While Damian was in his backyard refining his magical circles, the Minister of Education appeared on television delivering news that truly left everyone speechless.
His speech, eliminating mandatory subjects in schools such as arts, religion, physical education, and languages, sparked a storm on social media, with many in disbelief.
A reporter immediately raised his hand, trying to get attention. "Yes?" said the minister, looking at the journalist while inwardly sighing.
"Will religion be banned in Madripoor?" asked the journalist.
"No, it will simply not be a subject that teachers will teach in educational institutions in the country," the minister replied, inwardly relieved as it was an easy one.
"Do you know how that will affect the development of children?" another journalist asked, bypassing protocol.
"The change was overseen by the king himself, taking into account the future of his citizens," the minister said, sharing the blame.
"Will Madripoor embark on a militaristic campaign in the future? Or why does it seem like all its citizens need to be able to fight?" inquired a journalist.
"I'm sorry, but those questions should be directed to the king; I am only in charge of education," the minister said, deflecting potentially dangerous questions.
''As far as I know the king is not a specialist in education, is this some kind of whim?'' asked an overly brave journalist.
''I'm sure the King has a much broader perspective than any of us here, that's not something a degree in education can give you," the Minister said, looking at the journalist.
"Well, this press conference is over. Thank you all for coming," the minister said, concluding and quickly leaving.
Discussions immediately erupted in the country, with many parents doubting these decisions. They wondered if it was really the right choice for their children to study in the country or if it would be better to send them abroad.
Then, an announcement from Ophelia, who by now everyone knew was also the queen, came out. Any student who wants to live outside Madripoor will have to move with their family.
Letting students go alone is like providing opportunities to threaten these citizens, who would surely become spies with the threat of their children. Ophelia couldn't help but think that sometimes these people forget they live under an absolute monarchy.
These announcements sparked hints of protests that were easily neutralized, and Ophelia took advantage to capture the instigators, with many of them being executed, reminding everyone of the terror she instilled years ago.
Ophelia was not beating around the bush, and those a bit older quickly remembered why she was the dictator of Madripoor before Damian arrived.
This harsh reality check made many regain composure and accept the situation. If they stayed, they had to obey; if they didn't want to obey, they could leave whenever they wanted.
So, a week passed, and the matter of the change in study material began to calm down, with rumors circulating about the new school that had been built.
None of this influenced Damian much as he continued in his backyard with his eyes closed. His daughters spent a lot of time playing in front of him.
Damian's consciousness was fully immersed in constructing his fifth magical circle. The complexity of it took him by surprise, forcing him to slow down. But after a week, it was almost ready.
He was inscribing the last rune in the large magical circle, and even with his incredible skills, he felt exhausted—a feeling he couldn't recall experiencing in a long time.
When he completed the final stroke, all the runes glowed before the magical circle integrated with the others, causing a chain reaction.
The amount of magic was overwhelming; even the dormant dragon next to him woke up startled, reinforcing the barrier while devouring the excess magical energy the barrier couldn't contain.
The terrible density his magic had acquired was fragmenting space, beginning to affect the palace garden.
Damian reacted quickly and appeared randomly in space, seeing his daughters on the other side of the fragmenting barrier without time to choose a location.
His magic was then completely released, causing further space fragmentation. Feeling the magic in his body, he couldn't help but be surprised; he had become considerably stronger than before.
At that moment, his third familiar approached and growled softly.
"Thanks," Damian said, smiling as he patted its head. If it hadn't maintained the barrier, he could have harmed his daughters.
Looking around, he realized he was in the middle of nowhere in space. His magic was chaotic and uncontrolled, and his casual movements generated waves of energy.
It would only return to normal over time as he got used to his much larger and denser magic.
Doing his routine test, he extended his hand, creating a magical circle of his ideal size before shooting a fireball.
Suddenly, a small sun almost emerged from his hand as a fireball with a circumference of 100 meters flew into the distance before exploding.
Damian chuckled, noting the vast difference between the fourth and fifth circles. Only the sixth circle was left, and once he achieved it, he could live completely at ease.
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He quickly searched for the nearest uninhabited planet before teleporting near it. It was a completely arid planet, and nothing had happened for thousands of light-years.
Damian extended his hand, making his fifth magical circle appear again, this one focused on time. Pointing it at the planet, Damian began to rewind time; the scale increased until each second represented a thousands years.
The regression was so rapid that the planet began to disintegrate before his eyes as the stellar dust it had gathered over millions of years scattered until nothing remained.
Reversing his action, the stellar dust quickly came back together and gradually formed the planet.
Thinking about his family waiting for him, he suddenly concentrated, and an illusion identical to him appeared in front of him. Although it was an illusion, he could play with his control over space to give it substance.
In an instant, he made it appear in the courtyard of his palace. With his new control over space and time, he could easily see and hear in real time.
The commotion had drawn the attention of the entire family, and as they saw him appear, they approached to see what had happened.
"I have the fifth circle; it was stronger than I expected, and I had to leave quickly," Damian said, calming them.
"And is everything in order now?" Carol asked doubtfully, staring at Damian; for some reason, it seemed strange to her.
His daughters immediately wanted to hug their father, but Carol didn't allow it and remained a bit in front of her family with a vigilant attitude.
"Of course, is something wrong?" Damian asked, looking at her confused.
"It's nothing," Carol said, shaking her head before, in an instant, extending her hand to create an ultra-concentrated cosmic ray that pierced Damian's chest and continued beyond, reaching into space.
"How did you know?" Damian asked, looking at the hole in his chest that instantly healed.
