Supreme Magus

by S.H.A aifu

MC is not an anti-hero or a hero.

8. 191 - 210

Read Supreme Magus - Chapter 191 Pride Goeth Before a Fall online free - Novel Full.

In his decades long career, Khavos Rudd had been forced to listen to ridiculous theories, stupid questions, and excuses to justify incompetence or failure so imaginative that they would put a bard to shame.

Yet never before he had ever heard something so blatantly preposterous.

"Unfair?" He echoed placing himself between the young Lukart and the bloodthirsty girl. Clearly one of them needed protection, but he was unsure about which one.

"Cheated?" His voice rose in intensity while astonishment was replaced by rage for his wounded pride.

"Are you telling me that it's possible to cheat in the noble art of dimensional magic? During my class and in front of me? Are you calling me stupid, incompetent or both?"

Knowing how Professor Rudd loved and respected magical bloodlines, Lyam Lukart was taken aback by his vicious retort.

"No. I would never dare to say something like that." Lyam swallowed a lump of saliva. Whenever a Professor took out his communication amulet it was never a good omen.

"I really hope so. Just like I'm dying to hear why do you think lady Ernas has cheated. If I don't like your reply, prepare to say goodbye to one thousand points." Rudd replied with his thumb already placed on the administration office's rune.

Lyam started to panic. One thousand points were more than he had to spare. He was used to spending them as soon he had enough for a new magical trinket.

"Sir, she has clearly cheated. First of all, she comes from magicless family, hence it's impossible for her to outclass a pureblood like me. Not to mention she received only a B in dimensional magic, while I got an A.

How can someone with such a low evaluation be this good at dimensional magic? This is all the proof that I need!" He replied puffing his chest with pride.

In recent years, the ancient noble families had seen their privileges being slowly extended also to younger and more talented magical households.

With the Court's new policies, their influence over the Kingdom was fading and their loyal servants that occupied key roles in every region were being replaced by new bureaucrats only loyal to the Crown.

Seeing someone of lesser upbringing perform better than him was more than a wound for his adolescent pride, it was like feeling everything that had been promised to him, his very birthright, slip through his fingers like a handful of sand.

"Really? A B?" Professor Rudd became pensive, losing his edge and letting Lyam breathe a sigh of relief.

"How do you know it?" Professor Rudd's ice-cold blue eyes were suddenly just a few centimetres from Lyam's, burning with anger and mana.

"H-how do I know what?" Lyam stuttered at each word

"Her grades. They are secret, my secret to be precise. You two are not friend, hence I doubt she told you." Friya shook her head to confirm his suspicions.

"I'll ask you only once. How do you know?"

"A friend told me."

"Then give me the name of this friend." Rudd's tone was becoming more menacing by the second.

"I don't want to get him in trouble. He simply shared with me something that everyone knows. It's not his fault."

"Really? Everyone knows?" With a wave of Rudd's hand, the training hall's door closed shut.

"Then we have much to talk about, my students."

Those present looked at Lyam with hatred and scorn, he had managed to get all of them involved in barely one sentence.

"Young man, you are in a lot of troubles. If you don't give me the name of your friend, forget the points. I'll get you expelled for breaching the academy's network. After that, I'll make sure no matter the academy, you'll find only closed doors in front of you."

Lyam knew that he had no way out of that situation. His father was a rich and powerful man, but Rudd had outlived countless Headmasters and even the Queen's attempt to have him retire.

Khavos Rudd was an archmage with such knowledge, power, and connections that Lyam was certain that his words were far from being an empty threat. After Lyam gave Rudd his friend's name it took barely a few minutes for the Professor to work up the pyramid discovering who was involved and how.

"Very well, you bunch of idiots, we'll discuss your punishment later in the Headmaster's office.

"As for you, young Lukart, let me give you a lesson of humility. You may not like a person, you may despise their family, but you always respect the talent once it's slapped right in your face."

Professor Rudd dragged Lyam in the middle of the training hall, in front of the cold gaze of his friends that couldn't wait to watch him fail and share their misery.

"I may be old, but my memory works just fine. I remember clearly how you and mister Lith here were the first ones to get ahead with the loop spell. Let's do something simple."

Judging from his wolfish smile, what he was going to propose was anything but simple.

"Mister Lith, do you mind opening a Loop (*) for me? Do it very slowly, step by step please."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Lith did as instructed, discovering how hard was to humor Rudd's request. What once came natural to him during his previous failures, now required his utmost focus. His mind and body were so used letting the various elements flow that the task was akin to drive a car with the handbrake on.

Yet Lith managed to succeed. First appeared a single shining sphere, that Rudd made him keep for ten seconds, then he could finally split it into two black dots for another ten seconds and only the Rudd allowed him to complete the spell and open the small Gates.

Lith was sweating a bit and had a splitting headache. Dimensional magic was dynamic by nature, keeping it static was a mammoth task.

- "If this is what he considers 'easy', I must thank Linjos for removing written and practical test, otherwise I would never pass dimensional magic if Rudd demanded 'hard' tasks." Lith thought. –

"Now it's your turn, Lord Lukart." Rudd's voice was oozing sarcasm.

Lyam chanted the spell, opening the two Gates at once.

"I said slowly. Are you deaf, dumb or both? Again!"

Lyam tried over and over again, only managing to keep the single parts of the spell active for a second or two before it exploded in his face. Only the training hall's security measures prevented him from being disfigured or worse.

"Do you know what's the difference between the two of you?"

Lyam was going to say: "He is a commoner while I am an heir from a noble magical family.", but Rudd anticipated his answer and didn't give him the time to reply.

"It's that despite his poor talent in dimensional magic, he has practiced hard. He has failed countless times before succeeding until every single step of the spell has been engraved in both his mind and body.

"You, instead, have been probably instructed by your father or one of his assistants, feeding you the answers you needed without even caring about understanding the importance of the underlying questions.

Let me show you how easy is distinguishing talent from hard work in my field. Lady Quylla Ernas, do you mind giving a demonstration to the class?"

Quylla performed as Lith, but without breaking a sweat.

"Outstanding talent." Rudd said, managing for the first time to not make it sound like an insult.

"If it wasn't for the incompetence of Professor Nalear in teaching multi casting, I'm sure she would be already able to switch. Only the talented ones understand the flow of mana and can move it according to their will.

Lady Friya, now it's your turn."

Friya succeeded too.

"Talent and hard work. A very rare combination." Rudd bowed to her in a sign of respect.

"As for you, Lord Lukart, it's time to learn that foolish actions and words have consequences." He activated his communication amulet.

"Here is Professor Rudd. Subtract two thousand points from Lyam Lukart for insubordination, slander of a schoolmate and for divulging academy's secrets. Also, change his dimensional magic evaluation to B- and raise Friya Ernas' one to A."

At those words, Lyam turned pale as a ghost at first, then green and finally red due to a fit of rage. He rushed toward Friya, punching her in the face.

Rudd was about to intervene, but he noticed that her hands and lips were moving at great speed. He placed an invisible barrier around her and pretended to do nothing, studying her skill.

Her dimensional spell was still active, all Friya had to do was to complete the spell, placing the first gate in front of her and the other near Lyam's nether region.

The result was the young Lukart giving himself a powerful straight in the nuts.

Rudd erupted into laughter, seeing Lyam sorry figure curled up on the ground. Soon more than half the class joined the Professor in his hilarity. The fall of a high and mighty noble was a rare sight, the commoners among those present savored every moment of it.

Tears streaked Lyam's cheeks non stop. Even worse than the physical pain was the taste of failure in his mouth, being a laughingstock for the first time in his life.

"Very well executed and perfectly timed, Lady Ernas." Rudd activated his communication amulet once again.

"Points assignation to the student Friya Ernas for displaying superb mastery of dimensional magic and completing the course three months early. Five hundred points."

This time no one interrupted the group's cheers and congratulations. Friya was so happy that she stopped frowning for the first time since the end of the second exam.

Seeing the group of youths so close despite being so different in social status, age, and magical legacy made Professor Rudd sighed of resignation.

- "I hate to admit it, but if Lyam Lukart is the best the old magical families have to offer, then it's much better to wipe them out once and for all. I hate commoners, but I love magic too much to let a bunch of ungrateful spoiled brats disrespect it.

"Those who spare no effort in pursuit of magical knowledge are a hundred times better than someone that takes shortcuts, incapable to understand that magic is a competition with oneself, not with others." -

"Lady Ernas, you are free to not attend dimensional magic classes anymore. I hope you will decide otherwise, though. It would be a pleasure and an honour for me to help you mastering Switch too and witness the birth of a true dimensional magician."

The whole group was astonished. There was no trace of sarcasm in his voice. Rudd even gave her a deep bow. Where years of arguing and debates in the Mage Association had failed, Lyam Lukart had succeeded.

The harsh comparison between his blind arrogance and Friya silent efforts had managed to convince Khavos Rudd once and for all that he had been wrong his whole life.

Being a good magician wasn't a matter of talent or bloodline, hard work and passion for magic were the only things to treasure and nurture.

"It would be my pleasure to be taught by the greatest dimensional magician of our times." She replied with an even deeper bow.

Despite her resentment for Rudd's previous conduct, Friya wasn't so stupid to put grudge before education.

Rudd nodded, pleased by both her answer and her flattery.

"The class is dismissed early today. Lyam Lukart, get up and follow me to the Headmaster's office. Let's see if I can get you expelled. Your sight sickens me."

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After the end of the lesson, the group went to the canteen to eat something and recover from the shock. For months they had been watching their backs for Lukart and his goons, and now Professor Rudd was getting rid of him.

That and Friya joining them as a full fledged A ranked student was too good to be true. Friya was literally walking on air from excitement. She was so happy that her magic had gone out of control making her float a few centimetres over the ground.

"Keep a seat for me, I'll join you in a while. I can't wait to give the good news to Orion, he's going to be so proud of me!"

"Quylla already calls him 'father' and Friya's first thought after going out of the classroom was to share his joy with him. Your dad must be a great man, Phloria." The group sat down at their usual table. It was too early for lunch, so they ordered snacks and beverages.

Lith would have loved to have a cold beer after how much sweating Rudd had put him through, but he knew that his body was still too young. No matter how many times he asked for it, the kitchen staff would always refuse to serve him alcohol.

"He's more than that, he's a great dad. Unlike my mother, he has never let me down nor has ever tried to force his will on me. Too bad that he is often away from home for weeks and that makes my mother the ruler of the land."

Just the thought of her mother was enough to make even her fruit juice taste sour.

"To be honest, I am really surprised Friya managed to Blink before you, Quylla." Yurial expressed what everyone had in mind, while Friya was still away to not hurt her feelings.

"I'm not." Quylla lowered her gaze in embarrassment.

"Despite I mastered tetra casting before her, fire magic is still my weak point. Do you remember I told you I started practicing magic after my village's healer death?"

Everyone nodded.

"What I omitted to say is that the bandits set fire to the village and I almost died back then. Since that moment, I have been scared of fire magic. Fire is different from the other elements, even without mana it doesn't disappear, it keeps growing and burning like it's alive.

Because of that I never practiced it much, but now things have changed. I'm not that scared little girl anymore, I'll catch up with you in no time!"

When Friya returned everyone was already eating and drinking. Lith decided to exploit that moment when everyone had their guard lowered to ask his question as casually as he could.

"I'm glad to see you are all in a good mood. That leaves me with a question, though. Why none of you ever called me? You had me thinking you wanted to cut ties with me." Despite all his efforts, Lith ended up fiddling with his glass while he was talking.

"I'm really sorry for that." Friya lowered her eyes, her smile disappeared already.

"It's just that after hearing your story, I was embarrassed for having treated you so coldly. After realizing that your burden is much heavier than mine, I felt like a tantrumming child demanding attention. I didn't know what to say without making even more of a fool out of myself."

"It wasn't a suffering measuring contest!" Lith sounded stressed, but was actually relieved by her answer. Since Phloria seemed pensive, he looked at Quylla.

She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, like she was about to say something but changed her mind at the last moment.

- "Gods, why I'm such a coward? I just have to tell him the truth. Of how after he left, I needed to sort out my feelings, to understand what was real and what was just make believe.

Tell him how much you missed him, but you were too afraid of being rejected again. It's not that hard, I'm sure Phloria would say it in one breath."–

"Well, I needed some time to sort out my feelings." Phloria said with a straight face, making Quylla spit her beverage back in the glass while Lith tilted his head in confusion.

"What feelings? Those for your mother? Your new sisters? Or about the realization that sooner or later you'll have to kill someone?" He asked.

"None of the above." She waved her hand like putting away all those topics.

"You see, when she is not trying to boss me around and telling me how to live my life, my mother is a great listener. She knows human nature very well and people are just open books for her. As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm no exception."

"After you left my home, I was left with an odd feeling. When I spoke about it with my mother, she offered me her insight and suggestions, instead of trying to manipulate me, which was a refreshing event.

"She pointed out that I'm already fifteen and I'm not going to get younger. The next year I will turn sixteen, becoming an adult. Either I decide to marry or not, I still have no experience at all with boys and once I join my father's corps things will get real.

"It will be kill or be killed, with no middle ground nor compromise. So I've decided to enjoy my last year as a kid to its fullest and come out of my shell. Lith, would you like to go out with me?"

Lith's face froze with a creepy smile while Quylla was choking on her drink.

"Gee, don't jump me like that. Wait at least the fifth date or something." She sneered after Lith remained stuck in the same pose for several seconds.

"I'm sorry, but saying that this is unexpected is an understatement. Also, I'm flattered by your attentions, but I never thought about you that way."

"It's okay. I don't like-like you, for that matters." Phloria replied still in high spirits.

"Okay, now you have lost me. If you don't feel anything for me, why asking me out?"

"It's not that I don't have feelings for you, more like I don't understand them, yet. So far all the boys my age are either immature daydreamers that still believe to be destined one day to slay monsters and marry a princess, or horny teens that only want to get in a girl's pants, like Yurial."

"Hey, I resent that!" Yurial became beet red up to his ears.

"Dude, I was there when you flirted with your girls of the day. I could have even asked you out if I wasn't sure that the first thing you would do is to put your hand up my a*s."

Yurial lowered his eyes, incapable of denying the truth of her words. He was quite fickle with girls, to be polite.

"Lith, you are the most level headed and mature boy I know. Be it about politics, literature, or mystical arts I can always have a nice conversation with you. I would like for us to start as friends and see how things develop."

- "I must admit her offer is interesting. I never had a high school sweetheart. They were all a bunch of immature kids while I had my hands full by keeping my scholarship and part time works.

This could be the opportunity to experience what I thought I had missed forever. The problem is that I don't like her that way, she is still a child in my eyes. At that age, things can escalate fast and I don't want to ruin our friendship before it even begins.

What do you think about it, Solus?"

"Why do you ask me?" She was honestly surprised.

"As I said, I don't like her. Most importantly, I don't want to hurt your feelings. Our relationship may be complicated at times, but I wouldn't ruin it for the world."

Those words made Solus cry from happiness, but she hid all her emotions in a corner of her mind where Lith couldn't find them unless he explicitly searched her memories.

"Thanks, but you don't need to worry about me. Don't you remember how I pushed you toward all the girls we met? I always believed you needed someone to rely on outside of your family, someone that's more than just a voice in your head."

"You are much more than a voice in my head!" Lith was outraged by Solus' self-deprecation.

"You are my partner in battle, my confidant. You are the only reason I haven't already turned in the monster I'm afraid to become if I lose my last shred of humanity."

"Yet I'm just a voice in your head. It took eight years for me to obtain my wisp form. Maybe in another eight I'll get some kind of ethereal body, that will take eight more to materialize.

Do you really think you can avoid human contact for sixteen years, to never hold hands, kiss or sleep with a woman? When you met Nalear and Nindra, you would have asked them out if not for the age gap. This is all I have to say, the life is yours and so is the choice."–

In their mind space, time flowed much faster than in the outside world. Their conversation lasted barely a second.

- "Well, I can get a sweetheart and maybe this will help Quylla get over me. It's not like I'm going to marry Phloria, things will probably not work out. I'd say the pros outweigh the cons."

"Only one thing." Solus added. "Whatever you do, this is not one of your business deals. She is a real person with real feelings, don't treat her like a calculated risk, looking for a gain. Otherwise I will be really disappointed in you."–

"I would love to go out with you." Lith replied with his best smile while Solus's words were still echoing in his head.

"The only problem is when and where. The academy takes out almost all our free time and there's nothing to see around here."

"Not a problem." Phloria was radiant, way more than Lith would have expected.

"During the weekend we can go anywhere thanks to the academy's Gate. Do you mind if we take a walk? I've so many things I want to discuss with you right now."

Lith stood up and waved goodbye to his still frozen stiff friends.

"I never saw that coming." Yurial was the first to recover.

"Of all the girls of the academy, Phloria is the last one I would have expected to make a move on Lith. The real shocker is that he didn't turn her down like all the other girls. Maybe he is not made of stone like I always thought."

A faint hiccup stopped him in his tracks. Quylla was on the verge of tears, while Friya was holding her tight, trying to console her.

"It's all right, it's not the end of the world." She said.

"It's all my fault." Quylla sobbed.

"I had countless occasions with him but I wasted them all, always waiting for the right moment instead of creating one as Phloria did. I feel so stupid. I deluded myself into believing I had changed, but I'm still a coward."

Yurial and Friya helper her to get up and brought Quylla to her room, before all the canteen noticed her distress.

Meanwhile, Lith and Phloria were walking along the corridors with Phloria doing most of the talking and listing all the places she wanted to visit in the Griffon Kingdom.

Suddenly Lith noticed they were in front of Phloria's room.

"Come in. There's something I want to tell you, but I don't want anyone else to hear it."

Lith was hesitant.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

- "Her room already? This isn't escalating fast, it's skipping all the bases!"–

When she noticed it, Phloria giggled.

"Come on, I will not eat you. Yet."

Phloria closed the door behind them. Then, without saying a word she hugged him tight.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She sniffed, being on the verge of tears.

"The truth is that after the second exam, I am always scared. Down in that dungeon, I realized that death is closer than I thought. I trained my sword and my magic, believing I would become invincible, but now I know it was just an illusion.

When that ogre almost killed me, all I could think about was that I would have never seen my family again, that I had yet to experience love or a boy's touch. There are still so many things I want to do and places I want to see.

I don't want to die with so many regrets."

Lith hugged her back, caressing her head while trying to understand what all of that had to do with him. He was certain that Phloria had never demonstrated romantic feelings for him and Solus had always confirmed his impression.

That turn of events was still incomprehensible to him, but he remained silent. His logic could only trample her feelings.

"The real reason I asked you out is that despite you are shorter than me, stingy, cold, and the gods know how much you remember me of my mother, whenever I'm with you I'm not afraid anymore."

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At those words, Lith finally understood Phloria's change of heart. If on one hand he found reassuring that he wouldn't have to stand an insipid puppy love, on the other one he felt offended.

"You sure know how to catch a man's heart." His voice oozed sarcasm.

"I didn't get so many insults at once since that time I tripled the healing fare to a merchant for being a rude prick."

His words made Phloria chuckle, but she didn't let him go, nor he tried to push her away.

"I didn't insult you. I just stated the truth. I dare you to deny any of the above."

"Well, yeah. All the more reason why you shouldn't consider me boyfriend material. Especially after hearing my story. Despite being only twelve, I'm already a broken mess. If you want to have fun, you can have much better."

"That's not true!" She held him even tighter, like she was trying to console him

"First, you are not my boyfriend. We have a lot of time to know each other better, let's use it wisely. Second, you are my best friend in the academy for more than one reason. Under that cynical shell, you are kind and caring.

No matter how many times we stumbled and fell, you were always there, extending your hand to help us get back up. You even did it during the mock exam, after we treated you like cr*p and almost dragged you down with us.

You made a great impression on me back then. That's why I joined your group later."

Aside from Solus and his family, no one had ever said such kind words to Lith.

- "I would be moved if she wasn't entirely wrong." He thought.

"I helped them only because I understood the exam's true goal and had to deceive them since I knew we were being observed. She's just like Quylla, seeing someone that's not me."

"No, she is not." Solus objected

"Phloria has spent a lot of time with you, actually talking to you, instead of staring from a distance. She has also noticed your efforts to take care of the people around you as well as your flaws."–

"Also…" Phloria added.

"Don't think that I'm not grateful to you for still being holding me despite all the things that I said and not pointing out in retort that I'm as flat as a board."

Lith feared she was actually fishing for compliments, but Phloria started laughing at her own joke and he merrily joined her.

- "Yeah, it's sad that with her physique a B cup is barely noticeable. With her age and height, I doubt she can improve much in that department."–

"Thank you for pretending to not have seen anything back then…"

"I don't know what you are talking about." Lith lied through his teeth, but Phloria ignored him.

"…yet swearing on your brothers' heads was really shameless. Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"

"A man can try." He shrugged.

"Gods, you really are like my mother." Phloria pushed him away, pretending to be angry.

"Well, 'mommy', I hope we'll get along. Don't get all clingy on me, I still consider you just a friend. Try to pull a Yurial on me and I'll kick your ass."

When Phloria calmed down, she and Lith returned to the compulsory courses' class for the last lesson of the day. After getting everything off her chest, Phloria felt light as a feather.

On the contrary, Lith was gloomy and disappointed, but nothing of it showed on his face while they kept making small talk. Solus laughing her a*s off at his expenses surely didn't help.

- "And here I thought that my mature charm made an impression on her. Phloria is not looking for a boyfriend, more like a father figure while she is inside the academy."

"More like a mother figure, my dear wannabe Casanova." Solus couldn't stop laughing.

"Her words, not mine. Isn't it better this way, though? It's like you gained a new sister that will keep away all those gold diggers that pestered you until now. Aren't you a little too disappointed for someone who doesn't like Phloria as a girl?"

"It's a matter of pride. Even if I end up rejecting a girl, being courted it's always flattering. I much prefer being liked as a boy than coveted as a mother hen."–

When they sat down at their desks, Yurial gave him a wink and a thumbs up. In his mind, his two friends had now a new and intimate knowledge of each other. Quylla didn't know how to face Phloria, who didn't seem to notice her distress, greeting her with a radiant smile like she always did.

- "I'm sorry little one," Phloria thought. "but you are still twelve. You have four years before having to decide what to do with your life and you'll probably end up working in a safe environment, like the academy or a great hospital.

I have a little more than a year for crossing off as many things as I can from my bucket list. I hope that you'll learn from this experience. As our mother always says: when you see a good man, make your move or someone else will."–

Phloria was well aware of her adopted sister's feelings, but she considered them nothing more than a childish crush. In all the time they had known each other, Quylla had always been passive, managing to speak to Lith only about homework and magic.

Phloria, instead, despite not knowing why his presence made her feels safe, was determined to understand her own feelings and let the answer, whatever it was, lead her way.

When the second gong resounded, a plump woman walked into the classroom. The students' chattering stopped immediately. Their attention drawn to the newcomer.

She wasn't a beauty nor intimidating, quite the contrary. She was in her late forties, about 1.54 metres (5'1") high with long blonde hair with shades of black that reached her hips.

Her smile was contagious and had a round, jovial face that that one would find much more fitting to a baker selling sweets rather than a powerful mage. Unlike all the other Professors, her clothes and robe weren't pristine white but pitch black.

"Good evening, dear students. My name is Calyn Zeneff and for this trimester I'll be your guest lecturer for the necromancy course. As you have probably noticed from my outfit, I normally teach at the Black Griffon academy.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Our institutions have agreed to an exchange programme for the Professors, so that we can learn from each other and improve the relationship between our schools."

She paced slowly through the classroom, studying the student's reactions.

"Before starting our lesson, it's better if I answer to all the questions that usually pop in the head of those who hear the word 'necromancy' for the first time. No, it's not a forbidden discipline, nor necromancers skulk during the night to kidnap infants and virgins.

"Necromancy is just a magical discipline like any other. We necromancers got our bad reputation thanks to ignorance, superstition, and some bad apples.

Remember, no matter if you are a Forgemaster or a War Mage, the only spells that are considered forbidden in the three great countries are the ones that use living humans as materials or require trading lives for power.

What I am going to teach you are the basics of necromancy, its laws and practical uses on the combat field. Because of the nature of my subject, my colleagues here at the White Griffon have nicknamed me 'the anti-Rudd'.

