Chapter 16: Biology is a Compulsory Subject
Once the class started, time went by quickly. After she finished her classes for the first week, Razé went on an outing to the Fiza Shopping District with Carna and Folia on their first weekend. This is the youth I’m looking for, thought Razé as she enjoyed the girls-only gathering like a normal teenager. Along the way, they bumped into Adis and his fangirls. But considering that Razé managed to become friend with Carna because of him, she didn’t say anything to criticize his behavior.
Carna: “Razé-san, it seems like you’re thoroughly enjoying your meal.”
They were having lunch at the dining hall located near the school building. Razé munched her food as she made a bewildered expression.
Razé: “Am I?”
Carna: “Yes. When I’m eating with you, the food tasted better.”
Razé swallowed her food and looked at Carna. Carna gave her a gentle smile. She ate her omelet rice, thinking that if Folia was an angel, then Carna would be a goddess.
Folia: “I think so too. By the way, I want to go to the library after class is over. Do you two wants come with me?”
Folia now could converse normally with Carna as she was no longer nervous being with her. After spending a few days together, she had learned that no one would scold her as long as she practiced good manner.
Razé: “That sounds great. I want to go too.”
Carna nodded her head too and said, “If I’m not mistaken, the building near the clock tower is the library. It looks pretty huge.”
Folia: “Then we have to be careful, try not to get lost inside the library!”
Razé laughed when she heard Folia’s cute remark. This kind of heartwarming daily life was so different from her previous routine. It made her let her guard down. In fact, she kind of had a feeling that the day when she needed to make a move as a soldier would never come.
After lunch break, they had a biology class. Their biology teacher was Nigel Mira Dietier-sensei. He always wore a lab coat and usually stayed in his lab whenever he had no classes to teach.
Dietier: “In this world, there are creatures called ‘beasts’ [1] and ‘monsters’ that threaten humans. Is there anyone who can explain the difference between these two?”
Since she had to act like a scholarship student, Razé quietly put up her hand.
Dietier: “Mortens.”
Carna: “Yes.”
The teacher chose Carna. She was a diligent student and very enthusiastic about learning. Her aura was different from Razé. She always got chosen to answer in the class.
Razé was not really that eager to answer. Putting up her hand was enough to show her motivation as a scholarship student. But sometimes the teachers wouldn’t even noticed her, so she wondered if she didn’t have much of a presence.
Carna: “First, the creatures that live in Baruda are called monsters. The stone on their forehead is the magic stone we are using. On the other hand, beasts refer to the red-eyed animal that live in Ordiana. The main difference is that beasts do not have magic stones.”
Dietier: “That’s right. Anyone else who can give more details?”
Razé put up her hand to test if Dietier would notice her.
Dietier: “Granoli.”
Oh. He chose me. My existence has been acknowledged.
Perhaps there was no other student who put up their hands, so the teacher had noticed her.
Razé recalled the question and answered, “Humans obtain magic stones from the monsters, while monsters gain wisdom from humans. By absorbing humans, monsters gain wisdom and become a strong entity.
In the first book of Old Testament, Genesis, it has been described that human who once travel from Ordiana to Baruda was absorbed by monsters. And the monsters who had gained wisdom started invading Ordiana.
Based on that, there is a theory that says the beasts was the crossbreeding of local animal and monster that landed in Ordiana. As for the details, I hope you can tell us more, Dietier-sensei.”
Dietier: “I see. You’ve read my thesis?”
Razé: “Yes. The theory is very interesting.”
The theory that Razé mentioned was written by Dietier himself. Due to her profession, Razé wanted to find out more about monsters. She felt lucky to be able to meet someone who was leading the research on this subject. She would love to learn from him while she was at the academy.
Razé was sending a passionate gaze towards Dietier. After giving it a little thought, Dietier said to her, “Fair enough. Since you’ve already read that thesis, then this class must be boring to you. I will give you a special assignment. You can do this instead.” Dietier snaped his finger and a stack of documents appeared on Razé’s desk.
