The remainder of the journey was silent, but it was a new kind of silence. The tension of the unknown had been replaced by the heavy weight of certainty. The knights in Lyra's retinue no longer watched Kael with suspicion, but with a palpable, fearful respect. They gave his carriage a wide berth, and whenever Glitch padded alongside, they would instinctively tense, not for fear of the beast, but for fear of its master.
Lyra made no more attempts at conversation. Instead, Kael would often see her staring at him from her window, her brow furrowed in deep, obsessive thought. She wasn't just trying to solve a puzzle anymore; she was trying to comprehend a new paradigm of power. He had become the central mystery of her world.
They arrived at the capital city of Veritas on the tenth day. The city was a marvel of engineering and magic, a stark contrast to the rustic stone of Oakhaven. Towers of white marble scraped the sky, connected by shimmering bridges of pure light. Arcane constructs, golems of brass and crystal, patrolled the clean, wide streets, and the air itself thrummed with a concentration of mana that was intoxicating.
The Royal Academy of Magic was the city's crown jewel. It wasn't a single building but a sprawling campus of ivory towers, obsidian lecture halls, and vast, manicured grounds where students practiced spells that sent blossoms of fire and ice into the sky. The entrance was a colossal gate inscribed with glowing runes of warding and prestige.
As their convoy, bearing the crests of two powerful houses, approached the gate, a commotion was already underway. A crowd of students had gathered, centered around a flamboyant, crimson-red carriage that was even more ostentatious than the Baron's. It was being blocked by a group of stern-looking academy proctors.
"For the last time," one of the proctors said, his voice amplified by a minor spell, "academy rules are clear. No non-sentient familiars, pets, or mounts beyond this point without proper registration and a containment rune. Your 'Firemane Lion' does not qualify."
Standing before the carriage was a young man with fiery red hair that matched his vehicle. He was handsome in a roguish way, dressed in extravagant clothes that screamed new money.
"Do you know who I am?" the red-haired noble blustered, his face flushed with anger. "I am Zander Blaze, son of the merchant lord who just funded your new alchemy wing! My Firemane is a B-Rank beast, a symbol of my family's power! He goes where I go!"
"Rules are rules, Lord Blaze," the proctor said, his expression unyielding.
Kael watched with mild interest. He focused his vision.
=== ENTITY: Zander Blaze ===
CLASS: Pyromancer, B-Rank
LEVEL: 38
SKILL: [Explosive Fireball, Lv.6], [Flame Whip, Lv.5]
STATUS: Enraged, Arrogant, [Inferiority Complex]
================================
Kael's eyebrow arched at the [Inferiority Complex] tag. It explained the over-the-top carriage and the desperate need to show off his B-Rank pet.
"This is an outrage!" Zander shouted. "I will not be humiliated!"
Just then, his eyes landed on Kael's convoy. He saw the Thorne crest, then saw Glitch trotting calmly beside the carriage. The Ravager, even in its reduced size, radiated a far more primal and dangerous aura than his glorified lion.
A nasty, opportunistic smirk spread across Zander's face. He pointed a dramatic finger at Kael.
"And what about him?!" he yelled, drawing the entire crowd's attention. "That beast is clearly a Ravager, a C-Rank monster! If my noble Firemane can't enter, then that... that thing certainly can't! Proctor, I demand you enforce the rules equally!"
He thought he had Kael trapped. He would use the academy's own rules to publicly humiliate the representative from the "lesser" House Thorne.
The head proctor turned, his eyes narrowing as he saw Glitch. "He is correct. A Ravager is a Class-3 Prohibited Beast. It cannot enter campus grounds. Young man, you will have to remand your... pet... to the city stables."
Valerius, who had just stepped out of his carriage, wore a look of malicious glee. Finally! Kael's strange power would be thwarted by simple, unbreakable bureaucracy.
Lyra watched, her expression unreadable, curious to see how Kael would handle a problem that couldn't be solved by altering physics.
Kael sighed. This was tedious. He walked forward, Glitch padding silently at his side. He stopped before the proctor.
"There must be a misunderstanding," Kael said calmly.
"There is no misunderstanding," the proctor stated stiffly. "The beast's magical signature is undeniably that of a C-Rank Crimson-Clawed Ravager. It is forbidden."
