As soon as he arrived at the hub station floating in outer space, Emery quickly made his way through the long massive corridors, entered the transport portal, and returned to the Magus Academy hub.
The moment he stepped off the portal, his field of vision was immediately greeted by a place crowded with many people walking here and there as they went about to do their business.
Upon seeing this, Emery realized that the outer world travel ban seemed to have been lifted, hence the reason for such a crowded hub.
While there were a few academy staff seen walking and rushing around, the crowd of course consisted of mostly the academy students or rather acolytes. From their uniform which Emery could recognize, he knew those people were first year and second year students, although some appeared bigger than him.
As he walked through the hub floor, Emery started to notice that people were looking at him in a peculiar gaze. It took him a few good minutes to realize the reason; the uniform he was currently wearing.
Thanks to the fact that he was now a privileged class acolyte, Emery was no longer wearing the elite class black uniform but the eye-catching white privileged uniform that spoke loud of his current status instead.
As much as he was uncomfortable being the center of attention when he literally did nothing but walk, it would also be a lie if Emery said that he wasn't intrigued by this new kind of treatment he received from other people.
Especially when he realized that many of those looks were coming from girls who were attractive.
This lecherous thought that suddenly surfaced out of nowhere immediately made Emery slap his cheek with his hands.
"Concentrate, Emery!!"
Fearing that there would be more of those thoughts and things distracting him, Emery quickly increased his pace and rushed towards the headmaster's office, which was mentioned as the meeting place in the message.
A few minutes later, he finally arrived in front of the headmaster's office, and the magus who stood guard in front immediately opened his mouth when he saw him.
"Emery Ambrose, you may enter."
After giving a salute to the magus, Emery quickly pushed the door open and entered. Inside, he could see the two people who had been waiting for his presence, Headmaster Delbrand and Magistrate Kadek.
However, there was another person present. A magus wearing the black enforcer uniform. Upon closer look, Emery recognized this new person to be the enforcer who interrogated him before.
"Emery, this is Magus Leon. Magus Alliance has mobilized him to be the one to lead the mission," said Headmaster Delbrand while gesturing to the enforcer.
Hearing that, Emery couldn't help but inwardly sigh. Knowing that the man would be the one he would go on a mission with wasn't exactly a pleasant revelation, especially considering what the other party had done to him.
And apparently, the man who was introduced as Magus Leon didn't look that excited about this either. Alas, he has no way of complaining to the alliance and could only accept the task he was given.
Magister Kadek added, "With the severity of the mission, I would hope you to follow Leon every word, or we really cannot guarantee you life, you understand?"
Emery saw the grey hair female magus and nodded obediently
After this short round of introduction, Headmaster Delbrand then told the two to leave the office, leaving Emery alone with him. He then casually took out a small tube-like object, lit its end with fire, put the other end of the object in his mouth, and smoke began to come out of it.
An eerie silence fell in the room as Emery watched the headmaster continue to inhale that object, while the latter seemed to have forgotten that he existed. He felt really uncomfortable with the atmosphere but did not dare to open his mouth.
A minute later, Headmaster Delbrand put the object down and finally opened his mouth.
"I heard about what happened in the arena last week… you manage to achieve top 40 in a month time.. It was very impressive indeed."
Emery really had nothing to say about the headmaster's remark, so he kept his silence and waited for the latter to speak again. It seemed Headmaster Delbrand didn't expect him to answer either as he immediately continued.
"I also read the report about your bloodline trouble.." He glanced at Emery. "Tell me, Emery. Will this affect the mission?"
Emery took a moment to think the question over. "No, I'm sure it will not."
"Good," said Headmaster Delbrand while nodding. He then continued, this time he stared at his eyes as he spoke.
"This is a very important mission, Emery. So if you are not up for it, tell me and I will pull you out from the mission."
When Emery heard this, the confidence in him wavered a bit as he felt uncertain. The logical thing was naturally to not join the mission, but he at the moment felt as if this was something he had to do.
"No, I am ready."
Headmaster Delbrand picked the tube-like object again and blew up another smoke before turning his head to the window.
"Altus will never agree to let a student in such a mission; he will be angry indeed."
While Emery was confused as to why the headmaster spoke those words, the latter had turned his attention back to him and said, "We are in a unique situation indeed."
He put down the object again, then took out something from his spatial ring. Afterward, Emery saw as an item slowly floated from the headmaster's hand and hovering in front of him. It was a glowing emblem.
"I know you can do spatial magic, you can keep this inside."
The glowing emblem slowly made its way towards Emery as Headmaster Delbrand spoke those words.
"It's a life saving item that will keep you safe. If you find yourself in a very precarious situation where you could potentially die, use this item. It will help you tremendously."
After giving Emery the emblem, Headmaster Delbrand proceeded to speak some appreciative words, for him helping the mission and promised that he would look at the petition about Earth caretaker situation. Those words quickly made Emery feel at ease, and after once again reminding him to be careful during the mission, he allowed Emery to leave the room.
Walking out of the office, Emery was immediately greeted by Magus Leon's figure, who apparently was waiting outside all this time. The cold expression on his face still remained as he opened his mouth.
"Let's go, we don't have that much time. Follow me."
Emery had a look of surprise on his face because he didn't expect that the mission would start right away. He was actually hoping that he would be able to visit his friends first, but it seemed the matter was more urgent than he previously thought.
Magus Leon quickly led him to the nearest portal, and the place they were heading to gave him quite a bit of surprise.
After passing through a portal, the two of them arrived in a huge city like no other. Geographically situated on a hill near the sea gave the city an overall very beautiful and peaceful atmosphere.
However what made the city famous was not the allure of the natural scenery in the surrounding area, but the people. Hundreds of figures could be seen bustling and hustling on the streets, but half of them were not completely human.
Seeing the sight, Emery couldn't help but have a nostalgic feeling about this.
After 3 years, he has finally returned to this place.
Zodiac City.
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,