Chapter 425 139 - Just a little showcase (part 2)

Chapter 425 139 - Just a little showcase (part 2)　　"Oh-ho...! Would you look at all of those people, must be an entire Academy."

Zoemi raised his brows and snickered while walking in the back of the dormitory, admiring the space created overnight by either the teachers wielding the earth attribute or Aspakeony's puppets with the same type of magic at their disposal.

The walls of the Academy that usually boxed the buildings and the green parts were lowered using a certain artifact only available for Aspakeony – not all walls of course – as if the ones against which the storehouses were leaning against would move around, all buildings would crumble without exception.

No, the wall that disappeared was the one facing the plains and meadows extending all the way to the Bellcephora kingdom capital – and were conveniently not in use in agri or horticulture.

…actually, that wasn't a coincidence – the entire terrain was a part of the no man's land that was considered a neutral land – which meant as much as it was under Aspakeony's control...

And she would always refuse any kind of development since it was really convenient for her to use the empty plains as a space for performing the magic examination for the exceptionally strong students.

As for Zoemi's comment about the entire student's body being there, that was true – even though Aspakeony called it a little magic examination, the massive stands for the audience created with earth magic were completely full as it looked like no one wanted to miss the performance of the young lord of the Banemor territory who returned to the Academy after many months of absence.

"Interesting. How much of the Academy can actually move around thanks to that whole artifact?"

The black-haired boy added curiously.

When he saw the absence of the walls for the first time all the way back when he was a first-year student, he didn't pay much attention to it since honestly, he considered it a part of the game – but with how many things changed from that moment, he found himself intrigued by all the things that differentiated this world from the one in the game – especially the ones in the environment, as they all could be useful later on.

"(We can go take a look if you want, master!)"

"(Eeehhh?! Noo! We can send another sentinel to check on it! We have to stay with master to make sure he is safe!)"

The two sentinels residing within the boy's shadow answered sounding as adorable as always and started a tiny quarrel almost immediately.

|For now let's focus on showing off without actually causing too much trouble for Aspy. We can also just ask her to show us the artifact too. She might get angry that we are checking her things without permission.|

This time Zoemi didn't speak out loud but rather thought silently, making sure that only his sentinels would be able to communicate with him.

Getting overheard would be very problematic to say the least – especially so when the thing he talked about was a precious artifact from the ancient past – probably as old as the seal on the headmaster's office, or maybe even older.

"(Okay... Then later...?)"

"(After we make others not want to mess with master!)"

The sentinels cheered out, making Zoemi wonder whether he really did explain things to them properly enough...

Still, as long as they wouldn't kill anyone, everything should work out fine – after all the black-haired boy really wanted to deter others from constantly bothering him while also giving himself an opportunity to be boastful and arrogant.

He actually planned for something else after the examination would be over – but he was still hesitant whether to implement that particular idea of his or not.

"Lord Zoemi Benevi Banemor, if you please."

The red-haired headmaster – or rather the red-haired corpse puppet playing the role of the headmaster – called out and waved at the approaching boy to hurry up, but Zoemi did not pick up his pace at all, casually limping all the way supporting himself on the crystal cane.

"Now, now. Sir Burdoff, I am a recovering patient, don't you know? You don't want to make me exert myself – my personal medic is rather feisty and would not hesitate to throw hands in my defense~"

Zoemi grinned evilly while walking up to the burly man and looking up at him mockingly, speaking with no respect in his voice.

Even the form he was using while talking to the corpse puppet – sir and not lord – showed that the black-haired boy considers the headmaster as only someone equal or lower than himself, which was unthinkable for every single student except for the royal first prince.

"(Master, the healing girl is angry at you for pulling her into this.)"

One of Zoemi's sentinels reported in a bothered voice, but Zoemi only snickered internally.

|Tell her that it's already too late to try and hide it – she was a step away from beating up Teo yesterday~|

He said playfully while taking his spot as the examined student.

"Ready~"

Zoemi hummed lightheartedly standing next to the desk that normally would host three teachers as examiners, but with only Burdoff taking most of the space.

"Place your hand over the mana measuring device."

The corpse puppet headmaster demanded while motioning at the translucent sphere, which the black-haired boy complied with without another word.

For this test he didn't need his sentinels to help him out as if he remembered things correctly, the measuring device didn't actually mess with the mana itself but rather used the mana stored within it to encompass the mana reservoir of the target and gauge its size that way.

"..."

"..."

The silence that befell the audience was eerily uncomfortable as everyone was waiting for the result – that of course included the necromancer taking direct control over her puppet and the black-haired boy who didn't stop measuring his mana reservoir after it overtook most of the magicians he knew.

The crystal sphere started slowly changing the color, first, it became opaque, then it was dyed black, but within a second it changed to vibrant brown, then green, blue, and red.

When it finally turned gold, the light it was giving off began growing in intensity, until it started to be borderline blinding, impossible to keep one's eyes on it.

"Wh-what in the world...?!"

Someone gasped – but it was hard to tell whether it was someone from the audience or either Zoemi or Aspakeony using Burdoff's mouth.

Why?

Well, because the next step after becoming blinding was for the sphere to create an air quake, distorting the space around it to the point of turning the reality into an extremely low-resolution image...

"ENOUGH!"

This time it was unmistakably Burdoff's voice roaring over the space distortion caused by the measuring device.

"(Master!? Are you okay?!)"

"(Master, you have to be careful!)"

|...ugh... I'm fine... I just... didn't expect an air quake to cause me an actual headache...|

Funnily enough, Aspakeony wouldn't call for the end of the procedure if not for the fact that she noticed the smudge that she recognized as Zoemi to be bending down seemingly in pain – the device itself wasn't done.

And the necromancer controlling the puppet headmaster was right in calling for the premature end – as was proven by the worried voices of the sentinels followed by the boy's pained gasp that he managed to hold back, groaning only in his thoughts.

"..."

The air quake subsided and the orb reverted back to its translucent state and the black-haired boy breathed out and straightened his back before looking down at the red-haired headmaster.

"How was that?"

He asked while doing his best not to grit his teeth – thankfully the headache was disappearing almost as fast as the visual distortion caused by the sphere.

"...sage level, easily..."

Aspakeony muttered under Burdoff's breath before looking up straight into the boy's eyes, ready to play things out slightly different for the audience amongst whom many were not aware of even the concept of sages.

"If there actually was anything above the level of a light magician, you would be just that, boy."

...was what the corpse puppet said out loud for all to hear, causing a collective gasp to pass through the stands.

"Duh, obviously. Don't you know what I went through to get to that level?"

Zoemi smirked, shrugging his shoulders dismissively while already walking towards the first target - a training dummy at the close combat range.

"Ready~"

He said again, waiting for the permission to begin.