When Raze gave his answer, Alen looked down at the pocket device in his hand. It wasn't the answer that had made him react, but instead, the device that made his eyes nearly pop out from his head.
"You're telling the truth," he mumbled to himself. "But how?"
As Raze thought, the device in his hand was a rare enchanted item that could detect if a person was lying or telling the truth. Due to the question asked, Raze knew he had nothing to lie about.
"Telling the truth in this situation should also get his interest off my back," Raze thought to himself.
It was obvious as day that Alen was interested in who he was. Perhaps the conversation the two had had made Alen think highly of Raze or believe that the two of them could be some type of rival.
Raze knew that feeling well; the top was more of a lonely place than one would think. Usually, one would gain joy in beating others and being better than them, but when you were at the top, that was when you started to welcome competition more.
The competition of someone being able to match you gave you excitement, and now Raze needed to extinguish this excitement.
"Now I know," Alen thought. "I know why we weren't able to find any information on him because he's not special at all. He's just a normal mid-level mage."
A 3-star mage was a good achievement for those who were still young, but at a certain age, there would be those who would stop developing their skills. It would happen to some, and they would remain at the same star level for the rest of their life.
Three stars were the middle line for most mages: nothing special, not horrible, but not in the same realm that Alen wanted to participate in.
"I am a man of my word," Alen smiled. "I owe you one favor whenever you wish, and although you may not be the strongest, you seem to be quite knowledgeable."
When saying these words, Alen was looking at the barrier. Part of it had been destroyed, and he still wasn't quite sure how. He thought about it himself, and an incredibly powerful condensed type of magic would need to be used.
If not that, an item or a high-tier spell, this was the last of his curiosity, but Alen would have to nip it in the bud because it wasn't worth his time to chase after a 3-star mage; he was above that.
The rest of the assessments continued one after the other, and finally, the spar was over. The group continued as they went to the next lesson, and Raze continued to watch.
There seemed to be some words spoken by Alen and his sister, because she didn't speak up after that. There was no gloating or showing off, even when the teachers asked her to display some answers.
She just did as she was told and didn't even seem to stare toward Kelly. On one of the walks on the way to the next lesson, Kelly was by the side of Raze, and she had decided to open up again.
"Thank you again," Kelly said. "I really mean it. I know I said thank you from before, but I know you must have taken some type of big risk to help me."
"I was the one that said you shouldn't stand out, and well, we did stand out, but it was because you wanted to protect me."
"I wanted to do a lot more than that," Raze mumbled under his breath, thinking back to his thoughts. As these lessons were going from one to another, more pills were being used up, and he was trying to calculate how much time he had left.
"Anyway, I promise that I will stick to the cause and will find out any information you wish. I would have still done this before, but I just wanted you to know that I won't go back on my word," Kelly stated.
There was something else she wanted to ask, she wanted to bring up, but she wasn't sure it was the right time. The thoughts in her head: was he really a spirit, a puppet, a creation, or an actual life? Was it quite possible that this was a person? And if that was the case, could it be... was 'Jake' actually the Dark Magus? Was he still alive?
It was a crazy thought for her to have. The age didn't match up, the level of magical abilities didn't make sense, and in a way, she thought that maybe she just wanted it to be the truth.
The one she considered her savior from the past, who had taken her out of her situation, and had gotten revenge on her behalf, had just saved her again; she wanted it to be true.
"Jake... I wanted to ask... are you..."
"I can't," Raze replied, breaking her off mid-sentence. "I just calculated how much time I have left. I can't go to what I need after the event."
Based on how much time Raze had, he needed to go to the vault, at least during the event. He had to find a way to slip out and get what he needed.
"You mean, you don't have much time?" Kelly asked.
She knew his body was a bit strange since touching it, and how he had appeared out of nowhere; this part of him really was like a spirit, and she somewhat understood that because he had saved her and used his magical powers that it might have been her fault in all of this.
"I will need to go during the event; I will be back for the end, but after that, we will have to part ways immediately," Raze explained.
"I understand," Kelly nodded. "I don't think we have to worry, though; that lesson was the last lesson. We're heading to the main hall now... the evening event is about to begin."
