"Why him if he was lying to us, your highness?" Archer asked as he sat down.
"He knew." The voice replied back.
"About?"
"The fact that you were a mask." John replied calmly.
"How?" Confusion was laced on his face.
"He noticed the device on your ear before you even sat down. It wasn't long before he realised someone was watching him and spotted the camera."
"And?" Archer wondered why this warranted him to join the security team, especially someone who was hiding his origin.
"He was listening to me."
"So calm and rational to even fool me. Interesting." Archer replied as he looked at the door with a glow in his eyes.
"Not to mention being able to recognise these devices used by agents. Did you fool him with your replies, your highness?" Archer asked back.
"No, he was being honest about everything except his origin." John replied back.
"Do you want to assign a full background check?" Archer questioned.
"Do it privately. Don't let Albert know about it. I have a very good feeling about him." Archer nodded in reply while feeling something wrong from John's excited voice.
While from a room at the end of the hallway of 5th floor was John, sat in front of few screens with his legs on the table, watching everything from the people entering the association, being led to the room with Archer to finally swearing the oath and leaving.
A smile tugged on his face as he monitored Luke leaving the building after swearing his oath, with slight panic hidden amidst his calm face.
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So, a reincarnater. I wonder if it is the work of you assholes watching me for entertainment.
Nah, you guys want something natural and exciting so this can't be your work.
So that means the work of a deity of this world? But which ones?
From his expression, this commission is a new event for him.
I shouldn't have existed in his past life along with other parallel worlds, due to me being a singularity in a timeline.
That means all John Field should have died on that day, unless something happens to change that, but that means they still would have died at least 5 years later due to his failed awakening.
Another reason is, if I did exist in another world time travellers and reincarnaters like him should have already arrived from the future to kill me due to the chaos I might cause, knowing my personality.
So that means none of the people of this world, who is able to manipulate time, is aware of my existence. So that leaves his arrival in my timeline as the work of a deity.
But why would a deity send him back to his past? Did they already detect my presence and started their hunt for me?
Not possible. Even if the deities were created and empowered to look after this world by God, it should be impossible for them to detect my presence, if they can't even sense Zel roaming and causing havoc, in this world already. Unless there is a unfactored variable hanging around in this world.
So, are they hunting for me or are they here for some other reason? So many question, and so much time left. Looks like I have to draw all of them out one by one, soon.
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'So that was why the test was 4 hours long and pretty easy. We have to finish our papers along with stop the attackers reaching for their targets, all the while making sure we score above 40%.' Law and Natasha slowly pulled the pieces together.
However, the rest of the students and invigilators and students were having different thoughts along with plans after witnessing what happened in that grid.
For a few minutes, everything went normally while the fog in Phil's grid slowly disappeared.
The students always kept an eye on their invigilators while the invigilator was calmly walking beside them in their grid.
Ellis was confused at what was happening.
Due to Phil being here, he kept an eye on him. However very quickly he saw Phil's grid being covered in fog for a while. After the fog disappeared and an annoyed Phil and invigilator could be seen in there while the students inside the grid were smiling triumphantly.
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Strangest of all was that Archer was doing nothing. It was as if he expected this to happen.
'So, is this part of the test or something? If so what is the goal of this exam and how does the hard paper fit in with all this?' Ellis thought as he tried to figure out what the rules for this test were.
He kept all this in mind while carrying on with his test.
As he finished the 3rd question he checked the time to notice that he had 3:35:56 time left.
Suddenly he noticed that all the grids were slowly getting foggy. 'It's that fog again. Is the fog released on a timely basis? Do we have to do something during the time the fog is released?' Many questions similar to that appeared inside him. But he put it all aside as he saw his grid slowly getting foggier as well.
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The V.I.P's in the hall started to sweat.
After the initial fog inside Phil's grid lifted, all of them finally understood the true nature of this exam.
However, only a few of them realised the deadliness of the exam. Even though they wanted to pull out their children, or descendants from the exam, they knew John wouldn't simply allow it with the tight guards and security he has placed around the hall.
They hoped nothing happens as the first wave of fog descended to the hall.
While this happened, the screen shifted the attention to the only person in the hall that was visible, Archer, who was sat reading something.
Soon screams rang out throughout the hall, while a smile slowly erupted on Archer's face, while he carried on to flip the page of a book, while he placed his legs on the desk.
