Chapter 114: A Ruse—It’s All Just a Ruse

“The killer’s blade was just one centimeter from my neck. I could even feel the chill of the steel. Then, a hidden blade sliced across the assassin’s throat faster than anything I could see. When I came to my senses, all I saw was Teacher Ruby’s immaculate back disappearing into the distance.”

In the study hall, Seimei was sharing the events of that day with her classmates. Those who hadn’t been grouped with Ruby listened with rapt attention.

“Seimei, weren’t you hiding in the cellar with me at the time?” Eileen, sitting beside Seimei, asked with puzzlement. She had no idea her boyfriend had fought alongside Ruby.

“Ahem, that was my imagination. What’s wrong with a bit of imagination? Ignore her, let me continue. You know, that night, Teacher Ruby wore a pure white magical robe, which made him stand out in the dark. He looked down on those assassins dressed in black and openly challenged them.”

Seimei’s admiration deepened with each word. After the incident, Dorm Supervisor Zam had taken a few brave boys to collect the bodies of the assassins. He was one of them and had noticed that every assassin had died from a single deadly strike. From there, he imagined a thrilling battle and almost elevated Ruby to hero status.

“The last remaining assassin leader knelt before Teacher Ruby, begging for mercy. Guess what Teacher Ruby said?”

“What did he say?”

All the students held their breath. Every magician harbored a desire for close combat, and Seimei’s vivid description had them utterly captivated.

“Under the hidden blade, all beings are equal.”

Seimei spread her arms in a gesture of divine love, her face reverent, then mimed a throat-slitting motion.

“What nonsense are you spreading? I never knew you had a talent for storytelling,” Ruby’s hand came down hard on Seimei’s head. He had overheard her fanciful tale and found it mostly accurate, except for that embarrassing line.

“Ow! Teacher Ruby, I’m just turning you into a hero, and you hit me?”

Seimei held her head, looking at Ruby with mock grievance. To be idolized and yet struck by one’s idol—how tough!

“I’m no hero.”

“Oh, come on! If it weren’t for you that night, what could we have done without magic? Isn’t a hero someone who saves others from danger?”

“Quiet, sit down.”

“I’m not going to teach you how to fight with cold weapons.”

Ruby strode to the podium and noticed the students’ eyes on him were more eager than ever, especially the boys, who seemed ready to strip him bare. He promptly shattered their fantasies.

“Why not? What if we face that kind of situation in the future?”

Seimei was the first to speak up, eager to learn Ruby’s acrobatic skills to do something cool.

“You won’t encounter that. Just learn magic well. If you want close combat, turn left at the Blackstone Empire.”

Ruby had no desire to produce an army of little assassins. Those techniques were far from easy to master, and even if they did, they’d be novice assassins easily taken down by a single spell.

“So, what will you teach us?”

“Today, I’m starting a brand-new course: Personal Hygiene.”

Ruby wrote the four characters on the blackboard, glancing at the students with a hint of sadness. The younger ones were barely sixteen or seventeen; the older ones over twenty had never received formal education in personal hygiene. Did parents in this world really plan to explain everything on their wedding day?

“That’s how it is. Boys, if you have questions, come ask me. Girls, go to Teacher Bai Yu.”

As an educator, Ruby cared deeply for his students. To help them absorb the material, which could be covered in one class, he stretched it over an entire afternoon. When he finished, no one could meet the gaze of the opposite sex.

“I—I don’t know anything,” Bai Yu stammered when Ruby called on her. She was flustered and had gradually become a regular in Ruby’s classes. Now he had even asked her something so... inappropriate.

“Just pass my questions to the students. That way, you avoid awkward face-to-face contact with the boys.”

“Oh, I see. Wait, what about me? I’m a girl, right?”

The bewildered teacher nodded knowingly. As expected of Teacher Ruby—he could come up with such a solution, considerate of the girls. But wasn’t she a girl too? Suddenly, her intelligence kicked in, and she asked Ruby.

“You’re a teacher.”

“Does being a teacher mean no rights?”

---

One noon when there were no classes, the goddess of magic was sprawled on her sofa, unwilling to move. Summer had seemingly arrived; the scorching sun and sultry air made her drowsy. What could be better than staying home with air conditioning? Ruby had been unusually friendly lately, fulfilling even her most unreasonable requests—like eating cake three times a day, something unimaginable before! No wonder her belly had grown soft and round.

“Ruby, where are you going?”

Just as Moyuna was pondering whether to ask Ruby for some ice cream, she caught a glimpse of him getting ready to leave.

“I’m going upstairs to deliver something to Teacher Bai Yu. She’s helped me quite a bit.”

“Oh, come back soon.”

Another woman? Moyuna frowned slightly. Though she was late to notice, Ruby seemed quite popular with women—everywhere he went, there were women.

On Ruby’s first day in the dorm, Bai Yu had come to say hello. Today was Ruby’s first time on the second floor, which was similar in layout to the first. He found the door with Bai Yu’s name and knocked gently. With no offensive magic class today, she was probably at home.

*Click.*

The sound of a lock turning came from inside. Ruby was relieved he hadn’t come to an empty room. But when the door fully opened, he froze. A skeleton stood there. A skeleton! Bare bones without flesh or hair. This was the scientific explanation, but Ruby and the pure white skeleton simply stared at each other. The skeleton was just as stunned. It had thought its owner had knocked and that the door would open. With limited intelligence, it reasoned that since its owner hadn’t said what to do in this situation, it might as well continue cleaning.

