"Dismissed." Eric watched as Goldmine and his three S-Class mages walked towards his office before the young mage turned and began to make his way towards Flare.

"So, you're the Eric we've heard so much about?" Eric blinked as he heard someone behind him, turning to see Nobarly and Rocker walking towards him while the others walked back to their respectively groups.

He also didn't miss Jäger giving him a grin & a thumbs-down before walking away, both the other mages noticing the actions as they sighed.

"Don't worry about him. The big guy is just pissed that you got to be part of the tournament this early while he was passed over so many times." Nobarly explained and Eric hummed as he nodded before smirking.

"I suppose you didn't feel the same way, did you?" He asked and Nobarly shrugged as Rocker answered.

"A bit at first, but after the burst of power, we kind of see the master's point at letting you join the S-Class Promotion Exams this early. Nice work on that, by the way. Exuding your presence is not something everyone can do that easily."

'Which means you can do it.' Eric thought with a mental frown, chuckling on the outside as he shrugged before Rocker spoke up.

"I just wanted to say good luck on the exams. People tend to underestimate it the first time they take part."

"Thank you. I'll take that into consideration." Eric said with a nod, both Rocker & Nobarly smiling as they nodded before walking away.

"Everything okay?" Eric turned as Flare asked him that question, smiling at the look of concern on her face as he chuckled.

"Everything is okay. They just wanted to wish me luck."

"Oh, good. Well, are you ready to go on the job?" She asked with a happy smile as she held up a pamphlet, Eric blinking at the pamphlet as he lifted it before chuckling.

"I never pegged you to be the teacher-type." Eric said as he looked up from the pamphlet that read 'Magic School Teacher for a Day', Flare blushing as she shrugged.

"W-Well, you said that I needed to learn patience and you kept talking about how kids are the way to see if you have patience, so I decided to see if I could learn it this way."

"…Okay, then. Where's the mission because it doesn't say on the pamphlet?" Eric asked before his eyes widened slightly as Flare answered.

"I asked the Master and it's at the Era Magic School in the capital city Crocus."

"Ah, you must be Flare Corona, correct?" An elderly man dressed in formal robes with a monocle over his left eye asked with a smile as soon as Flare and Eric walked through the front gates of the Era Magic School.

"That is me, yes sir." The crimson haired girl smiled as she nodded, the man nodding before turning to Eric with a curious smile.

"Good morning, young man. I am the headmaster of this great establishment, Marco Phenex." He introduced himself as he held out a hand, Eric smiling & nodding as he reached out & shook the headmaster's hand.

"It's a pleasure & an honour to meet you, sir. I'm Eric Creed, mage of Quatro Cerberus & friend of Flare here."

"Hmm, forgive me for asking, but are you the same Eric Creed who escorted our esteemed Foreign Languages teacher here? One princess Veronica?"

"Wait, she's teaching here?" Eric asked in surprise and Marco chuckled as he nodded while Flare frowned.

"Who is this Veronica?" She asked and Marco smirked in amusement at the frown Flare had while Eric blinked as he turned to her before smirking.

"Don't worry. She's a client I escorted with Warcry to the capital after one of their nobles tried to take over the country."

"I'm just a client, hmm?" A familiar voice spoke in a cutting tone and Eric rolled his eyes with a smirk as he turned back to the building entrance to see Veronica walking out along with a group of kids walking behind her, though Eric rose an eyebrow at her new look.

The ruby-like object that was in the middle of her forehead was gone as the bangs of her vibrant emerald-green hair was styled to cover it & cut short to just barely above her shoulders while it used to hang to her upper back before. She still had her dark gold snake earrings, but dressed in a simple white blouse with a ruby gold necklace, her dark purple pants and a pair of black low-heeled shoes, she looked like one of those hot teachers Eric used to know in his past life.

'Ah, Ms. Thompson. I'll always remember your ass in those leggings.'

"Hey, you were the one who kept telling me that I was a nuisance." Eric said with a shrug and Veronica rolled her eyes before Eric blinked as Flare bumped him on the arm.

Turning back to her, he smirked in amusement at her jealous look before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Veronica, this is Flare, my new guildmate and my roommate."

"I apologize in advance for his idiocy. It must be agonizing to deal with him on a day to day basis."

"It was a struggle at the start, but I've gotten used to him." Flare answered with a giggle, Veronica giggling as she nodded while Eric groaned before they turned as the headmaster spoke up.

"Well, I see that I am no longer needed here. Ms. Fiore, I shall leave Ms. Corona's introduction to the class up to you. Mr. Creed, while other mages are allowed on the school grounds, they are unfortunately not allowed in classes, but we do have a waiting room where you can stay."

"See, now you're speaking my languages, Mr. Phenex. While we're there, do you perhaps have some writing utensils that I can use like magic pens and such?"

