Chapter 162 - The Warp in Time and Space

"Oh, what luck." 

The professors watched students fight and venture to the dark castle on the screen as they assess each of their abilities. The professors are watching mainly for two reasons—to seek out talents, and to dispose of those with no potential.

"This batch is quite the unluckiest yet the most intriguing, aren't they~?" Professor Yusha uttered as she licked her lollipop, a candy produced in the three neighboring countries in Zuerst—the Elizabethian, Victorian, and the Antonettian Kingdom. "Mmn, sweet!"

The professors already had already kept to themselves the assessments of the examinees and took note of who would most likely fail.

"Faustina Feuerlon is fighting the list of someone who will likely fail, and would likely pass." Yoan assessed, "What an odd child."

"Peculiar, indeed." Gimli Dorf caressed his beard. "I am almost certain that she'll run out of mana from the Whirlpool, but that seemed like not to be the case."

"It means she has so much magical potential," Professor Zoe Klein pointed.

"Kuh. More like 'so much mana'! I can barely see the potential with her clumsy staff handling. I mean, look at that broken gem! How did she manage to break it?"

"You know that magical medium crystals cannot be broken, Indio…" Professor Yoan said.

"Che."

Professor Yushalem licked her lollipop once more before biting it. 

"Well, she has some mysterious bad luck magnet etched to her." Professor Yusha exclaimed. "I mean… encountering two undead royals in a row? Just what are the odds?"

"Who knew that the undead princess chose the chamber next to the undead prince's eye?" Professor Miketsukami smiled as he stared at the vase through his eyeglasses. "What a spectacle to see, indeed. She arrived at a particularly bad place."

"Every single time, actually." Professor Lotus Mande commented.

"Well, enough about her. Let's see the leading examinee."

"Claire Fortunatorum."

The professors then watched the screen which was driven via magic. It showed Claire, the girl with the same red, flaming hair and green eyes fierce with determination. She was fighting multiple monsters effortlessly and with dexterity.

"Ah, what do you know? A distant relative of the prodigy." Professor Madne then sipped on her chamomile tea mixed with brewed potions for vigor. The dark circles under her eyes were proof she wasn't sleeping. "She can use her magic properly. She's also very skilled with her moves. Flexible with her mana."

Professor Gimli stopped caressing his beard as he beamed. "Ooh. This is Eulalia's relative?"

"Yes. She carries the Fortunatorum name. Apparently, she's from a branching family that had risen because of the prodigy's success. She gained a name in the social circle of Zuerst."

"I thought we're not discussing about nobility and ranking? Politics makes my head hurt," Yushalem pouted. 

"Yes, but this got me revved up. Eulalia is the most brilliant tamer I have ever encountered!" Professor Gimli enthusiastically said. "Ah, the days of her still here is still fresh in my mind. The way she sang one of the academe's notable songs…"

Silence.

"O-oh. I apologize. I forgot that we do not speak of that," says Gimli. "Ooohh. This silly old me."

Yoan faked a cough. "Back to the examinees." 

Yushalem drew a lollipop from her pocket again and then turned towards Mariam.

"You're painstakingly silent today. Usually, you would be using your magic to fail multiple students already. Why the change of heart?" Yushalem asked the most feared teacher in the entire academy. She then peered to Mariam's screen, and then her smile widened.

"Oooh, Faustina Feuerlon! You're interested in that child aren't you, Mariam?" Yusha teased, as she rubbed her head on Mariam's chin like a cat. "But I thought you didn't like timid students? She won't have a room in your class if you become her adviser, you know!"

Mariam sighs.

"Yushalem. Your hair is making my neck itch."

Professor Yusha pouted as she sits back on her seat. 

"I'm just saying that you seemed to be too glued on her. There are many other examinees, you know. Like Claire Fortunatorum, or that Anakin Disfiegro."

"Hands off, he's already mine."

"Yes, yes, Madne. You made that perfectly clear when he used those boosters."

"That brat. I want to freaking fail him," says Professor Indio. "He cheated with those mana revitalizers!"

"It's not cheating if he saw the loophole in the rules." Lotus Madne smirked as she crossed her arms. "It's called strategy."

