Monster’s Streamer Star Chapter 63 : Thesis (2)

“A thesis... a new research topic...A completely new thesis no one has ever done before…!”

“Uh, Miss Gracie? What’s wrong?”

Alia felt a strange fear watching Gracie suddenly mumble while covering her mouth.

[Noblesse Fire] ▶ What’s up with that human? Her eyes look dangerous.

▶ She’s totally looking at it like prey, lololol.

[Squishy Queen]▶ How dare she! How dare she look at my kin like that!

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶ There are humans who treat Squishy kindly, so I doubt she’ll do anything reckless.

[Squishy Queen]▶ Just giving that kind of look to my kin is wrong!

[Thread-Lady]▶ That’s right! We have to protect the cute Squishy!

[Just Slam First]▶ If she does anything stupid, we just smash her, problem solved.

▶ Ugh, that Smash-addict again.

▶ Lolololol.

“Miss Gracie, are you alright?”

“Gasp!”

Only when Paulen spoke did Gracie snap back to her senses.

However, the look in her eyes directed at the sli remained unchanged.

“Saintess! Paladin! I have a request!”

“A request?”

“Yes!”

Gracie interlocked her fingers as if in earnest prayer and shouted.

“Please! Please let research the sli!”

“...?”

Alia and Paulen tilted their heads in sync at the completely unexpected word: research.

“Research?”

“Yes!”

‘I must not miss this chance!’

At that mont, Gracie’s mind was filled solely with ideas for a research thesis involving the sli.

The Saintess and Paladin showing up at her ho?

The sli finding its way to her house on its own?

All of that was trivial in the face of a brand-new thesis no one had studied before.

‘If I pull this off, no more worrying about research grants!’

Gracie beca a mage out of admiration for Ventus Frail and because her family’s financial support would be cut if she didn’t show results.

As long as she used magic tools, she could prove her skills.

Even the old natural-born mage codgers at the Tower had no choice but to acknowledge her abilities when they saw her tool combinations in action.

But achievents were a different matter altogether.

There were two ways to prove one’s achievents.

One was to work as an adventurer, take on challenging quests, and succeed.

The other was to publish a research thesis demonstrating one’s magical knowledge and capability.

Gracie chose the latter.

Because going around taking commissions was tiring and annoying!

She respected Ventus Frail for traveling all over to defeat the Black Dragon, but admiration aside, this was her life!

However, even though the Tower acknowledged her talent in magic tool use, they were extrely strict when it ca to her theses.

Even when she wrote about her magic tools...

“It’s well written, but... hmm, I guess it’s okay?”

They always gave lukewarm reactions and diocre evaluations.

That’s why Gracie was barely scraping by under the minimum requirents to keep receiving research funding.

‘Those damn natural-born mage geezers!’

Artisans of magical tools were so impressed with her theses that they even visited her ho to thank her for giving them new ideas.

But the Tower’s thesis review committee always gave her harsh evaluations, which was incredibly frustrating.

To make matters worse, she had practically exhausted all her ideas and had nothing new to write about.

And then—appeared the sli right in front of her!

A sli that used magic tools, tools ant for magic stones, without a single stone—just its own mana!

Even the most stubborn mage geezer would have no choice but to say, “Wait, how does this even work?” and be forced to examine the thesis in depth.

Theses were scored based on how novel and insightful they were about previously unknown topics.

That’s why Gracie was confident she could get a high score with this subject.

“A sli like this—no, a monster like this—has never been seen before! A sli that can use magic tools like this! Even mages struggle to do that!”

“Is that true?”

“Can’t mages use magic tools even without stones?”

“Let say again—magic tools that require stones and those that don’t are built entirely differently in terms of mana handling. Even a high-level mage can only use it like this sli for 15 seconds at most. But this sli? It’s been using it for over 30 seconds!”

“That much?”

Paulen stared at the sli, which was still joyfully splashing around with the magic tool, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“But how exactly are you planning to conduct this research? If Jiggly is going to get hurt, I’ll have to refuse.”

Even if it was a monster, Alia didn’t want to see the friendly sli being hard.

“Of course, there’s no chance of it getting hurt! I’ll just observe how the sli uses the magic tools from the side! If you’re worried, you can watch with !”

Gracie spoke with desperation, afraid that upsetting the Saint would an losing the best thesis topic to ever co her way.

“Please! Please let do it! I’ll even do my duties properly! If you want to lick your feet, I’ll do it!”

“What?! N-No! Why would you suddenly say you’ll lick my feet?! Don’t get down on the floor!”

“I just an I’m that desperate! Please! If I don’t get a good grade on this thesis, my family’s funding gets cut off! Please! Please think of it as saving our family, pleaaaaase!”

Gracie’s rapid descent into pathetic groveling left Alia and Paulen completely flustered.

And then—

‘What’s this nonsense about funding?! No matter how good the thesis topic is, what’s with licking feet all of a sudden?!’

Troll’s skull throbbed at the sight of his descendant acting like this, even though he'd been enjoying their reaction just monts before.

To make matters worse—

▶ Lolol what’s wrong with that human lololol

▶ Why’s she trying to lick another human’s foot?

[Squishy Queen]▶ I can’t leave my kin in the hands of a human like that!

[Just Slam First]▶Isn’t that just a submissive pose?

