“I will select some students who follow my class well and teach them how to do the source code.”
As I said that, I shook the carrot a little, and the students listened to my class without saying much.
Ding Dong. Ding Dong.
When I finished explaining the theory and simple method of releasing the mana, the bell of the clock tower rang to mark the end of the class.
I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, thinking that I had finished the class safely without any tackles.
The students seemed to not be suspicious of anything because I had explained the contents of the textbook appropriately and mixed them with practical tips.
The first step was easy, so I could just continue with that atmosphere in my next classes.
My lecture period had a total of four hours a week.
Since there were a total of two classes per week divided by two hours, I had a lot of time until the next class.
As I was about to leave the classroom after putting on my outer garment, I could see some students looking at me as if they wanted to approach me but had some doubts about it.
I was wondering why for a moment, but I realized later that I had missed something.
“Ah, for your information, I won't give you any assignments for the first day. Just go back to your daily activities and review the lesson for today."
"Yay!"
"Phew. That's a relief."
The students smiled brightly and rejoiced at my words.
Even the geniuses who gathered in the Academy were students, after all. Seeing them overjoyed and burdened with the existence of one assignment, I realized that they were still children.
Well, no matter how strict I was in teaching them, I wouldn’t give them any assignments from day one.
Other professors besides me were going to give them assignments anyway.
Usually, professors who gave assignments from the first day of their class were bound to be criticized for the whole semester.
As for the lesson, every mercy that I showed to them was based on some kind of calculation.
The more of their backbiting and complaints about the other professors, the less mention there would be of criticism toward me will be.
I packed the list of students' names on the podium and left the classroom. Even when I headed out, the students' eyes still followed me, but I naturally ignored them.
I was immersed in thoughts such as how I should proceed with the next class and how I could find out the basic personal information about the 80 students who were taking my class.
In addition, considering there was information that had not yet been revealed about the secret society, I had to move as quickly as possible.
***
‘Whoa. This is for real, right?'
Aidan, a freshman who had entered Sören Academy that year, realized that he had really come to Sören after listening to Ludger Chelysie's class.
'I vaguely thought it was going to be like this, but it was hella amazing.’
Aidan, who came from the countryside, was a commoner, but he was a young man who had confidence that he was fully passionate about magic more than anyone else.
Thanks to the efforts and some luck that he has built up so far, he had passed Sören's entrance examination, and he took his first class while dreaming of a prosperous future as a freshman.
—Ludger Chelysie's lecture on the overall spell casting technique.
To be honest, he did not have that much of an expectation.
When he first entered the classroom, he secretly listened to the talks of other students because this class that he took was more talkative than he thought.
-There are actually a total of two classes of magic casting, and among those two, this one is taught by a fallen aristocrat.
-Originally, he was a new professor who couldn't pass the entry examination here, but he was lucky to pass because there were five vacancies due to the professors who retired last year.
-All the rumors about him in are fake and exaggerated.
It was obviously the talks from the aristocratic students who spoke ill of others and looked down on them.
However, Aidan, who came to Leathevelk from the countryside, did not doubt their words much because he knew that they were seniors and that they were great aristocrats.
'Is the professor named Ludger Chelysie really not that good?’
It was just a class that he chose without much thought, so he regretted it for some reason.
But Aidan realized how wrong his doubts were when Ludger appeared.
The man who overwhelmed the classroom atmosphere with 80 students in it just by standing on the podium was like a soldier facing a fierce war.
And what happened later made Aidan even more shocked.
After having a conversation with a female senior about the impossibility of shortening the time span of spell casting, he introduced a spell technique.
As soon as he witnessed the spell that Ludger Chelysie called source code, Aidan felt the blood in his body race.
It was a shock that made him feel like there was a blazing explosion in front of them.
It was the light of knowledge that appeared when he clearly watched a mystery that had never been witnessed before and the revolutionary moment that expanded his perspectives toward a wider world.
It seemed like an excessive line, but at least Aidan felt that way.
When he was a little kid who didn't know anything yet, there had been a wandering wizard who showed him magic.
The first spell that the wandering wizard showed was only first-tier magic, and when he reminisced about it, the spell technique was imperfect and crude.
