Chapter 863: Visitors from Saint Maryann Academy 4k
“If I recall correctly, the Saint Son Evan Pearson was born in the western part of the kingdom, with his father being a baron and his mother a knight. Due to the poverty of their hometown, his parents worked tirelessly every day, so he was sent to the local church for care from a young age. Later, due to his talent revealed at the church, he was selected by the Church of the Saints and became a Saint Son Candidate at the age of eight, and officially received the title of Saint Son when he was twelve years old. Now, he should be fourteen years old and in the second year.”
“As for the Saint Maiden Audrey Jeane… she is one year younger than Evan, currently thirteen years old.”
Dark paused his meal, lifting his head to say.
As soon as he finished speaking, Pistons hesitated, “If she’s thirteen years old, then…”
Dark smiled, “Audrey enrolled last year and is now in the first year, one year younger than us.”
Last year, during the Demon King’s execution ceremony, Dark had already gained some understanding of Evan Pearson and Audrey Jeane, naturally making him more accurate than Pistons’ hearsay.
“Is she really in the first year?” Tudor frowned, saying, “If she’s in the first year, then it’s not our responsibility.”
Lentchen suddenly interjected, “But isn’t Dark the mathematics professor for the first years?”
Dark chuckled, “I’ll take good care of her.”
…
Unlike the Saint Son who stood out through rigorous selection processes, the Saint Maiden Audrey Jeane seemed to appear out of nowhere, with an unknown background and mysterious origins.
Moreover, compared to her status as a Saint Maiden, the inherited title from the previous Saint Jeane drew even more attention.
Throughout the entire afternoon, the students of Saint Maryann Academy discussed the two incoming exchange students, as if… there were no other exchange students.
After the gathering, Dark found Professor Shylph and talked with her for a long time, learning that the three exchange students centered around Wit will leave the academy this Friday, under the guidance of a retired professor, to study at the Secret Rite Academy of the Saints.
Additionally, Principal Altair has come down from the Mountain of Gods’ Heavenly Court, but she seems to have some unresolved matters and the exact return time is uncertain.
The exchange students from the Secret Rite Academy are confirmed to arrive before the Easter Duel Festival starts, but the specific date remains undetermined.
This shows that this exchange activity is quite rushed.
The Secret Rite Academy is the organizer of this event, but they likely saw an opportunity amidst the events on the Mountain of Gods and made a proposal at the last minute… perhaps they didn’t think Saint Maryann Academy would agree.
Now, things have developed beyond both parties’ expectations, but it’s still a win-win situation.
Who benefits ultimately depends on each party’s response.
…
Soon after the gathering at Saint Maryann Academy ended, news about the exchange activity spread rapidly.
Of course, Saint Maryann Academy pushed this behind the scenes, ensuring that public opinion was favorable to the academy.
Shortly after, the Secret Rite Academy also publicly announced this news.
Currently, the future is uncertain, but if relations between the two academies improve in the future, this exchange activity might become a landmark event.
Everyone took action accordingly.
Inside the Secret Rite Academy, there was a great commotion.
Saint Son Evan Pearson and Saint Maiden Audrey Jeane, as the only newly added Saint Son and Saint Maiden over the past decade, hold a very high status within the Secret Rite Academy.
Their impact as exchange students is even greater than those at Saint Maryann Academy.
…
On the other side, after the gathering ended in the afternoon, Wit was surrounded by the second-year students from the Knight Academy.
Students who were not close to him suddenly became familiar.
They complained about his secrecy but envied his chance to go to the Secret Rite Academy. Others incessantly told him about the unique specialties of the Secret Rite Academy, and many said things like “make sure to dominate them over there,” which sounded exactly like what a Knight Academy student would say.
During this time, Robert Broheim sat silently in a corner, looking rather displeased.
Because of this, Wit had kept it from him too.
And this wasn’t the first time Wit had kept secrets from him.
It was unclear when it started, but Wit kept more and more things from him. They still hung out together, but they were no longer inseparable as before.
These changes were not noticeable in normal times, but now that Wit suddenly became an exchange student and would leave the academy for at least a month, he suddenly felt it.
What made him even more upset was that Wit chose the pretentious Justin Wayne over him, his loyal friend!
This made him feel that their bond had grown distant!
But busy with handling the sudden attention, Wit did not notice Robert’s feelings.
Another Knight Academy exchange student—Justin Wayne—also became a focal point.
Justin Wayne was very excited.
Among the three exchange students, he was the only one genuinely eager to go to the Secret Rite Academy.
And due to some considerations, Professor Shylph did not inform him of any additional tasks beyond the exchange program.
This meant that out of the three:
Betty knew one thing, Wit knew two, and Justin was completely oblivious.
Only Justin was fully immersed in the joy of going to the Secret Rite Academy.
…
That night, after a long hiatus, Dark picked up the Mana Dropper again, extracting two points of Bliss from his mind to relieve his immediate troubles.
Then, on Thursday morning, after the Alchemy class ended.
Dark finally found time to meet with Eluria Clarissa in her private laboratory.
He prepared extensively for this, aiming to quickly master the technique of Fantasia Heaven Law.
However, as soon as Eluria arrived, she asked him about the details of the exchange activity, causing him considerable distress.
He could only pretend ignorance and claim he didn’t know.
In the end, before the lesson began, he had to endure half an hour of fairies chanting.
But after that half hour, the formal teaching finally started.
Eluria had a detailed plan, focusing mainly on theoretical explanations on the first day.
Beforehand, she and Dark agreed that once he learned it, all related materials would be erased and not shared externally.
Dark naturally agreed.
Thus, the learning of Fantasia Heaven Law began happily.
…
The method to cast Fantasia Heaven Law was very complex, but Dark had already mastered the foundational knowledge beforehand, making it seem much easier to learn.