"You are at the greatest magic school in Fiore, Mr. Creed. Magic pens can be found in abundance here." Marco said with a smirk and Eric grinned as he all but skipped after the headmaster.

"Ms. Fiore, who was that?" A small girl with pinkish-red hair asked and the former princess sighed as Flare smiled.

"An idiot that saved me. Now, why don't we show Ms. Corona how high we can count? Doesn't that sounds fun?"

"Yay." The class cheered half-heartedly and Flare giggled as Venorica gave her an exasperated stare.

"Maybe if you all show me, I can show you all some of the magic that I know."

"Really?!" They asked excitedly and Flare giggled as she nodded before looking at an amused Veronica.

"No need to look for permission. Now that you've made that promise, they're not going to take no for an answer." She said and Flare smiled as she nodded before the two of them walked back into the class.

'God, this hurts every time.' Eric groaned as he put the magic pen in his grasp on the table in front of him, blinking a few times to let the ink on his sclera dry out before focusing a dense amount of ethernano into his eyes.

The burning pain of his eyes absorbing both his ethernano & the ambient ethernano in the atmosphere around him was something he was used to, sighing in relief as the pain disappeared & was replaced by a soothing warmth as his eyes slowly healed back up.

'Why couldn't I do this in one sitting instead of multiple times?' Apparently, making your own unique Eye Magic wasn't as easy as just writing out the jutsu shiki & then slapping them onto your eyes once.

Instead, Eric had to apply every jutsu shiki over a set amount of time and the next shiki had to apply as soon as his eyes had adjusted to the last added one.

Right now, he was on the final jutsu shiki, which was also the most dangerous one of the group, that being the Maximum Spell Enhancement & the Maximum Flesh Strengthening combination that he managed to perfect…mostly.

Okay, so he may have been a bit hasty in adding the shiki to his eyes, but in his defence, the only time the shiki didn't work was when he overloaded the magic pen with ethernano so he had made sure to slowly add ethernano bit by bit to the pen as he finished drawing the shiki onto his eyes.

He also made sure that his own ethernano, the pen's ethernano and the ethernano from the atmosphere didn't attach to the shiki while he was doing so, which was also the reason why his mind felt as if someone had gone at it with a sledgehammer as he had to do all of that manually while also drawing the shiki.

In other words, all he wanted to do now was sleep & wait until Flare was done.

"Hey, Theo. Are you in here?"

'Ah, but if only the gods would be that nice to me.' Eric thought with a sigh as he opened his eyes, looking towards the door as it opened to reveal Flare & Veronica chatting happily while walking into the room.

"I see you two are getting along well." He said with a smile and Flare giggled as she nodded while Veronica rolled her eyes.

"She's much easier to get along with compared to you, mostly because she doesn't annoy me every single second."

"Yeah, yeah. I know you adore me. Is that uncle of yours still coming up with a way to kill me?" He asked and to Eric's surprise, the former princess giggled as she & Flare sat down on the other sofa in the room.

"Oh, he hasn't stopped. In fact, he's coming up with a way that he can use his Dispel magic to stop you from using your Gravity magic to run away so that he can cut you into fine strips." She said and he chuckled before turning to Flare.

"How was your day at teaching? Did it teach you patience like you were expecting to?" He asked and smirked as she groaned while Veronica gave the blushing redhead an amused smile.

"Oh, she did indeed After she made them count & showed them a few of her spells, they didn't stop asking her questions about what it's like being a mage."

"Ah, the curiosity of a child. Such a beautiful & dreadful thing." Eric spoke with a mock sigh and Flare pouted as Veronica giggled.

"I would have liked to see you keep up with them."

"For your information, I think I would be amazing with kids."

"With your foul language? I doubt it." Eric just stuck his tongue out at Veronica, who rolled her eyes at his immaturity while Flare giggled before Eric looked down at his brand new Ether-Watch that he bought just a week ago.

"Ah, we need to go. The last train is about to leave."

"Why don't you guys stay the night at my house? You can leave in the evening and at this time, the station is going to be packed." Veronica offered and Eric blinked before turning to Flare, who nodded before he shrugged.

"Sure, but just to be safe, you have to promise not to tell your uncle or else, I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight."

"Oh, don't worry. I won't tell him."

"A warning that he was living with you would have been nice!" Eric shouted down to a giggling Veronica, who just ignored him as Flare looked between laughing at his current predicament and concern for his safety.

"Get down here and take your punishment like a man! I won't hurt you much! Just cut off your balls!" Dante shouted up at Eric, waving his sword around and Eric just rolled his eyes as he altered his gravity to shift himself to the side just in time to dodge the sword thrown at him.

"Then, I'll stay up here! I like my balls where they are, thank you very much!"

"Get down here, you sorry excuse for a man! What's with the blindfold anyway?! Are you trying your own stupid fashion trend?!"

"The hell you say to me, old man?!" Eric growled as he cancelled his Gravity magic & dropped to the ground, not even caring for the crater he made as he & Dante stood forehead to forehead against each other while trying to push the other back.