At that time, Aidan thought that the performance was extremely cool.
Since then, he had been taught by the wandering wizard in studying magic and continued on his own, but nothing had beat the thrill that he felt when he witnessed magic for the first time yet.
Still, he remembered that learning magic itself was so much fun.
Thanks to his passion for magic and unexpectedly great talent for magic, Aidan advanced faster as the days went by. Thus, he was able to enter Sören Magic Academy through fierce competition.
He took his first class thinking that this place might satisfy his thirst for magic and open up a new world before him.
He ended up witnessing something that was extremely astonishing.
'Professor Ludger Chelysie is really an incredible person!'
Aidan already thought that he was extraordinary from his first impression of Ludger, but it was real.
—He had showcased a real, new spell that didn't exist in the world yet, not just some false facade.
Aidan was so happy to take the class that he couldn't hide his excitement.
“Hmph.”
It was then…
The voice of blatant disdain aimed at him was heard from the next seat.
When he turned his head, a male student who looked like he was from the same year was looking at him with his arms folded.
His face was handsome, but he looked quite greasy, probably because of his parted blond hair that highlighted his forehead.
"This is why we should have no commoners. He's amazed just because he saw something like that."
"Huh? Did you say that to me?"
"Then who else is a commoner besides you here?"
Aidan then looked around at his surroundings. Now that the majority of students have already left the classroom, there are not many people left.
"Ah! So you were talking to me!"
Because of his innocent reaction that contradicted his expectation, the aristocratic male student's face who just triggered the dispute frowned.
"You. Are you making fun of me right now?"
"What? Making fun of you? No way."
Aidan smiled awkwardly and tried to say that he didn't mean to make fun of him at all, but the person in front of him was already so upset with thinking he had been insulted.
"How dare you look down on me, Jevan, the first descendant of Baron Felio?"
Aidan was drenched in a cold sweat. It seemed that it would still be hopeless for him in many ways even if he wanted to let this pass nicely.
'What do I do?'
As soon as Aidan was contemplating how he should overcome the situation, someone came to help him.
"If you're from Felio Baronage, isn't it the family that lived at the place closest to the border of the Empire?"
"What… what the hell?! Who are you?"
It was a sky-blue-haired boy whose height was shorter than the others who helped Aidan.
Jevan Felio looked at the boy and sneered.
* * *
* * *
"Hah. Is this kind of brat able to enter Sören Academy too these days?"
"It's still better than the fact that an idiotic son of a baron passed Sören's test."
"What?! How dare you insult the Felio family?"
As Jevan clenched his teeth and was about to charge his mana, Leo—the boy with sky blue hair—did not lose his smile.
"You should pay for your words and actions for insulting an aristocrat...”
"Try to do it."
"What… what?"
"Try to do it. Let's see what will happen if you cast a spell to attack us here."
Jevan was dumbfounded by Leo's confident words.
Jevan thought a commoner would bow their head meekly if he was intimidating enough.
"Do you think it is still your family background that makes you superior to us? Wake up. If you cause even a little commotion here, you can't even call yourself a nobleman. Didn't you get that kind of notice before you came here?"
"You, you...!"
"Since I have nothing to say, just shut your mouth if you don't know what else to do except glare at me like that. And check the situation before you even raise your voice. Can't you see the surroundings?"
Hearing Leo's words, Jevan realized that there were still several students left in the classroom. Among them, there were also children of aristocrats from higher status whom he would not dare to look at.
"Hee, heek! Just wait and see!"
Jevan stared at Aidan as if he was about to kill him before leaving the classroom.
Aidan contemplated what he should do with the situation.
However, at that moment, his priority was to thank that fellow for helping him.
"Thank you for helping me. I'm Aidan."
"I'm Leo. Ah, and you don't have to thank me. I just stepped up because I was disgusted to see him acting up as an aristocrat."
"You're such a nice person, aren't you?”
"…How did you perceive my words just now?"
Leo stared at Aidan as if he was a strange fellow and shook his head.
"Well, whatever. I'm leaving now."
"Ah! I'm leaving with you."
"Where do you think I'm going?"
