219 Duel Teacher
After taking a long breath, Luke looked down at his hands and realized that he was shaking with excitement. Well, this was going to be the first class he had ever taught in his life, so it was understandable to be nervous.
However, he wasn’t completely alone in this new stage of his life, because John and Meredith had also entered the Oukiwa Academy of Nobles as students, since Ayumi had offered to pay for them during this research period. With more eyes scattered around the institution, finding helpful information should take less time.
John was a young boy who was soon to turn eighteen, and although he was poor, he had a well-groomed complexion that caught girls’ eyes. He was also intelligent, so he was able to make friends quickly.
Meredith was also beautiful, but in a different way than most girls. Her sexy twenty-two-year-old body would certainly stand out from the other girls of the Academy, making her famous in the Academy quickly. She was also very shrewd, so she could pick up any rumor with her attentive ears and eyes.
Although it seemed that everything would go fine, there was still one problem: due to the issues in the security of the City, thanks to the lack of adventurers, the Oukiwa Academy of Nobles had returned to the boarding school format, as it was in the past. This meant that Luke only had a way to communicate with Alexis and Ayumi through Koven, the S-Class summoning, at least for a while.
Still looking at his callus-filled hand, Luke quieted down.
‘You’ve worked hard to come this far, and it’s not time to stop yet. This isn’t the end yet…’ He spoke to himself.
Then, he opened the door, and the two dozen teenagers immediately stopped talking. They all seemed to be no older than eighteen, and they also all appeared to be Middle or Upper Class because of their clothes.
“Good morning, class.” Luke spoke while walking over to the table in the center of the room. This one was a simple wooden table and a comfortable-looking armchair was accompanying it.
The students immediately stood up and roared, “Good afternoon, respectable teacher!”
“Ow! You don’t need such formality.” The half-wolf startled. “Well, for anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Luke Lange and I will be your new Duel Teacher.”
All the students were surprised to hear his name; after all, they only knew the Champion of the Tournament of Legends as the ‘Half-Wolf’.
“Before you guys start your introductions for me to know you all better, does anyone have any questions?”
For a few seconds, no one raised a hand, and they just looked at each other, until a bespectacled boy at the back of the room dared to ask:
“Respectable Teacher… I mean… Mr. Lange, aren’t you too young to be teaching a course for us?” He didn’t seem to be being rude, but rather curious.
Leaning against his wooden desk, Luke smiled, glad that the question he had been waiting for was asked. To answer his student’s question, first the half-wolf asked another question.
“Who here is an adventurers’ son?”
Half of the teenagers in the classroom raised their hands.
“Okay…” Luke spoke as he nodded and suddenly pointed to a girl in the middle of the room, who was holding up her hand. “What’s your name?”
“Heloá.”
“Do you know at how old your father or mother first stepped into a Dungeon?”
“From what they tell me, they both entered at eighteen.”
“The minimum age, right? And now… you there on the left, can you tell me how old your parents entered a Dungeon?”
“Eighteen years as well.”
So, Luke looked again at the bespectacled student who asked for him, and this time, he questioned:
“If people with eighteen years of age are old enough to have entered a Dungeon, why can’t people with twenty years of age become teachers?”
He was just copying the example the vice-principal used, but this analogy had such an effect on him that he felt he should use it with his students.
“I understand, Mr. Lange… I’m sorry for challenging you.”
“No, don’t apologize. You are in the Dueling course, so challenging is what you need to do. Whether it’s me, your classmates, or yourselves.” Luke’s speech finished with a closed smile.
Everyone looked at Luke with even more admiration than when they didn’t meet him. To most, Luke was no longer just the half-beast who won the Tournament of Legends and became the powerful Duel Teacher at precisely that moment. Even those who didn’t like Luke initially wondered when they could start learning with him.
From that point on, the class went on naturally. Luke couldn’t take his students to the Academy’s dueling range yet, but he could soon explain the basics of dueling to his students.
After knowing the names of all the teenagers present, he was impressed that there were only seven students from Noble Families in that class; after all, the Oukiwa Academy of Nobles was originally founded to teach Nobles exclusively. But, with the popularization of Dungeons over the last few hundred years, the institution had practically become a preparatory school for high-level adventurers. Simply having the graduate badge was already something that guaranteed a place in an intermediate Clan.
Nevertheless, studying at the Oukiwa Academy of Nobles wasn’t cheap at all, since the monthly fee of one gold coin was a bit steep for ninety-nine percent of the average family.
For this reason, Luke also knew that most of his students had very powerful parents, who were probably successful adventurers or famous businessmen, although they weren’t Nobles.
So, more than just pleasing their sons, Luke also had to deal with the pressure from their parents to teach something consistent with the realities of the world. Luckily, Luke could read five of the ten textbooks, so he explained a lot already in the first lesson.
When the class was over, the students in that class seemed satisfied and hungry for the next lesson in the Dueling class, which would finally be the practical class. The half-wolf managed to create a bond with each of them by memorizing their names.
In the end, the half-wolf was completely exhausted from talking for an hour, so he headed to the teacher’s office to rest for his next class, which was in an hour.
‘If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll meet Vinigo there…’ He cogitated and became more motivated, but still dragged himself up the walls. He had spent the whole night reading books.
When he approached the corridor where the Professors’ room was, he heard whispering that made him brake for a second before he entered the corridor. Without hesitation, he used the <Invisible Trail> skill to keep quiet while getting closer.
These whispers seemed to be coming from inside the teacher’s office, and the half-wolf soon noticed that it was some kind of gossip.
“Did you hear that half-beast man started today?” A woman with a prickly voice inquired in an almost noxious tone.
“Arrgh, don’t even remind me of that. Just imagining that I’ll have to share my spaces with a half-beast makes me shudder. I wonder if he really has the ability to teach here… Anyway, let’s change the topic, I don’t want to talk about this disgusting creature.”
Luke was about to enter the door of the teacher’s office, to scare the disgusting old teacher who was talking about him. Still, his instinct made him wait to hear some more of the conversation.
“So, I know everyone is commenting on the ‘Half-Wolf’, but have you heard that Teacher Vinigo is very sick? They say he hasn’t left his office in the underground of the Academy for days.”