After an extended stunned silence, the observation room exploded with shouts. The upper nobility and the wise, dignified Mages, Paladins and Spell-Blades turned into an unruly mob in a blink of an eye.
“Monster!”
“Genius!”
“I must have him as a disciple!”
“Are you sure he’s a Mage material? Look at the way he’s built! He should be a Paladin!”
“Nonsense! You don’t even know whether he’s one of the faithful, nor which god he follows! That kid is a born Spell-Blade!”
“Could he be a senior student playing a prank?!”
The shouts were varied and the room had devolved into pandemonium.
“Silence,” the youth in the center said softly. His whisper spread like a wave throughout the room. The man had infused his voice with Soul Force just like proctor did earlier that day. However the feeling he created was that of swords and needles threatening to stab into everyone’s souls.
“Children haven’t finished taking their test,” the young man continued once the room turned silent enough to hear a pin drop.
“Sir, that was the last child in the room,” an elderly man standing behind the youth said. He spoke in a helpful monotone one would expect from bored clerks.
“Oh, is that so? Then have the proctor take them to have their bone age verified. We need to make sure there are no irregularities.” The youth seemed satisfied that things were progressing quickly. He also acted as if he didn’t know that Wolf was the last person to have their name called out.
“Yes Sir,” the old man said and took out a Far Voice from his Ring of Holding.
After he issued a simple order the observers saw the proctor nod. Then the man herded the children out of the room and took them to have their bone age tested.
“Please inform me of the results, Dick,” the youth said and dramatically turned around, his robe flowing unnaturally behind him.
“It’s Richard Sir.” Richard said mechanically, but the youth simply ignored him.
”Everyone, let us move to the Hall of Names,” the young man said as he led the way. “We will only observe through a pane of magic insulating glass. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No Sir.”
“Not at all Headmaster.”
“Sounds like a great idea.” The nobles and other observers chirped fawningly, while the headmaster slowly walked out of the room and into a hallway.
“Have the kitchen staff prepare some tea for us,” Headmaster said to the elderly man called Richard.
“Yes Sir,” the assistant said while following right behind the headmaster. He took out another clay disc and ordered refreshments for everyone.
Of the two Richard seemed both wiser and more visually appropriate for the role of a stern headmaster. He was smartly dressed in black formal clothing which suited him impeccably. His back was straight like a rod and, other than his boss, he was the only one who could walk leisurely in this group.
By the time they reached the room from which they would observe the next trial the teapots were already prepared on tables meant for standing.
The room had a bunch of comfortable armchairs and club tables, yet the group drank their tea while standing. The headmaster didn’t show any intention of sitting down, and with him standing nobody else dared to sit. Even the Duke wouldn’t dare sit down while Lord of Steel was standing.
The nobles cursed him in their minds, but had polite smiles plastered on their faces. After waiting for about an hour the candidates finally entered the large hall on the other side of the looking glass.
“Sir, they all passed the test. That Wolf without a surname had turned out to be the minimal age. Based on his application his birthday was less than two weeks ago,” Richard said and his boss nodded.
“Thanks Dick,” Headmaster said absentmindedly.
“It’s Richard Sir,” Richard said out of habit, but the youth still didn’t pay any attention to him.
The people gathered here couldn’t know that the rate at which Wolf’s bones aged was drastically reduced by the completion of the first stage of Star Body Body Refining art. When South helped him complete the second stage the aging of Wolf’s bones was completely stopped.
So even if he turned a thousand his skeleton would at most register as if he was seven or eight years old. That didn’t mean Wolf’s bones didn’t grow. They did, just not in the way you’d expect a manling’s skeleton to grow.
They were also unaware that Wolf was actually lucky when taking this test. The device was manufactured with a minimal age of twelve years old. It was meant to catch people suspected of being older than they claimed, not younger.
As far as Lord of Steel was concerned, if anyone younger could enter his academy they were free to do so. The only things he cared about in his students were the talent and potential. Everything else, including their moral character, were the student’s own affair. If the man noticed that he was raising a psychopath he’d snuff them out personally.
