Chapter 72
Chapter 72
The academy was in an uproar over the results of the pop quiz.
“Did you see? I got 48 points in Linear Theory. That’s the highest score I’ve ever seen!”
“I thought it was easy, but was it not?”
“Professor Ban’s lectures actually worked?”
“Weren’t you saying just the other day that Ban Trash wasn’t even fit to be called a professor?”
“Good heavens! Who would dare utter such slander about our esteemed Professor Ban?!”
In an instant, Ban’s reputation shot straight up.
But then, all of a sudden, a voice came along and threw cold water on things.
“I heard Professor Ban’s lectures are Heretical Magic.”
“…Heretical Magic? Surely not?”
It meant erroneous magic that the Magic Tower did not recognize.
It could improve one’s abilities quickly, but in the end, it would cause serious side effects.
“It’s true. My friend’s uncle is an executive at the Magic Tower, and when he heard what Professor Ban was teaching, he told him to stop at once. Apparently, some black magicians have used similar methods.”
“…Come to think of it, something was strange.”
“And there’s the way Ban Trash’s magic skills suddenly improved, too.”
Ban’s reputation plummeted just as quickly, from “Professor” back down to “Ban Trash.”
And the problem was that it wasn’t just his reputation that had fallen.
“…What should we do? Are we supposed to keep taking this class? Shouldn’t we refuse to attend?”
“But if we skip, we’ll be marked absent, won’t we?”
“What is the Student Council doing?! Why aren’t they stopping the class immediately?”
“What power does the Student Council have over a professor?”
“What should we do?”
It was just as the students were falling into confusion.
“Haha, don’t worry. We anticipated this, which is why the Amethyst Inspection Team was dispatched here.”
It was Senin!
‘Fools.’
Senin was the one who had spread the rumor.
He had threatened the students in the Magic Faculty who had connections to the Rapalt Ducal House.
‘It doesn’t matter whether there’s any evidence. All I have to do is spread a rumor that sounds plausible.’
A voice full of irritation came from beside him.
“I told you this kind of thing wasn’t necessary.”
“Lady Joanna, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but wouldn’t it be better to make absolutely certain?”
‘Bringing Ban down should be my role. I’ve always been the protagonist.’
Senin spoke smugly.
“I’ll take care of every last detail. All you have to do is finish things off.”
“Hmph.”
Joanna spoke coldly.
“I don’t care whether you pull these kinds of stunts or not. I’ll prove that Professor Ban is wrong, no matter what.”
Meanwhile, there were those who looked at the Amethyst Inspection Team with displeasure.
“Hmm. I don’t like this. Don’t you agree?”
“…I don’t really care…? Hhk—ah, no! I don’t like it either! How dare they, to our Professor Ban!”
It was Julia and Wilhelm, members of Ban’s Class!
“How dare those Amethyst bookworms. I don’t think I can let every last one of them go back unharmed.”
“…What are you going to do?”
“What do you think I’m going to do?”
“I-I don’t know. Could you stop smiling like that? You’re scary.”
Julia was smiling chillingly.
It was the smile of a villainess, the kind that often appeared in the scenario.
That was right.
Her original role was the villain.
She didn’t know what would happen to her future now that she was in Ban’s Class, but she still had an evil nature.
‘An eye for an eye. I’ll bury them using the exact same methods.’
Incidentally, Julia was just as much of an expert at spreading rumors as anyone else.
There was a problem, though.
‘A fight with rumors is all about momentum. Professor Ban can’t afford to lose the upper hand in class.’
Joanna came into view, wearing a determined expression.
Joanna looked thoroughly determined to take on Ban.
‘…She’s no pushover. She’s kind of a lunatic, too.’
Katrinne and Joanna.
Just like you’d expect of sisters, they were similar and yet different.
Katrinne was rough around the edges, while Joanna had a nasty streak.
If Katrinne had grit, Joanna was a fanatic.
‘Once she latches onto something, she doesn’t look back. She just keeps biting and tearing at it. What kind of history does she have with Professor Ban?’
She didn’t know the reason, but Joanna was fixated on Ban right now.
She was bound to cause trouble in Ban’s class.
“Class is starting. We’re a little… short on seats.”
I frowned.
The atmosphere in the classroom had changed.
Until now, there had been hardly any absentees, if only because of the attendance points, but the number of conspicuously empty seats had increased.
The students’ eyes were different, too.
The trust that had appeared briefly after the test results was nowhere to be seen. Now, their gazes were full of nothing but distrust and wariness.
The reason was simple.
‘Senin’s been up to something.’
The Sub-main Protagonist of the Humanities Faculty.
His class was “Merchant.”
‘This is right around the time he’s at his most infuriating.’
Senin wouldn’t start acting like a true protagonist until after he received a much-needed “lesson” before long.
‘Even in the original scenario, Senin spreads rumors and buries a professor aligned with Karak, which ultimately sets the “Catastrophe” in motion.’
At the thought of the “Catastrophe,” I shuddered for a moment, without anyone noticing.
‘It’s fine. The Catastrophe happens when a professor aligned with Karak gets buried. This time will be different.’
If anything,
‘Senin’s little stunt will be a huge help to me.’
Anyone else who heard that would have wondered what I meant.
‘If I can put these rumors to rest, the trust they have in me will only grow stronger. Then, during the Interclass Competition, I’ll be able to get the students to achieve the results I want.’
