Becoming a Shadow in the New World

I have feelings? What are feelings?

After confirming that Sid had not given her any orders, Astallo's brain instead processed another piece of information.

“I know that conman uncle sent you to spy on me. I guess you have some ability. But you probably don’t know which college I’m a student at. I’m not bragging, but if I can’t get to school tomorrow, Yue-chan will storm into your hideout and rescue me.”

So hurry up and do something, don't just sit here doing nothing. You can either tip someone off or take action to get the necklace back.

"So let's make a deal. You don't tell that conman uncle about me. I'll pretend I don't know you found out. I'll still tell the security team tomorrow night. You can go back now, but you can escape before tomorrow night. I won't tell the security team about you."

Just kidding. There won't be any security forces tomorrow, just a kind-hearted Robin Hood-like figure. You can't escape either; they've already memorized your scent. They'll find you with a simple search using their magic radar.

"The order is accepted."

Astallo stood up and walked towards the door, an action that Sid interpreted as agreement with his earlier proposal. As for whether she was lying, Sid didn't detect any.

After Astalloti left, Sid opened his phone to check if there were any direct ships to Western Europe the next night. Hmm, there was indeed one, at midnight.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The next morning, Monday, was the day to go to school. It was Roseweather's magic class, his least favorite class.

Sid glanced at the Valkyrie on the podium, who was said to be a former Odin's guardian goddess from Norse mythology, and then focused his attention back on the training of magic within his body.

It must be said that this teacher is indeed a beauty, with long, silver-white hair, emerald green eyes, a superb figure, and the icy demeanor she displays in class. Paired with that formal teacher's uniform, she is the epitome of a modern, powerful woman.

Unfortunately, although the students affectionately called her "Little Roseweather" in private, she was far less popular than Natsuki-chan, probably because most people at the school were lolicon.

Of course, he prefers Roseweiser. After all, he can create a magical doll whenever he wants, and having a soul makes her far superior to Natsuki-chan.

Don't ask why a magic swordsman like him has to take magic classes. According to the school, they can be without magic, but they cannot be ignorant of magic.

He thought this made a lot of sense. Of course, that's what he said, but he hadn't paid any attention to Roseweather's classes at all; he was such a jerk.

It's not that Roseweather's words are bad, it's that her magic is too bad. She's still at the level of simply using magic. If she wanted to increase her strength, someone at this level would probably choose to acquire more magical knowledge, not to improve her control.

“Sid, you answer the question about how this magic works.”

It seems Roseweather noticed that Sid had been daydreaming and spacing out, so she called on him to answer a question.

Sid glanced at the problem on the blackboard. It was quite simple for him. He removed most of the parts that seemed useful but were actually just auxiliary, and he easily figured out the conditions for the magic to work.

"Teacher, I don't know."

"If you don't know, then listen carefully in class and don't daydream. Come to my office after class."

That's why he hated magic class; he was truly at the bottom of his class because he didn't know how to answer the questions.

If someone else's understanding of magic is a novel, then his understanding of magic is just an outline. In the eyes of these teachers, he has too many details to explain and supplement. The problem is that other students' novels are automatically translated into outlines in his eyes.

Most people who reach his level do so by reading a large number of novels and then deducing the outline of those novels. If you asked someone like that to write a novel based on that outline, even if they couldn't completely replicate it, the plot would be very similar to the original novel.

He was already living in this mindset from the start, which meant that if you asked him to write a novel based on the outline of the original work, he could achieve the same ending and plot, but the middle part would be completely different. With Sid outwardly serious but inwardly daydreaming, time flew by, and get out of class was over soon.

Chapter Twenty-One: A Journey Through the Office

The faculty office of Caihai College.

Roseweather sat at her desk, preparing the teaching materials for the next class. The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Ka~~"

A sound came from the office, the door opened, and a boy with black hair and black eyes walked in.

After Sid entered the office, he closed the door and glanced around. In the large office, there was only Nanami Nayuki sipping red tea in a teacher's chair, and Sasaki Misaki and Roseweiser doing something. With his arrival, the quiet atmosphere was broken, and the attention of the three of them was drawn to him.

"Sid, you're here."

Roseweather seemed oblivious to the change in atmosphere and called him over directly.

After thinking for a few seconds, Sid still chose to obey the order and obediently sat down in front of Roseweather.

"What should I say to you, my student?"

Roseweather looked like she had a headache, covering her forehead with her palm. Sid knew she really had a headache; after all, anyone would have a headache if they had a student who had studied for a year and still didn't understand anything.

“The results of the last exam are out, and you came in last place. You were daydreaming again in class this time. Sid, can’t you try a little harder? With your talent, even if you can’t be at the top, you shouldn’t be this bad.”

Faced with Roseweather's criticism, Sid gave the excuse he had prepared on the way.

"Professor Roseweiser, as you know, my talent is just so-so. Before the world merged, I hadn't had much contact with magic, so I need some time..."

“Stop, Sid, stop making excuses. You’ve already used that last time, and I’ve checked your other courses. You can keep up with most of them, and you can even learn math to a normal high school level within a year.”

Roseweather interrupted Sid and exposed the excuses Sid had been using all along.

Sid glanced at Roseweather in surprise, seemingly not expecting that this usually eccentric teacher would actually think of checking his other courses. Fortunately, Sid had already thought of what to do if he was exposed one day.

"Waaah, Roseweiser teacher, I have absolutely no talent for magic anyway, I just need to master my profession as a magic swordsman."

As long as I mess things up badly enough, no one can force me to work hard. This is the secret he learned from the internet in his previous life. Amazing netizens can always come up with something that catches his eye.

