Lord of Charm

He moved his body around and tried getting used to his new strength.

"Alessa, shoot projectiles at me."

The training room was the largest room in his apartment. It was around 15x20 and included features to help practice combat. One of these features was the dodging program, in which Alessa shot plenty of colorful projectiles and the student had to dodge as many as he could.

Right now, the program was still set to the maximum difficulty of the True Mage Stage, so Gale could easily perceive everything incoming. He stepped to the side and dodged the projectiles and kept moving between them. As time passed, he was getting into the rhythm and his steps turned into some sort of a dance.

His learning speed increased, and his instincts were improved, allowing him to get easily and quickly accustomed to his new body and the movements required to dodge the projectiles.

"Stop the training program and prepare a hot bath."

'Now I need to check one last thing before going to sleep; my mental strength.'

Last time he checked he had 18 MSU, and that was after being strengthened to the True Mage Stage with two elements, in which only one enjoyed his status as a ruler beast.

That single boost was enough to make his mental strength begin from 12 MSU without any training instead of 1 as an average true mage. Now, he was impatient to see the boost he got after all the ranking up he went through.

He found the device Alice gave him to train his mental strength and started it at 18 MSU. He could easily bear with the pressure which barely felt like an unpleasant sting. He slowly increased it to 19 and got used to the pressure before increasing it again.

After each increase, he waited a minute before increasing once more. It was just training, and it would be stupid to cause himself mental damage by being overconfident, especially when he needed to be in peak form for the interrogation.

Half an hour passed and he was on 48, yet he could still increase the pressure. It already caused a huge burden on him, but he felt he wasn't at his limits just yet. He kept increasing gradually for almost twenty more minutes until he reached 72.

'I feel that this is around my limit for now. Others work for years to increase their mental strength from 1 to such a high level and probably achieve much less, yet just my natural boosts got me there.'

Gale let out a satisfied smile and left the training room to bathe and eat. He had less than 10 hours left before the meeting with the headmaster, and he had to get back to his peak form with a good night's sleep.

The next morning, he put on his academy's uniforms and had breakfast.

'Top floor of the Square Building, I wonder what it looks like'.

Gale arrived at the campus and headed straight to the Square Building. He could hear students whisper as he passed through, and he attributed it to his new rank in the top 3 after Ronda's disappearance. He doubted the academy published her death before having a full report.

He entered the building and went to the elevator which worked with a fourth-rank magic circle that was inscribed on its bottom.

"15th floor."

The elevator started rising until he got to the desired floor. As he came out of the elevator, he faced a large door that blocked access to the rest of the floor.

"Please channel mana into the handprint mark."

He heard Alessa's voice and searched for the mark. He found it on the wall next to the door and placed his palm on it to channel his mana.

"Identity confirmed. Welcome to the fifteenth floor, Gale Stormborn. Please head to the first room."

Most of the floor was open since the headmaster had it for himself. He quickly found the door and knocked on it.

"Come in."

A masculine voice was heard through the door, and he entered the room and looked around him. He found himself inside a large room with a large rectangular table in its middle with an old man sitting at its head.

There were 5 people inside the room. The first one was the old man who sat at the head. He had a healthy look which didn't make anyone think his age affected his might, and his broad shoulders were straight and confident. His presence filled the room, and it was the reason Gale noticed him first.

The only one in the room he knew was Alice who was sitting in her seat and signaled him to sit next to her. He nodded to her and stood behind the seat she was pointing at.

"Gale Stormborn answers your summoning."

Gale bowed to the headmaster and stated his name despite knowing the headmaster probably checked his details before he arrived.

"You may sit."

Gale sat down next to Alice and waited for the meeting to begin. He didn't know what to expect, but then Alice was the one who did the talking.

"Let me introduce you to everyone, Gale. First, we have our guest, Rob Lawler. He is Ronda's father, and he came here to learn more about the circumstances that led to his daughter's death."

Gale saw a man sitting next to the headmaster across the table and nodded at him. The man had an unfriendly look and ignored his gesture, and Gale could assume that he didn't like him. He probably suspected him after hearing about his complicated relationship with Ronda and that he was the only one who survived.

"Then we have the guard in charge of the forest, Will Rock, and the man appointed by the academy to investigate Ronda's death, Kevin Lung. Of course, we also have the headmaster of our academy, Headmaster Albus Door."

Alice introduced everyone to Gale who nodded at everyone when Alice mentioned them. Other than Rob Lawler, nobody showed any hostility and nodded back politely. He also recognized Kevin as one of the magi he met when his affinities were tested.

"Everyone, this is Gale Stormborn, he is my student as well as a mage at 20 years old from a Count family of the Miyena Kingdom."

She offered them a short introduction and leaned back on her chair to state she had nothing else to say.

Soon, three mana senses checked Gale and three surprised faces could be seen around the table. Gale couldn't feel the magi's probing, but Alice could. When she noticed everyone's surprise, she raised an eyebrow and used her mana sense as well and the surprised faces count rose by one.

"Gale, when did you get to the next stage?"

By the reports, everyone thought he was still a true mage, which was already surprising given his age, but now they all felt he was an advanced mage.

"After my near-death experience in the fight I had against the tiger in the forest, I went back to my apartment and sensed I was on the verge of breaking through. I was filled with sorrow and sadness over the death of my good new friend and lover and chose to immerse myself in training. Soon, something just clicked, and I advanced to the next stage."

Gale gave the most reasonable explanation he could think of before attending the meeting and waited for their response. He chose not to hide that he was Ronda's lover since he believed that Alice knew about it.

Although she came too late to save them, he suspected the real reason was that she stopped paying attention to them after a whole week of them only having sex, and he could understand why she let her guard down.

"Hmph, good for you; you found an opportunity in my daughter's death."

Rob snorted and sarcastically congratulated Gale. He didn't dare go too far inside the academy, especially when he was in the same room as two other magi and a grand magus.

"Ronda's death pained my heart. Our relationship was rocky at first, but after one mission in which we risked our lives in battle together, we could finally understand each other and fell in love."

"We already understood the gist of the matter from what Alice has told us. No matter what happened in the forest or whose fault it was, you're still our student. We understand that geniuses sometimes overestimate themselves after experiencing success, and it was Professor Alice's responsibility to make sure Ronda didn't die."

This time Albus spoke, and everyone kept quiet and listened. The meaning behind his words was clear; he wouldn't let Rob harm him. Instead, he shifted the blame to Alice, whom Rob could do nothing against.

Albus didn't pay much attention to Gale when he first came to the academy after hearing about his affinities. He believed Gale will not be able to keep his ruler beast status and probably not even an intermediate elite beast status.

However, as soon as he felt Gale was already at the Advanced Mage Stage, he knew Gale was a genius. Even if he couldn't keep his ruler beast status, just being an intermediate elite beast was enough to entail his safety.

"Sir, I object. I've been promised the academy will interrogate him with mental pressure. I hope the academy won't renege on its word."

Rob quickly objected and demanded what he was promised earlier. He understood the tides had changed when he felt Gale's stage, but he wouldn't give up revenge for his daughter so easily.

A strong aura washed over Rob, and Albus emanated a powerful pressure that made him feel suffocated in his chair.