On how PhDs become human evil

Although he was called over, it was actually Abel who invited the two of them over. Bai Jie's snap of his fingers had shattered his arm, which seemed to have left Diluc with a considerable psychological shadow, to the point that he dared not get too close to Bai Jie.

In the student council president's office, Diluc opened several screens in mid-air: "The Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival is about to begin in a week. As usual, the list of participants for this year's Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival has been distributed. You two take a look."

Bai Jie and Himeragi Yukina turned their attention to the projected screen.

This year's Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival had 512 participants, divided into 256 groups.

The event will last for about two weeks. The first week will be the preliminary round, from which 32 teams will be selected to enter the official competition and compete against each other.

"The competition will open tomorrow, and the venue will be the stage in the administrative district. Each group will go to their respective stage according to the assignment and compete with the students from the six academies."

"After the preliminary rounds are over, the opponents in the official tournament will be determined by drawing lots. You are the team with the best chance of winning the championship in our academy, so we will give you the player information we have prepared in advance, including information on some of the favorite teams to win the championship."

With a slight upturn of his lips, Bai Jie smiled and said, "Winning the championship... I remember that our deal only included participating in the Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival, not winning the championship."

"Tsk... Let's make another deal then. I'll give you everything I can, and you win the championship, how about it?"

"Oh wow, you're quite decisive this time, but I refuse." Bai Jie shrugged. "Everything about you is nothing to me, winning the Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival is nothing either. It's not to the point where we need to make a deal."

"You mean you're willing to work for me for free?"

"Not really, just think of it as me killing time. I'm bored anyway."

While talking, Bai Jie flipped through the information data of the contestants from the six academies. Although it was impossible for any student to beat the combination of Bai Jie and Himeragi Yukina, Bai Jie still had to make thorough preparations beforehand, such as how much force to exert. Otherwise, it would be funny if he killed someone by going too far. Bai Jie did not want to waste magic power to revive strangers.

Among the six academies, due to differences in school spirit and nature, some academies excel in specific Star Martial Festivals.

For example, St. Galedovath Academy excels at the Griffin Star Festival, which focuses on team battles, while Rewolf Black Academy excels at the King Dragon Star Festival, which focuses on individual battles. The Phoenix Star Festival, which focuses on partner battles, is a strength of Seidokan Academy.

The Seventh Academy of the Realm Dragons has a relatively outstanding overall strength. Although it does not excel in any particular Star Martial Arts Festival, it has won championships in various Star Martial Arts Festivals, making it quite well-rounded.

As for the Alcant Research Institute, its strengths fluctuate greatly, with its strengths in the Star Festival changing over time. As for the Quincy Academy, it doesn't value the results of the Star Festival, so it doesn't have any Star Festival as its strength.

Although Diluc was annoying, he did a great job preparing. He recorded all the information of the contestants from the six academies without missing a single one, and the teams that were considered favorites to win the championship were specially marked.

Besides Haku and Yukina Himeragi, there are three teams that Diluc considers to be favorites to win the championship.

Enestan Junai and Camilla Parette of the Alcantara Institute.

Li Shenyun and Li Shenhua from the Seventh Academy of Jielong.

Also, there's Ayato Amagiri and Euryth Alexia von Risfeld from Seidoukan Academy.

However, compared to the previous two groups, Ayato Amagiri's group was marked with a special annotation on top of the special annotation.

"Are you very concerned about this Ayato Amagiri?" Bai Jie asked.

"Rather than caring, I'd say he'll cause me a lot of trouble. I'm someone who hates trouble, and I want to get rid of anything that will cause me trouble as soon as possible." Diluc made no attempt to hide his thoughts. "But unfortunately, judging from the schedule, you two probably won't meet in the qualifiers."

"Yes, I like that you don't hide your thoughts at all."

"I don't need your praise. Do you have any insights to offer?"

"Insights... I can only say that these students are still too low-level for me. I estimate I wouldn't even need to use one percent of my power to fight them. By the way, when I first arrived, I only used about two percent of my power to instantly kill the students here."

".......You monster."

"You're only finding out now?" Bai Jie laughed.

Suddenly, Himeragi Yukina tugged at Shiro's clothes: "Senpai, look at this group."

"Huh? The Star Guide Hall combination? Kaslana and Pendragon?" Bai Jie's expression instantly became quite interesting. "Oh dear, I didn't expect to encounter something like this. This is really..."

"Senior, what should we do?"

"Nothing to do, we'll just fight the way we always have to."

Bai Jie hadn't expected to face Kiana and Artoria as opponents, since he thought they had gone to other worlds to train and never imagined they were actually in this world.

However, Bai Jie had no intention of holding back. Even though the opponent was his wife and servant, he still had to fight. At worst, he would make it up to Kiana that night after the fight. As for Artoria, he would just let her eavesdrop.

Hearing Bai Jie and Himeragi Yukina's conversation, Diluk asked, "What happened to the other pair from Seidoukan?"

"No, it's nothing, you don't have to know."

"........I see."

Since Bai Jie didn't want Diluc to investigate further, Diluc didn't pursue the matter either. He knew very well that if he did, Bai Jie might take his life, and he didn't want to die so soon.

"The Star Martial Festival starts tomorrow, so I'll be counting on you then, you monster."

“Since it’s a transaction, I won’t do anything shameful. You can trust that you will complete a perfect deal.”

Section 588, Chapter 9: The Two Cecilias

Today, the city situated on the lake has gained a vitality that it never had before.

No matter where you are, there are crowds heading towards the city center, gradually flowing in several directions, and at the end of these directions, there are stages.

The importance of stages to this city is self-evident, so there are a great many stages in the City of Learning and War.

Among these stages, there are three large-scale stages, seven medium-scale stages, and countless small-scale outdoor stages, which can be described as a unique feature of the learning and fighting city.

