"You've been transferred to the age group for students between 36-45. You're currently unranked, please issue a challenge to improve your rank."
"You've broken the record for the highest speed in your age group."
"You've broken the record for the highest strength in your age group."
"You've broken the record to hold the most records simultaneously."
"You've received 3 record stones."
Gale instantly smiled from those notifications and started planning his next moves. He already knew that there were no Expert Mages and no elite humans in this age group, so he could freely conquer the first rank.
"Challenge rank 1."
"Rank 1 was already challenged by a higher-ranked person this month. Pay 200 charged IMG to issue the challenge anyway?"
"Yes."
The highest-ranked student was a 45-year-old woman who advanced to the fifth stage when she was 33. After issuing the challenge, he waited a few minutes until he got a response.
"Challenge accepted. Duel scheduled for 3 days from now at noon."
He didn't have much to do now until he found a woman to improve his affinities or connection, so he just stayed in his training room and worked on his mental strength.
"You've been summoned to room 1501, you need to arrive at 17:00." (=5 PM)
Gale heard Alessa's voice and stopped the device's pressure on his mind. He was surprised to hear that the headmaster was summoning him again and had no idea what it was all about.
'Did I break too many records?'
The more he thought about it the more he found it reasonable. The records were meant to motivate the geniuses to improve and strive to be the best, but he just set 11 records that were impossible to break.
'Maybe he will just give me access to the sixth-grade potions?'
He took a shower and had a meal before going to the headmaster's office. This time he was alone there, making him feel like his theory might be right.
He was summoned to the same room as the previous time, so he walked there directly and knocked on the door. When he entered, he found Albus seating at the head of the table with a man in expensive white clothes on his right.
The man had short white hair and he was fully shaved. He exuded authority and power around him, and his countenance demanded others obey his words. He looked at his late forties, but Gale could guess from his aura alone that he was a magus.
In front of the man sat a beautiful woman. Her long, white hair fell like a waterfall of silk behind her. Her captivating clear blue eyes had a prominent shape, and her perfectly proportional oval face made her look like an enchanting angel. Gale had to admit that she was as beautiful as Lena, and even had a slight edge over her because she looked much more feminine.
"Gale, greet his highness the former emperor, Caligula Amistria."
Albus gestured toward the man so Gale can follow the proper ethics. Since he wasn't the emperor anymore, Gale didn't have to kneel, but he bowed deeply and respectfully in front of him.
"May his imperial highness live forever."
"Mhm, it's more important that you greet my granddaughter, the first princess and one of the main contenders for the throne, Freya."
Gale greeted the princess and sat down by her side by Caligula's instruction after she greeted him back.
"I've heard of your marvelous achievements in the academy. Hearing such a promising man exists was an eye-opener for me."
Freya smiled, and Gale almost lost himself in it. Her white teeth seemed to be dazzling, and her red, soft lips stretched perfectly. He couldn't stop himself from smiling back.
'If someone told me she was also blessed by the God of Charm, I'd believe them.'
He thought inwardly while thinking about what to answer to the princess.
"Princess Freya, your words are exaggerated. Word of the first princess' beauty and talent is spread far and wide in our empire."
Gale answered with a bright smile of his own despite never hearing about her before. Although the princess was beautiful, he was just as dashing himself, and he was aware of that.
Besides, he already knew what they were there for. There'd be only one reason for the former emperor to bring the first princess to the academy and call him for a meeting.
"Haha, it's good to see the two of you go along."
Caligula laughed happily when he saw that his granddaughter had a faint blush on her cheeks. If he didn't know what she always looked like, he'd think the blush was just part of her makeup, but he knew it wasn't.
"Headmaster, why have you called me?"
"Right. The first reason is that the former emperor and her imperial highness wanted to meet you. The second reason is to send you on a special long-term mission, and the third one is a mixture of the first and second reasons."
After Albus finished speaking, Caligula took it from there.
"Gale, you're probably unaware, but your mother is one of the best geniuses in our empire. However, she disappeared many years ago, and demanded we left her alone."
Gale looked at him with surprise; he tried to understand where this was going.
"She fell in love with another prominent genius of our empire. We wanted them both to marry into our imperial family, yet they wanted to be with each other and didn't agree to separate. However, one day, a tragedy happened."
"My father was poisoned?"
"Close. A noble betrayed our empire and acted as a spy for the Chijakor Empire. He had invited all the geniuses of that time, along with many other nobles, to a huge banquet he had organized. This noble was an honorary marquis, or in other words, a magus."
Gale nodded slowly and kept listening to Caligula's story attentively.
"On that night, the noble put poison in the wine of the best 10 geniuses who attended the banquet. Your father, despite being a genius, came from a kingdom and wasn't considered by many as one of the top geniuses. In truth, he was one of the best ones, but with his initial lack of resources and his quiet nature, people just missed him."
"So why did the noble poison his wine?"
"He didn't. He poisoned Elizabeth's wine, but your parents were new lovers at the time. They flirted and had fun with each other, and your mom let your father drink from her wine while your father let her drink from his. Thus, each of them consumed half of the poison."
Gale now understood why his father's family accused Elizabeth of his death. Although it was the noble's fault, his father drank the poison meant for her.
"The poison was very difficult to sense but extremely potent. Although your father and mother drank half of the poison each, Elizabeth's body had two leverages over your father."
"Is she an elite human?"
"Indeed, she is the only intermediate elite human we had in our empire in the past thousand years. The second factor that came to play was her light affinity, and when both factors are taken into consideration, you can understand why she overcame the poison."
"But my father didn't."
"True. Although it didn't have an immediate effect, the poison slowly ruined your father's and the other geniuses' bodies from the inside. The imperial family got an intelligence report that this man was a traitor, but he ran away before we could catch him, and crossed the border to the Chijakor Empire."
"And my father couldn't be cured?"
"We couldn't save him. When the poison was discovered, it was too late. Our empire lost 10 geniuses from this ordeal, and we could do nothing to stop it. It was a great tragedy for our empire."
"And that's when my parents disappeared?"
"We knew they left to live in the Miyena Kingdom, I called it 'disappearing' because she was gone from the empire and stopped her influence here. As a matter of fact, she could've been the wife of the current emperor if she accepted his proposal, so she had a lot of influence despite her refusal."
Gale almost gaped when he heard that his mom could be the current empress but gave up on it because she didn't want to separate from her lover.
"Elizabeth left the empire around 30 years ago, and your father was poisoned 45 years ago. It took 15 years for Elizabeth to give up on finding a cure in the empire and leave to spend with her lover the rest of his life peacefully in the Miyena Kingdom."
"But why are you telling me this now?"
"Slightly over half a year ago, when you just enrolled in this academy, your mother left the empire with the intention to cross the borders to the Chijakor Empire."
"To exact revenge?"
Gale was worried to hear that; he believed his mom was likely a magus after hearing she was an intermediate elite human, but she still wouldn't be able to fight a whole empire.
"Indeed. The reason that magi can't cross borders is that every empire has magic circles that would detect any magi and send the empire a warning. Once the empire is alerted, it can send other magi to annihilate the threat. However, your mother invented a special device that can fool those magic circles and other probing magi, making it look like she was three stages under her true stage."
"That's amazing!"
"It is. But now we are on the verge of a full-scale war against the Chijakor Empire because of it. to exact her revenge, she assassinated 2 magi and dozens of other high-profile targets."
