Chapter 024:

‘This, I don’t know how to feel about this.’ Alexander had a complicated look on his face as the kid, Zackery Moore, stepped off the testing stage.

It was true that Alexander did not want to be a hero of this world, but did that mean that he was interested in being a little turd’s stepping stone?

‘Wait no, I am currently a little shit too, no that’s not the point!’ Alexander tried to bring his thoughts in order.

‘In the first place, why did he target me?’ That was probably the most pressing question. As far as he was aware, he had yet to do anything dastardly like take his lunch money, steal his fiancé, or, wait…

He looked back toward the beauty, “Hey,” He sounded.

“Yeah?” She replied with a slight tilt of her head that made her all the cuter.

“Do you know that runt?”

“Oh him~ Not really, but he did try to speak to me earlier this day,”

Alexander’s eyes shook but he tried to remain calm, “W-what did he want?”

“Something about where the testing center was, I don’t really know, he was mumbling and kept looking down. I think he was shy,”

“I see,”

“Anyway, what were we talking about?”

Alexander tried resuming his conversion, but he was distracted by the piercing gaze directed his way.

‘It’s the kid,’ He thought as he looked over to see Zackery clenching his teeth and stamping the ground beneath his feet.

‘Cute,’ Alexander couldn’t help but think as he saw the little boy’s face scrunch up in anger. He was reminded of a certain tainted animal back in his past life, a horned rabbit.

‘Ah shit, no good, I might like teasing this kid,’ He thought as he turned back to the beauty and put an arm around her shoulder. “It’s too noisy here, how about we head to that corner,”

“Sure,” She said with a suggestive smile.

The gaze which had still been on him grew more intense and Alexander was forced to stifle a laugh.

‘This academy might be more fun than I initially thought,’

………………………………………………..

The testing period was finally over and the kids were sent on their way momentarily as the administrative council held a meeting.

Within the relatively simple room, a table stood at the center surrounded by twenty-two chairs, only half of which were currently filled.

At the head of the table sat the two kings of Graveclaws and Iron-Wall, standing behind each were their respective Knight Captain Commanders.

A distance away from the table, standing before a large flat crystal attached to the wall, a slightly plump figure was now standing as he explained the results of the entrance exam. “These are the summaries regarding the written exam and a briefing on any notable cases, and these are the same for the strength test,” He said and had a staff member distribute stacks of papers.

As the members of the council perused through the thick sheets of paper, The king of Iron-Wall, Gregory Seeker, inquired: “Professor Ike, what of the relations between the students?”

The plump figure in charge of the briefing, Ike, faked a cough before speaking with a wry expression on his face “Well, it is as expected, there were some fights between the children, but nothing too serious. On the whole, the atmosphere was pretty peaceful.

“Of course it would be the kids must be too nervous to be rowdy, poor things,” An old woman with a rosy complexion spoke, placing a hand on her cheek with concern.

Seeing that no one else had anything to say, Ike was about to smoothly continue the meeting when:

“Speaking of conflicts,” Gregory suddenly spoke and everyone immediately straightened their posture.

Though the king was often a kind-looking old man, he did have a scary side to him, and as he looked toward Professor Lindsy, she felt as if she caught a glimpse of it.

‘W-why?’ She thought to herself in dismay.

Though the answer to her question came soon “It is to my understanding that Professor Almer fell into conflict with two students during the written examination,” Gregory’s calm voice felt like ice to Lindsy and her body grew cold.

“Y-yes!” She couldn’t help but answer.

“Report please,”

“Your majesty, I am more than capable of doing that on Professor Almer’s behalf!” The plump figure immediately interjected but he jerked back when the king shifted his gaze toward him “Of course if that is to your liking!” He immediately added on.

The king nodded before continuing to speak, “I am well aware of how impressive your Wisker is Professor Ike, but I am interested in Professor Lindsy’s personal account,”

“Understood, I apologize,”

Lindsy was genuinely scared now, in her mind she thought back to the two scoundrels she confronted that day. Deducing she did nothing wrong, she opened her mouth to speak.

After repeating her account in front of the council, the king nodded “I see, Timothy was indeed in the wrong,”

Lindsy sighed a breath of relief, but still, she tilted her head over the fact that the king seemed interested in that punk Baek.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“However, in the future,” The king spoke, once more addressing Professor Almer, “Please refrain from excessive use of magic within the school premises,”

“Understood,” She replied with unwilling tears in her eyes. She looked toward another figure attending the meeting, the same withered figure who appeared in the examination hall during the conflict, the academy’s headmaster.

Seeing that her grandfather merely shook his head at her, Lindsy shut up. ‘That damned Timothy!’ She thought to herself in exasperation and promised revenge.

“Actually, concerning student Baek…” Ike, seeing that the matter had finally ended, decided to transition toward another topic concerning Timothy. “When correcting his written test, a few oddities appeared,”

“Oh?” Gregory inquired as he received a copy of Alexander’s answer sheet; it wasn’t just him as every member of the council also began reading Timothy’s answers.

“Oho, how interesting~” The old lady from before spoke with amusement.

“As you can all see,” Ike said, “Student Baek scored dismally in the mathematical section despite being homeschooled as a noble, the same can be said for geography and history, however…”

“The magical Knowledge section is all over the place,” Gregory spoke and everyone nodded their heads.

