Uh Oh

Countless detours later, through sheer grit, Felix managed to finally bring Gwen in the front gates of White Hope Academy. As he had already made his plans, it was open campus today, showing off the student's skills and talent to the entire kingdom. This served two purposes, to let everyone take even more pride within the academy and, mainly, to let Felix and Gwen enter the academy without arousing suspicion.

Gwen's eyes lit up as she finally entered a famed academy for the first time in her life. Although she wasn't attending it, she could still feel the scholarly atmosphere. Her attention skipped all around as she saw the training grounds where a few students were showing off their skills.

A male student confidently cast his spell, "Flare." Igniting a spark above his fingertip, burning brightly for everyone to see.

"Woah, he only needs a single word to cast it! The students of this academy are really talented!" Another man in the audience said in complete awe.

"Let the embers of anger swell within me, Fireball!" The same male student faced the target in front of him and cast his spell. The fireball accurately hit his target, burning it into cinders. The destructive power he showed was enough to brutally destroy the massive target in front of him. Massive cheers and applause immediately came from the crowd, praising his skill and quick casting.

Gwen saw this and winced in embarrassment, "Is this really one of the best this academy has to offer?"

Felix immediately looked around to see that no one heard Gwen, he immediately tried to correct her, "Gwen…" He placed his arms on her shoulders, trying to carefully explain to her the truth. "It's not that he's bad it's just that your standards are too high."

"It's just a Fireball, just a snap-" Gwen immediately snapped her fingers and an even larger fireball appeared in the sky for a brief moment, the size was so large that it covered the entire academy with its blazing glory. Everyone looked straight up to see such a vibrant sphere of burning fury, as they didn't feel any heat, they all thought that it was all part of a student's demonstration.

Felix immediately reacted, "Gwen! Stop that!" His tone was extremely serious, not the joking one that he usually used with Gwen.

"Ugh, fine." The once scorching sun above the academy suddenly disappeared as if it never existed in the first place. Even though it stopped existing, visitors from all over the kingdom still had the vivid memory of such a magnificent spell within their minds.

"In return, you better show me something fun here." Gwen's boredom made her antsy, she wanted to find someone that would be qualified to serve her yet so far the only thing she saw was just a bunch of fledglings.

Left with no other choice, Felix tried to guide her to another area, "Maybe the Swordsmanship Department would have people to your liking."

"Ooh. Alrighty, let's go! Lead the way." Gwen obediently followed right behind Felix as he started thinking about how shocked the dean of the academy would be.

'I'm pretty sure they thought it was an open attack from a neighboring force. Hopefully, they don't go so far as to ruin this.'

Felix's thoughts were exactly on point, the dean of the academy brought up an emergency board meeting with the other professors.

"Did anyone find out who cast that? Professor Nero, you're an elf, you should have some kind of idea, right?" The dean raised his voice as loud as he could, even using magic to project his voice even further trying to garner any kind of information from the other teachers.

"I tried but… whoever cast that spell had complete mastery over it. To the point that not a single wisp of mana leaked out so I'm afraid I couldn't trace it." A blonde man with long ears stood up and spoke about his own findings.

"Damnit! Professor Archen? Any leads?" The dean's heart was racing extremely fast, they had to figure out what just happened.

"It happened far too fast, I just checked the outer perimeter of the academy and saw no signs which means…"

The dean slammed his fist down on the table, causing this old aged sturdy table to crack, "Someone casted it within the academy! Lock everything down! We can't let the citizens be in danger! Call the Mascre family, it's time for them to enter the scene. This must be why Sora asked us to do an open campus out of nowhere."

"On it!" The dean's secretary immediately went outside, going to her personal crystal ball, trying to contact the Mascre family to inform them of the situation. She relayed all the information she had and tried to them.

"While they're on that, has anyone noticed anything suspicious? Out of the ordinary?"

"It seems even worse from what it seems, from my observations, if the caster was in the middle of his spell, then they would be by the front gates, near the demonstration area. If they were there, then it could be anyone." A female professor gave her insight into the matter which made everyone understand the meaning behind her words.

It was a clear and blatant provocation from this unknown force. They went up and entered the academy and used such a terrifying move in front of everyone, ignoring the consequences of their actions. This was more than enough to show that whoever this person was, he didn't fear what may come despite threatening the entire academy.

The dean gritted his teeth, grinding them as his fury started to soar, "What's their expected strength?"

Another professor spoke up, "From the destructive capacity of that spell, the area of effect would be equivalent to a Tier 6 Mage but due to the mastery behind it, we assume that he's at the bare minimum Tier 8."

"A Tier 8 Mage in Jiana Kingdom? What's happening…" The dean of the academy was the same tier as this suspected person, being a Tier 8 Swordsman himself. The most terrifying part behind this was that while they were out in the open, their enemy was biding their time, lurking within the shadows waiting to strike.

'Does the enemy have more forces than that? Is he acting alone or does he have some other plan brewing? What does he want from White Hope Academy, other than nurturing the students there aren't any other special resources given to the academy. To blatantly provoke the entire academy, and by proxy, the entire kingdom, was already either an extremely brave or foolish move.'