Time always flew by during happy moments.
After enjoying a pleasant dinner party with a group of ladies, Brand returned to his dorm room humming an ancient ballad of the Kaya Empire. After washing up, he lay in bed and sank his consciousness into the Simulation World.
The Simulation World had also entered nighttime. A bright moon shone brightly upon the earth. If there was any difference between this night sky and the one from his past life, it was the sheer lack of stars.
The entire Solar System only consisted of the Sun and a few major planets. Brand hadn’t yet had the time to create a brilliant, boundless galaxy like the one in his previous life. But everything had to start somewhere; he would just have to take it one step at a time. Since he was in a good mood today, Brand added a sky full of starlight to the monotonous night sky, setting it to last until dawn.
Accompanied by the ocean waves and the starlight, Brand fell into a sound sleep.
Time fast-forwarded to half a month later.
At this point, the week-long final exams at the Empire Mage Academy had already come to a close. The academy’s instructors would announce the exam results this evening. For students who failed to pass, today would be their last day at the Empire Mage Academy. Starting tomorrow, they would lose their status as students of the academy, along with the myriad of benefits attached to that identity.
Naturally, Brand was absolutely not among them.
During the mandatory course exams, Brand used Meditation Potions and the Simulation World to stumble his way through the test papers. Although the sheer number of pages in the reference books made his "open-book" testing process slightly bumpy, Brand could still guarantee scoring at least an eighty out of one hundred. After all, as long as he found the answers in the books, he just had to copy them down word for word. There was practically zero chance of copying anything wrong.
As for the elective course exam, Brand unsurprisingly chose Rune Array Science. This semester’s exam content for Rune Array Science was the Rune Drawing of the Number Three Rune, which was exactly within Brand’s expectations. Thus, in a spacious, empty classroom, under the watchful eyes of several proctors, Brand skillfully completed it.
What surprised Brand a little was that he was the only student who had chosen to take the Rune Array Science exam this semester. He only found out later that even though Rune Array Science courses and exams were always offered in the first semester, due to the strict Spiritual Power threshold, very few people usually opted for—let alone passed—the exam. Read the latest chapters at g.com.
Judging from past experience, those who managed to pass the Rune Array Science exam in their first semester must have had significant understanding and practice in Rune Drawing prior to arriving at the Empire Mage Academy. At the very least, they possessed a profound level of Spiritual Power. Someone like Brand was completely unheard of by the instructors of the Empire Mage Academy.
Therefore, after the Rune Array Science exam concluded, Brand’s reputation as a genius in Rune Array Science gradually began to spread among the instructors’ inner circles. Unlike before, when it was always Female Mages talking about him, this time, regardless of gender, almost all the teachers in the Mage Academy were discussing Brand’s genius talent.
While the students were still anxiously waiting for their exam results, the academy’s instructors had already divided them into various ranks based on their Talents and the strength of the factions backing them. And Brand was undoubtedly placed in the absolute highest tier among the student body!
Since the Mage Academy’s grand banquet hall would be hosting the semester’s farewell dinner on the same night the results were announced, many instructors had pre-prepared all sorts of conversation topics and even specific strategies. They were ready to have friendly, harmonious chats with outstanding, "bright-futured" students like Brand to win them over!
As for Brand, when evening approached, he stepped out of his dormitory dressed in exquisite, custom-tailored aristocratic attire with a black base and gold trim. Unlike ordinary dinners, tonight’s banquet was held in the academy’s grand banquet hall. Any academy teacher with free time would attend, including quite a few heavyweights of the Empire Mage Academy.
Brand, who frequently mingled in various banquets, was naturally well-versed in dressing himself up meticulously. Because of this, he left a remarkably deep impression in the eyes of the ladies he passed by on the road today. Many ladies couldn’t suppress their fluttering hearts and stepped forward to have friendly conversations with him. Because Brand was highly attractive and possessed a silver tongue, coupled with the fact that they shared the same destination, by the time he reached the doors of the banquet hall, he was unknowingly surrounded by a crowd of beautifully dressed ladies in evening gowns.
Among these ladies were classmates Brand knew, but most of them were upperclasswomen he had never met before. Normally, Brand didn’t have many chances to meet upperclasswomen several years ahead of him since they were located in different academic districts. Now that such a great opportunity presented itself, Brand naturally utilized his specialty in "making friends," chatting merrily with the senior upperclasswomen. They exchanged contact information and became good friends!
Upon entering the academy’s grand banquet hall, which was engraved with the Heaven Sword emblem, the different grades were separated into different dining areas. Brand regretfully bid farewell to the group of upperclasswomen before walking toward the first-year dining area under the amazed and passionate gazes of the ladies in the hall. Read the latest chapters at g.com.
After arriving at the first-year area, quite a few gorgeously dressed ladies invited Brand to share a table with them, but he had no intention of agreeing to such requests at a time like this. It would have been fine on a regular day, but in such a formal setting, Brand wasn’t about to completely alienate himself from the male demographic. Even though, truth be told, he had exponentially more female friends...
"Brand, over here!"
The perfectly timed voice offered Brand an excellent out. After apologizing to the clingy girls beside him, Brand walked toward the source of the voice.
Andy Claude—he was the one who had bailed Brand out this time.
During a dinner party over ten days ago, Andy had still wanted to step over Brand to show off his knowledge in front of the girl he liked. However, after interacting at banquets a few more times, Brand’s easygoing and laid-back personality caused Andy’s hostility toward him to diminish significantly. And after learning through certain channels that Brand was always just passively receiving the favor of all these girls, Andy proactively became good friends with Brand and even planned to introduce his own sisters to him.
According to his logic, if Brand got married, the girl he liked would finally give up hope. Then, the heartbreaking scene of his beloved girl making eyes at Brand would never happen again. Because of this, for the past couple of days, Andy was constantly pitching his sisters to Brand.
Brand, however, always lacked interest in this.
When it came to things like political marriages, he was rather nonchalant. He hadn’t actually opposed the marriage arrangement previously set up by Elder Master Holland. As for his legal wife, as long as her appearance wasn’t outrageously terrible, Brand maintained an indifferent attitude.
He had only rejected Elder Master Holland’s arrangement and chosen to attend the Mage Academy because he simply didn’t want to get married so early. What kind of noble started getting married at sixteen? Brand stated that he needed to enjoy his freedom for at least a few more years.
Therefore, regarding Andy’s plans, Brand could only regretfully say sorry.