Just as for dimensional magic, passing this course will influence your overall grades but will not affect in any way your chances to graduate. Also, while Rudd's subject is long and complicated, mine will be relatively short and easy.

Let's start with a brief introduction. Because of the moral and legal implications of using corpses as tools, necromancy can be considered a really special branch of magic. Tier one to three spell are considered basic necromancy, and that's what I'm going to teach you.

Tier four and five consists of either advanced necromancy, that requires joining the royal army or the Queen's corps to be taught, and forbidden magic, the practice of which is a capital offense in all the three great countries.

Basic necromancy is about temporarily turning a corpse into an undead to serve you as a guard, manpower, or a scout. It's very useful for rangers and mages who like to fly solo.

Advanced necromancy allows to permanently create undead slaves that will serve you until they are destroyed or run out of magic. This discipline is not taught at academies nor by the Mage Association.

Only the Crown is allowed to have an army, be it living people or not doesn't matter.

Turning yourselves or others into vampires or lichs, instead, that's forbidden magic and as such is a capital offense. I'm also going to explain why necromancy is so strictly regulated, what are its risks and how to defend against it.

Let's start with a little demonstration."

With a snap of her fingers, Professor Zeneff took out the skeleton of a rat from her dimensional ring.

"Normally your subjects will not be this clean. I purposely removed all the unnecessary parts to avoid most of you puking. I'm telling you this because necromancy is useless if the carcass is older than five days.

Past that time frame, the chances of success decline fast. Only fresh bodies can be turned into undead. Things like necromancers raising whole cemeteries are just folklore and fairy tales."

Lith knitted his brows, becoming more pensive the more discrepancies he found with what Kalla had taught him

- "Five days? The corpses Kalla stores in the forest are at least months old. Even those I rose back in the quarantine zone were dead from weeks." Lith thought.

"The good news is that I can already ace this class, the bad news is that it seems to be a colossal waste of time."–

Professor Zeneff cast her spell, allowing Lith to spot the first differences between true and fake necromancy. When Lith created an undead, he would send a single tendril of darkness magic in the corpse creating a blood core.

By adding a spark of light magic during the process, he would imprint the creature with his lifeforce and bind it to his will.

The Professor, instead, had created a dense fog of dark energy that was going in and out the rat's skeleton, like it was looking for something. In a few seconds, the fog was completely absorbed by the bones and a red light shone from the empty eye sockets.

Before the process was completed, Zeneff executed a second spell that left a glowing mark on the creature's head. The class gasped while the undead stretched its limbs producing an oddly amusing rattling sound.

"This is what is considered a success." The Professor sent the rat doing a round of the class with a simple wave of her hand.

"As you can see, the creature is perfectly functional and obeys to my every command. Unlike all the other disciplines you have studied before, necromancy isn't as simple as point and shoot. It involves willpower and the use of multiple elements even at its first tier."

A second snap of her fingers produced a metal cage containing a second rat skeleton. She repeated the darkness spell but this time she didn't perform the light one. The new undead went into a frenzy, clashing against the bars with all its strength, trying to reach Zeneff.

"This, instead, is an aberration. It happens when due to the magician incompetence or lack of willpower the creature is allowed to go on a rampage. Usually its first victim is the necromancer itself."

While she spoke, the undead kept emitting a shrill sound that resembled the cry of a child. It charged against the bars over and over, until bone bits started to fall on the teacher's desk.

"Creating and controlling an undead require focus. The stronger your creation, the harder it will be to control. Bit more than you can chew either by sheer power or numbers and that's what happens." She pointed at the cage.

"Back in my day, when necromancy was taught during the first year, a lot of students died by the paws of these little monsters that they kept as pets."

A familiar looking girl raised her hand.

"What's on your mind, miss…?"

"Lady Mirna Kratic." She gave the Professor a deep bow.

"Why someone should want such a thing?" Mirna couldn't stop turning her head to keep watch on both the undead rats.

"Excellent question, Lady Kratic. The answer is: for power and control. It was a way to show off one's talent and have loyal bodyguards 24/7. Bullying makes the undead much more appealing than the living." Zeneff sighed.

The Professor closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. Suddenly, the first undead ran towards Mirna. It jumped on her desk and said:

"Also, mostly because of this."

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Lith didn't know if to be more surprised by the discovery of how ignorant he was about necromancy's true potential or by seeing a rat's skeleton standing on its hind legs, talking with Professor Zekell's voice.

Despite the distance, he was able to notice that the light in the eyes of the creature had turned from deep red to bright blue.

"As you have seen when I reanimated this carcass, I left an imprint on it by using my life force to bind our essences." The Zekell-rat tapped its head with a paw, making the mark visible again.

"The bond allows necromancers to temporarily transfer their consciousness inside their creations. Students used this skill mostly to cheat during written exams. By using a small undead mouse, they could communicate between them or simply copy the answers of the most brilliant students.

Undead were also a very popular tool for pulling cruel practical jokes and peeping through windows. There is a reason that all academies have removed windows from their dorms. Even magic can't beat the enthusiasm of a bunch of horny teenagers.

No matter the protection, they would always find a loophole." The rat laughed.

"Keep in mind that the transfer is not without risks. The mage's body is left completely helpless for the entire duration. Someone could simmer you and you wouldn't even notice.

"Also, in this form I don't have the perceptions of a rat or of an undead. I can see and hear as if I'm on your desk, but all my other senses are lost. I can't use magic and if something happens to this body before I return to my own, the resulting shock could incapacitate me for hours."

The creature's eyes turned red again and Professor Zeneff snapped her fingers a third time, taking out a third rat's skeleton from her dimensional amulet. When she cast the necromantic spell, the black fog engulfed the carcass for a while before disappearing.

"This is what happens when attempting to reanimate a long-dead corpse: a failure. To date, the phenomenon is still unclear. What we do know is that if a corpse it's not reanimated at least once every five days it becomes useless."

- "I wish I could use Life Vision to collect data. Solus, what did you see with your mana sense?" Lith thought.

"Her spell seems to fly blind. Fake necromancy has no concept of mana core, so the darkness energies scanned the whole body before forming the blood core. My guess is that when a living being dies, its mana core leaves behind some kind of echo that disappears after about five days.

Fake necromancy seems to be heavily reliant on those lingering energies. Without them, the spell loses focus and becomes ineffective."

"Kalla isn't an Awakened one, yet she knew on instinct what to do." Lith pondered. "Magical beasts' natural affinity with the elements is simply terrifying. No wonder there is still no dominant species on this planet."–

"During the following lessons, I'll teach you how to safely create all the lesser undead, how to transfer your consciousness and how to recognize when you are pushing your limits.

Necromancy is all about control and self awareness. Unlike all other kinds of magic, it can backfire. It will help you build your character, make you realize that your decisions, your spells have consequences on yourselves and others.

We have still a few minutes before the gong. Any questions?"

Lith raised his hand and Professor Zekell nodded to him.

"How long does an undead last?"

"Depends on the tier of the spell and the strength of the creature." She was happy to hear a relevant question instead of one about ghosts and curses.

"Let's say that after this course you will be able to keep a simple skeleton for up to fifteen hours or a skeletal knight for one."

- "I take back everything I thought. The only kind of necromancy I know needs me to constantly infuse mana into my undead servants, while hers can provide them an energy reserve.

Not to mention that my knowledge about the undead is limited to Dungeons Looting and George Romeno's movies. There's a lot I can learn from her. I tend to forget that unlike magical beasts, humans have legacies.

I can merge their hundreds of years of experience with what Kalla taught me to create my version of necromancy, something stronger than the sum of its parts."–

"Another question: you mentioned small rodents. Why not insects? They are smaller and are more likely to go unnoticed."

"Excellent question!" Professor Zekell didn't like playing favourites, but seeing genuine curiosity in her field was as rare as flattering.

"For two reasons. The first is that if the body is too small, instead of getting infused by darkness magic it gets destroyed by it. The fine tuning it would require makes such a spell too expensive and leads to reason number two.

Even if one manages to succeed, the stored energy would last only for a very short time, making the creature useless."

Lith still had more questions, but the gong resounded forcing him to stop.

"That's all for today. Dismissed."

Since they had yet to receive the books for the third trimester, Lith's group split once outside the classroom. Everyone went back to their rooms waiting for the delivery.

"Mind if I accompany you for a bit?" Yurial asked.

"I want to talk to you about Phloria."

"Don't tell me that you liked her in secret all this time!" Lith joked about it, hoping to avoid getting schooled about relationships by a single-minded hormonal teenager.

"Gods protect me, no." He laughed.

"She is too tall and definitely too strong-willed for me. I prefer petite, well endowed girls that don't threaten to turn me inside out like a sock. It's just that since I never saw you with a girl, I wanted to give you an unsolicited piece of advice."

Lith inwardly cringed, while keeping his poker face and nodding.

"If I were you, I'd return the Ballot to Linjos and let her have it."

Lith was left in a daze. This wasn't what he had expected from Yurial.

"After the second exam, Phloria is second guessing her life a lot. I know it because I lived under her roof until the academy started again. I don't know if Rudd will manage to get Lukart expelled, his father is a powerful and well connected man.

Even if he does, it's only a matter of time before people start talking about you two, and that would put a second target on her back. Everyone knows you have a Ballot, so you can always bluff your way out of trouble. Not to mention that you are incredibly strong." Yurial winked, referring to Lith's shared secret.

"She is strong too, but right now Phloria is in a rough patch. She doesn't need more traumas. If you really care about her, you should put her safety first. A year is a long time, many things can happen."

"Who are you and what did you do to Yurial?" Lith replied raising his eyebrow in disbelief, making his friend laugh.

"It's just that her future is not set in stone. She can change her path anytime and I believe Phloria needs peace and quiet to not rush her decision. I really envy her for that."

Yurial sighed. Since he seemed to need to take something off his chest, Lith didn't interrupt him.

"You know, the reason why I may appear so shallow at times it's because I'm just like Phloria, trying to enjoy the little time I have left to its fullest. Don't get me wrong, unlike her I will not put my life on the line every day, yet I will be chained.

By my responsibilities towards my father, my subjects, my wife and children."

"Your what?" Lith was flabbergasted.

"Man, even before I started the academy, I was already betrothed. I know who and when I'll marry since I was ten years old."

"Do I know her?"

"No, she's not a mage. It's a political marriage to join my magically talented household to an ancient noble family. Everybody wins. After we graduate, I'll become my father's second in command for a couple of years.

Then marriage and I'm expected to have at least a couple of heirs by the age of twenty. As I said, Phloria's future is not set in stone, but mine is. I understand better than anyone else how it feels being trapped."

- "You and me both." Lith inwardly sighed. –

"Maybe it will not work between you two, but you can still learn something from each other. Promise me you will think about it."

"I will."

In a remote corner of the Blood Desert, the three Guardians had met in person for the first time in hundreds of years. Even though they had turned into their human forms and were suppressing their auras as much as they could, it wasn't enough.

The earth below trembled slightly while the skies thundered. The world seemed to be scared by their assembly and was trying to break them apart once again.

"I hate to admit it, but you were right." Salaark said.

She had taken the appearance of a young-looking woman, with silky black long hair, emerald eyes and a bronze tinge of skin so clear it seemed to shine under the morning sun.

She wore the same white clothes her tribal leaders, the Feathers, did but with no turban, allowing her hair to graze the ground.

"Some b*stard has invaded my turf and is spreading Abominations like they are presents. I underestimated our opponent, leaving everything in the hands of my Awakened ones. The result is that five of my Feathers died in less than a month.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

They were all good men and women. Someone has to pay for their deaths."

Her eyes ignited with a purple flame while the sand below her feet turned into glass because of the heat she emitted. The trembling and thundering intensified, but none of those present cared.

"It's not all. The sudden death of so many Awakened crippled my military force, my borders are under attack from all directions!"

"I'm not responsible, the truce with the Griffon Kingdom still holds." Tyris said.

"Me neither. I control nothing in the Empire, but my apprentice would have told me before making such a move. She knows how much is at stake." Leegaain shrugged in annoyance.

"I'm not blaming you idiots, but myself!" Salaark roared.

"Clearly the culprit has made sure that all my enemies knew about my weakness, otherwise the neighbouring countries could never set up a coordinated attack like this. They are ruining years of hard work!"

Her delicate feet stomped multiple times, shattering the glass, the land, and causing a minor tremor, around 3.0 on the Richter scale.

"Then why did you summon us if you knew we are innocent?" Tyris already had a headache from having to stand Salaark's temper without the possibility of bashing her head.

"Because I know who did it and where they are right now. If this was just about killing, I would have done it myself, but I want to take them alive and make them talk. I need you to prevent them from escaping."

"I'm fine with it. I had nothing to do this evening anyway." Leegaain yawned, giving her a thumbs up.

With a snap of her fingers, Salaark Warped them hundreds of kilometres away, in the proximity of a small mountain range. Like most of her kingdom, the landscape was barren. Too barren even for a desert.

"The b*stard must have taken its sweet time here. Even the mountains are crumbling due to the void of world energy." Salaark snorted.

"Seal the space around here, I'm going in."

Tyris and Leegaain operated their magic their own way. A Guardian was attuned to the planet, to the point that even their simplest act was magic. Tyris started to walk, countless runes of power spread in the air and the ground with each step she took.

Leegaain was feeling nostalgic, seeing both his friends moved his old heart. The dragon started to sing with a tenor voice. Wherever the song reached, the matter would be bound to the dragon's will.

"Show off." Tyris smiled, singing along in a counter melody. Their voices filled the air with mana, making flowers bloom from long dried up seeds and water gush out of the ground. The Guardians were only sealing up the space, life was just a by-product of their joy from being together.

"Well, at least there will be a lot of rain this year." Salaark grumbled while entering the underground maze.

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Salaark moved like the wind, following the stench of chaos plaguing the air. Several Abominations, both Empowered and Puppeteers tried to stop her, but as soon as Salaark noticed that they were mindless drones, she would incinerate them with a purple blast of fire.

She soon reached the center of the maze, an artificial cave filled with state-of-the-art equipment. It was the most incredible magical lab Salaark had ever seen.

"I thought only Leegaain could do something like this. I can't even fathom what purpose most of this stuff has." She thought out loud.

Transparent water tanks filled with a glowing yellow liquid were lined up against the walls.

Each contained an unconscious magical beast or a human, but all of them were slowly being turned into Abominations. Salaark was close enough to see the process in the making. Somehow, the tanks were forcefully refining their cores, while at the same time the yellow liquid kept the bodies stable.

"Interesting. Their bodies are filled with cracks, but shouldn't collapse until they reach at least the cyan level, if not even the blue. Note to self, have Leegaain study the procedure and dumb it down for me.

This way I will be able to replace my Feathers with ease. I'll take it as partial compensation." A wave of her hand sealed the tanks' space, making it incredibly hard to damage them.. Salaark had no rush, escape was impossible.

She walked around the room, finding more and more marvels as well as horrors.

Countless dried up corpses were piled up into small hills, making her wonder if they were failed experiments or simply the staple food to fully develop so many Abominations.

"You are too late." An amused voice bellowed.

"The Master escaped hours ago." A sinister figure stepped forward. Its body was covered in bright red scales, a black liquid oozed in between. It had long curved horns where the eyes were supposed to be, big upside-down membranous wings on its back.

"Since when do Eldritchs have a master?" Salaark sneered.

"Your power made you conceited, Guardian. Your pride blinds you." It pointed at her with a talon ending finger.

"We have learned from you how to increase our numbers. We are no longer scattered. We fight as one…"

"I'm not interested in your rants." Salaark cut him short.

"Tell me who is your master and where to find it. Be a good boy and I'll not make you suffer. Much." Her wolfish smile only caused the Eldritch to burst into laughter.

"Pride goes before a fall." A snap of its scaly fingers and the whole cave became covered by symbols of power. Every inch of space was covered by countless runes and arrays, each one imbued with a magical power that didn't belong to any of the six elements.

Salaark felt her strength being sapped, but still showed no sign of worry.

"Interesting. After you dried up all the world energy of this place, you have also used forbidden magic to cut off my natural connection with mana. How many Abominations did you sacrifice to achieve such a result?"

"Not enough since you still have the strength to brag!" The Eldritch roared extending its arms forward. Each of its fingers stretched out and multiplied, filling the air with razor sharp whip like tendrils that struck all around Salaark.

The Eldritch was outraged, even without using her magic, The Guardian had managed to dodge every strike with movements so small to be almost unnoticeable.

Almost.

"I would say you have picked the wrong Guardian, but there isn't a right one. Tyris would simply ignore this sh*t and try to reason with you before killing you. Leegaain would probably destroy your formations with a sneeze. As for me? I'm a fighter!"

Salaark dashed forward, punching the air in front of her. The Eldritch felt all its senses being distorted by the strength behind the simple attack. It easily dodged the strike, but it still hit the walls behind the Eldritch, creating a cave several meters deep and disrupting many arrays.

"I hate you Guardians!" The Eldritch couldn't hold its fury any longer.

"Why are you so strong? Why do you keep looking down on us? I'm Pazuel, and I'll show you the results of our efforts!" Pazuel met Salaark head on, its claws easily cut through her flesh and bones, forcing her to retreat for the first time in many centuries.

- "Seems I have underestimated the b*astard a little too much. No Eldritch has ever managed to even scratch this form. To make things worse, I can't revert to my real body."–

The arrays surrounding them were powered with a perverted and twisted kind of magic that only Abominations possessed. It derived from darkness magic, but had its natural connection with light magic forcefully severed.

It powered their unique individual skills and had been named chaos magic. Over a hundred Abominations had been sacrificed to empower the arrays, making any kind of magic besides chaos magic impossible.

The black liquid oozing from Pazuel was an embodiment of such energies, poisoning Salaark's body and preventing her from regenerating her wounds.

Despite all that, she managed to fight the Eldritch on equal footing, her millennia of experience made every one of its attacks seem telegraphed and predictable. Blinded by rage, Pazuel let her come too close.

Her fist struck its left shoulder, the impact turned the left arm and part of the chest into dust, making the creature's body spin like a top, sending it crashing against a wall.

"Why? Why are you still this strong?" It cried.

"Because I have embraced everything you ever discarded." She panted.

"Because I'm still fighting an endless battle for my people and this planet, while you do nothing but eat, sh*t and whine."

Salaark had hoped to stall longer with her rant, but as soon as the arm was regrown, Pazuel charged at her again. Its body started to melt, expanding at the same time. It became a mass of claws, talons, and fangs with only a black core as their center.

"How dare you say I do nothing? We sacrificed so much to get this far, but now me and my brothers are one!" Each limb and snout shot a different spell, leaving Salaark nowhere to run.

She still managed to dodge most of the attacks, taking only those that wouldn't hit her vitals. When the barrage was over, only part of her torso and head remained, yet she was still alive.

"If that's the best you can do, now it's my turn." Her voice was calm, purple flames covered all the injured parts of her body, making her whole anew.

"What? How?" Pazuel was running on fumes and was forced to revert back to its original form.

"I accumulated thousands of years of experience while you were content with preying on the weak. Look at your precious array."

Only then Pazuel noticed how every one of her missed strikes had actually hit its intended target. The focus points of the array were all badly damaged, even the spot where she had sent the Eldritch to crash earlier was intentional.

"You did the rest of the job for me with your sloppy attacks." She explained while the purple flames turned white along with her whole body.

"You miscalculated. This place is no longer devoid of world energy. How long could it possibly last against two Guardians breathing new life all around us as we speak, while a third one breaks it from inside?"

"You think I'm afraid of death? I'm already part of something bigger. Glory to the dawn of a new world!"

Salaark could see the Eldritch overload its black core, triggering a powerful explosion strong enough to destroy the cave and deal a significant amount of damage to her.

Her answer was to bite her scarlet lips, spitting a drop of her blood on the exploding Eldritch. Time seemed to rewind, every single piece of flesh going back forming the body once again, sealing the explosion before the shock wave could displace even a single speck of dust.

The Eldritch found itself alive and well, its core intact. It started to sweat in fear, a long-forgotten feeling while the phoenix's hand turned into a claw, locking it in place. The Eldritch discovered that its muscles had become limp, its magic refused to obey.

"It seems there is a misunderstanding here." Salaark's form turned into a hybrid between human and phoenix.

"I'm not the keeper of anything, I'm nobody's muse. I'm the conqueror of life and death." Her free hand ignited with a white flame, scorching the creature's very soul.

"You are not going anywhere, so you better start talking."

Lith spent the rest of the day practicing dimensional magic and Accumulation while waiting for the school books to be delivered and working on the sealed boxes during the night.

The time spent with Solus in the tower practicing Forgemastering, together with Nalear's lesson about the importance of magic crystals gave him a new approach to the problem.

Lith had discovered that the reason for his previous failures was that by damaging the boxes' mana pathways, the energy contained in the pseudo core diminished, while the one contained in the mana crystal would not.

This upset the balance and caused the explosion. Previously he had tried to keep the crystal isolated, thinking it was some kind of detonator that somehow was triggered by his attempts to pick the lock.

What he had to do, instead, was attacking them at the same time. Thanks to this discovery, Lith was now able to almost depower the lock.

Alas, almost wasn't enough. He was now able to open the boxes, but the resulting explosion still destroyed most of their content, not leaving enough for him to understand their purpose.

"It's still a huge success. I just need a few more lessons about how mana crystals and Forgemastering interact and I will be able to open them. I have only a few left, it's better to save them for later."

When the next day came, he was still pondering about Yurial's words, torn between egotism and his wish to change, to actually care about his so called friends instead of just pretending to.

His morning routine didn't change. Lith went to pick up Phloria early for their walk and then they went to meet with the others for breakfast.

- "It really doesn't feel like a high-school sweetheart at all. She didn't invite me to her room, we didn't talk about anything in particular. Phloria seemed to be more cheerful than usual, though. She smiled often when talking with me and made sure to sit in front of me."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"It means that she enjoys your company and likes to watch you." Solus pointed out.

"Still feels more like bromance than romance." Lith shrugged.

"You watched too many teen dramas. Based on your past experiences, relationships take time and effort to develop. Do you remember why unlike your brother you never managed to fall in love?"

"According to my therapist, I was too self-centered. I would only care about myself and protecting my own feeling, so I never opened up to any of the women I dated."

"It's exactly what you are doing even now. You are only thinking about what you want, not what it's best for her. The Ballot is useless for you. The Queen is openly backing you up, the Professors hold you in high esteem.

Not to mention how strong and fast you are. It's not like when you arrived. Your family is safe, you can defend yourself with ease and your word is not that of a country boy anymore. If anything happens, the academy will watch your back."

"The same could be said of Phloria." Lith still wasn't convinced.

"By my maker, if I had a body, I would slap you right here and now! Her family is not as powerful as the Queen. Also, is there anything that a student, if not even a Professor can do to you if you go all out?"

"No."

"There you have it! She is young and still traumatized, while you wouldn't flinch even if you ripped someone's heart out right before lunch. She needs it much more than you do."–

Knowing to be on the losing side of the argument, Lith dropped the conversation and walked past the doors of the academy's hospital waiting with his colleagues for the Healer lesson to start.

Much to everyone's surprise, not only Manohar had returned, but also was in charge of the class. Between his rare appearances, notable only for his whining ramblings, and the constant disappearing without notice, most students had almost forgotten about his existence.

"Good morning my dear students. Welcome back to class. You sure took a long break from the academy." His tone was clearly annoyed.

"It's not them that went missing for almost three months, but you!" Headmaster Linjos suddenly Warped in the middle of the class, his face beet red from anger.

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"Fine. Good morning my dear students. Professor Manohar is really happy to see you again." Manohar accordingly modified his greeting.

"Don't talk in third person like a madman and show some respect toward the academy and your students!"

Linjos had hoped that by forcing the unruly Professor to take an active role in the Healer class, it would teach him a lesson about responsibility. His plan, however, had backfired right from the start.

"Why are you so angry? I had just got my hands on nagas' claws, you know how hard they are to come by. Also, yes, I may have lost track of time, but I did find a cure for Prixyne. Doesn't it amount to something?" Manohar rebuked with an indignant tone.

The class gasped in amazement. Prixyne was a congenital degenerative disease, even worse than the one Tista had suffered from during her youth. It would affect the nervous system, making it collapse over time.

It required constant treatments just to slow down the illness's progression and relieve the symptoms. For decades it had been considered a death sentence and now it had a permanent cure.

"Of course it does. It's the only reason why you are here instead of being chained to your desk!"

