Lilith narrowed her eyes.

    "Still acting like you have nothing to do with this... Damon."

    Damon sighed. She was being petty, and they both knew it.

    "We are in a crisis. This is no time to be hung up on something I did."

    She rolled her eyes but seemed to let go of whatever grudge she held—at least for now.

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    "If I didn''t know better," she continued, "I''d think you were trying to summon a dark spirit. Hoping to break off a fragment of its soul to level up."

    Damon glanced at his shadow. It had its hands on its hips, as if agreeing with Lilith. He clicked his tongue in irritation.

    "Take that back. You do know better."

    Lilith snickered.

    "I wish I didn''t. That way, I''d have a good excuse to be mad at you."

    Damon''s eye twitched.

    "So you do know your excuse is petty."

    She shrugged, unconcerned.

    "Why else would I be looking for legitimacy?" Then her tone shifted, more thoughtful.

    "If you were trying to summon a dark spirit... which one would it be?"

    He gave a lazy shrug, considering the hypothetical.

    "If I were going to—just hypothetically—and don''t even think about using this as an excuse to punch me..."

    Lilith had already curled her fist. He caught her wrist before she could act on it.

    He continued.

    "I would try summoning the lowest one I could find."

    She shook her head.

    "That confirms you aren''t the one attempting a summon. The first thing you need is a name—whether it''s a demon, god, spirit, or even a person. If you don''t, you just end up pulling whatever has an affinity to you. And the closest match that meets the requirements will answer the call."

    She glanced at him.

    "Unless... you do know, and you''re just playing me."

    Damon scoffed.

    "No... but whatever it is, we have to stop them."

    Damon nodded, skeptical.

    "We don''t know how much of my blood they got, but it must not be enough for their summon."

    Lilith shook her head.

    "No. It''s enough. The real issue is finding a proper vessel for the spirit. Why else would they use unsuspecting students?"

    Damon exhaled.

    "Then what do all these students have in common? The first was Rein Ambridge—he had a fire attribute. Who was the second?"

    Lilith frowned.

    "It was Cliff. He had an earth attribute—he was a gnome from Midshire."

    Damon turned to the unconscious student lying before them.

    "And him? A fairy. His attribute is wood."

    Lilith pulled out her pager.

    "So far, there''s no obvious common factor between them, except that they''re all first-years and male. The first was human. The second, a gnome. The third, a fairy..."

    Damon''s chest tightened.

    His blood being used made him either the prime suspect—or the prime victim—in the academy''s inevitable investigation. If they figured it out... that would be a problem.

    Lilith brought her pager to her ear and reported the incident. She kept the details vague, revealing only what was necessary.

    Once she finished, she glanced at Damon. His worry had only deepened the more he thought about the situation.

    "Don''t worry," she said. "Even if the academy discovers your blood was used as an ingredient, they won''t suspect you—at least, not yet. For now, we need to focus on the academy and noble conference tomorrow."

    Damon nodded. She was right.

    He still had to make sure the conference went his way—that all his crimes were pinned on the dead Marcus Fayjoy. He had to ensure the Fayjoy family representatives handled the situation exactly as he wanted.

    As for the person trying to summon the dark spirit...

    He would deal with them when they finally showed their ugly head.

    ''I need more power...''

    A thought crossed his mind.

    Could he exploit the chaos to level up?

    In this life, nothing came free.

    No risk, no reward.