Far Above the Maze
A Lecture Room in Academy of Midka
A giant lecture hall buzzed with activity. It was filled with tired researchers and professors' assistants all staring at an enormous mana projection and several surrounding screens.
Most were scribbling in notebooks, half-asleep, or operating strange instruments; measuring, recording, and surviving in an academic nightmare.
This time of the academic year was a hell for them. It was the most intense version of crunch culture with magic and swords around.
"School Registration before the New Academic Year!"
These people were the backbone of Midka Academy's different divisions, overworked magical scholars and assistants. Many hadn't been home in days, hell, even weeks.
They were the invisible hands behind the written exams, the deadly obstacle courses, and the infamous "Death Maze" currently displayed on the main screen.
Most would've collapsed had it not been for energy boosting potions handed out like candy. Buying that potion in bulk was actually illegal. But Midka didn't care about the law in this period of the curriculum.
These people all wore the same clothes for days. Even the women had long abandoned formality. Unbuttoned shirts, discarded skirts, strolling around in slippers and shorts just to stay comfortable.
The stench was thick in the room.
This surveillance room was simply disgusting.
Boom!!
The doors slammed open with a violent kick.
A neat-looking old man in his seventies marched in. He was dressed like nobility, a black suit and even a formal bow tie. He had no baldness despite his age.
This was Samuel, Head of Academic Administration
Even if he opened the door with a kick, he acted like nothing unusual happened.
"Ehem.." With a throat clearing as a habit, he checked his suit for formality.
Samuel scanned the chaos of the room, spotted his assistant, and made his way over there. After a whispered exchange, his attention turned to the main projection, where a boy had just stood up bloodied but smiling.
It was a replay of things that happened just a few minutes ago.
Samuel wouldn't have come if his secretary hadn't alerted him. And he would've missed this madness.
The old man stared with a stunned face and an open mouth. Half a minute later, he came to his senses. Then he signaled his aide and exited the giant room without another word.
He was 19 years old. Hahaha. Finally, someone interesting.
Minutes later, a high-level meeting started in a dimly lit meeting room.
Professors, Sovereign Class Guardians, and top faculty members watched the same projection. But none of them cared about the aristocrats, the powerful mage pupils, or sword prodigies on the screen.
The high scores were already locked in this exam.
The rankings were practically decided from the first few actions of these students at the beginning of the examination.
That's not why they were here. They were watching "him".
The boy who hovered at the brink of death, then healed fast.
Too f*cking fast!
No one knew why or how this student registered under the Academic Personnel and still ended up in the combat zone.
Not even a normal combat exam, but the famous and dangerous one named "Hell-Maze".
They were discussing this anomaly's files and records on the table.
Midka Academy Exam Registry
Name: Orion Vale
Specialization: Advanced Academic Support / Civil Services
Mana Value: 0 – No Mana Training
Physical Rating: Not Measured
Written Exam Score: 880/1000
Written Exam Rank: 191 / 440,000
He wasn't a mage or a fighter. Just a bright student with no mana training, accepted to be a public officer or academic personnel.
Someone like him should have been irrelevant. Even if he had a great score in the written exam, it was nothing.
He was nothing.
Nobody in the room would stare at someone like him more than three seconds.
"Does anyone know how he got into the combat exam?"
Samuel, a 70-year-old department head and the man who oversaw almost all applicants, was just as confused.
A non-mana user with regenerative capabilities that almost defied death?
The implications were endless.
"My assistant is tearing through the records now. We'll know soon," someone responded from the back. The room returned to silence, eyes glued to the screen.
"Wait... isn't that the chamber where we sealed the Death Fairies and Nether Slimes?"
Silence.
Everyone knew that room.
Two years ago, during a magical containment breach, the academy had dumped those two species into what became known as the "empty room". But after a while, the whole Academy knew that if you saw an empty room in the maze, you had to stay away.
The level of poison in that room was insane.
Actually, this Hell Maze was revered as a sacred trial in the outside world, yes. But actually, it was just a damn storage. Useful, big, and dangerous.
Nobody from the outside world would know the truth, never!
Midka Academy was a giant machine and had tons of responsibilities. So they couldn't care about everything. They dumped all dangerous or tiresome things into the maze and forgot about them forever.
That was the reason even veteran instructors and high-level fighters avoided entering the first level of Hell-Maze alone.
Just using the first section of it for the exams was a challenge in itself. Deeper levels were another kind of pain altogether, especially for the Academy's Headmistress, Thalia Arken.
But when the boy survived that "empty room" and entered a room rumored to be a dragon's nesting ground, the control room's door opened again.
Everyone turned. "Magnus, my boy!
"Finally..."
"Our superstar's here!"
"Thank the Gods!"
Someone unfamiliar might think the man entering was the ruler of the planet or a superstar.
But no, this was Magnus Blackwood: Head of Forbidden Arts, Death Magic, and All Things Unholy and Horrific.
He was the "go-fix-this-problem guy". Title wasn't even a joke! It was real, and he probably had the longest door sign in the entire human territories.
Magnus was the man who had to deal with every dark, horrific, and unknown thing. And he immediately regretted showing up here.
"They're going to dump this on me," he thought. "I know they will."
When Magnus saw the boy on screen staring at a dragon, his jaw dropped.
"He even survived that?"
"He looked into the eyes of that damn dragon!!"
Everyone else was equally stunned. But they were also looking at Magnus strangely.
Of course they'd dump this on him. He was the "expert".
Magnus wanted to cry after seeing those snare-like eyes. Just as he was losing hope, something even stranger happened.
"Am I hallucinating or is that our Headmistress Thalia?"
The whole room went silent. No breathing, movement, or anything. Dead silence.
Finally, Magnus opened his mouth with great difficulty.
"H..h...he complimented her!"
"She is going to kill him, right? What a shame."
"Yeah, that boy got talent."
Suddenly, Magnus screamed. "HEY, LOOK!"
"Headmistress Thalia just smiled?"
The entire room fell into silence again. You wouldn't stare or gawk at Thalia Arken. You didn't live if you did.
It was forbidden to talk to that woman, even look at her from a distance, a screen, or express an opinion about her. She was the demoness, rule-maker, and the shield of the whole Human Race!
"Is he flirting with the Headmistress?"
The survivor of the most unlucky things in school was Marcus. And he did what needed to be done.
"Let me teach you something, everyone. If you can't solve a problem, delete all the evidence and forget all about it."
With a flick of his hand, a black fireball consumed the screen. The last image was the boy reaching for the red-haired woman's hair.
The room remained still. Some even kept their eyes closed with their hands.
"..."
Whether the Headmistress wanted to kill or kiss a student wasn't their business. They had seen nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing!
Ignorance was truly bliss.