There was a new gossip circling throughout the Empire. The death of the count Bert. After Enna's tea party, Count Bert was found dead, black liquid pouring out of his mouth and where his eyes should be. His body was hanging off the ground, in front of his portrait.
The military hadn't found a single lead on who's the killer, so this matter fell on the Sorcerer Tower. As such, this enigmatic death caught the attention of the current Supreme Sorcerer, Alastair Storm.
Unlike his actual age, his physical body looks like he was someone in their early 20s. He has long black hair, and light brown eyes. He wore a red and black robe over his clothes. Right beside him are his disciples, or the candidates for the position of Supreme Sorcerer.
The manor had been completely left alone, since servants and family were afraid that the count was cursed; they all fled and scattered. the military didn't touch or move Count Bert's corpse. It stayed hanging while the black liquid showed no sign of drying. It's still sticky, wet and has this decaying smell to it.
"Hmm..." Alastair squinted his eyes as he observed the body in front of him. His eyes shot up in surprise. 3 more sorcerers noticed the same thing that Alastair did.
Engraved on Count Bert's chest was a mysterious and enigmatic symbol. Although Alastair didn't recognize the symbol, the pattern of how it was drawn was similar to Dark Magic.
"A powerful magic user had killed the count." said a girl who has fiery red hair. She was around the same age as Ainaira. Alastair nodded at his disciple's conclusion.
"And...it seems like they're adept in the Dark element," Alastair coldly said. His light brown eyes glowed into an azure blue, reading the flow of the mana.
Mana flow reading is similar to Ainaira's Keeper Eyes. The only difference is, mana flow is less detailed and takes more effort to use. You can read the traces of magic that were left behind after casting magic, and depending on how proficient you are with it, you can figure out; the magic type, the magic user, how powerful the magic was, and you can also either predict the future for a short span of time or "see'' what happened in the past.
However, Alastair was taking longer than usual.
2 minutes had passed, nothing.
3 minutes had passed, and his disciples started to worry.
5 minutes had passed. Alastair's face contorted more and more in frustration. His disciples had a worried look on their faces.
When 7 minutes passed, Maximus asked:
"Master, is everything alright? What's going on?" Unlike his usual demeanor, Maximus had a serious expression on him.
"Haa..." The supreme Sorcerer sighed in defeat. Ruffling his hair, he turned and looked at Maximus. "Bastard, do you think I wouldn't notice that you also read the mana flow. You know what's going on."
Maximus broke out of a chuckle, raising his both hands up. "Ahaha-! My bad, I'm sorry, Master." He paused for a moment before continuing."The culprit completely erased the traces of their mana."
"What?! Is that even possible?! I don't believe it!" The redhead girl exclaimed. The other sorcerers clamored alongside her.
Of course she wouldn't believe it. No one will believe that someone was able to erase the traces of their mana, unless they are able to see it themselves. In the group of sorcerers, only The Supreme Sorcerer and one of his 6 disciples, Maximus, can read the mana flow.
"Why don't you try seeing it yourself?" Maximus smirked, teasing her inability to read mana.
"Tsk-" She clicked her tongue and turned her head to her master.
"Master!" Her eyes were expecting him to tell it was false, but...
"Maximus is right," He said while his eyes were closed. The sorcerers' murmurs grew louder as this situation unfolded.
"How is that even possible?"
"Isn't this getting too dangerous?"
Many voiced their concern and fear. Whoever the culprit is, they are more powerful than the Supreme Sorcerer.
Or so they thought.
In truth, it was just their stagnant progress in magic that limits them from exploring beyond. The culprit is much weaker than Alastair.
Alastair quietly looked at his disciples' worried tone. He couldn't help but sigh and thought:(Some of them need to go.)
Being the Supreme Sorcerer is a difficult job. You will face many unknowns and uncertainties, and if they cannot handle something like this, already wavering and scared, they're not fit to be a candidate, not even as Alastair's student.
"If I may, Master, should we do a more traditional investigation?" A 16 year old girl with a soft voice spoke. She has short and straight magenta hair with dark blue eyes that looked like the night sky.
"Huh? What was the point of us coming if we're just going to do what the military did?" The redhead girl replied.
"Tsk tsk- Rose, we're much more competent than any military with this kind of case." Maximus then turned his head to Alastair "Master, I agree with Amelia's suggestion."
Alastair looked in the distance, considering every thought of actions he could think of. "Gather every profile of sorcerers who can use Dark Magic, whether they're strong or weak. All of them." He commanded.
All of his students nodded and turned to leave the manor when he stopped Maximus "Maximus." Alastair glared at him with a suspicious look.
He turned to look at his master.
"...?"
"It's not you, right?" His voice was cold, but behind that, his heart was racing.
"No, Master, it's not me." Maximus didn't joke around, he told his Master that with a serious face and firm voice.
Maximus was not surprised at his Master's question. They both couldn't find traces of mana that caused Count Bert's death, but the smell of Maximus' mana was lingering in the air. It was faint, and only those with sensitive mana and smell could notice it.
