"This is so awkward..." Luo Qi said with a serious expression.
To be honest, he could keep pretending to be a useless wizard, but... in a class where everyone succeeded, him failing was just way too obvious. It would draw way too much attention to him, especially since this was a rare magic class where everyone had actually managed to pull off the spell. A lot of eyes were starting to focus on him, and naturally, that included Zhao Shishi's watchful gaze.
This made it incredibly hard for him to deliberately mess up the spell.
"Luo Qi, do you want me to help you figure out what went wrong?" Benjamin, seeing that only Luo Qi was left struggling, immediately got concerned for his friend.
"Maybe I'm just not feeling well today..." Luo Qi furrowed his brows and tried to pull out his trump card. If he was physically unwell, the success rate would definitely be lower, and Bard surely wouldn't push him to keep trying.
"Really? Well, safety first! We don't want to summon anything... strange," Bard nodded cautiously. Summoning bizarre creatures was not a rare occurrence in magic class, and as the teacher with the highest salary in the school, Bard was expected to handle the messes when they happened.
"Ohhhh! My fairy just got bigger!" Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room shifted, and an excited voice rang out from behind the class.
It turned out, Karls had been repeatedly trying to summon a larger fairy to impress the girls around him.
His magical talent wasn't bad; the light orb he summoned wasn't as big as a fist, but it was still decent enough to put him in the top 10 in class.
However, this didn't seem to catch Zhao Shishi's attention at all. In his eyes, Zhao Shishi was much more interested in Benjamin, that dumb but enthusiastic guy. This was a development he definitely didn't want!
This "Beauty and the Beast" dynamic? Not fun at all!
But now, Karls had succeeded in summoning a fairy, just... the color was completely wrong. Instead of the usual fiery red, it was a strange grayish light orb. And, to make things even weirder, it kept growing, rapidly expanding until it was larger than the elemental fairy Zhao Shishi had summoned.
"What... What is this?" Bard was more stunned than the students around him. He rifled through his mental library of magical knowledge but found nothing that matched. One thing was for sure: this was definitely not an elemental fairy!
"Huh? You don't know, teacher?"
"Hey, come on... teacher, get it together!"
"Kaka, what exactly did you summon?!"
Hearing Bard's reaction, the students started to panic.
"Looks like... another routine trouble." Luo Qi frowned. He was sure there was some sort of special "trouble magnet" aura around him, but this time, Zhao Shishi should be able to handle it, right? Normally, he would have dealt with the problem before it even started. But now, he could just use destruction magic to wipe it out—whatever it was, it was bound to cause chaos, and he didn't care what it was as long as it was gone.
"Is the problem coming from this guy?" Zhao Shishi furrowed her brows and muttered to herself, her suspicion of Karls suddenly increasing. Though Bard didn't know what this was, she did. This was a dangerous creature.
"Teacher, please take the students to safety. I'll handle this," Zhao Shishi calmly commanded. "Quick, before this thing fully materializes."
"Wait... you handle it? This is my job as the teacher to handle!" Bard's pride immediately flared up. How could he let a student handle a monster they accidentally summoned? Especially a beautiful one like her? It went against everything he believed as a self-proclaimed "protector of beauty."
"Teacher, you don't understand. This thing's traits make it impossible for you to deal with. Leave it to me. Also, you should recognize my abilities now, right?" Zhao Shishi said coolly, then flipped open her coat to reveal a five-pointed star-shaped badge.
"No way... You're from the legendary Star Knight Brigade?!" Bard gasped in disbelief, immediately covering his mouth, realizing he had said too much.
"Star Knight Brigade? What's that?"
"That's the one! The super team formed by the Federation's National Security Bureau!"
"No way!? So young? I thought the members of that group were all high-level mages?"
"Not the time to talk about this, right? Shouldn't I be running away?"
The students who had some knowledge of the Star Knight Brigade were all in shock.
But thinking about it, Zhao Shishi was the descendant of a legendary hero. It made sense for her to have such an impressive title, right?
Luo Qi agreed with that assessment.
The Star Knight Brigade was a special organization formed by the Federation government, made up of elite individuals whose sole mission was to maintain world peace. In a way, they shared similar ideals with him, the "Demon King for World Peace."
This organization was pretty mysterious, and most ordinary people only knew of it through rumors. All they really knew was that the members were practically dream-team level.
The purpose of the organization? Preventing all kinds of disasters. And yes, that included him, the Demon King.
Though, being labeled as a "moving disaster" didn't exactly sit well with Luo Qi.
If Luo Lin hadn't mentioned that she had been invited by this organization before, Luo Qi wouldn't have even thought to investigate them.
Of course, as long as Luo Qi didn't reveal himself, he would never have to worry about running into them. After all, they were practically insulated from normal society, relegated to the realm of gossip.
"I get it. I'll get the students to safety first, then I'll come to support you." After learning about Zhao Shishi's hidden identity, Bard didn't dare question her orders. This girl probably had more battle experience than him.
So, being sensible, he quickly started organizing the students to evacuate, and Luo Qi naturally blended in with the crowd to leave the classroom.
Unfortunately, Karls, being at the "eye of the storm," couldn't escape as easily. It seemed that the creature he had summoned was feeding off his magical energy, growing larger by the second. Now, he was stuck, pinned to the spot, acting as a human power source.
Although Luo Qi wanted to help, after all, Karls might be a bit of an idiot and sometimes overly arrogant, but he was a good friend. However, today, Zhao Shishi was here, and he felt confident she could handle it all. Maybe it was time for him to learn how to "let go"!