As Baal-hamon finished drawing the summoning circle, a queue of all the students build up, just waiting for their turn.
The complexity of the drawn summoning circle surprised me.
I have read some books about the spirit world and the summoning and contract-making of its inhabitants.
There exist many kinds of summoning circles, ranging from very simple to extremely detailed and complex.
Of course, the complexity of a circle also had an effect on how effective that circle would be. The more detailed it was, the more precise the result would be.
The most impressive and difficult of drawing a summoning circle was the calculation of all those variables. If one could just draw a summoning circle by copying it out of a textbook, it would be easy.
Unfortunately, drawing a summoning circle, especially a complex one, required one to have a full understanding of the spirit language. In addition to that, they also had to calculate the exact coordinates of the link between the Overworld and the spirit world.
While I wasn't the best at recognizing summoning circles, I could roughly identify the form and shape of the drawn circle.
It looked similar to the ones on the last pages of the book, meaning that it was one of the most complex ones.
"That's quite an impressive feat," I said to Baal-hamon, who began powering the circle with his mana, after finishing drawing it.
"That much is nothing to me." He responded. "If I had more time, I would've created a highest-grade summoning circle."
He then turned his head to his students, calling them and urging them to start their summons.
The first person to step forward was a pink-haired girl, who looked like a normal commoner in the empire.
I didn't recognize her face or her name, so I just assumed she wasn't a very important person.
"Amarinda, start the chant," Baal-hamon commanded as she arrived in front of the circle.
She nodded. "Yes, Mr. Ibrahim."
While hesitating slightly, she raised both her arms, as she closed her eyes, starting to recite the chant they learned from the textbook.
After only a few seconds, the circle started to glow in a bright green light, filling the entire room with its radiant color.
Her eyes widened as she watched that spectacle unfold, gasping as the light died down, revealing a small pixie flying above the summoning circle.
The pixie took on the form of a small woman and its wings flapped excitedly, carrying her in the air, as she flew around in circles, looking for her contractor.
Spotting the girl, Amarinda, standing in front of the magic circle, raising both of her hands, she recognized that she was her summoner.
"Are you my contractor..?" The pixie tilted her head, looking at Amarinda.
"Yes, I am." She nodded determinedly, before looking over at Baal-hamon, searching for a sign of approval.
"Hmph." While his voice sounded rough, a smile formed on his face, indicating that he was proud of her, "While it is only a low-level spirit like a pixie, for your first time, it is quite passable."
Even though pixies were only low-level spirits, they — like any other spirit — could grow together with their contractor and provide some useful powers and abilities.
While summoning a higher-grade spirit would've been pleasant, summoning any spirit as a first-timer was impressive.
Even with Baal-hamon's highly refined summoning circle, the actual chances of someone being compatible enough to summon any spirit were rather low.
However, the other students didn't seem to know that, as they began to laugh at Amarinda and mock her.
Especially the other noble students started mocking her, while most of the other racial ones just kept quiet, watching and wondering if that was just a part of human culture.
Amarinda fidgeted around in response, putting on a weak smile as she tried to ignore the laughter.
"As expected from a commoner!"
"Only a pixie? Haha, watch me summon a high-tier spirit!"
Baal-hamon trembled in anger, in disbelief of the ignorance of his students.
"Watch your mouths, fools," Baal-hamon warned them with a harsh voice."You are permitted to laugh after acquiring better results."
Immediately, all the laughing students shut their mouth, recalling the intimidating mana that he had previously released.
"Thank you, Mr. Ibrahim." Amarinda bowed her head while speaking in a tiny voice.
Baal-hamon didn't even look at her and just huffed. "Don't thank me for such a thing. It is my job. Rather, proceed with the contract."
"Yes." With a hand motion, Amarinda materialized a mana contract and handed it to the pixie. "I..I want to make a contract with you."
The pixie took the contract and read through the contact, before tossing it to the side with a playful expression.
"Sorry," she said while putting up her hand in an apologetic gesture. "I don't make contract with losers."
".I..I am not a loser!"
The pixie looked around, skimming over the noble students that mocked her, before raising an eyebrow. "Really? The mocking of your classmates says otherwise."
Unable to deny, Amarinda formed a fist, trembling, as she gradually turned red from the embarrassment.
Murmurs began to spread, this time quieter.
-She got rejected by a pixie! Haha!
-What a loser!
-As expected from dirty blood!
"See?" The pixie said with a smug look on her face.
Contrary to the pixies in fairy tales, pixies are very playful and mischievous spirits. Even though they are only low-level spirits, they had some expectations of their avatars.
