Moonlight After Sunset's
[S2E72] Academy Residents

"The stronger a person is, the harder it is to find him."

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It was a moment of silence when Khalid could not describe his feelings. Khalid did not know the reason why he was so afraid, to be honest Khalid was only shocked when he saw the figure.

"Khalids?"

"Me, me..."

"Have calmed yourself first." cut the twilight.

Khalid tried to catch his breath, he tried to relax. The twilight that realized it could only remain silent. He did not want to force his curiosity so that Khalid was hurt.

"This shampoo is fragrant too," Inner Dusk before soaking his body into the water. Dusk did not want to add to the burden of his mind. He just wanted to enjoy his free time after the incident.

Twenty minutes had passed but neither Dusk nor Khalid remained silent. They forgot their previous conversation. A tired man decided to go to bed soon.

But just as Dusk was about to close his eyes, Khalid softly said, "I saw a pale-faced woman at that moment."

"The woman is very strong, she has great mana energy. I thought he was a monster, but..."

Khalid was silent again, Dusk who previously wanted to sleep now changed his sleeping position facing Khalid.

"Why?"

"..."

"Why is an elemental like you afraid of him?"

Khalid said nothing, he looked like he was laughing at something that made Dusk even more curious.

"She's no ordinary woman" Khalid replied after two minutes of silence.

"He's very strong even stronger than the professors in this academy."

Khalid's confession made Dusk stiffen, he unknowingly stood up from his sleep and immediately approached Khalid.

"What's he like? Is he really a powerful ghost?"

"No. After I thought about it again it turns out that he doesn't look like a ghost at all, he looks more like a monster."

Khalid tried to describe the woman. He said the woman had long green hair with strangely curved red eyes. Her lips were thin and pale, her body slender with a long silk dress covering her legs.

"Silk dress is long, pale and slender. Did he really see a ghost?" twilight murmured on the sidelines of Khalid's long explanation.

"But which ghosts use silk as clothing? Is he a rich ghost or the ghost of a famous noble?"

Dusk was more confused after hearing Khalid's explanation of the woman's figure. He did not know if there were ghosts who had such luxury.

"But there is something strange" cried Khalid as he held slowly the shoulders of Dusk.

"What's that?" tanya Dusk curious.

"At that time I was sure it was a ghost but all that changed when he smiled and showed his fangs. I don't know why he looks more like a demon than a ghost." exclaimed Khalid with a slightly quivering body.

"His smile was very mysterious and frightening. It was then that I realized that he was not a ghost but a monster. After all there was no ghostly figure that had such strong mana energy."

Khalid explained that a dead creature could not have great power. Even if he was a ghost, his greatest strength could only move one or two inanimate objects.

According to Khalid the ghost is the weakest creature on the continent. They no longer have a physical form that can threaten humans and other organisms.

"So most likely the woman was a ghost very little. But the chances of him being a monster are high."

"No way, how could such a terrifying figure exist in this academy." exclaimed Dusk worriedly.

"They just don't realize it." Khalid replied with a nostalgic face.

"Why could that be?"

"Hah, it's because the teachers there are not Sage" Khalid replied with a deep sigh.

Silent twilight, he knew that Sage was a rare strong figure, even in this continent there were only 35 Sage and five of them were in the Adeline academy.

Most of the Sages were in the magic tower. A place where many magicians conducted research and development of new witchcraft for the advancement of the continent.

The magic tower was in a location that no one could reach. If one did not have a permit then it would be very difficult for them to enter that territory.

That was because the magic tower was located on one of the small islands at the tip of the continent. The island is surrounded by dense forests that have many rare plants. Therefore the Sages were very difficult to find.

"I only know of the two Sages in this academy out of the five that exist. First was Prof Xei as the principal and the other was Prof Edward who had trained me this year."

"While the other three were in the inner area of the academy." murmured the twilight that Khalid had heard.

"Inner area?"

"Huh,"

A long sigh escaped from the lips of Dusk when he saw Khalid's confused face. Dusk then lazily explained about the structure of the territory of the Adeline Academy.

"Academy has three regional structures, first is the outer region inhabited by first and second grade students." exclaimed Dusk slowly.

"The second is the central region inhabited by the third, fourth, and fifth classes. While the latter is an inner region inhabited by the sixth and seventh classes." continued Dusk after a short silence.

Adeline Academy has over 20 magic teachers and that includes apprentice teachers. Eight of the teachers were Elite Mages and the other seven were apprentice masters with Mage titles, while the remaining five were Sages.

For knights, they had 15 teaching teachers with three of them being Master Swordsman. The other eight were Elite Swordsman and the rest were apprentice teachers with Swordsman titles.

Khalid heard the explanation of Dusk with sparkling eyes. He looks so enthusiastic and hopes Dusk can explain more. With a single breath Dusk tried his best to explain the structure of the academy.