“Dick, tell the young fellow in charge of the exam that the prodigy should go last,” Lord of Steel said, having a feeling that anyone going after this Wolf without a surname wouldn’t get their fair share of attention, which might cause a slip up. That was doubly true since, as the candidate with the best result, Wolf was supposed to go first.
“It’s Richard Sir,” Richard said while taking out the clay disc he used to communicate with the proctor. After the secretary issued a simple order the proctor nodded in a subtle manner.
Wolf also noticed that the man in charge of his exam had nodded yet again, but didn’t think much of it. Unless Wolf fully awakened his senses there was no way for him to hear the subtle sound from the silver earrings the man wore.
Instead the youth focused on inspecting the hall they were in. The chamber was roughly three times smaller than the mess hall. Just like with the proving ground, this hall had a large mirror, from behind which Wolf felt numerous gazes fixed on him.
Other than the extremely eye-catching mirror, the rest of the room was black. The walls and the floor were tiled with fine black marble. At the center of the room was an elaborate Spell Formation drawn in white and light blue inks, embedded with two dozen Fifth Order Monster Cores. The central part of the Spell Formation was covered by a circular platform two meters and twenty-two centimeters in diameter.
A large chunk of the Spell Formation was obscured by the platform, but as Wolf examined it he concluded that it was used to manipulate gravity. However, he couldn’t tell the exact purpose with such a large portion of the Spell Formation missing.
Following a hunch Wolf glanced upwards. At the center of the hall’s domed ceiling was a hole which perfectly matched the platform. Based on this clue, it was easy to figure out how the Spell Formation worked.
“Boland Athelas,” the proctor called out, and the young noble that had cast Haze during the practical exam walked out.
The young man followed the instructions and moved to stand at the center of the platform. A couple of moments later the platform slowly levitated upwards, shocking the commoner youths. As the platform slowly floated upwards Wolf got to see its bottom side and a much smaller Spell Formation.
Hmm, a failsafe in case the main Spell Formation fails? Wolf concluded, approving of the meticulous design.
The platform sealed the opening in the ceiling with a sound of stone clicking against stone. The hole was filled so flawlessly that the seam was barely visible.
With the platform in place, the proctor turned towards the wall opposite to the mirror. Just like the rest of the room it was inky black with fine white veins. After half a minute a large green zero appeared on the wall and the platform started descending.
The youth didn’t have the potential to become a True-Namer.
“Darian Deco,” the proctor called out and a minute later Darian Deco descended from the Hall of Names with a green zero on the wall.
“Wayde Northshield,” the man called out and Wayde stepped forward. Almost as soon as the youth entered the Hall of Names the wall flickered and a green one appeared on the black surface.
Wayde stayed in the Hall of Names twice as long as the previous candidates, however the one didn’t become a two. Considering the youth’s life experiences it wasn’t surprising that he’d seen sights that had left such a meaningful impact on his soul.
Wayde’s one was followed by a long train of zeros, but surprisingly three beggar youths also managed to score a one. At this point the difference between those leading sheltered lives and those who experienced the vicissitudes of life became obvious.
Unfortunately those youths were almost certainly bound to become retainers of large noble households. Either that or die on their missions due to someone’s jealousy.
The only one who didn’t find the proceedings boring was Wolf. After several candidates had gone through he realized that the performance in the previous test was what determined the order people were tested in. But if that was the case, why was he skipped?
When he realized this, Wolf began to panic. Is it because I broke those five straw dummies? But even then, they shouldn’t think about expelling me. I asked and even if it really is a problem I can pay for them. Those dolls were at most a silver piece each.
Wolf was deeply absorbed in his absurd train of thoughts, wondering if he was going to get expelled before even being properly admitted into the Mage Academy. He was so engrossed in his delusion that he didn’t notice the proctor call his name.
“Wolf, no last name!” the man shouted loudly for the second time, imbuing his voice with Soul Force.
The shout snapped Wolf out of his naive thoughts. He stepped forward with an apologetic look.
“Um, sorry about the dummies,” Wolf mumbled as he passed the man.
