Exam Period (4)
Professor Jeremi’s ecology class ended abruptly.
In contrast, Lir’s ecology study session dragged on for quite some time.
Beyond that, Lir taught the students about three monsters in total: the Frexiton.
Professor Jeremi looked utterly dejected, but as her gaze drifted far away into the distance, Lir fired a question to snap her back.
“Professor Jeremi, what is the most preferred habitat of the Frexiton?”
“T-That… is a humid, narrow place, they say.”
It was getting hard to tell who the real professor was and who was the student helping out.
The lesson lasted exactly two hours.
They spent nearly half of that time moving around, but the students didn’t mind one bit.
If this had been the original class, only about ten minutes out of the entire two hours would have been meaningful.
They were supposed to skim through the textbook and half the students would have zoned out and the other half pretended to listen.
Instead, they had seen the monsters with their own eyes and confirmed their ecology through the provided specimens.
Of course it stuck firmly in their minds, and the knowledge would truly sink in.
Only now did the students feel satisfied with the lesson.
Of course, the instructor wasn’t Professor Jeremi—she was the student Lir.
Once the class ended, the students began stepping out one by one into the back of the academy.
Before long, Professor Jeremi stood completely alone.
No one had even said goodbye.
…She was foolish.
The shock to Professor Jeremi was enormous.
It was far greater than the embarrassment she had suffered in front of the students—the shock of having her long-held beliefs shattered.
She lowered her head and slowly began to reflect on her own actions.
From some point onward… from when exactly had she become this incompetent?
Professor Jeremi had merely been overconfident in her abilities and the textbook.
Overconfidence had turned into arrogance, and she had become arrogant.
But now, at the moment the arrogance had been completely crushed, she was not foolish enough to deny even that.
Am I even qualified to be a professor?
She had held her current position at Farnike Academy for only a few years.
During that time, how many innocent students had she harmed with her haughty attitude—she had no idea.
She had been arrogant.
She had not considered reality and had been lost in her own little world.
She thought there was no difference between herself and a person who neglected the outside world and learned everything only through books.
She was even ashamed to call herself a student.
Professor Jeremi stood quietly, reflecting and reflecting again.
She emerged from the emotional shock and began to make rational judgments.
She had made a tremendous mistake so far.
She could not undo it, but if she stopped here it would simply repeat itself.
She recognized the mistake she had made and began to think about how she should act from now on.
Lir Ostin.
Professor Jeremi felt gratitude toward the student who had awakened her with that method of public humiliation.
If Lir had not done so, she might still not know reality even after a few more years, or perhaps even until she died.
…I should apologize.
She had felt anger at the girl’s fierce, adrenaline-pumped glare and had thought she deserved a scolding, but in the end, thanks to her, she had realized her path had been wrong.
“You haven’t left yet, Professor.”
A voice spoke.
It was the same voice that had kept ringing out for three hours.
When she lifted her head, there stood Lir Ostin.
A student far younger than herself.
Yet Professor Jeremi felt gratitude toward the girl who had awakened her.
She decided.
“Lir Ostin, I’m sorry. And thank you.”
“Huh?”
Lir bowed deeply and expressed her gratitude to the girl who had awakened her.
Only then did Professor Jeremi fully meet her eyes.
“Thanks to you, I was able to realize my own shortcomings. If I didn’t even know such basic things, I have no right to call myself a professor.”
“Mistakes can happen, but the wrong itself cannot be erased, so we must repeat the process in order to atone and never repeat the mistake.”
Lir smiled in front of Professor Jeremi.
And then she gently took hold of Professor Jeremi’s sleeve, checked something, and placed her hand on the shoulder.
“Professor. The foundation of ecology comes from practice, not theory. If you had known that, you would have done well.”
Thud, thud.
Lir patted the shoulder with a triumphant expression.
“Then I have another class, so I’ll be going ahead. Professor.”
“Ah, um… Take care, Lir.”
Lir turned toward the faculty building first.
Professor Jeremi watched her with a somewhat dazed expression.
It was a strange feeling—the sensation of being lightly patted on the shoulder.
…Could it be that a student slapped me?
Ecological Knowledge
***
Sometimes in life, patience is required.
There is patience that has no end in sight, like an endless tunnel, and patience that lasts until the very end even when the destination is clearly visible.
Calm down. Not yet. It might not be.
Thud, thud, thud.
The time when the sun was already setting low.
Normally this was when the A-class training room would be bustling with activity.
