The representatives were gathered in a large hall. Merlin and Miho arrived relatively late; more than half of all the representatives were already present.

“Oh my, what happened to your eyes?” Nell asked Merlin.

“Hahaha! I-I bumped into a boobytrap.”

“I don’t recall any boobytrap in the Trial that could cause such an injury…”

With an awkward look on his face, Merlin looked at Nell before covering his black eye. With his other hand he used a treatment-type magic on his bruised face, but it wasn’t settling down. It seemed that Miho had hit him with some sort of magic technique.

“Ugh, it’s not like I did something bad… how could you hit a friend…”

“Shut up. If I hadn’t held back, you’d be dead.”

“Ah, come on. Don’t talk like that. Be cute again, you know, like Bbo-bee…”

Bam!

“Ugh!”

Merlin’s head snapped back from her soaring uppercut. Fortunately, he had slightly moved his head before the connection, so her uppercut just grazed his face. However, Merlin was in a state of panic.

“Huh? Why couldn’t I avoid it?”

The difference in physical strength and ability between Merlin and Miho was like the difference between a tiger and a cat. Why couldn’t Merlin avoid such a simple uppercut? While Merlin panicked, Miho growled, apparently disinterested in whatever Merlin was thinking.

“If you do that again, whether you’re a friend or colleague, I won’t put up with it!”

“Man, you were so cute, though.”

Merlin tried to plead his case, but Miho sat in her designated seat...