He didn’t have too much time until the first classes began, and he had to find the principal; with a mental signal, he sent a message to his demoness to bring him to the great hall fast.
As he continued running, he slowly saw more and more people on their way to the great university. He didn’t have more than half an hour or he would have to wait for the end of the day.
Jumping over a person, he finally arrived at his destination. Not waiting for anyone to open the gates, he pushed them open himself to find Yumoth already waiting at the pedestal.
’’You called for me? I hope it’s important; you know we can’t meet so openly. His old voice echoed quietly through the hall, sounding harsh, but there was an undertone of curiosity in it.
Seeing the old man so cold and concentrated felt wrong to Steven, but he understood him; after all, his students were getting murdered on a daily basis.
"I have to see the corpses of the murdered students... all of them," he proclaimed loudly, but his voice was firm, signaling its importance.
’’Will it be of help to find the one behind it? "Yumoth answered skeptically but was already calling Stevens’s demoness forward. As Steven nodded to his answer, Yumoth let out a sigh. ’’I will give you a chance, but it will take at least a few hours.’’
As his demoness handed him a small red stone. "If it were to turn green, you’d have roughly ten minutes at the graveyard." Steven took it and placed it in his pocket. ’’That will be more than enough.’’
Not even waiting another second, Steven turned around, only waving them goodbye as he made his way to his classroom. The streets had already cleared of students, but as long as the bell didn’t ring, he was fine.
As he finally arrived in the magnificent castle, great enough to be filled with thousands of people, and he was just one of them, stepping past a few students that looked like they were in the second year already, he checked his class schedule only to find out his first class was on the eleventh floor.
’’Are you kidding me? Eleventh floor for a diamond class.’’ He cursed under his breath while skipping entire staircases. Until he finally reached it, standing just outside the door, he slowly opened it.
And walked inside, every student already sitting on the seat they chose, only a few of them still being empty, as he could feel Merency, Lucy, and June staring at him, waiting to be chosen at their neighbors’ seats.
Still debating where he should sit down, the bell rang; luckily, he hadn’t seen the teacher when entering, which meant they got to be late too.
As suddenly, a voice called out behind him. "You’re too late, Mr. Bright. Might I hear your excuse?" A familiar female voice was behind him; turning around, he had his demons standing in the middle of the room, as if she had appeared out of nowhere.
’’I... I was already in class when the bell rang.’’ He answered, his confusion hindering him from thinking.
’’The rules state you already have to be on your seat when class starts...’’ She countered as a few chuckles ran through the class; Steven could only lower his head in embarrassment.
Wanting to just pick the first seat he saw, he made his way but was stopped once more. "No, no, today you will be sitting here in the front row." She added, pointing towards the completely empty first row.
Sitting down, Steven whispered to himself. ’’Why am I even listening to her? Maybe I should just send her back to hell to die in the blazing flames.’’ As he could feel everyone’s gazes judgingly piercing him.
The nobles were probably happy that the bright showoff was lectured, and the commoners were always happy if anyone important wasn’t excluded because of their rank.
But their focus didn’t stay for long as the entrance door swung open one more time as Lumiel stepped through, looking like he had walked through a tornado. "I hope I’m still on time."
Steven hit his head against the table hard; he couldn’t believe that this guy truly was in the Diamond class. And even their teacher seemed to be shocked by his appearance.
"Just sit down next to Mr. Bright..." She slowly spoke, seemingly having given up on them already. ’’With everyone here I can finally start my class.’’
’’I am Elizabeth Trellen, and from today on I will be your teacher in general magic.’’ Her voice was firm as she stared at each student one by one.
Written down her name, she slowly started with the basics of advanced magic, drawing magical cycles on the board and material lists for rituals.
Steven barely looked up, already having been through all of this once in his school time, and even most of the nobles seemed to be bored, probably already having gotten private tutoring on those topics beforehand.
"Sleeping already, Mr. Bright?" Ms. Trellen spoke, throwing a pen towards him, barely missing his head. "If your class is so boring, why don’t you show us how to cast a basic Jade-level spell?" Her voice was sharp like a knife, as if he weren’t the old one that could simply send her back.
Rising to his feet, Steven wanted to finish this fast, but he could hear whispers behind him. "Isn’t he a Bright? How is he supposed to cast a spell?"
’’I thought they couldn’t even use magic.’’
’’I heard they can only do the basic of the basics.’’
"Shush, all of you." A student from further back ended their talk.
But Steven could only smile as he stepped towards the front. ’’Any preferred element?’’
’’Any Jade spell will be enough.’’ She answered, watching him carefully.
With the snap of his finger, he could feel the teacher trying to cancel his spell.
But he wouldn’t let them.
Using only the smallest fraction of his power,
A dark sphere formed in his hand, swallowing all the light in the room.
A simple darkness spell from the lowest level.