Inside the painting classroom, the class had already begun in a calm atmosphere.
Slender silver lamps mounted on the walls cast a warm glow across tidy picture frames, illuminating the room lined with long wooden benches.
The faint scent of paint and canvas drifted through the air.
Senior Professor of Fine Arts Mogute wore a vintage black suit. The red silk bow tie at his chest gleamed faintly, lending his figure an even more dignified and austere aura beneath the soft lighting. In his hands, he held a painting whose composition conveyed profound depth and mystery, waiting to see if any student would volunteer to answer.
The classroom was quiet, heavy with an oppressive tension.
If no one stepped forward, Professor Mogute would pick someone at random to begin the first round.
Yet, at that moment, a hand unexpectedly went up.
Every demon turned their gaze toward the raised hand.
Hyperion sat there stiffly, her right arm held aloft. Her amber eyes were wide, as though she couldn't believe her own motion.
It was as if her arm had been forcibly seized by some outside power.
Before long, she seemed to realize what had happened.
She turned her head. Seated to her right was a hawk-eyed demon, his pupils locked onto her, the bright gleam in his gaze standing out starkly in the small classroom.
Clearly, this hawk-eyed demon was the reason she had raised her hand—he was using mental magic on her!
If Hyperion started, then proceeding clockwise, the hawk-eyed demon would answer fifth in the first round.
He would have the most time to observe and deduce.
"Then let us begin with you."
Professor Mogute clearly knew what was going on.
However, such were the classroom rules: leveraging one's strengths and employing strategy were entirely permitted.
Hyperion's expression darkened.
Against mental magic cast at such close range, she had no means of defense or retaliation. And if she started, Lanqi, seated to her left, would become the second student to answer.
She shot Lanqi a guilty glance, feeling as though she had dragged him down with her.
At the same time, her gaze shifted to Professor Mogute. Try as she might, she couldn't tell whether the painting in his hands was good or bad.
*...*
Was guessing her only option?
A fifty-fifty chance of surviving this round, or facing immediate failure.
Just as Hyperion's heart plunged into an icy abyss, Lanqi murmured from beside her, "This one was painted by a professor."
His words immediately drew sneers from the other demons.
In a room like this, how could any student identify the artist so quickly? It was obviously a wild guess.
And no matter how foolish the demon beside him might be, she would never stake her life on such a flippant remark.
Professor Mogute merely held the painting with a blank expression, refusing to give the students any hint from his demeanor.
"Painted by a professor," Hyperion answered without the slightest hesitation.
She trusted Lanqi.
Besides, the greatest guarantee in her teamwork with Lanqi was unconditional execution.
"Oh? Correct."
The professor set the painting down, casting a surprised glance at Lanqi.
Nothing in the classroom forbade sharing answers with other students, given that the session was formatted as a seminar.
The key lay in whether the answering student was willing to believe it.
Professor Mogute had never seen a student assert an answer so decisively, nor one who placed such absolute trust in another demon.
Still, given Lanqi's speed, it was far more likely to be a guess—just delivered with immense conviction.
...
Following the clockwise order, the next in line was Lanqi.
The instant Professor Mogute picked up another painting from the cart, Lanqi answered with certainty the moment he caught sight of it:
"Painted by a student."
"...?"
The other students stared blankly at the Glow Demon.
Even Professor Mogute paused, holding the painting halfway in the air before slowly setting it down and nodding.
"Correct."
This left the rest of the students in the classroom thoroughly stunned.
Was he a reckless gambler, or could he genuinely tell?
At such speed, perhaps not even a professor could manage it!
"..."
Hyperion gazed at Lanqi in utter bewilderment.
Her earlier, unquestioning trust had been an instinct faster than thought.
Yet now, looking back, she couldn't fathom what clever trick Lanqi could have used to find the answer so swiftly.
As his teammate, she had been shown his spell repertoire beforehand.
She knew that besides the magic cards he had previously used, he only had an elemental magic spell and a mental magic spell. There was no way he possessed a card capable of identifying paintings like this!
While Hyperion was wracking her brain, the turn passed to the student on Lanqi's left—a female demon. With brows slightly knit, she strained to examine the painting Professor Mogute had just produced.
With the previous six paintings as reference, distinguishing them was naturally a bit easier.
Yet she hadn't expected the clockwise turn to reach her so quickly.
Based on the information available so far, it was still impossible to tell through mana traces alone.
"Painted by a student," Lanqi prompted in a low voice beside her.
"?"
The female demon student seemed hesitant, not daring to trust Lanqi.
Yet the more she looked at the painting, the more she felt it lacked artistic flair.
She wavered for nearly five full minutes.
Only when the deadline arrived did she finally answer:
"Painted by a student."
"Correct," Professor Mogute nodded in approval, casting another searching look at Lanqi.
If the first two times could be attributed to luck, this was the third.
The probability of mere chance was shrinking.
He had never seen a student who felt so unfathomable.
It was the fourth respondent's turn.
The demon student sitting in the farthest corner of the classroom stood up, staring blankly at the painting in Professor Mogute's hands, completely at a loss.
He was adept at discerning mana, but had little confidence in art appreciation.
Worse still, luck wasn't on his side—he hadn't encountered any familiar mana traces from the earlier paintings.
The demon in the corner glanced timidly at Lanqi, unsure whether Lanqi would help him.
"A student's, again," Lanqi provided the answer nonchalantly.
After hesitating for a moment, the corner demon gritted his teeth and answered, "Painted by a student."
"Correct," Professor Mogute approved once more.
The corner demon sat down in pleasant surprise, nodding gratefully to Lanqi.
Now, completing the full circle, it was finally the turn of the hawk-eyed demon on the far right.
That was the demon on Hyperion's other side, the one who had used mental magic to force her hand up in the beginning.
The hawk-eyed demon scrutinized the painting in the professor's hands.
He was certain Lanqi wouldn't give the answer to him alone.
After all, he had seen Lanqi enter the classroom with Hyperion, and his earlier mental magic had also inconvenienced Lanqi to some degree.
Yet at that moment, Lanqi wore a warm, gentle smile as he said to the hawk-eyed demon:
"This one was painted by a professor."
"...?"
Every demon student present knew that Lanqi could hardly harbor goodwill toward the hawk-eyed demon.
Therefore, this ambiguous act of offering the answer was utterly maddening.
It had transformed what was once a question of art appreciation or mana discernment into a psychological mind game!
Whether those words were true or false was now up to the hawk-eyed demon to decide!
Chapter 68