Pretending To Be God

Michael heard a weak and light knock from the door, and from the shadow cast from the thin line underneath it, he could see that George was standing on the other side.

He walked towards it casually and opened it, seeing that George was standing still before suddenly the illusion created by the persona ring had been disabled. George dropped into the room with his hands holding onto his ribs.

He felt his ribs might have fallen to the wrong place in his stomach if he had not held onto it.

"Oh gosh, what happened to you!" Michael shouted as he tried helping George to stand, but with his small and nimble body, there was nothing he could really do.

He quickly ran towards his small bag and started searching it, pulling out a health potion bottle similar to the one that he had given to George a few days ago.

George quickly snatched the potion and snapped the lid off the bottle, George chugged the bottle, and as he nearly drank more than half of the bottle, Michael pulled the bottle away, "What's wrong with you! You're only supposed to drink half of it!"

He raised his brow, "Oh…" He remembered the moment when he drank the whole bottle of the health potion after the test. 'Guess I messed up.'

"Anyways, what happened to you?" Michael asked, wondering how George got into such a situation.

"There is this kid, in one of the classes… He is targeting me for some reason… The kid is a barbarian purist I heard."

Michael nodded, "Ah those guys… Sigh, I knew this was a bad idea…"

"What is?"

"Well, letting everyone know that you have connections with the Emerald City Castle. This was the very thing I tried to avoid… I guess it is inevitable… And you might get attacked for this reason…"

George sighed, shaking his head, "Well, it's not the end of the world yet… I just need a good reason why I am related to this whole thing, and if we have some thing that makes sense then, I might take some eyes away from me."

Michael's eyes brightened as he thought of an idea, "What if you disguise as Oz and try to pretend that you don't know who George is?"

"That would be the best way to make the public even more suspicious of me, and it would also spoil the, Oz knows all narrative, I'll think of something."

Michael nodded, "Sure, but are you sure that the barbarian won't cause you anymore trouble?"

George rubbed his chin, remembering how fast Akshar could heal himself, "He might be a problem… But I have this just in case." George took a wrench from his pocket, "I'll be keeping this just in case."

"And, can I get the rest of the health potion? You know, just in case something like this happen?"

"Sure…" Michael handed the bottle before going to his bag and throwing George another bottle, "Make sure to not use too much, this thing are expensive."

"How expensive?"

"5 gold coins is the market price I think?" Michael scratched his furry head, "I'll make sure to send you a few afterwards."

"I thought the potions are expensive?"

Michael sighed, "I own a castle, George."

"Right…"

The door was knocked, "Sir, everything is prepared…"

Michael nodded, "Well, that's my cue. How will you be doing your entrance?"

George took out his notebook and ripped a page from it before handing it to Michael, "That's how. And when you are reading it, please make sure to make it…. Uh…"

"Grandiose?" Michael suggested.

"Yeah, grandiose."

#

Nearly a thousand students were waiting in the stadium, with the two of the headmasters waiting at the front.

Michael sat right of the two headmasters, and on his left side was an empty chair reserved just for Oz.

"Where is… Oz?" Seraphina leaned towards Michael as she looked around for the great wizard.

"He is here…" Michael lied while holding the paper in his pocket.

Hearing this, the two headmasters nodded and waited.

For an entire hour, the stadium had been filled with the sounds of the performers displaying their magic and fighting skills on the stage and receiving claps.

And although this wasn't the main purpose why everyone in the stadium was there, it was still high-class entertainment, as most people would consider, and not something that could be easily passed by.

The magic and fighting skills had been mixed in with complicated acrobatics and music to enhance the performance, keeping everyone's eyes glued to the performers.

As they reached the end of the performance, Seraphina walked up on stage, standing in front of a podium that had a jade-looking tablet on it, "The academy has a great history with students graduating from this very building, becoming leaders, professionals and even conquerors. But this very building and institution couldn't have been made possible if it was not because of the foundation of Emerald City, The Great Wizard himself."

She walked down, waiting for Oz to appear on stage, but instead, Michael walked up on stage.

"I don't remember Oz being a monkey…" One of the students whispered.

"Shoosh! That's Sir Michael!"

Many of the students remained confused while the headmaster, that was seated in the front room, didn't know what to do.

Michael then took out the piece of paper from his pocket, his eyebrow-raising at the words written on it, but it was too late to think through all of this.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Greatest Wizard the world has ever seen… The Greatest Wizard this universe has ever had, the ONE and ONLY Great Wizard of Oz!" Michael screamed at the top of his lungs before the stadium was covered from the top, as requested by him.

The whole stadium had been filled with darkness, with not one person able to see what was going on; a light, as requested by Michael before the performance started, shined on top of Michael, drawing everyone's attention to the light.

The light stopped shining for a second, and as the light shined once more, many of them stood up in shocked, baffled by what they had just witnessed. 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘰𝘳𝘨

With no mana, the Great Wizard had appeared on the stage in a second.