A week passed quickly. Luckily, the three of them were a bit more careful now, and didn’t cause Teacher Lette any more trouble.

Actually, it was because the three of them had stopped practicing teamwork altogether. They’d already accepted Yan Yi’s plan: he would defend, and the other two would attack. So after Yan Yi handed in his self-criticism, life became unusually peaceful.

Just as Yan Yi had expected, they steamrolled through the freshmen flag-capturing battle.

After all, there weren’t any Class B freshmen. There were only two Class C students who had managed to team up, and even they got broken through head-on by Luris and Interle.

Those two on the front line were brutal beyond words. According to the participants, every attack they threw was aimed like they were trying to kill. There wasn’t even the slightest hesitation. If the referees hadn’t been doing their jobs a few times, deaths would’ve been completely normal.

Quite a few freshmen probably ended up with trauma...

Of course, since they couldn’t win head-on, some people tried to steal the flag instead. But every time someone got close to the flag, or to the boy “sleeping” under it, they would mysteriously get smacked on the back of the head, then pass out on the spot...

That shameless, despicable, vicious team even got reported by other classes. I mean, wasn’t putting two Class C students together just blatant bullying?

In the end, Teacher Lette shut them all down with one sentence.

“Two Class C students and one Class D still aren’t enough for you? We even have an F here. We’ve already gone this easy on you, and you still dare complain?”

That left them speechless. Teacher Lette even dragged Yan Yi over and tested his Mana in front of the other teachers.

All three of them were stunned by Teacher Lette’s sheer shamelessness. She clearly knew Yan Yi’s real strength, yet she still went out of her way to roast people.

And from what the three of them learned, the previous three years had been about the same. Teacher Lette’s class had crushed the competition every time.

They didn’t run into any real threats until the semifinals of the flag battle. And by the final, the other classes had truly gone all out. Through bribery and by digging up Teacher Lette’s old record of damaging school property, they finally managed to put three Class C students from the top four teams together into one final squad.

Yan Yi’s response to that was simple: so this academy really was doomed. I’m reporting all of you to the principal!

Interle and Luris also finally understood why their families had looked so strange when they heard they were going to Central Magic Academy.

Th-This was really one of the Five Academies?

With the referee’s command, the final match began.

The opposing side didn’t leave a single person to guard the flag. All three Class C students charged out together and clashed head-on with Luris and Interle.

The three specialized in fire, lightning, and earth magic. They almost perfectly countered Luris and Interle. If they coordinated well enough, they really should’ve been able to suppress those two.

But...

The two girls were already getting bored of this, so they directly told Yan Yi to go pull the flag.

So just as the three opponents finished charging up their ultimate spells, and sneered inwardly at the two girls who looked completely unprepared, the referee announced:

“Match over. Winner: Team Luris.”

“...”

The audience, the other teachers, even Teacher Lette, all froze.

They had long since ignored Yan Yi, who always started every match by going to sleep. But in this final round, that red-haired boy was carrying the enemy flag on his shoulder and yawning.

The three on the field were still stunned when the magic backlash hit them directly. They couldn’t even catch their breath before each of them spat out a mouthful of blood. Though honestly, they were probably more pissed off than injured. The three of them fainted on the spot.

The spectators, who had been waiting to watch a five-way brawl, were speechless.

This final ended faster than any other match in the tournament, even faster than any flag-capturing final in previous years. The process was absurdly simple. In less than thirty seconds, the five met in the center at high speed, and three seconds later, the winner had already been decided...

Yan Yi put down the flag and walked straight off the field. Luris and Interle looked at each other and felt that those three really had terrible mental endurance. I mean, so what if they’d just been defeated in the fastest match in history? Was that really enough to make them collapse?

The two girls shook their heads and also walked off the field.

In the teachers’ section, Teacher Lette endured the stabbing looks from all around her and laughed.

“Oh right, I forgot to mention this. Yan Yi’s Mana isn’t much, but he’s pretty good at speed magic.”

Shameless. Absolutely shameless. I have never seen anyone this thick-skinned in my life!

The other teachers roared inwardly. Ever since Teacher Lette started teaching, four years ago, every single one of her victories had been bizarre.

In the first year, nobody even knew how many times the whole field got blown apart.

In the second year, nobody even saw what her students looked like.

In the third year, the temperature of the entire field never once rose. And the reason was actually that her students had brought a whole box of ice cream with them...

And now, in the fourth year...

Why don’t we ever get assigned the strong students?!

If Teacher Lette heard that, she’d probably cry and beg to trade classes with them.

Once again, Class C of the first years won the freshmen flag-capturing battle. The teachers had already decided that from now on, they would never let Teacher Lette teach Class C again.

The flag battle lasted three days. Now, school life returned to normal.

Yan Yi also found out that freshmen weren’t allowed to go to the library area for the time being. First, the books in the library really weren’t useful to freshmen. Second, after three months of classes, students would receive mission records. Only then could they go to the mission tower beside the library and accept tasks. So that whole area would only open to freshmen after three months.