"Let's cut to the chase." Manohar ignored him, resuming his speech.

"You already have learned most of what you need to graduate as full-fledged fourth year healers. What you still lack is experience on the field. During the third trimester, there will be no more lessons.

The academy will send you wherever there is a dire need for a competent healer, and despite you don't even closely qualify, you'll have to do."

"Manohar!" Linjos roared.

"I mean, you will be split into groups and sent to different locations, like true professionals. You will contribute to the welfare of the Kingdom on the academy's behalf.

Your grades will be influenced by your performance. It will also affect the prestige and the name of the academy. Your success will be my success, your failure will be Linjos' failure. Everyone knows I never fail."

Linjos facepalmed, his killing intent became more palpable by the second.

"Since for some reason that I'm unable to understand our Headmaster is angry at me…"

"Because you went missing for almost three months!"

"…I'm forced to babysit the most incompetent group."

"Last warning!" Linjos' hands were dangerously close to Manohar's throat.

"I mean, I will supervise the work of those whose skills are still a diamond in the rough. All the other groups will not have a supervisor. Keep in mind that this opportunity is a great honour for all of you.

You have the chance to let your name be renowned even before graduation, to meet important figures of the Kingdom and help those in need.

At the same time, you'll probably kill someone due to your incompetence, giving my dear friend Marth an excellent excuse to kick you out of the academy and reduce my insane amount of paperwork."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I'd never do such a thing!" Marth Warped in the class too.

"Also, it's completely different from the speech I wrote you. You had to encourage them to soldier up in the face of failure, telling them it's normal for a healer to lose a patient or make a wrong diagnosis!"

Before he could start an argument, Professor Marth took the lead.

"Remember, never listen to anything he says outside of the medical field. From today onwards, even if just for a few hours each day, you'll have the same role and responsibilities of an academy sanctioned healer.

"The reason you'll be split into groups is to be each other's lifeline. Never be afraid to ask for help or to admit your mistakes. If you manage to graduate this year and the next one, countless lives will be in your hands.

"It's a heavy responsibility that not everyone is capable to shoulder. A strong spirit, wits, and talent are the minimum requirements to become a good healer.

Go and make us proud."

Marth's assistants handed to each group the list of patients they had to attend to before the end of the lesson. Each name was associated with a hospital, along with the instructions of how to reach it from the city's closest branch of the Mage Association.

Lith's group belonged to the top percentile, so their list contained only sensitive names. Most patients weren't hospitalized, but required home visits. Professor Marth personally went to speak with them.

"I recommend you to always move together. I have the utmost trust in each one of you, but these people are powerful." He tapped on the list.

"It's better to not disappoint or offend them. Quylla, you are still too meek when dealing with patients, so I'll appoint you as team leader." Quylla turned pale, instinctively hiding behind Friya.

"You will take care of dealing with the families and make sure your colleagues receive the respect they deserve. Without a confident attitude, people will always walk all over you.

"Lith, your bedside manners are terrible. Your duty will be to take care of the patients' psychological welfare, explaining to them what's the cause of their affliction and reassuring them when necessary.

Friya will be the main healer and Yurial the diagnostician. You two have no weak point, aside from the lack of experience. If anything happens, contact the academy immediately and we will do the rest."

He patted them on the back before going to speak to another group. Yurial took a quick glance at the list, frowning with a worried expression.

"This is much worse than I thought. Most of these people are as stuck up as annoying. They consider my household unfit of its title because we contribute to the Kingdom from 'only' three generations.

I'm sorry Quylla, but either you put out your best Lith's impression or they'll use us like doormats. Let's get moving, we have a lot to do and so little time."

Lukart Household, Archmage Lukart's private quarters.

"What do you want this time, Lukart?"

"I need your help. This time you'd better pay attention. Velan Deirus is this close to finding proof of my connections with Hatorne and the Kandria's incident."

"Why should I care?" The voice on the other side of the communication amulet was annoyed, like a teacher dealing with a spoiled child.

"Because if I go down, I'll drag you with me. After the plague's outbreak, all my plans are ruined. I have no reason to proceed against the White Griffon anymore, aside from your constant blackmailing me.

Your plans have no chance of success without my help, and if they catch me red handed I'll make sure we'll share the same cell."

"Don't you dare to threaten me, Lukart. I just need one word to get you killed."

"Do it and you'll suffer the same fate. I'm not stupid. I already made sure that if anything happens to me, recordings of all our conversations will be delivered to at least fifty royal constables. Not even you can stop all of them."

From the other side came a crushing sound, like something big and heavy being destroyed.

"What do you want?"

"The same thing I asked you the last time. Kill Deirus's son, I don't care how."

"How do I know I can trust your word?" The voice oozed disgust.

"You can't, but know this. I'm preparing to leave the Kingdom since the outbreak, my only problem is that with Deirus breathing down my neck it's taking too much time. I can't move too many assets or funds at once, or he will notice.

If you do this last favour for me, I'll get out of your hair forever and leave you everything you need to reach your goal."

"You are a lucky man, Lukart." The voice seemed to calm down.

"Yurial Deirus has just left the academy. I know where he will be for the next hours."

"If he is outside the academy, I can take care of him myself. Just give me his coordinates."

"Your gift for failure has long stopped amusing me, Lukart. You can't be trusted with picking your own nose. I'll send my own men. You focus on packing your stuff. You are likely to screw that up too, but at least there shouldn't be casualties."

The group's home visits went smoothly. They were still students after all, Marth would never burden them with a task above their skills. The challenge wasn't curing diseases, rather to learn how to find the way in an unknown environment and to deal with the patients.

Their first destination was Vinea, a beautiful city built around a small lagoon. The uptown district was crescent shaped, so that every mansion would be overlooking the sea.

Water separated the city blocks, forming canals that could be crossed either by boat or using one of the many stone bridges. The group had almost reached the address, yet Quylla was walking behind the others, fiddling with her hair and rehearsing all the introduction lines she could think of over and over.

- "If she doesn't snap out of it, we'll never finish our round in time. Sorry, little sis, but it's for your own good."– Friya hated herself for what she was about to do, but she couldn't stand her best friend always being so passive.

"You know Lith, this city is quite a sight to behold." She waved her hand, encompassing the clear blue sky and the lagoon's crystal clear water.

"Only if you like humidity and scavenging birds raining death from above." He grumpily replied while dodging the bird po*p that paved most of the way.

- "If it wasn't for the lack of gondolas, this city would remind me of Venice." Lith thought. "Not to mention that on Earth pigeon's droppings aren't as big as an omelet."–

The birds plaguing the lagoon closely resembled seagulls, but their size was akin to a pelican.

"It's a pity that Phloria can't enjoy this view." Friya ignored his remark, keeping her eyes on Quylla's reaction.

"Even for me, it's the first time seeing the sea. I find Vinea truly romantic. Why don't you take her here during the weekend? I'm sure she would love it."

"I'll think about it." He said.

- "Maybe too romantic. Not to mention that I don't have time for this cr*p." He actually thought. "If I manage to learn Blink before the weekend, to keep my training schedule and if I don't make any more breakthroughs with the boxes, then I'll consider the possibility."

"You are impossible!" Solus was outraged. "Just this morning you were whining about the lack of romance between you two and now you already consider her a second, no a fourth best option?

You are supposed to make time for her, not to just use her to fill the blank spaces!"–

After hearing them talk, Quylla's eyes steeled with rage. She marched double time, taking the list from Yurial's hand to check the address before banging the knocker with enough strength to make the door tremble.

A butler in a black and white livery, that reminded Lith of a smoking, abruptly opened the door with an annoyed expression.

"Yes?" He didn't even care to hide his disgust at the sight of the group, dilating his nostrils and curling his upper lip like someone had delivered garbage.

"Good morning, good sir." Quylla's voice sounded sweet like an unripe lemon.

"We are the White Griffon's healers. Lead us to our patient, please."

"The front door is only for the guests. Go around back to the service entrance." The butler attempted to close the door, but Quylla stopped him

"Your name." She hissed.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I want your name, so that when I report to Headmaster Linjos why we couldn't treat your master, he can explain why and who deserves credit for house Korya losing its privileges with the academy. I'm sure your master will reward you well."

Her eyes were reduced to slits brimming with mana. The butler turned pale as a ghost. Angering a mage was already bad enough, but if his actions damaged the household, he would consider himself lucky by being just skinned alive.

"I'm very sorry, Lady Mage." He stuttered. "Please, have mercy of this old fool. You and your mighty colleagues are the most welcome." He opened the door, half kneeling in front of her as soon as she entered.

"Lead the way." Quylla snarled.

That day, more than one butler who dared to disrespect them, become unable to even meet her gaze or speak to Quylla without bowing first.

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In the end, Lith was the one who got the short end of the stick. The new Quylla was a pocket sized bulldozer, while Friya and Yurial could always ask the other two for a second opinion whenever they had a doubt.

Lith, instead, had to smile more than he had ever done his whole life while listening to idiotic questions and worries. He was forced to reply without sarcasm or spicing his answers up with insults like he was used to back in Lutia.

He still managed to do it, thanks to Solus' help, his companions' constantly worried looks and the occasional friendly nudge in the ribs.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. They checked off over half the list and had time to spare. Their next destination was House Seket, in the uptown district of the city of Lorion.

"I was thinking that if we manage to finish our rounds early, we could actually come back and have lunch here. I heard that Lorion's salmon mousse is to die for. My treat." Yurial said.

"Great idea! Let's get Phloria too, though. It would be sad for her to have to eat alone at the academy." Friya agreed, purposely adding fuel to the fire.

"It would be too sad." Quylla echoed, while she kept getting knots in her stomach.

"Not a big fan of fish. Do they have some good meat?" Lith's mouth and brain seemed to be disconnected. Even before finishing his sentence, he was already cursing at himself, waiting for Solus to scold him again.

Then, a Warden array appeared out of nowhere under their feet, Warping them away.

"What the heck just happened?" The Queen's corps unit that was assigned to the group as a detail was shocked. Half of them were undercover, following them closely, while the other half would scout the group's more likely routes to check for dangers.

Every student of the academy was considered an invaluable asset and the future backbone of the Kingdom. Knowing there was at least one traitor in the academy, Linjos had assigned a detail to every group without notifying anyone but the Queen.

Yet his precautions proved to not be enough. The squad was composed only of veterans, so they immediately contacted their commanding officer and requested back up, searching for their targets at the same time.

"Where are they?" The captain asked the unit's Warden. Linjos' paranoia was finally paying off. In case something like this happened, he had the uniforms imbued with a powerful tracking spell that could be remotely activated.

"The good news is that I have their position. The enemies have taken them quite far, but Linjos has spared no effort in those trackers. Four of them together produce a signal so strong that we could pinpoint them even at half a county of distance."

"He's not here, stop blowing smoke up Linjos' a*s and give me the bad news." The captain roared.

"They are a few kilometres away. Unless one of us is familiar with the outskirts of the city, it will take a while to get there even at full speed. Our enemies spared no effort too." The Warden sighed.

"Damn! Let's hope they can hold on long enough. Otherwise the Queen will have our heads."

The moment the Warping array activated, Lith and Solus prepared for battle. The rest of the group was panicking, trying to make heads or tails out of their situation.

"Ambush! Get ready to run!" Lith yelled, fearing he had just walked into a trap similar to the one used to kill Captain Velagros (*) and his unit. He immediately conjured several spells at once, activating both Life Vision and mana sense.

He wouldn't let any array or enemy take him by surprise again.

His companions were scared, but Lith's warning made them regain their cool and become wary of their new surroundings. They had been transported to the slums of the city, in the middle of a back alley.

The stench coming from the open sewers was enough to make them puke, but fear kept them focused.

- "No arrays?"- Lith was pleasantly surprised, failing to remember that the previous ambush had been tailored for an elite military unit, not for a bunch of teenagers. Yet he couldn't relax, there were too many life forces nearby and he had no idea who was a real hobo and who was just pretending.

Suddenly, a shadow jumped from behind a heap of garbage into the middle of the group. His dirty, raggedy clothes and some makeup made the man look like a beggar, but his curved blade aiming at Yurial's throat told a different story.

"Yurial!" Friya screamed, making her hands fumble the signs necessary to save him from death with a timely Blink.

The green radiance of enchanted steel, a splash of blood.

It was all that it took for the cleanly cut head to hit the ground with a thud, rolling in the middle of the group with an expression still filled with fear stamped on its face.

"I never understood why you guys never cauterized the enemies' wounds during the exam. There's never a reason to make a bloody mess."

Lith had appeared out of nowhere right in front of Yurial. His left hand was clenching the corpse's crushed right wrist while the right one was open and covered by a layer of ice that made it razor sharp.

The battle experience of the group of assassins was first class, but they were no Talons. No one had told them about the Queen's corps involvement, so when they noticed the detail protecting the kids, they had been forced to improvise.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

The Warp array was a last minute trick, to bring the target to a secluded place they were familiar with. It implied they had no opportunity to prepare the field in advance, since their Warden had to stay behind to cast the Warp array at the right moment.

A man placing magical stones in the middle of the road of one of the most exclusive districts of Lorion was beyond suspicious. The residents would have called the guards faster than if they had painted with blood the word "Murder" on a wall.

They had no idea their opponent was the Queen's corps, otherwise they would have long fled. With so many unforeseen problems the mission was already a disaster, yet it managed to get even worse.

As soon as they moved toward the target, some of Lith's rings glowed, releasing several fireballs aimed at them. They exploded beside or above the assassins' hiding spots, engulfing them in flames that would have been lethal if not for their enchanted protections.

"How the heck does he know where we are?" The leader screamed in his communication earpiece, having become temporarily deaf due to the explosion.

"It's almost like he can see us!"

- "I actually do." Lith thought with a wolfish smile on his face. "Let's see if they like this."–

Lith shot another round of fireballs, this time high in the sky.

"Oh gods, why?" The assassins' leader was on the verge of tears. The key to a job well done was to be quick and go unnoticed. With so many fireballs flying around it was just a matter of time before the city guards and the Mage Association swarmed the place.

"I could use a little help, here." Lith said while shooting down whoever ran towards them instead of away from them.

Yurial stopped staring at the head laying at his feet, remembering who he was and who he was meant to become.

"Friya, protect me! I'm clearly the target of the attempt. Quylla, keep the flames under control! This may be a sh*thole, but there are people living here and they need our protection. Lith…" His brain froze for a split second.

What kind of advice could he possibly give to someone that moved faster than his eyes could see and capable of attacking fiercely like a divine punishment?

- "I literally meant to help me, not to do damage control." Lith thought, surprised by Yurial's care for the residents. "Whatever. The more spell they cast, the less people will be able to understand who did what." -

"You just focus on those b*stards, I'll cover your back!" If there was something that Yurial had learned from Lith's negative attitude, fueled by his unbridled paranoia, was to always expect the worst.

Hence Yurial started to conjure the faster arrays of his repertoire in case something went wrong.

Less than ten seconds had passed since the activation of the Warp array, and most of the assassins were already dead or gravely injured.

- "F*ck! If I leave even one of my men behind, my identity will be exposed. A royal constable's tortures can even make you remember how much milk you drank as a newborn. I can only kill my way out of here."– The leader thought.

"Code black! Repeat code black! We sink or swim here, boys!" He yelled in his earpiece. The remaining assassins quickly gulped down all the enhancing potions they had, even those with dangerous side effects.

While their leader bravely charged forward, they ran away as one, scattering in all directions. Their only wish was to see another day as free men. No amount of money was worth their lives.

The leader was now empowered by top tier Hatorne (*) potions, that turned him into a one man army.

He easily dodged the barrage of incoming spells. To his eyes the world was now moving in slow motion. He had never felt so powerful in his whole life. The first target was the rugrat that had ruined their ambush.

Years of experience in the field had honed his instinct. The other three were like mages riding on the back of a dragon, his sword had no chance to reach them without slaying the beast first.

Seeing his mana was going to waste, Lith interrupted his casting, projecting instead a shroud of spirit magic that engulfed the assassin and squeezed him like a wet rug.

The leader noticed something was attempting to restrain him, but he shrugged off the feeling with sheer force.

- "F*ck!" Lith thought. "Whatever this guy is high on, has effects so similar to fusion magic that the mana flowing in his body counters my spirit magic. Time for plan B."–

Lith infused himself with all the elements at once with fusion magic. The assassin executed several feints, using footwork to make his real target unpredictable.

Between the high speed movements and the abysmal gap in technique, Lith was left in a daze. He was still physically superior, but thanks to the potions the assassin was able to use the advantage coming from his combat skills to put Lith on the defensive.

The sword struck Lith several times, piercing both the uniform and his magically hardened skin. Lith had managed to avoid or block all the slashes aimed to his vitals, but it came at a price.

His arms and legs were full of cuts, some even deep enough to bleed profusely.

"Do you see it, men? If he bleeds, we can kill it!"

From their short exchange the leader had partially regained his confidence. The rugrat was a monster, but still an untrained civilian.

Now that he had managed to stop the little monster from raining death from above by putting his life on the line, his teammates could safely join the battle. It was only a matter of seconds before they surrounded the rugrat and killed him with their teamwork.

- "Any moment now."– The leader stopped his attacks to catch his breath, taking a quick look over his shoulder to check the situation. Only then he realized no one was coming to his help.

Lith exploited that pause to use Invigoration, making his wounds close with a speed visible to the naked eye and sending the assassin further into panic. He immediately resumed his attack, discovering that little by little the monster was getting used to his pattern.

"I still need help, here!" Lith yelled after noticing his opponent's distress. Yurial racked his brain to find a way to help him, but they were moving too fast. If they attacked without a plan, the enemy could exploit their spells turning Lith into a human shield.

Their opponent was the one with a clear line of sight, while their friend was unaware of their actions. The only silver lining was that he had already finished placing the first array, so he was able to talk again.

"Quylla, attack on Lith's right side. Friya, same on the left. Lith, push forward." Yurial yelled.

"F*ck, no!" The assassin moaned.

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The earth all around the assassin turned into mud while spears of ice as big as a man randomly fell from above. Without space to move around, his footwork was nothing but a silly dance. Strength had become the deciding factor.

- "At least he has already used up all his rings. If he attempts to cast, I can kill him in a split second. As long we are lined up, his friends cannot aim at me properly."–

The assassin was right, except for one detail. Lith had only used one ring in the opening act, the other spells were silent cast with true magic. True magic was silent, but still required time for casting, so he saved the rings for later, just in case.

All he had to do was to spread his fingers, releasing the remaining nine at once. Cursing at his bad luck for meeting such a monster disguised as a rugrat, the assassin crushed the medallion he wore at his neck, activating his last stand item.

Multiple barriers enveloped him, negating most of the damage. The sheer force of the impacts, though, was another matter entirely. The assassin was knocked back right to the point where the battle had started.

Yurial activated his Earth Vines array, entangling the assassin's body with tendrils conjured from the hardest minerals in the soil, devised to be powerful enough to keep even magical beasts in check.

Four bolts of darkness magic hit him from the front, above, and the sides. The moment the array was activated, Lith had crouched down, clearing his teammates' line of fire.

Seeing how sturdy and resourceful their opponent was, they knew that restricting him wasn't enough, but it created an opening. They all decided to use darkness magic because, despite being slow and mana expensive, it was the most difficult element to defend against.

It directly attacked the enemy's life force, so a hardened skin or a magically enhanced chain mail didn't offer much protection from it. The dark energy sapped the assassin's strength and vitality, turning the scratches he had suffered during his clashes with Lith into open wounds and the bruises into internal bleedings.

"You suck!" The assassin cursed at Lith, spitting a mouthful of blood from the many broken ribs that were now piercing his lungs due to the darkness ravaging his body.

"You are barely an amateur. Technique, experience, footwork, you are below me in every aspect. Why am I the one that ended up losing? This is not fair!"

Another four bolts of darkness struck the assassin, putting him out of his misery.

"Yeah, and if my grandpa had three balls instead of two, he could have been a pinball." Lith replied only after confirming that the assassin's life force was fading away.

- "What pisses me off the most is that he is right. I really need to join the army and receive some proper training. Most of my knowledge about martial arts is only about unarmed combat. Aside from our sparring, Solus, I have no real practice.

"I'd need a master to polish my skills, since neither of us has the talent necessary to derive new notions from what I already know. Not to mention how I keep suffering from not having a decent weapon nor training in the way of the sword.

"The practice I had with Phloria during the first trimester barely taught me to hold a real weapon. After that, between the exams, the plague, and dimensional magic I hardly touched a sword.

"Awakened ones and Monsters can use true magic just like me. When magical skills are on the same level, combat technique and equipment make the difference between life and death." Lith thought.

"Once we learn more about Forgemastering, we will be able to make our own equipment." Solus mind-nodded.

"For the training, though, there is not much we can do for the time being. The academy takes too much time. Even if it didn't, mastering magic and combat skills at the same time is unheard of in all the books we read. Progress, not perfection. Remember?"–

"Lith, are you all right?" His companions asked in unison.

"Yeah, only flesh wounds." He extended his arms, revealing that aside from small cuts in the uniform, only shallow injuries remained. Lith studied their reactions carefully.

He had shared with them part of his secret, but only now could they realize the scope of his revelation. They were still shaken up by the ambush, so Lith could see right through them.

- "Surprise aside, Yurial seems to be really impressed. Friya is conflicted between fear and admiration instead. She probably longs for this kind of power, but at the same time she is afraid I could turn it against her. Quylla is beyond me though."

Lith could see something resembling pain in her expression, but she wasn't hurt. Her eyes were a little watery, but there was no trace of fear, making her a mystery.

"What you see is compassion." Solus answered the riddle for him. –

"How did you do that? I mean moving so fast and taking so little damage?" Yurial asked.

"I told you I'm faster and stronger than a normal person. Also while you were spacing out I consumed enhancing potions." He lied.

"As for the damage, I must thank the Forgemasters that enchanted the uniform and Professor Trasque's lessons about using first magic in combat. I used a lot of earth magic to deflect most of the sword strikes."

"Did it hurt?" Quylla asked while tending to Lith's wounds.

"Of course it did." Lith gave his first honest answer.

"I might be a little different from you guys, but I feel pain like anyone else."

"I'm so sorry you suffered so many injuries just to protect us. I wish there was more I can do." Quylla gently wiped off the blood from his skin before stepping away.

Yurial grabbed Lith by the shoulders, his breath was still ragged because of the physical and mental exertion, but his voice was calm.

"Thank you for saving my life." He then looked at Friya and Quylla too.

"Thanks to you all for sticking with me, instead of running away like the associates of this poor b*stard." Yurial kicked the corpse with more anger than pity. It seemed no one was going to be traumatized this time.

"In my darkest hour you remained by my side, you are the best friends a man could wish for. I…"

"Queen's corps, nobody moves!" A voice suddenly roared.

The five members of the unit landed in the middle of the alley, finding it difficult to hide their surprise. The place looked like a warzone. There were several burn marks on the house walls, spears of ice scattered everywhere and a small crater where the spells contained in Lith's rings had crashed into the barrier.

Five dead bodies lay on the ground, yet the students were without a scratch.

"What the f*ck?" A member of the unit blurted out, drawing on himself reproving looks from his colleagues. Normally the Captain would have scolded him for his lack of professionalism, but he couldn't do it in front of the students.

Not to mention he had expressed the feelings of the whole unit, so the Captain decided to let it slide.

"Have the soldiers secure the perimeter, then search for survivors. Maybe one of them is still alive for interrogation." The Captain opened a Warp Steps leading back to the Mage Association right in front of the group.

"Get in, kids. First, I need to get you to safety. Then you have to tell me exactly what happened here."

"There is not much to explain, sir. It's all thanks to teamwork." Yurial replied.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

White Griffon academy, Headmaster Linjos' office

As soon as Linjos was informed about the assassination attempt, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"It's worse than I thought." He explained to the Queen.

"Either I have traitors in every department, or it's someone really deep in my inner circle. The leaked information is too precise to be the work of a single clerk or of a Professor of the old guard.

Even though it's hard to say how far the reach of people like Vastor or Rudd goes. Even if I keep them in the dark, nothing I do ever seems to surprise them."

Linjos pensively scratched his goatee.

"I doubt the traitor is one of them." Queen Sylpha shook her head.

"Vastor has no faction outside his own. If the Kingdom plunges into chaos, he would lose at least half of his connections. He'd rather die than put to waste so many years of efforts.

