Fez had recovered the 'commandment's mid battle with [shadow theft]. [Supreme control:edit] allowed her to plaster as many traps into the area as she wants, but the mana cost is even higher. To give a reference, there were around 50 traps in any 1 metre square of area, her mana pool burned so fast that she felt extremely fatiqued by the end of the battle.
Catching Fez the second her legs got weak, I held her arm around my shoulder to give support. But it actually did more harm then good since both her legs gave out and she could barely move her face. Her eyelids struggled to stay up. Giving up on thinking, I didn't want her be carried like some kind of coffin by manipilating shadows so I did what came to my mind the fastest. I picked her up with one hand under her knee and the other on her back. Yes, it was a princess carry, it was certainly embarrassing but I didn't particularly mind.
I had a small friend circle in my class but generally people still felt a sense of distance they could not cross to approach me. It was basically isolation but at least it wasn't as bad as when people found out I was an otaku in my previous life. For one thing, this forced isolation was due to respect instead of ridicule, most of them had seen first hand that my strength was above that of the future king Fez in recordings of past year tournaments.
The recordings were spread around in a network built by magic, it was basically this world's form of an internet but it relayed information directly into the brain with a pen like instrument. It was actually popular among noble's already but it soon spread to the commoner population as well. One of the reasons Fez got popular as a king was that her family was responsible for the convenient device right after our 3rd tournament ended. Before we only had a bulky news system that was immobile and installed in living rooms. It was like a tv but on a table.
It was unclear at this point if people didn't approach us was because I was in Fez's friend circle or that Fez was in my friend circle. We didn't particularly care about such a thing and people wouldn't dare to answer out of fear. It depended on each other's popularity, I guess. Maybe Fez didn't particularly thought about it since she was just as important and isolated in the previous school. While I was just treated as the "overpowered cute girl, Teehee~ TM".
Well all that matters now is that Fez was comfortable enough to rest in my hands. At this point it had been 11 years since I was reborn, so I wasn't sure and didn't care about what I identified as. I would sometimes enjoy wearing cute dresses, and sometimes enjoy watching cute girls in school so it didn't matter. It didn't matter but I still thought about it? Whether to start feeling Fez up while she was passed out. Of course I was ashamed, exposed by my blushing cheeks to the passerbys as I walked towards the exit of the camp.
That's when it hit me. Though it was sad for it to end so quickly, I could just teleport Fez into a hospital or school infirmary. No wonder people were staring at me weirdly! I was so focused on keeping Fez comfortable that I forgot about such a convenient skill.
***(background)
"Hey Sensei! Emily sama is getting touchy feely with Fez sama while she is passed out! In the meantime, what do we do with James?" (random student A)
"*sigh*, Emily san will just realise it soon and feel embarrassed. Someone bring the stretcher! We have a beat up 13 year old who just happen to not be favoured by Emily san over here! "(Teacher)
" Coming! "(Random students)
***
After the strange ordeal, everything was back to normal as James and Fez recovered rather quickly and resumed schooling. Students who were accidentally caught in shockwaves of James explosion attack suffered only light injuries and would recover after a week with advance healing magic technology if it was any serious. A notable influence was that less and less people were fearful of me.
"Did they not see how easily I repelled that dense magic attack?"
"Maybe they feel safe? Even that guy who freaked out everytime you talked to him is trying to close the distance" (Fez)
Fez brings up a finger pointing at a rather scrawny student that seemed to be a mage. He had a pair cartoonish large spectacles, I'm not even sure if those were glasses or goggles. Noticing our stares, he quickly looked away, his waist shifting in awkwardness.
"Eh maybe. Anyway what do we have for next lesson?"
"Does it really matter? Our grades are basically at the top, its insane for you to achieve them while spending all your time training. Next you're going to tell me 'just listen in class and you'll remember'. " (Fez)
"Just lis- Nani!!!"
"Hey, class is about to start, pleass go back to your seats. " (James)
James was the only one who dared to reprimand us on trivial matters like that. Though people are also scared of him so he isn't any different from us. James could also go air headed sometimes but he was extremely different from when I first met him. He used to be the classic noble stereotype but he had somehow changed his behaviour towards everyone. Strange.
I had grown an overwhelming amount in strength that I could take both of them at the same time even if they went all out. But that wouldn't be fun, so I just trained in hand to hand combat. It was quite unnecessarily due to my overpowered skills but I had an abnormal strength stat, so why not make use of it to show off. Everyday I was still extremely concerned about that message. How do you negate an authority? With another authority? Conquest allowed for soul manipulation, but couldn't the enemy destroy my soul as well?
A strange observation I made was that this was the usual age people went through puberty. I was 2 years younger than them so I was unaffected but certain signs were showing up on them. I don't know if Fez and James were particularly affected but I couldn't care less so I chose not to touch on it.
Occasionally a powerful monster would escape the confines of a dungeon but they would easily be dealt with by a nearby force. Passing by adventurers helped in evacuation and holding back the monster while waiting for reinforcements. With my enhanced hearing, I could hear quite a bit away so it didn't take long for me to respond. Teleporting with [shadow step], I manifest in front of the destroyed dungeon entrance. Calling a level 900 general of the kingdom on some monsters would be absurd but then again I was level 3000 so it didn't matter.
This was a common occurence and the residents had gone used to it. It was the tourist and visitors that needed help staying calm. The escaped monster would always be above level 500 as that was the minimum strength needed to break out. High level adventurers would usually curb this occurence by killing the high level monsters in the dungeon but sometimes there just weren't enough of them.
Appraising the monster, it was a level 700+ with dense magic crystals that radiated so much mana they became energy barriers. For this sort of monster, the usual tactic was to wait for the barriers to go down or overwhelm the barriers which was much more difficult. But for me, the barriers were like paper, with a single swing of my building sized scythe on the crystal behemoth, explosions chained over until the barriers were gone and the monster was half dead. The rest of it was finished by a magic bombardment by the nearby adventurers.