Académie Royale de l'Arcane

Delmar Laurent seems to be unfazed at the prospect of money, waving it off with a simple motion of his hand, 

"Payment should not be a problem, although I do not have 10,000 gold coins on my person as of now, to be sure." he chuckled slightly, "Given a due date for this payment I can be sure to pay it however."

He would grow somewhat anxious now, and fidgeted in his seat, "So now what? I suppose there is some sort of test now?" he asked.

Delmar eyes the paper curiously for a few moments, looking over all the questions before beginning. 

The test was simple enough, nothing Delmar hadn't seen before. He finishes the test quite fast, but still takes time to double check all of his answers. Even with this procedure Matrisse would find he completes the test in no time.

Handing in the paper, she informs him of the practical exam, "Ah, a practical? That sounds somewhat more daunting than a written test... Hopefully I pass." He seemed somewhat nervous but otherwise, the young man seemed ready.

Once Viddik walks in Delmar would bow his head slightly in respect, "It is an honor to be in your presence, Commandant Viddik." It seems the young man has heard of the mage before, and refers to him by his title.

Delmar seems somewhat confused by the question, giving a slight frown to the man in front of him, 

"What do you mean? I'm just a student looking to enroll in the academy."

The answer Delmar gave Viddick was technically the truth, he was a student looking to enroll in the academy, but the details were a completely different story.

Delmar seems to drop the nervous student act for now, and just stares at Viddik, his face un-moving. It seemed he was weighing his options while Viddik made a display of putting his cigar out on his palm. 

He then leans back in his chair eyeing the now growing lizard creature, he might as well tell this man the truth, "As for what I am, it is what you see, that is all I can say. There are no words I have yet discovered in your language to describe what I am, as for why I am here, I want to learn magic, as your kind studies it. To see it from a different perspective, and perhaps learn new forms of magic I have not yet encountered here." 

Delmar tilted his head then, as he waited for an answer, "Anything else you need to know?"

Empty. That was the word that Maelik would use to describe the city as he walked down its streets, which was odd seeing as the demon could clearly see that there were plenty of people wandering the stores and alleyways when he viewed it from a distance. The lord meandered past a few unmanned stalls, some of them still sporting a few coins on their counters as if someone were in the middle of paying for something and then just decided to leave. Maelik sniffed the air and easily caught the scent of people, most of it being recent and that made him all the more curious. What could have caused such a quick vacancy in such a bustling city?

As the demon pondered all the possible reasons behind such a strange phenomena (his prime theory involving sentient weaponized rugs) he happened upon a sweets shop. He lurked outside the window for a lengthy period of time, staring wide eyed at all the varied treats that tantalized his taste buds, but then something caught his eye. It was a minuscule amount of movement, barely even a twitch but Maelik's eagle like vision zeroed right in on it. It seemed to be some young man in a strange colorful get up, something that was so outlandish looking that the Lord already knew that it had to be some sort of uniform.

A uniform! That meant that the fellow inside was an employee here, and that meant that Maelik could get himself some sweet sugary goodness. With a slow, deliberate motion he brought a claw up to the window and tapped the glass.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

No response.

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

This time the aspiring candy cruncher managed to spot some more movement.

*SCREEEEEEECH*

The sound of his claws scraping unpleasantly across the glass definitely caught the man's attention this time, and no matter how hard he may have wanted to believe that the monster outside wasn't aware of his presence he knew that he couldn't hide anymore. When the man would eventually look over the counter to take a look at the beast outside he was greeted by the dark specter of the looming demon, his eyes ravaging every detail they observed and his smiling maw dripping with saliva.

"Hellloooooooo~" the demon said melodically, his deep voice breaking the silence as it rattled the glass.

"May I... come in?"

The man was already too late to refuse him as the demon was already jiggling the door knob to enter the place, how could he have forgotten to lock the door! With a click the door began to swing open, allowing the dominating frame of the demon to slink in...

*****

Shortly after his encounter with the now almost catatonic store hand Maelik was chomping away at his newly bought collection of chocolate and gummies, chewing through his supplies like some unholy amalgamation of a vacuum cleaner and a black hole. He still couldn't figure out why everyone seemed to be missing but even more curious was the fact that he swore he could here the bustling of people from behind him whenever he turned his back. Stranger and stranger...

He made a note as he finished off his last bonbon to investigate this in greater detail at a later date, first he needed to get permission to enter this fancy new academy!

It didn't take him long to track down the desired building once he focused on his goal and was walking up the steps to the main door in no time flat.

"Hello? I'm here to ask about registering as a student here? Hellooooo!?"

At first Maelik was pleased to see that someone was actually around and was willing to greet him, bouncing in place like a hyper child. He was about to offer a friendly hello but was cut off by the brisk, no nonsense tone of Viddik promptly informing him that he was an eyesore.

Well then, he didn't expect that, his fists immediately bunching up at his sides before he forced himself to relax. Lum wouldn't approve if she learned that he let his temper get the better of him again.

"I'm... terribly sorry about that, I suppose I am a bit off putting at times. I'll do my best not to further raise your ire but I'm afraid that I can't change my appearance drastically enough to make too big of a difference. So instead I'll just do my best to not bother anyone if I can help it."

With that Maelik stomped away to the admission's office and tracked down someone to begin the process for him.

The demon rummaged through his bag and pulled out a pair of small reading spectacles before carefully going over the document, his eye giving off a constant magical aura. Once he read it all and determined that he was going to be treated fairly he'd sign what needed to be signed and ripped open another hole into the Abyss.

"Please pardon the intrusion, I've just got to get the gold ready..." He poked his draconian head through the edge and hollered at a few lesser demons to go and get him his money. He procured his gold and readily handed it over to Matrisse, smiling the whole time.

"Thank you kindly madame, it's an honor to be given the chance."

With a single fluid motion he snatched the written test up, reading each question quite thoroughly even before he intended to begin answering them.

"Oh yes names..." he said offhandedly, "I go by the moniker of Maelik Fellblade Rekjar, Demonic Lord of the Fifth Circle of the Abyss, The Spark of War, The Flame of Wrath ect ect."

Plopping down on the floor right in front of Matrisse's desk the demon laid the test out on one of his wings and began jotting down his answers. Basic magic theory was simple enough for the ancient being to grasp. However as a creature who spent most of his life casting magic from an instinctual level rather than from a working understanding of how magic flowed and interacted with the world he'd have to take more time to dredge through his memories and come up with the right answers. Over all he was confident that he did well but wasn't too sure that he got a 100%, hell he wasn't sure he even got a 90%.

"Finished."

Maelik huffed a bit at being told what he could and could not set aflame, although he did have to wonder how this old prude knew what he did to pass the time when he was bored. Freaky.

He laid himself down on the ground while he waited, padding about in a circle before settling down with his tail curled up around him. He wondered what this teacher would be like, although judging from his experience with the others thus far he expected him to be a high strung jerk like the rest.

"Oh well, nothing for it but to wait and see... This place would look soooo much better if there were just a few scorch marks..."