Rio stared at the scene infront of him, speechless as his eyes widen in disbelief. The corner of his lips curled into a smirk.

[That...] Faust stared, wide eyed. [...I don't think you just control the void...]

"What do you think it is, then?" Rio asked, turning his back.

Faust stared a while longer, looking at the walls of the room — or the lack thereof. The room, filled with protective formations, was utterly destroyed. No. More aptly put, vanished into nothingness.

...It was quick. In a second or more, everything that got hit, collapsed and disintegrated.

[...I think you also control a part of Destruction.]

Suddenly, the alarms of the room rang on. The footsteps of several people echoed while Rio stared at his hands. How would that fare against human lives, however?

"Hello?! Hello?! Professor?! Is there anyone here...?!"

Rio sighed, shaking his head. He had made a big mess this time. But this time...It wasn't his fault, no scratch that, since when did he got involved in a mess that was his fault? Never.

All the mess he was a part in was simply the bitch of luck messing with him.

"I'm here. And relax, I was just practicing something." Rio replied, sighing once more. He de-employed his void dimension, making the surrounding darkness fade.

—

Meanwhile, while Rio was having a bit of trouble in his own training room — back in the club, Arcuied and Eugene kept exchanging blows at each other.

"Haaa....!"

Arcuied shouted, his hand drawing an arc. The sword in his hand vanished like a flash — on its tip, faint illusionary snowflakes appeared.

The clanging sounds of metal clashing at each other resounded, Eugene held the spear in his hand tightly — blocking the sword filled snowflakes.

Arcuied gritted his teeth, pushing the sword more fiercely. Perhaps it was his innate strength or simply the weight of the sword — but he managed to push the spear, making Eugene flinch.

Eugene tried to move the spear, however — opposite to him, Arcuied grinned.

At that moment, the snowflakes exploded, covering the spear with frost. Ice slowly covered the handle of the spear. Eugene clicked his tongue, annoyed. He dropped the spear, shaking his head. Another one bites into the dust.

"...I think that's enough, or else we'll lose our supply of weapons,"

Eugene said, panting as he took a step back. As soon as he step back — his body fell to the ground, exhausted from the several fights they had.

This time, he almost beat Arcuied with his newfound spear mastery — but the mysterious magical snowflakes remained to be a hurdle. It was too powerful. He had tried forcefully breaking it but it wouldn't even crack, and that was with reinforcement of magic.

"Heh, just admit it. You're tired of losing..."

Arcuied panted, chuckling. He also let his back hit the ground — making a loud thud as he fell beneath. Undeniably, the battles were fun, but it was also tiring for his body.

"Shut up."

Eugene said, annoyed. Well, they did fight about...seven to ten times, and all of those resulted in him losing. Who wouldn't be annoyed?

Internally, however — less than annoyed, he was more appalled on how much Arcuied surpassed him in terms of combat. Did his white haired classmate had instructors better than him? Most likely.historical

While they were panting exhausted — black feathers suddenly appeared between them. The black feathers slowly vanished, revealing a beautiful black haired teenager with soft mellow green eyes. Amber raised her brows as her lips curled into a smirk.

"Oh, it's you Amber...have you talked about your deal with Xiao yet?"

Eugene asked, his body laying on the ground. Ai, his body, was too strained to get up.

"Hm? Oh that? Not yet. He's still manic crazy over the potion formula the professor gave him."

Amber replied cheerfully, her hand holding two thick towels. She glanced at Arcuied and Eugene, shaking her head before she threw the towel to them.

"Well, who wouldn't be? Even now I can't believe what the professor gave us..."

Eugene answered, catching the towel. He put it on his back, draining the sweat from his body. Back to his point, he had never seen someone giveaway their techniques, skills and important legacy like it was just a simple ornamental ring.

Even him, someone that could be attributed as one of the richest people in the world wouldn't do that. And he doubted Amber would do so too — while Amber was arguably the richest heir on the world, she wouldn't be that charitable either.

Sure, one could say it was an investment for their future — but what made the professor assured that they will still remember him in the future?

Surely the professor didn't do it out of goodwill...? He never took Professor Rio that way, especially ever since their first interaction. That time in the nurse office, the Professor had stared at him coldly and unfeelingly.

It was the first time he had been stared like that by a stranger. The only one that had dared to do look at him with such gaze was his father. Not even his brother had dared when he was still the heir of the dukedom.

"Speaking of which...the professor he's quite mysterious, isn't he?"

