Report Card

Continental United Academy, Office.

Lowell leaned back in the large armchair, his black hair casually falling across his forehead. In his hand was a newly delivered academic year report card, the ink still seemingly carrying the fresh scent of ink. His gaze lazily swept over the names and rankings, his fingertips lightly tapping the smooth wooden armrest.

This "dean" has always been a hands-off manager; checking the results was purely a whim, and also a way to check the outcome of his "free-range" approach.

Frieren curled up next to him in an incredibly soft velvet sofa, almost sinking into it, her long silver hair like flowing moonlight, spreading across the dark cushions.

She was taking small, focused bites of a nut mille-feuille drizzled with thick honey, her emerald eyes half-closed in satisfaction, her cheeks bulging slightly with each chew. She had no interest in the parchment that would determine the fate of many students; she was completely immersed in the simple pleasure that the sweet treat brought her.

"Hmm..." Lowell made an ambiguous nasal sound, his fingertip tapping the top of the parchment, "Elementary Division... First place, Fern."

A slight smile played on his lips, as if he had expected this.

"Yes, that's only natural."

Little Mushroom's talent is probably even slightly stronger than that of the pure-hearted old man, Duncan. One is a disciple of Macht, and the other is a disciple of Frieren. They shattered rocks at roughly the same age. The main difference is that magic had developed much faster in the era when Fern was born, making it easier for her to learn. So it seems that she is much more talented than old man, but in reality, she is probably only slightly more talented. It wouldn't be surprising if they were the same.

My gaze shifted downwards.

Second place, Ubel.

He paused, his mind flashing back to the targets on the training field that had been precisely "sliced" open.

"... That makes sense too."

This guy has made considerable progress, transforming from a self-taught mage into a formally educated one.

"Third place, Rabiñe. Then there's Kanne, Aino, and Yakoda and Felut, those two wind-elemental girls who are always running around Nod-Krai together..." He quickly skimmed over these names; they were all promising talents who still needed to hone their skills, though their backgrounds were somewhat mixed.

With both parents alive, Yakoda seems a bit complacent. It appears that the one true god of Nod-Krai cannot suppress the Moon Hunters single-handedly.

He casually turned a page, the paper rustling slightly, his gaze falling on the list of intermediate-level students. The competition here was clearly much fiercer.

"Intermediate Division, First Place, Ehre (Ehre)..." Lowell raised an eyebrow, a hint of barely perceptible teasing in his tone, "Oh? Isn't this Wirbel's little wife?"

In a Western fantasy continent, under the backdrop of a royal society, having multiple wives is naturally not prohibited. Lowell himself has no interest in it, but he would love to see Wirbel marry two.

You can ship them, you can ship them both. One is my childhood sweetheart, the other is a gift from heaven. I'll marry them both.

If you dare not marry me, I will turn back into the Demon King, and make Wirbel write a book titled "The Story of How I Was Forced to Start a Harem to Avoid the Demon King the World".

"Third place, Edel (Edel)." He nodded. "That little girl who excels in Mental Magic, a one-trick pony, it seems her strength in a single area accounts for a large portion of her score. I remember during the battle, she just secretly touched Macht and gained a hundred years of his memories, although decompressing them took a bit of time."

"Seventh place... Ton... Oh, isn't that the guy who said 'You guys raid, I'll solo' and the guy who took a bath, the one who soloed a raid and then got depressed from the beating, haha, you have to be pretty skilled to dare to solo."

"Eighteenth place, Scharf (Scharf)..." Lowell paused, his brow furrowing slightly, as if searching for the label in the storehouse of his memory. "Hmm? That name sounds unfamiliar... Who is it again?"

He thought for a moment before it dawned on him, "Oh, it's that boy who's good at turning flower petals into steel? His magical approach is quite unique, but he has to create a flower field with Flower Field Magic before the actual battle... The ritual is off the charts. Hahaha, liking Flower Field Magic makes him a good kid."

He couldn't help but chuckle softly, shaking his head as if he found the preparation process rather comical. When playing cards, he almost always started with the field spell card [Flower Field], which was too clever and too reminiscent of Tamashii.