"Aren't you going to take the next class? The thing you're holding in your hand, it's for the Alchemy class of Embodiment's specialization, right? It's also my next class right after this one."
"…Tsk. Do whatever you want."
Leo spoke brusquely, but he did not kick Aidan away or reject Aidan's offer to accompany him. Aidan felt that Leo's way of speaking was just a little strange and that he was a good person.
Leo suddenly opened his mouth while watching Aidan, who was packing his textbooks for the next class.
"You'd better go around without being too obvious about it."
"Huh? Obvious about what?"
"Obvious about being a country bumpkin, obvious about being a commoner, obvious that you haven’t studied magic properly. Whatever it is, you're showing it off too much."
"Oh, is that so? I'm sorry. I don't know much about that."
"Don't forget, this is Sören Academy. It's a place full of amazing people."
"Amazing people? Ah, I think I know it since I just saw Professor Chelysie."
Leo sighed at Aidan's stunned response. There seemed to be a lot to explain to this poor fellow.
"Listen up. Since you're already taking the class, you need to know how this place works. And you also have to be careful about certain students."
"Certain students?"
"There are students who have an exceptionally overwhelming position inside Sören. Right now, us first years are considered not knowing anything because we just came in, but it won't work if we proceed to the second year."
The most representative example was Flora Lumos.
"Flora Lumos, the sophomore. I didn't expect her to take the same class with us, but you should be careful about her."
“Why?”
"There are rumors that she has a trashy personality. They said that the sudden resignation of the professor who was in charge of the magic casting class last year was mostly due to her influence. To be honest, I thought it would be like that again this time...”
Leo also recalled Ludger Chelysie's class. The groundbreaking spell of source code that he showed was certainly amazing.
—That Flora Lumos had even stepped down without even being able to say anything.
However, he didn’t think Flora Lumos will back down just because of that. Instead, there was a possibility that her spark of anger would be released to the others.
"So you'd better avoid her as much as you can."
"Is there anyone else?"
"Of course there is. Someone who came from the noblest lineages of the Exileon Empire."
"Ah, I heard that rumor too. They said there's a royal princess among the sophomores, right?"
"The 3rd Princess, Elendil von Exileon. She's extremely noble, and the Emperor is fond of her, that's why she’s able to enter this place. Of course, it's not good for us as commoners to get involved with her."
"Ah, that person."
Aidan recalled a woman with hair that resembled weaves of golden thread.
Blonde hair wasn’t that rare, but there was only one person who was able to radiate such nobility through her blonde hair.
"And lastly, Freuden Wolburg."
"If it's Wolburg, do you mean that Wolburg? One of the three ducal families...….”
"Do you think there's another Wolburg in the Empire? Freuden, the eldest son of the Duke's family, Wolburg. He is the man who leads the biggest faction in his second year. It's an upper-class faction consisting of only aristocrats, to be exact."
"Upper-class… faction."
"They are people who see commoners like us as no different than bugs on the side of the road, so it's better not to get involved with them. Fortunately, Freuden doesn't take this class. For your information, the idiot who picked a fight with you a while ago seems to belong to that faction."
"It was inevitable. Is there anyone else?"
"…You were just being stamped on, but you are curious about the other people instead? Should I say you're quite bold or quite slow?"
Leo had no idea what kind of person Aidan was, but at least Leo was sure he was not a bad or rotten guy.
"There are indeed a few more."
"Oh really? Who are they?"
"I'll tell them to you later, on the way."
"Okay! Ah, do you also want to eat with me later?"
"What? Why should I?"
Aidan and Leo left the classroom while chattering.
—Without knowing that one of the remaining students in the classroom was watching them.
***
'Hmm. Is this a private professor's office?’
I felt a little peculiar gut feeling in front of the door of a room that was called a professor's office.
Perhaps because it was Sören, even the new professors were given a considerably spacious personal space.
The nameplate at the entrance also had the name Ludger Chelysie.
'Let's go in first.’
I was curious about what the inside looked like, so I decided to check it out.
I opened the door and went inside the professor's office.
—And I had no choice but to be surprised to see the guest who had arrived there first.
"Oh my, Mr. Ludger. Come here."
One of the people whom I had to be the wariest of…
—The principal of Sören Academy.
