(Chpt. 73) Walking down a skewed path (2)

Alice.

I looked around some more, the astonishment was not gone, at even you could say they were mostly frozen. I couldn’t help but tilt my head in confusion. 

“So?” The kid that had been standing in front of me took a step back. 

“What do you mean so?! You are asking me to attack you!” I nodded as if it was obvious. “Aren’t you a substitute teacher?” 

“Well, I am a teacher, although I don’t know how long I will stay here for… I guess I am?” I doubted myself, I didn’t really plan to live in the capital, it seemed boring unless of course, I messed with the king, then I was all for it. 

“Then, why aren’t you declining the duel!” The kid exclaimed, he looked worried. 

“What do you mean? Besides, I think I am forced to accept. Could it be…” I got closer to him. “Are you scared?” 

“The one scared should be you…”

“Eh…” What was he even talking about?

“Look at our robes.” He took a weird sense of pride as he said that, I eyed the classroom and they were all wearing some magenta colored robe, it looked oddly fancy. 

“Aha, so, what am I looking at?” Really did not understand the robe thing. 

“It means everyone in this entire class is at least an archmage!” He exclaimed in annoyance. 

“Oh… Well, I mean if you can tell robes apart. Then look at mine.” 

“What do you even ex⁠—” He froze. “A court mage… Y-You know that faking such a status can get you killed?!” 

“Yes yes, now I accepted your pitiful duel request, do you want to keep going?” He gulped. 

“Seeing I no longer need to worry about you, yes…” He still looked insecure. 

Well, since things are getting derailed already might as well try to "teach" something, although it's all I can do to try to get something out of the situation. 

“Alright kids, the first lesson of the day, don’t underestimate your opponent, unless you are absolutely sure they stand no chance.” I decided to proceed with my teachings, I had no idea what I was doing, but showing off was always nice. 

“So, where is the duel taking place?” 

I smiled. “Here, right here right now, don’t worry about collateral damage, the classroom should be fine, and well, as far as other mages are concerned.” I looked at the entire class. “They are archmages no? They should survive.” They suddenly turned pale, and some of them hurriedly stood up and went to the back, others remained seated with nervousness. 

“Fine then!” The kid yelled in annoyance, he started muttering to himself, I guess that was his way of casting. It went for more time than I thought it would, so I took a second. 

“If they cast for so long you can just kill them, of course, I won’t do anything about it because I am not worried about it!” I started laughing, more kids turned pale. 

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you…” He commented to me as he finished. [DYSPHORIA!] He shouted at the top of his lungs, I guess that was the spell. Something about being unhappy? I waited for something to happen but did not see anything, yet his smirk could not be erased. 

“Just you wait...  The spell consumes my mana for as long as I keep feeding it, I hope you apologize after this.” 

“Thanks for the lecture…” I awkwardly said as I looked around, although I saw nothing. The students were pale and even praying for their lives though. 

RUMBLEE! 

The entire building started to violently shake, I slightly panicked, I said the classroom would be okay, not some super old building that’s god-knows-how-old! 

“Enough for now… [Ruin]!” I pointed my finger at the kid and he collapsed as he foamed from his mouth. “Looks like I overdid it…” The building slowly stopped shaking. 

I sighed in relief and pointed at the kids on top of the classroom, they backed into the wall with fear. “Take him somewhere where he can get healed!” 

“B-But!” 

“No buts, take him or he dies.” With a gulp, a kid came running down and took him outside the classroom. It was also the same one that tried to object, his friend I suppose. 

“That concludes the duel, does anyone else want to try?” I asked with a smirk, and as expected everyone violently shook their heads. “Very well, now, we will start the actual class. I have no idea what to teach you people, but I guess we can figure that out, right?” 

“”... Y-Yes…”” The class nervously answered. 

I got to thinking. “Well, before we start does anyone have any questions?” 

The entire class raised their hand. “Eh… I guess, first one to speak, you.” I pointed towards a random kid. He looked a bit shy and frail, even pale, was he undead or something? 

“Um… What was the spell you used?” 

I smiled. “It’s Ruin, it has a lot of effects and side effects, however, it basically disrupts the mana of a target, causing something akin to a heart attack… Or that’s the idea, it is still an experimental spell after all…” I invented the last part trying to avoid mentioning the sudden death chance of it… 

A lot of the classroom was frozen and the kid seemed somewhat excited by my answer. 

“W-Was it created by you?!” Waa, he was a lot more cheerful now. I awkwardly nodded. 

“Next.”

“Bu⁠—” 

“What type of spell was it?!” These kids were really wanting to learn. I sighed hearing the girl’s question, seeing it was neutral I couldn’t quite say it was neutral, but how is neutral created? Ah right…

“All archetypes… Next…” I avoided her question, although every time I went through a kid I saw multiple hands come down, so I guess that solved a lot of the questions at once. 

“Um… How did you cast a complicated spell that fast?” 

