Chapter 318: 318

When the group arrived at the Ostrich Academy, there were already people waiting to be examined. The examination would start in two days at noon.

Michelle bid her farewell to Leonard and a few others before walking away. She passed through the crowd completely unnoticed until she got away from it.

She walked around the academy’s outer wall, which made her enter the forest again, until she reached the teachers’ gate. No one was around because all teachers were already within the academy for the day, preparing for the exams or teaching students.

Just one person was standing near the door.

To be noticed, Michelle put just a tad bit of shadow essence into her shadow. She added only so much that she would be noticeable, but only if someone was looking for her.

The man by the gate looked at the sky, furrowing his brows a bit. Then, he looked around, about to complain about tardiness when he saw a young girl walking towards him. He nearly overlooked her.

“Greetings, Teacher!” Michelle bowed her head with a polite smile.

Originally, when the teacher heard he was to take in a student that was sent to the academy only for protection, he was told the same story as the Ostrich family head, and he was unhappy. But after seeing that Ana could so easily evade his gaze, and that he could not even sense her until she showed herself, he was greatly intrigued.

“Ana Ostrich?” he asked as he turned to open the gate behind him.

He had heard before that Ana had an inhumanly small presence, but he was proud of his sensing skills. He did not think he would be so easily fooled.

“Yes, Teacher,” Michelle nodded, following the teacher into the academy.

After leading Ana in, the teacher closed and locked the gate before turning to her again. “It has not yet been decided what class you will be in, or which teacher you will be under. So you cannot go to the students’ dorm. Until then, you will have to stay with the headmaster.”

Michelle nodded. It was to be expected. The headmaster was officially her uncle, so no one would think much about it if it was just for a day or two. Especially with her nonexistent presence.

The teacher looked at Ana as she walked by his side. “You should not be so obedient all the time. People will use you.” He was under the impression that since Ana was overlooked by others most of the time, she did not get to interact with people and had remained innocent like a child.

That, of course, was not the case with Michelle, but nor was it the case with the original Ana.

Carrying no presence, she was not noticed when she wandered around, so she saw all kinds of shady deals, schemes, and cruelties. All of it when she was just a little girl.

Naturally, Michelle would not tell the teacher everything. “Do not worry, Teacher,” she kept her polite smile, but she let her eyes narrow to make her expression less innocent. “Just because others cannot see me does not mean I cannot see them.”

“Well, that is true,” the teacher nodded.

After a while, the two stopped in front of a building. “This is the council building. The headmaster and a few other teachers handle important business here. Since you are a special case, you will probably be coming here often. Though students rarely come here,” the teacher explained.

Michelle followed the teacher into the building and then into one of the rooms. There, she saw a group of men sitting at a table, discussing something. Among them was the headmaster, Francis Ostrich.

Michelle had already seen him once in the Ostrich family.

The teachers turned to Michelle. “Ana, you have been accepted solely for the purpose of being protected, since the Ostrich family cannot protect you,” Francis spoke. “While accepting you, we also considered your presence.”

He continued, explaining why Ana was accepted.

Though she was basically a cultivation cripple, the Ostrich Academy was intrigued by her stealth. And since there was a teacher who specialized in stealth combat and a teacher who specialized in detecting concealed presences, they decided to accept her.

It was for two purposes. They wanted to see how much one could achieve with solely concealment and no other cultivation. And they also wanted to test how lacking their teachers’ detection abilities were.

Those two teachers were quite influential, so their words were what decided that Ana would be accepted.

Because even if the Ostrich family head agreed to let her enter the academy, and even if her father was the second headmaster, if the teachers disapproved, she would not be allowed to enter.

But after the two teachers heard about Ana’s presence, they decided to accept her.

All that was left to decide was who would take her as their disciple.

The teacher specialized in detection wanted her always close to him so he could observe her more closely and find patterns in her presence.

But the concealment-specialized teacher wanted her as a disciple so he could further train her.

Both teachers had quite fiery personalities, so their argument was brought to the headmaster and the council building.

Finally, they reached the conclusion that they would ask Ana what she thought. But that did not mean she got to decide. Her words could just as well make them decide to do the exact opposite of what she wanted.

Michelle understood the situation after listening to Francis and furrowed her brows in thought. She was curious both about whether she could further perfect her non-presence, and about how people could detect her.

“So what are your thoughts on this?” Francis finally asked after a while.

So Michelle said what she thought. “Training in further concealment could allow me to improve the ability, letting me sneak up on people. Training detection could allow me to find out at what point people would notice me. It could let me make myself more visible by doing things easy to detect…”

For a while, the teachers talked with Michelle, letting her ask questions, sometimes asking her questions instead of answering, before they decided.

“You will benefit more from studying detection,” Francis finally said. With that, the decision was final. “Of course, that does not mean you cannot train further concealment in your free time.”

Michelle bowed her head in thanks. “Thank you, Headmaster, Teachers.”

Francis waved his hand dismissively. “You should go meet your teachers now. That old guy who led you here is our Master of Concealment, Teacher Antony Julians.”

Hearing that, Michelle turned to the side to look at the man who had led her to the room. He had short, graying hair. That was contrary to the other teachers. Most had long hair, or at least hair reaching their shoulders. That was what most people in the upper realm had.

Francis looked at Antony. “Antony, you must have things to discuss with Ana, so take her along with you to see your brother.”

“Yes, Headmaster!” Antony bowed his head and led Michelle out of the council building.

“Teacher, do you really want to teach me more about concealment?” Michelle asked.

Antony shrugged. “Why would I be a teacher if I did not want to pass on my knowledge?”

Michelle nodded. It made sense. But she still felt there was something strange about her new teacher. “Teacher, how long have you been dabbling in concealment?”

Antony looked at the brat next to him. Considering how calm she was when he had been leading her to the council building, she was far more chatty at the moment. More curious.

But somehow, it seemed natural since she had just found out that he was a master in something she had dealt with her whole life. “Quite long, actually. I started shortly after I began cultivating.”

“Why did you start?” Michelle continued asking.

Usually, people did not start studying things like concealment. Nor detection.

People trained themselves in them, but studying them was a completely different aspect.

And for Antony and his brother to become teachers of concealment and detection, they had to really have been studying it. Otherwise, the Ostrich Academy would not have taken them as teachers.

Antony looked at the brat next to him for a moment. He did not answer.

Instead, he asked a question of his own. “Do you like concealment? Or do you despise it?”

Michelle shook her head. “It is not a matter of liking or disliking. It has always been a part of me. It was as natural as breathing to me. I just had to get used to it.”

“Was there never a time when you hated it? That you were overlooked by others?” Antony’s eyes narrowed a bit.

Michelle tilted her head to look at him, her own eyes narrowing. “Of course there were times like that…” she finally said. “Every person goes through a period of time when there is something they do not like about themselves, especially if it sets them apart from others.”

All that was made up by Michelle. She had only recently lost her presence, gaining the concealment, so she did not know anything about how Ana could have felt about it.

But that did not mean she could not cook up a foolproof lie. There was nothing to prove that Ana loved or hated her minimal presence. So no one could confront her about what she said.

Unless they knew Ana would never say something like that.

But exactly because of her lacking presence, it was highly unlikely that anyone, naturally except her father, would know her like that.

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