OK this ones actually a bit boring gomenasai
Chapter 8: Zeff
As I was lying on two branches that is in some garden on the academy under the warm afternoon sun, the space distorted again and from the distortion, the headmaster walked out with a calm and determined face. The white hair, white beard and the wrinkles on his face, however, makes him seem a bit tired.
I have no idea what he’s determined about, but I hope it’s not troublesome to deal with, I’d rather not have to do anything, I’m lazy.
“Can you two explain to me why you’re lying on a tree branch over 5 meters above the ground?”
What should I tell him… The truth about running away from that annoying stalker brat, and then climbing to the top of the tree to hide from him?
Nope totally not saying that, it’d make me feel even more stupid. I’m just going to do what I do every time I don’t know what to say, MAKE AN EXCUSE! It worked in middle school, so why not here.
““Ummmm, because it’s nice here?””
“*Sigh* forget it, I’ve filled out the transfer sheet, now all we need is for you to take the test.”
I don’t think he bought it... ah whatever, let’s just pretend nothing happened and go with the flow…
I tried to get up from the tree, “”Let’s go now then.””
But I was stopped by the headmaster who raised his hand telling me to stop,
“The test won’t be ready for a bit, since they’re making it now, so while we’re waiting, can you two answer some questions?”
“”Why not””
“What are the two of you. From Identify, I can’t see.”
“”Not telling””
“How about your race?”
“”Nope””
“Your class?”
“”No””
“*Sigh* How about the ACTUAL reason for your stay here, since you can test ‘eating bread’ anywhere. Why here?”
“”Learning Magic””
And testing eating too, but I don’t think he’ll like that answer…
“Oh? So you two are one of those ancient beings that don’t bother with worldly matters and only seek knowledge?”
Wow there are beings like that?
I wonder what they look like and where they are. Maybe I can go find some of them to help with my research. Yes, yes I’ll gather an army of ancient wise old men to help me search for a way to eat food! And then, I’ll make them research a way to create the tastiest food with magic! My plan is brilliant if I do say so myself.
“So that’s what you two are, since you’re nodding your head. And as long as this academy has value, you’ll stay and protect it right? I’ve met a few of your kind in my lifetime and they’re all like that.”
“”No wait we’re…””
Interrupting my denial with a big grin on his face as if he just solved the biggest mystery in the world, the headmaster happily announced,
“Worry not, I will not tell anybody about you two. I know your kind are very secretive, but I’m still a bit curious, why you’re not hiding your status and how you two are able to speak at the same time with the same words.”
His words seriously surprised me, well it was pretty obvious that if you met two people who are able to speak the same thing at the same time, it’d be pretty weird. I feel even stupider for not noticing this a while ago… Why didn’t anybody tell me!
I guess I should stop this for when the school starts.
Let’s let Yuiitsu be the quiet one and Sei be the one doing all the talking.
As for the closed eyes… nothing I can do about that, since they are one use per week and I doubt eyes with a scale symbol in it is normal… I probably have to figure something out before the school starts, or bullshit my way through it…
Let’s see, what else stands out. The wings are retractable, and the equipment can be unequipped. I guess that leaves me only with the closed eyes,
“Are you two okay?”
“Ah, sorry I was thinking of something.”
“Huh, why isn’t the black lady talking?”
“Well, we just had a discussion and the two of us speaking in sync would be weird, so I’ll be the one doing the talking from now on. As for how we’re able to do it, great minds think alike?”
“Haha, so you don’t want to tell me huh? It’s fine, I was just curious, also why don’t you two hide your status? Is it to deter unwanted people from bothering you two, or some other reason?”
“What? What do you mean hide my status?”
“Oho, so you two didn’t know you can hide your status?”
I shook my head, because I had no idea what he was talking about.
“You see, there’s a skill called [Identify], it allows one to tell the status of the person the use it on, and to counter it, people use a skill to either create a fake status for them to see, or just block it.”
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“I never knew that…”
“Don’t worry I’ll teach you, since you’re going to need it if you want to stay in school here.”
“Before you do, can you tell me why did your attitude change so much? At the start you were on guard and cautious around me, but now you’re so open it’s scary.”
With a smirk as if he won something, the old man happily replied
“Haha, I picked up a few tricks in my days. And one of them lets me tell what people are like from conversing with them. And your answers contained no lies, only honesty. Not only that, but also the actions you conducted yesterday also led to no casualty as well as no one being hurt, since if you two wanted to do something to the academy, I doubt I can stop you two because both your stats are question marks to me. Your people also have… unique knowledge, so you can consider this an investment, maybe I can get something out of it in the future.”
He seems like a good guy, but I’ll still keep my real identity a secret for now, since he might react differently if he knew the truth.
“Thank you, Mr…”
“Call me Zeff, Zeff Theofrius”
“Nice to meet you Zeff, I’m Sei and this is Yuiitsu. Also, Did you know if you don’t set a punishment when you sign the Contract, it automatically invalidates itself, since there’s no consequence of violating the deal?”
“So you mean…”
“Yes, you made me waste a contract, by not stating any punishment and I’m still able to harm the people here if I choose to.”
“I see, so why did you tell me this?”
“Let’s say, it’s the first return from your investment”
“Haha, I guess I can trust you two. Now about hiding your status, you need to open up your own status, before covering it in another layer of mana. Then change the mana into either a barrier to protect people from reading your status, or manipulating the information on it. Usually it takes a few months to learn, but one as powerful as you shouldn’t take too long.”
…What the fuck…
Covering my status in a layer of mana? I don’t know how to manipulate mana! Every time I cast a spell I just think of what the spell does and recite the spell words in my head and BAM it appears.
…
Okay, let’s try once before asking Zeff…
As I was imagining a slimy liquid that dripped down from above, slowly covering my status screen in a blue goo, I felt the same sensation of when I use a skill in game and mana decrease.
I think that’s right? Now manipulate it to the values I want.
…
How do I do that?
Let’s just think of a bunch of 0s everywhere…
[Fake Status(F)] Acquired.
F class!? That low? Wow I must suck at this.
“Marvelous, you learned it in a matter of minut…”
“Huh?”
“…”
As I was pondering why he suddenly stop talking, I look up to see Zeff standing there looking at me with a troubled face.
“What”
“I don’t think that’s right…”
Status
00000 0000000 000 000
00000 0000 000
000000 0000
0000 0000000 000
00000 000
…
Yea that doesn’t seem right.
“Both of your status are messed up…”
Oh crap! I have a single status for the two of us. Meaning there’s no way to create a fake status, since we’ll have the same one…
God dammit, I guess I’ll just turn it into a barrier that blocks instead of altering the content seen.
Stuffing a third of all my mana into the barrier,
[Status Barrier(S)] Acquired.
“Ho? It’s now totally blocking me out.”
“Yea, changing it indicating growth is too troublesome, so I’ll just block out people trying to view it.”
“But how did you achieve such a high rank in the skill? Normally people start at a low rank, but your rank in the barrier is so high, it blocks me out completely!”
“Ughhhh I’m good at barriers?”
“Is it related to your class?”
Making a pouting face to try to change the topic
“Not telling.”
“Hoho, I guess I should stop trying to dig further huh? Well then, the test should be ready, so let’s go.”
With that, the space distorted again and following the headmaster, I also walked in.
…
YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! THIS IS THE TEST!?