Chapter 285 - Little Devil

Anfey’s life suddenly had become very simple since he started school. The only two places he would go were the academy and Saul’s home. However, his workload had increased. He began reading through books on the basics of magic. He had found so many books that, should he stack them up in a pile, they would tower over him. Even though he was far from memorizing everything in the books, he was already familiar with a few major points. He was trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible in preparation for his future classes.

After Steger returned to Sacred City, he changed the policies at the academy. He picked out the best students and created three elite classes. Anfey was put in the intermediate elite class.

After two classes, Anfey realized that his thought process was often faster than the professor’s in class. However, he knew he had to stay in classes because the teachers would often talk about their own experiences with practicing a certain spell. These experiences were not recorded in books, and Anfey had no way of knowing them unless he sat through the class.

Since he was often bored in class, he began bringing books to the class. If he liked the professor, he would listen while he read. The professors did not care much about what he did, and his classmates were all too attentive to notice that he wasn’t.

A lot of students soon noticed that Anfey was always accompanied by a young woman. When he was in class, the young woman would sit outside and meditate. When he was in between classes, she would always be by his side. When the day was over, they would leave together, chatting and laughing. Everyone could tell that they were very much in love. Some people were envious, but everyone chose to remain silent after learning who Anfey was. Not only was he someone who had outstanding accomplishments during the recent war, he was a student of the archmage Saul. Of course, the main reason most people chose to stay away was Suzanna’s senior swordsmaster badge. Most students were still too inexperienced and knew better than try to flirt with a girl with a senior swordsmaster badge.

On this particular day, Anfey knew that he did not need to go to his two morning classes. Both professors tended to teach exactly what was in the books and rarely talked about their own experiences. Instead of going, he chose to stay home and take notes. He finished around noon, and left with Suzanna. However, they both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw a line of carriages in front of the mansion.

Blavi, Riska, Sante, and the other students were all standing next to the carriages, staring at the mansion with gaping mouths. Like Niya, their faces were filled with excitement and delight.

"Sister!" Shally jumped out of the carriage and dashed towards Suzanna.

Another creature jumped out after Shally and dashed towards Anfey. The unicorn ran into Anfey, sending him stumbling backwards so he needed to regain his balance. The unicorn fell over onto the ground. However, a collision like this was more like a game to the unicorn and could not harm it. It jumped up and bounced towards Anfey again.

Anfey jumped aside to avoid a second collision, then grabbed the unicorn’s mane and pulled it towards him. "Calm down," he said, patting the unicorn’s head. "Thank god you don’t have your horn yet." He shuddered at the memory of the fight between the unicorn and the manticore.

"I missed you so, sister!" Shally cried, hugging Suzanna.

"I missed you as well," Suzanna said with tears in her eyes. Even though Saul had told her that the carriages had not encountered any danger, she could only relax when she saw with her own eyes that her sister was safe.

"Anfey," Riska greeted him with a smile.

"Is everyone here?"

"Yes."

"That’s good," Anfey said, smiling. "Where’s Lord Miorich?"

"He went to the palace."

"Who’s back? Who’s back?" Niya hurried out of the mansion and asked.

"Everyone," Anfey said with a smile. "Come on, let’s go inside."

Everyone was excited to finally return home. Their experience had completely changed them. Normally, people who leave home to expand their experience would begin with easier tasks. No one would start with difficult responsibilities the way they had. They were constantly straddling the line between life and death, and were therefore much more experienced than their peers.

The butler ordered the servants to bring food so they could catch up while snacking. Riska talked about what happened after Anfey, Suzanna, Niya, and Christian left, and Anfey talked about the encounter with the necromancers. However, he hid the truth about how Slanbrea died. He trusted his friends, but he knew that it was better if they did not know the truth.

Shally swallowed a piece of cake and wiped her hands on a piece of towel. She sat up straight and tugged on Riska’s shirt.

"Oh, yes. We had some trouble on the way, but we solved it thanks to Shally."

"What happened?"

"It’s the unicorn," Riska said, shaking his head. "We can’t control it. Don’t ever leave that thing with us again."

Anfey looked down at the unicorn. High tier magic beasts were smarter than normal ones, but not smart enough to immediately understand humans. It put two of its front legs on a small table and was reaching for the cakes. However, Anfey kept it tightly by his side and the unicorn could not reach the food.

"Without Shally, we would never have been able to tame that thing without harming it," Blavi said, grinning at Shally.

Shally was grinning as well, even though she was clearly trying to conceal her emotions.

"What did it do?" Anfey asked, surprised.

"What didn’t it do?" Riska asked, shaking his head. "It disturbed the order, harmed others, attacked other animals, harassed women…and that is just the tip of the iceberg!"

"It harassed people?"

"You know what Mambo territory is famous for? Hot springs. The night we got to Mambo, it escaped somehow. We didn’t realize it until the guards came to fetch us. It made a scene at a hot spring and injured one of the ladies there," Riska said, shaking his head.

"It even stole one of the ladies’ clothes," Blavi said, frowning. "It was so embarrassing."

"You did all this?" Anfey asked the unicorn.

The unicorn, who could not understand him, nodded happily.

"How embarrassing," Anfey said with a frown and whacked the unicorn on the head gently.

"Not for you," Riska said, rolling his eyes. "We were the ones that had to apologize when it was your fault."

The door was suddenly pushed open and Saul and Christian appeared. Everyone hurriedly stood up and called in unison, "Master Saul." A lot of the young ones even began tearing up. Most of them had left home when they were too young to study with Saul, and Saul was like a father to them. Just the sight of him was enough to make them excited and happy.

"Sit, sit, you all must be tired," Saul said with a smile. "How was the trip?"

"It was good, Master. Lord Miorich took good care of us."

"Good, good. Now I can finally relax," Saul said, sitting down on the chair Christian pulled out for him. He was tearing up as well. "It’s been a long time. It wasn’t right sitting here by myself. It’s good to have you all back."

"I apologize, Master Saul," Riska said, lowering his head. "We made you worry."

"Worry…" Saul repeated, then smiled. "It’s alright. You all did well. You made me proud. I will always be proud of you."

Everyone fell silent, unsure of what to say.

"Are you Archmage Saul?" Shally suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes," Saul said. "You must be Shally."

"You know my name?" Shally asked, surprised. "I want to study with you, my lord. Can I study with you?"

Suzanna frowned. She did not know who taught Shally to say that. Plus, her question was too blunt.