The street that Baiyi was walking on was not a big one, the stores were arranged relatively close to each other as well. With the tailor and the shopkeeper yelling and cursing, the entire street now knew about the guy in black cloak who came to disrupt the businesses of the stores. In the end, Baiyi had to give up on his plan and hastily bought some basic magical ingredients from the adjacent street before he left like a bat out of hell.
As I thought, it's way better to just go back and use those jewelries that Undine gave and perform another surgery on the hammerhead shark doll. I can even save money this way! He thought to himself as he quickly made his way back to the academy. Before he went back, he did not forget to change into the new body that he got and put on the piece of navy cape that Mia had personally sewn for him.
Even though that piece of shoddy looking cape that was made from curtain cloth did not match the silver colored sorcerer armor that was forged from Mithril, Baiyi still insisted on draping the cape over his body. After all, not everybody would dress up so awkwardly like he did so it was quite an advantage for him because many people would be able to recognize Baiyi who had just changed his body with his signature cape. It, no doubt, would save him a lot of trouble of having to explain himself.
There were already many people waiting outside the blacksmith's workshop when he arrived. His clients no longer consisted of students but the majority of them were outsiders who came bearing money. The moment they saw the expensive looking sorcerer armor that Baiyi was wearing, each and everyone of them gave their compliments while secretly trying to figure out which family was so generous.
Quietly accepting their compliments, Baiyi announced out loud, "I'm sorry everyone! My practitioner is going to have her final exam next month. I think I need to put more of my energy in teaching her for now. As for the blacksmith workshop, I would not continue to operate it. Please forgive me." Having said that, not giving a care towards the dissuasion and objection from the crowd, he headed straight towards the school building, ready to accompany his little girl for lunch.
Inevitably, such an action had caused some dissatisfaction and disappointment. However, nobody dared to voice it out loud. It would be foolish to offend a respectable repair master just for the sake of venting out their frustrations. Master Hope would only stop operating the blacksmith for the time being, it did not mean that he would stop the business completely, right? It was a simple reasoning that was easy to understand.
For that reason, Baiyi's reputation was not even a little bit tarnished. Mia's lunch box was still fully filled with delicious dishes. And as usual, the two of them was still seated on the familiar bench. While Mia-chan was eating, she occasionally stole some glances at Baiyi from time to time. It was apparent that she was still a little shy seeing him in his new handsome armor. Especially seeing how Baiyi was still wearing the cape that she had given to him, it made her even more elated. Her face was red with excitement, making her look even lovelier.
A sour voice could be heard coming from the Void, "Boo hoo hooo... What a cute little girl. Even I cannot help but fall in love with her seeing her like this..."
Excuse me? Can you not behave like a little girl when it comes to this matter? You are so old now! And you don't even have a body anymore! Why do you still want to be jealous over a young little girl? Baiyi felt slightly distressed because of the Fairy.
At the same time, Mia suddenly seemed to have sensed something. The smile on her face was gone and she was looking around her surrounding with a puzzled look. Perplexed, she asked, "Mr. Hope, why do I feel like somebody is staring at me with ill intentions?"
"No. No such thing. You've been thinking too much." Baiyi lifted his hand up and stroked her head while he comforted her. Inwardly, he could not help but think to himself: Is this the so-called woman's intuition?
Sigh... I can't just leave the Fairy like that. She'll definitely affect the harmony of the Void. Hmm... I better think of a way to trick her back into sleeping... Putting aside his discomfort, Baiyi asked the Fairy, Erm... D-Darling? I've designed a new game exclusively for you. Do you want to have a go at it?
"Eh? A game designed by my darling exclusively for me? Is it something like the bondage game that we saw just now?" The Fairy immediately shifted her attention towards Baiyi as she asked happily.
A-Ah... No! No! No! It's not those erm... unhealthy game... Well, the game is like this. You'll play the role of the head of a clan and lead your clan to development step by step. In this game, you'll have to reclaim territory and also build your own civilisation... Well, that's it basically. After you've finished this, you click on this button to go on to the next round... Baiyi explained as he successfully tricked the Fairy.
Soon, the Fairy became fully absorbed in the game and did not bother him again. Even though simulating a game was quite taxing, it was still better than having to cope with her abnormal enthusiasm.
As a result, Baiyi was able to stay in Mia's room in peace for the entire afternoon to draw some runes onto the new body. The runes had one main function, which was to boost his Mana. When the runes were activated, coupled with his own Mana and the boost effect, he would have the power that was almost equivalent to an Advanced Level sorcerer. It was a very important feature for Baiyi because his energy was limited to only a few simple spells.