"Fifty-third place, Länge... Oh, the pink-haired girl, I vaguely remember her. She was attacked by Gargoyle, barely managed to grab her staff to block, and was then easily knocked into a secret chamber, almost stabbed to death. That kid who didn't cast a single spell the whole time, nicknamed 'Whose sister is she?' A seemingly weak little girl who looks easy to bully, one punch would probably make her cry for a long time. Who let this kid take the First-Class Mage exam in the first place?"

"Bly, Dunster, oh, Edel's two henchmen, one bald and one with a brown beard. If Edel were also a villainous young lady, this lineup would be perfect."

"Columbina, Sandrone, Zibai... Loki, Leslie... Elyus, Nymph... Moneta, Cecia... Vlad, Nadia... Bronya, Seele... Geralt, Yennefer... Lailah, Solindis... Fonsac, Erybeth... Yanqing, Yunli..."

"Aganzuo, Roxy... Cloud, Alice, Tifa... Jaina, Arthas... Jingliu, Dan Feng, Jing Yuan, Yingxing, Baiheng... Paris, Oenone... Cyno, Tighnari... Saran, Ningli... Yae Sakura, Kallen... Welt, Luocha..."

"Huh? I read the wrong list. Some of them are from the advanced department, but the composition is really complicated. I'll let the others go, but what's with the last one, some kind of cult-like pairing?" He looked at "Welt, Luocha" on the same line.

"Also, why add Zibai to the list when the young couple is doing so well? Oh, a Liyue person, right? This list wasn't written by Cyno, was it?"

Finally, his gaze fell on the list in front of the senior division. Most of the names here belonged to young, powerful individuals who were already capable of standing on their own.

"First place in the advanced division, Lupa." Lowell's face showed a satisfied expression. It was truly a waste of her talent to still be a student.

She had already single-handedly killed Qual some time ago, accomplishing the feat of soloing the Great Demons. Qual's strength at that time was already comparable to Macht's. After all, it's Zhuge Liang.

The fact that she's being given the title of trainee now is just to keep her occupied; she deserves the position. Thinking of this, her peach-pink twin tails seemed to leap before Lowell's eyes.

"Second place, Linié," he stated calmly. Linié's advanced Mimicry Magic Imitation was fully developed, her combat skills incorporated the strengths of various schools, and her physical strength was honed through Gravity Magic. Her years of accumulated experience should not be underestimated.

The AI loli starts with maxed-out skills and only needs to train her body to become stronger; she doesn't need any brains at all. Linié only needs to train her body, while Lowell has to consider many more things.

"Third place, Wirbel." Lowell wasn't surprised that this highly talented warrior consistently ranked in the top three. He often gave Wirbel pointers, as did the little girl who was always with him.

"But what about Levi...? Oh, Levi went out to train with Himmel and didn't take the exam. Speaking of which, no matter how talented Levi is, he probably can't beat Lupa... In the warrior race, with the Demon King's apprentice + extremely strong talent + decades of experience + an almost eternally young body, even if he's Himmel's apprentice, there's little chance he can overtake him."

His gaze continued downwards, stopping abruptly when it landed on the fourth name.

"Fourth place, Zandik...?"

Lowell's brows furrowed slowly, and he sat up a little straighter, his previous languid and casual demeanor vanishing completely.

He brought the report card closer, almost touching it to his face, and carefully checked the name again, word by word, as if trying to see something else through the ink.

"Hmm?" He let out a low murmur, his voice deepening with obvious doubt. "I can let go of all the other oddities, but this... what feels a bit unclean has gotten mixed in?"

He put down the report card, and his fingers unconsciously began to tap lightly on the table, making a regular, slightly muffled "tap-tap" sound that was particularly clear in the quiet office.

Frieren seemed disturbed by the subtle yet persistent sound. She looked up from her sweet world of honey pastry, her emerald eyes lazily glancing at him. Seeing his pensive expression, she lowered her head again, indifferently devouring the remaining crumbs, as if nothing in the world was more important than the sweet treat before her.

Lowell stood up and walked to the huge filing cabinet that almost reached the ceiling. He skillfully pulled out a thick, dark leather-bound student roster. He flipped through the pages quickly, making a hurried "rustling" sound, until his fingertips finally stopped on the page containing the information about "Zandik".

