Galaxy Fall: All My Skills Are Maxed-Chapter 121: Two Gifts

​Yakima walked slowly toward the steaming bathroom. As the heat began to rise, the silence of the room pulled her back to those final, hidden moments in the arena—the moments the world was never meant to see.

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​[Some moments back, in the Arena.]

​The fog was a wall of gray silence, isolating the two warriors from the hundreds of eyes in the stands. Yakima froze, her breath hitching as Mirabella materialized directly in front of her, the cold steel of a training dagger leveled with her throat. The "White Calamity" was at the mercy of a girl who shouldn’t have been able to touch her.

​"You?" Yakima gasped, her voice cracking with the realization of her total defeat.

​"Shhh..." Mirabella whispered, her expression unreadable.

​She reached out and placed her palm firmly on Yakima’s mangled, blood-soaked shoulder. A pulse of emerald light surged through Mirabella’s hand, and Yakima watched in stunned silence as the hole from the Light Bullet closed, the muscle re-knitted, and the jagged edges of her broken bones snapped back into perfect alignment. When Mirabella removed her hand, the injury was gone as if it had never existed.

​"This?" Yakima was dumbfounded, staring at her hand, slowly rotating her arm to test the lack of pain. She stood upright, the strength returning to her limbs. "You healed my shoulder and also fixed my bones?"

​She stared at Mirabella, her confusion turning into a defensive suspicion. "Why are you helping me now?" she asked, a slight frown marring her face. After the arrogance Yakima had shown, this kindness felt like a new kind of weapon.

​"Look around you... There are students all over the place, watching this battle," Mirabella said, her voice devoid of any boastful triumph. "If you lose to a student, who hasn’t even graduated, what do you think will happen to your reputation?"

​Yakima blinked, stunned into silence. The weight of the words hit her harder than the punch that had broken her arm. No matter how she looked at it, Mirabella was right. Yakima was a Guild Leader, a Lv300 pillar of the Dragon Empire’s might. If the news broke that she had been decimated by an unranked student, her authority would vanish, and the Dragon Tooth Guild would crumble under the perceived weakness of its leader.

​"But," Yakima looked up at her, her voice trembling slightly. "From the start, I was mean to you. Why do this? Why even care about my reputation?"

​"Truthfully, I also don’t know," Mirabella said with a weary sigh, her eyes drifting toward the clearing fog. She stretched out her hand, offering the hilt of the dagger toward Yakima. "Take it... The fog will clear in some seconds."

​Yakima stared at the girl for a long time, seeing a level of strategic maturity that far surpassed her age. She reached out and took the dagger. She watched as Mirabella deactivated the Chessboard Art, her dominant aura vanishing as she dropped onto one knee in a practiced show of defeat. Yakima raised the dagger, pointing it at the girl’s head just as the last of the gray mist evaporated, presenting a lie that saved an empire’s pride.

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​[Present.]

​Yakima stepped out of her undergarments, throwing the bloody clothes to the tiled floor. She stared into the mirror, her eyes tracking the faint, fading mark on her shoulder where she should have died.

​"I can’t believe this... I was actually defeated by a student, and still, I was saved by her." She closed her eyes, the steam curling around her. "Thank goodness she is a student of the Dragon Empire."

​A soft, relieved smile played on her lips. "I will know more about her from father." She removed the heavy bangles from her wrists, placing them on the sink with a metallic thud. She turned and stepped into the porcelain bathtub, sighing as the warm water slowly filled the space.

"Everything will go smoothly then," she whispered, letting the tension of the day dissolve.

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​[Hayatobi’s Office]

​The afternoon sun was setting, casting long shadows across the Master Teacher’s desk.

​Knock. Knock. Knock.

​"Come in, Mirabella," Hayatobi called out. He was sitting behind his desk, his eyes fixed on two ornate boxes resting before him: one of polished gold, the other of lacquered black.

​The heavy door creaked open, and Mirabella walked inside, the white-furred Cupcake perched stoically on her shoulder. She closed the door, sealing out the noise of the academy.

​"You asked me to meet you," Mirabella said, her gaze immediately locking onto the boxes.

​"About what you did out there," Hayatobi said, looking up at her with a depth of gratitude he rarely showed. "Protecting my daughter’s honor and reputation."

​"What about it?" Mirabella asked simply, her tone neutral.

​"I have two gifts for you. One is for protecting her, while the second..." He paused, his gaze lowering to the golden box. "I have spoken to the Emperor, and thanks to Delphine’s testimony, he has agreed to it."

​"Agreed to what?" Mirabella was starting to get genuinely confused. Direct interference from the Emperor was a level of politics she hadn’t expected to trigger this early.

​"Hahaha! I should stop talking in riddles." Hayatobi smiled and slid the black box across the desk toward her. "Open it."

​Mirabella hesitated for a second, then took the box. As she lifted the lid, a radiant golden light spilled out, reflecting against her wide eyes.

​"This?" She was stunned. Nestled in the velvet was a Legendary Skill Scroll, its parchment humming with ancient, high grade energy.

"You?" She looked at Hayatobi in shock. Such a gift was worth a fortune, often more than the entire yearly budget of a minor guild.

​"That’s my personal gift to you," Hayatobi said with a proud smile. "Come on, check the second gift." He pushed the golden box toward her with one finger, his expression turning solemn.

​Mirabella opened the golden box, and her breath caught. Inside lay a badge—not a student’s crest, but a Military Rank Badge.

​Mirabella froze in genuine shock and disbelief. This was a symbol of absolute authority, usually reserved only for those who had survived the academy, graduated with honors, and officially sworn their lives to the Military Faction. It carried the weight of the Empire’s law—a junior version of Hayatobi’s own God General badge.

​She slowly raised her hand, her fingers trembling slightly as she lifted the heavy green badge. She traced the intricate Dragon’s head engraved into the center, the symbol of the Empire’s fangs.

​"Congratulations, Mirabella Sunny. You have joined the military. All you have to do now is add your blood to the badge," Hayatobi said. He paused, laughing as he saw that Mirabella had already bitten her finger, a single drop of crimson blood falling onto the metal.

​"Hahaha! It seems you were waiting for this! Then it’s a good thing!" He laughed, his voice booming in the office.

​"Now, you are a Cadet! Remember that!"

​"Yes!" She nodded firmly. The badge glowed a deep, resonant red as it absorbed her blood, binding her life force to the Dragon Empire’s military hierarchy.