The proctor looked at the sheepish youth and tried to understand what the kid was saying. By the time the man realized what Wolf was talking about, the latter had already climbed on top of the levitating platform and started ascending towards the Hall of Names.
The artifact called Hall of Names was neither a hall, nor did it have a single name written inside. The entire structure was actually a giant magical item in the form of a ten meter radius crystalline sphere with a circular hole at the bottom. When the platform softly clicked into place Wolf felt his body continue to rise until it was at the center of the sphere.
The intended purpose of this item was to help a potential True-Namer get a feel for the True Name. This was done by drowning the candidate in principles which governed the world. With the aid of this force, the candidate could refine their understanding of a True Name. Assuming they were close to comprehending one. This refinement didn’t help one’s comprehension. It only made all of the errors, flaws and missing pieces of the True Name stand out in the user’s mind. They were as easy to spot as black stains on white cloth.
If the user could correct all of the erroneous conclusions they had come to and replace them with the correct ones, as well as fill in the missing pieces, they would then learn a True Name. The process sounded simple and very helpful, but all it could do was check the quality of your attainments and point out any issues. The magical apparatus couldn’t really teach you True Names.
For the purpose of the test an additional feature was installed in the artifact. It could output the number of different resonances it had with the user. Even though this method of checking one’s potential was very flawed, it was the best the geniuses of Mage Academy had managed over successive generations.
Wolf naturally knew nothing about any of this. The only thing he’d seen while waiting for all the other entrants to finish were numbers on a stone wall. Almost all of them were zeros checkered with an occasional one, which meant that the person had affinity for True Naming. Wolf believed the apparatus was binary. A zero was the sign of lacking potential, while a one was a sign the candidate had potential.
As he floated in the pitch black room, Wolf wondered how the artifact worked. In the room devoid of any light, Wolf slowly floated upward. As soon as he stopped a drastic change happened. Multicolored lights started flashing and dancing on the smooth walls before washing over Wolf.
The hypnotic pattern had an endless array of colors. The vibrant green full of life, flashing lines of yellowish white that looked like lightning, the absolute blackness of the void, the stale grayness of death, the gentle silvery-purple of Soul Force, a steady and stalwart blue and, the most dominant of all, the passionate bloody red. The color of slaughter and lives cut short.
There were many other colors, a near infinite number of them, but these few were the ones that Wolf noticed first. They were the colors that dominated his vision…
***
Outside the Hall of Names everyone stared at the black wall. It showed two digits, a one and a zero. The proctor’s mouth hung open. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The youths around him had no idea what those numbers meant. As for the observation room, it was in an uproar.
This was an unprecedented level of talent. For someone to have the potential to learn ten True Names at the age of twelve. Everyone wondered what this child had experienced in his twelve short years. If they’d known Wolf’s true potential and how many of this world’s laws swirled around him, they would’ve probably died from shock.
The Mages were shouting about who was suitable to guide such a talent, but in reality they were fighting about which one of them would have a future True-Namer as a student. The benefits and merits associated with raising a True-Namer were practically endless. Not just because of the immediate benefit, but because in the future even more talented students would choose them as their mentors and their career would balloon in no time.
“Silence please,” the headmaster uttered softly once more.
His voice cut through the chatter like a steel blade, cutting the words short and leaving everyone with a feeling that an impossibly sharp blade was pressed against their throats.
“Only Truenamers of Second Order and above are eligible to accept that boy as a student,” he declared. “Even then it will only happen with his consent. I don’t want to turn such a genius against this respected institution. Is that clear?”
The only thing he got in response was silence.
“Good,” he said calmly. “I will decide which of these students haven’t met the criteria. Then I will notify Paladin and Spell-Blade orders. As always, I will not take into consideration their talents in things that are of interest to you. Their only quality I can vouch for is that they are not eligible to become students of my Mage Academy.”
A number of people felt like grumbling in dissatisfaction, but they didn’t have the balls to do so. The man standing in front of them had a social standing on par with the Duke. In fact, because of his age and power, even the Duke addressed Headmaster Smith with Sir. As for the man’s power, it was enough to know that in a moment of crisis he broke a Monster Beast wave all on his own.
