Springett had arrived at the assembly hall around half war through the fight. But it was early enough for her to see Ray dealing with the students with his bare fist but not only that, when Ray was fighting, she noticed something.
If his fist were simply strong then Springett would have ignored it. Perhaps it was a simple strengthening spell, even more so if he was wearing some equipment, it could have just been enchanted to give him extra strength.
But when Ray fought against those students, he was hitting them in precise spots to knock them out. He was easily able to avoid blows and his movement was unnatural. Springett had seen these type of fighting skills before and these skills did not belong to that of a mage but more to that of a knight.
How did she know all of this? That's because Springett herself was a rare case. She was one of the very few mixed types out there. Something called a magic swordsman. It took years to just learn how to learn one type of skill and it was rare for someone to have the time to spend on both.
Just because someone was able to control Mana well didn't mean they could gather and control the Ki inside their body. Although Ray had found out these two were the same thing, the world had not. But it was still true that if one could control mana which was gathering energy from the outside world, it didn't mean they were good at controlling the energy on the inside.
"I am a mage," Ray replied with a straight face.
"Well Ray, I'm afraid Springett has a good reason for suspicion," Harvey said, "Perhaps if you were able to demonstrate your magic skills then that would clear you of suspicion?"
"Okay," Ray said confidently.
These words had come as a surprise to Springett, she was sure she had cracked him and even noticed that Ray was slightly nervous when she had brought up the fact that he wasn't a mage.
Ray then stood up from his seat and stood a few steps back form everyone else.
Then from the palm of Ray's hand in nearly an instant, a large fireball half the size of his body had appeared.
The principal was impressed.
"Oh, not only can you perform magic but you are very powerful, looks like it will be easy for you to rank up at the end of the term."
The fireball skill had even impressed Ray himself. After absorbing the attribute points from the other students his fire skills were nearly twice as strong as before.
Ray cancelled the fireball skill and it looked like the principal was satisfied.
"Was that enough?" Ray asked.
"Yes of course don't worry about it, you two are free to leave. The middle-class students will be punished appropriately so please do not worry about that for now."
With that Ray breathed a sigh of relief. If they had asked him to demonstrate more skills then Ray would have been stumped. At the moment Ray couldn't even perform a basic energy ball.
As Ray left the room with Van, he couldn't help but feel two piercing eyes stuck to his back like glue. It was obvious that Springett still had her suspicions of him.
It was getting late and the sun was starting to set. As the two walked back to their room, not a word was spoken between both of them.
Ray was hoping after the incident that Van might have finally opened up to him a little. After all, he had risked exposing himself to the academy. Although Ray couldn't say there wasn't any improvement, at least now it didn't seem like Van was running away from him.
"Thank you," Van said and for the first time smiled at Ray.
"No problem," Ray replied.
Although Ray had dealt with one of the biggest offenders in the academy, he hadn't gotten rid of the root cause, Blake. Ray was also yet to find out why Blake hated him so much and Ray couldn't waste much more time on this.
If Van wouldn't give him an answer then he would just have to use his Dragons truth skill on him. Ray had been saving this on Van just in case, as the skill could only be used on a person once.
When he found out what the Divine being wanted Van, there might have been more questions that Ray needed to ask. Much more than a simple bullying problem.
*****
Back in one of the integration rooms, several of the middle-class students had confessed about who was behind the whole set up. They had given the name Blake.
Of course, they were afraid of Blake's power but the incident was so serious that they could be kicked out of the school for this but if they Blamed Blake they knew he would be let off lightly.
Currently inside one of the integration rooms was Blake and the person integrating him was Del, Ray's homeroom teacher.
"So the others tell me that, you had ordered Nano and the others to do that to Van is that correct?"
"Pff, you have no proof that it was me who did it," Blake replied.
"You are correct, so it seems like I won't have to continue this investigation any longer. Nano will be pinned for this incident." Del said.
The result had come as a shock to Blake. Although Blake knew it would be hard to pin the blame on him, they would have been able to get a few confessions from the others causing Blake to at least face some sought of repercussion.
But then, from the look on Del's face, Blake knew exactly why Del had said this.
"What do you want?" Blake asked.
"Seems like you understood me well."
******
After a tough Day, Ray and Van had decided to go sleep in their dorm rooms. Van still hadn't said much to Ray but Ray had decided to let him rest for the day. After all, he had taken quite a beating and must have been tired.
Ray would simply ask him about what had happened the next day.
In the middle of the night, the sound of the door being pushed upon woke Ray up. Rather than the sound though, it was more the sickly aura that was emitting from the person's body.
Ray had felt this presence before and it was the presence of the shadow.
Ray decided to continue to pretend to be asleep wondering just what on earth was it doing here.