Side Story 6. The Magic School and the Monster in the Basement (5)
Side Story 6. The Magic School and the Monster in the Basement (5)
The classroom door opened and the blackboard in the front center with desks lined up in a stair style came into view.
The training center I trained in was not such a luxurious classroom but a cheap wooden desk and an old blackboard. The contrast was too great.
In fact, it was very natural. The Magic School was a place where you pay a lot of money for a few years, and the training center was just a cheap teaching center for manpower.
"Den…!"
As I entered the classroom, Yuria noticed me, and waved her hand, softly calling my name.
Alice stopped her while Milpia and Arelia looked at me as if they found it amusing.
The head of students drew attention from students by clapping lightly. "Okay, everyone. I'm sure you all know that there is an instructor from the Adventurers' Guild. This is one of the instructors here."
All eyes convened towards me.
When I heard the buzz, it was mostly people saying that I was too young and that I was probably not a madosa. In the middle, I also heard voices showing interest in me.
"Quiet!" said the head of students’ firm voice.
The students became quietened immediately. She was definitely a tiger teacher.
"With the consideration of the dean, he was specially granted permission to audit while teaching from today. So he will be taking classes with you in this classroom when he does not have lectures."
"Ohhhh!"
The students looked at me with interest again.
"Even if Instructor-nim is of the same age as you and will be taking classes together, he is here to teach, so I hope you will not be rude. If you are rude, the correctional office will be waiting for you," the head of students threatened.
The students became rigid. The correctional office must be a very scary place.
"Will you introduce yourself?" the head of students looked at me and asked.
I smiled and nodded. "Nice to meet you. I am Den of the "Ainsmall Alchemy School” and will be teaching you adventure studies, economics, and public administration for a short time and occasionally auditing classes."
In public places where magicians gathered, it was common to state their own schools rather than status or last name. They were only chicks that could only be called newbies, but a magician was still a magician.
The students formally applauded at my introduction.
"Then I'll excuse myself. If you need anything, you can always come to my lab and tell me."
Contrary to saying so, her expression threatened them by saying ‘just try doing something that annoying’.
It was the appearance of a typical magician who hated to do anything other than his own research.
I spoke with a business smile, "Thank you for your consideration."
The head of students nodded briefly and immediately left the classroom. How rigid!
I smiled and looked for a seat, and some students flocked to me.
"Instructor-nim, you look young. How old are you?"
"I'm 17 years old."
"If you're from the Ainsmall Alchemy School, what's your rank?”
The rank was a kind of class separation according to the skills set by each school of magic. It was usually divided into a magician, great magician, madosa, and great madosa. However, except for the wall of the Magic Way, which was the boundary between the great magician and a madosa, each school had a different way of distinguishing levels. According to what I knew, alchemy was divided into six magician ranks and three madosa ranks according to the number of drugs that one could make and one’s ability to handle mana stones. Honestly, I wasn’t really interested so I didn’t know how exactly the ranks were divided.
"For rank, I learned in the countryside, and I've never been to an academic conference, so I don't have a rank.”
"If you're from the Adventurers' Guild, are you a civil servant? Are you close to the madosa-nim who is coming?”
"That’s right, I am a civil servant and I know Mr. Dane Walker well."
The sudden interest of the students was unexpected. Usually, magicians were not interested in others, but maybe it was because of their group life or they were particularly eccentric. Looking at the surrounding atmosphere, it seemed to be the former.
It was Alice who saved me from the constant attack of questions.
"Everyone! You’re putting him in a difficult position. And the break will be over soon," Alice said.
The students smacked their lips with disappointment and returned to their original seats.
"Let's go Den. Ah, since you’re here as a lecturer, should I be polite?" Alice queried.
I shook my head. "It's fine. It's awkward to hear honorifics all of a sudden, so treat me as usual."
"That would be for the best, right?”
I followed Alice and joined in between her and Yuria.
As soon as I came, I was noticeable because I was already an auditing student, but I became more noticeable because I was stuck between two girls. I didn't want to stand out if possible but considering that Alice just saved me, let's take it as a convenience fee.
When I sat down, Arelia, the third princess sitting next to Yuria, smiled and asked, "We’re in the middle of the semester. Will you be able to keep up with the progress?”
I avoided her gaze, slightly turned my head so that she couldn’t see my face well, then answered, "Haha, I wonder."
I didn't want to get too close to the anti-magician, an unknown factor.
"It's okay. Den has excellent magic skills, so if he watches a little bit, he'll be able to catch up quickly,” Yuria said.
Milpia looked at me with teasing eyes and smiled. "Oh my, really?"
She had an expression that made me want to raise my martial arts to the max and give her a hard flick on the head. I was seriously contemplating whether to flick her on the forehead before class began. However, my contemplation, unfortunately, ended as merely an attempt because the professor opened the door and came in.
"Let's start today's soul magic class once again with great spirit!"
The professor with a bright impression glanced at me while putting a thick textbook on the table.
"Since there is a student who is auditing the class today, I'll explain it as easily and simply as I always do!"