As for Rudd, deep under that obnoxious 'old goat' attitude of his, there is a true loyal servant of the kingdom. Beware though. If you go even deeper, you'll find another old goat."

"What really puzzles me is how someone that has managed to infiltrate the academy to such a level can be dumb enough to send amateurs to kill fourth year students. Even if young, a dragon is still a dragon."

"Maybe he is not dumb. Or do you know something that I don't?" The Queen appeared to be quite amused.

"No, the investigation is still ongoing, but how hard can killing four students possibly be? Especially considering that two out of four remained scarred after killing a single person?"

White Griffon academy, somewhere else

"How hard can killing four f*cking students possibly be?" The traitor yelled while trashing their own apartment.

"Especially considering that I gave those idiots a complete background check on every single one of them?" A punch hit a luxurious desk, causing it to crack almost in half.

"The battle experience of three of them amounts to fighting acne! The last one is a deranged psychopath that only preys on the weak and magical beasts to make a quick buck." A bookshelf was ripped from the wall and crushed to bits, while the precious books were stomped mercilessly.

"Who would have thought that the reputation of the Ravagers was just a blatant lie?" They panted.

"They were supposed to hit and run, leaving no traces behind. This is a disaster! If I were superstitious, I'd think that Lukart's incompetence jinxed me. Luckily, it doesn't matter." It took a few deep breaths to calm down

"Worst case scenario, I can give Lukart part of my funds to keep him quiet. I just need a bit more time to put the last pieces in place, before I'm able to destroy this place to its very foundations."

Back at the academy, Yurial managed to doctor the story, explaining how they survived the ambush with little damage. To achieve his goal, he had to significantly reduce Lith's contribution to the battle, making a hero out of Friya instead.

Having a Mage Knight capable of Blinking proficiently before the end of the fourth year was something so rare, it even impressed the members of the Queen's corps. Many of them had undergone special training in the military to achieve the same result.

Less than half the students from even the six great academies were able to learn dimensional magic and even less would usually master the Blink spell. It perfectly explained why the initial assault had failed and how the Ravagers died where they stood.

In Yurial's version of the story, the three of them had provided cover fire while Friya Blinked through the battlefield using her rings to mow down the enemies.

"Your nerve and combat awareness are worthy of the Ernas' name." The Captain of their detail shook Friya's hand with eyes full of respect and admiration.

"If you ever decide to serve the Crown, I'll make sure there will be a spot reserved for you in the Queen's corps."

"Your words are too kind, it wasn't much." Friya was red from embarrassment, not because of the lie, but because she was actually able to do everything Yurial had said, if only she didn't panic.

- "This is the most humiliating moment of my life." She thought. "Being treated as a hero while all I could do was listen to Yurial's orders like a puppet and cover behind Lith's back. After what I went through, I'm still all bark and no bite.

I must master dimensional magic at all costs, until I'm able to turn this shameful lie into reality. I don't want to feel so helpless ever again!"–

"I'm deeply sorry for what happened." Once the corps' men left the office, Linjos gave his students a small bow.

"From now on, Professor Trasque will accompany you during your rounds. Along with the detail, of course. He is the best Battle Mage of the White Griffon. With the corps watching you from a distance and him at your side, it would take a natural disaster to harm you.

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"Lord Deirus, do you suspect anyone of being behind this attack?" Linjos asked.

"Suspects, no. More like certainty. Lukart." Yurial's tone was filled with spite.

"This is a very serious accusation. Also, I don't think Archmage Lukart would kill you just because I have expelled his son. Anyway, do you have any proof backing your theory?"

"You expelled Lyam?" Yurial was so surprised to not notice Lith mourning the fate of their schoolmate with high fives and down lows with the rest of the team members.

"Too slow." Lith dodged Friya's hand, giving her a feeble slap on the nape.

"Yes, I did." A cold shiver ran down Linjos' spine. He could almost see Manohar's shadow behind Lith's complete lack of respect towards a fellow student. No matter how toxic Lukart had been, in Linjos' mind his expulsion was a loss for all the magical community. It wasn't something to celebrate.

"I have a file as long as my arm about him and his gang, but I lacked solid evidence. A class full of witnesses and an angry Professor were simply overkill. I'll ask you again, do you have proof?"

"Yes and no." Looking at the confused expressions of those present, Yurial explained.

"This has nothing to do with Lyam's expulsion, nor with the rivalry between our families. The problem is that I can't talk about this matter without my father's approval. So yes, I do have proof, but no I can't show it to you."

"Should I speak with Archmage Deirus, then?" Linjos drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair with a pensive look on his face. He had heard many dark whispers about Lukart recently, but he had always refused to believe them.

After all, only those who greatly contributed to the Kingdom would be bestowed the title of Archmage.

"Yes. I can't betray my father's trust."

"If there's nothing you have to add, then you are free to go. I would love to give you the rest of the day off, but alas the academy must go on. You'll complete today's round tomorrow, first thing in the morning.

Professor Trasque will bring you to your destination."

"Actually, there is one more thing." Lith raised his hand.

"Speak freely." Linjos sighed. He couldn't wait to get rid of them to talk with Deirus first and the Queen later. She had to know he had found another candidate for the special list. First Lith, then Phloria and now Friya.

For someone with anti social behavior, Lith seemed to be a magnet for talented individuals.

- "Maybe it's because of the age, but I'm starting to sound more like Vastor every day."–

"Two of us are still without a Ballot. When can we expect the new ones to arrive?"

"Never." The question hit a sore spot, making the Headmaster's long face even longer.

"After the accident in the dimensional magic training hall, I started to suspect there was a traitor among our ranks. After the events occurred during the past months, I'm sure of it. No one outside the healing department could know your destination.

"I can't let anyone I don't trust blindly near the academy's power core, especially Forgemasters. It would be too dangerous. A slight alteration of the power core and the whole castle would become a deadly puppet in the traitor's hand."

Linjos hid his face behind his hands in shame. He knew that despite the best efforts of the academy's staff, many students were going through a rough spot. After the forced break during the plague outbreak, several of them had seen their grades drop.

The second exam had only made things worse. Despite the number of students promoted from the second to the third trimester was at an all time high, the grades' average was at an all time low.

Linjos had listened to their stories and they were all dreadful. Some had failed on purpose, to go unnoticed and have at least a semblance of a peaceful life. Others were being harassed just enough to make their life miserable and were on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Linjos had been forced to choose between their peace of mind and their physical safety, prioritizing the latter. He knew he had failed them, but there was nothing he could do.

Hearing those words, Lith could do nothing but sigh. His last excuse had just crumbled.

Lith regretted having lost his first occasion to eat in a restaurant without having to worry about the bill. During lunch Yurial told to Phloria the official version of their adventure, before whispering to her the truth.

"Thank the gods you are all right. I wish I was there to help you. Did it hurt much?" Phloria touched Lith's arm, noticing the small cuts the uniform was still repairing.

Lith nodded in reply.

- "It's so odd that both Quylla and Phloria almost used the same words." Lith thought. "Guess it means they both care for me. I remember that when I was her age and I still lived with my parents, I often suffered from unrequited love. I wish there was something I could do to help her move on."–

Phloria caressed his hand, giving him a warm and fuzzy feeling that Lith hadn't experienced since he was still a newborn in Elina's embrace. It was soothing and pleasant, almost making him lower his guard.

Lith hated that moment of vulnerability, so he took back his hand after pretending to have dropped his napkin.

During the afternoon, Lith went to the first Forgemastering lesson of the third trimester. He had long waited for that moment to come. Lith had several things he wanted to ask Professor Wanemyre.

"Good evening, dear students. It's good to see so many of you back after the second trimester. Usually this time of the year is a bit lonely for me." She gave them a radiant smile that gave Lith the chills.

- "What the heck? First Nalear and now Wanemyre too? She also seems prettier than before. This makes no sense. Also, I have never seen her smile so much. Not even when someone performed a perfect enchanted item.

I'm telling you Solus, something is off."

"Maybe she too found someone special, but unlike someone I know she is letting herself go instead of playing impossible to get." Her voice was filled with sarcasm.

"What makes you think that?"

"The makeup, the jewelry, the smiles." Solus scoffed while pointing out the various details he had missed.

"She clearly wants to impress someone that makes her feel special."

Lith took notice of all the changes, only growing more and more suspicious.

"Say what you want. I can't believe a person of that age can change so much in a bit more than ten days. She wasn't like that before the end of the trimester."–Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"In the last six months, you have practiced how to create the most common magical tools, like dimensional items, reinforced clothes, and magic storing rings. All these objects have one thing in common: despite you needing to cast several spells of all the elements to obtain them, the final sum is zero.

None of them has any elemental property, hence they are called neutral items. From today onwards, I'll explain to you how to infuse an object with a single element. Infusing multiple elements has the same requirements of performing multiple enchantments, and will be a subject of the fifth year."

She looked sternly at Lith. Clearly, she and Nalear had talked.

"Contrary to what you have learned so far, giving an object elemental properties cannot be done without ingredients. If any of you has some notions of Alchemy, you'll notice that this is one of those cases where the two disciplines overlap.

But unlike Alchemy, where ingredients are necessary to absorb the element and store it for future uses, Forgemastering does the opposite. This happens because alchemical items exploit their own instability to bring out the stronger effect possible.

A Forgemaster only aims to create something that can be used endlessly instead. Infusing an object with an element means that the Forgemaster has to purposely alter the balance of their own spell in favour of the chosen element.

That would cause the final product to be slowly eroded by the very energies that empower it, until either it crumbles or explodes. To prevent that, an ingredient is needed.

For example, if we want to infuse the fire element we don't need a fire based magical treasure, but a water one. It acts as a counterweight during the forgemastering process and restores the balance.

The stronger the intended effect, the more powerful and rarer the ingredient usually is. I waited for the third trimester to introduce this technique because even simple enchantments require very expensive natural treasures.

There is only so much that you can learn by reading a book, Forgemastering requires a lot of practice to be mastered. That's why the last trimester will be about putting into practice what you have studied so far until it becomes second nature to you."

Wanemyre clapped her hands, making appear on the desk of every student a bowl full of water, a silk cloth, and a crystal looking flower.

It was very similar to an Earth chrysanthemum, but instead of petals it was composed of delicate ice shards exuding a faint blue glow, constantly condensing the humidity in the class into dew.

"The ingredient you'll learn to handle today is called the Frost Dew flower. It grows in the forest surrounding the academy, making it uncommon for the White Griffon residents. For the rest of the world it's quite rare, though.

As you can see, I provided you the full plant. When picking up a natural treasure no part of it has to be removed, otherwise it will lose some if not all of its potency as an ingredient."

Lith noticed that even the roots were intact. Whoever picked it up, had executed the task with meticulous attention.

"The first thing to do is to remove all the impurities from the stem, roots, and leaves. The flower requires a separate treatment that I'll explain later. Use the water bowl to wash away dirt, earth and insects' eggs.

"Clean it one leaf at a time and try to only use your fingertips. The stem is more resilient, you only need to be careful not to break it. As for the roots, avoid touching them at all. Just dip them in the water until the earth turns into mud and detaches itself.

"Always keep the water clean. You'll understand you are doing it right if the Frost Dew's glow increases.

"The treatment requires a gentle touch like you are cleaning a wound. Manhandle the ingredient and it will become useless. You can also use first magic if you are confident enough in your skills. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, begin."

Removing impurities was second nature to Lith, so he directly used water magic to take control of the water in the bowl and make it gently flow over every centimeter of the plant.

As soon as he identified clots of dirt, he would use earth magic to remove them and then added fresh water. Out of curiosity he used Invigoration too, discovering that the flower still had a vigorous mana flow.

- "This reminds me that I have yet to properly examine the magical plants the dryad gave me as a reward for sparing her sister's life. Sigh, I can't wait for the winter break. I have so many things that need my attention and so little time."–

The Marchioness had warned him to not show them around and he had no use for them. With everything he had on his plate, after checking their type, rarity, and market value, Lith had completely forgotten about their existence.

Lith could also perceive how the contact with water temporarily revitalized the flower, while the cleaning process was strengthening its mana flow to the point Lith could see his breath steam.

He had initially considered the task a chore, but soon Lith noticed that the ever growing mana flow was starting to resemble a pseudo core.

- "Is it possible that if properly nurtured even a plant can evolve? Maybe that's how dryads are born. Invigoration allows me to see and remove internal impurities, I wonder what would happen if I completely purified it before performing the Forgemastering process."

"It's more than that. Maybe we can use Invigoration to artificially grow magical treasures, if not even give birth to plant creatures." Solus pointed out. –

Lith's scientific curiosity was excited on a new level. He became more and more engrossed in his work, forgetting about everything but achieving perfection.

Solus took a mental note of his wish, already picturing Lith's despair when he would realize that every discovery he made would take away more of his free time to be studied. Their list of "to do" things was already so long Solus doubted he could even afford to sleep once a month.

Lith used the silk cloth to dab the water before calling the Professor.

"Good gods, ten minutes have yet to pass and you finished already? I can even see hoarfrost on the petals. Someone seems to be a natural. Fifty points for achieving so much at the first try. I think this might be a new record for the academy."

Lith swallowed a lump of saliva, a stinging sensation at the base of the neck made him raise his head. Every single student was staring at him with eyes brimming with burning hate. Their collective gaze exuded a faint killing intent.

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Wanemyre didn't miss the envious glares, reverting immediately to her old self. She slammed her hand on a desk, producing a deafening sound and drawing the students' attention on her.

"Instead of wasting your time staring at him, mind your own task. You, up there." She pointed to a red haired girl, sitting a couple of desks behind Lith.

"I said to be delicate with the leaves. Keep up like that and they will crumple." To her defence, she was just clenching her hands in frustration. The problem was she had completely forgotten what she was doing.

"As for you." Wanemyre pointed to a slim boy sitting right in front of her.

"You don't change your water often enough. That way you are not cleaning the Frost Dew, just moving the dirt from one spot to another."

The two students rushed to correct the situation according to the Professor's instructions.

"I'd like to tell you to keep your cool, that this isn't a competition, but it damn is. Once you graduate, or even better if you graduate, who do you think will buy the creations of a nameless Forgemaster? No one but friends, relatives, and the Mage Association.

The Association will not purchase from you just to provide you some pocket money, but to evaluate the quality of your work and establish its market value. So if you start losing your head while you are still in the academy, you'd better change your specialization."

Wanemyre gave them a few seconds to ponder on her words.

"Since you have decided on your own to take a break, I'll explain now how to treat the flower. Be sure to pay attention, because I will not repeat myself." Under her fierce gaze, the students gently placed their flowers on the silk cloth, like it was a priceless gem.

"Smart move. The flower needs even more care. You can't touch it at all or drench it in the water. You need to drip lukewarm water on each petal, stopping as soon as the external frost layer does not form anymore.

Use too much water and you'll melt the petal, too little and the impurities will not be removed." She used Lith's flower to show them the method.

"Start from the innermost petals and then move towards the outer ones, otherwise the dirt dripping from the center will easily ruin your work."

After three water droplets, Wanemyre stopped dripping the petal, letting it dry. Just a few seconds later, the class could see that one of the petals seemed to have grown longer, emitting a stronger glow.

Wanemyre gave the flower back to Lith.

"Keep up the good work, but don't get conceited. I accepted this job because I want to nurture my future competitors. Without a proper challenge, being a Forgemaster is too boring for me. Don't let me down." She patted his head like he was a dog.

- "Charming as usual." Lith thought. "I doubt even a gold digger could stand her for long. She makes Phloria appear like a delicate flower. If she really is in love, then I'll bark like a dog."

"I'll take that bet." Solus replied before he could change his mind. –

Lith did as instructed, cleaning the petals from the inside out. Once cleansed they became crystal clear, absorbing the humidity from the air and adding it to their mass before their temperature dropped again.

- "Interesting. This flower is actually made of water frozen by the mana stored into the stem, leaves, and roots. It must be incredibly delicate if even common impurities affect its growth to this extent."

"Yeah, but don't you think it's kind of cruel?" Solus shivered a bit.

"I mean, it's actually growing under your care. The pseudo core keeps becoming bigger and more complex. I don't know how to feel about sacrificing it for our gain."

"Well, it's not really alive. It has a mana flow but almost no life force. Even if it was alive, my family raises animals just to turn them into money and food. I hunt and kill for a living. It's no big deal as long as you don't hurt others for no reason."–

This time Lith was careful not to be too fast. Not because he was afraid to show his skills but rather to take his time and carefully study the procedure to better be able to repeat it in the future.

Once again Wanemyre was an enthusiast of his results.

"Marvelous! You managed to develop the rest of the petals at the same rate as the one I cleansed."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Lith blurted out.

"Of course it is. You remind me of my days as a student."

- "Yeah, too bad you were really twelve at the time and only used your talent, while I have many years of experience in cleansing impurities much smaller than these ones."

"Quit whining and take the compliment." Solus scolded him.

"She acknowledged the results of your hard work. Being hardworking is a talent too!"

"Now you are talking like a shounen manga."–

They would have kept bickering, but Wanemyre had drawn on a stone table a magic circle like Lith had never seen before. It consisted of two concentric circles, with runes in-between, and a six pointed star resembling Silverwing's Hexagram enclosed in the smaller circle.

"Since everyone is about to finish the second step, let's all take a break so I can give you a demonstration of today's spell." Wanemyre took Lith's Frost Dew, placing it in the middle of the magic circle alongside a longsword of excellent quality.

Wanemyre ordered Lith and the red haired girl to charge the magic circle, so they took place on the opposite sides of the desk and chanted the Forgemaster spell in unison.

To fill the space within the circle with pure non elemental mana they had to repeat it several times. Wanemyre allowed them to stop only when the runes turned from blue to white hot, marking the circle reaching its maximum capacity.

The energy inside clashed with the magical boundaries, triggering several sparks that grew in intensity until they resembled lightning bolts.

Only then Wanemyre stepped forward, casting in succession the several Forgemaster spells the procedure required. Despite her being just a fake mage, Lith would always be awed by her ability to weave so many enchantments together.

Whenever he saw Wanemyre at work, bending mana and matter at her will, he could not help but wonder if that was how a goddess would appear while creating new worlds.

One by one, the runes between the circles rose in the air, revolving at increasing speed while the sword and the Frost Dew floated in the middle of the circle. The runes absorbed the surrounding mana, forming a flaming energy sphere.

The blazing mana scorched the flower, that left behind a bright blue sphere. Like twin suns, the two energy masses started revolving one around the other, with the sword as their fulcrum.

Wanemyre kept chanting, bringing them closer and closer, until with a final spell she made them become one and fused them with the sword. The blade fell on the table, hot enough to cut through the stone like it was butter.

A second later a blue glow radiated around the sword, allowing Wanemyre to pick it up without risks.

"That wasn't supposed to happen." She sighed while pointing at the destroyed table.

"The silver lining is that it means that Lith's flower's purity was outstanding. This sword will fetch me enough to cover for the table and this lesson's Frost Dew flowers."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Can I touch it?" Lith was eager to check how the pseudo core of such item looked like.

"Sure, but do not imprint it. Otherwise you'll have to pay."

Lith used Invigoration, looking at the pseudo core with eyes filled with marvel. While the mana pathways weren't much different from the ones he was able to create, the pseudo core was a revelation.

There were actually two of them, overlapping each other almost perfectly.

- "They got it all wrong!" Lith was flabbergasted.

"The ingredients don't restore the balance by simply countering the elemental energies during the enchanting process, they actually pass their pseudo cores. This means that multiple enchantments require multiple pseudo cores coexisting in the same item."–

Lith was still studying the phenomenon, pondering if a living body could hold multiple cores too, when Invigoration suddenly stopped working. Wanemyre had taken the sword back.

"You must really love swords to get so lost in thought by simply holding one."

"You are right, sorry." Lith realized he had spaced out for over a minute.

"Go back to your seat and rest. You'll need all your strength before attempting the spell on your own." She ruffled his hair, making him feel like a dog again.

"You used my Frost Dew." Lith was confused.

"How am I supposed to perform the spell without one?"

"Don't worry, I got it covered." She handed him a Frost Dew emitting such a faint glow to seem just a cheap knock off of the one Wanemyre had consumed.

"Why do you give me that funny look?" She scolded Lith.

"It would have been a crime against magic to let such a perfectly purified natural treasure go to waste during a test run. No one will miss this one, instead."

Lith had many things to say, but was smart enough to keep them for himself. Wanemyre was an excellent Professor and their relationship was good. There was no reason to ruin everything over a single ingredient.

After a few minutes, the students completed the second step and were ready to try out the new magic circle. Wanemyre took away properly cleansed Frost Dews from a few other students too, assigning them points accordingly to the purity level reached, before replacing them with mediocre counterparts.

The ones that did a poor job could keep their flowers, making them grit their teeth with frustration.

Wanemyre handed out to each student an unremarkable iron dagger that couldn't be worth more than a silver coin. Clearly, she wasn't expecting them to succeed.

For a good reason, though.

"Don't worry if you fail. In my experience, infusing elemental properties is much harder than Forgemastering a neutral item. It takes a few tries to handle so many spells and two kinds of energies at once. Only special talents, like me, succeed at the first try."

She puffed her chest with pride, making her ample bosom stand out even more.

- "Thank heavens with her personality she has zero charm, otherwise I would have a new crush already."– Lith thought.

One after the other, his classmates tried and failed. Most botched the procedure during the last steps, making the dagger shatter like glass. Only a few managed to screw up during the initial steps, losing their chanting rhythm and receiving extra homework as punishment.

Having helped the Professor earlier, Lith and the red headed girl were last, to give them time to rest.

Remembering so many magic words and hand signs was hard. Even if he had them stored in Soluspedia, his hands couldn't afford to stumble, his tongue to stutter or miss even a single accent.

That was why every time a student performed their experiment, Lith would chant alongside them, using that time to practice rather than to relax. When Lith's turn came, he was ready. He had even used Invigoration to be at peak condition.

The words rolled off Lith's tongue, his hands moved non stop forming signs and magic seals. Controlling the energy flows was definitely the easiest part for him. With true magic he was used to weaving even six elements at a time, manipulating just two of them was child play, allowing him to focus on the rest of the incantation.

During the last spell, the red and blue sphere clashed violently compared to Wanemyre's execution, emitting a blinding light when they attempted to fuse with the dagger.

"Another failure." Wanemyre sighed. "Too bad, that was really close. Twenty points for an excellent first attempt."

Then the dagger fell on the table, piercing through it until only the hilt was visible.

"Good gods, I was wrong. It's a success!" Wanemyre hugged Lith too close for his comfort, kissing his forehead with excitement.

"Finally a promising rival!"

"I did it." Was all that Lith managed to say. He was so used to failure that success was the most shocking thing that could happen to him.

- "I told you so! You do have talent."– Solus rejoiced.

Wanemyre took the dagger out of the stone table, holding it like it was a treasure.

"Who cares about the sword, this is much more important." Wanemyre took out from her dimensional amulet a golden liquid, inscribing on the surface of the blade Lith's name, the date, and her name before handing it to him.

"Raise that twenty points to fifty. It's no attempt, it's a success." She screamed almost deafening the clerk on the other side of the communication amulet.

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After Lith's performance, the red haired girl did the best she could, going above and beyond in her efforts, but failed nonetheless. Lith stayed behind, while the others marched out of the classroom in silence.

From their gloomy expressions, one could have thought they were going to a memorial service.

After Professor Wanemyre instructed the academy's clerks to clean the Forgemastering lab and repair the broken equipment, she finally noticed his presence.

"What can I do for you?" She was back to being all smiles and niceties. Lith didn't know if it was because the class was over or because she was still overjoyed from his success.

Whatever the reason, he found her creepy.

"I have a few questions for you."

"Shoot."

"Today Professor Nalear showed us your latest creation. I was wondering how many enchantments it possesses and what is its market value." Lith was actually only interested in checking if it had a weight reducing spell, but he couldn't ask it directly.

If Nalear was an Awakened one, by exposing her he was likely to expose himself too.

"You really are the greedy type." Wanemyre clicked her tongue in disapproval.

"What we do is a perfect mix of art and magical science. It's not about how much you earn, it's the journey that matters. Money is just a pleasant side effect of our line of work."

- "How can she say that with a straight face after keeping the Frost Dews for herself? She's shameless." Lith thought.

"The pot calling the kettle black?" Solus sneered. –

"As for your questions, here. You can keep it." She gave him a small booklet, containing drawings and descriptions of all the magical items Wanemyre had for sale. The pricing of most of them was enough to make him weep blood.