''Calm down, it's an illusion, I can't come to Earth right now, I didn't want to be missed,' Damian said, rolling his eyes as he saw that she looked ready to fight when she heard his words.
"I don't trust, so go," Carol said, waving her hand for him to leave.
Damian rolled his eyes before appearing with his real body in the garden.
His appearance immediately created strong winds that shook the entire city.
He looked at Carol, raising an eyebrow as if asking if she was now satisfied.
Carol looked at Damian and immediately recognized him; she smiled slightly before running and hugging him.
The rest of the family looked really surprised at Carol because they couldn't tell.
Her daughters looked at Carol in annoyance when she stopped them from hugging their father, so they also ran after her and hugged their father as they joined in pushing their mother away.
"It will take about a week to control my magic. For now, you'll have to settle for my avatar," Damian said, hitting Carol on the forehead and disappearing before leaving an illusion of himself behind.
Everyone quickly went inside with Damian's illusion and asked him several questions about his magic.
Damian also noticed that Ivy seemed to be in good spirits and approached him normally with her beautiful smile.
She looked at Ophelia and casually nodded, indicating that she had solved everything.
Still, she felt a little nervous under her gaze, the bombshell she had hoped would go off hadn't actually happened, Alice and Emma hadn't mentioned it, she hoped it wouldn't come back to bite her in the future.
''By the way, how can you tell that it's not an illusion?" asked Ana with a clearly dissatisfied expression.
''Cough, that's not important,'' Carol said with a slight blush on her face, she wouldn't say it even if she got hit.
''How suspicious, you blush like a pervert,'' Ophelia said, looking at her with an amused smile.
''Would you like me to change your outfit to pink?" asked Carol with a threatening look on her face.
''When you can do magic let's talk about it'' said Ophelia playing with her own hair as she smiled at Carol.
Damian just smiled slightly, as always his family was very animated.
With his illusion, a week quickly passed, and Damian finally returned home. This didn't cause too much excitement since, apart from Carol, no one really felt a difference when interacting with him.
With his fifth magical circle completed, Damian allowed himself to relax a bit, and soon three months passed.
...
The entire country woke up that day with the uncertainty of the start of the school year. Parents helped their children get ready before sending them off on the bus.
In a certain private facility, Peggy was getting dressed, wearing formal pants and a jacket.
A month ago, Sophia had visited her and offered her the position of the disciplinary council director at the new school. She had hesitated for a moment before accepting; she had never worked in anything related to teaching, but she didn't think it should be much different from the military.
With her stern expression, she would surely scare the children into behaving well.
There was only one thing worrying her; apparently, she was pregnant. She had discussed it with Steve, and both decided that she would work as long as she could. She could give notice in advance and get a replacement for the time she needed.
"Goodbye, darling, have a good time, intimidate those kids into behaving well," Steve said, chuckling.
"See you later," Peggy said, kissing Steve before leaving the house.
Although staying at home while Peggy worked wasn't exactly what he expected by the standards of his time, it wasn't so bad either. If necessary, he would take care of their child while Peggy worked.
"Maybe I should look up some cooking tutorials on the internet," Steve murmured as he took out his phone.
...
Laura, Clint's wife, was watching her two sons leave the house with a faint smile. After several tests, they managed to enroll in the new school. She had argued with Clint, and they had concluded that Damian wouldn't make any changes that weren't really necessary.
And if there really was a problem, they could simply withdraw their children from school.
Laura waited at the door until she saw her sons get on the bus, closed the door, and leaned against the sofa. There was a new series she wanted to watch, and fortunately, her children had started classes, so she would have more free time.
While turning on the TV, she didn't forget to send a message to her friend Peggy, asking her to keep an eye on her kids.
It's a shame she started working; they won't be able to go out and have fun anymore.
...
Damian was in the living room with the whole family. His three little daughters had small backpacks on their backs; they were ready to leave.
"Are you sure you want to go alone?" Damian asked, smiling.
"Yes, we want to go alone on our first day," Emma said, nodding.
"Are you sure you know the way?" Damian asked, looking at them.
"Daddy, you've explained the way to us in every possible way," Alice said, laughing along with the others.
"Fine, then be careful," Damian said before kissing each of them on the cheek.
"Goodbye, Mom," the girls said, bidding farewell to everyone with a kiss on the cheek and cheerfully leaving the house.
"They grow up so fast," Damian said, sighing.
"Well, we should go too," Ana said, looking at Sophia.
"Yes, I just didn't want to miss the first day, but we should have been at the school a while ago," Sophia said, nodding as she started heading towards the garden to take a ship and get there faster.
Ana kissed Damian on the cheek before running with Sophia.
"I'll leave too; I'll take Antonia to school. I hope she likes it," Natasha said, also saying goodbye before leaving.
"We're alone; how about we do something really wild?" Ophelia asked, smiling as she looked at Damian.
"Sounds good. How about we go train? Now that you're an Old Vampire, maybe you can handle 2% of my power," Carol teased.
"It's Ancient Vampire," Ophelia said, annoyed.
"Monica, where is Jane?" Damian asked, ignoring the pair and looking at his daughter, who was leaning against the wall while sending messages.
"She went to London; apparently, Erik went a bit crazy after they controlled him," Monica said.
"True," Damian said, scratching his head.
"Cortana, is it time yet, or not yet?" Damian asked.
"There are 15 hours and 25 minutes left for the exact moment," Cortana said.
"Good," Damian said, nodding before disappearing and keeping an eye on his daughters on their way to school. He definitely wouldn't miss observing and recording everything.