Pompei was looking at the sight before him with widened eyes. He had absolutely no words for what he just saw. Villin Grey, a student who had only been taught until the end of his second year, defeated a teacher in a duel.

No matter what, this couldn’t be considered a surprise attack. Both contestants knew the fight had begun but Villin had still won.

“My God…” Pompei exclaimed, stunned by the result. Once Miss Valentine was properly entangled, the ground beneath her turned the quicksand and the vines were still dragging her down. Even though she still had her wand in hand, her arm was so entangled she couldn’t point at the vines or Villin.

After a few seconds of this, the ground turned back and the vines began retracting back into the ground, releasing Miss Valentine. The holes that had been opened up using transfiguration also began to close.

Miss Valentine’s clothes had been torn in multiple places and she had a look of utter disbelief on her face as she looked at Villin. She was well-known for being extremely composed but right now she was looking at this boy with a stunned expression.

Ignoring the looks he was getting, Villin looked at the couch he was sitting on earlier and now had a hole through the middle. He quickly cast a basic spell to repair it before giving the room a quick one-over making sure nothing was damaged in the fight.

In order to both avoid damage to the house and sound, Villin had first transfigurated the floor, leaving space for the vines to come through without noisily breaking the floor. Thanks to this, the only consequence was some dirt brought up together with the vines.

Other than that, the only thing Villin noticed was different compared to before was the floor in the area he had turned it into quicksand for a bit. It wasn’t all that straight anymore but this could easily be fixed by some transfiguration.

After using a spell to clean up the dirt and transfiguring the ground back to its original shape, Villin looked at the stunned trio that were still looking at him with their mouths open.

“Well then, since the tests are over I’ll be retiring myself to my room. I hope to get my acceptance letter soon.”

After saying these words, Villin promptly turned around and left the three teachers behind. He felt that he had had enough social interaction for the day and began reading the book on warding again as if nothing had happened.

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“My God, we have to tell the headmaster about this!” Pompei exclaimed after seeing Villin leave the room. 

Miss Valentine finally recovered from her stupor and quickly rose, “I simply didn’t expect the boy could do that, I underestimated him is all.”

Even though she tried looking professional, the other two could see her pride was seriously hurt. They couldn’t blame her either, even the goodhearted Pompei would have his pride hurt if a student defeated him. 

That said, she obviously wasn’t lying either, and so, the blonde woman responded diplomatically, “I know Miss Valentine. But the boy still showed us great skill here. Using transfiguration and environmental spells in tandem without moving or saying a word. He managed to keep his composure, pretending he was scared and unsure while doing all of this. No matter what, it is enough for us to go to the headmaster to inform him about the boy.”

Miss Valentine cast a spell that repaired her clothes before regaining her professional demeanor, “Very well then, we shall go inform the headmaster.”

Hearing this, Pompei felt a little relieved. Miss Valentine was the only one out of the three of them that could request a meeting with the headmaster. They simply didn’t have that kind of authority even if they were teachers.

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It took five days before Villin once more got news from The Academy, at this point, there were only two days left until the beginning of the school year.

The news came from Silver, who came back home from one of the teacher meetings she regularly had. When she got home she immediately went over to find Villin who was in his room working on some enchantments. Once Villin opened the door, she quickly told him he would have a meeting with the headmaster the following day.

Villin wasn’t unfamiliar with the headmaster, he got mentioned in many history books he had read.

The problem was to know which headmaster these books talked about. This is because the leader of The Academy was always called ‘the headmaster’. They forego their previous name, this makes it quite hard to find out which headmaster a book is talking about.

Thankfully, the current headmaster had ruled The Academy for nearly a hundred years so any recent history concerning the headmaster should be about the current one.

The Academy was unlike other magical schools that were led by certain families. Decorus was led by the Decorus family, as were Magnicus, Graesa, and most others.

The Academy was an exception. Long ago, Lord Roland, creator of this school, gave up his status to his student, after some time, this student gave the school to his own student, and so on.

The inheritor of the headmaster’s position would be decided by skill, not family. This was good in the sense that the headmaster was always one of the most powerful magi, but bad in the sense that in a single year, the whole ideology of The Academy could dramatically shift as a different student took the throne.

The current headmaster was once a truly great magus. After graduating from The Academy, he traveled all across the continent, he played a great role in the fight against the western continent and Villin figured he probably also played a big part in the third central war.

Days before the previous headmaster died, he called upon the current one, to make him his successor.

No matter what, the current headmaster was one of the most powerful and brilliant magi in the world.

Knowing he would meet such a person, Villin wasn’t sure how to feel about it. So, when Silver told him about this, he simply nodded before going back to work. He would look at tomorrow’s matters tomorrow. For today, he would work on these enchantments.

And so, the following day came.

It was early in the morning when Villin woke up, he put on some clothes and walked out of his room, unsurprised at the fact Silver was already fully prepared to go. When she looked at Villin, he noticed how nervous she seemed to be. After a few moments, she spoke “All right, let us get going. Since the time wasn’t specified, let’s make sure we aren’t late.”

Villin simply nodded and walked towards the door. For a moment he noticed Silver seemed hesitant when she looked at his naked feet but she ended up not saying anything as she opened the door.

The area outside of Silver’s house had a thick layer of white snow. Villin cast a quick ‘cold-blood’ on himself before following behind Silver. He could still get a cold despite the spell but Villin doubted it would be difficult to find a pill that could fix a common cold.

After walking about twenty meters away from Silver’s house, Villin moved through a hardly noticeable veil. Villin recognized it as a ward and when he looked back, Silver’s house was nowhere to be seen.

The fact that Silver’s house was under an invisibility ward wasn’t a big surprise to Villin as magi seem to have a thing for secrecy.

Villin noticed that moving through the snow didn’t seem to be so effortless for Silver, this wasn’t a surprise as the snow almost reached her knees in some locations. Thinking of how easy it was for himself to do this very thing while he was still smaller than Silver made him feel weird. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not even though it was a positive thing.

He thought of this for a good five minutes until he felt himself moving through a second veil. Looking in front of him, he saw a small wooden shack, it wasn’t hard to figure out this shack would probably allow them to make their way towards The Academy.

Seeing they had almost arrived at the shack, Villin asked a question, “When we came here, why didn’t you use a spell to make moving through the snow easier?”

“Because magic is easy to track. The wards in place make sure nobody can sense the magic power being released, allowing us to cast and enchant without worry. Outside of the wards, it is unwise to cast. Of course, most likely nothing will happen, but there is always a chance a certain spell manages to catch on to the magic power you release.” Silver responded nicely.

“The wooden shack in front of us has a hyperloop inside. Hyperloops can’t be sensed, unlike teleportation arrays. You will find the locations holding teleportation arrays are those protected by the best wards there are. Either that or they are within the towers, there is no force in this continent that would ever attack one of the towers.”

Thinking back, Villin realized the only places he knew had teleportation arrays were The Academy, the white tower, and the Lannister family. 

He nodded as he followed closely behind Silver, soon, they both entered the wooden hut.