After looking at many different worlds, Bertha made her decision.
"We are going to the True Hell world!" she said to Milan while smiling. This world is a rank 12 run by Zagronan, one of the hosts of Rachel.
Zagronan doesn't own a universal law, but was given one by Rachel many years ago. That universal law helped him advance his True Hell world to rank 12.
A universal law has no physical or magical form; it is weaved into the fabric of the universe; it can be used in infinite places.
That's why the number of the rank 12 worlds is not limited by the number of universal laws.
For example, a rank 12 civilization that owns only one universal law can create many rank 12 worlds; it's just that the cost would skyrocket if one tried to employ their token license in many different places. For rank 14, who can directly, without tokens, employ their universal laws, it is not the case, but license tokens issued by the office have this downside.
"Dear, is Zagronan reliable? I asked Rachel, and he seems to be a little crazy!" asked Milan, concerned.
Rachel usually doesn't leak information about her hosts, but Zagronan is rank 12 and quite famous, so the incarnation was allowed to leak a bit.
"Rachel vouched for him! I know his ideas are a little wacky, but I trust Rachel's word on this one!" she said.
Milan thought to himself, "If you trust Rachel so much, why didn't you believe her word when he said it's safe here in our world?" Milan was deep down a bit dissatisfied, as he liked staying here, in their personal world.
Still, not wanting to upset his love, he nodded with a smile and said, "Then, let's pack up!" They have a few items that take a bit of time to move.
Bertha nodded. She doesn't want to leave this world completely; her rank 11 incarnation would stay and take care of it. In any case, she never personally managed the world, and her main body's departure would have no effect on it.
...
In a massive palace in the sky continent, a wood elf woman, looking exactly like Bertha, was sitting on a massive throne made of a piece of pure diamond.
She is Bertha's rank 11 incarnation.
A man from below said, "Your Majesty Bertha, our latest batch of students has arrived and is waiting for your speech!"
Bertha's incarnation, sitting up there, nodded and cast a spell; the next moment, she disappeared.
Her job is to manage the world; what Milan and her main body do has nothing to do with her.
The relationship of Milan with Bertha's incarnations is a bit comlicated.
The incarnations are Bertha, but he is still not allowed to go to bed with them.
It came up, and Bertha made sure to let him know that if he slept even with her own incarnations, their marriage would be over.
Milan was truly astonished when that conversation came up: Incarnations are one with the main body, so Bertha being jealous of her own incarnation was just bizarre.
Milan wouldn't care if his incarnation had sexual relations with real Bertha; after all, an incarnation is one with the real body; there is no real distinction.
It is like the right hand being jealous of the left hand; it is non-sensical.
There are incarnation methods that grant the incarnation enough autonomy so that the two become distinct beings, but the method they are using will keep extremely close relations with the incarnations.
The incarnations have distinct wills, but their memory is shared, the personality is the same, and there is no chance of betrayal.
...
Gabriel was from a human noble family.
He registered to be tested for his mage affinity and, fortunately, was accepted by one of Bertha's incarnations.
Looking around, he was a bit embarrassed. Humans usually find all kinds of excuses to wear clothes. In his childhood, he always wore clothes in the castle. In general, humans of medieval culture liked wearing clothes; it was their culture.
When he was accepted to the Sky Continent, however, wearing clothes was out of the question; Bertha would never let anyone who did not respect her core beliefs stay in there.
As a result, he was forced to undress, like everyone near him. For wood elves, having clothes was weird, but for humans of medieval culture, not having them was embarrassing. It was a cultural conflict.
Still, on the first day of his path to immortality, he tried focusing on more important matters and not on the bodies of many undressed people around him.
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After greeting some of his fellow students, a loud bang came.
"Her Majesty, Bertha!" someone shouted.
Everyone, of more than ten thousand people present, bowed and looked at her respectfully.
"Welcome to our Sky Academy! As the only mage academy in the world, you have important responsibilities. Let me explain our history!"
Bertha went on and on, telling the whole, more than a million-year history of the Sky Academy. It took 6 hours straight!
Looking at Bertha with bloodshot eyes, Gabriel could barely keep them open. The speech was beyond boring. As someone who had just been accepted, his body strength was just like normal humans'; just imagine standing and listening to someone speak boring stuff, like the names of previous deans, for six hours.
Bertha took a deep breath and said, "Now that you know our history, I will introduce to you the current leadership."
Bertha's incarnation was not the academy's dean; she didn’t have time to micromanage these things. Instead, she delegated these unimportant matters to the academy's previous graduates.
She pointed to a wood elf man and said, "He is our dean, Mage Skyline! He is a powerful rank 8 mage specialized in the concept of vapor! Even though he is mortal, he has already reached master level in the concept of vapor!"
A man with a white beard and an old face nodded and bowed to Bertha.
Bertha nodded back and pointed to a human woman, "She is Mage Rockmaster! She is the chief instructor of our great academy!"