And after those three months, class-based teaching would also become less frequent. Students would then be free to choose the courses they liked, such as advanced instruction in a certain branch of magic, or training in weapons like swords, sabers, and so on.

A week after the flag battle, Teacher Lette had just finished class when she suddenly received a message. She glanced at it and froze for a moment.

“Liette, notify Yan Yi. Tell him to go see the Academy Head.”

The message had come from the secretary on the principal’s side. Teacher Lette looked at Yan Yi, who was sprawled over the desk, and honestly had no idea why the Academy Head of the Realm of Magic would want to see him.

After forcibly dragging Yan Yi up and telling him the message, Yan Yi was baffled too.

No way. I really didn’t do anything. So why was the Academy Head summoning me?

Still, confused or not, Yan Yi decided to go take a look first. So he spent nearly two hours getting there, moving at a pace that was basically just short of a stroll, and finally arrived at the Academy Head’s office.

After weighing the risks, Yan Yi still knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

It was an aged voice. And Yan Yi could tell that the owner of that voice was probably over a hundred years old.

Yan Yi pushed the door open and walked in. In the luxurious and solemn office, an old man sat behind the desk. He wore a black magic robe, his hair was completely white, and his face carried the wear of time. He was sizing Yan Yi up.

“Hello, Academy Head. I’m Yan Yi.”

Yan Yi walked in and greeted him directly.

“Mhm. Do you know why I called you here?”

How the hell would I know? You never told me.

Yan Yi grumbled inwardly, but still answered,

“I don’t.”

“That makes sense. I only wanted to ask you something.”

The Academy Head smiled. Yan Yi frowned slightly. Even if the strength he had shown didn’t look like that of an F-rank, it still shouldn’t be enough to attract the attention of someone from the Realm of Magic like the Academy Head.

But the Academy Head didn’t give him time to keep thinking. He asked directly,

“Do you want to represent the academy as one of the participants in the Five Academies Grand Competition?”

Yan Yi looked at the Academy Head expressionlessly.

He genuinely had no idea how the conversation had developed to this point. Was he and this old man even on the same wavelength? No, forget that—were they even in the same timeline?

“No.”

Yan Yi didn’t even ask why. He refused on the spot.

The Academy Head was taken aback by how decisively Yan Yi rejected him. Then he continued,

“Don’t rush. You’re very strong. You already proved that in the flag tournament, which is why you were chosen. And besides, you’re not a noble. You’re just a resident from a remote village.”

“Academy Head, so what? Are you trying to prove that Central’s choice was right?”

After Central Magic Academy switched to a recommendation quota system, the students’ overall strength declined, and the gap between them and the other four great academies only kept growing.

And yet Central, out of pride, never changed it back.

Of course, saying it was impossible to change back for the sake of restoring Central was nonsense. What was a little pride compared to that? But Central still hadn’t changed it back, and the reason was simple. It had supporters. And the representative of those supporters, someone with enormous influence, was the Academy Head himself.

Yan Yi had always been curious about that.

“With all due respect, you’re gambling on a chance that’s less than one percent, maybe even one in a thousand. The cost-performance ratio is really terrible.”

After hearing Yan Yi’s words, the Academy Head nodded.

“I know. But so what?”

He kept smiling, but his voice carried resolve, and even a trace of reverence.

“I don’t know how many ordinary people can become monsters. But my senior was one. He may have disappeared, but he reached a realm I could never hope to touch. So even if the chance is only one in ten thousand, I’ll still take that gamble.”

Yan Yi sighed after hearing that.

Too bad, he wasn’t one of those people. His arrival here had only been an accident.

Just as the Academy Head said, even if their students improved overall, it wouldn’t mean much without a monstrous genius of that level. At most, the rankings might change. But if even the nobles didn’t produce such a genius, then the odds of one truly appearing among commoners, or even the poor, were simply too low. So low that you could give up hope entirely and ignore the possibility without any consequence.

“I admire your resolve, Academy Head. But if there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving.”

After saying that, Yan Yi didn’t even wait for permission. He pushed open the door and left directly.

The Academy Head watched his back and said nothing until the door closed.

“Well?”

As soon as the Academy Head spoke, the wall split open, and a figure walked out. It was the bespectacled young man from the library. He gave a bitter smile.

“You should know better than I do. If even you can’t see through him, then it’s even harder for me.”

“Then can you make an estimate?”

“That’s really difficult. All I can feel from him is ordinariness. So I truly don’t know how to place his strength. If everything about him is hidden, then he is absolutely a being from that realm.”

The Academy Head fell silent.

A being beyond the Realm of Magic... he would never reach that level in this lifetime. But could someone as young as Yan Yi really be one?

...

After leaving the Academy Head’s office, Yan Yi turned his head and glanced back.

So there really had been someone inside the wall. He had noticed it the moment he arrived, and had almost let his shock show. It made him sigh inwardly. These people really knew how to play.

After thinking slightly about where to go next, Yan Yi left that building directly and headed toward the teaching area.