….
Alex smiles as he looks at Ain, he has a smile on his face and says. "Follow me, I will take you there."
Then a greedy smile appears on her face. "That is also where I will get my rewards."
"Okay." Answers Alex casually as if he is not even paying attention to her. "I will follow you."
As he says, Alex first goes inside his room and also puts on a white robe for a shirt and white pants. The clothes seem normal but they are Magic Items that have been enhanced with self-cleaning and high protective value. Also, he straps the Dragon Horn to his back just in case something happens.
Alex's smile doesn't even falter once he sees Ain looking at him while he changes. Though the older girl doesn't seem to care either as she doesn't seem to be into kids his age.
But one thought rings through Alex's head. 'I was blind before… compared to now it feels like I was brain dead.'
The reason why he is thinking that is because of what happened in the airship. Why did Ain help him? Well, he never trusted her to begin with. But he also never assumed that she was too much of a danger. Though he can now see that she is more than just danger and is hiding too many things.
She appears out of nowhere and no one seems to know too much about her. She has no other friends and not any enemies… she never says anything about herself either.
Ain starts walking away and he follows her. He sees that she is wearing a casual white robe and his eyes narrow at this, for a split second a cold light shines on them. He just now can see… that he doesn't know anything about the girl in front of him. Someone like her who can't stop mouthing off and talk… doesn't reveal anything… and only now he noticed this. He was instinctively thinking of her as nothing too big.
'Dangerous.' Concludes Alex. 'There is no way someone like her wasn't in the game. Though some Mages are kind, after all, high intelligence doesn't make you bad. It just makes you see things more logically.'
He thinks through many possibilities. But in the end, he can only conclude that she must have been a hidden character by that time, or she truly did die.
This is the first time that Alex has been out of his room since he came to the Magic Academy. He can see the clan marble floor and the creepy paintings on the wall whose eyes follow him as he walks. The paintings go from portraits to wizards fighting dragons and other such legendary creatures. He knows that these paintings can also be used for observation… and he isn't quite comfortable when someone else is spying on him. Right now, he wouldn't be surprised if even the Headmistress was looking at him.
So he pulls his act together and acts polite towards Ain and hears her talk instead of zoning her out.
"And so once I looked at the boar in the eyes. I felt terrified, I was a Rank 1 Mage back then. Not even having chosen my elemental affinity… but like a light in the darkness I finished it off with a fireball in its mouth." Explains Ain, while Alex nods at this politely. Treating her like she does exist and not like usual.
"I see… you were lucky to survive." Says Alex. "But doing dangerous stunts like that is not good and will only lead to your death. So please don't try that."
He doesn't express worry outwardly, but anyone smart enough would be able to interpret the meaning of his words. It will make it seem like he is worried.
Ain doesn't seem to get it and only smiles at Alex. "Hahaha… don't worry. I am not dumb enough to do something like that ever again."
Alex only laughs politely as she says that, obviously in his eyes she might have noticed that he is acting differently. But Alex doesn't mind, after all, the Headmistress is smart, but not omnipotent, she won't be able to figure out that he is faking it if she doesn't have inside information. Which she is unlikely to get.
…
After they get outside of the dorm building that they were in, Alex smirks slightly as he looks at the steam punkish city. People are walking down the road with what seems to be robots, but they are golems powered by mana. Also, there are some flying ships above head and different types of creatures walking around. From ugly goblins wearing mage robes to beautiful elves elegantly stroating around.
Though many people are walking, the streets are clean and there is no trash in sight. Magic City also had another name by the players in Alex's first life… the City of The Future… because while most of the rest of the world was either medieval or primitive, Magic City had high technology advances.
Every race gathers here, especially those with the mage class. Some old men are still students and refuse to leave this place, it is considered the highest concentration of magic knowledge in the world. And unlike the thousand-year-old Kingdoms, the city is relatively young being only a couple of hundred years old.
Still, he follows Ain and doesn't attract any unnecessary attention as he has already hidden his real power with spells now. He even has sealed the aura of the Dragon Horm and unless it is a Legendary Rank being then they won't be able to sense its aura.
They don't talk along the road, too dangerous to do so. Alex could talk because he is Rank 3 and that is considered moderately strong on the Magic Academy. But it's a whole different deal because Alex doesn't want to take any unnecessary risk.
…
They walk along with the crowds and pass through many strange shops. Selling many magical things like unicorn hair or three-legged crow feathers.
Alex didn't need a second look to figure out which one was the scammers. He had a perfect photo in his brain of how the original items would look so the scammer must be of Legendary level to fool him now. His photographic memory works in many ways now, it acts as a library… or more like Google since he can find things way quicker than a library.
Finally, they arrive at a mansion, but even though it was in the middle of the city, there was a barrier around the mansion, it wasn't a defensive one… it was just to keep out the smoke or bad smell from the city. The European-looking mansion had a big garden and it looked surreal in this steampunk looking city.
Alex just looked at Ain and saw her smile again.
"Ain…" Calls out Alex. "Can you tell me who you are?"
"Hm?" Ain looks confused by that and looks at Alex. "What are you talking about? Anyway, if you wanna ask me something, ask me later as right now I need to think about my rewards, hehehehe…"
Alex smiles slightly at that, seeing Ain's greedy smile truly would normally put him at ease. But now, he is even more on guard. He feels like he is not seeing something… like he is missing one major part of the puzzle and he can't figure it out.
Still, though, he is more concerned about another thing and he looks at the mansion. Headmistress Julie is the person who is inside there, undoubtedly one of the most dangerous people in the Human Continent. A woman who has reached the peak of human power but still wants to go beyond it. Something that not even the Human Emperor couldn't achieve, but she is still trying… she has been trying for hundreds of years to break through now. That is also why Alex trusts Julie's (Headmistress') greed… she won't kill him without figuring him out.
She will become a blanket of protection around him and with that, he can start going out of Magic Academy to get the rare items around the world and raise his power to a level where he can replace millions of players during Version 1… The Return of the Beast King… the monster who not even the Human Emperor and his allies two thousand years ago could defeat.
But even though the beast won't be a bother for now… when the time comes he knows something that no one knows now… the Beast Emperor has surpassed the Legendary Rank.
….