There were some questions, those simpler in nature, which were left blank while most of the more advanced questions were answered correctly. If that weren’t odd enough, there were also some questions that were answered oddly.

“Did he cheat?” Gregory asked Ike casually.

“I did not see any evidence leading to that conclusion, but even without my account, there is no other student with similar answers, I checked.

“Haha, just what is with these answers? He really does deserve the failing mark” Lindsy spoke with a bit of mean spirit.

“It is certainly odd,”

“Just how did he come up with these answers?”

The council grew noisy as if they were entertained by the wild writings of Alexander.

Only one person kept his head down as he thoroughly read through Alexander’s answers again and again.

Headmaster Gilbert Almer finally looked up from the answer sheet and said out loud, “These answers are marked as wrong but that is not necessarily so…” With his finger, he circled out a group of questions related to fringe magic theories.

At that sudden announcement, everyone sported differing expressions of shock, most severe of all was the old fossil's granddaughter whose expression was certainly a sight to behold.

Professor Ike, who had been in charge of grading the papers, spoke sternly. “Headmaster Almer, would you please care to explain,”

However, instead of answering, Headmaster Almer simply outstretched his hand.

While reading Alexander’s answer sheet, he spread his mana out into the shape of a rough barrier and after some time, within the barrier, a burst of flame materialized.

“Wow!” The old lady who spoke earlier gasped and clapped her hands as if watching a magic trick. “How cute!”

Had Alexander been here, he would have been shocked over how quickly headmaster Almer was able to materialize a barrier.

“Interesting,” The king of Graveclaws, who had been silent throughout the meeting, finally spoke.

“So it’s true…” Ike said with a complicated expression on his face.

“This archaic method of casting spells seems much simpler, but also less effective,” King Gregory pitched his two cents in.

Professor Lindsy said nothing but she did send accusatory glances toward her grandfather as if asking whether he was with her or against her.

Headmaster Almer faked a cough at her expression.

“Professor Ike, allow me time to personally grade this student’s paper, Who knows, perhaps he might be able to just squeak out a passing grade…” Headmaster Almer said, addressing Professor Ike with an apologetic expression.

Ike nodded before responding, “I understand. However, if you are interested in student Baek’s admission status, I am confident in saying that he will definitely be accepted,”

At this, the headmaster tilted his head before glancing toward the sheet containing the results of the strength test; he nodded in realization.

“Unexpectedly, he is quite strong,” The headmaster admitted.

“My, if I’m not mistaken, doesn’t this score compare to knight graduates?” The old lady said in admiration.

Gregory nodded with a hint of pride in his eyes, “Did he rank first among the students?”

“Among his batch, yes,” The plump Ike answered before continuing, “But among all the 1000 admissions, he is third,”

“Oh?” Gregory was interested.

“First place belongs to student Mark Kingsly from Graveclaws while second belongs to Rebecca Kingsly also from Graveclaws,”

At this, half of the council raised their heads an inch higher as if in pride.

Gregory noticed this but he did not say anything.

“However, if I may be so presumptuous, I would like to draw the council’s attention to fourth place, student Zackery Moore,”

At the name suddenly brought to the table, the king of Graveclaw showed a slight, almost imperceptible, change in expression, a frown.

King Gregory did not miss this, but he refrained from asking further as he knew he did not need to.

“What about him?” The kind old lady who sat at the side reserved for those in Graveclaws asked.

“Though first to fourth place is rather close in scores, the difference between third and fourth is a mere point,”

“Amazing!” Lindsy spoke enthusiastically, she seemed to have a decent opinion of the child.

“Furthermore,” Ike continued, feeling good that his audience was reacting, “His score on the written exam was just as impressive!”

“Thankfully the children entering our first year seem to be of decent calibre…” The headmaster spoke as his granddaughter enthusiastically nodded her head.

The council continued discussing various matters such as the contest to be held tomorrow.

“I still think we should refrain from calling it a contest, the children will get too riled up,” King Gregory spoke but was refuted by the king of Graveclaws “Competition among the children is good, also the tournament will help immensely when placing the children in their respective classes,”

“That’s another matter I am concerned with,” King Gregory continued, “Isn’t it too harsh to differentiate the students in terms of capability? Naturally, they will change over the course of their study,”

“And placing them according to performance will only help expedite said change,” The king of Graveclaws shot back.

The two bickered on but naturally, no one interfered.

After some time, they were finally back on track as they ironed out several details concerning the tests that would be held tomorrow.

………………………………………………..

In a familiar club.

“Fwaaahhhh! As I thought, the taste of ale after a hard day’s work is the best!” Alexander said as he leaned back and belched.

“I would advise against over-indulging, we must stay in shape for tomorrow,” Grim advised as he took a sip of his water.

“You are just so damn pretty Michelle~” Big Ed told the woman sitting on his lap with a sickeningly saccharine expression and tone.

“Thank you, Eddy,” Michelle replied with just as much sweetness.

Alexander attempted to hide his envy as he watched Michelle feed Edward a grape.

“You’ll only feel worse, the longer you look. Jealousy is a powerful thing,”

“It’s just not fair,”

“?”

“Why is Big Ed the only one to get to eat Michelle’s grapes when we all paid for them?”

“...” Grim decided to remain silent despite wanting to remind Timmy of how he had yet to pitch in a single coin.

Grim wondered whether he would survive his upcoming academy life.

‘It’s fine, I just need to make sure I don’t get placed into the same class as this fiend,’