"Conceal."
Now I could really feel all of my pressure flowing into the seal and my eye looked completely normal.
"This really is convenient, thanks seal master."
Now I just need to use this chance to follow my actual plan, I just need to endure the pain a bit longer!
"By the way, I am really amazed by seals and your technique really looked impressive, so I wanted to ask if I could borrow a book or two, one quill and a bit of that convenient black substance and take them with me."
"...Can I?"
Seiichi had now finally regained his composure, but had too much to think about, so my plan succeeded completely.
"Sure... just take what you need."
"Thanks a lot."
I quickly took the things. I could see the mana the different objects had, so it was really easy to pick good ones, not the best ones, because he might notice that later on, but still really high quality ones.
I put them all in my bag and then only needed to leave as fast as possible and maybe Seiichi wouldn't even remember that.
"Ok, we are done, right?"
Seiichi had finally completely regained his composure and sat down onto the chair behind the desk.
"Yeah, you can go. And as promised I will not tell any information about what exactly happened today. I won't tell that your normal seal on your dantian is fake, nor will I tell anyone about your real seal."
Although I couldn't completely trust him I felt like my the chance of him telling anyone was considerably lower than before. Although it still hurts as long as I can endure it until the end of the day I should be fine.
"That's good and of course as a thanks for your help today I will also help you out once. Right now that might not sound like a lot, but maybe it will be helpful to you one day."
"Oh and just so you know, you can proceed with your plan, I will even let you call in the old man right now, so you don't have to tell him later."
He couldn't hide it. I was exactly right again. It seems like it really works, first let your enemies fear you and then just look at their reactions.
He is nothing like a few minutes ago, well at this rate I may even trust him a little bit.
"Then bye, I will leave now and don't hesitate, it's better if the old man knows, now than later, isn't it?"
Without looking back and not getting an answer I opened the door and found the old man and the princess in front of me.
The old man and the princess both seemed very worried, but the princess genuinely seemed only worried for my well being, while I still couldn't really tell with the old man, but I guess he'll be even more careful with me after today.
"Are you all right, Yori? It took a lot longer than I thought."
"Oh yeah it did hurt a bit, but it was only because I asked a lot of questions about a few things. Sorry for worrying you."
I set up my best fake smile while still feeling the pain, but to my surprise it wasn't even that hard anymore. It seems I got better at acting, maybe I should've tried becoming an actor in my past life. Well it doesn't really matter anyways.
"As long as your fine everything is good."
"Oh and by the way, the seal master seemed like he wanted to talk to you. You may want to go inside, I don't know about what, but it seemed important."
The old man didn't suspect anything anything... at least yet.
"Sure I'll go in, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."
He went inside and seemed curious about what Seiichi could want to talk about with him.
"Was everything really ok? It really took long what questions did you ask him?"
Rather than a weird atmosphere laying over us again the princess seemed to want to talk with me.
Well I would've preferred not talking, because it would just hurt more, but while the old man is gone I could also ask some really interesting things. It would probably be hard to talk to her alone, especially after what the old man is about to hear.
He'll trust me even less, it wouldn't make sense to not change his opinion on me.
Before he may have wanted to kill me, because he thought I was too much of a risk and he would surely investigate my past or may have even did that, when the princess first told him about me.
But now he will not just believe that I may be dangerous, but he will know it for fact. He will try to investigate even harder and observe every step of me.
He seems like the really overprotective type, a master, who seems like he would do anything to protect his student.
And although it may be more risky for him to be aware of my danger, it is also a gigantic advantage for me.
Because he doesn't know anything about me and he won't be able to find out anything about me, but I can easily gather information about him, either from the princess or other people in Raiken.
He is too well known and too strong to not have any information about him known by the general public.
I will have an advantage. It'll be like we both played a game of chess, but he knows nothing about my level of skill and how I play, while I know a lot about him. I will be able to predict his moves and make him overthink certain decisions of me. It'll lead him straight into multiple traps and in the end leading to checkmate.