However, among the crowds surging towards the stages, the largest flow was heading in a direction outside these categories.

The flow of people ended at an extremely magnificent egg-shaped building.

The scale of this building far surpasses that of the other stages, even the three large-scale stages cannot compare, and its name is Sirius Dome, known as the largest main stage in the Academy City.

Regardless of the edition of the Star Martial Arts Festival, the championship battle is always held here, and the scale is so large that it can accommodate a full 100,000 people.

Today's Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival opening ceremony is being held inside this Sirius giant egg.

At this moment, the audience seats inside the Sirius Dome were already packed with people.

Meanwhile, on the huge stage in the center, the opening ceremony was underway.

Students from all the schools, dressed in uniform, lined up neatly as contestants, and were holding the opening ceremony in full view of everyone.

However, attendance at the opening ceremony was not mandatory for participants. Therefore, the number of participants attending varied depending on the school's ethos.

For example, all the participants from St. Galedowan Academy, a school known for its upright atmosphere, were present. Their formations were so neat that they resembled a regular army. Every student had a serious expression on their face, and combined with their white uniforms, they looked almost like knights.

For example, the participants from the violent Rewolf Black Academy were seriously absent, and their formation was somewhat sloppy. Regardless of their performance, their attire alone made them look like delinquents, which was in stark contrast to the students of St. Galedowan Academy.

Among the participants in the Reiwolf Black Academy competition, Bai Jie and Himeragi Yukina were prominently featured.

To be honest, Bai Jie didn't want to come here to attend the opening ceremony. After all, it was just the opening ceremony of a small competition, and it was really inferior to the Daihasei Festival in Academy City.

Bai Jie only came to the opening ceremony because Himeragi Yukina brought him here. Unlike him, Himeragi Yukina is a rather serious person and would never skip such an important ceremony.

And naturally, she couldn't just watch Bai Jie escape, so she forcibly tied him up—literally tied him up.

"Haaaaaaah~~~~~"

Bai Jie yawned loudly and then sat down on the arena floor to stretch.

"Isn't the opening ceremony starting yet? If it drags on any longer, I'm going back."

"Senior, can't you learn from those students in white uniforms over there? Stand up and be more presentable!"

"I'm almost a hundred years old, you want me to be a young man? Don't make things difficult for me."

It's obvious that Bai Jie is talking nonsense.

With a heavy sigh, Himeragi Yukina couldn't understand how her senior had become so颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a state of listlessness, apathy, and apathy) after only a little over ten years. What was with this middle-aged man's demeanor?

After waiting for another two or three minutes, just as Bai Jie was about to leave because he couldn't stand being surrounded by people any longer, the opening ceremony finally began.

"Oh oh ...

The cheers of the audience rose and fell, creating waves of sound that surged throughout the Sirius Dome, stirring the heart with excitement.

In this situation, right in the center of the stage, a middle-aged man walked onto the stage accompanied by staff members, waving to the audience around him with a handsome smile on his face.

"I am Matthias Mesa, the chairman of the Star Martial Festival Operations Committee. Hello, everyone and all the contestants."

Matthias Mesa.

This name is practically a legend in the City of Learning and War.

The chairman of the Star Festival Operations Committee and executive producer, he is the highest person in charge of the Star Festival's operation, entrusted with full authority by the Unified Enterprise Foundation. Anyone who knows anything about the Star Festival would definitely recognize him.

After all, the Star Martial Festival has always been planned by a committee centered around this person, whose high status is comparable to that of a regular executive of the Unified Corporate Group.

In addition, this person was once the champion of the Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival. He had extremely strong strength during his student days. Although he is wearing a suit now, you can still vaguely feel the aura contained in his physique.

Of course, that is, relative to the student level. In the eyes of Bai Jie and Himeragi Yukina, even if Matthias's power were increased tenfold, it would still be inferior to the two of them. At most, he would be at the level of a high-level demon, and the weakest of all high-level demons.

Even Matthias is only at that level, let alone the students who will be competing against Bai Jie in the future. Even if Bai Jie stood there and let them fight for tens of thousands of years, they would not be able to break through Bai Jie's defense. To be honest, Bai Jie wanted to just wipe out all the students present. In this way, the competition schedule of the Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival would be greatly shortened.

Unfortunately, Yukina Himeragi wouldn't allow him to do that.

At this point, Matthias's speech entered another phase.

"...That concludes my remarks. Next, please welcome Mr. Shaniat from Seidoukan Academy to give a pre-match pep talk."

"Wait, what did that kid just say?"

Bai Jie instantly perked up!

Shaniat, isn't that Cecilia's surname? How did it end up in this world?!

At that moment, Yukina Himeragi suddenly exclaimed, "Senpai! Look at the stage!"

Bai Jie looked up at the podium and his gaze froze instantly.

Cecilia!?

Why is Cecilia here? Shouldn't she be...? Wait, what?

Bai Jie covered his head.

(My memories... no, I should say my perceptions... something's wrong?! Someone has tampered with my memories and perceptions!)

This is truly an unbelievable thing. Bai Jie is a magic king who knows all the mysteries of the world, and is also the embodiment of evil in this world, one of the eight great evils of mankind. Not to mention ordinary magicians, even Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, could not affect his memories!

But now, Bai Jie clearly felt that his memories had been tampered with.

“Cecilia…that’s right…it’s Cecilia! Why…why did I forget Cecilia?”

I shouldn't forget. There should be two Cecilias, so why did I think there was only one? There's Cecilia, my adoptive mother, with whom I developed a forbidden bond. And there's Cecilia, whom I met and fell in love with after going back in time. Since the past and future have now split into two parallel worlds, there should be two Cecilias by my side!