Allen gently shook his finger and said,"When it comes to secrets, the dead are always the most reliable. After all, only the dead can keep a secret forever without ever letting it slip."

  "Allen! You cannot kill me! My father is Marcus! He controls the academy's trial scheduling authority!"

  Karen completely lost his mind, roaring hysterically as he tried to intimidate Allen with his father's status.

  "He will never let you go! If you kill me, he will use every bit of his power to hunt you down and leave you nowhere to hide!"

  Allen frowned slightly, a trace of impatience flashing in his eyes.

  Karen clearly still had not recognized the situation before him. As a Demon King, let alone a single academy elder, even the entire Radiant Magic Academy might not be able to harm him in the slightest.

  In his eyes, Marcus was nothing more than an ant, not even worthy of guarding the gates of his castle.

  "Oh, you are using Marcus to threaten me?" Allen's lips curved into a mocking smile.

  "In a few days, I will send him to join you. Then you can ask him whether he has what it takes to kill me."

  Karen was drenched in cold sweat, his eyes widening in terror. Allen's words snapped him back to a bit of clarity.

  Knowing the other party was not bluffing, he hurriedly threw out another card.

  "Allen! You cannot kill me! My brother is Samuel, the most dazzling magical genius in the academy!"

  "My brother dotes on me the most. If he finds out I died at your hands because of Evelyn, he will do everything he can to kill her!"

  Karen stared at Allen, trying to seize his weak point."You do not want your identity exposed in the academy, do you?"

  "Evelyn is an orphan. Her family was wiped out by the Demon Tribe back then. Not a single one survived!"

  "She has hated the Demon Tribe to the bone since childhood. Her lifelong wish is to eradicate every last Demon Tribe member!"

  "If you lay a hand on my brother in the academy, your Demon King identity will definitely be exposed!"

  "Evelyn has treated you well. Even with all the rumors in the academy, she has never once said she wanted you driven away. Instead, she has defended you at every turn!"

  "Can you bear to let her know the truth? To let her know that the person she has always defended is the very Demon Tribe that destroyed her family? That would hurt her more than killing her!"

  Allen had never known Evelyn had such a past. A flicker of consideration rose in his heart.

  He indeed could not easily act within the academy. Holy light formations naturally suppressed shadow magic, and with the academy's hidden experts, it was hard to say he would not be exposed.

  More importantly, Evelyn's kindness and protection were not false. Though he was a Demon King, he was unwilling to easily betray that pure trust.

  Seeing the hesitation on Allen's face, Karen knew his words had taken effect. The hope in his heart grew stronger, and his voice turned into a pleading, ingratiating tone.

  "Let me go. I will never spread rumors again. I will never target you and Evelyn again. I can even help you keep the secret and never mention what happened today…"

  Before he could finish, the hesitation in Allen's eyes vanished in an instant. His fingers moved slightly.

  A condensed blade of shadow appeared out of thin air. With a single sweep, Karen and several of the new apprentices were instantly beheaded. Blood sprayed across the ground, a horrifying sight.

  Even as his head rolled away, Karen's eyes were still wide open, filled with unwillingness.

  He had thought he had grasped Allen's weak point and could survive by luck, but he had not expected Allen to change in an instant and end all their lives.

  Allen looked at the bodies on the ground. He had not been swayed by Karen's words, only briefly weighed the pros and cons.

  Keeping Karen alive would only lead to endless trouble. The man would surely keep using Evelyn's past to threaten him and might even scheme in secret to expose his identity.

  Only by eliminating him completely could future problems be cut off. As for Samuel and Marcus, they were nothing more than trash that would need to be dealt with later.

  Allen glanced at the scattered corpses on the ground and said,"Since I cannot act using my Demon King status, I will deal with Samuel later in another way, using your methods."

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  He turned and walked to the unconscious Graham, lifting him into his arms and heading toward the Gale Demon lair ahead.

  The eyes of the surrounding Gale Demons glowed with fervent light as they shouted in unison,"Master of the Abyss, may your might endure forever. In the name of Thorne, rule over all demons!"

  Their voices were clear and resonant, echoing through the forest for a long time.

  Allen nodded slightly and walked straight to the leader of the Gale Demons.

  The leader was larger than the ordinary Gale Demons. Upon seeing Allen, he immediately prostrated himself on the ground, not daring to lift his head even slightly.

  Allen gently set the severely injured Graham down and instructed the leader,"This human has some connection to me. Take him away from this forest and find a safe place to heal his wounds. Once he recovers, let him leave as he wishes."

  Allen paused for a moment and added,"Order all Demon Tribes along the way not to trouble him in any way. As for you, do not return here for now. Depart immediately to reunite with the rest of your kind."

  Allen had already planned the follow-up. With Karen dead in the Gale Demon Forest, Marcus would inevitably take out his anger on the Gale Demons, sending people to slaughter them in revenge.

  He could not intervene again in a short time using his Demon King status. If Marcus also died here mysteriously, it would certainly arouse the suspicion of the academy's higher-ups.