▶Ah! Submission kink!

▶ Look at her loathing her own species lololol

Gyaaaaaah!

Seeing his descendant beco a laughingstock for the viewers caused even more ntal damage.

Normally, Troll enjoyed watching others lose their temper while lurking across various chatrooms in short, blunt sentences.

But now, he was being wounded in a way he hadn’t expected—right in the pride.

***

While Alia, Paulen, and the sli remained in the Holy City…

Nellin, Godrick, and their group had arrived in Tartan, ho of the colosseum.

“Looks the sa as ever~.”

Tartan had retained the sa atmosphere from the last ti Nellin visited.

There were skilled fighters preparing to challenge the colosseum, ambitious folks looking to make a fortune by betting big, and those who had lost everything wandering aimlessly with blank expressions.

Unlike Nellin, who had been here before, Godrick’s party looked around the streets of Tartan with curiosity.

“So this is Tartan...”

“Pfft, this is where our legend begins.”

“There you go again with your weird fantasies.”

“Hmph, whether it’s a fantasy or not, we’ll see soon enough.”

“M-Marin, do you think we’ll actually do well in the colosseum?”

“Geez, I told you not to worry. Def, you worry way too much. Just trust in the training I’ve given you!”

Whap!

Nellin slapped Def’s back with a reassuring thud.

“Ow! Ow!”

Nellin’s plan was simple.

First, they’d rent a room for a day and reassess the party’s strength.

Then the next day, they’d head to the colosseum, register, and showcase their skills.

However, sothing happened that Nellin hadn’t anticipated.

“What? The first match isn’t for another three days?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Wait, isn’t it normal for the colosseum to let you fight on the sa day you register in the morning?”

“I’m sorry. It’s currently the Black Dragon Festival period.”

“The Black Dragon Festival?”

The Black Dragon Festival.

It was a special duel festival held at the colosseum to honor the legendary heroes who defeated the black dragon—a catastrophe that appeared fifty years ago.

It’s held once every six months.

Elite fighters from all over the country gather, and the prize money is more extravagant than usual, making the tournant longer and more intense.

The biggest difference was that due to the high number of participants, the preliminaries were free-for-all brawls, and only those who survived advanced to the finals.

The Black Dragon Festival lasted a full week, and normal duels wouldn’t resu until three days after it ended.

Since Nellin hadn’t returned to Tartan after the black dragon’s defeat, she had no idea this new festival even existed.

If they didn’t participate now, they’d have to wait three days until the festival started, one week for it to finish, and another three days for regular matches to resu.

Thirteen days total.

Nearly two weeks of waiting ant Godrick’s team decided to sign up for the Black Dragon Festival duels.

It wasn’t what they had originally planned, but Nellin had no complaints about participating in the Black Dragon Festival.

In fact, since it was larger in scale than usual duels, it could be a better opportunity to build their reputation.

“Tch, but why’s it called the Black Dragon Festival?”

The only thing bothering Nellin was the na.

Godrick couldn’t ignore her constant grumbling and finally asked.

“Marin, what’s bothering you so much about it?”

“Isn’t it obvious, you idiot?!”

Nellin smacked Godrick on the shoulder with a loud slap.

Whap!

“Ow!”

“Of all the nas they could’ve picked, they went with that damn disaster?! Huh?! Would it kill them to na it after one of the heroes? It’s such bad luck!”

“Sniff... But doesn’t ‘Black Dragon Festival’ sound stronger?”

“Stronger, my ass!”

Whap!

This ti, Nellin smacked Hawane’s shoulder.

“Ack!”

“Maybe they nad it that because multiple heroes defeated the black dragon? There were five of them, right?”

“Even so, anything’s better than the ‘Black Dragon Festival’!”

It had already been fifty years since the na was decided, so there was no changing it now—only adding to Nellin’s frustration.

“I-I also think naming it after a hero would’ve been better than the black dragon.”

“Right?! I knew you got it, Def! There are tons of better nas than ‘Black Dragon Festival’! Like, I dunno—Aldor Festival! Katshal Festival! Presia Festival! Ventus Festival! Or, y’know… Nellin Festival…”

“...”

“Hm, that doesn’t roll off the tongue very well. I guess ‘Black Dragon Festival’ does sound the catchiest...”

“You’re just asking to get hit!”

Whap!

“Ow!”

Watching Hawane get smacked again, Skol giggled.

“Hehe, told you—you keep arguing and you keep getting hit.”

“Here’s your food~”

After finishing their al and cooling her head a bit, Nellin spoke to Godrick’s party.

“The prelims are in three days, so this actually works out. Since it’s a bigger event, I’m gonna put you all through intense training so you don’t slack off and lose like idiots.”

“Special training sounds great. But, uh, Marin—aren’t you joining?”

“What? , join?”

With a small laugh, Nellin answered confidently.

“If I join, you guys won’t get any attention.”

‘Sobody might recognize , too.’

“Unless... you want to fight ? Just know—it won’t be anything like our training sessions.”

Seeing Nellin grin and flash her teeth made cold sweat trickle down the faces of Godrick’s party.

Even in group training, they couldn’t land a single hit on her.

And now she’s saying she’d take them seriously in a one-on-one?

They wouldn’t even be opponents—they’d just be target dummies.

“N-no thanks.”

“Exactly.”