But Lir was walking at a brisk pace along the streets of the royal capital.
And she had arrived in front of her house.
With a composed smile, she reached into the inner pocket of her blue cloak and pulled out the key.
The door clicked open with a sharp sound.
Normally, after work she would take off her clothes, head to the shower, or prepare something to eat.
But today was different.
She slammed the door shut with a bang.
She checked to make sure the windows weren’t open, then searched the inside.
Thud, thud, thud.
She jumped onto the bed.
She hurled her body onto the soft, white bed and it perfectly enveloped her.
“Ah, ahahahaha…!! Ahahaha!!”
Refreshing. It was incredibly refreshing.
The stress that had piled up all this time was completely gone.
She buried her face in the pillow and rolled her feet back and forth, laughing loudly enough to fill the entire room.
“Hahahaha…!!! It’s so fun. So refreshing!!”
You couldn’t help but smile when you saw that expression.
The same panicked look she had given when Lir had splashed ink on her.
And the dumbfounded look when she had been lightly slapped—it was so entertaining.
Of course, morally it was a bit problematic, but thinking about how much she and her friends had suffered, she had been a bit lenient, wasn’t it?
Even the evaluation for today’s practical class was clear.
She had intended to humiliate Lir, but she ended up being humiliated instead.
Thinking about that terrified expression and how she had tried to climb the wall—it was a little bit regrettable, but honestly a little.
Anyway, she didn’t get hurt. In the end, she seemed satisfied with the outcome.
She had been a bit surprised.
When she had seen her head lowered, she had gone over to check on her condition.
She hadn’t expected that the girl would apologize to her immediately and then say she had reflected on her past actions on her own.
She had wanted to make sure the professor couldn’t even smile in front of her.
But at least she had shown some minimal sense of decency.
Her ability might not be enough to be a professor, but…
…Haa. Even laughing is hard.
She had laughed so much that her stomach hurt and tears welled up in her eyes.
She was certain that this was the most enjoyable and fun thing that had happened in the entire year.
From now on, the ecology classes…
Whether Professor Jeremi would resign from her position or properly learn and teach, she couldn’t say.
Honestly, she wasn’t my rival.
She could see that the students themselves seemed to have the will to study, and she thought she had done everything an upperclassman could do for the juniors.
She wasn’t an academy upperclassman, but as a knight senior and as a life senior, she had done her part.
Anyway.
I’m a bit worried though.
She had managed to reform Professor Jeremi.
Good.
She had wiped away her long-held stress all at once.
Good.
But she had made this mistake without thinking about the aftermath.
She had acted without considering the consequences that would follow.
It was a bit scary to think about what Professors Helahem and Remediela might say in just a few days, but…
Anyway, the name had already spread far and wide.
She was already a member of Class A.
She had already fought a duel with Ferdan Aitana.
She had already become famous enough that when she walked around the academy, quite a few people looked her way.
Of course, the fact that she had humiliated a professor was just one part of a different story.
Well, she would figure it out somehow.
She hadn’t done anything illegal.
Professor Jeremi seemed satisfied with her.
For now, let’s enjoy this feeling even more.
The exam had just begun.
There were still many assignments left.
But for now, let’s forget all of that and just enjoy it for a little while.
Days like this had to come.
With that, she pulled the pillow into her arms.
The next moment, what she saw before her eyes was the sun beginning to rise from beyond the warm sunlight.
***
Even the streetlights along the road were off at the late hour.
Aside from the sound of the wind, there was no other noise.
There was no trace of any presence, and most of the houses along the street had their lights off.
Thud, thud.
A large-built man wearing an inverted hood walked alone down the street.
And the place he stopped was a white building located between two large buildings.
It was Lir Ostin’s house.
The man gazed at the note in his hand under the moonlight.
“Is this place?”
The recent incident at the Ebonic Magic Tower.
Regarding that incident, the kingdom was conducting an investigation.
The Royal Guard had stepped in, and during the investigation they had confirmed that the quantity of Megirurun did not match.
At that time, the only suspect who had entered and exited the magic tower was a family member of a magic tower associate—the Langrand family—and the student Lir Ostin.
The previous two cases had been closed.
It had been confirmed that they had nothing to do with Megirurun, and the only one left was the student Lir Ostin.
The motive was clear.
The reason she had come to the magic tower was to obtain the ingredients.
Through informants, the Royal Guard had identified her residence.
Once more, the Royal Guard imprinted the image of Lir’s house in their eyes and turned their steps.