A few minutes later blood seeped out of different corners of the grid and laid in front of Archer in a puddle, while he seemingly ignored it and carried on to reading his book.
10 minutes, it took 10 minutes for the fog to finally lift off from the hall.
As the fog left everyone's attention was drawn to the bloody figures laying throughout the hall.
However, a common thing in the midst of all this was that most students were smiling victoriously, leaving only 2 or 3 successful invigilators.
The students who were sat of their seats were breathing in labour while various wounds were present among different students. As the fog completely left the students were finally able to see the state of the exam hall. All the students were shocked beyond belief at the brutality that they had participated in.
Archer looked at the scene in front of him before sighing. He folded the page on his book before leaving it on the desk as he stood up.
"Invigilators, please heal the students. If you are not able to do that you will be kicked out." Archer's voice rang out through the hall.
The tired invigilators face paled at the sudden orders. They didn't even get time to rest before suddenly having to face out another tiring task. They blamed everything on their bad luck as they healed the students, the wound which each of them inflicted through their magi was healed by their own magi.
For the next 30 minutes, everyone rested and prepared. They knew the this was only the start and the next wave was coming soon. The only reason Archer had forced the invigilators to heal the students was to give them extra time to recover.
While the students who had received the answer sheet from their messengers quickly tried to memorise and write down as much as possible, knowing that when the next wave arrived, it would be their turn to defend, while everyone tried to get the answer sheet and destroy it.
As the time ticked away, suddenly an alarm went off while a particular grid had a red hue in it. Seeing this Archer who was back to reading his book closed it and walked towards that particular grid.
Seeing this the invigilators who were about to bring the fog down waited, to see what was happening along with the other students.
The invigilator in that particular grid was confused at what was happening. This was the signal given when a valid cheater was spotted.
"Smart ones. Although you are risking your future. Due to being the first ones to figure this out, I will ask you this as a privilege for you guys. Are you sure you want to do this?" Archer asked as he looked at the students in front of him.
Everyone was confused at what was happening. Suddenly two students stood up and said "Yes!"
Archer nodded his head as he turned towards the invigilator and said, "Get out. You will be replaced with another invigilator." The invigilator was confused at the sudden turn of events.
He looked at the two students and said, "You to as well, wait in the waiting room."
The 2 students turned towards the noble mockingly and walked out with a victorious smile on their face.
While Archer walked out of the grid, the noble in that grid stood up in anger, seeing that her invigilator was about to walk out. "What is the meaning of this? Why are you disqualifying them? I will have you reported to the magi association for unfair treatment towards my friends."
The noble knew she couldn't straight out defend the invigilator, so she used the excuse of the 2 students being her friend to ask for the disqualification reason of the invigilator, even though she hated them to the bone. She was after all so close to receiving the answer last time from her invigilator.
Archer stopped walking hearing her shout at him. "You sure you want to know the reason?" His voice resonated back perfectly to her.
She stood her ground as she directly confronted him. "Yes, and you better give a good reason."
"Well know this, you brought this upon yourself. 2 cheaters were reported in your grid without your invigilator being aware of it. Whether someone reported them, or if they both reported each other, or if it was guilt that caused to turn themselves in is for us to know. But the fact remained that the invigilator in your grid was incapable of catching the cheaters, so she is kicked out."
Everyone suddenly drew in a breath realising what the two students had done. 'Just how much hatred did they have to the noble in their grid to fail themselves in order to fail her.'
While the nobles in the other grids looked at the noble girl in anger and cursed her for making Archer reveal their plan to the public. Now everyone knew what to do if their situation turned hopeless.
Archer walked back while ignoring the noble girl who slumped in her chair in defeat, while a new invigilator walked in to replace the one leaving.
After a few minutes of waiting the next wave of fog returned.
Ellis now had a clear understanding of the rules and regulation of this test. He looked at the students in his grid, who were looking at him with expectations. The last round they had relied upon him to repel the invigilator, they hoped he could do the same this round.
As the fog started to cover he suddenly noticed something in the grid that just had an invigilator replaced. However, before he could even think on the matter he just saw, the fog rendered his sight useless while a wave of heat drew closer to him.
He dodged the fire arrow as he looked at the invigilator targeting him.