**

Faustina stared at the entirety of the undead prince. He was wearing a royal-blue tailcoat that was torn and ragged, which was also almost black with grime. The bones from his rib were showing from his decaying flesh. Centipedes crawled to the rot of his skin and created skin-crawling noises. The undead prince only had a hair that was in his right, whilst in his left was his skull. He also smells fouler than the undead princess, like that of rat and dog post-mortem. He also carried flies around him as he ambled his way to Faustina with his bones cracking and his flesh resounding as he walks.

Faustina backed away as she held onto her staff. 

Accursed souls.

Now that she knows that they were once real people who lived, she couldn't bring herself to fight them. 

Sympathy?

Faustina doesn't know what this emotion was. She felt as if it was wrong to fight—yet at the same time, her body was screaming to at least conjure a spell to protect herself. To give her all. To escape. 

"Alright. Give me your best shot," the undead prince said with a smile as a small centipede crawled to the hole in his cheek.

"Give my best… shot?"

"That's right. Let's test how much mana you hold in actuality." He says, licking his lips. "That way, I can determine the taste and the quality of my food."

**

Leviticus eased his way towards the ceiling. Peculiarly enough, he was able to fit through inside without much problem. The ceiling had no light whatsoever, so he used Lumos to get his way forward. He ambled to where mana could be felt the most—the place that has the loophole and the less spell. He still have about thirteen minutes left before coming back to Faustina, so he had some time to explore. As expected, there were rats, and the entire place was neat as if he wasn't in the ruined and abandoned dark castle.

Leviticus explored the passage but he had only encountered a dead end. Twelve minutes in and he came empty-handed. And so, Leviticus proceeded to go back to Faustina. And as he walked to find the hole he came from, he wondered why it was peculiarly light under. And then his eyes widened. Faustina! Maybe she's fighting!

Leviticus instantly stormed towards the aperture and plunged towards it.

Leviticus half-closed his eyes as his eyes met that of the rays of the sun.

…the rays of the… sun?

Leviticus stood up to see the vast, arched windows to be emanating light. From outside, vines ridden with flowers crept to the wood of the windows, and from below was a large courtyard that was green from spring. The trimmed, sweetgrass was gleaming from the sun and everything just looked warm and mellow.

"What… in the world…"

Apart from the cleaner disposition of the hallway and the light from outside, everything is practically the same. Similar murals and paintings, the same vase with a rose—the only difference is that there was no Faustina in sight.

Leviticus frowned. 

"Daylight?"

"…sigh, there he goes, leeching with HER again!"

"Surely the queen will be venting her anger to us again."

"We have to be prepared for the worse."

Hearing these faint voices from the distance made Leviticus look up to the hole in the ceiling to hide once again. But then…

"There's no… hole?" 

"But seriously. SHE told us the king was serious about her. I won't be surprised if she can climb her way to the top using the king's affection!"

Leviticus then made his way to the corner and used earth magic that imitated the wood of the walls. 

Women, who seemed to be the maids of the castle based on their black uniform and lace dresses, passed by the aisle carrying trays.

"But the king is a lecher, so he's probably not serious. SHE's a maid, for the love of the Above."

"He made her a poem!"

"Really? How did you know?"

"The queen found it, that's why she's crying on her chambers again!"

"Oohh,"

"WHERE'S MY FOOD!"

"Aah! The princess is being impatient! We have to get going!"

Leviticus watched as the two women headed forward and took the right turn. Leviticus blinked several times.

"They're… human."

They were indeed human. He sensed not much mana from them. Leviticus frowned—of course, it wasn't hard to track what they were talking about.

The undead king and (a maid?) having an affair.

Leviticus then remembers the portrait he had seen in the books—the king and the maid in the family picture!

"Does this mean that I'm… back in the…"

"…past."

Leviticus blinked as he turned towards the side.

A maid with long lashes and jewel-like eyes with a porcelain skin was staring at him. She then reached her hand to Leviticus and as her fingertips touched the wood he conjured with magic. And in an instant, it shattered into nothing but a flicker of golden mist—down to its basic form—mana.

"Wh-what… who are you?"

Leviticus recognized who she was immediately.

The maid from the portraits—the woman who caught the king's attention.

Leviticus still couldn't believe it. 

"The speculations were true." He murmured. "You… have antimagic!"