The thing that Hilia thought probably wouldn’t happen—yet expected it just might—ended up happening after all.

She looked at Encore, and their eyes met in silent confusion.

The judge waited a few minutes, and when the absent team still didn’t show up, declared Holy Maiden Squad the winner by default, taking a smooth two-to-zero victory.

Backstage, Hilia immediately found Mr. Nikodemos and reported the anomaly to him, asking if he wanted to take it up with the League Committee.

Upon hearing Hilia’s report, Mr. Nikodemos pondered for a moment: "Someone’s definitely going to investigate the absentees, but if what you say is true, those sent to check might fall asleep too. Only Tier Four Mages or above are likely to resist. I’ll speak to the committee."

With that, Mr. Nikodemos left.

Shortly after, he returned to Hilia and said, "Besides your opponents, two other teams also missed their matches. When I went over, their managers were arguing with the committee, claiming they slept in by mistake."

Hilia asked, "So... do they get a makeup match?"

Mr. Nikodemos shook his head: "The League Committee didn’t allow it, just told them to pay more attention next time. As for what I said, they brushed it off as mere coincidence."

"Alright..." Hilia said. "Mr. Nikodemos, I don’t know if you believe any of this, but I hope you’ll stay alert tomorrow."

After thinking it over, Hilia took out a small vial of Essence of the Dark Dream and a small vial of antidote. "’Oversleeping’ is probably caused by this purple Essence of the Dark Dream. The blue one aids magic power flow and acts as an antidote—both from Encore. If you want to equip other teams with them, you can get more from Encore."

Mr. Nikodemos nodded, took the two vials, and uncorked the purple one for a sniff. As a Tier Five Mage, he was extremely sensitive to shifts in magic power and quickly sensed its influence.

"Seems you might be right. By the way, where did you get this?" asked Mr. Nikodemos.

Hilia replied, "I was out for a stroll the other day and ran into a little heretic hideout. Almost fell victim to it myself. After busting it up, I got my hands on these."

Mr. Nikodemos nodded and chuckled: "Should’ve guessed it was you."

Hilia: "..."

She wanted to argue, but couldn’t find the words—so she just let it go.

With the potions in hand, Mr. Nikodemos left. Hilia had no idea what happened after that—only that Mr. Nikodemos looked somewhat grim when he returned, possibly from a less-than-smooth talk with the League Committee.

Maybe the committee thought it was just a random accident and considered Mr. Nikodemos overly paranoid.

In response, Mr. Nikodemos went to Encore for more antidote and distributed them to all Divine Magic Academy participants.

The antidote was cheap—just a gold coin or two for dozens of bottles. Mr. Nikodemos paid up without hesitation.

Hilia watched as Mr. Nikodemos and Encore traded money for potions. When he left, she looked at the others and couldn’t help but say, "What do you guys think will happen if tomorrow all the teams go missing—but only our academy’s people show up?"

Doris snorted and said, "What do you think? The League Committee would immediately suspect our school was behind it."

Benovia mused, "Honestly, that’s a real possibility."

Encore said, "So Mr. Nikodemos handed over Essence of the Dark Dream, asked the League Committee to keep an eye out, and afterwards all other teams ’oversleep’—only we’re early..."

The girls exchanged glances. In this case, ’suspicion’ was putting it mildly. With how careless the League Committee was today, they’d probably just dump all the blame on Divine Magic Academy.

As Hilia considered what to do if that happened, Rose’s voice rang in her ear: "Why not do this—get up early tomorrow and snoop around where the other contestants are staying. If you find signs they’ve all ’overslept’, go and wake all the Ista Empire teams. Leave the rest alone."

Hilia sprouted a mental question mark—she couldn’t figure out what Rose meant by that.

Rose smiled faintly: "No hidden meaning. Just shifting the blame from Divine Magic Academy to the Ista Empire."

"Huh?"

"Think about it: if only your school is fine, of course the League Committee suspects you. But if it’s the whole Empire? Wouldn’t you like to see how the committee reacts? Will they say Ista Empire is pulling tricks, or will they just shrug it off like today?"

Hilia’s eyes lit up: "Wouldn’t that be a bit much?"

Rose didn’t answer—he knew Hilia would just talk the talk, but tomorrow morning, she’d check for sure.

...

The next day arrived quickly.

Hilia woke up an hour early, about to head out to investigate, when Rose’s voice stopped her: "No need. They’ve already increased the dosage and secretly used Essence of the Dark Dream even in the Tier Four Mage areas. Just approaching will catch you. Skip it—go straight to where the Ista Empire competitors are staying and destroy the hidden vials."

Hilia said, "But I have no idea where those vials are..."

Rose said, "I can spot them. Most are right at the door. Which means somebody made a round of the inn last night, dripping Essence of the Dark Dream at each doorway."

"How do I destroy them? Collect them all up?"

"No need. I’ll teach you a simple dream magic to break the effect."

"Okay."

Soon, Hilia mastered the simple dream magic. Disguised, she made a round outside every Ista Empire team’s door; meanwhile, Rose used her magic puppet to pass by other teams’ mentors’ or managers’ rooms, dispelling the Essence’s effect with the spell.

All of this was done silently under Rose’s watchful eye.

Essence of the Dark Dream only affected up to Tier Four, never Tier Five. But not every team had a Tier Five Mage—only the top magic schools brought them along.

Some selected teams or lone individuals even came on their own—no manager whatsoever, just some official appointed by the Empire to handle off-court affairs.

As for those officials, most were Tier Three or even Tier Two Mages—good for chores, but forget about combat.

They slept even sounder than the contestants.

Soon, as match time approached, all contestants began to wake and prepare.

The Ista Empire teams, all staying in the same area, were full of bustle—no different from the previous days.

Since other empires stayed elsewhere, they didn’t notice anything strange about the other empires’ contestants.

Everything felt just like yesterday; people chatted with friends as they headed to the arena.

It wasn’t until the match began—when the contestants entered the competition grounds and saw countless absent opponents—that they realized something was very wrong.