“Oh… We can make that the first lesson, although it takes years of practice to master it like that.” I said with pride. 

“How many years did it take you?!” He asked with enthusiasm.

“You really don’t want to know…” I declined the question with a bitter smile. 

As soon as I declined all the kids in the room threw the “eh…” disappointment sound, I guess it was to be expected. Although it was weird seeing them so knowledge-hungry, I mean, weren’t they in disbelief and even in horror a few minutes ago? 

I turned around and faced the front of the classroom, or back depending on how you looked at it. It had one of those nice mana magic boards. I decided to take a look at the things I had to work with, a desk with a notebook and a quill with ink, I guess that was it. And of course, a chair. 

I decided to take a seat on the chair. 

“Aren’t you kids scared of me?” I asked with confusion, they clearly saw me use a single spell on my challenger and making him faint with it. 

“”Yes…”” A lot of the class nodded. “But, I have faith that you are a great teacher.” A girl added, making the class nod in unison. It was weird. Were these people students or some type of automated doll? I mean I kind of expected more resistance or something, although I am sure they are more interested in my knowledge rather than me. 

“I see, well… I am bored anyway, so I guess we can do some teaching.” They looked at me with sparkly eyes, waa… I wasn’t used to so much attention, although I guess I had kind of asked for it. 

I stood before the board, and at last attempted to teach something. 

“Alright, sla⁠— kids, what are the steps of a magic spell.”

“”Chant.”” Eh…

“Anything else?” 

“Umm… Fire?” A doubting voice came from behind me. 

“That is…” I paused in disbelief, I looked back at them and they were all so proud of themselves for answering what they thought was correct, what had happened? “That is… wrong…” My cold voice descended on them like needles. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Have any of you asked yourselves why you need mana manipulation to cast a spell?” I mean, I didn’t really know the actual theory behind it either. But, hey, maybe I could figure out something on my own about this. As I thought to myself they shook their head. 

“Well, as we know we can manipulate mana willingly, and can channel it through our words by chanting.” They nodded. “What if you skip the chanting?” 

“Nothing happens.” Someone coldly said to my side. 

“Correc⁠— Eh?” The old man was standing next to me as he wore his stupid mask. 

“We need to talk.” He whispered into my ear as he exited the room, making me follow behind him. To the top of the classroom. 

“Looks like the lessons will have to wait.” I waved farewell at my dear students that I taught for a few minutes, a lot of them seemed sad and disappointed, I guess I was the greatest teacher they ever had. Umu. 

We walked for a bit until we reached a door, prompting me to go inside, he took his mask. It was a classroom but this one was empty. He had a plate on his robe that read “Lynn” I guess that was that.

“Do you know why I brought you here?” 

“Not really, I mean I did fire a spell at a student, is it that?” 

“Did your spell include demolishing the school?!” He asked with frustration. 

“No? That was his, which is why I demolished the student so it did not cause collateral damage!” I righteously fought back. 

“Tch, no more of your dumb experiments, I saw your way of teaching, you clearly have no idea how to do it!” Eh…

“Well, I guess?” I tilted my head. “You can always go back to giving classes with the marker on your face.” He stopped. 

“Fine… you win this time, just no more fighting the students or making them fight amongst each other…” Eh, that sounded fun… What about a student colosseum?

“Yes…” He shooed me away afterward. 

* * * 

“Alright, we may continue.” I entered the classroom. The students jolted from their seats and looked at me, it was weird but whatever. I made my way down the stairs and got to the board. 

“So, nothing happens. We know that, however, what does a chant do? Shape the spell, but through what?” I asked, the students seemed excited but at the same time incredibly puzzled. Until one of them raised their hand. 

“Through mana?” He looked pretty sure about his answer, as I saw him smile waiting for some praise or something.

“Kind of, partially right.” He dropped his shoulders in defeat. “We give a meaning to our mana, in a way we can influence how it acts through our own will, however, it’s kind of impossible to make a spell simply by controlling mana, although… Something interesting can happen…” I smiled to myself recalling the blissful explosion. “Anyway if we give a meaning to our mana, how about we give a meaning to our spell name, what if we imagine how the spell truly works and relate that to the name? Wouldn’t that achieve the same effect as a chant?” Looks like I arrived at something. 

The class sheepishly nodded. “Well, that is in theory on how to make a chant a single word, you give the word a chant-like meaning to you, of course, it can be hard to do seeing you have to completely know how the effects of a spell works.” Which is why it took forever to learn all of my spells that way… I took a seat as the kids thought to themselves. 

“Amazing…” 

“How could she know all of this?” 

“Is she really a kid? No, she is something else…” 

“She is the best teacher…”

I kept hearing random songs of praise, I mean, I didn’t think I was that great at teaching, was knowledge really that dead here? I was hoping to see new heights of magic, not to see it become stale, what a disappointment. Looks like the venture of teaching will not last long, well student colosseum isn't happening, so there isn't much of a point.