Anise teleported to Firal’s room, finding Xania there lying down on her front with Firal sitting right beside, reading a book.

  Anise walked up beside Xania, “Seriously? I was gone for like a minute!” She said before trying to pull Xania off the bed, only to get a soft, annoyed groan before flipping over to look at Anise.

  “What?” Xania said while using her tail to pull a pillow over her face.

  “Is this your home or what? Get up and start behaving!” Anise pulled the pillow off Xania's face.

  Anise pulled on Xania's leg, trying to get her to stand. “And besides, don't you still have Dragrove to go help?”

  Xania let out another annoyed groan before flipping herself again, before taking a short break and doing so again until she fell off the edge of the bed.

  “By the way, you have around 10 minutes before the duel starts, you might want to hurry up,” Firal suddenly said without even looking up from her book, flipping over a page.

  Anise quickly turned around to Firal, “Huh? But I thought we would have had a few days?” She asked while trying to pull Xania to her feet.

  Firal glanced up at Anise before placing her book aside and standing up. “It was shortened since he was also supposed to be on trial, but you interrupted it, so he was given a reduced preparation time as punishment.” She took a few steps towards Anise before preparing to teleport away.

  “Well, I feel like this will be fun to watch, so I'll get going first,” She teleported away, leaving Anise and Xania alone.

  “My lord, hurry up and get up! We have so little time left!” Anise kept trying to pull Xania up.

  “Fine fine, I got it,” Xania reluctantly slowly stood up and stretched. “So, what's the plan?” She yawned, pulling her scythe out.

  “Simple honestly, we'll get Dragrove to designate you as a proxy and you'll win it for him.” Anise explained, preparing to teleport them.

  “Sure, seems simple enough,” Xania spun her scythe around playfully before being stopped by Anise, who grabbed its handle.

  “Stop that, I already told you it's dangerous,” she said before letting go and teleporting them to Dragrove.

  “Where are we?” Xania asked as she looked around, finding herself in a cave-like area

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  “No clue, I felt Dragrove's mana around here, let's just go in deeper, he's probably around here,” Anise said, walking deeper into the cave, noticing torches on the wall spaced far apart from one another.

  “This feels more like a dungeon,” Xania pointed out, before noticing a few prison cells, some empty while some had chained up dragons in them.

  “Wow, guess you're right… for once,” She said the last part quietly before grabbing Xania's arm to prevent her from going any further.

  Xania pulled away slightly, but Anise kept a tight grip on her arm. “Hey, let go.” She kept struggling but stopped once Anise made them invisible and let go of her arm.

  “Why do we have to be invisible?* Xania whispered as they made their way past the prisoners.

  “Insurance, we have no clue if we're even allowed here, so let's not let every prisoner notice us while we're at it,” Anise said before Xania suddenly pointed at the cell at the end of the room, with the surrounding cells empty.

  “There,” She whispered. “I think that's Dragrove, the link we have from the contract feels like it's coming from there at least.” Xania walked ahead slightly before noticing Dragrove in his human form, sitting cross-legged.

  Xania ran up to the cave, knocking the bars gently but enough to gain his attention, “Dragrove, why are you here?” Xania asked, undoing the invisibility on herself.

  “I feel like I should be asking you that question instead,” Dragrove responded, walking up to Xania. “But I'm here since I was found guilty for being a demonic dragon, since I had to agree to it to survive, since you threatened me.”

  “Do they expect you to just die instead?” Anise asked sarcastically, finding the fact that he was jailed ridiculous.

  “For a matter of fact, yeah. They expect me to just die instead of agreeing in exchange for living.” He said before turning around and sitting back down, leaning against the side of his cell.

  “Wow, your life seems terrible,” Xania said before remembering what she came here for. “Oh right, Dragrove, appoint me as your proxy for the fight so that you—”

  “No,” Dragrove interrupted. “If I win like that, nobody will acknowledge my win. Even if I won by myself, they'll blame the fact that I'm in a contract with you, but it'll still be better than if I won without you being my proxy,” he said firmly, unwilling to change his decision even if it meant he would die.

  Anise suddenly walked up beside Xania, “Dragons are quite a prideful bunch aren't they?” She said while looking down on Dragrove both literally and figuratively.

  “What does it matter to you?” Dragrove said before Anise suddenly reached into his cell and pulled him against the side.

  “My lord went through the trouble of helping you, or we could've been gone already, so make up your mind if you want to die or live,” she let go of Dragrove before walking away.

  Xania glanced between Dragrove and Anise before quickly chasing after Anise, making both of them invisible before teleporting them back to Firal's bedroom.

  “Anise… isn't it technically our fault for forcing him into the contract?” She said cautiously, trying not to annoy Anise any further.

  “It was you who forced him. Also, it doesn't matter even if it was our fault, he's still throwing his life away meaninglessly,”. She said in an angry tone before sitting on the edge of Firal's bed.

  “My lord, don't be like him, don't throw your life away so stupidly…” Anise said softly before throwing a pillow at Xania.

  “Got it, so what now? Do we go try to convince him again?” Xania asked, catching the pillow and placing it back onto the bed.

  “No, he won't listen, what we'll do now is go and watch his fight.” Anise said before standing up, preparing to teleport them.

  “Alright, let's go,” Xania said as Anise teleported them.