"Not only students, teachers are also distinguished based on this structure. Usually the Sages, Swordsman Masters and Guardian Masters were in the inner region while the middle and outer regions were mostly filled by the Elite and apprentice teachers."

"But he's not a Sage" said Khalid slowly.

"Who? That woman?"

"Yes Lady, I'm pretty sure that the level possessed by that figure far exceeds that of a Sage."

"Why can you be so sure?"

"That's because only a Sage can see his figure." Khalid's mind he can't reveal to Dusk.

"Because the color of his aura is different, he also has a very strong energy pressure so it is impossible if he is a Sage" Khalid exclaimed after a short silence.

"No way, nothing on this continent is stronger than a Sage even..."

Dusk was silent, he seemed to be thinking about something until a few seconds later the eyes of Dusk sparkled with obvious fear.

"No way, don't tell me it's Archsage's equivalent?"

"No, he's an Archsage."

"It's crazy" cried Dusk in disbelief.

****

Magic building

Dusk looked so lethargic, he was unable to sleep quietly last night. Even until the morning of Dusk was still thinking about his conversation with Khalid.

It was very strange for an Archsage to be in the Adeline academy. Although the Adeline Academy is one of the best academies on the continent, it is not enough to make an Archsage come to this place.

"In this continent there are only 10 Archsage and they are usually in the magic tower or travel around the world. So the moment is impossible if the figure of the woman is an Archsage."

Dusk tries to resist but he is also afraid if that is the truth. He did not dare to tell this to anyone, he was afraid that the figure was hiding around him and continued to notice the strange behavior of Dusk.

With a long breath Dusk tried to relax and focus on this second exam. He did not want to fail because he kept thinking about the woman.

Although it took half an hour for Dusk to refocus but he finally managed to complete the magic analysis theory test and battle well.

"The basic combat analysis class is very easy, I didn't even take long to be able to solve the whole matter." murmured Dusk before standing up from his seat.

Dusk then left the classroom towards the combat field. Unlike the first day of the exam, this time there was only one practice exam.

Where Dusk is asked to set the best strategy to dispel monsters so as not to penetrate the fortress of defense.

The defensive fortifications would be made personally by the students using holograms. After that the fort will be analyzed and seen its effectiveness in resisting attacks.

If there are many blunt points then the student will be immediately thwarted before the practice exam begins. The practice test this time used a small insect monster that would infiltrate into the fortress to destroy the mana core.

The rules are very simple where students must be able to protect the mana core from monster attacks for 20 minutes.

"It's so easy, strategy is my forte." murmured Dusk upon seeing the first student on the podium.

It took three more hours until it was Dusk's turn to perform. This time Dusk wasted no time and immediately made a defensive fortress that he thought was most effective.

Dusk skillfully set up trap after trap, then the trap will be spread in several important points of his fortress. Not only traps, Dusk also made trenches to trick the monsters.

"Of course the trench had to be filled with various kinds of traps to finish off the monsters that fell into it."

With all the perfect strategy, Dusk managed to trap the monsters. He also made the monsters confused with the complicated structure of the fort.

"This puzzle can make the structure of the castle change shape every time the rune pattern is activated. But unfortunately this fortress is not very suitable to be occupied." murmured Prof Xavier who was worried about the rune trap belonging to Dusk.

According to Prof Xavier the guard soldiers of the fortress would be in trouble if they were not careful in studying the mounted rune magic.

Prof Xavier was aware that the trap would attack the soldiers if they let their guard down just a little and that was the fatal weakness of the Dusk fortress.

But the fact is that Dusk makes the fort to survive the enemy's attack not to be occupied. So it does not violate any rules of the test.

"I know what they're thinking, but the purpose of this test is defense to protect the core where it's not human so it doesn't matter if the castle has all sorts of weird traps."

"Done," exclaimed Dusk as the entire monster died before it could touch the inside of its fortress building.

Prof Xavier could only shake his head before returning to focus on his appraisal notes.

"Of course I deliberately did this all so that they could not imitate me," softly twinkled as I looked at the stiff, stone-like face of his classmates.

Before Dusk began his exam, he had heard some of his classmates compact to copy which defensive fortress would later successfully protect the mana core.

Of course Dusk was unhappy and ended up choosing extreme methods to protect his work from being stolen. And the result was perfect, not a single student could replicate his work.

"Please pass by here," guide one of the staff who brought Dusk out of the field.

"Unfortunately I can't see Amir's defensive strategy." murmured at Dusk as he looked at the waiting chair where Amir was.

This time Dusk appeared before Amir so he could not know how good Amir was in making battle strategies. Even so Dusk was also happy because he could rest faster.

Dusk then left the field and returned to his dorm room. There Dusk could see Khalid sitting pensively beside the window with a glass of warm chocolate in his hand.

"Hah, I think it will take some time for Khalid to return to normal." Inner Dusk while closing the door to his room.

"I wondered what the Archsage's face looked like" he continued.