One of them being that they want to respect their avatar, which was entitled by any means.
However, — I looked over to Amarinda with a regretful expression, — the humiliation of her classmates erased any chances of making a contract with the pixie.
Amarinda just stared at the pixie with a blank expression, biting her lips and avoiding direct eye contact, unable to retaliate in any way.
Baal-hamon gradually got irritated with the whole situation, angry at the Pixie for being so stubborn and at his students for ruining Amarinda's chances.
However, before he could say anything, I chimed in.
Even if she wasn't one of my students, she was still a student at Sylpheon and as a teacher; it was my responsibility to support her.
Especially if she seemed to be one of the few ones to take familiar summoning seriously.
"Those are big words for a low-level spirit." Putting my hand on Amarinda's shoulders, I stepped forward, creating direct eye contact with the pixie.
In the corner of my view, I could see how she looked at me with wide, teary eyes, surprised by my sudden interference.
The tearful expression of the young girl somehow evoked a feeling of irritation inside of me. Although I didn't exactly know why, seeing a student's tears gave me a distasteful feeling.
"Are you talking to me?!" The pixie flew up to my eye level, glaring at me, as she released her mana as a threat.
"Exactly. Which other low-level spirit do you see here?" Narrowing my eyes, I formed a mocking smile. "Or do you perhaps lack the intelligence to comprehend my words?"
"You naughty human!" She stomped on the air, as her face turned red from anger."I won't take this level of disrespect!"
"Oh?" Tilting my head slightly to the side, I raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do? Hurt me?"
And with those words, I specifically released a part of my ether on her.
The pixie's eyes widened as she hastened her breath, trying to catch some air. Raising her arms, she grabbed her chest, tears welling up, as she desperately tried to catch for air.
"I..I.. will tell this the spirit king..!" Slowly and with much effort, she squeezed those words out.
"Do it." I responded with a sinister smile.
Right after, she disappeared into blue particles.
For a few seconds, the room was quiet, everyone's eyes staring at me.
I looked over to Amarinda, who just stared at me, fixed like a stone statue.
My eyes then moved over to Baal-hamon, who was trembling.
I raised an eyebrow.
Although I couldn't see his face, to me, the trembling looked more like suppressing laughter than anger.
Noticing my gaze, he reacted with a single sentence. "It'll be amusing."
Confused by his words, I just nodded, not knowing what he wanted to say with those words.
He either laughed at his prediction or he somehow knew what was going to happen.
I snapped out of my thoughts as the summoning circle began to glow again.
Even without someone summoning, the lecture hall got engulfed in a massive weight of mana pressure.
A blue color filled the room, revealing the silhouette of an old man on a throne, levitating in the air.
His hair and beard were snow white and so long that they reached to his feet. He wore expensive looking clothes, the type of clothes that only royalty would wear.
His figure was imposing and possessed an air of elegance and gracefulness, similar to Baal-hamon.
The aura of a king.
He was the spirit king, a high-level spirit, just under the level of the deities of the spirit world.
"Who dared to threaten my people?" With a deep and imposing voice, he spoke.
The power of his voice alone made many of the students take a step back instinctively.
It was probably due to his passive magic, 'Authority'.
As the king of the spirits, he was immensely strong, even as strong as a tier 10. Thus, his passive magic, 'Authority', gave him the ability to intimidate every person weaker than him with the aura of a king.
At least that's what I've read in a book.
"It was not a threat." I responded. "I was merely asking her some questions."
The spirit king turned his head to me, looking at me with an expression of anger.
"You dare to take me as a fool?" He released his mana through the room, scaring the students, as he spoke in an angered tone.
Amarinda, who stood behind me, grabbed my coat in fear, trembling in fear as he pressed her face on my back.
"..I'm sorry.." she muttered with a shaky voice. "..It's all my fault."
With a reassuring expression, I turned around, patting her on the back, as I gave her a small smile.
"It's okay." I turned my head to the spirit king again before narrowing my eyes.
"I advise you to disperse your mana." My eyes narrowed, sharply glaring at the spirit king, as I released my ether in retaliation. "Or I will take it as a threat to the students of Sylpheon."
A smile appeared on my face that didn't quite reach my eyes.
"And all threats to my students must be eradicated."
I expected the spirit king to be angered by my threat, but instead of reacting angered, he froze up.
For a while he didn't say anything and just stared at me with wide eyes and a quickening breath.
"..It can't be.." He muttered with a trembling voice, as his expression turned into one of disbelief. "..a.. prince..?"
"Huh?"