房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

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The inexplicable sound that was impossible to put into words cracked through the air and Kierul's silhouette became a complete blur that looked just like a smudge of paint on the canvas done by an accident...

...and the light coming from the spot where her hand and her middle finger should be turned...

...blue...

"Blue star."

*^%$#@#$%^^%$#@#$%^&^%$#@*

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Kierul flicked her finger and the power that she unleashed shot forward melting through the short-, middle-, and long-range targets as if there enchanted armors that dummies were wearing were nothing more than paper-thin layers of wax.

Not just that, the concentrated ray of blue was aiming at the super-long-range target, but all of a sudden it turned white and tripled its size halfway.

Then the ray of white swallowed the target...

...and turned yellow, quadrupling in volume and traveling farther and farther – just to turn orange – enlarging once more, until finally changing into a sea of crimson flames that spread throughout the vast uninhabited plains that were part of the lands belonging to the Aspaekony Academy.

"I never got any light coming from the dummies, but I hope that won't be a problem?"

Kierul nodded to herself and asked the teacher while putting a strand of hair behind her ear, approaching the table, and putting her hand over the mana measuring device...

...while the hellish flames raged in the background...

Forget about answering the specific question – both the teachers and the students gathered were petrified and unable to let out a single sound.

"I take your silence as a yes."

Unbothered Kierul said with a nod and left the teachers, hurrying back to the second prince's side.

"My prince. You promised."

"I...okay..."

The girl didn't bother with any explanation whatsoever and merely insisted while grabbing a hold of the blue-haired boy's arm and pulling him with her.

Zoemi didn't say a thing, not because he was stunned, but rather didn't want to bother his master when she had a good time – so instead he created a copy and sent him after the two while he, the original, stayed on the examination ground to enjoy the sight of people slowly wrapping their minds about what they just saw.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?! ARE WE UNDER ATTACK?!"

Kierul and Surou didn't even manage to get back into the dormitory building when a gold-haired woman appeared in a flash of light, alerted and combat-ready.

The black-haired boy easily recognized her as Aspakeony's corpse puppet that he was already familiar with...

"Moxeoni~! Relax, it's just my master getting serious because she got worried – I will explain things to Aspie, so don't worry~"

The black-haired boy was instantly by the light puppet's side and reassured her while patting her shoulder...

"What the hell do you mean by -your master getting serious?-?! What will you explain to me?!"

"Ooohhh, I see."

Moxeoni shouted angrily, to which Zoemi rolled his eyes and groaned in understanding.

"I am connecting to my copy right now, Aspie, so please release the direct control over Moxeoni. Pretty please~"

"..."

The scarred attendant smiled reassuringly at the corpse puppet and asked the necromancer to control it directly.

He got no response, but that was what he expected as he already began speaking with the gray-haired headmistress in person through his copy that she was wrapped around.

"...eh...?"

After a second or five Moxeoni flinched and looked around with confusion.

Her gaze wandered to Zoemi but then she noticed the sea of flames in the distance and her eyes widened in shock.

"...Zoemi...? Umm... are we a war again already...?"

The gold-haired corpse puppet leaned in towards the black-haired boy touching her shoulder and she asked conspicuously watching the flames rage on all the way to the horizon...

"Not to my knowledge, no. This is simply the aftermath of the magic examination from a fire magician with an average amount of mana~!"

Zoemi chuckled and explained loudly, making sure that none of the people present would try to say that it was just a dream or something equally detached from reality.

"Lies."

Moxeoni squinted her eyes and declared.

"No. I'm actually serious... although I must say that even I didn't know that she could push that simple spell to this extent, and yet here we are! It's such a simple premise that I am both shocked and extremely happy that no one else has figured it out."

Zoemi shook his head and revealed with a cheeky smile.

"I mean, most of the magicians I met are so stubbornly boxing themselves in stereotypes and already set up framework that they don't experiment with their spells! Not to mention how blinded they are by something so silly like the amount of mana at their disposal! Seriously – I don't have any mana but even I know that overloading a spell with loads of mana is not the only way of making it stronger!"

