Gabriel had just finished his talent measurement. The three Head of Houses left together, appearing very serious.
While Gabriel sat inside the hall, preparing for the worse, the three heads stood outside the hall.
"That talent... What do you two think about it?" Eliana asked the two men, trying to gauge their opinion.
"What do I think? I think it's not true. There must be some problem in the mirror. How can that kid score over a hundred? The highest the mirror goes is a hundred, after all." Lishen still couldn't believe that Gabriel had a talent at that level.
"For a moment, I can believe that he has more talent and Soul Strength than us here since he's the youngest awakened mage, but having more Soul Strength than the last Lord of Light after he was selected by the Holy Book? There's no way. The mirror is defective. It's so old after all," he further added. "I think we should ignore the results."
"I don't think we should." Rem didn't agree with his friend on this. There were rarely situations in which he disagreed with his friend, but this was one of those situations.
"That mirror is a Numen. It's not a man-made artifact of low quality. It came into existence because of a demigod. I don't think we can doubt its veracity. And as far as the highest range is considered, a hundred was an assumption since no one had crossed that limit. There was no way for us to know the exact limit."
"Who knows, maybe two hundred is the limit? Or five hundred? Or a thousand? Demigods certainly had more Talent and soul strength than we have in our times."
"So you believe he really is more talented than the last Lord of Light?"
"I don't know. I wasn't there when the Lord of Light was tested. I was just a student at that time, but the mirror does say that the kid has more talent and Soul Strength than the last Lord of Light. And with that kind of talent, it's quite likely that the holy book will select him as the next Lord of Light when the current Lord of Light dies."
Rem glanced back at the door of the hall. "No matter how arrogant that kid may be, but he is really special. No one can deny that. If the Holy Church of Light finds out about him, they will take him in directly. Without a few years, he might also be elevated to the position of a High Priest, becoming the youngest High Priest."
"I agree. That's why I think we can't let the Church of Light know about this." Eliana stated in complete seriousness. "I don't want to lose this guy to the Church of Light. At least not until he graduates from the academy. From that point on, no matter how big he becomes in the future, how high he climbs, the prestige will belong to the Academy."
"Can we really keep such a big thing hidden from everyone?" Lishen asked, finding it really hard to keep such a thing hidden. "He is the youngest mage. That alone should be enough to attract the attention of the Holy Church of Light, let alone his talent scores..."
"He looks to be in his early twenties, so no one can know his true age is eighteen," Eliana responded. "Only we know his true age. It's not hard to keep the fact about him being the youngest awakened mage hidden. I'll handle that."
"And his score? The students saw that score. Princess Elia was also there. She will definitely tell her father. We can't force her to stay silent. And even if she doesn't tell anyone, someone else might. No matter how much we try, it's not news that can stay hidden for long."
"Didn't you already answer that question before, Lishen?" Eliana smiled.
Finally, after a long time, there was a smile on her face, which made her look somewhat cute. Since she often had an expressionless face, not many had seen her smile, including Gabriel.
"What do you mean?"
"We know the mirror wasn't defective, but the kids don't know that. We can just say that the mirror was defective. That should be enough for the moment. In any case, his score was moving up so slowly. The sudden boost would've raised suspicions in their head already. They will believe it right away, including Elia."
"I know it's wrong to lie, but this matter is of grave importance, so we need to keep this hidden from Karyk as well. As long as Karyk is here, he will be treated like any ordinary student in classes. I'll call the meeting of the head council to inform them about this as well. No special preference will be given to him."
"At any cost, the Holy Church of Light shouldn't find out!"
The three teachers knew what an advantage their academy had over the Holy Church of Light, thanks to Gabriel. None of them wanted to spoil it. Not only could they train such a talented mage, but through him, they could also learn just how much of a difference there was between different tiers of talents.
After coming to a conclusion, they were just about to go back to execute their story when a middle-aged man came to them with a message.
The man carried the message from the old lady, informing them about the arrival of a new candidate who had a direct recommendation from the Lord of Light.
The little piece of information stunned Eliana further. First, there was Gabriel, and now this new student? Just what would the Lord of Light give his direct recommendation to the academy? If he thought the kid was really talented, why didn't he train him at the academy? Something didn't appear right.
Unfortunately, she wasn't in any position to question the Lord of Light. She wasn't even the Dean of the Academy.
"Rem, you accompany me. Lishen, you go inside and do as we planned. There's no need to test any other student through the mirror. Just take them all and show them their rooms. Take care of the formalities. And remember, he is just an ordinary student for now."
The day was more bizarre than Eliana had expected, but she could only go with the flow. It didn't matter what kind of student she received; she only looked at the bigger picture.
Unfortunately, she also knew what a problem there could be. The Candidate selected by the Lord of Light... And the egregiously talented Gabriel... Both of them shared the same element, and both of them were going to be in close proximity.
No matter how they treated Gabriel, it was inevitable that he was going to shine brighter than the moon itself. However, Lelin was also close to the Lord of Light, so things were certainly going to get complicated.
She and Rem left the place together. Meanwhile, Lishen went inside the hall.
****
Before long, Rem and Eliana arrived near the entrance where Lelin was waiting with the old woman.
"Hmm? His aura..." The first thing that Rem noticed as soon as he saw Lelin was his aura.
If Gabriel's aura was like a blazing flame that was ready to burn everything in its path, then Lelin's aura was more like a chaotic Tsunami that could swallow the entire earth.
