******

"Pffft! HAHAHAHAHAH!", Eleanor lets out a crazed laughter as she saw Theodore falling to the ground.

"Eleanor! Are you okay?", Arthur asked with a worried tone.

"I- I'm fin—", she looked at Theodore groaning on the ground again. "MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!", She continued laughing like a third-rate villain.

"Are you sure you didn't hit yourself in the head, Eleanor?", Arthur said with a straight face.

As expected of the protagonist, he was unimaginably dense.

"Pfft! Ahem! I- I'm fine", Eleanor managed to stop herself from laughing to death. An Imperial princess like her really shouldn't be seen acting like this. But—

'How could I not?', she thought.

After all, the person that managed to beat her up and killed a ranked individual just pathetically fell to the ground after being all cold and edgy earlier.

The irony of the situation was just too much for her to handle.

Calming herself down, Eleanor's eyes turned cold once more as she looked at Theodore, who had just passed out.

Theodore was acquainted with Krista Nightshade and Raun Serus, and could defeat Arthur - the hero of light with ridiculous blessings, on his first day in Avaron.

This was the very obvious sign that something was wrong with him; However, Eleanor just shrugged it off to mere coincidences at that time.

Now, though, Theodore was definitely an anomaly in Eleanor's mind, as he had beaten her in a 2-on-1 fight.

Granted, Eleanor's aether was almost emptied out and she was severely fatigued after fighting the ranked vice-leader just moments prior. However—

'It doesn't make sense. How can he beat me? I have been constantly fighting with my life on the line for the past 4 re—'

"""PROFESSOR FERDEN"""

Arthur, Raun, and Marie shouted upon seeing the figure of professor Anna Ferden from afar, distracting Eleanor from her thoughts.

Eleanor snapped her head in the direction of professor Anna. She saw her dashing towards Arthur's group.

"Are you okay?", Anna asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. But the others are injured", Arthur had concerns plastered on his face.

"I see", Anna muttered.

She then took out Recovery potions from her space pouch and handed them to Arthur. "Give this to everyone and get out of the forest right now"

"I have to go rescue other students now. Be safe!", Anna then ran off into the distance.

Arthur looked at the potions in his hand and began distributing them to everyone. He poured a potion on Lucy's wrist, healing it. He then came up to Eleanor and handed her one.

"I don't really need it", Eleanor took a step back as she saw Arthur approach her with the potion in his hand.

"You're injured, take it!", Arthur insisted.

Eleanor looked at the potion in disgust as she refused again. "No, really, I don't need it"

"Huh? Is it too bitter for you?", Arthur asked confusedly.

Raun and Marie looked at her with their eyebrows raised. They didn't expect the Imperial princess of all people to be afraid of bitter potions.

Eleanor's face flushed red in embarrassment; She was trying to come up with a reasonable excuse when someone came to her rescue, albeit unintentionally.

"Um, I don't think she can drink it", Emily suddenly spoke up.

"Why can't she?", Arthur furrowed his brows, trying to figure out the answer on his own.

Not giving Arthur enough time to figure things out, Emily continued. "Angels and Demons can't ingest mana so regular potions won't work on them"

It was common knowledge. After all, aether-based lifeforms can't utilize mana for anything.

'Well, except for Sylvia', Eleanor thought back to the hundreds of times when Sylvia had saved her life using that technique.

"I see... Sorry Eleanor. I didn't know", Arthur bowed apologetically.

"It's fine", Eleanor waved her hand, signaling Arthur to stop bowing. "Everyone can make mistakes after all"

Of course, Eleanor had trained herself for years so that she could efficiently convert mana into aether. Thus, the Recovery potion would still work on her. However—

'It's still bitter...', Eleanor shuddered in disgust. She hated bitter things with a passion.

Aether-based potions were tasteless, so at least she could drink them without crunching her face up like dried grapes.

