Chapter 022:

Professor Lindsy Almer’s point of view:

The exam hall was silent save for the sounds of pen scribbling on paper. Some students seemed to breeze through the questions while others would contemplate each and every letter.

It was such an atmosphere that most appealed to Professor Lindsy who stood before the class with a bewitching smile on her face.

She was a woman of average height and delicate facial features, but perhaps the most striking thing about her was her bright pink hair cut short.

That being said, despite how soft she appeared externally, everyone who looked at her had the same thing to say; She cut quite the menacing figure.

Maybe it was due to the rumors of her being a second-grade magician, or maybe it was due to the unnerving way in which her smile would not leave her face in spite of her surroundings. Regardless, she was still quite a fearsome existence, especially to those students with more nefarious thoughts in mind.

The professor, who had been roaming around between the seats, stood still for a moment before placing a hand on one of the student’s shoulders.

Said student flinched greatly, somewhat proving his guilt, but he still tried to act nonchalant. “May I help you?” He spoke as if Professor Lindsy was a passerby whom he met by chance on the road.

“Student Stokes,” Lindsy’s charming voice spoke.

Stokes, surprised by the fact that this professor knew his name, broke into cold sweat. “Y-yes?”

“Would you please stand up and leave the examination hall?” At her words, the surrounding students reacted with surprise, but no one spoke a word.

“F-for what reason!?” Stokes stood with indignation and as he spoke, the last of his words were obviously lined with anger.

“For attempted cheating,” Lindsy replied calmly.

“Attempted cheating?”He acted offended, “I’ve never done such a thing!”

Instead of replying, Professor Lindsy simply outstretched her hand, and a magical circle formed instantly.

“W-wait, do you know who my father i-”

“{Windswept}” But before Stokes could say any more, a gust of wind descended upon him, blowing straight into his face, causing his flabby cheeks to blubber in the wind and exposing the sheets of paper he had stuffed in his robes.

What was odd was that the wind seemed to be localized, focusing only on student Stokes, and not at all affecting the surroundings.

“I don’t know how they got there!” Stokes started to panic as the winds got stronger, pushing him back.

“You bitch!” Finally, he gave up and he started casting a spell of his own.

“Please refrain from the usage of profanities within the campus,” Lindsy said as she put more strength into her spell.

Seconds later, the doors to the exam hall burst open and the pitiful figure of Stokes flew out of the room.

“Please do try again, next year,” The voice of Professor Lindsy, courteous once more, sounded out before the doors shut in on themselves, sealing Stokes’s fate.

Within the exam hall, silence returned, only now it was louder.

Professor Lindsy nodded in content and was about to resume her patrol when the exam room doors burst open once more.

Expecting Stokes, Lindsy raised her head with a chilling smile on her face. However, the smile soon grew stiff when she caught sight of a new face.

He was a youth of exceptional bearing. His face was good looking and the way he held himself underlined his noble background.

Were it not for the disheveled state of his robes and hair, Lindsy would have thought him to be a fine young man.

“Ah shit, I am late! Hey, give me an exam sheet too! Oh and a pen, I didn’t bring one!” He demanded as soon as he spotted Lindsy.

For the first time this day, Lindsy’s smile faltered at the shabby youth’s brazen tone and words.

“Student Baek,” She said, at last after regaining her composure.

“Oh, you know my name? That makes things easier then,” Timothy Baek said with a relieved smile on his face. At this point, almost all of the students had their heads raised in order to witness the spectacle before them. Among the crowd, Ed and Grim could also be seen sporting worried expressions on their faces.

Lindsy paid the surroundings no mind as she had bigger fish to fry, “Would you mind exiting the examination hall please?”

At once, Timothy’s facial expression crumpled into one of irritation, “What for, the guards outside said that this was where my exams were to take place, do you have any idea how much money I spent to start my enrollment?”

Ed gnashed his teeth at that statement.

“For tardiness,”

“Tardiness?” Timothy spoke as if experiencing that word for the first time in his life.

Instead of answering, Lindsy raised her hand once more and a magical circle similar to the one she used against Stokes reappeared.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Timothy tilted his head to the side as if wondering whether she was really about to do this.

“{Windswept}” Apparently, she was.

A gust of wind immediately descended upon Timothy, ruffling his hair and clothes wildly.

However, contrary to Lindsy’s expectations, the youth did not get blown away, instead he was standing calmly amid the billowing winds as if out on a picnic.

“Thank you, I was feeling a bit stuffy from hurrying over,” Timothy said mockingly as he walked toward Lindsy

A vein popped on Lindsy’s forehead as she felt her authority being tested. She was about to strengthen her spell when an aged hand tapped her shoulder gently.

“That’s enough,” An old voice spoke calmly from behind her, scaring her shitless.

Lindsy shuddered as her spell was immediately shattered into bits. To the side, Timothy’s eyes sharpened as he studied the new figure.

In the new silence, the figure, an old man with a long, twirling beard, spoke calmly. “Student Baek, here’s the question sheet and a pen, sit there,” His withered hand pointed to an empty seat toward the back of the class. “Your time shall be as the others, no extensions, no bargaining,”

Timothy smiled and nodded confidently before taking the things offered to him and heading toward the vacant seat.

Lindsy, feeling as though her face had been slapped, turned toward the aged figure.