Dietier: “Alright then. Everyone else, please forget the things you’ve heard just now. I’ll teach from basic, so you can sit back and enjoy the lesson.
Dietier proceeded with the class and ignored Razé.
Razé: (￣△￣；)
This was something that would never happen in her previous life. Anyway, Razé read through the assignment she had been given and found out that it was a check-test for biology comprehension. She had no choice but to do as per instructed. She was the only one in the class who was busy writing as she filled up the answer sheets.
After she solved the questions about cells and digestion of monsters and beasts, she then wrote down an essay about their ecology.
The most time-consuming question was ‘what is the beast?’ Generally, the beast were the red-eyed animals that attacked human in Ordiana. Unlike monsters, it does not have magic stones. And even if it preyed on humans, it did not gain wisdom.
Just like the monsters in a role-playing game. Almost all species of beasts were already known. Unlike monsters, there were few things that had not been clarified. The knights can judge the level of a beast just by looking at it. Basically, they could handle the beast safely as long as they did not misjudge their abilities.
And so, Razé went through the stack of documents while recalling about her job experience without taking a break.
When the bell rang, she finally returned to reality. She raised her head and saw Dietier was standing in front of her.
Dietier: “You can stop until there.”
Razé: “I’m sorry. There are some questions I still haven’t finish-”
Dietier: “These questions came from technical books that researchers use as reference.”
Razé: “Technical books … Oh, no wonder there are some paragraphs that seems familiar to me.”
Dietier took away the documents from Razé. “I didn’t think that you’d be able to answer most of them. I’ve underestimated you, scholarship student.” He flipped through the papers and was speechless.
“I’m very interested in topic related to the monsters and beasts.” Razé gave a desperate excuse. It was not a lie because her job was to defeat monsters, so she had spent a lot of time studying this topic when she was in the military college and she had actually saw the real thing with her own eyes.
Additionally, although the knights were in charge of hunting the beasts, there were times when she had to go through dungeons due to her mission, so of course she knew how to take care of the beasts too.
Dietier: “Once I’ve scored these papers, I will talk to you again. But for my subject, I will let you go to the library and do assignments. In every subject, sometimes there are outstanding students who stood out in class. So, the teacher normally gives personal assignments to them like this. It’s not that you got outcasted, understand?”
Razé: “Yes.”
Dietier: “I will inform you the details later.”
Razé: “Understood.”
Dietier walked out and left the classroom. Razé’s hand felt sored after writing so many essays. She clasped and unclasped her hand, then she stretched her shoulder.
Folia: “Razé-chan, sugoi! You’re doing special assignments?”
Razé: “Un, seems to be so. I’m interested in biology, so I’m glad I can delve deeper into the topic.”
This was the last class for the day. Folia and Carna came to Razé’s seat so that they could go to the library together.
Carna: “Razé-san, the teacher was calling out your name 10 minutes before class was over but you didn’t notice him at all. You were so focused.”
Razé: “Huh! Really? I didn’t hear him.”
When it came to studying, she would concentrate and ignored everything else. It was her bad habit. Razé heard Carna’s words and regretted it.
Folia: “Razé-chan, are you going to do your assignment in the library?”
Carna: “She should be. We had planned to go to the library anyway. It was just right.”
Razé: “Yes.”
Razé put away her writing utensils and textbooks. Then she stood up and said, “Let’s go.”
The three of them walked towards the library.
[1] It was actually 害獣 (lit. harmful beast) in the raw. I’ll simplify it as ‘beast’. ↩
T/L Note: So far, we have 3 types of beasts; Baruda’s monster is 魔獣 (lit. demonic beast), Ordiana’s beast is 害獣 (lit. harmful beast), Carna’s kaiju is 怪獣 (lit. strange beast). And I still need to think of a name for the 4th monster (#｀Д´)ﾉﾉ┻┻;:’､