"That's all I needed to hear." He nodded while dismissing Maximus. He doubted Maximus' innocence, but he knows his students enough to know when they're lying.
Alone, Alastair closely looked at the portrait frame.
-click-
A dark and ominous opening, with a long stairway leading down to a dark path was revealed right before his eyes. He scanned the room, seeing if any of his students were still in the vicinity before entering.
When Alastair reached the bottom floor, an old and creaky door was opened. The pungent smell of decaying flesh and dried up blood came out of the room.
(I don't know who you are for now, but I can still see your actions.) Closing his eyes, the room was veiled with an azure blue hue.
Upon opening his eyes, he saw a white human-like figure walking in the dusty room. It stopped to open a drawer and took out a mysterious vial and It just stood there, staring at it. When the image of Count Bert appeared, he seemed to be nervous, panicked, and scared. He pointed at the white figure with a crazed face, and it turned to him.
Suddenly, the room started to distort around Alistair. The white figure is somehow able to affect him, and his eyes start to throb in pain, as if his eyes were being stabbed continuously. Unable to keep his eyes focused, he deactivated his magic. He breathed heavily while grunting from the pain and broke into a cold sweat.
The pain dissipates and he slowly regains his composure.
(A restriction spell...? The culprit came prepared.)
(But it's confirmed...)
Alastair, left a small smirk on his lips.
(They're a Witch.)
—
Anaira spends most of her time on break, sleeping. Still tired from her sleepless night, she looks at the clock:
<16:00>
Although she was still sluggish, she was looking forward to her next class, "Industrial Operations"
She changed from her training uniform into a normal uniform. Ainaira did in fact sleep without changing.
The exhaustion from the spar that added with her lack of sleep caused her to collapse on her bed and sleep immediately.
The first thing that greeted her when she entered her Industrial Operation class was a friendly atmosphere. Ainaira, for a second, thought she entered a different dimension, but this is in fact I.O. class.
The teacher gave her a quick look and handed her 3 notebooks that had 100 pages. These notebooks contained concise and organized notes. "These are the lessons from the past months. Learn them... whenever you feel like it."
The female teacher was casual and friendly.
Unable to grasp the sudden change of treatment, Ainaira sat quietly on the second row desk.
"..."
All the students strangely listened to Emma's, the teacher, lessons. Not one student slept, talked or even disrupted the class.
(Maybe it's because all of them have a commoner background? No...it's still strange that not one of them looked at me with hate.)
Union Academy, while 90% of its students are nobles, the 10% are commoners. They are either scholars or have been sponsored by a noble. Expectedly, nobles would bully the commoners, which caused a lot of discord between the two social status.
Figuring out why they're friendly only led to mental exhaustion, so Ainaira gave up. She instead focused on the class. A few minutes later, they were tinkering with tools and gadgets.
They're pretty much free to do anything after the lessons, and students would usually mind their own business and create new technology or inventions.
Meanwhile, Ainaira talked to one of her classmates, asking to teach her about metal work. So, in a quick crash course Ainaira drew a blueprint of a new invention.
(It's new in this timeline at least...) She thought. She is going to steal someone's work from her first life.
(I'm sorry, but I can't wait 5 months for you to invent this and another 3 years for it to be anything substantial.) Closing her eyes, one by one, she wrote down notes and the uses of the parts.
There's one thing about Ainaira that most people dismiss: She's a quick learner and has a near perfect memory. If it's interesting enough, she will remember it in great detail.
As such, during the new model showcase for the old and new inventions of an inventor only known as "Z", Ainaira was very curious about it, so she analyzed and learned everything about his Invention.
Satisfied. She put down her pen and cleaned up her desk. (It needs a revision but It looks like I need to rush it...)
—
Going to her next class, she dreaded boredom. This class was required for all combatant students, and only students who didn't have any magic or combat related subjects were exceptions. And so, Strategy and Navigation class has begun.
Despite the boring monotone voice of the male teacher, Ainaira was curious about this class exam.
It goes like this:
Every exam, all combatant students will have a mock battle held in the Elven Territory.
The top students will be categorized by their respective fighting style (swordsman, spearman, archer. etc.) and become the General/Commander of their group. The exam points are heavily reliant on the Commander's Strategy and Navigation (as the class name suggested) Although the troops' performance also plays into the point system, since you can't win a war with uncooperative soldiers, right? You can lose points if you weren't able to perform at the same level as your academic performance but you can also gain points by applying your wit and knowledge to battle.
There are some outliers who went solo, but only those who used rare and downright eccentric weapons, such as Rake.
There can only be one person in each weapon class that can be at the top, and because midterm exams had already passed, the current rankings are:
1. Aeron Dharmanath (Swordsman)
2. Ray (assassin)
3. Maximus Magus (Sorcerer)
4. Lucas (Cleric)
5. Tiana (Mace)
6. Jamil (Archer)
...
.
.
10. Ryker (Spearman)
Ainaira softly sighed, turning away from the teacher, she help but look forward to the gruesome scenery of the mock battle.