Chapter 18: Show Off

Chapter 18: Show Off

Though it wasn't something that Nathan really showed, he was a person with a lot of pride. In a certain sense, I guess you could call that narcissism, but it wasn't like he just took out mirrors to look at himself or anything.

He looked at Dennis, the English teacher, and narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

"You think that this school would be better off without commoners, no?"

Dennis scoffed and flicked his sleeve.

"That much is obvious. Simply because they have a little bit of magical talent, we have to raise clueless little babies that just end up tarnishing the reputation! They do no good!"

Nathan casually raised a finger into the air.

"The first Legendary Mage that came from this school was Erin, well-known for being a commoner. And to this day, there are very few that have even gotten close to her prowess."

Dennis' face twitched.

"That is just some random exception! It does not change my point whatsoever!"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders.

"The whole reason that Erin graduated from that school in the first place was that it was one that allowed commoners to enroll. It wasn't as though there weren't other schools, but naturally, they were restrictive."

He let out a sigh, as though he was talking to a child.

"Unlike all the other mages that left their school without turning back, Erin had helped support it to return its generosity. Those other magic schools tried to suck every single gold coin they could from those that attended, leaving only a mild distaste for the place."

His expression hardened to become similar to stone.

"But despite coming upon a large sum of money, the school's nature did not change. Commoners were still accepted, and the principles were always adhered to. That's how they continually got support from those that graduated, allowing them to grow even larger and larger until Golden Gold School had become the undisputed top magic school."

Dennis opened his mouth to say something but found himself choking on his words. Nathan used that time to hammer the point home.

"The fact you so willingly want to go against what made this school so large in the first place shows how foolish and immature you are. It would be better if this school got rid of you."

Dennis looked rather livid.

"How dare you speak to a teacher like that? Do you really think that you could learn how to read and write without someone teaching you?"

Nathan scoffed with a smile on his face. He took several steps forth.

"Maybe not, but I sure as hell don't need someone like you to teach me. I've already learned all I need to know about reading and writing."

This time, Dennis smiled confidently.

"Oh, so high and mighty now are you? Then who exactly would be willing to teach those things to a commoner like you?"

For a split second, Nathan seemed rather stumped. After all, he couldn't just mention where he actually got his reading and writing skills from. But he didn't crumble apart. Instead, he pointed a thumb towards me.

"He did. And I'm sure he's a better teacher than anything you could be."

My eyelid twitched. I didn't mind being dragged into this, but I felt a little awkward because I hadn't actually done anything.

Dennis shifted his gaze to me, after which there was a confused expression on his face. It seemed like he didn't know if he should be angry or not. But he promptly ignored me, before focusing his anger on Nathan.

He grabbed Nathan's shirt, lifting him up by the collar.

"Little runt! Do you think I'm just an English teacher? I could kill you as easily as squishing an ant!"

Nathan only leaned forward. His face lost all expression and his eyes appeared to be dead.

"Do it then. Let me see how pathetic you are, an old man that can't win a logical battle and can only rely on his fists."

He was being dead serious. Rather, he really did not care if the English teacher ended up killing him right then and there, simply because that would prove his point.

That was the kind of person he was.

But again, it was something that he rarely showed.

In the end, the English teacher lost heart. Despite his ability to do so, he wasn't going to ruin his future by killing a kid for the sake of pride. In the end, he set him down, but there was a nasty frown on his face.

It was pretty clear that he was going to hold a very big grudge for the rest of his life from this.

Raisa whispered to me after all of that went down.

"You even taught him how to read and write? You must be an amazing teacher!"

I waved my hand dismissively.

"He was the one that picked it up so quickly."

From there, I shot a glance at Nathan and rolled my eyes, telling him that he went too far. However, Nathan simply smiled in response. There were just certain people that he really didn't like, so I knew his actions couldn't really be helped.

Though, it would turn out the conflict wasn't done just yet.

After writing a phrase on the board, Dennis tapped the board and called out to Nathan.

"Since you are so proficient in reading and writing, then why don't you repeat this?"

Nathan looked back at the teacher as though he was stupid. As people that spoke English as their first language, the difficulty of reading a sentence was beyond trivial. In fact, it wouldn't be hard to believe first graders could do such a thing.

He sighed.

"The mage on top of the mountain casts a magical spell."

Dennis raised an eyebrow. While not impressed, he at least acknowledged Nathan had some ability. He cleared his throat before writing something else.

"Then what about this?"

Nathan rolled his eyes before repeating the words on the board once more.

"The criminal was put under the guillotine and put to death."

