Mart who was showing little interest in Nirian's beauty hurriedly took out a notebook and a pen from his demonic bag, and began to write, while thinking: "How many potions did I spend in the cave?.... Besides, the 10 demonic wands, why not say it was 20, no one will judge me, in the end I saved them right?.... Right! The evil mandrake!"
Nirian was puzzled to see how Mart showed little interest in her; next to Nirian was her friend Nely who watched Mart shyly, because despite his bad reputation, Mart had the reputation of being the most handsome student of second year, after him was the prodigy Meleic who had a good reputation and appearance, so many girls placed him above Mart.
-Here is the invoice with the amount you owe me. I was quite specific with the demonic artifacts and the amount of potions I used; take into account that I did not charge for labor, or your debt would have been greater. Take it as the privilege of being my first employer. -Mart expressed with confidence and a dazzling cordiality that made Nely look at him with longing.
Mart looked at Nirian's tender and friendly friend, smiled at her and said goodbye after bowing respectfully.
-What's wrong with her? -Nirian asked as she watched Mart wander off down the corridors until he disappeared.
Nely did not answer, because she was still engrossed in the smile Mart gave her.
----
"At least I was able to give the Duchess the bill for her debt, I hope she pays me soon; that money would do me a lot of good."
Mart walked with slow steps, but gracefully through the halls, he was looking for Selis but couldn't find her, so he headed alone to the cafeteria.
"He is Mart."
"He's so handsome are the rumors true?"
"Yes, he's a bastard, there were many students who died and..."
"I'm serious, they still attack me because I didn't die; the infamy of the real Mart was huge," Mart thought as he ordered some vegetables with Grised sauce, and two unicorn rabbit steaks. He paid the bill and looked for a place to sit.
The Grised sauce was made with round black vegetables, it had a sour taste, but when mixed with other condiments it acquired a pleasant flavor.
After eating, Mart withdrew and walked back through the corridors, while observing the surroundings, until he came across a rather uncomfortable surprise, a beautiful young woman with a vacant stare, was surprised to see him and whispered carelessly:
-You are...
"Alive?", Mart finished the sentence in his mind, he couldn't help but sigh as he saw the beautiful young woman with reddish hair running away with a complicated look of pain, hate and more emotions that Mart couldn't understand; he wanted to stop her, to talk to her, but he knew that doing that considering the past would be complicated and could result in a bigger problem.
Still, he said to himself in his mind after seeing her disappear, "I have to talk to her or I will be unjustly cursed", as he had remembered the cursed letter that was hidden in his desk; suddenly he felt the pang that provoked his intuition, and he repressed his idea, saying in his mind, "I hope it won't turn out that way..."
••••
Since it was already late, and night would soon come, he returned to his room and the door was open.
"What's going on?"
As he peeked in, Selis jumped up and hugged him, causing him terrible pain, but he smiled and stroked her beautiful green hair, then asked:
-Are you happy, did something good happen?
-Come in. -Selis answered taking him by the hand and dragging him inside the room where, on the bed, there was a beautiful rectangular silver box the size of a shoebox and on the box there was a letter with the emblem of the Danteriar Academy.
Before taking the letter, Mart saw Asfil who was sitting in front of the desk with a book in her hand.
-Hello Asfil. -Mart greeted.
-Hello. -Asfil replied in a cold manner as when Mart had just met her, despite that she seemed to be attentive to Mart's actions.
Mart took the letter and tried to open it, but the seal would not budge, as he was not supposed to use demonic energy, he thought about tearing the envelope, but Selis put a hand on his forearm and said warmly:
-Mart, just drop a drop of blood on the seal.
Mart nodded, but didn't ignore how Asfil narrowed his eyes at how he couldn't open the letter in the first place. "Apparently I made a mistake," Mart thought, he bit down on his thumb, and let a drop of blood fall on the seal. The seal glowed and then lifted easily, Mart pulled out the letter, it was just a sheet that had writing on it:
Danteriar Academy.
Student Mart Sevec, you have been promoted for your merits and achievements during the recent excursion to Marrac Mountain to second Year B class.
We wish him a successful future.
Approved by:
////// ////////
-We will be in the same class. -Selis said enthusiastically.
Mart looked at Asfil and she said:
-Yes, I got promoted too.
"I don't know if it's good or bad," Mart opened the box that also had a seal on it by dropping a drop of blood. Inside the box, there were three demonic potions. One of second rank, one of third rank and one of fourth rank.
All three potions had a transparent vial that allowed the glowing purple contents of demonic energy to be seen, all three had gold caps.
In the box there were also some indications.
Drink the second rank potion, rest, meditate, and when your body has adapted to the possible changes, drink the next one, be patient.
-Apparently they want to invest in you, the gold caps are only on potions made by one of the executives, known as the best alchemist of the Danteriar Academy. -Asfil explained coolly, though she seemed somewhat discouraged.
"most likely they gave him something of lesser quality or just the promotion; I understand, it must be hard to see a wretch from a good family receiving so many privileges; but, that's the way the world is," Mart feigned enthusiasm so as not to ruin the atmosphere, but just with the blood he devoured from Professor Helen his attributes had gone up 4.5 points with the greed bonus, so for him such potions were nothing impressive when compared to the demonic system.