiously raised her head, her golden eyes full of grievance and an eagerness to please as she tried to justify their actions.
"We... we had no choice, meow. You know it too, Boss. If we didn't do this, we wouldn't be able to recruit any underlings, meow!"
"Exactly! That's right, Boss!" Pursena nodded frantically beside her, like a chicken pecking at grain.
"After Roxy beat us so badly, our reputation hit rock bottom! If we didn't borrow your name, those guys wouldn't even give us a second glance!"
Listening to the cat-and-dog duo's utterly self-righteous "explanation," Cui Ciyou nearly laughed in exasperation.
So, after all that, it was my fault?
"So, you made this huge fuss, founding an 'alliance' and recruiting followers."
With a tone somewhere between amusement and mockery, he continued slowly, "Were you planning to launch a grand revolution at Ranoa University of Magic, then fight your way back to the Great Forest and snatch the throne from your henpecked fathers?"
"Huh?! What throne, meow?!" Linia shook her head furiously, her furry cat ears swinging like a rattle. "We're already princesses, meow! Whoever wants the throne can have it. We don't care about it!"
"Exactly!" Pursena looked equally dismissive. "What's so great about being a queen? You have to deal with all those annoying documents every day, and you can't even go out and have fun whenever you