The meaning of names... he always felt that these things didn't come from nowhere. Just as Ubel meant "evil," Duncan was associated with "deliberateness," Macht represented "strength," Wirbel implied "born of chaos" yet possessed its own steadfastness...

Each name is like a small prophecy, or an invisible label. Of course, most of these labels have already been torn off or misplaced by him.

The name "Zandik"... in his knowledge base, is often associated with words like "heretic" and "dissident," exuding a dangerous aura of being unorthodox and difficult to control.

More importantly, in a certain two-word game, the guy who was particularly good at causing trouble and whose code name was "Doctor" had this as his former name when he was in the Akademiya.

He almost ruined all the voice acting for characters like Columbina Hipper and Seraphim from Genshin Impact, Kujo Sara from Honkai Impact 3rd, Black Swan from Honkai Impact 3rd, Demacia Chan from Honor of Kings, Yrel and Azshara from World of Warcraft, Quinn from League of Legends, Yun Yun from Battle Through the Heavens, Tian Mi from Qin's Moon, Fanti from Ling Cage, Rona from Martin's Morning, Xiao Mei from Big Ear TuTu, Long Kui (Blue Kui/Red Kui) from Chinese Paladin 3, Ma'ertai Ruoxi from Scarlet Heart, Tuoba Yu'er from Xuan-Yuan Sword: Scar of Sky, Ni Mantian from The Journey of Flower, Yan San Niang from The Vigilantes in Masks, Mingzhu from The Living Buddha Ji Gong, Pinduoduo's "Pinduoduo Cash Already Received," Douyin's "Douyin Records a Beautiful Life," and Hui Ren Shen Bao Pian's "He's Good, I'm Good"... (all voiced by young female voice actors).

This made it difficult for him not to have some negative associations.

"Future Sight..." Lowell murmured to himself. Although he couldn't see the whole picture, a certain intuition, or rather, information pieced together from countless fragments of information, instantly raised his guard. He carefully examined the magical image attached to the file—the seemingly ordinary, even somewhat scholarly, young face highly overlapped with the vague outline of a dangerous being deep in his memory.

"Hmm..." Lowell closed the roster and let out a long sigh. He walked back to his desk, his gaze sweeping over the glaring name on the report card once more.

"Looks like I wasn't wrong about him. With a name like that, what good could he be?"

The next day, everything at the academy proceeded as usual. Lectures, training, discussions... all were conducted in an orderly manner.

However, a student from the advanced division named Zandik, who was usually quite low-key but was hailed as a "genius" by a few, disappeared without a trace. There was no farewell, no personal belongings left behind, and he didn't even cause much discussion, as if he had never existed in the academy.

A brief notice was posted on the academy's official bulletin board, stating only that the student had applied for a long-term field study program at the Northern Ruins for personal reasons, with no return date set. Most students merely glanced at it as they passed by, slightly surprised, before returning their attention to their studies and adventures. After all, the academy was full of eccentrics as many as geniuses, and stories of sudden disappearances and reappearances were not uncommon.

Only a few with keen senses might notice that Ms. Solitär, the mentor and student who always wore a sweet smile, seemed to have a brighter and more radiant smile on her face lately, and occasionally, a hint of relief and satisfaction would flash in the depths of her pale green eyes after completing some very interesting experiment.

As for the specifics—whether it was finely chopped into minced meat, turned into experimental material, or hidden somewhere half-dead for "friendly dialogue," or all of the above—only she herself knows.

"I did it for the academy!"

"I am the dean!"

Ms. Solitär is a very useful black glove, cruel and obedient, and she even enjoys it.

He's truly one of my trusted confidants.

His trusted confidant eliminated his greatest threat; how wonderful!

In his office, Lowell set aside the updated list that read "Zandik - Study Abroad Program" and picked up another report.

Outside the window, the sun shone brightly, warmly illuminating the college's white spire. The melodious chimes rang out again, signaling the start of a new class.

"Lowell," Frieren, having finished her pastries sometime earlier, licking the last bit of honey from her fingertips with satisfaction. Her voice carried a languid, nasal tone, "Next market, I want to buy a new spellbook. And those honey shortbreads from before."

"Okay," Lowell replied, naturally reaching out to pull her close, gently wiping away the almost invisible crumbs of sugar from the corner of her mouth with his fingertips, a practiced motion. "Buy them all."