The Professor's Syringe
Simon and Camibarez returned to Kizen via teleport.
Students who had arrived earlier were lined up, waiting their turn for the evaluation, and Simon and Camibarez fell in behind them.
Everyone's been through the wringer.
Not a single person looked to be in decent shape. The students returning from brutal combat carried back all manner of venomous monster corpses — a dead poison toad, a giant moth, a spider, and even an enormous water snake.
The centipede monster held by the pair of students directly ahead of them frightened Camibarez so badly that she hid behind Simon until it was over.
The line shrank quickly, and soon it was the pair in front's turn. When Byeolya and the TA staff laid eyes on the centipede monster they'd brought, even they let out gasps of amazement.
"Now THAT's big!"
Other students drifted over to get a look as well.
"Hey, nice work! How'd you even take this thing down?"
At Byeolya's question, the male student answered. "First we baited the monster into spitting its venom, then we ran. While it was chasing us, another team member harvested the poison, brewed an antidote, and we fought back and won."
"Clever. Well done."
Meanwhile, the TAs were examining the antidote. After dripping the centipede's venom and the antidote onto a sheet of paper side by side, one of them leaned in and whispered to Byeolya. "Mm! Antidote checks out. Assuming the footage shows nothing wrong, an A is basically locked in."
"Thank you!!"
The male and female students cheered ecstatically and threw their arms around each other — then, a beat too late, seemed to realize what they were doing, flushed scarlet, and hastily stepped apart.
Watching them, Byeolya let out an exasperated laugh. "You little whippersnappers, getting up to everything. No detours, you two — straight to the dorms, got it?"
"W-we're not taking detours!"
Laughter rippled across the clearing. The students who'd just earned their first A grades headed off under the weight of everyone's envious stares.
"Next!"
The head TA flipped over a file in her hand. "Student Simon Polentia and student Camibarez Ursula... whoa!"
The moment Simon dragged forward the pair of Desert Scorpions he'd been hauling along in both hands, the whole area erupted.
Not just the TAs — even Byeolya, who'd been sitting in her chair, shot to her feet.
"What kind of Desert Scorpion gets this big?"
"And they caught TWO of them!"
The reaction was more than favorable. Apparently the creatures they'd taken down were bigger and stronger than even Byeolya's side had anticipated.
"Aren't they supposed to be this size?" Simon asked.
"Usually they're about half this. Didn't you two get hurt fighting these things?"
"Mm... we nearly died, actually."
Simon said it with a relaxed smile, but beside him, Camibarez kept her eyes shut tight, as if even remembering that moment terrified her.
The TAs lifted the pincers and tail to examine them. Nothing remained but the wreckage now, but it was enough to guess just how enormous the Desert Scorpions they'd slain must have been.
Several TAs approached with tools, carefully trying to harvest the venom. Watching them tiptoe around for fear of getting splashed, Byeolya rose to her feet.
"Forget it. I'll taste it myself."
She licked the venom smeared across the ruined body of the Desert Scorpion with her tongue.
Next she accepted Camibarez's antidote in its vial, dabbed a finger in it, and pressed it to her tongue. Then she swallowed, smacking her lips thoughtfully.
"Oh! Nicely made!"
"Thank you, Professor!"
Camibarez said with a deep bow.
No kit in this world could analyze venom as reliably as Byeolya's tongue.
Baring her jagged triangular teeth in a wide grin, she declared, "You two did well. A+."
"Yaaay!"
Simon and Camibarez cheered with delight and threw their arms around each other again. The TAs all wore expressions that said, Here they go again.
"...Unnie."
One TA stole a glance at the head TA.
"Yeah, yeah. If the next performance assessment is boy-girl pairs too, I'll eat my hat."
The head TA sighed, clutching her side where it ached from laughing — but watching the two of them celebrate so guilelessly, a fond smile crept across her face. "Great work! Hand in the collars and head back!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Having proudly claimed the top marks, Simon and Camibarez decided not to head straight to the dorms, and instead waited a while for Meilyn and Rick.
Meilyn and Toto, for all the chaos they'd kicked up, had come away with a B+ — not a bad grade at all.
"...Toto?"
Yet barely half a day later, there was Toto, staggering around looking like a walking skeleton.
"S-Simon."
Toto shuffled over to Simon and spoke in a voice half-dead. "How did you ever survive with Meilyn all that time? I can't do it... I just can't..."
"Hey!!"
Meilyn's face went red as she barked back at him. "You two were badmouthing me again, weren't you!"
At the sight of Meilyn's face, Toto hunched over like a tiny rabbit before a raging beast.
Simon asked with a laugh, "Meilyn's not so bad, is she?"
"S-she's not bad, but... she's just... the type to talk you to death..."
"O-oh? She's never like that with me."
Toto opened his mouth to say that's because you're— then shut it fast, because Meilyn had come running up behind him and delivered a vengeance-fueled knuckle rap to his skull.
Rick and Catherine's team emerged next. Their grade was a C+ — solidly middle of the pack.
Catherine was busy complaining about how exhausting her teammates had been, while Rick beamed from ear to ear and stretched his arms skyward. "Ahh, that was FUN! I wish every performance assessment were like this!"
Watching Toto and Catherine, the other students just shook their heads.
"Simon and Cami really were the seal holding the others back."
"No kidding."
"Imagine if those two had been in any squad but Group 7."
"You wanna die?!"
Meilyn came charging over, face crimson, to punish them for their insolence.
A burst of uproarious laughter rang out.
And so the Toxicology performance assessment came to a safe end.
After a full night's rest, Simon walked into the library early in the morning with his textbooks under his arm.