Furthermore, she sustained very minor injuries during her fight with Theodore, so it wasn't necessary for her to drink the potion.

Glancing around, Eleanor saw that everyone was preparing to get out of the forest.

"Wait! What about that guy?", Arthur shouted as he pointed at the fainted Theodore; It seemed that everyone had forgotten about him.

"Carry him back, I guess?", Raun spoke as he placed the still-unconscious Amelia on his back.

As soon as he said that, everyone looked at each other with their eyebrows knitted together.

Arthur was carrying Emily on his back, much to Marie's dismay, so he couldn't do much; Raun had just picked Amelia up, so he couldn't either.

"Marie, how about you carry him?", Arthur suggested.

"No!", Marie resolutely refused. Her face crunched up in disgust as she briefly glanced over at Theodore. It was as if she was looking at a disgusting insect.

Seeing Marie refusing to do it so adamantly, Arthur turned towards the only person left. "Eleanor, can you?"

"Haaah... okay", Eleanor heaved a sigh and walked up to Theodore and put him on her back.

Hearing Arthur addressing her without any honorifics several times today, Eleanor couldn't help but to reminisce about the past.

'He's still dense, alright', she chuckled as she recalled the days when she had to frantically run around the Imperial court, bribing nobles to keep them from branding Arthur as a traitor just for not using honorifics with them.

'Well, it's not like I do that anymore', she sighed. After all, she found threatening those nobles to strip them of their titles to be much more effective after her second reg—

"WE'RE SAVED", Raun shouted as he spotted knights bearing Duchess Evien's coat-of-arms, snapping Eleanor out of her nostalgic thoughts.

...

Seeing Arthur and his group getting questioned by the knights, Eleanor couldn't help but to be grateful for being born as an Imperial princess. After all, if she wasn't exempted from the questionings, she would have had to stay up until tomorrow morning.

"PRINCESS", shouted an Imperial guard as he spotted Eleanor.

"Are you alright, princess?". The guard gulped his saliva as he asked, since if even as much as a scratch was spotted on Eleanor's body, he would have to face the wrath of the Emperor and Empress for agreeing to Eleanor's request of letting her take this class alone.

"I'm fine. Just take me back to my room, I'm tired"

It wasn't as though Eleanor pitied the guard. She just thought that it would be annoying if he kneeled on the ground and begged her for mercy instead of actually doing his job. Furthermore—

'It would ruin my image if that was to happen', she thought.

...

It had been over an hour since Eleanor had gotten back to her room. Currently, she was reading files on the student that had bested her in combat just a few hours ago.

'Theodore Gray...'

She bit her fingernails in anxiety as she continued reading into Theodore's background.

'No way! Marcos.. Dervit?', she was surprised. But her surprise soon turned into nervousness as she read more into Marcos' relationship with Theodore.

Crack—!

She bit her nails even harder. It had been a habit of hers ever since she was little, and she couldn't fix it no matter what she did.

'Honorary noble... WAIT! VISCOUNT NIGHTSHADE IS ALIVE?'

CRACK—!

Her nails were tore open under the pressure of her teeth; Blood dripped from her finger, staining the wooden floor of her room.

The stinging pain on her hand knocked Eleanor out of her anxiety attack, calming her down significantly.

'That's right, what was I thinking? Panicking like this isn't like me', Eleanor reprimanded herself.

'Maybe it's just a coincidence', Eleanor thought. She was clinging onto the hope that Theodore wasn't an unknown variable that recklessly interfered with her plans.

'But... I can never be too careful'

Eleanor put away the files and fell into thoughts. This time, she was a lot calmer than she was before.

'Ice-cold Imperial princess', 'Ruthless duelist', and most recently, 'Blood-stained tyrant'. Those were the titles that the people of the Empire gave her in the recent past.

'Guess I have to be 'Eleanor of the Light' again... How ironic...', Eleanor chuckled to herself.

