The Way of a Demon Lord
chapter-5

Two candles lit up the small room. There was a desk on which the two candles were placed upon along with a register and behind it was sitting an old lady. Adrian greeted the lady with a slight bow and sat opposite her.

The old lady judged the young man for a few seconds before handing him a small piece of crystal. The young man did the same before taking the piece.

"You should be able to sense the magical energy contained in the crystal. Try to absorb as much as possible in 20 seconds. Just try visualising the energy coming inside your body from the crystal. When I say stop, you immediately follow and give me back the stone."

"Begin"

Adrian did not waste any time and started to absorb every bit of the energy. In three seconds, *Shatter* the piece broke.

The old lady immediately stood up, shock written all over her face.

"Ahem. You are giving away your disguise." Adrian whispered.

The old lady became surprised and embarrassed but soon composed herself. She tossed him another piece.

"Try again."

*Shatter* The result was the same.

"Like mother like son. No, you surpassed her in this regard."

"You overestimate me." He stood up and began to approach the door to his left.

"Wait."

Adrian stopped.

"Don't tell whatever's happened in this room- neither about the result nor my disguise."

"Don't worry. I don't want to get on a beauty's bad side. Definitely not a powerful beauty as you Miss Bell."

"Cheeky brat."

He smiled and went to the next room.

But the 'old lady' was surprised to the core.

'That brat. It's one thing he found out I am disguised. But he also found out my real identity. Looks like we are admitting in a monster this year.'

She shook her head and gently flicked the desk with her aged finger. Though it barely made any sort of sound, the instructor outside could clearly hear it. He understood the signal and gestured Dolf Ironcross to head in.

In the next room, there sat a young woman who was wearing the same dress as that of the instructor outside- a white coat with silver adornments.

Adrian greeted her and stood in front of her as there was no desk or chair like that of the previous room. There was only a small table beside upon which a register was placed. Unlike the previous room, a tall lamp which was placed beside the table lightened the room.

She had her eyes closed and did not even bother opening them to take a look. She simply reached out one of her hands and opened it up with the palm facing upwards. Soon, fire began to blaze on the palm.

After a few seconds, she asked, "What's the temperature of the room?"

Though the flame on her palm looked small, it was undoubtedly powerful considering the room heated up quite fast.

While she was expecting a verbal answer, she felt a sensual touch on the back of her reached out hand.

She was caught by surprise and her eyes opened. His abyssal eyes came into her sight. Her cheeks turned red and her heart began to race. She subconsciously cancelled the fiery spell.

'Control Alesha control. He is going to be a student and you are a teacher.' She tried to calm herself down. But his next words rendered her efforts futile.

"Pardon me. I just couldn't resist myself when a beautiful lady like you reached out her delicate hand." Adrian said gracefully.

Before she could say anything or take back her hand, he reached out his other hand and sensually wrote something on it with his finger.

Alesha was grateful she had been sitting. If she were standing, she would have lost all of strength from lower body and fall down.

She was so lost in her sense of touch that she did not even bother to understand what he wrote.

"Can you… can you write it again?" She sheepishly said.

She instantly regretted her actions. She closed her eyes and blushed hard. 'What have you done Alesha?!'

"Of course. For you, I could write it a thousand times- let alone twice." He smiled.

This time, she understood what he wrote.

It was the answer- two answers to be precise, one from the time she asked the question and the other when he wrote the answer after the fire was extinguished- and they were completely correct.

She was a bit disappointed though. Not because of the correct answer but other inexplicable reasons.

Before she could say anything, he was already going through the other door.

After he left, she let out a soft sigh of relief.

'Fuck. He was so cool- his gentlemanly actions, his way with words or even the cool style of answering the question. My panties are already a little wet. Thankfully, he left. Or I might have lost it.' She was thinking while gently touching her private lower area.

"May I come in?" She heard a voice from the entrance door.

'Fuck. I almost forgot that I am an examiner.'

'By the way, was the test too easy?'

She reached out and pressed her palm on a circle on the table to turn off the soundproofing spell.

She composed herself and said, "Come in." Her eyes closed again. The spell was again turned on.

In the next room, which was quite identical to the first room- a desk with two candles and a register, there was a kind old man wearing the instructor uniform. After they exchanged greetings, Adrian sat down opposite the old man and the old man brought out a wooden board with a few inscriptions engraved on it. He placed it on the table.

Each of the inscriptions had three markings and a sentence written below it. Only the last inscription was an exception because there was nothing written below it. Some inscriptions had common markings and they also shared common words in the sentence below. As a result, one could understand what that particular marking meant.

The old man was silent all along but Adrian answered anyway.

"Either it is 'The dragon flies in the green ocean' or 'The dragon flies in the blue forests'."

"Explain." The kind old man showed an interested expression.

"The first mark and the second mark are easy to infer- the subject 'dragon' and the action 'flies'. But the third mark is a bit tricky. Although a glance of all the inscriptions suggests that there are three probable scenarios: dark sky, green forests and blue ocean, closer looks reveals that- the 'dark sky' markings are engraved the shallowest, the 'green forests' markings are engraved deeper and the 'blue ocean' markings are engraved the deepest." He explained pointing at the different inscriptions and markings on the board.

He continued while pointing at the third mark of the last inscription, "Even though the marking means blue ocean, it is only engraved at the level of 'green forests'. As I am not sure which one represents the colour and which one represents the terrain, I just went with both. Of course, there are other possible scenarios as well"

"Other possible scenarios?" The old man's eyes began to shine brightly. Although his answers were spot on, it was not everyday when he could talk with someone intelligent. Though he was an instructor and was considered the one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent men in the kingdom, he still believed he could learn more- especially from genius students, like the one standing in front of him.

"Yes, like- something in between an ocean and a forest- a mangrove. Or it could simply mean impossibility as there are no blue forests or green ocean- at least not as far as we know. Or…"

"Or?" The old man's face was now showing excitement. Mangrove? Impossibility? Even he had not thought of the answers when he designed the test. The boy in front of him was thinking outside the box and not just anyone was capable of that. And apparently, he had another possible answer. How could he not be excited?

"Or… the one who designed this test wanted to engrave the marking shallow so that it could mean either 'dark ocean' or 'blue sky', both of which is not an impossibility, but was careless and accidentally engraved it deeper and was too lazy to redo the whole thing. And instead, he just made two new possible solutions."

The old man began to cough. He was both embarrassed and surprised. Because that was... the truth.

Adrian stood up casually walked towards the door to the next room.

'His genius could only be termed monstrous, surely the younger ones will overtake us.. Or maybe this test is too easy.'