"You heard me, bastard! Your blindfold makes you look like an inbred moron that's trying to look cool."

"Better that than a pink shirt with the words 'Me, Myself & My Juicy Ass'. Who wears that?!"

"A real man, that's who! Now, say goodbye to your balls!"

"All right! Uncle, I kissed him and he was in shock! It happened! Get over with! You! Stop antagonizing my uncle or else, I'm going to chop your balls myself, okay?!" Veronica exclaimed as she stomped forward, both Eric & Dante glaring at the other before they huffed and stomped back into the two story house behind Flare.

"Um, will they be okay?" She asked and Veronica snorted as she shook her head.

"Don't worry. They try to kill each other, but they'll learn to tolerate the other. I'll make sure of it."

"I didn't know you cooked." Eric said as Veronica picked up the empty plates after dinner, the princess smiling as she nodded while Dante rolled his eyes.

"'I didn't know you cooked'."

"Uncle, enough." Veronica spoke with a frown and Dante just huffed as he stood up & went to wash the dishes, Veronica sighing as Flare giggled.

"Would you stop making fun of him?"

"Me?! I'm actually being the mature one here."

"Sure you are." She said sarcastically and Eric groaned before yelping as something pinched his right side, giving Flare a betrayed look as the woman pulled her hand back.

"Say you're sorry."

"…Are you being serious right now?"

"Say you're sorry…or I'm not cooking anymore."

"Hey, Dante. Can I speak to you?" Usually, Eric would have said no to most things, but Flare has made the best meals that he's eaten in both lives and while he didn't know why, he wasn't going to sacrifice that juicy goodness for his pride.

Food was truly the path to a man's heart & soul.

"I see you're whipped." Dante spoke with a mocking smirk and Eric groaned as he looked back at the girls, a frowning Flare making him sigh as he turned back.

"Yeah, I'm not being the bigger man." Eric grumbled as he turned and walked away, Flare sighing as Veronica gave her a sympathetic pat on the back.

"Don't blame him. Both he and my uncle are far too prideful to let it go. Just leave them be. I'm pretty sure they'll sort it out."

"I'm going to wish that you fall to your death."

"I'm going to wish someone decides that you're too ugly to exist in this world anymore."

"I stand corrected." Veronica muttered as Flare giggled, Eric & Dante drawing confused & nervous looks from the people passing them.

"Try not to die, so that I can kill you myself."

"Speak for yourself. You sure you're even strong enough to protect Veronica?" Eric asked with a mocking grin, to which Dante just growled as he slowly began to unsheathe his blade.

"Uncle, no." Veronica spoke and Dante groaned as he put his blade back, choosing to take the mature route by grumbling & walking away.

"Is this the way you two are telling each other to stay safe?" She asked Eric, who just shrugged and making her sigh as she turned to the amused Flare.

"Take care of the idiot, Flare. I feel like he might piss off someone he shouldn't." Veronica said to her redhead friend with a smile as she hugged her and Flare giggled as she nodded.

"I'll try my best, but we both know that's not going to be enough."

"Where did the cute girls go that used to praise my every move?"

"I never did that./ You got boring." Veronica & Flare answered respectively and Eric winced while holding his heart dramatically.

"Hah! You know, I like this one. She'll bring down your ego."

"Go to hell, you old fart." Eric glared at Dante before huffing as he turned & walked towards the train, Flare rolling her eyes as Veronica giggled before the redhead followed after her fellow Quatro mage.

"You're not going to say goodbye?" Veronica asked her uncle with an amused smile as she watched him staring at the train and the man just smirked as he shook his head.

"Already did. Besides, real men know that a goodbye is merely until we see each other again."

"…Men." She muttered and Dante chuckled before the two turned & head back to their home.

"So, how do you feel after your first mission?" Eric asked and Flare smiled as she nodded.

"You know, it was pretty fun and not at all as gruesome as the others made it out to be."

"They're using me as a benchmark. Just do your usual thing, don't do anything stupid like I would and you should be fine." Eric answered as he looked out the window, smirking as Flare giggled a bit at his words before she spoke.

"So, what are you going to do for the exams?" She asked and a smirk appeared on Eric's face as he reached into his Requip dimension, a rolled-up parchment appearing in his left hand with a silver flash.

Taking off the binding & unfurling it, a map was revealed with a bright red circle on the island below the country of Fiore.

"I'm going there. I need a place where I can train until I drop and that's the spot where I can do so."

"Really? What is it?" She asked and he chuckled as the map disappeared before looking up at Flare with an excited & feral grin.

"Ca-Elum: The Isle of Monsters."

A/N: And that's another chapter done!

This one is supposed to be a calm & short filler chapter that takes us away from the chaos of battles, but don't worry as we dive back into the fray next chapter.

As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one…Ba-Bye~!