Lord of Steel appeared to be an easygoing person, but that was as long as everyone played by his rules, and they didn’t try to mess with him or his people. If someone touched a reverse scale of his they would be dead before they knew what had happened.
Headmaster was one of the few people that sincerely approved of the changes brought about by the new Emperor. Almost all nobles were afraid of a world in which personal power and capability were more important than one’s family’s standing. Also the power brought by wealth was vastly reduced compared to how things were a decade ago. Robbing wealth from others had become the quick way to become rich, and being rich without power was now no different from wearing a giant target.
If someone were to remind these people that most of their ancestors had become rich exactly through murder and looting they would either deny it, or claim a moral high ground that their ancestors were carrying out the orders of the previous Emperors, or acting for the betterment of the human race.
Headmaster Smith looked at this room filled with the weak and the conceited. Of course he wasn’t thinking about the Paladins and Spell-Blades, but about his own flock and the nobles. More than half of these people came here either to see how well their descendants performed and how poorly the descendants of others performed. To make matters worse, some of them came with the thought of bribing their offspring’s way into the Academy.
Even though he gladly took their money, Smith hated such people. He had high hopes that this era would purge them.
Based on his personal efforts, he already knew that the results wouldn’t last forever, but they should stick for a generation or three. After all, the ancestors of all these slimy little people were as tough as nails and had personally earned everything their useless descendants were now squandering.
Lord of Steel gazed at the academy staff and the gathered donors of his Mage Academy. All he saw were idlers and those with ulterior motives. The only ones who really had to be here were him and his assistant. Well the proctor too, but he was conducting the tests, so it kind of went without saying. Speaking of the man, he was looking nervously at the ten on the wall and then at the part of the ceiling where the Hall of Names was. Wolf was up there for a couple of minutes already.
sleepydad88
An issue happened with release of Chapter 81. If you missed it, it's up now. Sorry for the inconvenience, I don't know what went wrong, the other sites posted just fine.
After an extended stunned silence, the observation room exploded with shouts. The upper nobility and the wise, dignified Mages, Paladins and Spell-Blades turned into an unruly mob in a blink of an eye.
“Monster!”
“Genius!”
“I must have him as a disciple!”
“Are you sure he’s a Mage material? Look at the way he’s built! He should be a Paladin!”
“Nonsense! You don’t even know whether he’s one of the faithful, nor which god he follows! That kid is a born Spell-Blade!”
“Could he be a senior student playing a prank?!”
The shouts were varied and the room had devolved into pandemonium.
“Silence,” the youth in the center said softly. His whisper spread like a wave throughout the room. The man had infused his voice with Soul Force just like proctor did earlier that day. However the feeling he created was that of swords and needles threatening to stab into everyone’s souls.
“Children haven’t finished taking their test,” the young man continued once the room turned silent enough to hear a pin drop.
“Sir, that was the last child in the room,” an elderly man standing behind the youth said. He spoke in a helpful monotone one would expect from bored clerks.
“Oh, is that so? Then have the proctor take them to have their bone age verified. We need to make sure there are no irregularities.” The youth seemed satisfied that things were progressing quickly. He also acted as if he didn’t know that Wolf was the last person to have their name called out.
“Yes Sir,” the old man said and took out a Far Voice from his Ring of Holding.
After he issued a simple order the observers saw the proctor nod. Then the man herded the children out of the room and took them to have their bone age tested.
“Please inform me of the results, Dick,” the youth said and dramatically turned around, his robe flowing unnaturally behind him.
“It’s Richard Sir.” Richard said mechanically, but the youth simply ignored him.
”Everyone, let us move to the Hall of Names,” the young man said as he led the way. “We will only observe through a pane of magic insulating glass. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No Sir.”
“Not at all Headmaster.”
“Sounds like a great idea.” The nobles and other observers chirped fawningly, while the headmaster slowly walked out of the room and into a hallway.
“Have the kitchen staff prepare some tea for us,” Headmaster said to the elderly man called Richard.