Arcuied commented, his hand raising as he caught the thick towel headed to him... During the fight, the professor had mentioned something about the 'truth'. Perhaps...No— It was still too early to conclude, he would first watch the professor more.

...And if his suspicions turned out to be true, then he wouldn't mind exposing 'it' or using 'that'. Arcuied shook his head, removing the thoughts on his mind as he listened to Eugene.

"...I asked one of my servants to do an investigation on his background once."

Eugene said, his face frowning. Amber's eyes narrowed, interested.

"The thing is...my servant found nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a trace. And mind you, that was using the whole intelligence network of the dukedom."

Eugene continued, dropping a bomb of silence to the area. Now that he could blame them — the first time he found out, he was shocked himself.

Amber's eyes widened in surprise — the whole intelligence network of the duke composed almost the entire Kingdom in itself. If even Eugene couldn't get a clue about the professor's background... then it's more likely possible that the professor isn't from the Kingdom, but a foreigner.

Among the other sector of the worlds, only a handful were developed enough to form a society — and in each, only four of those developed sectors could be truly called equal, or a super government society like Arthurian Kingdom.

The four super government societies are namely;

The Underground, home of the wicked and the land of freedom.

The Arthurian Kingdom, the land of origin — place of elites, lands, and opportunity.

Holy Church of Valenia, the area of purity and innocence — the land of belief and faith.

And finally, Ice Oasis, the eternal frosting empire — never to be burned even by the flames of time.

Those four super governments each take control of a huge sector of the world.

...But foreigners from outside the Arthurian Kingdom were more or less frowned upon on the people inside the Kingdom. The elitist nobles rejected any other culture that was not part of the Arthurian Kingdom. Rejected was a tame word. Nobles detested their lack of control on other sectors of the world.

The Kingdom itself was not shy of showing its greed to devour such sectors. Therefore, every continental sector of the world, behind the scenes, is fighting for authority and control. Even if subtle and secret, there was that inner conflict.

It was possible—that Professor Rio could be a spy from any of the other countries...

Amber shook her head, removing the unnecessary thoughts in her mind. She was just overthinking things.

From the side, Arcuied silently frowned, deep in thought. Could it really be? But if he really was 'that person' then...

"...There's a thin line between simply being mysterious and not existing at all."

Suddenly, from beside — a calm voice resounded. Xiao walked to the area, his hand closed in together behind his back.

"Are you implying the professor is an undercover, disguised as a professor...?"

Eugene asked, frowning as he thought of the implications. It was possible. But then again...It was simply too early to conclude.

"Who knows?"

Xiao answered cryptically, his lips curling into a smile.

Seeing that exchange, Amber tiredly sighed. Seriously, she didn't have much time for these conspiracy theories about their professor. She stared at the other three, loudly asking:

"Why are we discussing about the professor anyhow? We should discuss the upcoming exam!"

All the others — Arcuied, Eugene and Xiao — stared at her silently, tilting their head in confusion over her words.

"What..?! Don't tell me you don't know of the exam tomorrow?"

Amber asked in disbelief, her eyes widening.

Eugene shifted his stare to Arcuied, nodding. Arcuied returned the stare before looking at Xiao. Xiao returned the stare, nodding back — in that moment, all of them communicated merely by their eyes.

"...What are you three doing?" Amber asked, anger seeping in her voice.

"Uh, Amber. We didn't know it was tomorrow..." Arcuied said awkwardly, his hand running down his hair. He stared at Amber, smiling. "Besides, it shouldn't be a problem anyway..?"

"Arcuied is right," Eugene nodded, his eyes averting from Amber's shocked face. "...I mean, there shouldn't be anyone stronger than us on the First Year's right?"

"I concur!" Xiao nodded cheerfully.

"Yo—you guys..." Amber lowered her head, her body trembling. "You do know that the exam is a group exam...? And we four are separated at each other...? Have you guys even talked to your teammates yet...?"

"...Teammates?" Eugene asked, frowning.

"...Ugh," Amber facepalmed, sighing. She raised her hands, showing her wrist as she pressed the smartwatch attached to it. "The Academy already sent us our teammates several days ago, when you guys were hospitalized."

"How come you don't know about it then, Xiao?" Arcuied asked strangely, his eyes staring at Xiao.

"Uh, Ah..." Xiao whistled 'innocently', his eyes averting from the group. "...I just made potions and slept."

In that moment, Eugene laughed. Arcuied sighed, shaking his head. Amber bit her lip, trying to calm herself down.