- "I wish I had it earlier. Maybe I can still ask the Crown to give me a few of these things. The reward I asked for would barely cover for the cheapest items."–

When he found the sword's description, the weight reducing spell was listed among many others. Lith felt like a burden had been lifted from his chest, yet another was added when he checked out the price.

- "Maybe if I reveal to the Crown how much I contributed to finding a cure for the plague, they will gift me half a sword. I need at least another two plagues to be able to afford this thing." -

"Another thing, how does the dagger work? You never explained that part."

Wanemyre slapped her own forehead with her palm, realizing her mistake.

"Sorry, I never thought someone would succeed. I didn't want to get your hopes up just to be disappointed as it happened to your classmates. It's actually very simple. Once you imprint it, activating the enchantment will make the blade turn hot enough to melt stone.

It can easily cut through most conventional protections and weapons. It doesn't cause bleeding, but makes the wound unbearably painful and harder to heal. The effect lasts a couple of minutes per activation. With the Frost Dew I gave you, I doubt it can be activated more than thrice per day. Sorry."

Her apologies sounded fake like a three dollar bill, but Lith had to let it slide.

"The last question is a personal one, so I apologize in advance for being nosy. I couldn't help but notice that you changed quite a bit from the last trimester."

"Changed how?" She tilted her head, seeming more flattered than annoyed by his curiosity.

"You look even prettier than before, you now wear makeup and jewels." Lith pointed at the gold necklace with several embedded gemstones she wore around her neck and the small silver bracelet around her wrist. "You also smile a lot more."

"Well, thank you for noticing it." She giggled like a little girl.

"I admit I was a bit too stern before, but you know, love changes everything. I am betrothed now."

"Betrothed?" Lith was dazed.

"Yes, I know it may seem rushed to a twelve year old with his whole life ahead of him, but for a woman of my age there is no time to lose. We want to have children, so we'll get married after the end of the trimester."

- "Told you so. Again!" Solus laughed her heart out, mocking his paranoia.

"Don't think I have forgotten about our bet."–

Lith ignored her remark, noticing instead the contrast between the two accessories.

"It's a wonderful betrothal gift." He said pointing at the necklace. In the new world there was no such thing as engagement rings. The one proposing could provide any kind of jewelry or commodity as a sign of good faith.

"That's my protective necklace, page twenty-three of the catalog." Wanemyre snorted, quite offended by his remark.

"I wear it only because of Linjos' paranoia. He wants us to be ready in case another sabotage happens. It's too flashy for my taste, but it was the most useful if something went wrong during today's lesson. This is his betrothal gift."

She extended her slim wrist, showing him the silver bracelet.

- "And you say I'm the stingy one, Solus. On Earth this trinket is barely better than those you would find in an Easter egg. Judging from the numerous runes and magic crystals, it should at least be powerfully enchanted.

"Even I would have bought something better." -

Solus was tempted to say "It's the thought that counts", but she was too afraid Lith would use it against her the next time he had to buy presents.

"It's simply lovely." Lith lied through his teeth.

"Sorry for my rudeness before. It's just that your masterpiece drew all my attention." He added flattery to make sure she wouldn't resent him for his blunder.

"I forgive you. Now go to your room and prepare for tomorrow's lessons."

Lith didn't make her say it twice, he had already wasted too much time indulging his paranoia, now he had to rush.

If only he had spent a few more minutes with the Professor, he would have seen that despite her smiling and the joy on her face, her right eye twitched uncontrollably, shedding a single tear before returning to normal.

Blood Desert, the day before.

While waiting for Salaark's return, Leegaain and Tyris kept singing, rejuvenating the heaven and earth from the damages that the prolonged experiments performed by the Abominations had caused.

The barren land had turned into a flourishing oasis. The two Guardians could already perceive many animals migrating toward the newborn haven guided by their innate mana sense.

Salaark came out of the caverns with her talon-ending hands covered by bits and chunks of a black matter that were quickly turning into smoke.

"How did it go?" Tyris asked, worried by the phoenix's frown. She wasn't the kind to mull over a victory, more likely to banter about it and demand a celebratory feast.

"While you lovebirds were singing about peace and love, I risked my feathers. This b*stard…" She took out Pazul's head, handing it to Leegaain before it could disappear.

"…was very well prepared for our arrival. If it wasn't for the fact that I never underestimate any opponent and brought you along as a contingency plan, the Garlen continent would now have only two Guardians."

"If this is a joke, it's not funny Salaark. We have killed Eldritchs for millennia and each of them had less power than a single one of your feathers." Tyris scoffed at the idea of a Guardian dying at the hands of an overgrown tick.

"A single Eldritch is indeed irrelevant," Leegaain said after having stabilized Pazul's remains and studied them for a bit.

"...but this thing is so much more. The other artificial Abominations we encountered earlier were harmless despite their humongous power because they were utterly insane. So many minds could not coexist, so the whole was less than the sum of its parts.

"This time they used an Eldritch as a base, fusing it with countless artificial Abominations. An Eldritch has enough power and experience to beat the other minds into submission.

That's why it was able to retain its personality and harness all their powers at once."

"How bad is it?" Salaark had just finished cleaning herself.

"Quite bad, if you ask me. It's still a rough product. It had to spend most of its energies just to keep all the other minds in check, but it's a huge step forward. They have already solved the madness issue.

"Even as it is, if they put up a squad of these things, even a Guardian may not be enough. What did it say to you before dying?"

"Not much." Salaark shrugged.

"I had no idea his mind was so fragile. I was quite pissed off, so things turned ugly fast. Torturing its soul made his mind collapse and melt in the psychic maelstrom. There is a full lab down there, and it's still in almost mint condition though."

"Make way, please." Leegaain asked with a stern expression, making Tyris grow even more worried.

In all the time they had spent together, she had never seen the dragon completing so many sentences without cracking even one joke.

It took Leegaain a few hours to check and catalog everything. When he finished, the dragon was pleased with his results.

"Excellent work in preserving the lab Salaark. Now we know everything but the identity of our enemies."

"We do?" Tyris and Salaark asked in unison. Since they couldn't make heads or tails of the equipment, they had spent their time playing Lith's game. Chess had become renowned as the "Queen of the games" and "the game of the Queens".

"Yes. Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"Whatever. I'm sure that no matter what I pick, you'll tell us both anyway." Salaark snorted in exasperation.

"You are right my fair lady, but this time I will do it because it's vital for you to understand how serious our crisis is, rather than for the simple pleasure of annoying you." His mocking tone told a different story, though.

"The first thing I ascertained by examining the lab, is that whoever is behind this, they are not Awakened ones. Their method to mass produce Abominations is brilliant but too crude.

An Awakened one wouldn't need all this equipment nor to sacrifice so many lives for so little result." Leegaain pointed at the mountains of corpses.

"They would just use Invigoration to call upon the world energy and forcefully feed it to their test subjects. Our culprit is sapping the life force of countless living beings to produce a single Abomination, instead.

Clearly they have no idea of what a mana core is or how to sense the world energy."

"How can you be so sure?" Tyris asked. "Most Abominations were once Awakened ones, can't they have taught to others the secret behind the awakening?"

Leegaain sneered in response.

"Even if they wanted to, they can't. Abominations lose all their connections with the world energy after the transformation. Would you be able to Awaken someone by using mere words? The answer is no." He didn't give them the time to reply.

"Sure, Abominations can explain what a mana core is or how the world energy affects magic, but knowing and doing are two different things. Also, I'm certain of my assumptions because I'm very familiar with the blueprints of those tanks…"

"Since you made them yourself?" Salaark interrupted him, shocked by her intuition.

"Why would I do that? Just like you, I can create artificial Awakened as well as true ones. I'm the father of all dragons, if I wanted to take over the world, I would just need to call all of my offspring and take down a Guardian at a time.

No, I know them because they belong to the Griffon Kingdom. They are the upgraded version of Arthan Griffon's immortality project."

Tyris had done her best to forget that name. King Arthan Griffon, the Kinslayer. The Soul Eater. The biggest mistake she had ever made.

Unlike natural Awakened ones, those Salaark and Tyris made were incapable of using techniques like Invigoration and Accumulation, their sensitivity toward the world energy was purposely sealed during the process.

Having a stronger mana core than the one they were born with, made them age more slowly, but they aged nonetheless. Arthan had been a genius mage, that during his final years had focused on studying the limitations of the gift he had received and how to overcome them.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

His experiments had sacrificed countless lives and almost led to the Griffon Kingdom's destruction.

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During his youth, after Tyris had chosen him as the next King and gifted him true magic, Arthan Griffon would often laugh at how hard and convoluted fake magic was. Without the countless legacies left behind by Awakened ones, most magical advancements would have been impossible.

What made fake magic invaluable, was that anyone with a strong enough mana core could practice it. As for most things, there was strength in numbers. By standing on the shoulders of the Awakened ones, fake mages had improved the lives of all those who lived in the Galen continent and beyond.

Thanks to Lochra Silverwing and many others, magical research was possible for fake mages too. Some of them had made discoveries so great to put to shame even Awakened ones.

Arthan Griffon understood why the Awakened were so jealous of their secret. It wasn't just a matter of power, but also of longevity. A dog could live up to twelve years, a Ry up to forty, a Monster for hundreds of years, while Guardians were seemingly immortal.

If all mankind turned into Awakened ones, having children would eventually become a crime, forcing the various Royal families to cull their own population from time to time.

As Arthan grew old, he also grew envious of Tyris' eternal youth. He was unwilling to let his genius perish by the hand of something trivial as old age. At that time, she interfered even less in the Kingdom's matters, letting humans take care of themselves.

After wasting years searching for an Awakened, Arthan had used most of the Crown's and Mage Association's resources to buy his way into immortality. Failure after failure, his project became more ruthless and desperate, using the lives of his subjects to prolong his own.

Despite his secrecy, Tyris soon discovered Arthan's crimes, executing him on the spot and setting the canons that defined forbidden magic. Arthan Griffon's name became a synonym of madness, a bogeyman used to scare the children and make them behave.

"It's impossible!" Tyris was flabbergasted.

"I made sure to destroy all the blueprints and specifications of that evil contraption. I left behind only the parts that could be used for medical research and even the few fragments left are heavily guarded."

"Are you saying this is all her fault?" Salaark pretended to be outraged, pointing her finger at Tyris while her other hand switched the position of a few pieces on the chessboard. There was no such word as "defeat" in her vocabulary.

"No, I'm not. That's cheating, by the way." Leegaain put everything back into place with a wave of his hand.

"What one man can invent another can discover. Especially if he has access to the remaining pieces and has enough talent to reverse engineer the machine. Judging from the result, our culprit is either a rare genius or someone that spent years improving Arthan's madness.

We are lucky to have found this place when we did. Losing their latest specimen and all this equipment will set them back for years, especially now that we are keeping our eyes open for anomalies."

"Okay, enough with the bad news. Give us the good news too." Tyris gave Salaark a reproving look while making her next move.

"That was the good news." Leegaain replied shocking them both.

"Weren't you listening? The setback, the ignorance about world energy and cores, the fact that they can at best create Abominations instead of Awakened, those are all good news.

"The bad news is that when the new lab will be up and running, they only have to fix the humongous energy consumption problem and find a way to suppress the psychic maelstrom to be capable of turning whoever they want into the Abomination knock-off version of a Guardian."

After the end of the lessons, Lith's group resumed studying dimensional magic in Yurial's room. It was the only subject they could prepare for in advance since they had no idea what they would do for Necromancy or Magic Crystals.

As for their specializations' classes, the Professors were throwing the books away in favor of a more practical approach. Friya and Phloria were worn out both physically and mentally.

"Professor Thorman is a monster." Friya was still panting, incapable of catching her breath.

"Three minutes of sparring, one minute of rest, three minutes of casting. Rinse and repeat for two whole hours! If one fainted, he would just have a healer give them some life force and a sweet drink before starting again."

"I don't remember ever wanting to take a shower so badly." Phloria added.

"We can postpone our meeting. Clean yourself, get some rest and get back here." Yurial's proposal was also for his own benefit. He had spent his lesson learning how to handle the arrays' activation order to alter their effects.

The problem was that the slightest mistake caused the arrays to cancel each other, forcing him to start over from scratch. Each array was demanding on his focus and mana since Professor Juong had one of his assistants time the casting speed of each student.

Yurial had a splitting headache caused by the lack of mana, but was too prideful to call quits first.

- "Please say yes. Daddy needs some sleep."– He thought.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Friya replied. "I am certain that the moment I touch my bed or hot water I'll fall asleep until tomorrow morning."

Quylla and Lith were the only ones in peak condition. Quylla because she had no specialization aside healing, Lith because of Invigoration.

Despite their fatigue, the training went smoothly. Friya turned out to be a natural at dimensional magic, managing to master Blink before dinner time. Once she was able to cast it successfully ten times out of ten, she stopped practicing to rest and give tips to the others.

The canteen had never been so quiet during dinner. Everyone was either too tired or depressed to speak, even Lith's group. The clattering of the silverware was the only audible sound.

"Sorry guys, I'm too exhausted to do anything but sleep. I'd call it a day if it's okay with you." Yurial's proposal was unanimously approved.

"Friya, Quylla please escort me to my room. I'm still without a Ballot and had enough of ambushes for today." Yurial faked a yawn, winking at Lith while Phloria wasn't looking.

- "How nice of Yurial being your wingman." Solus thought. –

Lith didn't reply, sighing in resignation instead. Part of him found all that situation insane. Despite his body was one of a twelve year old, his true age was around forty. The more he thought about it, the more the idea of having a high school sweetheart sounded dumb.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Another part of him was tired of being alone, a shadow in a world of lights. That part of him was aware that the age gap would never disappear and that the longer he waited, the more excuses Lith would make up to keep isolating himself from the rest of the world.

After speaking with Yurial, he had realized how lonely it was to live trapped in a life of duty. No one could force Lith to marry, but he already knew that after the academy he would be forced to train until he became sixteen, accumulating wealth for his future travels.

Then, he would join the army, starting his quest to find a body for Solus and a solution for his twice lifelong problem. Lith didn't want to start over again, to find a new family, and most of all, to lose Solus.

He had already decided that if he couldn't find a way to prevent his next reincarnation, then he would settle for a way to achieve a permanent death. He and Yurial weren't so different, after all. Both wiser than their age and living on tracks they couldn't escape from.

"Thanks for walking me to my door despite your horrible day." Phloria suddenly said, waking Lith from his stupor. They were already in front of her room.

"I don't know how you guys managed to attend your lessons after almost losing your lives this morning. Especially you, Lith from Lutia." She smiled warmly at him, making his dark and light side clash against each other with growing intensity.

"I wish to one day be as strong as you and be capable to protect all those I hold dear."

She unlocked her door and was about to disappear inside when Lith stopped her.

"About that, there's something I need to give you." Phloria turned around, seeing he was handing her a Guilty Ballot.

"I had Linjos remove my imprint, so now it's yours."

"I can't accept it! What if something happens to you?" She pushed it away with both hands.

"To me?" Lith chuckled. "I faced magical beasts, monsters, and assassins. Yet I'm still here. Nothing in this academy, be it physical or emotional can touch me, but you are different." He placed the Ballot in her fingers, appreciating their warmth.

"You still have feelings that can be hurt, a mind that can get scarred. It's too late for me, I'm beyond salvation. Take it and promise me you'll have a happy life."

Both Phloria and Solus were on the verge of tears. The former could only feel the pain behind those words, while the latter was seeing all of Lith's lives flashing in front of her eyes.

Phloria imprinted the Ballot before putting it away in her dimensional amulet.

"I promise." She said closing the door behind her, incapable to face him any longer.

- "Was it that hard?" Solus asked.

"Actually, it was." Lith replied.

"Good! Nothing that's worth having comes easy, remember? Your words, not mine."–

Their bickering was interrupted when the door reopened and Phloria embraced Lith, giving him a quick, soft kiss. Barely a peck.

"Also I promise I will try to share that happiness with you. No matter how thick skinned you have become, you are still alive. Please, don't talk ever again as you are going to die at any moment."

She held him tight for a long second, giving his body and mind the time to react to the sudden turn of events. Once again, a warm feeling spread through his being, like when he was in Elina's embrace as an infant.

With that also came the hunger. The violent desire to fill the bottomless void that plagued his existence ever since he could remember. His inner conflict resumed, part of him just wanted to drown in that warmth, while the other wanted to kill Phloria for being a liability, a weakness that could only lead to more suffering.

"Was my first kiss that good or that bad for leaving you in a daze for so long?" She asked blushing in an adorable manner.

"Woof." Lith' brain short circuited because of the conflicting emotions, suddenly remembering his lost bet with Solus.

Phloria chuckled at his nonsensical answer, giving him a second peck before disappearing behind her door.

- "Was it that bad?" Solus gloated.

"Woof! Woof!" Lith replied. –

As most of the happy times of his lives, it wasn't bound to last.

An almost inaudible sound drew his attention, making Lith activate Life Vision, spotting three figures hidden behind pillars and corners.

"Well, well, well. The academy is so clean, yet the roaches are so big. Three of them at that." He said out loud, making them come out in the open. Without the advantage of surprise, hiding was just useless.

"It's not the first time you follow us. Why you don't run away as usual? Isn't that what cockroaches do when you shed light on them?" Lith said with an amused voice.

The three students were all taller than Phloria, the shorter one was 1.82 meters (6') high. Yet they were all on edge. Their goal had been the girl all along, none of them wanted to face Lith unless he was tied up and drugged.

His background check was intimidating on its own and the fact that he had just survived the attack of professional assassins was public knowledge. They were three against one, all taller and heavier than him though.

He was also finally without a Ballot, so they only needed him to cast a spell in self defence to have him expelled.

At least in theory.

"I can't believe you gave your Ballot to that wh*re even knowing we were here."

The leader swallowed a lump of saliva, looking at his companions to gain some confidence. He didn't want to be there, but he couldn't disobey his mother.

Lith laughed maniacally.

"What use do I have for a Ballot? The rooms are all soundproof, why ruin our meeting with a recording device?" Lith's pupil dilated to the point of covering most of the iris, making his brown eyes seem to have turned black.

The corridors were lit by magic stones, fueled by the castle's power core. In all the academy's history, they had never malfunctioned.

Yet when Lith moved forward, the lights flickered at his passage.

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"Stay back! We have a Ballot!" The leader screamed with a high pitched voice that was hard to believe it could come out of someone that big. They never intended to pick on Lith, no matter what their orders were, it was just too dangerous.

After being discovered, they had no choice left though. Lith wouldn't believe a word they said. It was better taking a punch in the face than a knife in the back. They were three against one and well prepared for the encounter.

They could only hope to scare him away.

- "Do they?"

"So far it's a bluff. They only have some magic rings and alchemic tools. No Ballot." Solus replied. –

They had studied it for months. She could recognize a Ballot's pseudo core from a mile away.

"Really?" Lith sneered. "Did you incriminate yourselves by recording since you started following us? Or are you going to activate it now?" Lith's voice was stone cold, a huge smile had appeared on his face, yet it contained no joy.

It was the smile of a predator closing in on a cornered prey.

A twitch in the left arm alarmed Solus.

- "I stand corrected. The one in the middle now holds a Ballot in the left hand."–

Thanks to her timely warning, Lith extended his right arm ripping the Ballot off his enemy's fingers with spirit magic before he could even activate it.

"I said no recording devices!" Lith engulfed the Ballot in a shroud of darkness, actually sending it in his pocket dimension. He had no idea what kind of safety measures it could have and wasn't willing to take unnecessary risks.

Lith let the shroud disappear, revealing his now empty hand.

"You have just destroyed an academy's property. You are insane!" Not only had they just lost their only ace in the hole, but seeing an artifact crumble like that brought the three to the verge of panic.

The leader of the group was Raynart Poltus. His mother Duchess Poltus, a leading figure in the old noble faction and had a bone to pick with Jirni Ernas, Phloria's mother.

Ever since the end of the plague, the Poltus family was under the scrutiny of the Crown because of their deep ties with Coirn Hatorne, the fugitive alchemist believed to be responsible for creating the parasites and known for being a middleman for the major black market dealers.

During her inquiries, Lady Ernas had discovered that the Duchess' brother was part of a slave trade. Even if most of his victims were dead or missing, he had been found in possession of a new kind of slave collars that could be disguised as a necklace, a ring, or a bracelet.

It was by itself a capital crime, so no matter how powerful and influent the Poltus family was, he had been tortured until he had revealed all the names of his accomplices and then executed.

The event had been a disaster for the family. Its members were now looked down on even by commoners and cut out from all the major social events. The identity of the royal constable in charge of investigations was supposed to be a secret, but Duchess Poltus still had many informant and friends.

She wanted to give Lady Ernas a taste of her own medicine. Her only daughter r*ped and branded as a sl*t was punishment enough in the Duchess' eyes. Without a Ballot, her son could have always claimed it was consensual s*x.

It would also help the noble faction's cause, forcing Linjos to take a side between the two families and putting himself in a lose-lose situation. Siding with the Poltus meant making an enemy of the Crown, while siding with the Ernas was like admitting his own incompetence, adding the scandal to his long list of faults as Headmaster.

The lights' flickering intensified, while a black fog seeped out of the shadows making the scene looked more and more like a nightmare by the second. Raynart and his cousins wanted to run away, but for some reason their feet refused to move.

The previous warmth Lith had demonstrated earlier had disappeared, only the hunger remained. The abyss inside him kept pouring out its hate, infecting the outer world. Lith's killing intent reached a new peak, forcing the three on their knees with just a gentle push from spirit magic.

"Kneel!"

Albeit brief, the touch from those invisible hands made the three squeal in terror.

That was the side of Lith Solus was more scared of. No matter how much love and affection he received, turning back into the same man that had abducted and tortured a young boy was as easy as flipping a switch for him.

What made things worse was that the more people he cared for, the more ruthless he would become. Each light that entered his life would only make the darkness inside of him deeper.

"Usually I don't give speeches, but for you I'll make an exception. I need to send a message and you'll be the one delivering it."

Lith's hand squeezed Raynart's throat so hard that for a moment he thought his eyes were going to pop out of his skull. Then the pressure lessened enough to let him breathe, but not enough to make it easy.

At the same time, spirit magic and wind magic pinned the other two on the ground, making them incapable of breathing as well.

The scene in front of Raynart's eyes almost made him faint. Through their contact, he could see something that even Lith and Solus were unaware of. A legion of hands made of shadows was gushing out of Lith's body.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Only a few were suppressing the three students, countless others stood still like snakes, ready to strike at any moment. Spirit magic was invisible, yet for some reason Raynart was able to see its true form.

Countless eyes of all sizes and colors had materialized wherever light was absent, staring full of curiosity at the unfolding events. The world was watching over its new toy, lured by the unbridled hate that had been offered to it.

"It's already the second time today that someone tries to take away what's mine. You can't imagine how angry I am right now." Lith used darkness magic to appear more terrifying and water magic to freeze the surrounding environment to scare them out of their wits.

He smirked noticing that the other two had already lost control of their bladders, drenching themselves in their own p*ss.

- "These nobles, how can someone be so cowardly?"– Lith thought.

Only Raynart knew the truth. Fueled by the world's will, the tendrils of darkness seeped into his cousins' bodies from the nostrils, eyes, ears, and mouths, robbing them of their vitality. The feeling they were experiencing was akin to being buried alive.

Lith lifted Raynart from the neck until their eyes were at the same height, sending him into panic. Half of Lith's face was now covered by Raynart's shadow, assuming ghastly features.

Lith's eclipsed eye had become bright yellow with a vertical pupil, the mouth was lipless and full of fangs highlighted by an inner fire that seemed to be burning in his throat.

"I don't care who sent you. Tell Lukart or whoever it is behind this attack that these kids are mine and mine alone!"

Lith sent a new wave of spirit magic on the two that were lying on the ground, bringing them closer. He also clenched the hand around Raynart's throat making him incapable of breathing anymore.

Raynart could hear his voice and feel the lack of oxygen, but he couldn't avert his gaze from the darkness running under his cousins' skin, whose eyes rolled backward while foaming at the mouth.

"The next time I see one of you around them, even if I just smell you, I'll make your worst nightmare seem like a wet dream after what I'll do to you."

The other two had already fainted, so Lith could focus only on Raynart, alternating waves of darkness and light magic. His skin would crumble, his life vessels collapse, just to be restored less than a second later.

