The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 55: Contractually Obligated

Barely clinging to consciousness due to the intense pain surging through his body, Athen shakingly nodded his head.

Whatever shit hole he got himself into, it was too late to back out.

His only option was to...dig deeper.

Hearing Athen’s answer, Professor Caldris’s expression immediately darkened as he stared at the boy.

It did make sense....the child was incredibly skilled in close combat with insane reflexes that had even managed to beat his own at one point.

And he was a prodigy with mana.

Despite just awakening mana, he had managed to use it to land a hit and break through his two layers of protection.

But...Kai wasn’t some just forgotten noble child...he was the direct son of the grand duke.

In addition, Kai’s fame was amplified to the point of becoming a celebrity due to the grand duke’s decision not to reveal his face.

The people of the empire, not having seen Kai’s face for a whopping sixteen years now, were extremely curious about the grand duke’s son.

Many conspiracy theories have even formed, saying that Kai’s face was simply...too ugly and that the grand duke wanted to hide it to maintain his honor.

Another theory was that Kai was a cursed child who was extremely ill and unable to leave the grand duke’s castle.

However, neither of those theories seemed to be true.

Staring at Athen, Caldris sighed and pulled out his wand.

This was too complicated of an affair for him to get involved in.

If he made one mistake, he could be executed by Kai’s father or the emperor himself.

Although the devil on his shoulder was telling him to take advantage of Athen as he seemed not to know the importance of his different mana color, Caldris persevered and dismissed those thoughts.

Ignoring Athen’s crumbling figure, Caldris pointed his wand at the wall and muttered.

ˈsəb spās"

A couple of seconds later, a disk-shaped portal appeared right in front of the professor, making no noise.

The inside of the disc was simply a purple void; however, Caldris did not hesitate to reach his hand inside.

Phasing through the portal, Caldris’s right hand disappeared from sight as it entered, and after a couple of seconds, it eventually emerged.

Finally removing his hand from the portal, the professor extended out his palm, revealing a clean golden ring.

It was clear to him that the child did not know the importance of his mana.

If Athen used his purple mana outside of his exam, the other students would find out, and rumors would eventually spread.

Although the students wouldn’t quite know the importance of his purple mana as that information was highly confidential, a person who heard the rumors could.

In other words, the chance of Athen being kidnapped and experimented on was highly likely.

Also, Caldris doubted that the grand duke wanted it known that his bloodline possessed the purple mana color as they had kept it a secret for, perhaps decades, now.

Caldris couldn’t just let Athen go like this, even though he knew getting involved would be dangerous.

After all...he was a teacher, and Athen was technically a student, so he had a responsibility.

Cocking his hand back, Caldris threw the ring forward, allowing it to land perfectly in Athen’s outstretched palm.

"Wear this, it’ll hide your mana."

However, to the professor’s surprise, Athen completely ignored the ring in his hand and asked in a dazed voice.

"w-what about the letter...?"

"...? What letter?"

Taking a step forward while his entire body was wobbling, Athen managed to spit out.

"t-the professor’s recommendation letter..."

Scratching his head, Caldris finally recalled the reason he had fought with Athen in the first place.

In the kid’s eyes, someone who did not know the importance of different-color mana, all this one was a simple professor test.

"ah...that. Could we just...forget about it?"

Though Caldris had just witnessed someone awakening with purple mana...he still wanted to prove his point to the principal.

Unfortunately, Athen shook his head, prompting Caldris to mutter.

"Ungrateful brat..."

Nodding his head, the professor sighed before pointing at the ring in Athen’s hand.

"You should have noticed that your mana is purple by now, right? Well, everyone else in the world has blue mana. You understand the problem, don’t you?"

Shifting his attention to the gold ring in his wand, which was by far the most expensive thing he had ever held, Athen replied.

"Yes...I’ll need to hide it."

Turning around and facing his portal once again, Caldris continued.

"Good, looks like you get it. That’s what the ring is for; wear it at all times."

"Also, if you want to know more, show your father the mana. Other than that, though, don’t tell anyone else."

Taking a nicely sealed white envelope from the purple portal, the teacher paused before saying.

"And...don’t mention me. Just visit your father for a night, take off your ring, and say you suddenly awoke mana and show him. You get the letter, and I’m safe. Win-win, right?"

As Athen nodded his head, his gaze fixed on the envelope, Caldris turned around, revealing something else in his other hand.

Reaching out his arm, Caldris pointed at the floating pure light-blue rectangle in his hand before speaking.

"You should know what this is, right? A mana contract. The terms we just agreed on are written, and you can examine them if you’d like."

In the next second, the mana contracted floated out of the professor’s hand before flying over to Athen, levitating right in front if his face.

[Party A: ? / Party B: Caldris de Dusk]

[Party B agrees not to disclose A’s secret to anyone.]

[Party A agrees not to reveal Party B’s knowing of the secret and involvement with the secret.]

[In exchange, Party B will give Party A both a letter of recommendation and a golden ring to hide Party A’s secret.] 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

After reading over the terms a few times, Athen reached out his wobbly left hand and grasped the floating mana contract.

However, as his hand made contact with the contract, it suddenly began shining.

At the point his hand touched the contract, a lightning purple color appeared, spreading throughout the rest of the contract and slowly overtaking the blue color.

Then, within seconds, the entire contract began glowing before, without warning, suddenly disintegrating and disappearing from sight.