As soon as the words left her lips, a wave of invisible pressure rained down on every single student within the hall.
All the students dropped to their knees; some fell face-first onto the floor. Even the bullies were on their knees, begging for mercy.
"Ugh… my throat!"
"Please stop…!"
Jamie and Arthur remained standing. They were protected by a forcefield created by Arthur's ❰ Mirror Guardian ❱
Looking around in confusion, Jamie wondered what was going on around her, the students collapsing to the floor one by one.
'Wait, no! I only meant the bullies!'
Acheron released the skill immediately, and the pressure vanished.
[Mana: 1002 → 453]
The moment the skill was deactivated, Acheron staggered on her feet.
Her vision blurred momentarily with waves of notifications.
[Warning: Moderate Mana Depletion!]
[Physical Functions Compromised]
[Strength: -30%]
[Agility: -15%]
[Mana Regeneration has begun!]
[Mana: 453 → 457]
'I used some much mana in one burst; all these skills take too much mana!'
「 You are still learning how to control it. As long as it's not full mastery, the mana cost will always be high. 」
'It will reduce as I level up the mastery?'
「 No, but you will get better at using it. 」
[Mana: 457 → 407]
'Ahhh! I forgot our conversations takes mana… sighs~'
「 ... 」
Arthur's skill also vanished when the threat was averted. His usual self faded back into his body.
Jamie knelt down beside the beaten-up boy.
"Are you okay?"
He looked up cautiously, blood stains all over his face.
"I… I'm okay."
Jamie helped him to his feet as he dusted himself off.
From her position, Acheron activated [Perception].
[ Status ]
» Name - Arlo Pelegaya
» Core - Gale
» Rank – Archmage
» Stage - 2nd Stage of the Descendant Sun […Details]
Arlo Pelegaya.
A character Acheron took her time writing. The heir to House Pelegaya. Well… that was before his younger brother challenged him to a duel to take over his birthright.
Arlo wasn't a weak person. In fact, he was the second strongest person in his family besides his father. It was obvious who would win in a fight between him and his younger brother. But still… his father allowed it.
Unable to hurt his only younger brother due to the fear of killing him, Arlo forfeited, losing his right as heir.
Word got out that Arlo lost to his younger brother, and ever since then, everyone thought he was a weakling, a failure, a disgrace.
'I wonder how people can be so dumb to think a mage of Arlo's strength would lose to a child.'
"Thank you," Arlo said in a low tone.
"What's going on here?!"
The voice came from the end of the corridor. Everyone turned in its direction.
It was a professor!
All the students immediately scattered, running in various directions. Though the three bullies could not run due to the damage dealt to them by Arthur and Acheron.
"You three!" The professor pointed to Darius and his friends.
"To my office now!"
"But sir… it was—"
"Don't make me repeat myself!"
Darius and his three friends used each other for support as they limped behind the professor. They disappeared into the hallways.
…
Acheron, Jamie, and Arthur reached the end of the corridor, where the path split into two stairways.
"You guys can handle yourselves from here on?"
"Yeah, don't worry. We know the way to our class."
Arthur nodded in agreement with Jamie, and they parted ways.
Acheron took the right stairway, which led to the Descendant Sun class, while Arthur and Jamie followed the other.
After passing through a series of doorways, Acheron finally arrived at her lecture hall. It was a lot quieter than the corridors and had fewer people roaming about.
Her class had a total of 24 students, although not all of them had arrived by the time she did.
Some students stayed in groups, chatting and laughing with each other, while others stayed alone, practicing spells.
She found her seat near the window; luckily, it was still vacant.
Seated beside her was a character she could recognize just from his actions.
His head rested on the desk, his drool all over it.
Argenti Asterion.
The prodigy from House Asterion who did nothing other than sleep during lectures. At a very young age, he was bestowed the 〈Neverending Night〉 relic, which let him train in his sleep.
'He looks a lot cuter in person…'
-「 You say something? ^^ 」
'No, nothing.'
"Tsk, I forgot she can hear my thoughts." Acheron clicked her tongue.
She glanced out the window; from there, she had a clear view of the courtyard and the small building to the right.
The commoners' building.
'They should be arriving any second now…' Acheron looked down toward the gate.
Moments later, two figures arrived at the entrance. The first was a boy with black hair wearing a robe. The other was a girl with white hair tied back.
Vincent and Nieves.
—
♟Nieves Pov:
"This is the place?"
"Yes, love. Go through those doors." Vincent pointed toward the registry.
"…"
Inside, the room was small and dusty. A single desk stood against the wall, covered with stacked papers. An old man sat at the desk, flipping through a document with a stick of smoke in his mouth.
Nieves stood in front of the desk, waiting for the man to notice her.
He looked up slowly, shifting his glasses.
"May I help you?"
"I am Nieves Evergreen. A friend of mine enrolled me here."
"Evergreen, huh?" The old man brought out a list of documents from his drawer, checking each one by one.
After a long time of flipping through the documents, he finally came across one labeled 'Nieves Evergreen.'
"Ah, here it is…" He scanned through it. "It says here that you have an affinity for dark magic. Is this true?"
'Dark magic? That Vincent bastard went and chose a random affinity for me...' Nieves forced a smile as she nodded in agreement.
"Uh… it also says here that you… um, am I reading this right? You are a swordswoman."
"Yes, that's correct," Nieves responded quickly.
"A mage and a swordswoman? Hahaha…" The old man burst into laughter. "Unless you're planning to become a failure, I suggest you pick one path."
Hearing those words, Nieves' expression changed completely.
The old man suddenly felt a cold glare, a pressure building around his throat, choking him with its intensity.
"Ahem. On second thought, I don't really care… um… since it says here that you're new to magic, you should start from the foundation class." The man stacked the documents back and placed them into the drawer.
"I will inform the professor in charge of his new student… you can start tomorrow."
Nieves forced another fake smile.
"Thank you, sir." She dusted her robe and left the building.
—
♛Acheron's Pov:
'It seems she has successfully enrolled as a student. If the story is exactly how I wrote it, then there should be…' Acheron thought.
Five nobles began to walk out of the main building, throwing ❰ Fireball ❱ at the commoners' training grounds, where some of them were resting from running laps.
'…bingo!'
—
♟Nieves Pov:
Nieves saw the fire heading for the exhausted students.
Shing…!
She unsheathed her blade and leaped, immediately leaping to cut through the fireball mid-air.
The students were alerted by the impact.
"Huh? look, that white-haired lowlife cut my spell." One of the nobles placed a hand over his face.
"Do you have a death wish?" Another laughed heartily.
He raised his hand, cycling it in motion.
Massive firepower began to gather at his fingertips. The other nobles joined in as well, and after a while of charging up, the ❰ Fireball ❱ was so massive it covered the entire training ground.
"Let's see you cut this! Hahahaha!"
They released the spell, the heat burning off the trees as it headed for its target.
Vincent began to conjure a counter-spell, but he knew no matter what he did, there was no way he would be able to stop that, nor would Nieves be able to cut it.
"Tsk, everyone get out of the way!"
All the students began running, but Nieves stood her ground. Determination was in her eyes. She wanted to see if she could cut it.
She closed her eyes, entering full concentration.
Then, suddenly…
Snap.
"Be still…"
The ❰ Fireball ❱ suddenly froze thick in the air; its shadow covered the entire commoners' building.
"…Wither away."
The huge chunk of ice broke into a million pieces and rained down as water.
Both the nobles and Nieves turned toward the source of the voice.
Sitting on a bench under a tree in the courtyard was…
…William Anaxagoras!