Elvina plopped down on the ground, she was breathing heavily, her white clothes were stained with blood all over but thanks to the barrier protecting her, she wasn't too heavily injured.

*fwosh*

A shadow suddenly appeared on the ground, she looked up and saw her teacher, Olivia, looking at her with a smile. Elvina couldn't even sense her coming over, the speed Olivia displayed was several times faster than the speed of sound.

But she didn't think much of it and smiled back at her bitterly.

"You did well, you have gotten much stronger" Olivia said, these were not words of comfort, she truly meant that from the bottom of her heart.

"Even if that's the case, I still got played, this is the first time I lost to someone who is ranked lower than me" Elvina said.

"Now you know how the other kids or your seniors felt... so how did it feel?"

"Bitter" Though she said that she was smiling a bit, looking back at the duel, she didn't lose in terms of magical power nor in close combat, the opponent won because of his excellent strategy and planning.

She suddenly felt an enlightenment, like she discovered a whole new world, battles between champions isn't just determined via their magical power, the amount of mana, battle experience or champion rank ; strategy and careful planning is also important, you don't just spam spells towards your opponent like a lunatic so you could win.. of course the prerequisite is that the two opposing side's combat prowess or rank isn't too far apart from each other.

Nevertheless, Elvina only felt bitter for a moment until those feelings got washed away after some thinking besides, it's not like she really lost, the result of this duel was a draw.

Olivia turned her head after healing Elvina, she looked at Revlo and said.

"The Freedom Magic Academy would love to have a talent like you" she smiled brightly at him, she didn't hold a grudge at Revlo for injuring her pupil, she was not that narrow-minded plus she cherishes talents and geniuses and what Revlo just displayed was beyond the category of genius, the couldn't even count the shock she received from this duel alone.

The crowd consisted of the headmaster, the emperor, the imperial guards and Revlo's parents, they all walked towards them and took a good look at the battlefield that Revlo and Elvina just fought in.

Craters, burned trees. charred wood, potholes everywhere, a giant ice ramp made of vines and roots, sword marks and the icy floor, even some lingering magic originated from their attacks remained.

"This doesn't look like a place that a novice-rank champion and an intermediate-rank champion had just fought in" The Headmaster said in amazement.

"If I hadn't personally witnessed the battle myself, I would've thought that Expert-Rank champions had just fought here" The Emperor said.

"Vorne, were you this strong when you were a Novice-Rank? If you go back in time and return as a Novice-Rank, how would you fare against them?" Headmaster George asked.

"Well I feel like I could keep up with miss Elvina if I were to duel with her as she is now if I were a Novice-Rank but I'm not sure if I could beat her, as for my son... I can't make any conclusions, this guy keeps applying different tactics and keeps using different magic each round so it is hard to make an assumption on his actual battle prowess" Vorne said.

Headmaster George nodded.

Vorne looked at Headmaster George and smirked.

"Old man george, just let him attend the academy already, with the stuff that he just displayed, does he really need to take the entrance test? He would just clap everyone there"

Headmaster George coughed and said in a solemn tone.

"There has never been a shortcut or a backdoor for a student to enter the doors of the academy in history, no matter how much of a genius he/she is or how high of a status he/she possesses, this has been the rule of the academy since its founding and has never changed, I know that you know that" he said.

Vorne shrugged.

"Oh well, if Revlo somehow doesn't attend your academy because you're so stringent, then it is your loss" he joked.

Headmaster George's eyebrows twitched but didn't comment.

"If George doesn't want him, then the Freedom Imperial Academy will" The Emperor declared.

The rest raised their brows at this.

There are possibly around thousands even tens of thousands of magical schools that currently exist today but the Freedom Imperial Academy and the Freedom Magic Academy are the two most prestigious magic schools of the southern continent, even though the Imperial Academy is not as pronounced as the Magic Academy, it was still considered a first-tier school that produced plenty of powerful champions.

It even produced 2 Mystic-Ranks since its founding, even though it was not as impressive as the Magic Academy's record of being able to produce 10 Mystic-Ranks, but how rare were Mystic-Ranks champions in the first place?

A normal human in this world could live up to 120 years old but they could go through their entire life without a Mystic-Rank champion appearing or being produced.

Some second-tier and first-tier magic schools in other parts of the world or in other continents were unable to produce Mystic-Rank champions themselves.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Plus the Imperial Academy hadn't been around as long as the Magic Academy.

Other than that, the difference between the Freedom Imperial Academy and the Freedom Magic Academy is that the students who entered the Imperial Academy must serve the empire and was granted more privilege and status while the Magic Academy graduates are free to make any decision they want, they could choose serve the empire or do something else entirely.

It may seem like the Imperial Academy's conditions is not as good as the Magic Academy but if you want to raise your social status in the empire, attending the Imperial Academy is a must, that is why most nobles and aristocrats or people who aspire to become Imperial Knights joins the Imperial Academy.

It is rare to have a commoner or people without a social status joining the Imperial Academy but there had been cases that commoners, after graduating the Imperial Academy becoming nobles or managing their own territories.

Of course, bullying is very prominent in the Imperial Academy, especially if you are a commoner since you stick out like a sore thumb among children of nobles and aristocrats.

But rules and regulations in the Imperial Academy have gotten stricter and policies to protect commoners had been implemented ever since an incident happened were a noble bullied a commoner so much that he committed suicide.

The noble child who was responsible got expelled as a warning to others and that noble child eventually became the shame and stain of his/her household.