“Xiao Bai, I forgot my wallet, you…”

Before Ruby could break the awkward silence, hurried footsteps echoed from downstairs. The flustered teacher was running up the stairs, muttering all the while, stopping only when she saw Ruby at her door.

Ruby thought his heart was big enough already. Most people would scream upon seeing that skeleton. When caught by the owner, Ruby chose only one option: escape!

“Teacher Ruby, why are you running?”

Bai Yu chased after Ruby. Though she often stumbled, in a crisis she was swift and relentless.

“Why are you chasing me?”

Ruby called back as he kept running. Suddenly, Bai Yu’s intelligence seemed to kick in. She conjured several magical vines to block Ruby’s path. When he collided with them, she wrapped him up like a rice dumpling.

“That’s too much! I thought Teacher Ruby wouldn’t discriminate against me as an undead mage and would keep my secret! Are you really afraid of me like ordinary people?”

Bai Yu’s face was filled with grievance. Her instincts told her Ruby wouldn’t be like others, but his reaction was like he’d just seen a ghost and was ready to report her.

“I’m not afraid of you. I just think staying there will cause more problems.”

“Like what?”

“Undead mages look terrifying to others and must be eliminated, right?”

“Yes.”

“But you haven’t done anything evil. You’re a kind undead mage, and I see it that way. Maybe you’ll be moved by my actions and end up liking me. For now, let me leave. Forget today. We’re still colleagues.”

Ruby described a common trope from novels where the protagonist sympathizes with the outcast, eventually risking everything for them. But he had no intention of going that far. For someone in his heart, he instinctively wanted to keep some distance.

“Ha! Teacher Ruby, I never thought you’d joke like that. I could never like anyone.”

Bai Yu’s grievance vanished instantly, replaced by a smile. She admitted that if Ruby really did that, he’d be quite attractive. But her identity forbade her from falling in love.

---

“Let me introduce Xiao Bai. As you can see, it’s a skeleton.”

In Bai Yu’s living room, she and Ruby sat across from each other at the dining table. The obedient skeleton, Xiao Bai, brought them each a glass of water.

“So this is what it came to. What can it do?”

Ruby shook his head helplessly. This was his first time encountering an undead mage. He was curious about such magic that controlled the dead. Despite the lack of any binding material, the bones didn’t fall apart. How did they move?

“It just helps me with cleaning. You know I’m quite forgetful.”

“That’s not forgetfulness; you’re nearsighted. Here, these are for you.”

Ruby shook his head and handed her a gift he had made—a strange shape with two embedded magic crystals she had never seen before.

“Eh, what’s this?”

With Ruby’s guidance, Bai Yu placed the glasses on her nose. Her once blurry vision cleared instantly. She could see Ruby’s face clearly for the first time. Curiously, she took the glasses on and off, watching the world shift between clarity and blur.

“You’re naturally nearsighted. Because you can’t see well, you often do things that look clumsy. The vision test I gave you was to determine your prescription.”

“Really? I thought you were just teasing me…”

She recalled how Ruby had insisted she identify items on a sheet without squinting. She had gotten many wrong and had ignored him for days, thinking him mean.

“But I never expected you to be an undead mage.”

“Because I’ve never seen clearly since I was little… staring at faces seems rude, so I had few friends. Then my grandfather gave me a magic guidebook. After learning it, I summoned Xiao Bai. Compared to ordinary people, Xiao Bai, who has no emotions, has been my childhood companion.”

Bai Yu explained why she became an undead mage—essentially tricked by her grandfather, unaware of what it truly meant.

“I heard undead mages bind their souls to the undead. Can I do that too?”

“It’s not that simple. Low-level skeletons like Xiao Bai can be bound without any cost. Summoning it didn’t even require its consent because it was so weak. Higher-level ones require significant magical power to summon. Teacher Ruby, you can’t activate summoning circles…”

Bai Yu sighed softly. She hadn’t expected her long-standing vision problem to be solved by Ruby so easily. Such a talented person without magic was a pity.

“Is that so? Do you like dragons?”

Ruby didn’t feel sorry for himself. His gaze shifted to a mural behind Bai Yu—an imposing black dragon, towering over buildings and spewing flames, far mightier than Mors.

“Like is not quite the word. I just want to understand them.”

Bai Yu shook her head. Even she couldn’t reveal her deepest secrets to Ruby. He often frequented the library and knew she read books about dragons there. That was probably her interest.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave. I’ll keep Xiao Bai’s secret.”

“Thank you.”

With the glasses, Bai Yu’s demeanor changed. She looked like a literary maiden, waving goodbye to Ruby. After he closed the door, she sighed softly—if she weren’t an undead mage, maybe she’d truly like this remarkable person.

---

PS: Please bookmark and recommend (combined request).

PS: Thanks to the generous supporters: Xianshe Guojia, Miao Huanyu, Cao Cao Da, Ni Wo Bu Shu, MYLOVE Yutong, Dangshi de Mingyueye, Yumi Hu Pan Book Club for 500 coins; Qiufeng Yeying Book Club for 200 coins; and underground cake god, Ying Lingluan DX Book Club for 100 coins.