The Turtle and the Tiger
"This much should be enough. Right?"
The day of the third lesson had already dawned.
Once again, I gathered the two hundred or so mana stones I'd be handing out today and checked who had passed the homework.
The first, naturally, was Leo.
On class days she'd seemed oddly sluggish, as if she couldn't quite grasp it the way the others had, but she'd succeeded the very next day. She was already moving her mana with surprising fluency. If anything, I'd bet she'd be the first to clear the next assignment too.
The second was Candy Star.
She'd cleared it on day three, and judging by how her mana reacted after her transformation, it looked like she'd pulled it off in her magical-girl form. Not that it mattered either way—transformation was her own ability, so more power to her.
"...Third is Beriad. That one was a given."
He'd shown me something strange at the end, but with how adept he was at dark-attribute magic, he'd almost certainly passed without a hitch. If it hadn't been for Candy Star's transformation stunt, he probably would've been second.
And then, the grand finale.
"......?"
"Hehe..."
She didn't make it.
Yena had failed to succeed even by the day of class.
Still, she had genuine talent, and the way she'd mimicked Spear's Roar using Blue-Ring's Eye had been a frankly remarkable result. Because of that, I'd half-hoped she'd manage the homework too, but...
Hm.
I suppose borrowing my eyes for a brief moment wasn't enough to pull it off on the spot.
"C-could I have one too, meow...?"
"It's fine. You've already accomplished quite a lot as it is."
Even the Academy's students typically took anywhere from a single day to about a month to grow comfortable with mana transfer. That was the standard at the Empire's Academy, an institution that gathered only the genuinely gifted. In other words, there was nothing strange at all about Yena not managing it yet.
"In any case, welcome, everyone. Some of you I haven't seen in a week, and some of you are here for the very first time."
Seven students now occupied the lecture hall.
Small compared to the dozens I'd taught back then, but I chose to think of it as quality over quantity. A room full of people without talent wouldn't amount to much no matter how many there were.
As the lecture hall filled with people, the online classroom filled up in real time as well. Before I knew it, the viewer count had surged past 180,000.
I gave a small nod, offered a quick greeting, and turned my attention to the three newcomers.
A peculiar man and woman sitting side by side with Redberry, the Mage of Scorching Heat.
A couple... though I didn't think that was quite it.
"Looks like she's watching us."
"Shouldn't we introduce ourselves?"
Going by their speech and mannerisms, they seemed closer to siblings than lovers.
"You all know the rule of my class by now, yes? Introductions are required."
"Yep! Yul, I'll go first."
"Go ahead."
A man with emerald hair and a bold, hearty bearing strode forward without hesitation. He wore something like an Eastern-style martial robe, and his hands were sheathed in deep blue gauntlets. His build was a touch larger than the woman's, but otherwise the resemblance between them was striking.
"Pleasure to meet you! I am Myul. We come from the Hercason Tribe. What I wield is the Green Turtle—he who guards the azure tortoise of the north."
"...?"
"That should do it. Right?"
He gave a firm nod and wrapped up his brief introduction.
What was with that strange speech pattern—neither casual nor formal?
I'd seen plenty of users with Penalties by now, but no matter how I looked at this one, he seemed closer to an NPC than a player.
The chat was in an uproar. And it wasn't just the chat—Redberry and the other students seated nearby were all furrowing their brows, question marks practically floating over their heads.
The only person in the room who looked remotely composed was Yul, pressing a hand to her forehead.
"Uh... first of all, this Myul person is a genuine user. They donated to get in here, and they've even sent chat messages before."
"That's right. I chatted with Lady Lily. Donated thirty thousand won, too."
Myul proudly spread three fingers toward the camera.
The fact that he was clearly looking at the camera confirmed it—he was a user.
Well, since he was already up here, I decided to fire off a few questions.
"What's your class?"
"Class? One moment, I will check. Ah—it reads Green Guardian. Among them, I guard the north."
"So each member of the tribe guards a different direction?"
"Precisely. Each of us is a guardian of a direction—I keep the north, and Yul keeps the west. I am very much looking forward to the lesson."
"......"
So he says.
"You can go take your seat now."
"Ah! Very well. Then I shall. Good luck, Yul!"
"Haah..."
As Myul pumped his fist in the air, Yul shook her head wearily and rose from her seat.
She had short, snow-white hair marked with three black stripes, and her outfit was similar to Myul's but rendered in paler tones. Her eyes gleamed like those of a wild beast. She held no weapon, yet she radiated a pressure even stronger than his.
Yul took her place on the platform and gave a short, formal bow.
"Pleased to meet you. I am Yul, from the Hercason Tribe like Myul. Please forgive anything strange Myul says."
"Hey! There is nothing strange about me! Yul!"
"Quiet. You're embarrassing me."
"Do you mock the North?!"
"I'm not mocking it, you stupid turtle."
"Why, you tiger—!"
"Please don't fight."
What on earth was with these two.
"For the record, what I wield is the White Tiger. It means precisely what it says—the white tiger. And yes, I guard the west."
"So you're a white guardian, then?"
"A guardian of white."
"Hm... I have plenty more questions, but let's leave it at that for now."
Honestly, I was curious. A user carrying around lore that went a little too deep to be a mere Penalty. But they were busy guarding this and that—if I started digging into their identity in front of a crowd of thousands, that would be poor form.
With Redberry's introduction complete, the lesson proper began.
Last week's homework had been to transfer mana back into a depleted condensing stone, then move that mana once more into a wooden rod. It was a simple application of what's commonly called transfer, yet many students had failed it and were forced to pin their hopes on another week.
"However, no fewer than three of you succeeded. That is a tremendous achievement."
"You're not mocking me right now, are you?"
"Well, we can't rest on our laurels here, can we?"
We still had a long road ahead, and mountains of things left to learn.
For now, the three newcomers—Redberry, Myul, and Yul—had only cleared the first stage. Moving them on to the next so soon posed something of a problem...
"......"
But with Yena around, it shouldn't matter much.
Besides, all three of the newcomers showed real promise.
"Now that everyone's grown reasonably familiar with transfer, it's time to attempt something harder."
The first stage had been mana comprehension—shattering a mana stone's arrangement to understand the mana within. The second was mana transfer—learning to freely embed that mana wherever one wished. And the third was the advanced stage of transfer itself.
I spread my hand open.
Seven threads of light fanned out, drifting before each student before solidifying into a weapon apiece.
"A dagger?"
"...A hammer?"
"A staff, I see."
"Oh! Yul, you got knuckles!"
"Do be quiet."
They were already inspecting the familiar weapons that had appeared before each of them. Even the Academy's students used to react exactly this way. The only difference was how little awe the weapons inspired here—though, in a way, that made sense. These were rankers who had handled countless masterwork weapons; manifestations of power like this would have been a common sight for them.
But these are by no means 'ordinary' weapons.
"The weapons I've distributed to you were each crafted from my own mana, shaped to match your individual abilities. They possess an exceptionally high mana conduction rate."
And then—
Kugugung...!
"A golem?"
"This will be the assistant assisting with today's lesson."
A snow-white golem rose from the floor of the lecture hall. It stood roughly three meters tall, and the blue gems embedded across its body pulsed with a cool, frigid mana.
It didn't look particularly stronger than an ordinary boss monster, but the fact that I—their professor—had summoned it was more than enough to raise the students' guard.
The pre-distributed weapons, and now a golem. A few of them had probably already caught on.
"The objective of this session is simple: destroy the golem with the weapon you've been given, and you pass. Oh, and should you fail—the golem's fist will be flying your way."