Of course, he didn't believe in this back then, after all, he was a man who was going to become a Shadow-level powerhouse, but now he felt that it was appropriate to use this to deal with this situation.

"Sid, I've said it so many times, even a magic swordsman must understand the basics of magic, otherwise you won't even know if you get tricked by some strange magic one day. The most terrifying thing about magic is never its combat power, but its strangeness."

Sid wholeheartedly agreed with Roseweather's words; magic was indeed quite bizarre.

But Sid felt that Roseweather could rest assured about this. After he saw the method of creating the curse in the library, which theoretically could kill a red dragon of his own level, he would be a fool to still underestimate magic. If it could be used to target red dragons, he might be the next one to be targeted.

As for his efforts to learn the magic taught by Roseweather, let's spare him. It's not a matter of effort; Roseweather wants Sid to completely change his spellcasting mindset.

"Anyway, my future is pretty much set. Whether I can continue to be a minor nobleman depends on my sister's mood. How could anyone hire a magician specifically to deal with me?"

After hearing these words that essentially showed he had given up on himself, Sid no longer believed that Roseweather could still have any hope for him.

"You, you, you... you're hopeless."

As he expected, Roseweather was so angry that her face turned red, and she even uttered a sentence in classical Chinese.

"Well, teacher, if there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

Sid stood up and prepared to leave. He was quite satisfied with this trip to the office. Although he was disliked by the Valkyrie teacher, he won't have to be called to the office every now and then and be nagged by others anymore.

"Stop, come here."

Just before Sid was about to leave the office, Roseweather calmed down, and Sid could only sigh inwardly at the pity.

"What's wrong, teacher? Is there anything else?"

Sid could only hope it wasn't something like having his parents call and persuade him. His sister was on the island right now, and once she heard the situation, she would definitely come looking for him. He knew he would be in a lot of trouble then.

"Here, take this. Didn't you only want to be a magic swordsman? Then learn what's inside, at least put it into practice."

Roseweather opened the drawer, took out a book, and handed it to Sid.

After taking the book, Sid gave Roseweather a strange look before opening it and starting to read.

After reading just a few pages, Sid knew that this was a book about a magic swordsman.

However, unlike books that typically teach magic swordsmen combat techniques, this book records how to teach magic swordsmen to use magic to achieve effects similar to qi, using the human body as a framework for magic, mobilizing the power hidden within the human body, manipulating the power of human life, and so on.

Rather than calling this a book about magic swordsmen, it's more accurate to describe it as a modified version of a magic book about qigong; one can even find some qigong terminology in this book.

While Sid was flipping through the book, he didn't notice that Sasaki Misaki, who was watching from the side, glanced at the contents of the book a few times, then her eyes lit up, and she looked at Nanamiya Nagatsuki with a teasing expression.

Noticing the gaze that Sasaki Misaki was giving her, Nanami Nayuki's face darkened. She glared at Sasaki Misaki fiercely, signaling her to be quiet.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier, Ms. Roseweather, you're a good teacher."

After glancing through it, Sid thought Roseweiser was indeed a good teacher, able to wholeheartedly give him a clearly privately rewritten magical version of Qigong even after he said those things.

"Hmm!...Since you know you were wrong, then Sid, please pay more attention in class from now on and stop daydreaming all the time."

Roseweather clearly hadn't expected Sid's attitude to change so drastically after she gave him a book, but she quickly realized that she wanted to use this opportunity to help Sid get rid of his habit of not paying attention in class.

"Okay, I understand, Professor Roseweiser. I'll pass the next practical test."

This time, Sid didn't say anything about lacking talent, since those words would be quite hurtful to a responsible teacher. But at most, he could guarantee that the practical test would be fine, and that he really couldn't stay focused in class.

明明用“3X3”就能解决的问题，偏偏要用“3+3+3”，真学了他究竟变强了还是变弱还真不好说。

Seeing Sid's attitude, Roseweather roughly understood Sid's thoughts and could only sigh helplessly, letting Sid go back.

"Crack! Bang!"

As the door was closed by Sid, Sasaki Misaki, who had been watching Nangong Nayue with a mocking look, finally couldn't hold back any longer. He walked directly to Nangong Nayue's side, picked her up, and snuggled up to her with a playful grin.

"Hey, Natsuki-chan, the cultivation technique you asked me for a few days ago was for that student, right? You even stayed up for several nights to rewrite it so he could learn it. How kind of you are, Natsuki-chan."

The teasing words came from Sasaki Misaki's mouth, and the already bad face of the person being teased—Natsuki Minamiya—darkened even further.

While being held in Misaki Sasaki's arms, Natsuki Minamiya suddenly attacked, giving Misaki a blow to the elbow.

"Snapped!"

Being blocked was within Nangong Nayue's expectations. As a witch, it was unlikely that she could hit Sasaki Misaki, one of the "Four Fist Immortals," in close combat. If she did hit him, she would be worried about whether there was something wrong with Sasaki Misaki's body.

The magic power within her surged, and a spatial spell instantly took shape. The next second, Nangong Nayue appeared on the other side of the office, pointing her left and right hands at Sasaki Misaki. In the void where Sasaki Misaki was located, chains appeared out of thin air and extended towards Sasaki Misaki.

Without offering any resistance, Misaki Sasaki obediently allowed the chains to bind her, leaving her suspended in mid-air. Her face showed no panic, only leisure, revealing no sign that she was resigned to being bound and at the mercy of others.

"Idiot, I told you not to call me Nazuki-chan."

Instead of being flustered by Nanami Nagatsuki's angry rebuke, Sasaki Misaki curled his lips into a smile, adding fuel to the fire.

"Natsuki-chan, you're getting impatient."