"Mhm?"

Ace noticed that something or someone was approaching his room at a very high speed. He wasn't using his Divine Sense to detect it and was only using his sensitivity with mana.

Anyway, for some reason, his Divine Sense wasn't passed over to his current body which didn't give him much of a surprise.

Right now, he couldn't identify the mana fluctuations but as it gets near, he became sure that it was a person.

'Oh? There's more of them?'

He suddenly sensed several figures that were quickly arriving at this place. Soon, the first person arrived in the classroom.

Ace can now accurately sense the mana fluctuation as girl gets closer to him. He recognized that this first one who arrived was someone he knows.

The memories he has with her was before their journey in the northern continent. He was sure that there were a lot of things that happened during their rescue operation together with 'Wallace' so he wasn't sure how to approach her.

Ace suddenly felt pressured as they didn't have plans about the other staying on the northern continent. The problem was that this group of people seem to be concerned about him just like how Miya reacted when she saw him the first time.

'Now... Where should I start explaining?'

***

The other students at the class were waiting for their next instructor to arrive but suddenly, a gust of wind disturbed everyone from what they were doing.

They quickly glanced at the source of distraction and noticed a 13-year-old girl arriving at the room's entrance.

She wasn't wearing a uniform of their academy and some of them instantly had a ridiculous idea that this could be their new instructor or perhaps a temporary replacement.

"Good morning, ma'am. Are you our new instructor?" Gilbert suddenly asked which amused everyone.

The girl didn't answer and she was only looking in one direction. She was looking at Wallace who was seated at the third row beside the window.

"Do you know her?"

One of Wallace's classmates whispered after seeing that their friend was also looking at the girl with a complicated expression.

They wanted to know more about it but there was another batch of people who arrived after the girl. They were the previous headmaster, the current one, instructor Elaine, and two others they were not familiar with. Looking at the two's clothes, the first one seem to be an old office worker and the other was perhaps a bodyguard with his fit body.

"Wallace?"

The girl suddenly asked as if she was doubtful about the identity of this young man. First of all, although they looked similar, with the same gray hair, black eyes, and his face, this person in front of her has a different body fitness.

He looks a bit more fit like someone who had trained their body for many years. Unlike the other Wallace who was brimming with abundant mana but a bit weaker in his physique.

That was their impression with him so they couldn't help but to double-check their senses.

'Same mana fluctuation...'

'He still has the same soul presence...'

'He has the same aura...'

'Mhmm... He seems to have gotten weaker...'

Percival, Miss Chamber, Yumi, and Elaine had used their own skills to observe him closely.

On the other hand, Wallace also noticed that behind the four, was someone he didn't recognize. Luckily, Avalon was there to help him.

The A.I. managed to recognize the two so it quickly reminded him.

[ The one on the left was Clint, one of Wallace's teammates during the rescue operation. ]

[ The one on the right was Dr. Mao. He is associated with the Cloud Hawk Manor. ]

The information about Dr. Mao was only transferred to Avalon's database thanks to the brief connection it had with Veda in the northern continent.

Unfortunately, it was only limited to that as it was unable to transfer more information in such a brief time of the connection from a faraway land.

Ace was only smiling wryly at the sight of these people. Anyway, they decided to call him out as it seems to be inappropriate to discuss things within the classroom.

His classmates were obviously curious about the situation as it feels like their classmate just did a crime resulting to the current attention he was having.

They started whispering about Wallace's possible crime.

"What did he do? Did you see Saint Elaine's worried face? I'm so curious!"

"They seem to be confirming whether he was truly Wallace..."

"Is he an impostor?"

"I think that the two guys behind the headmaster were the police and they were probably looking for Wallace..."

"Nice try... How about he did something wrong to that girl who first came here?"

"Haha... Anyway, we'll hear from him once he's back..."

His classmates were not worrying for him since they were aware that their classmate was truly popular in his own way.

***

The group has now returned to the headmaster's room together with Wallace.

Percival even added some layer of protection within the room to avoid any leak of information.

The place was already filled with protection spells and arrays so it only shows how important are the things they were about to discuss.

"What happened?"

It was the first question and it came from Yumi who was curiously staring at him.

Ace was sure that she wasn't blinking at all!

He tried to think carefully and didn't hastily answered.

He started weighing the situation and in the end, he decided to also ask his question.

"Well... You can say that I'm safe. Right, can you tell me what happened after you returned?"

He wanted to buy some time and think of a way out of this situation.

Yumi and others looked at each other before Elaine decided to answer him.

"We waited for you and Sir Slaine until the last moment... Sigh~ Although we managed to safely return here, Sir Percival and Avery seems to have caught a disease by staying for too long in the northern continent. It doesn't show that much but it was slowly affecting them."

Elaine smiled wryly before glancing at the man beside her. It seems that their disease wasn't too serious considering that the man in question was looking well in front of him.

"Enough about us... How did you return here? Where is Sir Slaine? Are you the only one who managed to return? Wait, did you even met him deeper in that tower?"

The lady asked a series of questions as Ace started to give in.

'Ugh... Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem if it's only this group of trustworthy people. I believe that they will give us some help in the future.'

After considering the status of these people, Ace decided to tell them the truth, or some of it.

"Haaa... I guess I won't be able to keep it a secret..."

Ace paused as he looked at everyone.

"You can consider me a part of Wallace..."

"Part of Wallace?" They wanted to clarify if they heard it correctly.

"Yes..."

"Ugh... Can't you give us a better explanation what's going on here?"

Miss Chamber was confused like everyone else as he was speaking vaguely.

"Alright... There was this Secret Art called Flowing Spirit... That art helped Wallace give birth to me and made me act as him in this type of situation."

After couple of minutes, part of their mind believed him because they already heard about that Secret Art that could affect both soul and spirit but a large part of it was not accepting his explanation.

They were looking at a person with flesh and blood, with a beating heart, with mana fluctuation, with soul and spirit!

This is no longer a magic but a genuine mysticism! Was a Secret Art truly capable of that?