A Student with Many Questions Is Always Welcome
“My lady? Everything is ready. Shall we prepare to depart?”
“Thank you.”
A girl with cascading golden hair elegantly climbed into the carriage.
Rubelia von Estel, the young lady of the prestigious Estel Family—one of the Empire's most influential noble houses—thus took her first steps toward her first day at the Academy.
“It is finally your first day at Sophinium. You have worked so hard for this, my lady.”
“It was nothing.”
All nobles of the Empire possessed the right to special admission.
However, the Estel family refused to tolerate such privileges.
In accordance with the last will of their founding head, a legendary strategist, every member of the Estel family had to prove their intellect through sheer merit.
And stepping foot into Sophinium was nothing less than a mandatory rite of passage for every member of the family.
Rubelia was also one of the Estels who had easily gained entry into the imperial academy.
Having secured her place as the runner-up of her class, she had every right to feel proud.
But...
“My lady? Are you feeling unwell?”
“No? My health is perfectly fine.”
“And yet... you look rather displeased.”
“Mmm... I suppose I can never hide anything from you, Nanny.”
The Nanny, who had raised Rubelia her entire life, looked worriedly at the girl as she stared out the carriage window with a sour expression.
“If you are upset about missing the top spot...”
“No, it's not that. It's not a position I was desperately clinging to, so I wouldn't lose sleep over missing the top spot.”
“Then may this old woman ask where your worries stem from?”
“Mmm...”
It was a persistent question from a nanny who was like a mother to her.
Ultimately, Rubelia let out a sigh and pulled a textbook from her bag.
It was a high-quality parchment book titled Basic Magic Theory.
“You stayed up all night preparing for today's class.”
“Yes, that's right. Preparing for lectures in advance is a student's virtue.”
“Is the material very difficult? The standard of the Academy must be on a completely different level compared to your previous tutors.”
“Difficult... I wish that were the case.”
“Pardon?”
Rubelia snapped the book shut after mindlessly flipping through the pages.
Then, she tossed it into the corner of the carriage along with her bag.
“It's pathetic.”
“Pardon?”
“Exactly what I said, Nanny. It's pathetic. Not just this book, but all the lectures I'll be taking from now on.”
“Mmm? Do you mean they are too easy?”
“You could say that. But it's not just easy; it's so absurdly meaningless. There's no theoretical depth, nor is there any practical utility.”
“I see.”
“In the end, it means all the subjects I'll be studying for the next few years will be no different from the mindless, ignorant rote learning I've had to endure so far.”
“Hmm...”
As if Rubelia's words reminded her of something, the Nanny looked at her with a bittersweet expression.
And Rubelia muttered her inner thoughts in a voice so quiet that no one else could hear.
In the end, even here, I cannot escape his shadow...
But a few hours later...
“W-what is wrong with that professor?”
Watching the professor split the classroom floor in half right from the start,
every expectation Rubelia had harbored crumbled in an instant.
A silver-haired girl who looked younger than her introduced herself as the professor.
And then she held the book upside down out of nowhere.
Rubelia began to spiral into confusion.
“What on earth is she doing...”
At the same time, she felt only one emotion.
Do they have any idea how much tax money the Academy spends to train a single professor...
What a waste of taxes.
That was her sole thought.
“H-hey!”
Unable to contain her sudden anger, Rubelia was about to stand up.
She refused to let her precious time and the hard-earned taxes her family paid to the Empire go to waste.
But...
Riiiiip!
“Eh?”
Chew, chew.
The bizarre spectacle that followed forced Rubelia to swallow the anger that had risen to her throat.
Gulp.
She had literally torn out a page of that expensive textbook and swallowed it.
As if she wanted everyone to watch.
“What? Is she insane?”
“Why is she eating that?”
The murmurs in the classroom began to blend into a mix of absurdity and dread.
“Could she... perhaps...”
However...
Is she... another one of those people?
Watching this unfold from a distance, Rubelia's thoughts differed slightly from the rest of the lecture hall.
To think I would encounter a Reformist here of all places, at the Imperial Academy.
The Reformists.
While the term carried various connotations, in the realm of education, it meant this:
In the past, there were those who rebelled against the rigid, rote-learning-centered imperial education system.