“Yes Sir,” the assistant said while following right behind the headmaster. He took out another clay disc and ordered refreshments for everyone.
Of the two Richard seemed both wiser and more visually appropriate for the role of a stern headmaster. He was smartly dressed in black formal clothing which suited him impeccably. His back was straight like a rod and, other than his boss, he was the only one who could walk leisurely in this group.
By the time they reached the room from which they would observe the next trial the teapots were already prepared on tables meant for standing.
The room had a bunch of comfortable armchairs and club tables, yet the group drank their tea while standing. The headmaster didn’t show any intention of sitting down, and with him standing nobody else dared to sit. Even the Duke wouldn’t dare sit down while Lord of Steel was standing.
The nobles cursed him in their minds, but had polite smiles plastered on their faces. After waiting for about an hour the candidates finally entered the large hall on the other side of the looking glass.
“Sir, they all passed the test. That Wolf without a surname had turned out to be the minimal age. Based on his application his birthday was less than two weeks ago,” Richard said and his boss nodded.
“Thanks Dick,” Headmaster said absentmindedly.
“It’s Richard Sir,” Richard said out of habit, but the youth still didn’t pay any attention to him.
The people gathered here couldn’t know that the rate at which Wolf’s bones aged was drastically reduced by the completion of the first stage of Star Body Body Refining art. When South helped him complete the second stage the aging of Wolf’s bones was completely stopped.
So even if he turned a thousand his skeleton would at most register as if he was seven or eight years old. That didn’t mean Wolf’s bones didn’t grow. They did, just not in the way you’d expect a manling’s skeleton to grow.
They were also unaware that Wolf was actually lucky when taking this test. The device was manufactured with a minimal age of twelve years old. It was meant to catch people suspected of being older than they claimed, not younger.
As far as Lord of Steel was concerned, if anyone younger could enter his academy they were free to do so. The only things he cared about in his students were the talent and potential. Everything else, including their moral character, were the student’s own affair. If the man noticed that he was raising a psychopath he’d snuff them out personally.
“Dick, tell the young fellow in charge of the exam that the prodigy should go last,” Lord of Steel said, having a feeling that anyone going after this Wolf without a surname wouldn’t get their fair share of attention, which might cause a slip up. That was doubly true since, as the candidate with the best result, Wolf was supposed to go first.
“It’s Richard Sir,” Richard said while taking out the clay disc he used to communicate with the proctor. After the secretary issued a simple order the proctor nodded in a subtle manner.
Wolf also noticed that the man in charge of his exam had nodded yet again, but didn’t think much of it. Unless Wolf fully awakened his senses there was no way for him to hear the subtle sound from the silver earrings the man wore.
Instead the youth focused on inspecting the hall they were in. The chamber was roughly three times smaller than the mess hall. Just like with the proving ground, this hall had a large mirror, from behind which Wolf felt numerous gazes fixed on him.
Other than the extremely eye-catching mirror, the rest of the room was black. The walls and the floor were tiled with fine black marble. At the center of the room was an elaborate Spell Formation drawn in white and light blue inks, embedded with two dozen Fifth Order Monster Cores. The central part of the Spell Formation was covered by a circular platform two meters and twenty-two centimeters in diameter.
A large chunk of the Spell Formation was obscured by the platform, but as Wolf examined it he concluded that it was used to manipulate gravity. However, he couldn’t tell the exact purpose with such a large portion of the Spell Formation missing.
Following a hunch Wolf glanced upwards. At the center of the hall’s domed ceiling was a hole which perfectly matched the platform. Based on this clue, it was easy to figure out how the Spell Formation worked.
“Boland Athelas,” the proctor called out, and the young noble that had cast Haze during the practical exam walked out.
The young man followed the instructions and moved to stand at the center of the platform. A couple of moments later the platform slowly levitated upwards, shocking the commoner youths. As the platform slowly floated upwards Wolf got to see its bottom side and a much smaller Spell Formation.
Hmm, a failsafe in case the main Spell Formation fails? Wolf concluded, approving of the meticulous design.
