In the end, Xing Hai decided to spare the burly man and his group—unlike the people at the inn.

Xing Hai figured they might still be of some use. A few casual instructions from him would probably save them a lot of trouble with local thugs in the city.

You can never get rid of thugs for good. Kill one, and before long two more show up. They exist in worlds of every level, and going after them one by one would be a real hassle. Better to let someone else deal with them for you.

There were far fewer people at the entrance to Camille Magic Academy today. Most of those who’d come were students who’d passed the entrance exam or parents accompanying them.

Two sets of sandalwood tables and chairs stood by the entrance, each with a teacher seated behind them. They were in charge of registering the new students.

The main purpose was to verify the students’ identities and make sure no one slipped in under false pretenses. Assigning them to classes was just an extra.

Camille Magic Academy had a magic formation in place, but those formations were meant for fighting enemies. They couldn’t be used to verify anyone’s identity.

Eve had lingered in bed for a while, so by the time the two of them arrived, they were at the very back of the line.

At six feet tall, Xing Hai stood out in the crowd. People assumed he was the elder of some especially doting family, accompanying their child even to the registration line.

The teachers checked people in quickly. Before long, nearly all the new students had entered the campus.

“Name?” The teacher sat there with an air of complete ease, not even looking up.

“Eve.” Eve gave her name, sounding a little nervous.

“And your surname?”

“I don’t have one,” Eve answered honestly.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. Eve’s clothes looked expensive at a glance. She had to be the daughter of a wealthy family, yet somehow she didn’t even have a surname.

In this world, only nobles and the very wealthy added a surname before their children’s given names.

Still, he could sense that Eve wasn’t lying. Now that was interesting.

He quickly found Eve’s name on the roster.

“Please have the parent leave,” he said, glancing at Xing Hai, who was holding Eve’s hand.

Xing Hai stood perfectly still, as though he hadn’t heard a thing.

“Teacher, he’s my familiar,” Eve hurriedly explained.

“What?” The teacher stared at her, completely baffled, then looked from her to Xing Hai and back again.

Summoning magic had called forth a full-grown person?

He clearly didn’t believe it.

“Xing, let the teacher take a look…” Eve said. Xing Hai let go of her hand, and the two of them raised the backs of their right hands at the same time.

The character “Xing” was clearly visible to the teacher. He could distinctly sense the flow of magic in it and the way it was put together. It really was a familiar contract formed through summoning magic.

But still…

“You two signed an equal contract?” the teacher asked Eve, puzzled. Most Mages and their familiars in this world signed master-servant contracts. Equal contracts were exceedingly rare.

The advantage of a master-servant contract was that the familiar’s abilities and bloodline would be partially inherited by its master. It also meant the familiar could never betray its master—and if the master died, the familiar wouldn’t survive either.

An equal contract offered none of those benefits. Its only advantage was that, as long as the two were within a certain distance of each other, either one could use Teleportation to appear at the other’s side.

In truth, it was just human arrogance. Some people would rather fail to summon a familiar at all than sign an equal contract with one. They couldn’t stand the thought of another kind of creature being their equal.

They had no idea that some creatures had far nobler bloodlines than theirs—and grew far more powerful, too.

“I never thought I’d see something this interesting in my lifetime. How fascinating.” The teacher smiled and waved them through. “Go on in.”

“That’s great!” Eve cheered, making sure to take Xing’s hand. “Come on, Xing. Let’s go.”

“All right,” Xing Hai replied, following Eve inside.

At some point, his clone had entered the firmament.