  Although Allen had come from another world as a Demon King and did not have deep personal feelings for these Demon Tribes, every encounter had earned him their utmost loyalty and respect.

  That pure obedience made it unbearable for him to watch them suffer massacre because of him. The only solution was to arrange for their evacuation and help them avoid this unforeseen disaster.

  Even if the Gale Demons did not fully understand Allen's reasoning, they would never doubt his command. In the Demon Tribe's view, Allen's orders were absolute truth and had to be followed unconditionally.

  "When do we depart?"

  Allen looked toward the corpses of Karen and the others not far away and said,"Now. The faster, the better."

  He knew Marcus might soon notice the abnormality, so it was crucial to give the Gale Demons enough time to escape.

  "And remember, do not tell anyone you have seen me. I am carrying out a secret mission. My identity must not be revealed, or it will disrupt the entire plan."

  The Gale Demons nodded fervently once again. Rising, they raised their hands, ready to shout their slogan and express their reverence.

  Seeing this, Allen quickly waved his hand,"Do not waste time. Depart immediately!"

  As soon as he spoke, the Gale Demons restrained their emotions and fell silent.

  The leader lifted Graham, while the others spread their membranous wings and took to the air, flying swiftly out of the forest.

  They did not even take the supplies stored in the lair. In a moment, they vanished beyond the horizon of the forest, demonstrating incredible execution.

  Watching this, Allen shook his head and whispered,"Is the Demon Tribe always this efficient?"

  After a brief reflection, he did not linger. He quickly cleaned up the remaining traces of shadow magic at the scene.

  Then, following the previously hidden paths, Allen covertly returned through the small gate on the west side of the Radiant Magic Academy.

  He went straight to his room and locked the door behind him.

  Looking at the basic magic tomes on his desk, which he had previously picked up at random to look impressive, he realized he could take this opportunity to actually study them.

  He could not always rely on his Demon King power to act in secret. If he could raise his apparent magical rank, he would blend into the academy more naturally.

  It would also prevent his mediocre talent from drawing criticism and allow him to legitimately improve his standing within the academy.

  He casually picked up a book titled Constructing Basic Holy Light Circuits and began flipping through it quickly.

  Human Holy Light magic relies on constructing magical circuits to channel elemental energy, which was completely different from the Demon Tribe's method of condensing a core from their own shadow power.

  Yet in the face of his Demon King foundation and terrifying talent, the principles and operational logic of these basic spells were immediately clear to him.

  Within half an hour, he had mastered the contents of several basic magic tomes. The magical energy quietly surging within him reconstructed the circuits on its own, and without any obstruction, his rank rose to Junior Mage.

  Allen had never experienced the normal pace of human magical advancement and had no idea how difficult it was for ordinary people to go from Magic Apprentice to Junior Mage.

  Even so, he could faintly sense that his advancement was absurdly fast. If exposed, the academy's higher-ups would surely regard him as an anomaly and investigate.

  To be safe, he suppressed his aura with magic, keeping his rank locked at Magic Apprentice. With his Demon King-level power, controlling magic to create this disguise was as effortless as breathing.

  He knew, however, that this disguise could only handle routine inspections. If he ever used his full power in a fight, the eruption of magic would inevitably reveal flaws.

  After putting away the tomes, Allen sought out Eleanor, intending to secretly gather information on the normal pace of human magical advancement so he could plan a reasonable timeline for future promotion.

  When he saw Eleanor, he feigned naivety and asked,"Mentor, now that I am a Magic Apprentice, roughly how long would it take to reach Junior Mage?"

  Eleanor looked up at him, a trace of reproach in her eyes.

  "Allen, how many times have I told you? You must build your magic circuits steadily and cannot rush."

  "You are currently a Third-tier Magic Apprentice. With your magical affinity, advancing to Fourth-tier Magic Apprentice would take at least a year."

  "As for other apprentices in the academy, moving from Third-tier Magic Apprentice to Junior Mage also takes about a year on average."

  "Even Evelyn took a full three months to advance from First-tier Magic Apprentice to Junior Mage."

  Allen could not have imagined how slow human advancement was. He had raised his rank simply by casually reading a few tomes, while others had to spend months or even years.

  He urgently needed to raise his apparent strength to deal with Marcus's threat and had no time for gradual progress.

  Even with Evelyn's genius speed, it would still take three months to reasonably reach Junior Mage, which was far too long for him.

  After a moment's hesitation, he feigned curiosity and asked,"Mentor, what if someone advanced from Third-tier Magic Apprentice to Junior Mage in less than half an hour? What would that mean?"

  Before Eleanor could respond, Evelyn's voice came from nearby:"That is absolutely impossible."

  "All you do is daydream and make up nonsense every day. You have no sense of reality at all!"

  "If someone like that really existed, the headmaster would have treated him like a treasure long ago and nurtured him specially!"

  "Stop indulging in such unrealistic fantasies. If you have time to think about this, you would be better off studying the tomes you borrowed from the Arcane Library again and practicing the basic magical circuits until they are solid. That is far more useful than anything else."

  Allen scratched his head and lowered it, pretending to be frustrated.