Noah didn't know what to answer.

He knew that he had no chances of defeating Thaddeus, he was simply too far away from his level.

He thought for a long time while Thaddeus limited himself to smile at him.

Then, he asked the question that pressed him more.

"What will happen to me?"

Thaddeus shrugged his shoulder and answered.

"You will become a student of the academy."

"Uh?!"

Noah was stunned and confused by his answer.

Thaddeus continued.

"What? The academy's main objective is to take the most promising cultivators away from the n.o.ble families and bring them into the Royal family's ranks. You might act like a little demon but don't delude yourself: you aren't the first problematic character that my family managed to control."

Noah relaxed a bit hearing those words.

"So, why did you do all that speech before?"

Thaddeus' face became stern.

"Because you needed to understand what kind of a monster my family is. We have been the rulers for two thousand years after all, it didn't happen because we were lucky."

Noah understood.

"You want me to behave?"

Thaddeus nodded.

"I will keep your ident.i.ty a secret, we would rather have you as our a.s.set in the future than leave you in a cage for life. Just remember that we are always watching so don't pull anything funny or you will be done for."

Noah nodded, he was planning to lay low and focus on his cultivation anyway.

"One last thing. That bat of yours, is it a spell?"

'Is he testing me?'

"Yes."

Thaddeus smiled again and launched a rune toward him.

The light of the rune enveloped Noah and teleported him back in the room with the other winners.

He could see that the four were interested in his private conversation but they didn't ask anything.

Noah sat back on the couch to cultivate, he completely ignored June emulating him again and sitting right next to him.

'When will I be free?'

He could not help but have these thoughts after his meeting with Thaddeus.

'When will I stop being used?'

He laughed internally.

'Little demon? If they want to put a leash on me, they should be ready to pay the price.'

He spent the rest of the night cultivating, eager to see what the academy reserved for him.

The morning came and Thaddeus reappeared in the room.

"We are ready to set off toward the capital, please follow me to the main deck."

He pressed one hand on the wall behind him and a door materialized.

'Deck? Are we inside a s.h.i.+p?'

Noah was confused and followed Thaddeus' lead with the other four youths.

Outside of the room, there was a s.p.a.cious corridor adorned with paintings.

They then reached some stairs and climbed them.

When they arrived at the top of them, Thaddeus pressed his hand on the ceiling and a large pa.s.sage opened.

The light of the sun pa.s.sed through the opening and the sky became visible.

On the other side of the pa.s.sage, a large deck unfolded itself in front of the group.

It was more than thirty meters large and had many spots a.s.signed for meditation on it.

Ten more people were present on the deck and Noah recognized the two red-haired siblings between them.

However, his attention was on his surroundings.

He could clearly see that they were still in the middle of Ebonrest city, toward its central part, but he could not understand where their transport was.

'Wait, he called it "main deck" and this place definitely resembles a s.h.i.+p. There is no water around us though.'

He thought for some more time until an idea formed in his mind.

'Don't tell me.'

As if reacting to his discovery, the s.h.i.+p began to tremble.

The youths from less important families were looking around them with a confused expression but those from the large-size families had their eyes open wide in surprise.

Noah instinctively reached for the edges of the deck and looked below him.

The s.h.i.+p was slowly distancing itself from the terrain.

He turned to look at Thaddeus and noticed that he was holding a small crystal in his hand.

'I knew it!'

The s.h.i.+p continued to rise vertically into the air until its form was completely visible.

It was one hundred meters long and thirty meters wide, it almost made no sound while it set off and there was no air pressure whatsoever created from its movements.

There were no masts nor sails and the uncovered part on the outside occupied only a third of the entire machine.

Maybe, it was better to call it a flying submarine rather than an air-s.h.i.+p.

'I thought that my previous world was more advanced technologically but I was wrong. They actually created an air-s.h.i.+p with runes and inscriptions!'

Soft light was emitted from its sides showing the many runes that formed a peculiar pattern on the wooden hull.

"This is amazing, isn't it?"

The red-haired girl appeared on his side and spoke casually.

"The Patriarch once told me that these things existed but I always believed that he was saying that to make me train harder for the entrance test."

Noah didn't mind her too much and continued to stare at the environment.

The air-s.h.i.+p had reached an alt.i.tude of more than three kilometers and then stopped its rise.

It then began to move horizontally in a direction unknown to Noah.

"I am Ruth Eeggi, I wanted to thank you for saving my life in the test. I hope that we will get along in the academy."

Ruth bowed and Noah nodded seeing her gesture.

He then inspected the s.h.i.+p for a few more instants before focusing on the new members of the group.

'They don't seem that strong. I wonder what other abilities they have."

Thaddeus then faced the fifteen young cultivators and spoke in a loud voice.

"You fifteen are now students of the Academy. Adding you to the ones from the other four test areas and the twenty-five that will buy their ingress, we will create a new cla.s.s. It will be called Grayshade and it will have one hundred students. I will explain more about the rules and the courses of the academy once we group up with the other students."