The <Understanding the Basics of Magic> course I taught included an Interclass Competition partway through the term.
It was an event that laid the professors’ abilities bare in stark contrast.
‘I have to get the highest marks in the course evaluations, too. Simply beating Baron Aiden won’t be enough. I’ll show them a miracle at the Interclass Competition.’
In the original scenario, the Interclass Competition had ended horribly with the Catastrophe, but there was no need to worry about that happening this time, so I would be able to show my results in full.
But then—
‘…Why is she here?’
I felt bewildered.
In the middle of the classroom.
Joanna sat in a seat directly facing me, her legs crossed.
‘Joanna showing up as an inspector wasn’t in the scenario.’
“Are you not going to start the lesson?”
Joanna’s voice was sharp.
I nodded.
“Take out your practice sheets. This time, we’ll study the Lightning Star.”
“Isn’t the Lightning Star too difficult for us to study?”
The students murmured among themselves.
Unlike the basic Mana Star we’d studied last time, this was a considerably more advanced star.
“We’ll be drawing a star I’ve newly redesigned, rather than the original. Watch closely.”
Flash!
It wasn’t the original, complicated star. It was a completely different shape.
“I’ve changed it into a version for instructional purposes. We’ll use this star to study the structure of stars.”
Just then, someone raised an objection.
“Wouldn’t learning an incorrect star just because you chose to teach it have an adverse effect on us in the future?”
It was Joanna.
“It isn’t an incorrect star.”
“You’re saying that star, something no one’s ever seen or even heard of, isn’t incorrect? How ridiculous.”
Joanna spoke sharply.
“Fine. Let’s do this. After this lesson, I’ll compete against one student who’s learned that star, using the exact same lightning magic. If that star really is correct, as you claim, then there’s no way your student could lose to me, is there?”
It was an absurd challenge.
The star wasn’t the issue.
Joanna was Upper Second Star Rank.
By contrast, every student in the Magic Faculty here was First Star Rank. None of them could possibly be a match for her.
‘There’s no reason to agree to that…’
But at that very moment, my eyes met Joanna’s.
At first glance, hers seemed filled with hostility.
But that wasn’t it.
Deep within them, an entirely different emotion was stirring.
Desperation.
‘…So that’s what it is.’
Only then did I understand why Joanna had come all this way.
She hadn’t come simply to harm me.
She wanted reassurance.
By defeating me, she wanted confirmation that she hadn’t been wrong all this time.
‘…Did I push her too far?’
I felt a twinge of regret.
Joanna was already struggling with confusion after entering the Academy and realizing how much she lacked.
I worried that I might have made things even more confusing for her by meddling thoughtlessly, under the pretext of helping.
‘Looks like I’ll have to provide some after-sales service.’
“I refuse your proposal.”
“Ha! Are you running away?”
“Don’t you think it’s unfair to begin with? You’ve probably practiced the Lightning Star hundreds of times already, and you want to compete against it with a star someone’s only been taught for a few hours? That’s unreasonable. I’ll use a different method instead.”
“…What method?”
“After taking the lesson, you’ll demonstrate the star I’m teaching yourself.”
“!!”
Joanna flinched.
“What kind of bizarre proposal is that?”
“If you manifest the star yourself, you’ll be able to tell whether mine is correct or not, won’t you? Surely the daughter of a Prestigious Magic Family has enough discernment to do that much?”
My provocation made Joanna’s face twist with anger.
“How dare you… Fine. I’ll judge it without mercy, so you’d better be ready.”
The lesson passed in an instant.
Unlike the other students, Joanna didn’t copy the star.
She merely listened absent-mindedly, wearing an expression that said she wasn’t interested.
“That’s all for today’s lesson. Joanna, come up to the front.”
“Hmph.”
Joanna took her place opposite me.
“You weren’t paying attention. Did you even understand it properly?”
“There’s no need to focus on some shoddy star like this.”
Flash!
It was exactly the same star I’d taught in class.
“Only the convenience has been improved. The details are all still shoddy.”
“Try casting it yourself before you say that.”
Joanna gave a derisive snort and cast the lightning.
Crackle!
Just as she’d said, the lightning looked somehow lacking.
“See? How can you call this a proper star?”
“Was that a proper manifestation, though?”
“What are you talking about? Are you saying I deliberately cast the magic badly? What do you take me for?!”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
I looked straight at her.
“Do you think you’ve truly grasped the meaning of my star?”
“Of course. A simple star like this…”
“Are you really sure?”
Joanna abruptly shut her mouth.
“I explained the meaning of this star in its entirety during the lesson. But you don’t seem to have understood any of it.”
“I understood all of it! I can tell you how the lines and dots are arranged, and what directions they take in the Elemental… Want to hear?”
Then Joanna explained the structure of my star in detail, point by point.
Her explanation was perfectly accurate, not differing in the slightest from what I’d said.
But—
“So, what do you think my star means? No—did you even think about it?”
“!!”
“The superficial things you just described aren’t what really matters.”
Calculating spells quickly.
Memorizing stars precisely and drawing them as though copying them.
That kind of talent is commonly called Magical Intelligence.
It was a field in which Joanna excelled.
The reason she had once been called a genius and regarded with such high expectations.
But it was nothing more than the most worthless of a mage’s many talents.
A true mage’s aptitude had nothing whatsoever to do with those petty, trivial talents.
“I’ll give you another chance, so this time, show me properly.”