A human woman with a young-looking face nodded to Bertha and bowed. Nodding back, Bertha continued pointing to other mage leaders.
This phase took another 6 hours! Bertha introduced thousands of people; it was so long that many youngsters watching started passing out.
They were, after all, standing for 12 hours without food or water; some younger ones couldn’t hold on. They were not allowed to leave or sit on the ground.
Bertha snapped her fingers, and all those not awake disappeared. Noticing many missing people, all sleepiness disappeared from Gabriel's tired body; he couldn't risk sleeping and then being expelled!
"Now, let me read a few lines of a poem from Mage Elegant!" Bertha started reading and seemed to be enjoying it. But, for Gabriel and many others, no matter how great those poems were, at the moment, they were no different than a buzzing sound.
Bertha read for over 24 hours, without caring about many who were falling and some who sat down. Just once in a while, she snapped, and with the snap, all those who were passed out and those who were sat down disappeared.
The remaining ones were holding on as much as possible, but for two days, everyone, except a few with amazing physical powers, was barely feeling their legs without anything to eat or drink.
After finally reading the final poem, Bertha smiled and said, "Congratulations to those who are still standing! You guys can skip our academy's introductory physical training course and instead focus only on learning magic!" She snapped her fingers, and all the students with strong physics who had lasted so far without much trouble disappeared.
Only Gabriel and a few hundred other students, who held on despite their weak physics, remained.
Bertha snapped, and a hundred more students, all with weaker physics than Gabriel and his group but all those who lasted for long, appeared.
With a smile and without explaining anything, Bertha disappeared.
Mage Rockmaster walked to the platform and said, "Congratulations to all of you! Despite your weak physics, only with strong willpower, you have managed to last so long! You are our elites this year, and our great teachers chose from among you individually! You will become direct students of our great academy's mages!" Mage Rockmaster said.
A hundred students who just appeared here out of nowhere were confused; they were worried that they would be expelled, and now, it seems not only will they not be expelled, but they will even be assigned to the elite class!
Ninety of the hundred students that appeared here were girls. In mortal ranks, there is a difference between men and women regarding physical might. That is only a general rule, and one can easily find physically weak men or physically strong women.
The academy test was about one's willpower, not one's physical strength, so Bertha paid close attention to everyone during the test.
Anyone who lasted to their physical exhaustion was brought here as an elite student, and anyone who sat down or pretended to faint before they reached their physical peak was assigned to normal classes.
The physically strong students would also be tested for their willpower later, just not now.
Some of them were knights who could last like that for months, so she couldn't let everyone wait for that long.
She could have used magic to exhaust their physical strength faster, but she was in no hurry; the mage instructors would test them with due care later.
"As the most senior teacher, I will pick first! Student Gabriel Goldman, come to my side!" Mage Rock called.
"Me?" Gabriel was shocked! He never expected to be picked by the chief instructor! He moved to the stairs and stood behind Mage Rockmaster.
Despite being chosen by the chief instructor, none of the other students below had any ill intent toward him; everyone smiled and nodded. The people chosen by her were all kind and loving people; anyone who might have had bad intentions had long been rejected.
The instructors came up and chose one by one. Unfortunately for the instructors, the number of students was insufficient; many instructors could not pick a student.
After everyone was picked, they cast spells and disappeared with their students.
...
Looking at the ceiling of his luxurious room, Gabriel felt he was dreaming.
"I became a student at the Sky Academy, and the chief instructor, a rank 8 mage, accepted me! Am I dreaming?" He slapped himself to see if he was dreaming.
It was too good to be true!
"Hey, why are you slapping yourself?" another student, a female student with red hair, asked. She was also human; it seems Mage Rockmaster chose many human students.
"How many students does Master have?" asked Gabriel.
Gabriel is already familiar with the red-headed girl; she is Melody from a commoner family.
"She has a few thousand," Melody said.
"A few thousand? Is it good to be accepted as her student?" asked Gabriel.
"Of course! It’s a privilege! Anyone who gets accepted as her student can receive her personal guidance," Melody said.
"But we haven't received any guidance in over a year!" said another new student named Clara.
Clara was the student Mage Rockmaster picked in the prior year.
She was a half-wood elf-half human.
Melody, the oldest student, having been here for two years, said, "Clara, I told you before! The teacher will come to personally help us every three years! In my first year, she came and helped me a lot! Next year, she will come again!"
Clara sighed and said, "We'll see!"
In this building, there are three people in total: Clara, Melody, and Gabriel.
The massive building has many rooms and equipment used by the mages. Female and male students are allowed to live in the same building but not allowed to have any romantic relationship until they reach at least rank 1.
There is never an issue regarding mixed-gender dorms in the Sky Continent; Bertha has looked into everyone's heart and rejected all those who had the potential to act evil.
After a while, the three bid goodbye; Clara and Melody, who were in Gabriel's room, left.
It was Gabriel's first day, after all, so the two came to visit him.
They must sleep soon tonight.