They pursued new methods of teaching and walked a different path from the traditional educational establishment.
Seeing Selene's bizarre behavior just now, Rubelia was convinced she was a Reformist professor.
Reformist educators often engaged in such performance art to instigate people.
What do you think education is?
Do you truly believe this textbook holds the truth?
Everything you have learned so far is an illusion.
From now on, I will show you real learning.
Do not become slaves to books written by the dead, and so on.
There's no doubt about it. That ridiculous stunt. Eating a textbook... How typical of a Reformist.
Even her name pointed to it.
Who in the world would actually have a name like Selene?
She must have hidden her real name, claiming she would prove herself through skill rather than family lineage.
It was a common trope among Reformists who had a complex about their bloodline.
In short, she was conveying a message to the students, including Rubelia:
You read textbooks written by the privileged establishment, judging teachers solely by their lineage. No, you are force-fed. How is what you are doing any different from this?
In other words, it was a silent protest, asking how blindly receiving rote education was any different from a goat tearing up and eating paper...
“...”
Believing she had deciphered the meaning behind the act, Rubelia muttered:
“A piece of trash who doesn't even deserve to be called a professor...”
In truth, she had met similar people before.
The Estel family, deeply serious about academic pursuits, did not discriminate when it came to educators.
This was the educational philosophy of Rubelia's father, the current head of the family.
Her father believed that education, free from the constraints of status or affiliation, was their true strength.
Consequently, Rubelia had been tutored by a wide variety of people.
Among them were several Reformist private tutors.
And after interacting with them for a long time, Rubelia was certain of one thing.
They don't even have the basics down...
In the beginning, Reformist education was undoubtedly driven by grand intentions and outstanding individuals.
However, as it gradually degenerated over time,
the Reformists had devolved into a mere sanctuary for incompetent educators.
Those who advocated for "new education" with grandiose rhetoric, but in reality, didn't know the first thing about teaching.
That was all modern Reformist education amounted to.
To think such cancer has infiltrated even the Academy. This is the absolute worst.
Brooding over the bitter memories of her grades invariably dropping whenever she was taught by Reformists, she thought,
I will never forgive this.
And,
deliberately trying to ignore "that incident"—
the unforgettable event that had instilled in her an indelible hatred for the Reformists...
“Professor?”
Rubelia made up her mind.
“When does the class start? I have a question.”
She would utterly crush this woman right here and now.
“Class?”
At the demand to start the class, Selene tilted her head with an innocent, expressionless face.
Classic Reformist attitude.
Rubelia gritted her teeth even harder at the sight.
She's definitely making that face to imply that education belongs to ordinary people, not authorities!
Selene stared blankly at Rubelia for a moment, and then—
“Ah.”
She suddenly remembered something and picked up the textbook again.
“Questions.”
“Pardon?”
Then, still holding the book upside down, she looked at Rubelia.
“Questions. Allowed.”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
Selene was suddenly offering to take questions.
W-what? I expected her to dodge the subject by asking something like, "What is a question?" at this point.
Rubelia fell silent for a moment, caught off guard.
She's must have changed her tactics.
But quickly composing herself, Rubelia spoke up.
“I have a question regarding the second line of page 340.”
She began to pressure Selene by asking about something she already knew the answer to.
“Page 340...”
“Yes, that's right. It concerns the relationship between Dantian energy, mana, and magic.”
Rubelia confidently flipped open her book and began to recite the text.
"Magic originates from mana, and the mana of a human who casts magic originates from the Dantian. The Dantian is..."
Selene did not budge.
Her textbook was upside down, and to anyone looking, it wasn't even open to page 340.
However...
“The Dantian consists of three parts in total...”
“Consists of three parts: the Upper Dantian, Middle Dantian, and Lower Dantian.”
“Huh?”
Rubelia, who had been reading aloud from her open textbook, suddenly stopped.
Her eyes locked with the owner of the voice that had suddenly cut in and finished her sentence.
“Here, the Upper, Middle, and Lower Dantians refer to the head, chest, and abdomen, respectively.”
“What?”