“...” But all she got back was a frighteningly calm set of eyes and silence. A brief moment later, the aged figure pointed the same withered hand upward and Lindsy finally nodded in understanding, though she still seemed somewhat reluctant.

Finally done with his job, the aged figure turned around and left, leaving Lindsy to continue her patrol. Unfortunately, she still could not get Timothy off her mind and she paid him special attention.

Throughout the tests, his behavior was weird but not overly suspicious.

When he first laid eyes on the question sheet, his cocky expression turned into one of bewilderment before shifting into concern and finally settling in on acceptance.

Lindsy also did not miss the multiple accusatory glances he gave her.

‘Timothy Baek…’ Lindsy thought to herself as if trying to memorize the name.

………………………………………………..

Sometime before the start of the exam.

Alexander, having conquered the last of his sandwich, was about to open a bottle of wine when he felt a presence approaching him.

In a smooth, rapid, and experienced set of motions, Alexander hid the unopened bottle under the pillow of his hammock while tossing every empty bottle straight into the middle of the lake.

Moments later, the figure finally arrived just as Alexander disposed of the last of the evidence.

From the man’s dark clothing, Alexander recognized him to be one of Carson’s underlings.

As to why his head butler had a private set of suspiciously dressed henchmen, though it was concerning, Alexander did not pry much.

It seemed everyone these days had a secret gang of their own. In fact, did Alexander himself not have a gang of concerningly pink members?

Experiencing an odd jealousy toward how cool his head butler’s secret gang looked, Alexander heard the agent speak to him.

“Master Baek, greetings. I come on behalf of Sir Carson,”

“Yes, I figured as such,” Timothy replied calmly.

Noticing the fact that Timothy was not surprised by his sudden appearance, the darkly dressed agent inwardly expressed admiration. An admiration that only grew when he noticed the light layer of sweat covering Timothy’s body from what had to be his exercise routine. ‘As expected, the Baek house has yet to fall, rather it is now in good hands,’

“Master, I come bearing word From sir Carson regarding master’s enrollment into Union Academy-”

The agent kept talking but Alexander was too busy being shocked silly to listen. ‘Oh shit!’ He thought, ‘I forgot that that was today! Why did no one remind me!’

“Ah y-yes,” Timothy stammered. “It is about time for me to get going I guess,”

With that, Timothy hurriedly boarded the carriage prepared for him as he tried his best to remember where Ed told him the exam would take place.

‘Shit I forgot to bring Big Ed his money!’ He suddenly recalled as he adjusted his posture in the speeding carriage. As Ed was the one to turn in his papers, Alexander also asked him to cover the entrance fees as well.

‘Well, that can wait I guess,’

One hasty carriage ride later, Alexander was standing down the fierce gales brought upon him by the pink-haired teacher with a cute face.

{Equipped title’s effect has been activated!}

{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Fire resistance: Unquantifiable, -Fire affinity: Unquantifiable}

{Conversion under process!}

{Conversion complete!}

{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Wind resistance: Unquantifiable, -Wind affinity: Unquantifiable}

‘She’s got a cute face, but a nasty personality,’ Alexander thought as he studied the wind particles being hurled at him at ludicrous speeds.

Due to the fact that Alexander had practically no experience handling the wind-attributed particles, he could not directly negate the spell, so all he could do was swap out his fire resistance with wind resistance to better defend against the spell while also swapping affinities to help deflect some of the wind particles.

The result of the many complicated steps he took was the simple appearance of him brute forcing through the spell of a professor.

Feeling cocky, Alexander braced himself for more trouble when the woman raised her other hand.

But all feelings of being mischievous disappeared with the appearance of an old man.

‘He’s dangerous!’ Was the only thought that Alexander could have as he studied the old man whose depth he could not judge. ‘He’s a first-grade magician at the very least, maybe even special grade,’

Thankfully it seemed the fossil was on his side as he gave him the exam sheet and a pen with which to write.

‘That was unnecessarily nerve-wracking!’ Alexander thought as he finally sat down.

‘That old fossil may just be the strongest thing I’ve seen since coming to this world,’ But that thought grew less reliable when he remembered the king of Iron-Wall.

Finally settled, Alexander opened his exam sheet with a measurable amount of confidence. He was, after all, the hero who ascended the final floor of the tower and beheaded the demon king.

What could a little piece of paper do to bring his mood down?

‘As expected, I am great!’ He thought to himself as he saw how well he wrote his own name down.

Seeing that the first question was maths-related, Alexander's smile grew thicker ‘Now then…’ He thought as he studied the first question. ‘Hmm, how idiotic. It seems the testmaker mistakenly added a bunch of letters in between the numbers,’ He shifted his gaze toward the pink-haired professor.

‘It must be her doing, she obviously has some kind of vendetta against me,’ Sending a couple of accusatory looks her way in order to send his message, he intended on causing a raucous when he noticed something.

Using his heightened sense of peripheral vision, he noticed that the idiot student next to him was tackling the maths section as well and that he too had numbers jumbled together with letters.

Feeling his heart sink into the deepest pits of his belly, he focused on the other students and was horrified to discover that everyone was the same. What’s worse was that some were further on along the question line and were tackling even more advanced formulas. It seemed symbols Alexander had never even seen before were waiting for him on the next page.

‘Oh shit…where are the numbers?’