On the outside, it was like nothing was happening, but Raynart felt pain like never before. His whole body was constantly being destroyed and regenerated in a never ending cycle, yet it left no mark on him.

His mind and body collapsed in just a few seconds, unable to bear anymore that torture.

Lith left him alongside the other two, putting the Ballot in Raynart's hands before going to his room for a good night sleep.

The next morning, the canteen was lively again. Everyone was discussing how three students had been found unconscious and hospitalized. For some unknown reason, it was impossible to wake them up.

Normally no one would have cared, things like that happened all the time. The reason a common event had piqued so much curiosity was that they weren't injured at all. They even had a Ballot, but according to the Professors it had never been used.

"I can't believe it happened just a few meters from my room and I didn't notice anything. Maybe I could have helped them." Phloria was shocked by the news.

Yurial scoffed, telling to the rest of the group why no one cared about the fate of the Poltus family.

"Either it was the consequence of an internal strife, to get rid of the rotten apples before the whole household collapse, or it was an act of vengeance from the relatives of their victims. Those guys deserve no pity Phloria."

Lith couldn't care less about their background. Even if they came from a family of saints, he would have done the same thing.

- "No one touches my things, no matter the reason." He thought.

Solus sighed, wishing he stopped referring to them as objects instead of people.

"I wonder why the two you didn't roughen up are still unconscious. It has never happened before." It was the only part of the rumor that didn't make sense to her.

"I don't know and honestly, I don't care. Three guys following a single girl at night, knowing she has no Ballot. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together."–

Lith regretted deeply not having the opportunity to kill them for good, but he knew about the academy's security system that prevented deadly injuries.

It was the reason why he had used that torture technique. It would leave the victim exhausted and mentally scarred, but the body would remain in perfect health.

After breakfast, the group split up for the morning activities. Lith's group rounds of visits were uneventful, allowing them to make up for most of the time lost the day before.

They met back with Phloria for the first practical lesson of Magic Crystals.

After welcoming the students, Professor Nalear clapped her hands, making a crystalline mass as big as a melon appear on their desks along with what looked like a rune-inscribed wrench the size of a pen.

"Normally, when people hear the words 'underground mine' and 'extraction of minerals' they think about rough men with a pickaxe, but for magic crystals it's the worst image possible.

"Normal tools have no effect on mana crystals, no matter how strong you are or how hard is the metal. Best case scenario, you can crack one and hope that the resulting explosion will not trigger a chain reaction making the whole mine collapse.

There is a reason why only a mage can become a Crystalsmith."

Nalear picked up the wrench-like tool from her own desk. The students saw the runes lighting up one after the other until a small energy blade formed in the U shaped extremity.

Lith involuntarily quivered. The phenomenon reminded him of the blade that had killed him during his second life. He had never forgotten the pain of dying drowned in his own blood, gasping for air like a washed up fish.

- "There's nothing to be scared of. That thing is just the magical equivalent of a box cutter." Lith said to himself. –

"Extracting mana crystals doesn't require brute force, but finesse and technique. First, all of you must learn how to power up a mana blade. Pick up your own and hold it in the way that's more comfortable for you.

"Some hold it like a carving knife, others like a scalpel. Too many like it's a spoon. That's the only wrong way to do it."

The class laughed, following Nalear's instructions.

"It's very simple to use. Inject it with your mana, like if you were trying to imprint it."

Many blades appeared, but none remained for more than a split second.

"For those that didn't make it, just put some more effort. Those who made it, keep it coming. Mana blades can't be imprinted and need a constant flow of mana to function properly."

Lith noticed that he was the only one in the group with the mana blade turned off, so he corrected the situation. By using Invigoration, he noticed there was no pseudo core, just mana pathways that redirected the mana into a physical form.

"Well done everyone! Now put it down. Our lesson has just begun, don't waste your energies. You will need them in a while."

Lith powered on and off the blade a few times, appreciating the buzzing sound it produced while being activated or swung around.

- "I wish I could say 'Yurial, I am your father', but the reference would be lost in translation."– Lith sighed.

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"Before starting our lesson, I'll ask you a question. Please be honest about it, it will save us a lot of time. How many of you were too tired to practice the spell on page 22 that I assigned two days ago?"

Nalear's inquiry was followed by prolonged silence.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, it happens every year. The first day is all about theory, so students get confident. The second day is all about practice and drains their energies. Take five minutes to study it, despite it being a tier four spell is very simple."

Aside from Lith, Quylla and a few others, most of the students took out their books and read like madmen.

Lith used that time to practice it on the crystal mass. The spell was called Scope and turned out to be extremely similar to a diagnostic spell, but instead of showing the status of a patient, it allowed one to distinguish the single crystals that composed the mass.

Just like a mana blade, it hadn't a set duration. Once cast, Scope would last as long as the mage kept spending mana, requiring the constant use of earth and light magic.

- "Invigoration doesn't work on inanimate matter, yet it does on magic items and artifacts. I wonder how I should classify mana crystals." - Lith thought while activating Invigoration.

His breathing technique revealed not only the crystals' outline, but also allowed him to see on their surface a series of lines and cracks, of which Lith was unable to understand the significance.

"All you have to do for today is to separate the cluster that I provided you into single mana crystals and then cut them into a usable form. Do not underestimate your task. Using the mana blade and Scope at the same time takes a lot of energy, while adjusting the blade's density according to the situation requires focus."

Nalear closed in to the first row of desks.

"Use too little mana and you'll get sparks but no cuts. Too much and…" Her blade cut straight into a crystal, that emitted a bright light before crumbling.

"If this was a real mana crystal, instead of scraps of the lowest tier minerals, it would have caused the whole cluster to explode. The force of the resulting detonation would be proportional to the amount of mana stored.

"That's why Crystalsmiths require huge fees. The more powerful the crystal, the higher the risks. Since they are risking their lives on your behalf, don't be stingy with them. Never believe to those that offer their services for a reasonable sum.

They are either trying to rob you of your crystals or are so incompetent that they will lose more than half during the refining process. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys."

The first part of the exercise was easy. The crystals composing the cluster were big and didn't overlap much. Thanks to Scope the students could discern where a crystal ended and the other began.

The mana blade was capable of separating the conjoined sides without destabilizing the structure. Everyone managed to finish their task quickly.

"Excellent. Now comes the hard part, cutting a crystal into a usable form. In their natural state, most mana crystals are bigger than my fist. If you remember my first lesson, all those I showed you were the size of a walnut.

That's because bigger crystals not only are more brittle, but also the mana they contain is scattered along its whole structure. The cutting process allows compressing the mana crystal, making its power focused and more easily accessible to a good craftsman. Let me give you a demonstration."

Nalear used Scope on a single gemstone and then activated her mana blade again. Her mana was ethereal, passing through the surface of the crystal without leaving a scratch. Yet each time the blade touched the gemstone, it would shrink more and more.

The final product, despite she had worked on scraps, was a bright red gem the size of a pearl.

"Don't get fooled by appearances. A mana crystal it's not a rock imbued with mana, it's pure mana that somehow took physical form. Removing even a small chip means making it weaker. The cutting process requires to use the mana blade to stimulate its structure, making it slowly collapse on itself.

To do it, you need to use Scope to see the keystone points and to make the mana composing the blade as thin as possible."

Lith did as instructed, discovering that the spell showed the same lines highlighted by Invigoration, but they were fainter and there was no trace of the cracks. The hardest part of the exercise was to keep the mana flow as weak as possible.

Aside from healers, fake mages weren't used to such fine control, so many students ended up breaking one crystal or more. Lith's work was progressing smoothly, like for the rest of his group, so he exploited a moment when Nalear was helping a boy on the other side of the class to make an experiment.

He used Invigoration on the crystal and instead of applying the blade on the lines, he struck with it one of the cracks. The crystal didn't change its size, but he could sense his mana getting slowly sapped, being absorbed by the gemstone.

- "I can charge these things!" He thought. "I can turn scraps into perfectly fine crystals. Solus, we have struck a gold mine!"

"Yeah, right. Not to burst your bubble, but even scraps are rare. We never found one before. Not to mention that we would need a plausible excuse for the crystal's origin, otherwise it would blow your cover. This isn't a gold mine, more a way to spare some bucks on your staff."–

Solus's cold pragmatism made Lith mind whimper.

The lesson ended in complete success. All the student had managed to cut at least three crystals, even though many of them had required several breaks to catch their breath.

- "This is odd." Lith thought. "Despite their cores aren't at the level of Yurial's and the rest of the group, how can they be so exhausted for something like this?"–

He looked around, noticing that most of his colleagues from the Healer's specialization had no such problem.

- "Maybe it's just that their control is really poor." Solus replied. "I don't know if you have noticed, but those who destroyed a few crystals are also the same that have yet to succeed to open a Warp Gate. They must have very low mana sensitivity."–

There was only so much that even logic could do against Lith's paranoia, but in the end he didn't care for them. His priority was eating lunch and getting ready for the first practical Necromancy lesson.

White Griffon, Headmaster's office

Linjos had just received the latest Crown's proclamation reserved for their inner circle, remaining shocked by what he had just read. Linjos used his communication amulet to contact the Queen, expecting a long queue, but she replied immediately.

"Let me guess, you too are calling about the new slave collars, right?" Queen Sylpha had the annoyed tone of someone who already had that conversation countless times.

"Yes, Your Majesty. You know there is at least a mole in my academy, if not more. Those cursed devices allow the traitors to turn anyone into unwilling allies. My situation has just gone from dire to desperate!"

"Your situation?" The Queen frowned, barely keeping her anger in check.

"The civil war has been almost foiled, but almost isn't enough. I and the King don't know who to trust anymore. We have to perform daily controls on everyone that approaches us, our children, or has access to sensitive information.

It's not just 'your situation', it's everyone's. I had to inform all my loyal subjects, even knowing that the news would spread panic and distrust. I prefer paranoid officials to dead ones.

A slave collar can make a mother kill her newborn child, turn your loving husband into a violent beast with a single word. I need you all to be on your toes, but most of all, to read the damn proclamation until the end.

It's clearly written that the slave items found in Lord Poltus' possession were just three and custom made. To his knowledge, there is no mass production, but the fact that someone has the means to create them is a threat that can't be underestimated. Did you execute a security sweep recently?"

Linjos nodded.

"Yes. One right after the sabotage of the training hall and another right before the start of the trimester. I checked students, Professors, clerks, everyone. I had Trasque check myself, just to be safe. Someone could always turn me into a sleeper agent."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Sylpha seemed happy by that news, but after a second her eyes became cold.

"What about the students?"

"I'm really sorry, your Majesty. I've let you down again."

"What are you talking about?" Sylpha was genuinely surprised by his answer.

"I know that the students' grades are at an all time low, but the promotion rate…"

"I wasn't talking about that." She cut him short. "It's the same in all the academies."

"What?" Linjos jumped out of his chair, he couldn't believe his ears.

"What did you expect? That the other Headmasters would flaunt their problems? Off the record, since the threat of the civil war started, the students spend more time fighting among themselves or following their parents' agenda rather than studying.

The Black Griffon never expelled so many students in a single year, while at the Crystal Griffon academy they have so many injured that they had to hire new medical staff. Your White Griffon is the crown jewel of the academies at the moment."

Sylpha's smile perfectly hid her amusement at Linjos' shocked expression.

"I was talking about the Poltus boys. Three of them, at night near the girls' dorm. It creeps me out just saying it out loud. What were they doing there? Why have they yet to wake up?"

- "Oh, that!"– Linjos thought, inwardly sighing of relief.

"Up to no good, that's the only thing that I'm sure of. They had a Ballot, but they didn't activate it. It means that either they knew their aggressor or that they couldn't afford to record their meeting.

I had them searched. No slave items, but they had several alchemic products on them. Most of them where to… incapacitate the victim."

"Meaning?" Sylpha didn't like the pause at all.

"I can't be sure until the alchemic lab confirms it, but judging from the smell I'd say they were sedatives or roofies. I'm going to interrogate them as soon as they wake up. Depending on their answers and the lab results, I'll decide what to do. Off the record, they are as good as expelled, already.

After breaking their dimensional amulets, we found so many drugs they could open a pharmacy."

"Oh dear." Sylpha silently prayed for Linjos.

The Headmaster was about to ask the Queen why she cared so much for the Poltus family, when the gemstone on his desk blinked red. His personal assistant had something very urgent to tell him.

"This better be important, Balfas." Linjos answered with an annoyed tone, bowing to the Queen as an apology for the interruption.

"Royal constable Jirni Ernas requests your presence, Headmaster." Balfas was a retired veteran, not even dragons soaring the skies could upset him. Yet he was squeaking like a mouse.

"Tell her I'm innocent! I mean busy!" As a royal constable, Lady Ernas had an authority second only to the Royal Court. She was that good at her job that no one, either innocent or guilty, wanted her poking at their personal life.

"She says it's for official business." Balfas' voice rose of another octave.

"What official business could she possibly…" Linjos' eyes suddenly noticed the name of a particular student that lived near the site of the accident.

"Gods, no! I mean, tell her I'll be there immediately."

"Be careful about what you do and say, Linjos." Sylpha said after he closed the communication with his assistant.

"She knows about the Poltus boys, the roofies, everything. I know what you are thinking, it's a minor offense, but don't fool yourself. Do you know what's a royal pardon?"

"Of course I do!" Linjos felt offended by the question. A royal pardon was a get out of jail free card for any crime non punishable by the death penalty. The Crown granted a few of them every year to their most loyal servants for their outstanding results.

All the noble families had one or more black sheep that needed protection from the law. Most of them would do anything to obtain one to not get their name tarnished. The royal pardon was a leash that kept them loyal and efficient.

"Well, she has collected five so far, but never needed one. Yet."

"Does that mean…"

"That she could maim half your staff and as long she kills no one, she will go home in time for dinner."

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There was a reason why Balfas was so nervous during his conversation with the Headmaster. Lady Jirni Ernas had a peculiar hobby that made her a really unpleasant guest.

Whenever she was left waiting, she would run a thorough check on the nearest person to her. In this case, Balfas. He could see her scrolling through his military files, payrolls, and daily expenses. Sometimes she would click her tongue, more often she would look at Balfas briefly, giving him a wolfish smile.

When Linjos finally arrived, Lady Ernas was already questioning Balfas about his new house in Derios. In particular about how he could afford it and pay up all due taxes.

"Lady Ernas, it's a pleasure to meet you again." Linjos lied through his teeth.

She was wearing a dark blue military uniform with boots at her feet, black leather gloves on her hands, and her hair held up in a ponytail. Lady Ernas was one hood away from resembling an executioner.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that my daughter is all right." Her reply was a breach of almost every etiquette's rule at once, but Linjos was a practical man. He could see from her eyes that despite her role, she was just a worried mother.

That and the faint impression of seeing in them a grave with his name written on it, prompted him to give her a quick answer.

"I swear that nothing happened to her."

Lady Ernas sighed in relief. This time Linjos had told her the truth.

"Sorry for my earlier rudeness, Headmaster Linjos." She gave him a small bow.

"Now I need to talk with the prisoners."

"Prisoners? Don't you mean the students?" Linjos didn't like that turn of events.

"I like calling things with their names, Headmaster." Her voice oozed sarcasm.

"According to the lab results, they were in possession of recreational drugs, but the real mother lode is five different kinds of sleep inducing, memory erasing drugs. It's enough to arrest them."

She showed him the report on her magical silver tablet. It was similar to a communication amulet, but bigger and linked to all the Griffon Kingdom's archives.

"How did you get them before me? The master Alchemists of the White Griffon told me they needed days to analyze everything."

"In my line of work, I don't have the luxury of time, Headmaster. On the other hand, I have a lot of friends or people that want to be my friends, willing to pull an all nighter for me. Bottom line, the Pontus boys are mine now."

Linjos found the idea that even inside his academy there were people willing to go over his head to please Lady Ernas quite disturbing. Yet he wasn't eager to repeat the experience he had had with Lord Ernas, so he Warped with her to the hospital.

- "I wish I could leave it to Manohar to deal with her, but I learned from experience that whenever he is involved, I'm the one that ends up paying the price for his madness."– Linjos thought.

As soon as they arrived, Jirni stared at the three youths laying in the beds with hatred, pulling out the medical files at their bedside to understand what was going on.

"Are you also a Healer?"

"Gods, no. I can only use chore magic, but I know a thing or two about the human body." The tone she used sent a shiver down Linjos's spine.

"Who dares to approach my specimens?" An indignant, petulant voice chimed in.

"Manohar!" Linjos roared. "How can you call two human beings, students at that, specimens? Don't you have any decency?"

"You are right, Linjos. Back off from my specimens who also happen to be students, midget. I'll not go easy on you just because you are an old lady." Manohar promptly corrected himself.

"Manohar, the unruly man-child." Jirni chuckled, releasing enough killing intent to make every single patient of the hospital wing search for a bedpan.

"Let me tell you a couple of things, child. First, your disappearing so often every time there is an ongoing crisis has made the Crown very unhappy. Enough that no one would care if I decided to rough you up, as long as I leave your precious mouth and hands intact.

It's all you need to cast spells after all. The rest of your body is redundant."

Manohar found himself shivering. Jirni's tone reminded him of the times when he was still a child and his mother scolded him for experimenting with his new spells on the neighbours' sons.

"Second, whoever puts themselves between me and my enemies becomes my enemy as well. Do you want me to treat you as an enemy?"

Manohar had learned from experience that he was about to cross over from "you are grounded until you are old enough for the academy" to "do it again and I'll spank your a*s so hard that even my grandchildren will bear the mark of my hand".

He was the archmage known as the god of healing, the one and only Royal Healer, as well as a genius like the ones that appeared only once in a thousand years. He had a reputation to uphold, so he did what had to be done.

He promptly hid behind Linjos after a hasty retreat.

"No mom. I mean Ma'am. Please, make yourself at home. If you really feel the need to, please take it up with Linjos. I recommend hitting him in the stomach. It's much softer than the head because he never exercises."

- "Note to self, learn how to emit killing intent for taming idiotic healers."– Linjos thought.

"What's their problem? Why don't they wake up?" Jirni asked ignoring his whimpering.

"That's a really interesting question, mom… Ma'am. Their bodies are fine. There is no sign of internal or external trauma, no drugs or toxins. It's the first time since…"

"I won't ask again! What's the problem?" Jirni snarled.

"Emotional trauma. I think their minds are shutting in because of emotional trauma." Manohar replied from Linjos's back.

- "This is amazing!" Linjos was barely holding back tears. "Not only he actually obeys her, but she also manages to obtain quick, not convoluted answers. Also, it's the first time in months that we are both in the same room and I don't look like a fool."–

"What's your treatment?"

"They need time and rest. It shouldn't take more than a week for them to wake up."

"A week?" Jirni sniggered. "No, they are going to wake up now. You see, there is another way to bring them back."

"Really?" Manohar's scientific curiosity was piqued, so he came out of his hiding place.

"Yes. Do you know what's here?" She pointed out the zones near the hips and the shoulders.

"Of course, the thickest bundle of nerves that… (*)" Manohar was incapable of completing the sentence, mulling over the sudden revelation.

"Exactly! All the most sensitive receptors, coming to and fro the fingers, erogenous zones, genitals. I only need to inflict on them more pain than the one that caused the trauma."

Jirni smiled softly while several needles that looked like knitting tools appeared in her hands.

"If I were you, I would create a silence zone." Linjos went pale too, rushing for the spell while Manohar secured a front row seat to better watch Jirni in action.

"That Lith from whatsitsname is right! Anatomy is awesome! We should add it to the subjects of the fourth year Healer class." Manohar said with a childish smile on his face.

"What a guy! He deserves a lot of points. If it wasn't for his lack of personality, I'd say he reminds me of myself when I was his age. A true innovator."

Linjos had many things to say, none nice, but chanting the spell kept his mouth busy.

- "What you call lack of personality is just human decency. Or at least a pretense of it. If I had two Manohars, I'd run away from the Kingdom as fast as I can." He thought –

The spell was completed just in time. One of Raynart's cousins woke up letting out an inhuman scream right after the fourth needle had pierced his skin. Jirni quickly and painlessly removed them all at once.

The temporary relief from pain would only make what was about to come more terrifying.

"What? Where am I?" The boy asked.

"Jirni Ernas, royal constable of his Majesty service." She handed him her badge and royal ID, speaking with a machine like demeanor.

"I'm also the mother of the girl you attempted to r*pe." As soon as the boy understood his situation, rage twisted her visage in a cruel mask, making him wet himself.

"With your uncle's criminal record and what they have found on you, it's in my rights to interrogate you how I best see fit." She took out of her dimensional amulet a leather roll, that contained a lot of sharp tool of curious shape and forms.

"So, we can do this the easy way, or the painful way. As a constable, I hope you'll pick the former. As a mother, I hope you pick the latter."

Gorgus Pontus's fight or flight instinct kicked in and immediately tried to escape, only to discovered he was chained hands and feet to the bed. He then tried to chant a tier three lightning, but a fist as small as powerful struck his jaw dislocating it.

"Thank you so much!" Jirni chirped happily.

"I actually lied before. I can't use these tools on a kid just for drug possession. Or better, I couldn't. Assaulting a royal constable is a capital crime instead. Why do you think I left your chains so loose?" She giggled, making Manohar hide again while Linjos felt the urge to puke.

"Let's play!"

None remained to spectate the questioning, but Jirni recorded everything and used a silencing device to prevent even a single whisper from escaping her control. She had never needed Linjos's help, Jirni had simply exploited the situation to put both the Headmaster and the healing god to test.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

Manohar creeped her out. In a way, he was like Jirni, but lacked any form of common sense and most importantly, he had no constraints.

- "I have to get him married. His fear of motherly figures could be our only hope to controlling him. I already pity that poor girl though."–

After being 'persuaded' a little, Gorgus told her everything. Starting from the five Ws about that night accident to all the dirt he knew about his family and all of his parents' plans.

His brother, Sothes, did the same. The problems arose when she tried to wake up Raynart. Even after six needles, he was still unconscious. Jirni checked his pulse and heartbeat before stopping the procedure.

- "He does feel pain, simply it's not enough. Damn, to push things further I need a healer. Otherwise he may die of shock. I won't let him take the easy way out!"–

When Raynart finally recovered, Jirni needed to sedate him to avoid Raynart hurting himself. As soon as he recovered his senses, he went into a seizure like she had never seen before.

Much to Jirni's dismay, he answered all her questions while under the effects of the narcotic. His story was similar to that of the other two boys, but filled with unbelievable details like shadows coming to life or mystical eyes piercing his very soul.

Normally she wouldn't believe a word, blaming his delirium on the shock that had sent him into a coma. Too many things didn't add up though.

- "The insane amount of knowledge, him surviving an attack that killed an elite squad of the Queen's corps, his contribution to the plague, surviving a group of assassins, and now this? If this was about anyone else, I would shrug off Raynart's words like a bad dream.

I got the feeling that both the background check on Lith and the Queen haven't told me everything. I hate being kept in the dark. Looks like Lith and I need to have a little chat."–

Before walking out of the hospital, Jirni removed all the pain medications from the three boys' system, leaving behind a disposable silencing device so that no one would notice their screams.

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Lith's group was happily enjoying their meal, exchanging suggestions about how to better treat magic crystals during the next lesson when Jirni Ernas almost burst open the door marching inside.

All the conversations suddenly stopped. All eyes were drawn to the badge shining on her chest. Aside from a few students choking on their food, the clicking of Jirni's boots on the stone floor was the only audible sound.

Lady Ernas exuded enough killing intent to take away the appetite of those she passed along. While most of his schoolmates avoided her gaze, Lith couldn't stop hearing in his head the Imperius March along with a rhythmic heavy breathing.

Lady Ernas didn't bother caring for the reactions of the ants surrounding her. She was still high strung because she couldn't kill the three little b*stards. She wasn't a fan of due process, judges, and all those technicalities.

In her opinion, once she was done with her job, she should have been allowed to take out the trash. Yet she had the utmost respect for the law. Jirni had tailored her work life around a deep respect for rules and regulations.

There was only one thing that she could do to avoid murdering someone on her way home.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" Phloria looked at her with a puzzled look. Jirni had rarely allowed her daughter to see her in her uniform. She liked to keep her personal life separated from the professional one.

"Oh, my baby! Thank the gods you are all right." She hugged Phloria, squeezing her against her chest while caressing and kissing her daughter's head.