There stood Selene, who hadn't even opened page 340, reciting the textbook's contents.
All while staring directly at Rubelia, not the book.
“However, in the case of the Middle and Lower Dantians, they are not strictly divided into the chest and abdomen; they are also commonly divided simply into the torso and lower body. Neither of these two theories is considered particularly incorrect...”
“U-uh?”
Selene's voice did not falter. She rattled off the textbook's contents as if she had memorized the entire thing.
“Therefore, the concept of the Dantian does not need to be interpreted as pointing specifically to a concrete location.”
In an instant, she had recited the entire section.
Without missing a single letter.
“N-no way...”
“So.”
“Pardon?”
“Question. What is it?”
“Uh...”
Rubelia was momentarily speechless.
What is this? I guess she did do some studying.
But Rubelia quickly resumed her offensive.
“I-I mean, it's about this. The fact that the location of the Dantian is unclear.”
“Textbook. Not wrong.”
“No, my question is this: shouldn't we focus our power on the Dantian to cast magic? Shouldn't the textbook point out the exact location of the Dantian?”
It was a follow-up question.
To Academy freshmen, it was a riddle-like question.
But to those who understood the Dantian well, it was simple.
And to half-baked educators like the Reformists, it's a difficult question.
And the response was:
“Learn yourself. By feel.”
“Pardon?”
It was a short, blunt answer.
“Excuse me, but isn't that a highly irresponsible answer?”
The next question came from a student other than Rubelia.
“If we don't know the exact location of the Middle and Lower Dantians, our magic efficiency drops. You should tell us specifically.”
“No. Find it yourself.”
“But...”
“Humans. Different even within same species. Physical structures differ. Same for other animals.”
Selene turned her head, maintaining her expressionless face, and threw out her answer.
“Approximate location, known. Exact location, unknown. Find it yourself. Must find. I know my Dantian. Don't know your Dantian. Everyone is different. Only know Upper Dantian.”
“How can you say something so irresponsible...”
“Me finding it for you... bothersome.”
“Pardon?”
The students began to whisper among themselves.
“What? I bet she doesn't even know it herself.”
“She's just making excuses because she doesn't know the answer.”
Distrust gradually filled the classroom.
However, a few high-achieving students,
including the runner-up Rubelia, knew.
“Next question?”
That this simple answer was, in fact, the correct one.
“T-then... page 500!”
Rubelia attempted several more attacks after that.
And the same situation repeated itself.
Selene recited the text from the book with terrifying accuracy, memorizing every single word.
Even those who had doubted Selene's abilities moments ago had to acknowledge this feat.
“Could she really...”
“Have memorized this entire thick book?”
“I guess she really is a professor...”
And her answers to the subsequent questions were equally clean.
“Blood vessels and nerves. Path of mana. Correct. But. That is borrowing path. That path, not mana path.”
Textbook-perfect answers followed.
By this point, the students began to let go of their doubts regarding her vague first answer.
In less than an hour, the atmosphere was gradually shifting in Selene's favor.
“More questions?”
“I-I have one more!”
Rubelia grew increasingly anxious.
Her plan to bring down the person before her was falling apart.
Now, with her pride on the line, she desperately wanted to find any fault she could, no matter how trivial.
Is she actually... highly skilled? N-no, that can't be. There's no way a Reformist could be. No... she must not be.
And so,
“First of all, mana flows out from the Middle Dantian, does it not?”
after launching an endless barrage of questions,
“No.”
“Pardon?”
an opportunity finally presented itself to Rubelia.
“Other Dantians. Mana can emerge.”
“What did you say?”
A clear flaw had finally appeared right before her eyes.
“What? Mana can be emitted from somewhere other than the Middle Dantian?”
“Yes.”
“That is absurd.”
This seemingly flawless person had finally made a mistake.
“The origin of mana is the Middle Dantian. That has been an unchanging truth for hundreds of years. It's the most basic theory, isn't it?”
“...”
“Therefore, it is impossible to emit mana and cast magic from anywhere other than the Middle Dantian.”
This woman was indeed a Reformist.
She was a fraud because she was a Reformist.
“No.”
It had to be that way.
“Can do. Other Dantians. Magic possible.”