The boy continued laughing but this time he was clearly mocking someone...

Of course, only coincidentally, the words he said matched what Kierul said to teacher Ikarveth before.

"All of you people try to act as if magic was something that has set and unchangeable boundaries while the only boundaries for it are the ones you set yourself~"

The black-haired boy added with a light shrug and looked curiously at Moxeoni.

"Say, were you doing something that you have or want to return to or would you mind staying a bit to see the rest of the magic examination?"

He asked out of the blue.

"..."

The gold-haired corpse puppet furrowed her brows and leered at him with suspicion.

"Are you saying there are more kids with similar capabilities?"

"Maybe~"

She asked and the black-haired boy hummed with an amused expression while swaying from side to side.

"I don't mean to burst your bubble, young one, and your, lady Moxeoni, but the magic examination will have to be postponed until we deal with the wildfire. How else are we going to replace the practice targets?"

As it turned out, the gold-haired teacher Shuze not only stood up from his seat at the examiners' table but also approached and was listening in to the conversation the black-haired boy and the gold-haired corpse puppet were having.

"True..."

Moxeoni looked at the elderly man, then at the field of flames, and nodded – but then she turned back to Zoemi and observed him attentively as if waiting for something to happen...

"Hmm... I see. Well, I invited you to watch the magic examination so the least I can do is help it continue, right?"

The boy gazed at her too – and smiled before putting his right hand to his heart and bowing his head about an inch...

"Capricorn." *thump*

*RUMBLE*

Zoemi said dismissively and stomped the ground with his heel and as a reaction to that the ground to his side turned over as if stirred up by a plow...

The effect spread out in a cone shape pattern, getting wider and wider the more ground it covered, looking a bit like a tidal wave.

And whenever the ground was stirred, the flames were snuffed out.

In no time at all instead of a sea of flames, the empty plots of land almost reaching the horizon looked much more like fields ready to be sowed.

*THUMP*

"...?"

Suddenly, a loud banging sound got the attention of the lighthearted black-haired attendant.

When he looked the way he saw that the brown-haired teacher Auequas slammed her hands against the examiners' table and stood up from her seat.

Judging by her expression, she was more than just a little bit moved about the showcase of something only the strongest transcended earth magicians could even attempt to recreate.

"Lord Shuze, the fire is gone – you will not complain about the mud now, will you?"

Still, the scarred attendant didn't try to explain himself, not to her at least, and instead turned over to the no less stunned gold-haired teacher and asked with a polite smile.

"That's true..."

The elderly man nodded and returned to his seat – where he closed his eyes and within a few seconds five targets donning enchanted armors appeared at the assigned position.

"Oh? Even young Kros tried to show off a bit too?"

Seeing the spell performed by her fellow light attribute user, Moxeoni raised her brows and smirked.

Truth be told, while Kierul's outrageous spell stole the wind from the other fire magicians' sails, Zoemi was the one to steal the show as a whole.

In the end, Kierul did have to prepare the spell and charge it appropriately, but then her very own attendant simply stomped his foot to deal with the aftermath as if it was nothing.

Needless to say, no one from the remaining examinees came even close – neither fire magicians nor light magicians tested managed to hit the super-long-range target at all, which meant that as long as the second prince would recover enough to participate in the defense and utility testing parts of the exam he could end up placing very high in the overall ranking.

"..."

...but as the last light magician, a pale-gold-haired girl that was the same one that Zoemi met in the morning and the one that ran away after Kierul cheered on her fiance was leaving the examination ground...

...with possibly the lowest score for any light magician in the recently recorded history of the Aspaekony Academy, by the way...

...the gold-haired corpse puppet slowly turned her head to the black-haired boy with an aura of annoyance emanating from her indifferent expression.

"I said, maybe. Remember?"

"..."

Zoemi pointed out while looking the other way but that only increased the pressure of the menacing aura Moxeoni was releasing.