The students booed at the professor's words.
"Booo! When was it easy?"
"Right! It was always hard!"
Considering the bright voice while booing, the professor seemed to be popular, putting aside the difficulty of the class.
"Read it, even if only for a little bit. It's better than having seen nothing and taking classes." Alice pushed her textbook over to me.
"Thank you."
I quickly turned the pages of the textbook that looked like 1,300 pages starting from the first page. Flipping through the book quickly, it took only a few minutes to see the end of the textbook.
"Thanks, I read it."
When the textbook was returned again, Alice and Yuria were surprised.
"That fast? Aren't you taking it too half-heartedly?"
"It's not like I’m memorizing it, it's just figuring out what it's about."
To be exact, I only checked the progress of the class. Anyway, I already knew the level of teaching for soul magic at school.
"But the textbook is easy and detailed, so it doesn't seem difficult to understand."
I thought it would be good to use it as a textbook for Arwen. Of course, it wasn't enough to teach for long. If the magic book described in full was 1,300 pages, it was a very small amount.
"This isn't hard?"
Alice, Milpia, and Arelia looked dumbfounded.
"Yeah. Isn't this okay? Don't you think so, Yuria?"
When I sought Yuria for affirmation, she smiled and scratched her cheek awkwardly.
"Well, I think that too... But it’s not my area of specialty so there are difficult parts.”
There was no way this could be difficult for the Butterfly Tribe, so she must be being modest. Looking at her expression, I grasped the situation.
At that time, the professor clapped his hands and looked at me as if he had heard me.
"Right! That auditing student knows something there! Now! Everyone, soul magic is not difficult magic," the professor said.
At that, the students all turned their attention to me.
I was just chatting with my friends briefly in a small voice, but it was burdensome to have all these eyes on me like this. I didn't know the professor would have such a good ear.
The professor sometimes asked me questions about soul magic while teaching.
"The things commonly called dokkaebi are things that have souls in them. Therefore, it is commonly viewed as soul magic, but which category do you think it would correspond to if applied to other magic?"
"The dokkaebi can be said to be a kind of spirit of objects. Therefore, it can be seen as a kind of spirit magic. Or, since magic is put on an object, it can be thought of as enchanting, or since a soul is being attached, it can also be thought of as soul magic."
Whenever he heard my answer, the professor flashed a face of satisfaction and continued.
As expected, not everyone can explain things very easily like a professor. Of course, considering the level of learning, I didn't want to enter the Magic School at all. Still, there was a lot to learn from the teaching and explaining methods.
I'll try applying it to Arwen.
When the bell rang after class, the professor erased the blackboard and packed the thick textbooks.
"I feel like it's been a really long time since I had a class where my questions were answered right away. Everyone, follow after the auditing student and work harder."
I left the classroom after those words.
"Long time no see? Yuria, I think it’s at a level where you can answer them?" I said.
Yuria smiled bitterly. "That, I'm lazy...”
Looking at the way she trailed off, she seemed to have answered continuously last year and ended up only having questions asked to her. Then, it made sense she wouldn’t want to bother answering.
"I see. Then I'll have to pretend I don't know starting from the next class.”
When I thought of my past life as a student, I only remembered that although my body was in class, I didn't listen and played with my computer at home remotely with my smartphone. Come to think of it, I was a typical bad student that teachers would hate.
"Wow, you seemed to have studied a lot besides alchemy. It would have been nice if Mister Den came to the Magic School also, but it's too bad," said Arelia.
Milpia smiled. "I know.”
I looked into Milpia's eyes and spoke with sound transmission magic.
- You told me to pretend to not know you. Why do you keep provoking me?
- Oh my? I never talked to you? Are you picking a fight because I just responded to my friends?
What Milpia said was true. It's just that she provoked me with subtle facial expressions. The reason she kept annoying me with her expressions was probably that she got burned by the security magic of my workshop a few days ago.
So petty!
As expected, I should make an excuse of playing a game and flick her on the forehead with all my strength. As soon as I tried to propose a game while loosening my fingers lightly, a brown-haired male student with a bowl cut from the front row snorted.
"Hmph! He probably couldn't come because he doesn't have money!"
Alice was furious at the brown-haired bowl cut. "Pavlov! What did you just say?!”
“I said he’s a beggar who can’t even afford tuition. Hmph!”
"What!"
Alice smacked her desk hard, got up from her seat, and Yuria was also furious.
"That's too harsh!"
Is just saying I’m a beggar too harsh?
I could pour out curses right now so that the word "beggar" sounds like a very luxurious nobility speech.
"Oh? What do you mean a beggar? As far as I know, there's probably no one as rich as Den.”
Milpia smiled and looked at me as if she knew everything, and I forced myself to smile and look at her.
"Hahaha, no matter how rich I am, I'm not as rich as Milpia."
While Milpia and I were engaged in a war of nerves, the bowl head suddenly burst into rage and got up from his seat.
"Sh-shut up! What do you know about Miss Milpia!"
What is this bowl head saying? How dare he yell at me!
Does he want to die? Is this a new method of suicide?