The only problem would be his power level, but as a teacher his level will not be able to rise as fast as mine making my level approach his closer and closer.
And additionally I have the princess, a piece that he will not be able to defeat, something that won't let him checkmate me. I don't know how deep her feelings for me are, but her master also doesn't know making it the same for him and for me.
"Oh I actually asked him about seals, but not just in general, I wanted to know more about them, because it seemed really fun and useful, so I asked him about a few tips he could give me and he even lent me a book, which he could recommend me and a quill together with an ink pot."
"Oh really, I didn't think you would be interested in that, but in the academy we also have classes about seals and other interesting things, which you normally wouldn't be able to learn about so easily."
"Really that sounds good. Oh and by the way, I didn't really have the chance to do so before, could you tell me about the name of your master."
*chuckle*
She was really adorable and thought that my question was really weird. She seems to get more used to me.
"You don't even know about my master's name? I actually didn't think that anyone in Raiken didn't know about my master."
"Is he really so well known?"
"Well you will get to know more about him soon anyways. He is one of the teachers at the academy and one of the strongest masters in this whole kingdom."
"His name is Hiroto Tanaka. But most people call him the Flowing wind."
"Oh really. Sorry that I am so uninformed, but I was born in a place far away from the next big city. I only learned the basics of the world and didn't really learn anything about the real world."
"Oh it's not your fault, but I just didn't expect anyone in Raiken to not know the one, who some people even call the strongest wind mage."
Is he really that strong? Well it doesn't really matter anyways, that just makes it more interesting.
"Oh, so your master is actually so strong, I already thought that he would be strong, but that's really interesting. I think I am now sure that I made the right decision to go to the academy."
"Yeah, the academy is full of strong mages, but you will be told everything later, when we go register for the new year, I just hope we aren't too late."
"Are the conditions for entering high? With so many strong teachers it should be hard to get into the academy."
She seemed to have to think an answer for a bit longer. I didn't really expect that that question would make her think for so long.
"Well, actually it's not that hard to get into the academy, almost anyone, who can use magic is accepted, the problem is that there are almost only people from wealthy families, who can afford to buy a magic stone."
They didn't seem that rare to me and wouldn't it be possible to have even just one magic stone for public use. It should only benefit the kingdom if more people had the chance to become mages.
"Are they really that rare?"
"Oh, the one that you used didn't break although your magic power was quite strong, but those kinds of magic stones are really rare."
"The normal magic stones, like I used one and almost everybody, who awakens as a mage aren't that rare, but when awakening your magic the mana that flows into the stone is the strongest, after that when you use it in a fight for example the magic stone will last a lot longer. But that's the problem, most of the nobles want to use the magic stones as their weapons and bring it as an argument, which would be that it isn't worth it to not use the magic stones and even if one were to awaken the magic stone could be destroyed or heavily damaged."
"That's actually also the reason why I-"
In that moment the door opened and the old man walked out.
The princess got surprised and stopped while she was in the middle of her sentence.
"D-Did you talk about everything with Master Seiichi, master?"
He answered her question, but his gaze was directed right at me, as if he wanted to see for himself how I really am.
"Yeah, we talked thoroughly, but it really seems like everything went good. Now we really have to go to the academy quickly."
I tried to analyze his voice and I believed to hear a change in his voice after he said that they talked thoroughly. I can't know for sure, but it seems like Seiichi kept his promise... for now at least.
The old man walked in front and the princess behind him, while I walked right next to the princess. She was probably the only one of the people I have met so far, who still think I am just a normal boy, who can use magic.
But now that I found out the old man's strength and that he will be my teacher at the academy it will be tougher for me, but I don't see why that would be bad.
After all I always welcome a challenge like that, precisely because they are a lot of fun.
Will I be the one to lose or will it be everyone else, either way I am getting really exciting for what's about to happen.