"Hahahahaha! We Won!"
"Finally!"
Liu Ying and Rana exclaimed happily. Rhone and Greta were smiling beside them, and even the usually stoic Atai had a small smile on his face.
Regina smiled at that and looked at Bloed. "Well done, master."
Bloed stared at Regina deeply before smiling. "Thanks."
While the six of them were celebrating, Eve, the lionkin general, and Javelin's father walked towards the training grounds.
"Well done, guys." The lionkin general said with a wide smile. "To be honest, I'm surprised by your progress."
"As expected of the most outstanding geniuses of the beastmen countries. You truly live up at your name." Javelin's father said with a sigh.
"True." Eve nodded expressionlessly. "Well done, everyone. Now I'm a bit more confident of sending you to compete against the elves and the Sun Kingdom."
Bloed and the others thanked them gratefully.
Seeing their attitudes, the lionkin general nodded.
"We have already taught you most of what I can teach you in this little time. As for the rest, you will have to rely on yourselves. We will not train tomorrow. You can use that day to relax before the competition. The day after tomorrow we will take you to the mountains where you will compete."
Bloed and the others looked at each other and nodded.
The group, mainly the girls, seemed pretty happy with this arrangement. They had been training non-stop for almost one week, so they craved a bit of rest and relaxation.
But–
"You are free to use the day off as you want. But I must remind you that you must be in top condition for the competition, so remember to restrain yourself." The lionkin general warned them.
"""Understood.""" Bloed and the others replied.
"Very well, you are dismissed."
The group nodded and left the training grounds.
Bloed could feel that the mood of the group was pretty good. Obviously, the fact they had managed to defeat Regina was very good for their morale.
Bloed could not help but sigh when he thought of that. If only they knew…
"Why are you sighing, captain?" Rana could not help but ask. "Could it be you are worried about your experiments?"
"Right, now that you mention it, I heard that the captain killed several animals in bizarre manners the last few nights… Could it be that the captain has a strange hobby?" Greta could not help but opine when she heard Rana. When she finished speaking, she intentionally took several steps away from Bloed.
Bloed twitched his lips. "I'm a normal person, okay?"
"Really?" Rana tilted her head in doubt. "I heard that one of the animals explode in a rain of blood and gore."
"Girls, you don't understand." Rhone, the batkin, interjected. "It must be a new technique he is training for the competition."
"Really? That sure is a brutal technique." Rana said.
Bloed was speechless. He did not even have the strength to refute them.
He could see Liu Ying's lips twitching as though she was suppressing her laughter. Obviously, she was laughing at his misfortune.
The thing the group was talking was about Bloed's Body Strengthening experiments.
Two days ago, Bloed finished the first prototype of the virus.
Therefore, he decided to realize some tests in animals to recollect practical information. Thus, he asked Regina to catch some small animals for the test.
But Bloed did a mistake.
Because his portable laboratory was a bit cramped to do tests with living animals, he went to a forest nearby and realized the test there.
The problem was that the results of the test were a bit more… bizarre than Bloed expected.
A rabbit turned into a mummy in less than five seconds of being injected by the virus, a small fox bleed through its pores to its death, and a rat's heart exploded causing its entire body to burst apart.
… And some of the soldiers saw the results of Bloed's experiments.
The next day, some strange rumors about him started to spread, and some of them were very crazy.
One even said that he could extract the blood of his enemy just by touching them.
Bloed did not know whether to laugh or to cry when he heard that.
In the end, he consoled himself with the thought this was for the good of science(?).
Also, he decided that from today onwards, he was going to do all his tests in his laboratory, no matter how cramped it is.
By the way, it's already obvious but the first prototype was a complete failure. Bloed did not even want to think about what would happen if he injected it in humans.
"Anyway, what are you planning to do tomorrow?" Bloed asked the group in an attempt to shift the topic.
As soon as he asked that, Rana's eyes lit up.
"Right, right. I talked with Ying Ying and Grey Grey and we thought it would be a good idea to pay a visit to the town. I heard this place has one of the best night markets of the beastmen countries. It would be a shame if we return to our homes without experiencing it. What do you say? Do you want to come with us?" Rana asked the three young men.
Rhone nodded after a bit of hesitation, but Atai said he was going to visit an acquittance that lived in the city.
"What about you, captain?" Rana asked Bloed.
Bloed did not reply and instead looked at Liu Ying.
As though they were connected, Liu Ying looked back at him and smiled.
Bloed smiled back.
"Sure. It's a good opportunity to have a date with Liu Ying."
Liu Ying smiled shyly and her face turned slightly red.
"You two… Thinking about it, I should not have invited you. I'll feel awkward seeing you two flirting all the while." Rana twitched her lips and said.
Bloed shrugged. "It's too late now."
"... Should I find a lover for tomorrow as well? Hey Grey Grey, do you want to be my lover?"
Greta glared at Rana uncomfortably. "Crazy girl!"
"... It looks like I'm not very lucky in love. Right, what about you, captain? You can have a date with a girl on each arm?"
"... Stop it, Rana. I'm sure I'll wake up dead tomorrow if I try something like that."
In fact, Liu Ying's lips were already twitching.
After talking for a while more, the groups returned to their rooms. Bloed then took a quick bath and excused himself to go to his laboratory.
He had done this every day after training, so his two roommates did not find it strange.
When Bloed arrived at his laboratory, he found Regina already waiting for him there.
"Master."
"You are here, Regina." Bloed smiled. "Oh right, thank you for letting us win today."
Regina smiled and tilted her head. "… What are you talking about master? You won fairly."
"You don't need to lie to me, Regina. Do you think I was not going to notice?"
Regina could only smile without answering.
Yes, Regina had left them to win.
In fact, since the start of the training, she had never shown all her strength.
At the very least, she never showed her Valkyrie's Armament.
"But master, you never showed your trump card either, so we are even."
Bloed shrugged. That was true.
"Well, that doesn't matter now. Master, what are you planning to do now?"
"… I'll guess I'll try to eliminate the lethal side-effects I found in the first prototype." Bloed said with a listless sigh. "Perhaps if I'm lucky I'll have a second prototype ready tomorrow."
"Is it so? Mm… Hey master, I was thinking about something."
"Yes?"
Regina smiled bewitchingly and walked towards Bloed.
"It has been a few days since we did it, right? In the last few days, you were busy training so we could not spend the night together, and after tomorrow you will be in the competition and we will not be able to be together for a few days… So, what do you think about playing with me tonight?"
Bloed was startled. But then, he smiled.
Hugging Regina's waist, he planted a small kiss on her lips
"You are right. I think a change of pace will be good."
A few minutes later, soft moans started to leak from the laboratory.