“Still, since I am not a bad guy I will offer you the proof that I do not belong to any of the dark sects, and even to this land.”

Zoemi snickered, actually releasing the crimson sphere and letting its heat barrier dissipate leaving only the heated ground and walls of the buildings as a reminder of its presence.𝒪𝗏𝔩xt.𝗰𝐎𝐦

“There is no proof like that!”

Marcus scoffed, about to make another call for all the present martial artists to stand against the black-haired man.

“Oh? But I do? Those magicians right there.”

“…?”

Zoemi scoffed and pointed his hand benevolently at the group from the Bellcephora kingdom, causing even the vice principal to hesitate in confusion.

What a martial artist not involved with the Heavenly Archer Sect or Star Pagoda could have to do with magicians? No one else had yet managed to establish a proper connection with the habitants of the land of mana – and Marcus knew that better than anyone else.

“I already revealed my full name, but it just so happens that I have omitted an important detail. Representants of the land of mana, could you fill in the gaps for me to prove my point?”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and stepped to the side as if conceding the spotlight to the magicians.

At his words, Devios who was the leader of the delegation twitched as if he wanted to be the one to go up onto the remains of the arena but ended up stopping himself.

His outburst – even though justified in his own opinion – wasn’t making him the best candidate for the most convincing person present.

Unfortunately, the same thing could be said about the Metavicero at his side – the white-as-snow young woman had not shown herself from the best side either.

That made the selection pool a bit smaller, although if anyone was willing to spare a moment to think about it, there was a single person out of the group of magicians that had the best chance of not being doubted.

And funnily enough, she wasn’t even an actual magician.

“…”

A brown-haired girl with green eyes was clenching her hands together as if in silent prayer while gazing upon the nonchalant figure of the black-haired man.

Without her noticing a thing, the eyes of everyone in her group and then an increasing number of martial artists who noticed those looks concentrated on her, but she still did not budge.

Finally, when even Zoemi turned her was and his eyes became rounder from curiosity about why Ririe – a girl from his own territory who served as a maid in the Banemor mansion for a short period of time – of all magicless commoners was standing amongst the group of representatives of whom everyone could wield mana.

“…!”

That look of his was what made Reo move, she gulped down her saliva, lowered her hands, and stepped forward, standing in front of Devios and Metavicero as everyone’s attention focused on her.

“…my name is Reo Serentii Moyena…”

Reo gulped down her saliva and bowed her head politely. For the people present it might have looked like she was introducing herself to add validity to what she was going next, but what she was actually doing was revealing her real identity to Zoemi who never figured out the secret behind her appearance-changing artifact.

“…”

The black-haired man did not flinch or change his expression, but the aura around him did change to a slightly more vulnerable one.

Just a bit though.

“You are all standing in the presence of lord Zoemi Benevi Banemor – the head of the Banemor family, a high noble of the kingdom of Bellcephora, best friend of the current king, his highness Horeo Marets Bellcphora, and the fiance of lady Miriette Lisea Espine. Lord Banemor is hailed as a hero of the kingdom of Bellcephora – he defeated a rampaging traitor of a magician who conspired against the royal family and wiped off the previous capital of our kingdom from the map and was responsible for the slaughter of a neighboring nation. It’s an understatement to say that all of us are even alive thanks to him.”

“…!”

The words of a single girl shook the hearts of the marital artists who started to murmur amongst each other, unwilling to make a move against the black-haired man anymore.

After all, the doubts about his strength were gone the moment he was revealed to be the hero from the land of mana who protected an entire kingdom.

It became obvious that he had to be insanely strong.

With the new pieces of information present, the vice principal of the Heavenly Star Academy paled and took a step back.

He was not well versed with the laws or hierarchical structure of the kingdom of Bellcpehora or any other nation within the land of mana, but the elders of the Heavenly Archer sect did leave him with one crucial order that he swore to abide by at all cost.

Do not insult any member of high nobility or the whole carefully crafted plan will crumble into dust.

But, as it turned out, it was already too late for that.

Marcus bit his lips and clenched his fists.

He wanted to claim that it was impossible for the black-haired man in the destroyed arena and the hero of the kingdom of Bellcephora to be the same person because before the disappearance of the line of death there was no interaction between the land of mana and the land of martial artists – but he knew that was not true.

He even considered declaring that since the black-haired man is capable of using star power, it would be impossible for him to survive in the land of mana because mana and star power are opposites that cancel each other out – but everyone already saw that George, a member of the Heavenly Archer Sect which was also the sect that Marcus belonged to, end up using a technique that definitely wasn’t a star power by the end of the fight before his disappearance.

It was truly best to shut up and deny everything, claiming to be unaware of the circumstances.