The platform sealed the opening in the ceiling with a sound of stone clicking against stone. The hole was filled so flawlessly that the seam was barely visible.
With the platform in place, the proctor turned towards the wall opposite to the mirror. Just like the rest of the room it was inky black with fine white veins. After half a minute a large green zero appeared on the wall and the platform started descending.
The youth didn’t have the potential to become a True-Namer.
“Darian Deco,” the proctor called out and a minute later Darian Deco descended from the Hall of Names with a green zero on the wall.
“Wayde Northshield,” the man called out and Wayde stepped forward. Almost as soon as the youth entered the Hall of Names the wall flickered and a green one appeared on the black surface.
Wayde stayed in the Hall of Names twice as long as the previous candidates, however the one didn’t become a two. Considering the youth’s life experiences it wasn’t surprising that he’d seen sights that had left such a meaningful impact on his soul.
Wayde’s one was followed by a long train of zeros, but surprisingly three beggar youths also managed to score a one. At this point the difference between those leading sheltered lives and those who experienced the vicissitudes of life became obvious.
Unfortunately those youths were almost certainly bound to become retainers of large noble households. Either that or die on their missions due to someone’s jealousy.
The only one who didn’t find the proceedings boring was Wolf. After several candidates had gone through he realized that the performance in the previous test was what determined the order people were tested in. But if that was the case, why was he skipped?
When he realized this, Wolf began to panic. Is it because I broke those five straw dummies? But even then, they shouldn’t think about expelling me. I asked and even if it really is a problem I can pay for them. Those dolls were at most a silver piece each.
Wolf was deeply absorbed in his absurd train of thoughts, wondering if he was going to get expelled before even being properly admitted into the Mage Academy. He was so engrossed in his delusion that he didn’t notice the proctor call his name.
“Wolf, no last name!” the man shouted loudly for the second time, imbuing his voice with Soul Force.
The shout snapped Wolf out of his naive thoughts. He stepped forward with an apologetic look.
“Um, sorry about the dummies,” Wolf mumbled as he passed the man.
The proctor looked at the sheepish youth and tried to understand what the kid was saying. By the time the man realized what Wolf was talking about, the latter had already climbed on top of the levitating platform and started ascending towards the Hall of Names.
The artifact called Hall of Names was neither a hall, nor did it have a single name written inside. The entire structure was actually a giant magical item in the form of a ten meter radius crystalline sphere with a circular hole at the bottom. When the platform softly clicked into place Wolf felt his body continue to rise until it was at the center of the sphere.
The intended purpose of this item was to help a potential True-Namer get a feel for the True Name. This was done by drowning the candidate in principles which governed the world. With the aid of this force, the candidate could refine their understanding of a True Name. Assuming they were close to comprehending one. This refinement didn’t help one’s comprehension. It only made all of the errors, flaws and missing pieces of the True Name stand out in the user’s mind. They were as easy to spot as black stains on white cloth.
If the user could correct all of the erroneous conclusions they had come to and replace them with the correct ones, as well as fill in the missing pieces, they would then learn a True Name. The process sounded simple and very helpful, but all it could do was check the quality of your attainments and point out any issues. The magical apparatus couldn’t really teach you True Names.
For the purpose of the test an additional feature was installed in the artifact. It could output the number of different resonances it had with the user. Even though this method of checking one’s potential was very flawed, it was the best the geniuses of Mage Academy had managed over successive generations.
Wolf naturally knew nothing about any of this. The only thing he’d seen while waiting for all the other entrants to finish were numbers on a stone wall. Almost all of them were zeros checkered with an occasional one, which meant that the person had affinity for True Naming. Wolf believed the apparatus was binary. A zero was the sign of lacking potential, while a one was a sign the candidate had potential.
As he floated in the pitch black room, Wolf wondered how the artifact worked. In the room devoid of any light, Wolf slowly floated upward. As soon as he stopped a drastic change happened. Multicolored lights started flashing and dancing on the smooth walls before washing over Wolf.