"Oh, he's not a Ravager," Kael said, patting Glitch's head. The beast purred happily.
Zander Blaze let out a derisive laugh. "Are you blind as well as stupid? Anyone with a lick of mana sense can tell what that is!"
Kael ignored him and looked at the proctor. "He is a previously undocumented subspecies. It's a common mistake." He looked down at Glitch, then back at the proctor, his face a mask of utter seriousness. "This is a 'Thorne Citadel Cuddle-Hound.' They are known for their gentle disposition and loyalty."
The sheer, unadulterated absurdity of the name hung in the air. The crowd of students blinked. Several of them sputtered, trying to stifle laughter. Valerius's jaw dropped at the audacity of the lie.
The head proctor's face turned red. "Do you take me for a fool, boy? Cuddle-Hound? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! I am a certified Beast Scholar! I will perform a formal species-identification spell myself!"
"Please do," Kael said with a serene smile.
The proctor huffed, incensed. He began to chant, weaving a complex pattern of light in the air. A green, ethereal aura formed and then shot out, enveloping Glitch. This was a high-level analysis spell, one that cross-referenced a creature's magical and biological markers with the Grand Mundane Encyclopedia. It was foolproof.
Kael watched the green aura, and the code it represented.
SPELL: [Species Identification]
TARGET: [Entity: "Glitch"]
CROSS-REFERENCE: Grand_Mundane_Encyclopedia.dat
...
MATCH_FOUND: [Creature.Beast.Ravager.CrimsonClawed]
CONFIDENCE: 99.98%
It was a beautiful piece of diagnostic magic. It would be a shame to mess with it. So he didn't. He let the spell run its course perfectly.
Instead, he focused his will on the source file the spell was referencing. He opened the massive data archive of the Grand Mundane Encyclopedia in his mind's eye. It was like looking at a library the size of a continent. He didn't have time to search. So he just added a new entry.
He quickly wrote a few lines of code, creating a new, completely fictional creature file, complete with biological markers and a behavioral profile he copied directly from a Golden Retriever's entry.
NEW_ENTRY: [Creature.Beast.Hound.ThorneCitadelCuddleHound]
DESCRIPTION: A rare, highly sought-after companion beast from the remote Oakhaven region. Known for its extreme loyalty and gentle nature. Often mistaken for its aggressive, distant cousin, the Ravager.
THREAT LEVEL: Negligible.
TAMING DIFFICULTY: Trivial.
He saved the file and closed it, just as the proctor's spell concluded.
The green aura around Glitch pulsed once, then shot back to the proctor, feeding him the result. The proctor's eyes glowed with green light as he processed the information.
His angry, confident expression faltered. It melted into confusion. Then utter bewilderment.
"Wh-What?" the proctor stammered, looking from his glowing hands to the placid beast. "According to the spell... according to the Encyclopedia... it... it is..." He swallowed hard, his professional pride warring with the undeniable result of his own magic. "...a Thorne Citadel Cuddle-Hound."
The laughter that had been suppressed erupted from the student body. The name was ridiculous, but the proctor's own infallible spell had just confirmed it.
Zander Blaze's face went from smug to slack-jawed. "IMPOSSIBLE! Your spell must be broken! That thing is a Ravager!"
"The spell is functioning perfectly!" the proctor snapped back, his face now beet-red with embarrassment. He cleared his throat, trying to regain some semblance of authority. "My apologies, young lord. It seems I was mistaken. The... uh... Cuddle-Hound is, of course, permitted on campus. Welcome to the Royal Academy."
Kael gave a gracious nod. "Thank you for your diligence." He then walked past the stunned proctor and the apoplectic Zander Blaze, through the great gates of the academy, Glitch trotting happily behind him.
The crowd of students parted for him, their expressions a mixture of mirth, confusion, and a newfound wariness. They didn't know what they had just seen, but they knew it wasn't normal.
Lyra followed, her face pale. She had been watching Kael's mana. There had been no fluctuation, no spell cast. He had defeated an expert's identification spell without using any magic of his own. It was another impossible feat, one that undermined the very foundation of established knowledge. He hadn't just changed the rules of physics this time.
He had rewritten reality's textbook.