I slowly opened my eyes as I felt Albert nudging me.
"Is it my turn yet?" I asked him as I saw the first prince standing in front of the podium talking about the mighty empire and its great ruler.
"After him." He replied with his typical grinning face.
Seeing his excitedness I asked him "You found that person?"
"Of course, who do you think I am. He is the 3-last row on the far-right hand side. In fact, he has been looking your way for quite a while now." I turned to look where Albert pointed out for me and found him looking at me with anxiousness and impatience.
"Prove you are not bluffing." I answered back.
"I believe you must have noticed before; Natasha and her friends have been anxiously waiting for someone. Which means he wasn't here when we arrived. The total number of students in the auditorium at that time was 9,863 meaning there were only 137 students not present in the auditorium.
I was pretty sure they will notice him when he arrived, so all I had to do was wait for those 137 students to come in and see if I could get any reaction from Natasha and her group when they see him/her.
He came in after the 47th student and that too in a mess. Parts of his uniforms have a small tear and wear as if he was in a fight. If you don't still, believe me, you can look at Natasha and her group, they keep taking glances back at him." Albert replied proudly.
As expected there is no better counter than a commandment. From the numbers I got him to do for me, sneakily, it is likely that we are still missing 89 students, but that number should be less now considering the time that's passed.
"Fine, your next meal would be for free." I replied just before a round of applause thundered across the hall. I checked the time to notice it has been 2 hours since the start of opening ceremony.
The headteacher walked towards the podium stood there as the applause died down for the crown prince as he sat back in his chair pleased with his speech (probably written by the best scholar in the empire for him).
The order at which people gives their speech was decided by me. 1st was the Merlin, then Albert, followed by Jack, James and finally me.
"Finally, we have our host for this year's graduation exam, His Highness 3rd Prince John." The headteacher welcomed me as I stood up and walked towards the podium.
A massive round of applause soon followed, and I had to wait a while before it died down.
"Thank you, everyone. I won't take too much of your time as you must all be pretty tired from facing a harder challenge than the exams. Listening to all of us torturing you with our speeches, right?" Suddenly few bouts of laughter and giggles erupted from the students scattered out everywhere.
I knew these muppets never understood the meaning of 'short and sweet'. It is almost a custom to have long speeches and talks for whatever function that is being held. In fact, anyone who never held long speeches was seen as illiterates.
But what these guys forgot was these were 15-year-old hot-blooded, energetic teenagers, not 30-year-old office workers who needed annual company retreat to boost their morale. If there is one thing teenagers hates it's listening to hours of long dragged out speeches, which is repeated by another person using similar words.
"Jokes aside, I won't repeat anything they have said as I am pretty sure you had fair deal of advice given to you in the past 2 hours about the seriousness of the exam and how to face it, along with its importance.
This is my first public appearance and my first public work since my elevation to a royal heir. Due to that, I have given this exam everything I have got and hope you guys will do the same. Also, a small tip to you guys for the exam... Shortcuts will reward less." Suddenly the hall became extremely quiet as everyone tried to comprehend what I said.
"The time now is 10 am. I believe I have arranged for a 1-and-a-half-hour break for you all now, to rest and relax outside with snacks and drinks. Your first exam starts at 12:30 pm but all of you are required to be present before the exam hall before 12pm.
Thank you and have a good day and good luck." My speech didn't even take 5 minutes and probably due to how short it was everyone was surprised including the students. The hall was silent for a short while before cheerful applause followed suite by the thankful students.
This was precisely why I decided to assign all these idiots to go first, so they would torture these kids with hours long speech. So, when it came to my turn I would keep it short and simple and become the saviour of these bored students.
"Thank you, your highness for that wonderful encouragement. As you have heard we will be having a break..." The headteacher carried on as I walked back to my seat while looking at the annoyed stares of James while Merlin was probably pondering at the effectiveness of my short speech.
After I sat down Albert chirped in "You know although we are in opposite teams I have to let you know that was a really short speech. Those guys are not going to like it." He said as he nodded towards the group of important figures sat next to the stadium shaking their head towards me.
"I don't care. If those idiots avoid me for the shortness of my speech, then it's their loss." I replied.
The ceremony ended after a few minutes of instructions. All of us except the students and staffs left through the side door to a separate hall for V.I.P's.
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Damn it these guys are really planning something. Not long after I had somehow escaped those mind-controlled students, I saw something scary as soon as I entered and waited in the ceremony hall amongst thousands of other people.
Amidst the students, few of them turned around and looked at me, with the same emotionless eyes I saw back with that women. But strangely this time all of them smiled towards me at the same time and turned around.
After a few minutes of that creepy event I saw the previous mind-controlled students from the house coming in. They chose to sit around me and looked straight towards the podium.
After a while, I suddenly heard a voice "Miss me?"
I could feel my hairs standing up as I remembered that same melodious and beautiful voice. I whipped my head to the side where the sound came from and saw no one other than one of the mind-controlled students sitting by my side.
It's that same voice. I swear, it's her voice, but she is dead.
Hang on this smell of rose fragrance. It's the same, she is not dead!? But how?
I could have sworn I killed her. Wait she said something about allies. Could one of her allies have healed her? That means he/she is also a high ranking magi. If that is so why didn't that ally stop me? No, in fact, the better question is why did they let me go?
"Stop looking around and calm down. You are acting like a crazy person." I could hear her soft voice again. I quickly realised due to my panic few teachers were glancing at me. I let the effects of stable mind come in and calm me down.
"I am not here for you, so don't worry. As long as you don't interfere with my plans I won't do anything to your very special group of friends." Suddenly my blood boiled as she threatened to harm my friends.
"Calm down, like I said I am not here to harm anyone. I just want to get close to the 3rd prince, John Emberson. As you have already guessed and witnessed I specialise in controlling the minds of people. The people that hired me wants the same thing done to John Emberson for certain complicated reasons."
I was baffled for a few seconds as she laid out her plans bare before me. Why is she doing that?
"You may be wondering right now, why I am telling you all this? You see so far in my life everyone has succumbed to my power, man or women, beast or animals. Any person I tried to befriend I could control them and reveal their true thoughts to me. There was no mystery, secrets, surprises etc in my life. Life was getting very boring for me.
But suddenly you turn up in my life being the first person to be unaffected by my power while being only a rank 2 magi. In simple words, you are a match made for me, so I have decided to fall in love with you."
The hell?
[Stable Mind has levelled up]
I blanked out for a few seconds before coming out of my shock. What kind of confession is this? I have lived 2 lives, and this is the first time I am encountering a situation like this. The shock I received was so great that my skill Stable Mind levelled up instantly being already levelled up a while ago. I have received 2 level-ups for a skill I found so hard to level for the past 15 years of my life, in one day due to this single women.
"I don't want you to interfere in my plans, because if you do I won't harm you, but I will harm those close to you. I can't bear to see you hurt and broken, so I came here to warn you so you will stay out of my way. Please don't come in my way. See you soon and love you."
Suddenly everything around me turned silent as the 2nd prince Jack Emberson started his speech.
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Read the original chapter at We b no vel.