The killing intent popped like a bubble, replaced by a scene quite embarrassing for a teenage girl. Phloria became beet red, trying to shake off her mother's embrace, but to no avail. She could hear many people sniggering at her.

Only once Jirni was certain that nothing had happened to her daughter, she let her go. What followed was even more embarrassing.

Jirni went in front of each one of the most vocal to have found the previous scene hilarious and after scanning their features with her silver tablet, she listed all the past misdeeds that their families had tried so hard to cover up.

R*pe, tax embezzlement, slavers, traitors. Sometimes the list was long, but she took her sweet time, starting with the most recent crimes and promising them she would take care of all those cases personally.

Some ran away in tears, others hid their faces in shame, a few attacked her. The result was always the same, broken bones and new criminal charges for assaulting an officer in the line of duty.

When she had finished, no one was laughing anymore. Jirni Ernas was a short woman, 1.52 (5') high, but in their eyes she had turned into a terrifying giant that no one dared to offend.

"Lith, do you have a few minutes to spare?" She asked with a gentle smile after returning to his table.

"I have some questions for you and my little Flower. It's better if we discuss this privately."

Phloria blushed violently, while Friya and Yurial had to hold back their chuckles. Their reactions made no sense to Jirni, but being teenagers, there were few things about them she understood, so she paid them no heed.

- "How the heck did she found out so fast?" Phloria's mind was a train wreck. "I didn't even tell dad that Lith and I are dating. Sort of. We have yet to have a proper date. Is it possible she has someone spying on me in here?"–

They went to Lith's room and when Jirni insisted on talking to them separately, Phloria almost went into a panic.

"What do I do? She'll scare him away! I'll never have a boyfriend. Why does she have to meddle in everything I do?"

"It's not a big deal, sister." Friya chuckled. "There are plenty of other fish in the sea."

"Yeah and every one of them will get scared when having a meeting with a shark! I want to see if you'll keep laughing when it happens to you." Phloria's retort snuffed out her hilarity.

Friya had yet to see Lady Ernas treat her adoptive daughters any different from her own blood.

While the three girls were panicking, each fueling the others' paranoia, Jirni and Lith were having another kind of talk.

"Do you know why I am here?" Her tone was firm, but gentle. Jirni preferred a soft approach in questioning a possible ally. She had already contacted the King on her way to the canteen and he had shared with her the Crown's agenda.

They knew Lith was an anomaly, like Manohar or Hatorne, but they hoped to turn him into an asset and prevent him from being snatched by other countries.

King Meron didn't explicitly order her to leave him alone, it was implied in his wording. Jirni was a loyal servant of the Crown, but above everything else she was a mother and a man hunter.

She had understood at first glance that Lith was like her, a ruthless killer with no compassion or care for human life. According to his background check, he cared for his family. It was a good start, but not enough.

It could have been all an act. She had to make sure that just like her, he was actually capable of caring. Otherwise letting him so close to her daughters was too dangerous. Not to mention that once Lith graduated from the academy, she had no doubt he would succeed, he would become a time bomb.

She knew that such a menace had to be snuffed out as soon as possible, before it became unstoppable as it had already happened with Hatorne or the god of death.

"Is this an official visit?" Lith asked.

- "If this was about me and Phloria dating, she wouldn't wear a uniform. She wouldn't question me, but fawn me instead. Lady Ernas wanted us to date since the second semester. Phloria never told me her mother is a royal constable, dammit.

I would have planned things more carefully."–

Jirni nodded.

"Then it's about yesterday's accident."Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Nailed in one. Now, since you seem a smart boy to me, I suggest telling me the truth. We are cut from the same cloth. You can't fool me like you do with the others."

Lith sighed. There wasn't much he could do about his situation.

- "Phloria's mom is too calm. She probably already knows the answers to her questions, she must have interrogated those three. There is no other possible explanation. Lying to her can only put me in trouble. In this dance, she leads while I can only follow."–

Before he could answer, Jirni took out a device the size of a USB pen drive with a small blue gemstone embedded on it. After she pressed the stone, it emitted a low buzzing sound.

"It prevents anyone from listening to our conversation, either by conventional or magical means. There is a traitor in the academy, I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of the rooms are bugged." Jirni explained.

Knowing how hard it was to deceive someone like him, Lith only told her the truth, simply omitting the parts about the use of spirit magic.

Jirni was pleased by his behavior. His story matched what she already knew and she couldn't detect any hint of deception in his words or body language. However it wasn't enough.

"What did you do to send them into a coma?"

"Torture." The shortest, most concise and satisfying answer in her vocabulary, but she remained expressionless.

"How?"

"Two of them with killing intent and air magic. Against the leader I used something more sophisticated."

"Constable Ernas log. What follows happens due to my explicit request, it's not an act of aggression. Repeat, not an aggression from the suspect." After Jirni spoke those words in her magic tablet, she closed in to Lith.

"Show me." She asked him. "It's hard to believe that a twelve year old single-handedly suppressed three men taller and heavier than him. Do to me the same thing you did to the two Poltus boys, but stop when I ask you to."

"I don't think I can." Lith replied. "The only time I can emit killing intent is when I'm threatened or when I feel a deep hatred. Otherwise it's painful, like making scars become open wounds again."

The answer was a pleasant surprise. Jirni had experienced the same thing when she was about his age, learning how to control her emotions at will. For a moment, she thought about pretending to threaten his family, but quickly dismissed the idea.

She wanted a confrontation, not a fight to the death. If Lith was even one bit similar to her, only one of them would come out alive before she could explain her reasons. Even then, the Crown would probably execute the survivor for treason, it would be a lose-lose situation.

"Please, try it anyway." She asked.

Lith forced himself to think about his father back on Earth, to Carl's death, to all those people that plagued his existence so far. Jirni could feel the killing intent rise bit by bit, but it was nothing much. Then she found it difficult to breathe.

An air spell was surrounding her head, sucking the air out.

"Nice trick. I can see those two almost die of fright. Now stop."

Lith obeyed, still blinded by the emotional pain.

"Now show me what you did to the last one." She offered him her hand.

"Do it only once."

Lith pretended to chant and as soon he touched Jirni's skin she felt a burning pain ravaging her flesh with an intensity she had rarely experienced. Yet she endured it without batting an eye, leaving Lith deeply impressed.

"Do you recall anything about black hands and mystical eyes popping out from the shadows?" Her question left Lith flabbergasted.

"What? No."

She stared in his eyes, finding only genuine surprise.

- "Seems that Raynart was really delirious after all. That or one of them is lying without knowing it." She thought. –

"Did you tell Phloria about that night?"

"No." He shrugged. "There's no point in making her worry about what could have happened. She has my Ballot now, so she's safe."

As a man hunter and a constable, that was the answer she had been looking for. Lith was able to care, otherwise he wouldn't have sacrificed his safety for someone else's sake.

If he really gave Phloria his Ballot before the assault, then it couldn't be part of a ruse, since the Poltus boys had followed them after meeting them by chance. She could easily check the timing, Linjos was the only one that could reset a Ballot.

As a mother in search of a husband for her daughter, that piece of news made Jirni's heart flutter. She decided not to push him. They were still young, but that was a good sign.

"Thank you for protecting my family." Jirni said offering him her hand, which he promptly shook.

"One day I hope to be able to return the favor. Could you please tell my little Flower to come in?"

Phloria barged in a second later, slamming the door behind her.

"Mom, this is too much, even for you. Stay out of my love life!" Jirni had no idea what she was talking about, but she had learned that suspects with a guilty conscience would often talk too much, so she remained silent.

"How could you put me under surveillance? I asked him out two days ago and you already come here in high uniform to interrogate us? We did nothing wrong!"

"You didn't?" Jirni kept her face expressionless.

"We just kissed. Once! I have the right to date who I want. I will not allow you to control my life." Phloria's face was red due to rage and embarrassment. She was really happy that the dorms were soundproof, she had yelled quite a bit.

"Oh sweetie, that's marvelous! I'm so happy for you." Jirni hugged her tight, finally letting her joy out.

"I was starting to fear you'd die single. You listened to my advice and courted Lith instead. He even gave you his Ballot, now everything makes sense. Good girl, mom is proud of you."

Phloria froze, panic quickly replacing her outrage.

"Didn't you know it already?" She squeaked.

"No, I just wanted to see you. I'm here on official business for yesterday's accident. I'm glad you choose to share the good news with me."

Phloria thought she was going to die out of embarrassment, but her heart stood still and the earth refused to open up and swallow her.

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The forest surrounding the Lightning Griffon academy, the night before.

Since Linjos didn't need its help for the second exam, Scarlett the Scorpicore, Lord of the forest surrounding the White Griffon academy, had spent the last months performing its annual round of the Distar Marquisate.

The Scorpicore would look for magical beasts old and wise enough to be potential candidates for becoming Awakened ones, hence turning them into Monsters. Scarlett had no obligation to do such thing, it simply felt it was the right thing to do to keep the balance.

Magical beasts had a mortality rate incomparable with humans. Dying of old age for them was more a myth than a possibility. Humans kept growing in numbers and power instead.

Without new Monsters to keep their greed and selfishness in check, there was no telling how bad things could become. Meeting Protector while performing a background check on the mysterious human-Abomination hybrid cub had been the icing on the cake.

Not only was Lith trustworthy according to the many magical beasts he had interacted with, but Scarlett had also managed to help Protector to evolve, securing the County of Lustria for at least a few centuries.

- "If only the rest of my traveling went that good." Scarlett inwardly sighed.

"This year has started badly and if it keeps going like this, my fur will turn grey from the constant worrying."–

During its round, it had met countless magical beasts and most of them were harbingers of bad news. Or better yet, the same piece of bad news repeated over and over. After consulting with Tarbas the Naga, Lord of the forest surrounding the Lightning Griffon academy, they had resolved to summon the Council.

The Lords took out a communication device from their respective dimensional amulets.

Unlike those Lith and the rest of mankind used in their daily activities, those communication amulets were made out of Davross (*) instead of silver, while the magical gemstone embedded on it shone of pure white light instead of the common blue.

"This is a waste of time." Tarbas said. The Naga was a monster with the lower part of her body resembling a huge snake's tail, while the upper part could have been mistaken for a human woman if it wasn't for her sky-blue skin and six arms instead of two.

She wore an enchanted breastplate covering her torso and six different enchanted weapons were ready at hand, two on its back, four where the hips were supposed to be.

"Those old farts will never listen to us." Tarbas shook her head in resignation, letting her long, silky black hair dance under the moonlight.

"If I wanted to hear your whining, I would have just called." Scarlett snorted.

"The only reason I'm here is that without two communicators it's impossible to summon the Council. Now shut up and let me do the talking. If we have any chance of persuading those blockheads, we need to be calm and confident.

So keep your mood swings in check."

Tarbas clicked her tongue, but she couldn't raise any objection. Being a cold-hot blooded hybrid, she was indeed moody.

There wasn't any magic formula or circle involved, as soon as the two mystical amulets touched, five figures materialized mid air.

Each of them was the spokesperson of their own kind of Awakened ones. Humans, magical beasts, undead, plants, and Guardians. The assembly didn't have an official name, each race would refer to it differently.

Humans called it "The Guiding Hand", the undead "The Darkwatch", the plants "The Root", the beasts "The Council" and the Guardians "Another Damn Chore."

None of the five seemed happy to be forced to answer the call, except for Leegaain.

"Looking good, Scar. You are that close to promoting your core to the violet level. Have you considered the idea of becoming a Guardian? Sure, you'd have to relinquish your turf forever, but the job comes with many perks."

Scarlett took a deep breath to calm its anger. It hated the nickname. Both its skin and fur were flawless. Also it hadn't missed how the Guardian's untimely remark had made the eyes of the other members of the Council burn with envy.

The other races couldn't forgive magical beasts for being the only ones capable of becoming a Guardian.

- "Thanks for making my job harder, you scaly idiot!" It angrily thought.

"You're welcome." Leegaain cheerfully replied, almost making the Scorpicore gasp in surprise.

"You are always such an optimist. It's not like you have any chance to start with."–

Scarlett cut off the mind link before giving her speech.

"Fellow Awakened, I call upon you in this time of crisis to ask for your help. Someone is ravaging the lands, consuming huge amounts of world energy and kidnapping countless creatures on the verge of Awakening.

Humans, plants, beasts, undead. Whoever it is, they do not discriminate. We are all a target. We must find the root of the problem and weed it out."

"Why should we care?" Inxialot, the king of the liches, snorted through the exposed nasal septum of his skull. He wasn't actually a king, it was a title that had been imposed on him after getting the short end of the stick during the last raffle.

It would last for three centuries, forcing him to attend those boring meetings and neglect his precious research, while the others were free to mind their own business.

"We have meddled countless times in the past, nothing ever changes. Kill a tyrant, another takes their place. Give them food, they stop working. Force them to obey the law, they revolt calling you a tyrant.

"As long as living beings have dreams and ambitions, this world will suck. Yet it's because of those things that the world thrives. Leegaain has already informed us of this Demon Lord, Abomination King, Master of Disaster or whatever childish title they will self-appoint to themselves.

"Bottom line, we don't care. Been there, done that. They will throw their tantrum, make an enemy of the world, and then they will fail. No one, no matter how powerful, not even us, can go against a whole world full of billions of individuals.

The moment they cause too much damage, all the races will join forces and wipe them away." All the members of the Council nodded at his words.

"I know that." Scarlett struggled to keep its cool in front of so much blind indifference.

"Countless lives will be lost before that happens though. Hundreds already have. Does none of you care for their descendants?"

"Humans only care about themselves. Protecting them is pointless. Many will die, but more will be born replacing them, maybe even learning from their ancestors' mistakes." Raagu, the human representative shook her head.

"Death isn't a bad thing. They will return to the Great Mother and feed the next generations." Lotho the Treant crossed his arms nodding to Raagu.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I think…" Leegaain said.

"The session is over. The motion is unanimously approved." Feela, the beasts' representative, cut him short. With a clap of her hands, four out of five figures Warped Away.

"Told you so." Leegaain patted Scarlett's head.

"If you need help, give me a call. I'll send Tyris, since I can't operate in the Griffon Kingdom. Ta-ta!" He said before disappearing.

Scarlett lowered its head, accepting the failure.

Tarbas placed one of her hands on the Scorpicore's shoulder to console it.

"It's not your fault. We all grow more detached and insensible over time. Non Awakened have such a short lifespan that getting attached to them only brings us pain. It's no coincidence that all the races have the same saying: 'the gods have abandoned us'."

Scarlett knew the truth behind those five words. Before the advent of fake magic, Awakened ones appeared like gods to their own kin. Over time they would either start to believe they were real gods and needed to be put down, or would experience so much pain, betrayal, and isolation to seclude themselves from the rest of the world.

"Who needs gods that sit on their hands doing nothing?" Scarlett roared, its eyes burning with fury.

"I don't need a bunch of indifferent gods, I need allies. Luckily, I know where to look for them."

Later, during the Necromancy class, Lith knew that something was wrong. Phloria had suddenly become incapable of looking him in the eyes without turning beet red, even choosing to sit as far away as possible from him.

- "I really hope that mom was joking when she talked about having dad preparing a betrothal gift for Lith. It would be the second most embarrassing moment of my life. Today would still get the first place."– Phloria thought.

After Professor Zeneff entered the classroom, she clapped her hand, Warping several rows of rat skeletons along the walls.

"As I told you last time, during our lessons I'll teach you how to animate lesser undead. By definition, lesser undead are all those reanimated creatures that do not have a mind of their own.

"Creating greater undead is either a crime, since it involves sacrificing someone's life, or ethically controversial. It's the closest thing to slavery, because the undead will have feelings and thoughts of its own but will be completely at the necromancer's mercy.

"That's why advanced Necromancy is a well kept secret. In case some of you gets too curious, be aware that researching advanced Necromancy or creating what basically are sentient slaves without the Crown's approval is a major crime.

"Now let's get back to our lesson. Among the lesser undead there are skeletons, zombies, crypt crawlers, and many others. Skeletons are the weakest and easiest to reanimate, yet we will start with something small. Each of you has to pick at least one rat skeleton.

"You'll soon discover that this exercise has two major hurdles. The first is to mark your creature before it becomes fully formed, otherwise it will eat your face. The second and most difficult one is controlling it with your will.

"Hopefully, by the end of the day ,you'll be able to make them move in the direction of your choice."

Another clap of her hands and a hardcover book with only two pages materialized on the students' desks. One was the Reanimating Skeletons spell, while the other was the Life Mark spell.

"Unlike other courses, I can't allow you to practice without supervision, it's too risky. Luckily my subject is simple, so our lessons should be plenty enough. I'll provide you new pages during the following lessons, they will self attach until the book will be complete.

Practice Life Mark first. Failing to animate the dead is not a big deal, giving undeath to a raving mad one is though."

While all his class looked at the skeleton with disgust, Lith read the spells a few times until he was sure of having memorized them.

- "She is right, these spells really are simple compared to the others I studied so far. Probably because fake Necromancy is the closest thing I ever encountered to its true magic counterpart. It requires will and imagination."–

Lith reanimated the rat on the first attempt, the problem was that the creature just stared dumbly at him. Lith furrowed his brow, squinting his eyes while concentrating until they were almost closed, but nothing happened.

"Excellent job! Ten points for mister Lith." Zeneff said.

"You are doing it wrong though. You can't control an undead with your mind, because it does not have one of its own. You must feel the mana residing in the carcass and manipulate it."

Cursing at his own stupidity, Lith did as instructed. Thanks to months of healing and dimensional magic, his mana sensibility had improved by leaps and bounds, but he was still lagging behind the others.

They had needed a few attempts to succeed, but now their rats moved without limping or staggering, unlike his own.

- "I still suck at mana sensitivity, but my mana control is in a league of its own. Let me try a new trick."–

Lith emitted an almost invisible tendril of darkness, directly connecting him and the skeleton. He wasn't using true magic. It could be barely classified as a trick using first magic. The moment the trick and the spell interacted, something unexpected happened.

Lith was now able to control the undead at will. The connection allowed him to bypass the sensitivity issue, like plugging a controller in a console without needing the batteries anymore.

"Fetch!" Lith ordered the rat that brought back a second skeleton that was promptly reanimated. Zeneff was surprised by the speed of Lith's progress. According to his file, his real talent lied in his open mind as a Healer and his rich battle experience.

None of them were supposed to help him in learning Necromancy. While most of the students were still trying to make their rat move, Lith was now controlling two undead at once, making them stand on their hind legs and performing the new world's equivalent of the minuet.

- "There is no reason to hold back anymore." Lith thought. "Either because of Phloria's mom's report or because those three b*astards will spill the beans on me during their trial, I'm going to have more enemies than ever.

Also, this is but a simple trick, there is no risk in sharing it with the academy. I need dozens of thousands points to afford some decent equipment."–

Along with many envious gazes, Lith received a few admiring ones. Professor Zeneff's was among those.

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"Mister Lith, would you mind coming over here please?" Professor Zeneff had him walk to her desk.

- "If this guy is a Necromancy genius, I must report it immediately to the Crown."– She thought. Each Professor had to keep their evaluation to themselves, notifying only the Headmaster or Crown of a promising talent.

It was a safety measure to avoid talented students from becoming targets of the hostility from noble families or of the interest of foreign countries. Being a Necromancy lecturer, Zeneff would report her observations only to the Crown.

It was too sensitive a topic for clerks to handle, all academies were known for having more leaks than a sieve.

"Can you please explain to me how you accomplished that?" She pointed to the still dancing rats.

Lith told her making Professor Zeneff burst into a chuckle.

"Really well played, but for today's lesson purpose it's like cheating. I wasn't going to teach you that trick until all of you managed to gain a decent degree of control over your undead. Still, it's very impressive for a student to discover it on his own. Twenty more points for you."

While Lith was disappointed learning he had just reinvented the wheel, Professor Zeneff was relieved instead.

- "I knew it was too good to be true. I can kiss my points goodbye." He thought. –

- "Thank the gods he is just very brilliant. I don't think the Kingdom can afford a second god of death." Zeneff thought. –

"Go back to your place and do the exercise properly." Professor Zeneff instructed Lith.

"Do not explain the trick to anyone, it would ruin my lesson. I'm sorry to send you back to square one, but I'm sure you will thank me later."

She smiled gently, knowing how hard it was for someone so young going from believing to be a genius to discovering it had only been a fluke.

Lith went back to his seat with a dejected expression. Soon envy turned into snickers and pointed fingers, when the other students noticed that he was back to controlling a single rat, apparently suffering from brain damage.

Lith was already able to move his rat in the direction he wanted, but every two or three steps, it would writhe like it had a seizure, prompting the ridicule from his peers. Even Quylla would chuckle from time to time.

"Sorry..." She said looking in his direction. "but it's too funny. Why don't you try shutting down the other one? It didn't act like that before. During the previous lesson, Professor Zeneff told us that every undead requires focus from the mage.

Maybe that's why you find it so hard to control it now."

"Quylla, you are a damn genius." He gave her a thumbs up while placing his left hand on the second undead and draining the darkness magic that possessed its body. Lith's words made Quylla smile for the first time since Phloria had asked him out, while his actions made Professor Zeneff swallow a lump of saliva.

- "Once it's a fluke, but twice? Is it possible for him to have the mana control to be able to take back his own spell?"– Her face was jovial as usual, but her eyes returned often to his desk.

As Quylla predicted, once the second rat was out of the picture, Lith was able to move the remaining undead with more ease. The rat was promoted from brain damaged to crippled.

The lesson continued and Lith kept falling behind. He felt like the others were running while he was forced to walk.

- "Damn, I must find a way around my limits. This time I can't pull all nighters to catch up with them. Think Lith, think. Normally, when I use Necromancy, I always keep my undead under control with tendrils of mana.

"It serves the purpose of constantly feeding them and makes their reaction time much faster, since I can control them with but a thought. Now I have to control a lump of mana after giving it a body instead.

"On paper, it should be easy for me. After I cast any spell with true magic, I can always alter its course or form, as long as I can see it. Why should this be any different?"–

Lith drained and injected darkness magic into the carcass multiple times, turning it into an undead and back while trying to remember the feeling he experienced when the mana passed from him to the skeleton.

- "This is not dimensional magic where I have to constantly manipulate and adapt different mana flows. Unlike a Warp Step, the undead is stable. I need to feel it just once!"–

Lith kept his eyes closed, repeating the spell over and over, until he was able to feel every drop of mana that came out of his core, manipulating it like it was a new arm.

To make things easier, Lith coordinated the rat skeleton's movements with his right hand's fingers. There were no tendrils attached, but thanks to the workaround he was soon able to move the creature at will.

After he got used to the feeling, he reanimated the second rat again, using one hand for each and moving them in unison.

By the end of the lesson, while most students had succeeded in correctly controlling a single undead and Quylla was close to perfecting the movements of the second one, Lith had expanded the number of his puppets, needing only a finger for each one of them.

Professor Zeneff had never been so excited and afraid at the same time in her whole career, fearing to have triggered the advent of the new god of death.

Time passed and soon the days turned into a month. Friya needed but a week to master the Switch spell, completing the dimensional magic course and receiving a griffon shaped honour badge from Linjos and Rudd to celebrate the new inter-academy record.

Aside from Quylla, the rest of the group had mastered Blink, but they had yet to succeed in the Switch spell. Quylla and Friya used that extra free time to cram healing magic together, becoming the rising stars of the Light Magic Department.

Lith kept Forgemastering successfully one elemental weapon after the other, making Professor Wanemyre so happy that at one point she offered to adopt him. It was a flattering proposal, but he gently refused it.

Necromancy helped Lith overcome his mana sensitivity gap, leaving Professor Zeneff in awe. He would finish the assignments so fast that she promoted him to her assistant during the lessons, giving tips and suggestions to the other students.

Receiving so much good news every day made Lady Ernas feel like she was walking on air.

"I hope you will now admit I'm always right." She chuckled reading the latest congratulatory report from the White Griffon academy.

"A dimensional magic prodigy, two geniuses at healing, and our little Flower has finally blossomed as a woman. The future of house Ernas is as good as set in stone."

At those words, Orion Ernas spit out his tea in the butler's face, spilling the rest on his own nether regions. The pain coming from the hot tea was nothing compared to the one he felt in his heart so he ignored it, treating the small burns with healing magic.

