Jonathan lifted their crystals with his Telekinesis and compared their number by lining them up in the same way.
"Oh?" Paul narrowed his eyes. "Anna got 23 Advanced Level Crystals and Noel got 22 Advanced Level Crystals. Impressive."
Even though the number of Advanced Level Crystals showed Noel had lost, Paul didn't declare the winner immediately.
Jonathan then lifted the Medium Level Crystals, showing the difference.
"Amazing." Paul nodded with a serious expression. "Anna got 68 Medium Level Crystals and Noel got 77 Medium Level Crystals and…"
He glanced downwards and saw one small Demon Crystal lying next to Noel. "… one Low Level Crystal. This is amazing… You are so lucky."
"…" The others rolled their eyes. In this area, they would hardly find a Low Level Demon. So, you could be considered lucky to encounter one.
Still, a Low Level Demon couldn't amount to a Mid Level Demon, let alone an Advanced Level Demon. They didn't know whether they could call it luck or not.
"A close competition." Paul nodded. "I'm surprised. After seeing Anna's overwhelming strength, I thought she would win. But it seemed Noel had done his best as well."
Paul glanced at Stella, who proudly nodded her head.
"That's why I suggest Noel is the winner. Ten Low Level Demons are equal to one Mid Level Demon and ten Mid Level Demons are equal to one Advanced Level Demon. This is common knowledge. It seems that Noel is lacking nine more Low Level Demons, but in this area, his luck is immeasurable, considering he could find one Low Level Demon, which should be a Mid Level Demon if not Advanced Level Demon.
"If it was a Mid Level Demon, it would be a draw, but if it was an Advanced Level Demon, which was most likely to happen…" Stella smirked.
"No can do. Low Level Demon is Low Level Demon. It's Anna's victory." Rose stopped her, not wanting to follow her order.
"Just take a look at this, Noel hunted more monsters than her. It was proof that he could win if he encountered one Advanced Level Demon among those last ten demons."
"If you consider luck is a part of one's strength, then Anna is luckier than him since she encountered the right amount of demons. In a battle, you can't say you're lucky because your opponent accidentally hit your vital despite you having dealt many shallow wounds and expect people to say he's lucky because you don't hit a vital spot among those strikes." Rose glared at her.
"You can't compare them. You should know that—"
"I don't care what you say. A win is a win!" Rose glared at her.
"It seems that you want to fight." Stella smirked while holding her blade's handle.
"Sounds right. Why don't I make your idol grovel before me?"
"You're making someone's father do that? It seems that the Demon Relief Squad doesn't want to accept him."
"You…"
Rose and Stella were glaring at each other while the others only looked away as if trying to ignore them.
Anna clapped her hand and said, "How about we call this a draw? This is just a welcome game for us anyway."
"…" Rose and Stella stopped for a moment and turned to her, finding her awkward smile. They couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed to show such an immature action.
"That's true…" Rose coughed once to regain her bearing while saying, "This is just a welcome game to test your ability. And we have agreed that we can trust you to watch our back. So, there's no need to continue."
"Indeed." Stella ultimately agreed since they should better spend the time introducing the two newbies to the Demon Relief Squad's work.
"Still, we can't really drop this game easily. This is also a part of our tradition. The game is basically telling you if you don't want to get ordered around, you should get stronger. And that's how this Zero Squad has become stronger this whole time." Paul stopped them and gave the suggestion. "In that case, how about this… We won't call it a draw, but both win and lose simultaneously. So, each of us has the right to order the other party once!"
The group looked at Paul for a moment and glanced at each other.
Even Stella and Rose seemed to have reached an agreement. "Sounds good."
"Then, that's decided." Paul nodded and ended the game. "The order can only be used today. Since that said, let's go back."
Ben came to them and brought a demon's corpse. It was a boar demon that was somehow found in this place.
He said, "I've brought the meat. This should be enough to feed us and the rest of the people in the village."
"Good work, Ben. As expected of our all-rounder." Paul gave a thumbs-up and waved his hand. "Alright. Let's go back. Anna, Noel, you two can get the Demon Crystals. You were the ones who obtained it anyway."
Noel and Anna nodded and grabbed their crystals. In their mind, they were thinking about what kind of Order they would give.
Noel and Anna smirked while glaring at each other as if saying, 'Just you wait…'
Paul couldn't help but warn them after seeing their smirks. "Just in case you don't know about the limit, you shouldn't force someone to do something exaggerated, you know. There's no way they will comply if you ask them to run around the village naked. Just make sure you know the limit of your order, alright?"
"Don't worry. My order can easily be done." Anna and Noel said in unison. They were in sync as if they had known each other for years.
"…" Paul looked at their enthusiastic face and shook his head helplessly, letting the two youngsters do whatever they wanted.
The group simply went back to the village for lunch before they started working again until dusk.
Unbeknownst to them, Stella was hiding something from them. She glanced at Anna from time to time as her heart became cold. If not for her bright mood and wide smile, she would give one's chill down their spine.
But little did Stella know, Anna noticed her glances this whole time… a glance of hostility.
