Psychopath

Chapter Twenty-Four: Psychopath

Break time finally came and Zenith escaped from the class before the students could notice. He might stroll out of the school for a bit and that'd be when he'd reanimate his interaction with the assassin.

"First, I need to finish those panda breads." He said to himself. "I don't know how long they stay."

"Panda breads?"

Zenith tensed up a bit before releasing himself, the boy had snuck up on him while hiding his presence. Zenith had felt someone close but assumed it was a passing students who'd not bother him.

"Do you need anything, Alez?"

It was the first time any of the student came to him for a personal assessment, it was also the first time he's teaching anyway.

The book looked at his notebook, particularly at the part written in green ink. "You wrote about draining essence and using it for something unimportant."

The boy closed his book. "Did you mean the Absolute Absence skill? I use a good amount of essence to keep the skill up but I'm also trying to perfect it."

"So you'd keep it up till the four years it'd take you to perfect it?" Zenith raised a brow.

The boy slowed down. Did the teacher mean it'd take him four years to perfect it? He didn't think it'd take that long. "W-Well, it's a really useful skill to know. You said so yourself, sir."

"I did but constantly being on Absolute Absence might not be the best for a growing Mage who should use his essence for other magic training." Zenith stopped walking, when they reached the exit.

He turned to the boy who had a conflicted expression and while Zenith understood why he'd want to perfect a skill, he also wondered why it had to be Absolute Absence which only aided his Element and didn't do much on it's own.

"However, what I wrote on your book wasn't referring to Absolute Absence, but to how you used your essence during the long range attack practical session. Learn to conserve essence."

The boy flipped through his book to check if there was any other thing he needed feedback on and he closed his book when he saw none. He nodded and bowed.

"Thank you, Sir Zenith. I'd take my leave now—"

"Why didn't you stop him though?" Zenith asked, stopping Alez from leaving. "This morning, Alexandria Feloncia's dangerous prank, why didn't you stop him?"

Alez turned to the teacher slowly. "Should I have?"

Zenith stared at the boy, then nodded and broke eye contact. "You are the same too, aren't you? You're just a calmer psychopath."

Psychopath? Alez panicked. "S-Sir, isn't that… isn't that too much? A-A-Alexandria was playing a prank so he shouldn't… I didn't even join him…"

Zenith marched past the exit heading for the door, and leaving the student panicking on being seen as a mentally challenged individual.

Zenith didn't plan to take his words back, psychopaths weren't inherently bad anyway. He remembered the students that fixed the gate when he got outside.

"The agency would pay them," he sighed, "but I have to remind them first. Remember, Zenith, remember."

He reached the gate and checked for the security guard. He met a new one there, had the other gone home early? He shrugged and walked past the gate.

The places he saw, he had moved past with the accidental tornado when going towards the assassin. Since there were no obstructions, there was nothing damaged there and the road was safe as well.

Zenith looked around the stalls. He had arrived at Gaden High by car and had seen a bit of these places when he used Ultra Vision to find Layla when he needed to give her the keys to her apartment.

Still, nothing beat walking through the streets as they went along with their mundane activities.

The mundane life didn't interest him because they were one step closer to boring and nothing had proven him wrong yet.

However, there were experiences he missed because of the great war that he partook in at a young age of ten. A successful mage like him shouldn't have any regrets, but he had that as his one regret.

"To be fair, the war wouldn't have been won without me." He sighed, accepting his fate. His childhood and adolescence had been the sacrifice for success so it's nothing compared to the lives that'd have been lost.

He stopped at store that sold facemasks and stared at them. The designs in front looked like ones made for a festival. "So it's finally that time of the year."

Autumn usually packed festivals for non-mages and mages were always forced to attend. The facemasks at the store reminded Zenith of the Gaden Festival that he'd been invited to.

Many had sent him letters asking him to be his plus one, including the billionaire's daughter who had been sending stashes of cash to him.

"Now that I'm a teacher, I have an excuse not to attend even if the King invites me." He nodded at his words.

At that point, a couple walked out of the store wearing matching shirts. Zenith sighed and tried walking past but the girl recognized him and ran in front of him.

His barrier instantly switched on. Enemy? Fan girl?

"The young Mage Zenith Ichiban!" the girl looked around and reduced her voice, but she hopped on one leg in the middle of the road in front of a stranger, so it didn't help that she's trying to not draw attention.

Her boyfriend stared at her, puzzled but recognized the young Mage and came close. Zenith's eyes looked bored but a rage boiled within them.

This confirmed to the boyfriend that its truly the young Mage. He always had the 'I'm tired of this' look but his eyes said 'try me'. That's why he's noted as unpredictable. "Sir, what are you doing—"

Zenith disappeared from their sight. He appeared few stores ahead and turned to them, before moving away. How dare that Mr. Boyfriend ask him what he's doing around a district that didn't belong to him?

"Nosey people." He turned to another direction, looking for an empty place. He used his ultra vision to be sure what place had less people.

He noticed a vast land close and appeared at the site. Teleportation magic was always the best to use when he needed to move short distance.

It's the right thing to use instead of 'freezing the couple' as he had in mind earlier. "I have many skills and spells that I even forget them."

He remembered a book he usually wrote those things in but some creep had stolen his book and he'd been too lazy to write another.

He might need to remember all those, so he wouldn't accidentally burn a district to the ground.