With the inclusion of an anomaly like Theodore Gray, it seemed that she had to once again take up her first and oldest title: 'Eleanor of the Light'.

As such, she decided to lay low and tread carefully in this regr—

THUD—!

Suddenly, Eleanor could hear a loud thud; Following the noise was a shadow that loomed over her.

"Have you succeeded?", Eleanor asked in a calm tone, not even sparing a glance at the shadow.

"Yes, your highness. I've splendidly carried out my mission", a feminine voice rang out.

THUD—! THUD—! THUD—!...

Multiple thuds could be heard as pyramid-shaped crystals with numbers painted on them were dropped on Eleanor's table seemingly out of nowhere.

Eleanor picked the crystals up and started going through the one by one. "Area number 2, 12, 5, 46,... and 23. That's all the relevant Capture crystals, I assume?"

"That is correct, your highness", the shadow replied calmly.

"Have anyone gone through the recordings in these crystals"

"...It was professor Anna Ferden and professor Misha"

"Anyone else?"

"None, your highness"

Eleanor pondered for a moment before giving out an order. "Mmmm... Just warn them not to disclose what they saw to anyone else"

"As you command", the shadow said in a respectful tone before slowly disappearing into the darkness.

"Wait!", Eleanor shouted as she remembered something.

"What's the matter, your highness?", the shadow stopped in its tracks.

"Report on the progress of Ria Pyrian's and Noah Adrancus' relationship"

The shadow spent a split second to recall the information before replying. "They have been confirmed to be in a romantic relationship about a week ago. But Noah Adrancus is still keeping it a secret from everyone, including his sister"

"I see...", Eleanor nodded her head.

'Good, it's still going as planned'

"That's all, you can go now"

The shadow gave her a final bow before disappearing.

Eleanor then tapped on a crystal; A blue holographic screen was projected from the crystal as soon as she did so.

Do you wish to view 's recordings?

[Yes] [No]

She spent the next 2 hours going through each and every of the crystals.

Focusing on footages containing Theodore Gray, Eleanor's heartbeat rose uncontrollably, and her brain was overclocking with thoughts as it became increasingly evident that—

'He's the same as me!'

That thought only made her bite her nails again in anxiety as she went through the remaining footages.

Putting the last crystal containing hers and Lucy's fight against Theodore away, a faint smile formed on her lips. "Hahaha! Now this is blackmail material!"

The panic she had mere minutes ago was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she exalted an air of absolute confident around her. After all—

'If he has at least any bit of common sense, he shouldn't be able to go against me'

However, Eleanor quickly wiped that confident smile off her own face. Taking her first-hand experience into consideration, being overconfident without knowing your enemy was an extremely foolish thing to do.

Thus, she decided to first observe the situation, before confronting Theodore.

"Kasumi!"

Instantly, a shadow appeared in Eleanor's room; And the same feminine voice as before rang out again. "What do you require me for, your highness?"

"Observe student Theodore Gray carefully. Report back to me if there are any suspicious movements"

The shadow, Kasumi, kept quiet for a second before speaking up. "Should I eliminate him as well, your highness?"

Eleanor knitted her brows together in thoughts. '...He could be of use'

Furthermore, she would be lying if she said that she wasn't excited at the prospect of meeting someone in the same situation as her after god knows how many years.

Thus, she decided that Theodore would be allowed to live, at least for now. "No need. I'll decide if he needs to be eliminated or not"

Bowing one last time, Kasumi melted into the dark yet again.

CLAP—!

Eleanor clapped her hand as she laid down on her bed. Instantly, the lights in her room went off; Her eyes seemingly glowed a bright-red color in the darkness.

'Which will you turn out to be? A pest that needs to be crushed thoroughly, or... an obedient hunting dog', she thought, before drowsiness finally washed over her.

Slowly closing her eyes, Eleanor curved her lips into a smile one last time before falling asleep.

After all, Theodore was an individual unique to what Eleanor would call...

...Her 5th major regression.