From ten in the morning to six in the evening, he absorbed Eluria’s teachings at an alarming speed, almost absorbing all the content she planned to teach in three sessions in one go.
Eluria couldn’t help but exclaim, “I thought it would take a few days, how can you learn so fast?”
“Maybe it’s because of the blessing of the Goddess of Wisdom?” Dark joked.
Eluria replied, “That’s truly enviable.”
Dark asked, “When is the next lesson?”
Eluria replied while organizing, “Tomorrow we’re participating in the main event of the Golden Cup, so let’s schedule it for Saturday. On Saturday, I’ll bring all the materials needed for the casting. I hope you can continue your diligent learning today… yes, complete it in one day!”
Dark said, “Then I might need to treat the Goddess of Wisdom to a little apple.”
Eluria rolled her eyes, saying, “Go ahead. Anyway, good luck tomorrow, I hope we both pass the preliminary rounds smoothly.”
Dark smiled, “Good luck.”
…
Dark did not invite Eluria for dinner; he simply ate a bit and had the imp beast deliver a small apple to Eralganie.
Eralganie received the apple with confusion, but even the Goddess of Wisdom couldn’t guess the profound meaning behind this little apple.
After dinner, Dark tidied up quickly and rushed to the tower, as he had an Astrology class tonight.
Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt that tonight’s Astrology class seemed even harder.
Professor Metia seemed to have adjusted the subsequent teaching content, providing a deeper interpretation of Astrology.
Dark’s head buzzed, suddenly feeling that even the blessing of the Goddess of Wisdom was barely enough to cope.
…
Finally, after the Astrology class ended, the entire classroom was filled with groans, but Professor Metia left lightly.
Dark returned to his dorm, lying on the chair for half an hour before picking up his notes again to continue studying.
At ten o’clock at night, Dark extracted Bliss again, lowering its index to 102 points, finally feeling relieved.
Then he continued studying until midnight and fell into a deep sleep.
As for the main event of the Golden Cup tomorrow… he would worry about it tomorrow!
…
Over this period, he made significant progress in mastering magical knowledge, but had yet to convert this knowledge into tangible results. Participating in the main event of the Golden Cup on Friday afternoon could only be described as doing his best.
Everything has its order; the Golden Cup was never his top priority.
…
The next morning, as dawn broke.
Dark suddenly woke up, pushing away the Eevee beside him and walked to the balcony.
Opening the window shutters, he turned his head to look far into the sky, where the dawn light was spreading.
A gentle breeze suddenly came, carrying a soft chime sound.
He squinted slightly and saw the figure of Professor Shylph materialize in the air.
At five minutes past five in the morning on Friday, the vice principal of Saint Maryann Academy appeared above the academy, holding a wand and drawing a circle.
The circle formed by mana rapidly expanded, turning into a door that penetrated the barrier.
“Who could want to enter the academy so early?”
Two guesses flashed through Dark’s mind.
One was the team led by Principal Altair, and the other was the team from the Secret Rite Academy.
After normal reasoning, he locked onto Principal Altair.
First, a pure white unicorn emerged from the door!
“Could it be that the exchange students from the Secret Rite Academy?”
Dark’s heart flashed with surprise as he saw the familiar golden carriage being pulled by the pure white unicorn passing through the barrier gate. The wings of light on both sides of the carriage illuminated the last remnants of darkness before sunrise.
Silently, three golden carriages slipped into the academy barrier, flying towards the dragon training grounds under Professor Shylph’s guidance.
…
Dark closed the window shutters and returned inside.
The Eevee rolled over to the side of the bed, pretending to still be asleep.
Dark crawled back into bed but could not fall asleep again.
“Is Chief Archbishop Caleb Norris among those three carriages?”
“Why did they come so early?”
“And why specifically choose the early hours when few people are awake?”
“Are they trying to investigate the academy’s internal situation without being noticed?”
Dark’s doubts increased, and his curiosity about the purpose of the Secret Rite Academy’s visit grew stronger.
“Mew~”
The Eevee stretched out its ribbon, gently brushing against his face.
Dark couldn’t help but smile, picking it up from the bed and covering his face with it, breathing in its fluffy fur.
After a moment, though it was shallow, he finally fell asleep.
He slept until seven in the morning when he woke up to slight noises.
He sat cross-legged, meditating for five minutes to dispel the lingering fatigue in his eyes, then read the newspaper while eating breakfast brought by the imp beast.
The Wise One Daily had already extensively covered the exchange activity between the two academies yesterday, but today’s theme remained the same.
Only today’s newspaper featured numerous commentaries from different well-known figures regarding the event.
With nothing else to do, Dark read through them all, absorbing a lot of information.
Experts who could publish their thoughts in the Wise One Daily were indeed insightful; some of their ideas were quite interesting.
One expert who claimed to be the royal voice heavily criticized Saint Maryann Academy and the Secret Rite Academy for “forming cliques,” almost hysterically declaring “the supremacy of royal power.”
His radical remarks might provoke public backlash.
But the fact that this article made it into the Wise One Daily seemed to indicate certain people’s attitudes.
In this era of initial transformation, the innate reverence for royal power rooted deep in the hearts of the people had not disappeared.
Some people, under such guidance, would inevitably doubt the positions of Saint Maryann Academy and the Secret Rite Academy.
But how much impact could this doubt have on either academy?
Dark put down the newspaper and picked up The Clown Daily to find some amusement.
Then, after careful consideration, he took out his notes from his research on ultimate skills cards and retrieved the cards for Ultimate Skill – Drink Milk and the Transfiguration Spell for reference.
After less than half an hour of research, he decided to give up.
Instead, he switched to researching Ultimate Skill – Drink Milk!