"Do you mean she… they… you know what I mean!" Orion was beet red from pain and anger.

"No, I don't." She giggled, sending the butler away.

"It's never a good thing for a parent to meddle during the initial phases of a relationship. Lith seems quite the gentleman, I'm sure he'll make her first time pleasurable."

Orion once again cursed Lith's name and the day he brought the little runt into his house.

"She is too young for that! How can you say such things and remain so calm?"

Jirni put down the report, looking Orion straight in the eyes.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Didn't we start knowing each other intimately when I was fifteen?" She asked with a soft smile.

"Those were different times! Ages ago." Orion replied, noticing the trap when it was already too late.

"Are you calling me an old hag?" She stood up, scolding him with an indignant tone.

"No, gods no!" Orion hastily retreated. Admitting defeat was his only option at that point, or he would share the doghouse with Lucky for the days to come.

"You are right, fifteen is the perfect age to start dating."

"According to our little Flower, Lith is a very promising Healer, Forgemaster and maybe even Necromancer." Jirni was back to being all smiles.

"You could bring him to your forge sometime, for some male bonding time. I was thinking we should meet his parents one of these days. Nothing formal, just to say hi and introduce ourselves."

Orion Ernas was inwardly weeping blood at the thought of losing his little Flower to a brute whose only perk was being so similar to his beloved wife, but he could only nod with a smile plastered on his face.

Sitting alone in his office, Linjos couldn't help but have an eerie feeling that something terrible was about to happen. Things were going smoothly, there had been no more accidents and he received only good news.

It was all too good to be true. Linjos was the White Griffon Headmaster for three years now, he knew the rules of the game all too well. He had spent the first two years learning the ropes before finally implementing the changes he had always dreamt about to the academy system.

Despite being the trial year, his academy had already achieved the highest number of promoted students per trimester and the lowest numbers of expelled or injured students per month.

The healthy environment had allowed many students that had appeared unremarkable at their arrival at the academy to develop their talents. They were popping out like mushrooms in all departments.

The random checks for slave items had been fruitless. Members of the Queen's corps would search and interrogate the staff, but thank the gods every time they would come up with nothing.

Yet Linjos couldn't help but worry. According to the reports he received from the Professors and the Queen, despite the internal strife having been quelled, all academies were still experiencing an all time low of the students' grades.

Linjos knew that sooner or later, the other Headmasters would try to sabotage his academy. With such poor results, they would be forced to implement Linjos's system, losing a lot of face and looking incompetent in the eyes of the magical community.

No matter what the Queen ordered, he was certain that they would put their prestige above everything. Many of them were too old to accept the changes and would never accept retirement.

To make things even worse, it was almost that time of the year again. Thinking about how much work he had to do with so little time at his disposal, Linjos sighed multiple times before summoning Nalear to his office.

The Magic Crystal lessons were the most appreciated among the compulsory courses of the third trimester. There were no winners or losers, all the students had become capable of cutting and refining low grade gemstones.

It had no homework, since handling mana blades and crystals was too dangerous without supervision, nor was there a rush to complete the task. The most important thing was the quality of the final product, so students would take their time, facing each crystal like a challenge to oneself rather than to the rest of the class.

At the end of the lesson, after checking the results of the students' work, Professor Nalear had an announcement to make.

"Excellent work everyone. Now I have good news and bad news. The good news is that since the whole class is making progress at such an outstanding rate, our trip to the forest's crystal mines has been brought forward.

"We'll depart tomorrow first thing in the morning, bring along anything you think you might need in the next few days." The trip was supposed to last only one morning, the sudden change of plans made the class burst with chattering.

Nalear raised her hand, silencing them with a quick spell.

"This leads to the bad news. For security reasons, students and Professors alike will move out of the academy until the eighteenth day of this month. Temporary lodgings have already been prepared.

You'll be split based on your household rather than on your gender or academy year. Beware of your seniors and be nice to your juniors. No misconduct will be tolerated, we will keep everyone under constant supervision."

Despite her smile, Lith could see it was all a façade. A deep rage was smoldering behind her soothing manners. Something terrible had probably happened to her during her student days.

"I am not at liberty to give you any explanation. Just know that this is for your own safety. Dismissed." Nalear abruptly left, clenching her hands so hard she was bleeding a little.

Lith was so focused on all those small details that he missed the several glances Phloria threw at him, sighing every time she did it. They had much to discuss.

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Phloria Ernas wasn't having the time of her life. Her adoptive sisters were running circles around her in the academy, her mother called too often with stars shining in her eyes, waiting for some big announcement. Every time she heard from her father, Orion seemed to be on the verge of tears instead.

Also, her relationship with Lith hadn't progressed much during the last month, giving her the impression there was something wrong.

They were already at their sixth date and Lith had always behaved like a perfect gentleman, having a deep knowledge of the places they visited together even if he had never been there before.

Phloria didn't know about Soluspedia, so the idea of him investing so much time and effort for her sake was truly flattering. They would always have brilliant conversations and while his jokes were a bit odd, Lith managed to be funny or mature according to the situation.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

The problem was everything else.

- "He is way too mature, but that's actually nice." She would often think. "The more I know him, the more it seems I'm dating my parents though. He is a paranoid control freak like mom, but without being bossy or nosy.

"He is also caring and protective like dad, without being clingy or possessive. I like his virtues and flaws, but while, at the start, it was nice of him to leave me my personal space and not try to touch me inappropriately, now I'm starting to worry about it.

"Holding my hand from time to time is the boldest move he ever did. Be it kissing or hugging, he never takes the initiative, it's always up to me. Did he agree to go out with me out of pity? Or was it to get rid of Quylla?"–

Mulling those questions over and over, Phloria was getting more insecure by the day.

She couldn't imagine that Lith was actually a forty year old in the body of an almost thirteen year boy. He was conflicted between his psychological and physical age. Lith was incapable of approaching her without the fear of being guilty of forcing himself on someone naïve and inexperienced.

Phloria was too embarrassed to seek advice from her parents and asking her older brothers was useless. Gunyin, her eldest brother, had followed their mother's wishes, marrying a girl when he was barely sixteen. He had never dated someone outside of his own wife.

Tulion, her second brother, had almost been kicked out of the household because of his many affairs with maidens from other noble families.

- "I can already hear Gunyin say: "Ask mom, she knows better." Or Tulion: "Push him down on the bed. It would work with me.""–

Being cornered, Phloria had sought Friya's advice the day before. Phloria knew that she was still rooting for Quylla, but she had no one to turn to.

"I never dated anyone, so I really don't know what to say." Friya was really embarrassed to reveal that while she very much liked talking about boys, she knew almost nothing about them.

"If I were in your shoes, I would just ask him. If he doesn't like you, then he doesn't deserve you, sis." Phloria was moved by her words. She had always thought that, between the almost forced adoption and Quylla, they would only be sisters on paper.

Her advice made a lot of sense, so she was waiting for the end of the lessons to confront Lith. Magic Crystals was the last course of the day and since they would spend the next three days working in the mines, they had the rest of the afternoon free.

Phloria was so nervous, looking for the right moment to talk to him, that she almost flinched when Lith tapped on her shoulder while they were coming out of the classroom.

"Since we have nothing to do until tomorrow morning, do you mind coming to my room for a few minutes? We need to talk." Lith said taking the words right out of her mind, making her swallow a lump of saliva.

Saying those four words was hard, but hearing them was even worse. According to her brother Tulion, it was the best line before dumping someone and he was an authority in the field.

- "I have no idea what the security reasons Professor Nalear spoke about are, but it's likely that Phloria's mother does. I don't have Lady Ernas's contact rune, but I'm sure that she wouldn't mind helping me. The last time we met, we parted on good terms."–

Lith's intentions were completely unrelated to his relationship with Phloria, but she had no way to know that. She lived every step towards Lith's room like a death row inmate would while approaching the chopping block.

After they walked through the door, Phloria clenched her hands covered in sweat, finding the courage to speak her mind.

"Actually, I have something to say that can't wait anymore."

Noticing the urgency in her voice, Lith nodded, offering her the only chair in the room while he sat on the bed instead.

"That's exactly what I want to talk about!" She stood up, pointing a finger at him.

"Meaning?" Lith tilted his head in confusion.

"Why do you always keep your distance from me? No matter where we are, you never sit beside me, let alone try to kiss or touch me. Am I that ugly to you? Are you pity dating me?"

Her voice was full of rage, yet Lith could clearly see the insecure teenage girl hiding behind the mask. The new world closely resembled the middle ages in his mind.

Since they were so different in age and social status, he had thought that Phloria was content with what they had, never suspecting she wanted something more, like a modern Earth girl.

The only answer he could offer her wasn't the truth, but the next best thing.

"Absolutely not!" He stood up too, his tone was firm as a rock in denying her allegation.

"It's just that I've never dated someone your age, so I don't know what to do." Lith scratched his head in embarrassment. He was a late bloomer, never dating anyone before his last year of high school.

"Also, being as strong as I am, I'm afraid to hurt you. Last, but not least, our height gap doesn't help." He stood in front of her, using his hand to emphasize it.

Lith was now 1.65 meters (5'5") high, but Phloria was still taller than him with her 1.77 meters (5' 10").

"Do you want me to bring around a soapbox during our dates? Because I feel so dumb having to use a spell or ask you to bend down." Phloria felt so relieved by his answers that it was like someone had just lifted a mountain from her shoulder and another from her stomach.

Realizing he was not only younger, but also as inexperienced as her, made her heart flutter. Phloria gave him a long, deep kiss while her hands caressed his hair and wide shoulders.

Lith was surprised by how good a kisser she had become, needing his sheer willpower to keep his hands on her back instead of going for second base. He had no idea if he would be able to stop there.

"What do you want to talk about?" She whispered in his hear, refusing to let him go and making it really hard for him to focus.

"This field trip sounds fishy." He replied with a hoarse voice.

"I was thinking we may ask your parents for information. It never hurts being prepared for the worst."

"It can wait." She shrugged emitting an adorable giggle. "All work and no play makes Lith a dull boy." She had just kissed him again when someone knocked on the door.

"Lith? Little Flower? Are you in there? Please open up."

"Dad?" Phloria blurted out from surprise.

"I told you it could wait, dammit. Give them some space."

"Mom?" Phloria panicked, pushing Lith away and sending him butt first to the floor.

"Yes dear." Jirni's voice replied from the other side of the door.

"Take your time, there is no rush." In Phloria's mind those words sounded like:

"Put your clothes on carefully. Think about your father."

If her parents' sudden appearance was like a sudden cold shower for her, Lith needed a magical one, cooling down his face, hands, and other obvious places to make himself decent.

As soon as he opened the door, Orion barged in, sighing in relief seeing that the bed was still made and all the buttons on the two youths' uniforms were in proper order.

"Why didn't you answer your communication amulet? I've been calling you for hours!" Orion yelled.

"I was busy!" Phloria angrily rebuked.

"Please forgive us, Lith." Lady Ernas said. "I couldn't stop his rampage after he heard the news. The moment Phloria missed his tenth call, we were already on our way here. I suppose you know that something is going on."

Lith nodded.

"Yes, Lady Ernas. We were just about to call you." He reported to them Professor Nalear's announcement and his doubts about it.

"Excellent thinking. Emotions are important, but in time of crisis, keeping a cool head is of the utmost importance." Jirni clicked her tongue, making both father and daughter blush in embarrassment.

"Also, it's the exact reason why we are here. By now, most of the students should have been contacted by their parents and informed about the current predicament."

"Which is?" Lith asked.

"Have you ever heard about the god of death?" Phloria and Lith shook their heads.

"Ilyum Balkor, better known as the god of death, is one of the blackest pages in the Griffon Kingdom's modern history. Twenty years ago, before either of you were born, he was a commoner of humble origins that had entered the Black Griffon academy, soon revealing to possess an outstanding talent for magic.

"It quickly turned out to be more a curse rather than a blessing. According to the academy's old standards, might makes right, so he and his family were constantly victims of harassment from the noble families.

"The previous Queen ignored all the reports because she considered such behavior useful to her agenda. In her mind, they would push Balkor to seek the Crown's support, making him more malleable to her requests in order to satisfy his thirst for revenge and protection.

"Her 'brilliant' plan fell apart when a few months before his graduation, Balkor's village was set ablaze and his family killed by unknown bandits. It's still unclear if it was just an unlucky incident or something staged by one of the old noble families.

"What matters is that Balkor didn't care for the Crown's promises of finding the culprits, nor for all the flatteries coming from the academies and noble families alike, aiming to recruit him. They tried to exploit his pain of losing his family by replacing it with a new one.

"After graduating, he disappeared for a few months before returning at the lead of an army of greater undead, exterminating in one night all the noble families in his birthplace.

"Then he escaped to the Blood Desert while the army and the Mage Association were still busy dealing with his thralls.

"That night, Ilyum Balkor gained the title of god of death and the old Queen abdicated in Sylpha's favor. The following year, the Crown received a single word from him: 'Past'.

"During the night of the anniversary of Balkor's family's death, a whole old noble household disappeared. Not even children or elderly were spared, the only thing left behind was a single word, painted with blood over every single wall, ceiling, or floor: "Soon."

"Every year, for the following four years, the Crown received the same note and another ancient household would disappear during the night of the anniversary. Then, for the next five years, the note contained a different word: 'Present'.

"During the anniversary, the new target became the Crown and the Mage Association. Their most notable members would be attacked by legions of never seen before undead.

"We know this because most of the intended victims managed to survive, thanks to the heavy security. The King and the Queen survived all five attempts, allowing the Association to collect a lot of samples and devise new weapons against the new race of undead.

Sadly, this is the eleventh year and the note changed once again. Now it says: 'Future'."

"So they think he will now target the academies? It makes sense since the students represent the future of the Kingdom. What makes them think he will target the White Griffon?" Lith asked.

Lady Ernas shook her head sighing.

"No one thinks the god of death will target the White Griffon. We think he will target all the academies. The first five years were just the appetizer. He used them to perfect his creations while putting to test the magical defenses of the most powerful families, succeeding most of the times.

Then, he targeted both the Crown and the Mage Association, attacking all of their most notable members. He is the reason that lead the Griffon Kingdom to hasten the reform of the nobility and academy system, leading to the current crisis.

The existence of the god of death is a secret to the public, but every major power of the country knows about him, and lives in fear of his return."

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Lith pondered for a while over Lady Ernas's words, trying to understand the reason behind Linjos's decision.

"Then what's the point of having the students move out of the academy? Isn't the castle one of the safest places in the Kingdom?" He asked.

"It is, but not against the god of death." Lady Ernas explained.

"All the ancient noble families, just like house Ernas, have several arrays defending them. We have contributed to building and nurturing the Kingdom, so you can think of our houses as smaller versions of the academies.

"The defense mechanisms are similar, but weaker. Balkor didn't just hunt us, he used every single attack to collect data and improve his thralls. Every year, they became stronger and more resilient, able even to bypass the basic arrays like they don't even exist.

"For your information, both the Royal Palace and the Mage Association headquarters have defenses on par with the academies, some say they are even better. Yet Balkor's creatures managed to break in every single year.

"We knew they were coming, we were prepared, and armed to the teeth. None of that mattered. The number of casualties only increased over time. Probably Linjos is thinking of relying on the protection of the Lord of the forest.

"Monsters like a Scorpicore only grow stronger with the passing of time. Thank the gods those beasts' talent for magic is second only to their indifference toward the outside world. As long as you don't mess with their turf, they don't mess with you."

"What's a Scorpicore?" Phloria asked.

"A genius magical beast that further evolved." Orion explained.

"They are invaluable allies and merciless enemies. Be careful of never antagonize one unless it's strictly necessary. While they are still beasts, they are much more intelligent than normal animals."

Lith was amazed by the time and effort magical beasts had spent to keep humans underestimating them. Even before his evolution, Lith would have never considered Ryman stupid.

"Also, the god of death is not the only one that has learned from the past attacks."

Jirni continued.

"Once the pattern was clear, the old noble families would scatter their members and go into hiding during the anniversary. It was a cowardly but effective move, many of them managed to survive the onslaught.

"Linjos's plan is very smart. First, he is changing the battlefield, making Balkor's preparations useless. Magical beasts' arrays work differently from ours, so the creatures should get affected by them.

"Second, by moving the students to the forest, finding them will be much harder, exploiting the undead's greatest weak point.

"To give them so much power, skill, and magic, Balkor had to sacrifice their lifespan. They never last much longer after sunrise, so by turning an assassination attempt into a hide and seek game, Linjos has already gained an advantage.

I only wish the other Headmasters did the same thing. Some of those old coots want to make a stand against Balkor and Linjos." Jirni sighed.

"Call the other kids here, I'll teach you whatever I can." Orion said

When Friya, Quylla, and Yurial arrived, they were still shaken up by the news received from their respective parents.

"First thing, do not fight them unless you are cornered. Those monsters are incredibly fast and strong, even the Mage Knight spell Full Guard barely allows a veteran to fight them on equal footing. You are no veterans, just kids.

"Running away should always be your priority. Never underestimate greater undead. They have a high degree of intelligence, can plan ahead and coordinate their attacks. They never get tired, do not feel pain, and every hit sucks away a bit of your life force, using it to heal their wounds.

If you are forced to engage the enemy, Mage Knights should resort to guerrilla warfare, combining Blink and Full Guard." Orion said looking at the two girls.

"As for you guys, you are only useful as long range attackers and life force batteries. Wardens are useless. Their spells are too slow and even if they manage to cast one, Balkor's creations can shrug off most of their effects. That's why I brought these."

Orion waved his hand, and five weapons came out of his dimensional ring.

An estoc, a rapier, a short sword, and two curved blades resembling shotels. Each one had two magic gemstones embedded in the hilt.

"I prepared them based on the knowledge we have accumulated so far. They are specifically designed to deal greatly increased damage to undead. I'm only loaning them to you." He looked straight at Lith and Yurial.

"These are not weapons for kids, I expect you to return them once the crisis is over."

Lith gratefully took his shotel, deeply bowing to Orion.

- "I'll make use of this time to thoroughly study this weapon and take note of every detail in my notebooks. It's like already having a Forgemastering fifth year book at hand!" He inwardly smiled. –

"One more thing." This time it was Lith talking.

"If an undead ever comes close to you, only use darkness magic. It's their bane. They are not afraid of cuts, burns, or cold. The other elements can damage their bodies, but unless it's enough to cripple them, they will barely notice it.

Never use light magic instead. It would only give them more power."

"How do you know it?" Orion was flabbergasted. Necromancy being one of the rarest mystical arts, only those who served the Crown, the Mage Association, and veterans in fighting undead knew such things.

He was about to teach them about the elements, but Lith took the words out of his mouth.

"I have a lot of free time during the Necromancy classes. I do not spend it by idly waiting for the lesson to end, I raise undead and experiment on them instead. To truly master any discipline, I need to understand its flaws and limitations, becoming capable of exploiting them when it will be used against me."

Lith's reply made Phloria's and Jirni's heart flutter. To the former, he sounded like a cool hero always one step ahead of his enemies, to the latter he sounded like the perfect son in law and an excellent royal constable candidate.

Jirni and Orion stayed for dinner and with them a lot of other parents. The canteen had never been so full and noisy before. The hall was split into two sides. One with the noble families warning their heirs, giving them advice and equipment.

The other where commoners were grouped up, still unaware of the imminent threat.

Lith was sitting at the Ernas's table while Yurial was at the table next to them with his parents and fiancé. She was as cute as a button blond girl, around fifteen years old, and definitely overdressed. She seemed to be attending a gala rather than an academy.

That and the scornful glances she threw at the other side of the canteen made her obnoxious at first sight to Lith.

The following day, the morning gong resounded early and after a quick breakfast, all the students were assembled in front of the academy's gates. Dozens of Warp Steps were open, allowing the staff to go back to their homes.

Linjos's plan included leaving the academy empty and locked from the inside so that even if Balkor's undead managed to break in, the number of casualties would be zero.

Not having anyone to interrogate, finding their new location would hopefully require more time than the creatures' lifespan allowed, so the White Griffon would win the battle without even moving a finger.

When only the students and Professors remained, Linjos closed the Warp Steps, opening new ones leading to their refuge. It looked like a medium sized mining town, composed by a hundred of small houses entirely made out of wood.

Doubting that Linjos would make such a blunder, underestimating Balkor's fury to that extent, Lith activated Life Vision while Solus used her mana sense to scan their surroundings.

The whole area had a mana flow vigorous enough to put to shame even the academy's one. The houses, the ground, even the flowers glowed like a Christmas tree. Aside from the shabby look, it seemed Linjos had spared no efforts in his creation.

Lith noticed that the youngest students were terrified by the presence of their seniors, staying as far as possible from them. Magical beasts could be seen everywhere in the town, some perched on the nearby trees, others leisurely walking along the streets.

Lith was searching for a Professor, to know which was his accommodation, when a strong hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey, you are Lith from Lutia, right?"

Lith pushed the hand away like it was an annoying fly before answering.

"Depends. Who's asking?" He found himself staring at a sixteen year old boy, probably a fifth year student. He was very tall, around 1.85 meters (6'1") high, with chestnut hair and eyes that gave him an oddly familiar look.

"You are that commoner sh*t that had my brother and cousins expelled! All because you and the f*cking stick up your a*s can't take a practical joke." Vinor Pontus was seething with anger.

His family was already on the verge of disaster, the expulsion and arrest of three of their most promising talents had been the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Their reputation was ruined. It would take them decades to recover from all the recent blows and rebuild their good name from scratch. Lith looked around for a Professor, finding only M'Rook the Ry, that was staring at the scene with interest, wagging its tail in anticipation.

"Three men ambushing a girl at night can hardly be called a practical joke, unless one is a pervert and a degenerate. You Pontus guys seem to perfectly fit the bill. It's no surprise that Balkor wants you morons dead. Idiots with more power than brain are the perfect recipe for disaster."

Just Balkor's name was enough to make most of those present shudder, but not Vinor Pontus. He had been looking for a pretext to attack Lith. Insulting him and his whole family in front of so many witnesses was more than enough.

Vinor raised his arms, pretending to be just shrugging before throwing a straight at Lith with all the strength he was capable of. Lith reacted accordingly, raising a single finger and stopping the punch a dozen centimeters from his face.

He had used first magic to generate an air cushion, giving Vinor the impression of hitting an invisible pillow. Before he could pull back the punch, the air cushion exploded.

It released many air blades, strong enough to pierce the uniform's protection. They scratched his face, giving him the look of someone that had fought and lost against a stray cat. Lith snapped his fingers, conjuring an air wave that sent Vinor tumbling on the ground.

The students watching the scene burst into laughter, making Vinor's blood boil. He got back on his feet with one fluid movement, releasing a spell from one of his rings. It conjured an icicle as long and thick as an arm, aimed at Lith's heart.

Before Lith could react, the icicle turned to dust, while a strong grip was squeezing Vinor's hand, to the point of almost breaking his fingers.

"What the heck do you think you are doing?" Professor Wil Ironhelm was in charge of the Battle Magic class and the Forgemaster specialization for the fifth year. He was muscular as a bull and almost as patient.

"He started it, Professor! He attacked me with magic for no reason." Vinor whined while twisting and lowering his body, trying to relieve the pressure on his fingers.

"Is it true?" He asked staring at Lith with his ice blue eyes.

"No. I'm Lith from Lutia and he is a member of the Pontus family." Lith replied like it explained everything.

"That Lith from Lutia?" Ironhelm threw Vinor back on the ground with a flick of the wrist, while rushing towards Lith with his extended hand.

"It's an honor to meet you. I have heard a lot about you from Lyca Wanemyre. The gods know why she got the talent, the looks, and a promising student while all I got is this shirt and a bunch of morons!" He cursed shaking his fist against the heavens.

"Minus one hundred points for assaulting a junior and minus another hundred for getting your a*s kicked despite attacking first."

"How can you believe him instead of me? This isn't fair!" Vinor whined, two of his still charged rings had permanently shut down because of the points deficit.

"You need proof. Everyone here is my witness!" The younger students stepped away, while the others started to turn around and leave.

"Proof, uh? Well, let's do this your way. Is he speaking the truth?" Ironhelm asked to M'Rook, who promptly shook its head.

"No. The dumb oaf attacked the young wolf for no reason. After his defeat, the oaf attacked with magic. You know the rest."

"It speaks?" The whole crowd of students went into an uproar.Find authorized novels in ReadNovelFull，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

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