**

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" Irene blasted her complaints from a mile away while Red sat there with a blank stare on his face. They are currently seated in Irene's office, having a meeting with Gerald on the magic orb speaking to them.

"Really, did you have to be so reckless?"

Irene scratched her head in frustration, throwing a mean eye at Red occasionally with Red immediately looking away the moment she glared in his direction.

"I admit I was a bit reckless..." Red replied in a soft tone, trying not to trigger the already rage-infused Irene.

"I was going to negotiate with the deputy head to have smooth sailing in regards to having his approval for your admission, but you just had to ruin all chance of getting the approval and the worst of it was you CHALLENGED him?? WHY??"

"Do pray to tell." Gerald, who was communicating with them through a magic orb, asked earnestly.

"...I got annoyed..."

The whole room froze.

There was a good 5 minutes of silence in the air.

2 pairs of eyes were staring at Red at such intensity that it felt as if their gaze is piercing through his body.

"*!^@%%*!^@^&!£&" Words of profanity came out from Irene's mouth so much that the title sage almost seen like a joke in front of Gerald as his eyes widens in shock while saying "wow."

"Calm dow___" Before Red could utter another word, Irene continue to mutter words of profanity to the point that it's starting to sound like curses, while lightning suddenly appeared around her body.

"AYUYEEEE, oh wait I'm safe." Gerald panicked before remembering he wasn't beside us.

The one who was in danger was Red.

The veins in her head popped out, and the irises in her eyes widened as she grips her hand tightly. The atmosphere around them starts getting electrifying as Red's hair starts to float.

"Calm Down? Care to elaborate that properly?"

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Red immediately kept his mouth shut. Getting struck by lightning hurts like hell, and he doesn't want to experience it ever again.

But funny enough, Irene stopped. Instead, she appears rather calm out of nowhere.

"It's fine. I needed you to perform well so that my words army words are credible.

"..."

"When's the duel?"

"2 days from now."

"Do you need any help with preparation?"

Red looked around the room before speaking, "Is there any beginner guide for magic?"

**

[Irene's POV]

2 days.

2 days had passed since I borrowed Red the book on Mana Breathing and Circles. Though that book covers everything on how to advance as a mage up to the Advance Rank, it took even the greatest genius at least 4 years to be able to accomplish everything from that book.

So what is he going to accomplish in 2 days?

The faculty members were all waiting in the school's testing grounds, curious to see their new potential colleagues with my grandfath__, I mean headmaster sitting in the middle waiting.

Looks like the news spread to the students as well, from the looks of it. The students that were with me when we encountered Red were all there as well, including the White mage trio.

Looks like Zenith is ready to go for round 2 with Red again, seeing how Red easily beat him with just a kick, his ego must have taken a toll that he lost without being able to do anything. For the wind beast to feel like this, is truly amusing.

But the main point was, what could he accomplish in 2 days that could turn the tides over against the deputy head? His strength is only second to the Headmasters. Just as I was about to think of a backup plan due to the indefinite result that Red is going to lose this duel, the man himself appeared.

The man himself was still wearing the same clothes he was wearing when he first got here, but they were torn and tattered. There were also bandages wrapped around his arm as well.

From there, the Deputy Head started speaking to Red. However, as the distance between the audience and the combatants were too far, it was hard to make out what they were talking about.

But there were images projected around using magic so we could have a better look at what was going on.

From there, the headmaster arises from his seat and began his speech.

"Welcome everyone. Thanks for waiting. Today's assessment for the qualification of the new combat teacher for Elderwinn will be conducted by deputy head Edmund, who was the previous teacher in charge of this subject. Only when the deputy head deemed the outsider worthy, will we accept him as a new instructor."

"Without further distraction, began!"

*THUMP*

The moment those words were muttered, immediately a huge pressure of mana was dropped in the middle of the training ground, which sank the entire ground. The atmosphere was so heavy that it was hard to breathe for some of the students, causing some of the other teachers to intervene helping the student to cope with the pressure.

From afar, I spotted the deputy head still standing in the same position as before. Looks like he quick-cast the spell to get it over with. However, it seemed that his opponent was persistent as well.

Red dug his feet into the ground so hard that they started to crack.

The deputy head then adjusted his glasses and spoke, "Looks like this one will last longer than the rest."

Red on the other hand started moving weirdly. He stomps both of his feet so that they are an arm's length apart. From there, his hands start moving in a circular motion, dragging from the inside and pushing it out.

That motion looked very familiar...

"Isn't that the Intermediate rank magic flowing motion?" Maeve, one of the professors that were researching Mana Breathing pointed out.

"!"

Impossible. how did he manage to learn an Intermediate rank magic Breathing in just 2 days?

Just then another loud explosion occur as a blurred image suddenly ran past my vision, colliding towards the center of the training ground.

More perfectly large circles were formed on the ground as black sphere-shaped balls could be seen forming a straight line from where Red was standing previously, with the largest ball nearest to the deputy head, crushing Red underneath it.

"Don't even think for a moment, you can land a scratch on me." The deputy head warned, before dropping another black sphere on top of the one that was crushing Red.

*Thump*

He then proceeds to turn his back and walked away.

Just then. All the black spheres disappeared.

They were gone just like that. All together at once.

Standing in one of the holes in the ground was Red.

He stood up and started walking forward again.