The hypnotic pattern had an endless array of colors. The vibrant green full of life, flashing lines of yellowish white that looked like lightning, the absolute blackness of the void, the stale grayness of death, the gentle silvery-purple of Soul Force, a steady and stalwart blue and, the most dominant of all, the passionate bloody red. The color of slaughter and lives cut short.
There were many other colors, a near infinite number of them, but these few were the ones that Wolf noticed first. They were the colors that dominated his vision…
***
Outside the Hall of Names everyone stared at the black wall. It showed two digits, a one and a zero. The proctor’s mouth hung open. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The youths around him had no idea what those numbers meant. As for the observation room, it was in an uproar.
This was an unprecedented level of talent. For someone to have the potential to learn ten True Names at the age of twelve. Everyone wondered what this child had experienced in his twelve short years. If they’d known Wolf’s true potential and how many of this world’s laws swirled around him, they would’ve probably died from shock.
The Mages were shouting about who was suitable to guide such a talent, but in reality they were fighting about which one of them would have a future True-Namer as a student. The benefits and merits associated with raising a True-Namer were practically endless. Not just because of the immediate benefit, but because in the future even more talented students would choose them as their mentors and their career would balloon in no time.
“Silence please,” the headmaster uttered softly once more.
His voice cut through the chatter like a steel blade, cutting the words short and leaving everyone with a feeling that an impossibly sharp blade was pressed against their throats.
“Only Truenamers of Second Order and above are eligible to accept that boy as a student,” he declared. “Even then it will only happen with his consent. I don’t want to turn such a genius against this respected institution. Is that clear?”
The only thing he got in response was silence.
“Good,” he said calmly. “I will decide which of these students haven’t met the criteria. Then I will notify Paladin and Spell-Blade orders. As always, I will not take into consideration their talents in things that are of interest to you. Their only quality I can vouch for is that they are not eligible to become students of my Mage Academy.”
A number of people felt like grumbling in dissatisfaction, but they didn’t have the balls to do so. The man standing in front of them had a social standing on par with the Duke. In fact, because of his age and power, even the Duke addressed Headmaster Smith with Sir. As for the man’s power, it was enough to know that in a moment of crisis he broke a Monster Beast wave all on his own.
Lord of Steel appeared to be an easygoing person, but that was as long as everyone played by his rules, and they didn’t try to mess with him or his people. If someone touched a reverse scale of his they would be dead before they knew what had happened.
Headmaster was one of the few people that sincerely approved of the changes brought about by the new Emperor. Almost all nobles were afraid of a world in which personal power and capability were more important than one’s family’s standing. Also the power brought by wealth was vastly reduced compared to how things were a decade ago. Robbing wealth from others had become the quick way to become rich, and being rich without power was now no different from wearing a giant target.
If someone were to remind these people that most of their ancestors had become rich exactly through murder and looting they would either deny it, or claim a moral high ground that their ancestors were carrying out the orders of the previous Emperors, or acting for the betterment of the human race.
Headmaster Smith looked at this room filled with the weak and the conceited. Of course he wasn’t thinking about the Paladins and Spell-Blades, but about his own flock and the nobles. More than half of these people came here either to see how well their descendants performed and how poorly the descendants of others performed. To make matters worse, some of them came with the thought of bribing their offspring’s way into the Academy.
Even though he gladly took their money, Smith hated such people. He had high hopes that this era would purge them.
Based on his personal efforts, he already knew that the results wouldn’t last forever, but they should stick for a generation or three. After all, the ancestors of all these slimy little people were as tough as nails and had personally earned everything their useless descendants were now squandering.
Lord of Steel gazed at the academy staff and the gathered donors of his Mage Academy. All he saw were idlers and those with ulterior motives. The only ones who really had to be here were him and his assistant. Well the proctor too, but he was conducting the tests, so it kind of went without saying. Speaking of the man, he was looking nervously at the ten on the wall and then at the part of the ceiling where the Hall of Names was. Wolf was up there for a couple of minutes already.
sleepydad88
An issue happened with release of Chapter 81. If you missed it, it's up now. Sorry for the inconvenience, I don't know what went wrong, the other sites posted just fine.
