It wasn't everyday a person met their idols, and it definitely wasn't everyday they also received heartwarming genuine praise from them. Wallice couldn't keep her feelings locked inside anymore. Her countenance was lightening up by the second, the poor lady was visibly overwhelmed.
"Thank you mister Harry! You're far too kind!"
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Meanwhile, Zavier's clones had been hard at work for nine days plus. Zavier's zeal and desire to learn illusion had been shared between all six of them so, basically he was learning it at a rate that was basically six times what it was supposed to be. By this logic, since all six of them had been practicing nonstop for nine days, it was actually fifty four days worth of practice. This shared consciousness was a terrific bonus.
This hard work, merged together with his system given superior talent brought his Mesmer system to level five. And in this Isekai, the equivalent of this rank in the art of illusion was a very neat B-level. On top of all this, Zavier could now very easily control up to eight clones. The time he had sacrificed practicing had paid of handsomely. And wasn't even the zenith of his reward.
Amongst the auxiliary techniques offered by The Mesmer system, the most powerful of them all was called "Inevitable Hypnosis." This terrifying technique was one of the ultimate forms of illusion. It gave the user complete command over the target. This chilling ability could compel the target to do whatever the caster ordered it to do. All this was conditional of course, and the condition was that the target's mental health had to be far weaker than that of the caster's. If this condition was a problem for the caster, it could result in total failure, and possible exposure.
The caster therefore had to be of sound mental strength. Even more than the target. The results of the training pleases Zavier very much. He had been out of action for so long, and he was very eager to try it out. But he had to stifle his eagerness and put his testing sequence on hold for now. Zavier had a bigger fish to fry, and it was more demanding than anything else he had going on.
The meeting with the president of the University was the main course of the day. Calista had been on everyone's neck about this. She was normally chill, but her edginess about this whole thing showed just how much this meant to her. So, before hand, she had issued a stern warning to everyone of them to be early the next day. So, Zavier was up even earlier than usual that morning.
He dabbled with the idea of testing out his new features, but Calista's scowl appeared in his head and it made him recoil with a sense of doom. That could wait for now. If he was late, Calista would have his balls. What was so special about meeting some old dude anyway? Zavier couldn't help but think just how weird people of this Isekai were. But he had to wonder in his own free time. As far as he was concerned, right now was Calista time.
And so, Zavier pulled himself together. Fifteen minutes later, he was at the base of the administrative block with the rest of his team mates. As Zavier shuffled on his feet in a manner that suggested that he wasn't too much in a hurry, he lifted up his eyes towards his destination and to his surprise, he saw that they were all gathered together, and had apparent been waiting for him for some time.
Damn it. He cursed. 'I thought I was early! Why do they have to be so serious all the time?!' Zavier was indeed early, in fact there was still about forty minutes left on the clock. But it wasn't really his fault. Calista was the one who had them all by the plug. Sighting Zavier from afar, she called out to him impatiently;
"Zavier! Will you hurry it along? We need to be on the move STAT!"
He wanted to tell her that there was really no need to yell, he was basically there already. And running to meet them wouldn't change to outcome at all. But he wisely held on his tongue. Calista was clearly on the edge right now. Any little push might send her spiraling. All for what? A date with an old man? Please.
He did end up hurrying along. Calista's (seemingly innocent) impatient glare buliied him into jogging towards the group. Nadia spotted him, and quickly made room for Zavier by her side. He slipped in and blended with the group without any fuss.
"Alright class, we're about to meet up with the president of the University. I need everyone to be on their best behavior! Understood?"
She didn't wait for a reply.
"Let's go."
She turned around and led them up the stairs. After a couple of flights, finally, they emerged on the other presidential floor and were greeted by the same secretary. Being almost half an hour early, Calista half expected to see the other teams waiting in the lobby, or at least, she expected the secretary to be impressed with her for making it so early. But the bland look on her face suggested otherwise.
While the secretary processed them in, Calista scanned the waiting area. She was glad to see that there were no other teams there. She had been hoping to find out that they had beaten other teams to the ball by being extra tardy. But, when the secretary finally ushered them into the president's office, she saw that all of them were there already! All of them had beaten Calista's team to the ball, even though they were basically ten minutes ahead of schedule.
This only showed just how stiff the competition was between all of them. But of course, all of them put on indifferent expressions and kept on a serious countenance. This was after all a civil meet and greet with Galen of all people. It was worth being in the same room with each other.
Galen coughed, "I welcome you all here. It really does seem like tardiness is a very common factor amongst winners. You all arrived way too early!"
It was meant to be a joke to lighten up the unusually dense mood, but no one dared to laugh lest they be seen as uncultured and familiar. Thus, the old man's joke passed over all the tense students and even tenser lead teachers.
'Wow,' Galen thought; 'Tough crowd eh?' He wasn't amused. He had repeated this same rodeo more times than he could count. It was part of his duties as the head of the University. He proceeded with the usual after welcoming them, giving them a short but generic version of the exhortation he usually said at these things.
While the old man spoke, Zavier's eyes got busy as they drifted around the room. The others were clearly paying close attention to the exhortation, hanging on to every single word he said, but Zavier wasn't as invested as the rest of them. He still didn't get the whole allure of this meeting. He looked at the ostentatious looks plastered on the faces of the students and teachers alike and shook his head as he wondered to himself.
'Gee, I wonder what the old man's dick is made off that makes everyone love riding it so much.'
Since he was bored, Zavier busied himself with scanning the new faces in the room. They were all important looking chumps. He saw the princess and tried to feast his eyes on her, but the two other soldier-like men shot him a threatening gaze and he quickly lowered his eyes before they could pulverize him on the spot. The only other entity that was left to see was the serious faced middle-aged man.
Zavier nearly jumped out of his skin. He shocked himself with his own sudden realization.
Wait a minute! The man certainly looked familiar- too familiar, almost as if Zavier had seen him…
Zavier fought to keep his eyes from widening in shock when he remembered. It was the horny old man from the other night! It was the bastard who had been spying on him as he spied on the couple having sex in the woods!
'Damn! Look at how respectable and smug he looks in that suit! I bet no one knows he creeps around at night looking for youngsters fucking in the bushes!'
It was so damn awkward having to see the man in such a scenario that required everyone to be serious. But the situation was about to get even more awkward. Zavier had been boring his eyes deep into his old 'friend,' that Harry noticed the youngling staring at him with inquisitive eyes. Instantly, he recognized Zavier as well! Harry was a matured mind and a battle tested mage. In a split of a second, he assessed the situation and knew that Zavier was a threat.
His reaction was brilliantly quick. Before Zavier could raise an alarm, Harry moved real quickly. Without even as much as moving a muscle, he cast a powerful illusion spell on his young friend before he could scream or do something obnoxious. The response was immediate. Poor Zavier was suddenly overwhelmed. In that moment, the feeling Zavier had was like he was being forced to be submerged under a very deep body of water. He tried to resist of course, it was an instinctive reaction. But it was futile.
Again, Zavier felt like he was in the middle of a large ocean on a measly flat boat, and before him, a violent wave of about a hundred meters high was towering over him- about to bear down on him.
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