He'd developed a habit of waking up early lately, and there was something refreshing about visiting the library while it was still nearly empty.
"Let's get to it."
Sitting down in his favorite spot, surrounded by his most-loved shelves, Simon opened Bahil's curse textbook.
He had mastered the curse of Painlessness, Indolence, and the curse of Enmity, Hostile. Just two more, and he would be able to cast Compelonia.
Simon had just pulled out his quill to begin studying the next curse when—
Ugh.
A person he had zero desire to run into appeared in the library. Simon immediately hunched down and raised his book to shield his face.
...Professor Walter.
Walter had come to the library and was chatting, surrounded by a flock of female students.
Walter had taken over from Silaje — who was away on a critical mission — and become a professor on the man's recommendation. He led his classes with a polish that made it impossible to believe he was new. In particular, there was his autumn-leaf brown hair, his sculpted features, his perfectly complementary horn-rimmed glasses, his gentle voice, and his friendly demeanor.
Judging by how the girls talking to him were responding, Walter had approached the students with a friendliness no other professor at the school could match, and he was steadily building a deep well of trust.
Hmmm.
Of course, Simon found the man suspicious in more ways than one, but he did his best not to let it show. After all, it was true that he'd received the Cloud technique Silaje developed through Walter, and the man had even offered him a Direct Disciple position.
Maybe I'm just being oversensitive.
"Getting quite the early start this morning, aren't we?"
Simon whipped his head around, startled. At some point, Walter — who'd been talking with the girls — had appeared right behind him.
"...Ah. G-good morning, Professor."
Simon greeted him with a strained smile.
"Your heartbeat sounds rushed and irregular."
Walter said it with a warm smile. "My apologies if I startled you."
"N-no, not at all."
Simon recovered his composure in an instant.
So to fake my calm around this man, I need to keep even my heartbeat in check?
"How has Cloud been treating you lately?"
"It's been great."
Simon answered with a smooth smile of his own, matching Walter's.
His gaze drifted for a moment to the fountain pen pinned to the lapel of Walter's suit — then quickly snapped back up to his face.
"It even helped me earn good marks at the BMAT."
"Haha! Glad to hear it. Thanks to our Special Admission No. 1's exploits, I've been holding my head a bit higher among the professors myself."
His voice dropped, conspiratorial. "Have you given any more thought to my offer?"
He seemed to be referring to the Direct Disciple proposal. Simon shook his head. "I'm sorry. My answer hasn't changed."
"I see."
Walter rested a hand lightly on Simon's shoulder. "Study hard. See you in class."
He was strolling away when he suddenly spun back around. "I've prepared a lot for this next lesson. It should be interesting."
Everywhere he went, students could be seen stopping him for a friendly word.
Simon stared at Walter's retreating back for a moment, then lowered his head and returned his focus to his curse studies.
The first class of the morning was Hemomancy.
Once again, the four members of Group 7 were clustered together, talking.
"The Hemomancy performance assessment is what worries me most."
Meilyn propped her chin on her hand and heaved a deep sigh. "A dark magic discipline about the heart? It all feels like grasping at clouds."
Simon and Camibarez nodded along. Rick snickered and folded his arms. "Can't we just do something like... a spell that makes a stoic heart! One that doesn't flinch no matter how terrifying a story it hears—"
"Please let your words pass through your brain before they leave your mouth."
Meilyn said it with a bored expression. Rick clicked his tongue, looking put out. "Speaking of which — have you noticed you've been extra prickly ever since the Toxicology assessment?"
Her expression flared instantly. "Hey! What about me? I'm ALWAYS like this!"
"See? Angry again."
Rick swiveled his head away. "Meanwhile, look at these two. What happened to make them so sweetly attached?"
He nodded toward Simon and Camibarez sitting side by side. Camibarez had been leaning slightly toward Simon, and at his remark she jolted upright in alarm.
...If I'd gone with Simon, an A+ would've been the bare minimum!
Meilyn was still growling, about to fire off another jab, when Walter walked into the lecture hall.
The students quickly straightened in their seats, and Walter raised the attendance roster. "Class A! Shall we take attendance?"
In his gentle voice, he called each student's name in turn.
"Carel Oxara."
"Present~"
"Claudia Menzies."
"Present."
"Hector Moore."
"Here."
There was, admittedly, a rather noticeable difference between the way the girls and the boys answered.
When attendance was finished, Walter swept his gaze across the room. "This barrage of performance assessments across every subject has been rough on you all, hasn't it?"
This time every single student cried out as one — "YES!!!"
"I can't hand you direct help, but for Hemomancy at least, I'd like to lighten your burden a little."
At that, one of the girls shouted, "Professor, your performance assessment was baffling too!"
"She's right!"
"Hahahaha!"
When Walter laughed out loud, the other students laughed with him.
He was the only professor whose class had this kind of easy rapport, this atmosphere where even joking around was welcome.
"Don't worry yourselves too much. All you need to do is keep up with the lessons."
Walter said gently, "Today we're going to learn one special technique related to the heart. Now — who can explain the importance of the heart from a Hemomancy perspective?"
Answers shot up at once — the supply of blood, the circulation of blood, the maintenance of the Core, and more.
Walter nodded. "The heart, which distributes blood and jet-black throughout the entire body, is the most vital organ in the human body. Countless necromancers have devoted research to unlocking its hidden power."
Walter reached behind the lectern and lifted something up. "One result of that research is the object you see before you."
Simon's eyes went wide.
A... a syringe?
It was a decidedly unsettling object.
He couldn't possibly be planning to use that on the students... could he?