But it also a fact that like the Magic Academy, the Imperial Academy only accepts talented people into their doors, the same requirement where you have to reach solidification at 8 years old.

In an empire that achieved hegemony of an entire continent, the southern continent, which has a land mass that is not inferior to the whole Earth, the number of students that attends this school exceeds 100,000. Though that is nothing compared to the Magic Academy's 500,000.

It may sound like a lot but considering the total population that makes up the number of champions is over 10 Billion, then divide that up into 5, since there exist 5 continents, then it is around approximately 2 Billion champions that is living in each continent.

The acceptance rate for these two prestigious academies is right around 0.0003%.

That is how hard it was to get into the these academies and even if you satisfy the requirements, it doesn't mean an enrollment is guaranteed, facilities and resources are limited after all.

In hindsight, not everyone wanted to apply for these academies but pretty much 50% of the population had attempted their entrance exams. The 0.0003% acceptance rate may not be completely accurate but it doesn't diminish the fact that it is beyond difficult to enter the doors of these two academies.

If anyone were to hear what the Emperor just said, no matter how much of a genius Revlo was, there would be a public outrage about unfair treatment, even if he was the son of the respected [Lightning Demi-God].

"You're too much Your Majesty, we already know that Revlo's interest is to join my Magic Academy" The Headmaster said.

The Emperor smiled and said.

"The future is never set in stone"

The Headmaster shook his head.

"Hey!" After getting healed up and wearing a new set of clothes, Elvina walked up towards Revlo in a cutesy manner and smiled brightly.

Revlo turned his head to look at her, he stayed silent, like he was listening to what she is gonna say.

"You don't really talk much huh?" Elvina complained.

"Well that's fine, you are pretty amazing for someone younger than me, but next time, I won't be fooled by your tricks again" Elvina declared with a loud voice.

'Younger' Revlo said in his thoughts.

Elvina put her right hand up in front of Revlo in gesture to initiate a handshake.

"I heard that you are 9? I wonder why you didn't enroll last year, the academy would have been much more fun with you around, let's be friends and shake on it"

She shook her outstretched hand.

"Well, don't leave me hanging"

Revlo continued to stare at her hand in silence, it has been a while since he made friends because he isolated himself from others because of his curse.

'How long has it been since I interacted with someone like this that is not a member of the family?'

It was just right before his 50th something reincarnation, since he made an actual friend.

'My 887th reincarnation doesn't really count since it was a fake friendship that is based on taking advantage of each other'

When Revlo refused to say anything or even moved a muscle and just continued to stare at her hand, Elvina broke a sweat and just as the atmosphere was about to turn awkward and Elvina was about to retract her hand.

Revlo quickly grabbed her hand and shook it.

Elvina smiled and said.

"I'll see you at the academy"

"You t-too and please take care of me" He said but stuttered at the start, he smiled awkwardly.

'My communication skills have deteriorated' He just discovered that he somehow turned into an introvert.

"Haha, I guess I'm the first friend you ever made huh?" Elvina laughed, she could tell that Revlo is the type of be a loner.

"Big brother. big brother, you were really cool and amazing" Rena, Revlo's sister said cheerfully while running up to him.

"Big sister was cool as well but not as cool as big brother" She further added.

"right right" Elvina rolled her eyes.

"Hey! In case you brats forgot something, look at the damage that you did in the area! Even my garden!"

Celine angrily yelled, she didn't want to interrupt the duel earlier because she wanted to see her son in action but looking around now, she suddenly got angry, the fields that she took good care and looked after, recalling the effort she made in making the area around her home to look as nice as possible and the trees she planted that were now destroyed and worse of all, she did all of those without using magic.

Even her garden got affected, how could she not be angry?

Hearing Celine's angry yell, Elvina shivered and had a look of fear in her eyes, Revlo's expression did not change but had a drop of sweat dripping down his forehead.

Like Revlo's father, his mother, Celine, is also famous throughout the world, well more like infamous, she was known as [The Berserk Devil Angel], usually the angel race have the intrinsic nature of being gentle, warm and kind but Celine's personality contradicted that of her race, every sentence that comes out of her mouth would be full of curses and vulgarity.

There was one time when a king of a certain kingdom wanted to marry her because of her beauty, because that certain king used forceful methods, she personally castrated him in front of a large audience and made him run all around his kingdom naked with his balls nowhere to be seen.

The men's faces, whether they were an enemy, ally or friend would go pale whenever someone would mention her, in contradiction to her husband being adored by the public, they completely feared her.

Sometimes parents would mention her to their children to keep them from misbehaving, saying things like she'll crawl under your bed like she was the boogeyman, it wasn't until they received the shocking news that she got married to Vorne that they stopped doing this out of respect for [The Lightning Demi-God].

The union between these two still shocked the world to this day, both of them were famous but the exact opposite in terms of reputation.

Celine's angry expression didn't fade and then turned her head to look into the distance, there were many people gathered there, they were the people who lived in the village and they also knew that two famous people lived here since Vorne and Celine never really hid it from them.

They gathered here due to the commotion caused by the duel between Revlo and Elvina, they witnessed their duel and were amazed, and more than that they got to see the son of Vorne and Celine for the first time, his face looked a lot like Vorne but had his mother's flat nose.

"Scram!" Celine angrily yelled, her angry voice echoed in their ears.

Seeing [The Berserk Devil Angel] yelling at them, they broke into cold sweat and ran away like cats who got their tails stepped on except for a few fellow housewives that Celine got along with, they bowed respectfully and walked away.