However, there was a drawback with the runes. The Mana Boost could only boost the effect of the spells after he released them. It would not help increase the amount of Mana in his body and so the problem of not being able to cast powerful spells due to his limited Mana would still remain. So, in other words, he was still not able to cast powerful spells such as the
Be that as it may, Baiyi believed that with the knowledge and experience that he had, coupled with the runes that he had just drawn, he would be able to deal with most problems before those runes were exhausted even though he could only cast some simple spells. After all, with his current status, he doubted that he would be meeting many powerful opponents anyway. Come to think of it, he now had three characters on hand. There was the wandering sorcerer Andrew who was skilled in illusion techniques, Sven the Rogue Knight who had great mastery in Mana and combat skill and finally, the blacksmith 'Repair Master' Hope who excelled in reparation using his Mana. Three different identities and strategies. Nobody would ever link those three distinct individuals together.
After he concluded his tasks, the only problem left right was Mia. When she came back from class in the evening, Baiyi did not start his class right away. Instead, he asked her first, "Mia, do you want to enter the Golden Rose class and be classmates with Tisdale?
"E-Eh?" Mia who was sitting on the bed hugging her hammerhead shark plushie froze in astonishment. Without a warning, she jumped up like a bunny and asked, "M-Mr. Hope? W-Why did you ask that?"
"Well, didn't you made a promise with her last time?" Baiyi reminded.
"T-This..." Lowering her head and pinching the fins of the hammerhead shark plushie, she answered awkwardly, "Erm... I- I do want to be classmate with Big Sister Tisdale b-but it's the Golden Rose class. I-I-I can't possibly get in there. Only o-outstanding students can enter the class... S-S-Somebody like me just..."
"Have more confidence in yourself, Mia," Baiyi reassured as he walked to her side and patted her head. Playing with the two cute ponytails, he continued, "I've already asked around. As long as you get the first place in the final exam, you'd be able to enter, right?"
"Well, that's right b-b-but it's impossible for me to get the first place. Written test is still okay b-but when it comes to actual combat... I-I-I just can't do it..." Mia mumbled while shaking her head, freeing her ponytails from Baiyi's grip.
"You have me, remember?" Baiyi said confidently, "I'll teach you more powerful spells and I'll even create strong magical tools for you. I'll also impart to you my useful actual combat experience and with all of these, it would be easy to defeat the other students."
"B-B-But, the other students also have their Soul Armature to guide them. On top of that, m-m-my innate capability is not that good too..." Mia said doubtfully.
"Tsk! This little girl! Why are you so stubborn today?" Putting on an angry facade, Baiyi took the hammerhead doll from Mia and grabbed its tail before gently hitting her head with it as punishment. "Am I the same with those Soul Armature?"
"Ahhhh, I'm sorry! Alright, alright! I believe in you, Mr. Hope!" Mia quickly hugged her head with her both arms. She did not feel uncomfortable over Baiyi's gentle lecturing method but instead, she felt warm and cozy inside.
"Believe me Mia, I'm far stronger than you think," Baiyi reasurred in a serious tone. Then, giving back the hammerhead shark doll to her, he pulled out the sorcerer robe that he had confiscated from her earlier from his storage pouch and passed it to her. "Anyway, try this first to see whether it fits or not. You may want to wear this on stage."
The face of that little girl immediately lit up. She had long wanted to wear the beautiful new clothes ever since she laid her eyes on it. Quickly, she took the robe from Baiyi and without giving any thoughts to him who was standing just right beside her, she reached out to unbutton her school uniform in front of him.
W-Wait what? How can this fellow be so unguarded in front of me! Baiyi hissed inwardly as he quickly turned his head around. After she had managed to squeeze herself in the robe, only then did he turned back to have a good look at her.
The moment his gaze fell on her, he almost could not recognize her…
Even though Mia still had a sense of childishness on her face, the purple color of the robe gave her a mysterious and mature appeal. It even brought out her fair skin which looked more captivating and enthralling. The originally lovely and cute ponytails hairstyle were changed into a single ponytail. Along with the headband that Undine gave to her, she looked as dazzling as the gemstone of the night.
As for the worry that Baiyi had about Mia exposing too much skin, well, it had proven to be unnecessary. It turned out that the three formations drawn on the robe had more functions than he initially thought. Under the combinaton of those three formations, the skirt which was originally very short and the side slits that were very high were now concealed by a layer of hazy halo, showing absolutely nothing at all. But at the same time, the halo called attention to the area and made people fantasize about the slender fair legs underneath it. Underneath the halo, the open toe sandals that Mia was wearing showed off her lovely feet with just the right amount of skin, completing the whole pleasing picture.
Mia, who was dressed in that outfit, was indeed very attractive, despite the lack of exposed skin. She was as beautiful as a fairy who was shining with great brilliance.
At that moment, Baiyi suddenly understood what the tailor had meant this morning. It seemed like the robe was indeed far more impressive than he had first thought.