Chapter 41: Arrogance and humility (1/2)
In contrast to the rest of the relatively open area, the registration room was built according to the standard architectonical thought. Pretty similar to the buildings outside of the academy grounds, it consisted of a huge entry room, with roughly a third of the building hidden behind it.
”Come closer.” As soon as Layn made his way inside, he was met with a row of five people. Sitting across a long table on the other end of the room, they all glued their eyes to the archmage.
Moving forward, Layn observed the group in return to the curious stares they were throwing at him. Suddenly recognising one of the faces, Layn froze in his steeps, about halfway from the group of elders.
”Introduce yourself.” Sitting in the middle, an old lady waved her hand without a care, as if she was swatting a fly. But it was Sitra's encouraging smile to her side that helped Layn regain his senses.
”I'm Layn. I am a disciple of the desert scholar. I came here to learn about the foundations and details that my master omitted while teaching me.” Gently bowing his head, Layn recited the story he created.
”It's just another stray dog. Don't you guys know how soft this guy is?” A voice of dissatisfaction came from the utter left of the table. Sitting there, an old witch stared daggers at the archmage. ”Can we just get it over with? I refuse to accept him. Move on.”
Shooting the words out of her mouth without even a moment of thought, the lady looked at Sitra with a triumphant smile.
”Since Lady Serene disapproves…” As soon as the man sitting beside the old witch started speaking, something snapped in Layn's memories. It was as if the memory of Irea asking him not to cause any trouble, suddenly disappeared.
”Okay, since you don't want to play nice, let me be straightforward.” Speaking up before the man to his left could finish his words, Layn smiled viciously at the group. ”I can take all of you one on one, or all of you at once. Let's speed things up as I cannot be bothered to play around with lowlifes like you.”
Stepping forward, Layn forcefully stopped himself from smiling when he saw the elders rising up from their seats.
”How dare you!” Instantly riled by the unexpected bout, the witch-looking lady drove her energy, stepping at the table and kicking it back to move even faster.
Unfortunately for her, Layn didn't hold back at all. And dropping a pebble on the floor was quite a lot faster than jumping over the distance that separated them.
WHAM!
Exploding outwards, the formation inscribed into the stone forcefully repelled the reality, using the sheer force of aligning the natural currents of energy to bend the rules of the world around them.
”Now that we have settled it, let's speak about the matter at hand.” After his encounter with Kerren, Layn could no longer be bothered to act amiably towards arrogance. Using most of his spare time on the journey to craft more formations for his own safety, the archmage managed to settle the fight before it began with the help of one of those formations.