Dennis was rather surprised. Honestly, I even kinda forgot how to pronounce guillotine because it wasn't intuitive. He seemed to be stumped for a few moments, before a smile formed on his face.

It looked like he had come up with something.

"Well then, how about this? I will say a sentence, and you will then write that sentence on the board."

Nathan blinked a few times.

"Alright then."

Dennis cleared his throat before speaking.

"The spices that the nobles had purchased contained jalapenos."

Without breaking a sweat, Nathan wrote the entire sentence down without pausing. Thankfully, his hands dried enough so that he could hold onto the chalk easily. I guess what Dennis was going for was the silent j in jalapenos, but I'm not even sure if Nathan noticed it.

Dennis seemed rather befuddled after that had happened.

It was at this point that Nathan smirked before speaking up.

"You teach this stuff right? So that must mean you will also be able to read out what I write."

Dennis raised his eyebrow before scoffing.

"That is only natural, it's not as though you would know a word that I do not."

From there, Nathan proceeded to write like a kid trying to show off the big words that he knew. Though, I guess transferred into this world, it would be something considered impressive.

'The epidermis covers the phalanges to create fingers.'

Dennis was initially very confident.

"The e..."

His expression fell as he saw the next words. After a few moments, he clicked his tongue and pointed at Nathan mockingly. nOvE(LB/In

"Those aren't real words!"

I blinked a few times before speaking up.

"Epidermis is the word for the outer skin, and phalanges refer to the bones of the fingers and I guess toes too."

Dennis' head snapped to me. He had an expression of disbelief. After a few moments, he hurriedly took out a small black book he had on him and began flipping through the page. Though there was no title on it, I could imagine that it was a dictionary.

His expression only worsened as he paused on a page, before hurriedly checking another one.

"...They are real words."

I felt a tiny bit of relief. In all honesty, I wasn't sure if those were considered real words in this place, but it looks like it was fine.

Dennis put a hand on his head and looked quite defeated. He then turned to me, after which he asked with borderline desperation.

"How... did you teach him so much in such a small frame of time."

I blinked a few times. It would probably not be a good thing to point out he had basically spent eighteen years learning the English language, so I simply shrugged my shoulders.

"He can pick up on things incredibly quickly. It was not hard to teach someone like that."

Raisa turned to look behind her and called out to me with a smile.

"Could you teach me too?"

I felt a headache coming on as I hurriedly waved my hands.

"No more lessons, I would rather do other things. Besides, you wanted me to come over or something, I'll only agree if there's no teaching. Oh yeah, I'll be able to come over today and the next two days."

Raisa smiled brightly before clapping.

"Ah, then today it is!"

My eyelid twitched.

She didn't have to do any preparation of any sort? Well, I guess I'll just base it on her judgment.

Wait... why did I even have to go to her place anyway?

Ah, fuck. My teenage hormone-filled brain is making me do stupid things...

The corner of Dennis' lip twitched rather violently while all that was happening. He looked quite demoralized and went back to the front of the desk with a sigh.

"...It appears I've been mistaken. Though I find it hard to believe, your mastery appears to have exceeded mine. Lord Bryson and Natan will no longer need to attend normal classes and will face no punishments for skipping. However, you will still be required to show up during the major tests."

I raised an eyebrow.

Skipping class?...

Under normal circumstances, one would be punished heavily should they not show up, or even if they were late. This was in part because they wanted the students to do well, thus improving their reputation.

The punishments consisted of things like a demotion, reduction in grades, and if one was in the D Class, they could very easily be kicked out. If we were given a free pass to skip, that would save us a lot of time, especially considering English classes were essentially useless to us.

However, Raisa furrowed her brows and pointed something out.

"...Dennis, are you giving permission with the intention of getting them to skip classes so you can demote them?"

Dennis looked back at her cluelessly, and I waved nonchalantly.

"Don't worry about that kind of stuff Raisa."

Raisa looked back at me with curiosity.

"Eh? You can put your trust in that guy so easily?"

I shook my head.

"Not so much that guy, but rather the person that watches everything that happens in the school. They basically know everything that happens here, so we won't have to worry about any fraud."

Raisa blinked a few times, staring at me as if I was a ghost. A small smile formed on her face.

"Haha, I never knew your information network was so... exceptional."

Uh, yeah. Definitely my information network. I noticed a glance from Nathan. He had his eyebrow raised as though trying to say, 'look at that, I've done something pretty good, no?'

...Get off your damn high horse, Nathan. You didn't even intend on doing all this, you just wanted to show off.