Vlad expected one, if not many, rooms on the roof of the massive building. However, what he could see before him was an open marble floor stretching for a vast distance, gleaming under the fading evening light. It made him realise again just how massive the main building actually was.

Before Vlad and Chloe, a few metres away from them, a strikingly tall man in formal attire stood. He wore a skin-fitted white tuxedo with a long blazer, its two stretched ends reaching the floor behind him like a tail. The fabric was immaculate, uncreased, as if woven from fresh snow.

He had short hair on the front, black at the roots and turning sea green as it reached the edges. At the back of his head, a long strip of hair attached with a black ribbon fell to his lower back, swaying gently in the rooftop breeze. On his clean-shaven face of sharp features, he wore rectangular, rimless glasses. His eyes, of deep sea green colour, were fixed on the duo from behind the lenses, studying them with quiet intensity.

What stood out most about him were the two short antlers sprouting from his head, their tips branching out like the limbs of a tree, turning from black to sea green from root to edge, similar to his hair. The bone appeared smooth, catching the fading sunlight. In his hand, he carried a slim black cane that seemed to serve no other purpose than adding to his elegant aesthetics.

Vlad could not help but look at the antlers even though he wanted not to come across as disrespectful. Meanwhile, Chloe was blatantly staring at the antlers with curiosity filling her lavender eyes.

"Good evening, Professor," Vlad said with a slight bow. His posture was respectful, formal.

"Good evening," Chloe followed his motion, although stiff. Her bow was too rigid, like a doll being bent at the waist.

The man moved one hand to his chest in a graceful motion, his expression unreadable. "I am Aldric, former professor of Spirit Summoning and current Vice Principal of Arcane Academy. You may address me as Professor Aldric."

He glanced at the analog watch with black straps on his wrist as he continued, "Pray, come forward. We are already thirty seconds behind the appointed time of your audience."

The duo moved forward, only stopping when a distance of less than a metre remained between them.

"Will we meet the Principal here?" Vlad asked, his tone respectful. The place seemed too informal for a meeting with an ancient entity.

"Certainly not. An audience with the Principal ought to be held in the Principal’s Office," Aldric replied, his finger pointing at the sky. The duo followed the direction of his finger, where they could see nothing but a single white cloud in the distant blue sky. It seemed a completely natural cloud with no standout point other than the fact that it was the only cloud in the otherwise clear expanse.

"I trust you have grown accustomed to teleportation by now," Aldric said, slightly raising his cane. The black wood gleamed under the light.

Vlad’s eyes widened at his words. "Wait—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Aldric lightly tapped the floor with his cane. A circular pattern lit up beneath them, illuminating in a radiant glow. The air around them stirred, their hair rising upward as static electricity prickled across their skin.

"Fuck..." Vlad cursed as a cylindrical beam of energy shot from the pattern, reaching all the way to the cloud in the sky. The light was blinding, pure white edged with silver.

Vlad lost all control over his body. His vision distorted as he felt himself shot into the wild stream of mana, moving helplessly with its flow. The world dissolved into streaks of colour and soundless pressure.

After a few seconds, the blurred surroundings coalesced into proper vision as his senses returned.

"Did you want to convey something, Mr. Vlad?" Aldric asked. Vlad was about to say something before he had been abruptly cut off by the teleportation.

Vlad looked at him with an unreadable expression. Slowly, his Adam’s apple moved, his eyebrows twitching. His face had turned pale, almost greenish.

And then, he snapped his head sideways, his back hunching and his hand moving to his knees.

"Blergh... blergh..."

"There, there," Chloe lightly patted his back. Vlad could already hear the sarcasm and amusement hidden in her pats.

’Damn the person who came up with teleportation skills,’ he muttered inwardly as he continued emptying his stomach, his eyes growing moist. His whole body trembled with each heave.

"Ah, yes. You are a D-Rank," Aldric sighed, mildly shaking his head. The antlers swayed gently with the movement. "Your body could not withstand such a sudden surge of mana."

Yet you did it nonetheless, you idiot!

Of course, Vlad kept those thoughts to himself. His knuckles were white where he gripped his knees.

Once he had finished marking the place with his presence, he turned his focus to his surroundings, the ground soft and squishy beneath him. His boots sank slightly into the cushiony surface.

"Wait, ground?" His head lowered, his eyes widening in shock. The realisation hit him like a physical blow.

The place he stood upon was not dirt ground or a cobblestone path. He was standing on a literal cloud. Everything he had learned about clouds being nothing more than condensed water with no solid form was shattered in that moment.

The cloud beneath his feet felt as firm as solid earth, while wisps of silver mist drifted lazily across its surface, curling around his ankles like curious cats.

Several dozen metres ahead stood an elegant mansion that looked as though it belonged in the realm of the gods. Towering white pillars rose toward the sky, adorned with intricate patterns of gold and silver. The snow-white walls gleamed beneath a soft golden radiance, while crystal-clear windows reflected the sea of cloud surrounding them.

"Vlad, have we reached the heavens?" Chloe asked, tugging at his jacket.

"The thoughts are mutual, Chloe," Vlad replied, equally taken aback. His gaze swept over the impossible vista, struggling to comprehend what his eyes were telling him.

"Here. You should refresh yourself," Aldric said, drawing a water bottle from his space ring. With a light tap of his finger, the glass bottle moved towards Vlad through the air, its surface glowing faintly with a gentle, pearlescent light.

Vlad was intrigued again, but he kept his curiosity to himself as he grabbed the bottle. The glass was cool and smooth against his fingers.

"It was flying..." Chloe murmured, voicing Vlad’s thoughts out loud. Her lavender eyes followed the bottle’s trajectory, wide with wonder.

"I apologise for the mess I created," Vlad said after washing his mouth and face. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand, the water dripping onto the cloud floor before vanishing into the mist. "I will clean up the place."

"There shall be no need," Aldric replied, his tone even. "Follow me. It is unwise to make the Principal wait... or I am afraid of what mischiefs she might concoct." He spoke the last sentence under his breath, so low that only he could hear, a flicker of exasperation crossing his sharp features.

Once they reached the towering polished white door of the mansion, Aldric halted. The door loomed before them, its surface smooth as marble, reflecting their distorted figures.

"You may meet the Principal within. I shall return to my duties."

He pivoted on his foot with a graceful motion and took the small side door at the right corner of the front wall. The smaller door clicked shut behind him, leaving Vlad and Chloe alone before the massive entrance.

"Chloe, are you ready?" Vlad asked, taking a gulp.

"Yes," Chloe nodded.

Both of their voices seemed unconvinced. Yet they were trying to ease each other’s tension.

Taking a deep breath, Vlad grabbed the door handle and pushed it inward.

Strangely, he could not see anything except white light beyond the door. It was only when the duo stepped inside that the world formed before them.

The door closed behind them with a click. They were standing in a small office with a wooden table placed at the front, one massive chair on the other side facing the window outside the office, while two chairs were placed on this side, waiting for their guests. The wood of the desk was dark mahogany, polished to a deep gleam, its surface bare except for a single quill resting on a stand.

The room materialised with a sudden blink, as if it had always been there. Vlad did not even feel the uncomfortable burst of mana, or he would have concluded that they had been teleported again. Even the door behind him was now only half a foot taller than him, nothing like the towering entrance he had walked through moments ago.

At this point, he was losing the sense of what was real and what was fake.

’Is there no one here?’ Vlad murmured inwardly. His doubt was answered in the very next moment as a soft but sharp voice came from the chair on the other side of the table.

"Did you not learn to knock before entering?"