The Professor’s Lesson
Dust and ash hung in the air like a thick, suffocating fog. The gazes of passersby and students alike were fixed on the interior of the shop—a place that had been perfectly fine just moments ago. It was the very spot where they, and Ruen, had been standing.
The students enrolled at the Solarium Imperial Academy were all elites who had fought through fierce competition to get there, regardless of their varying levels of talent. They grasped the situation in an instant.
A thunderous roar. An explosion. A dark, crimson beast.
It was an attack. An assault using Mana Beasts.
“Hoo…”
There was no time to be flustered by an unexpected raid. Some drew their beloved swords from the scabbards at their waists. Others pulled mana out like threads, probing the interior of the wreckage.
Where the wooden shop had once stood, a pile of rubble and splintered wood now lay in a heap. It was an attack they wouldn't have even been able to react to under normal circumstances. As the relief of having survived faded, it was replaced by sorrow and worry.
Ruen Aeterno. She was a mage.
In battle, her role was to support the knights, positioned at the very rear. Since the durability of a mage was no different from that of an ordinary person, she had sacrificed herself to save them.
“Ugh…”
A magic student covered their mouth, turning their eyes away from the debris. It was because, within the wreckage they had searched with threads of mana, not a single sign of life could be felt.
“……Is there some kind of event going on?”
Cassel pushed himself up from his bed and adjusted his desert-style robes.
Boom, ka-boom!
The sound of fireworks continued to echo from outside the window. It was well past the time when morning classes had ended. Having no other schedule, he had been killing time alone in his bed.
It was a daily life completely different from the academy life he had dreamed of.
“I have no friends.”
It was because he had been lazy with his social activities. For Cassel, just adapting to the capital’s climate and new lifestyle had been overwhelming enough.
“If it’s a festival, I’d like to go.”
Maybe he should go watch, just by himself. Thinking that, Cassel turned the doorknob.
—Kwoooargh!!
At the same time, he made eye contact with a monster standing in the middle of the wide hallway. A bizarre creature, unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Cassel’s gaze shifted from the monster to the hallway. One wall had been completely demolished.
“Hmm.”
He immediately raised both arms and clenched his fists tightly.
“So… it wasn’t a festival.”
As Cassel smacked his lips, the monster let out a shriek and charged at him.
“I guess it lacks intelligence.”
Even if life in the capital was awkward, combat was anything but. He had learned how to throw a punch from the moment he was weaned. He had learned from the kingdom’s greatest warrior. To Cassel, fighting was more familiar than using a fork and knife to cut meat.
Cassel twisted his body, dodging the beast’s charge. Using that momentum, he swung his elbow.
Thwack!
A dull impact. And then—
Kwang!!
The monster was slammed into the wall. As the cloud of dust settled, the creature was revealed, clutching its dangling jaw with its front paws.
“Tough one.”
An ordinary creature would have died instantly from that blow. But even if it wasn't dead, it had certainly taken damage.
—Grrr…
Its movements were noticeably slower. Its red eyes rolled around aimlessly, having lost their focus.
Cassel cracked his wrists and took a step forward. He raised his foot toward the trembling, fallen monster.
He crushed it.
Crunch!
Sticky fluid stained the sole of his foot as he ground down the shattered skull.
“Still not dead after that?”
It was still twitching. Cassel rubbed his chin and took another step forward.
“In that case…”
This time, the heart.
Cassel took his next step.
Crunch!
“I guess the heart is the weak point.”
Finally, the movement stopped. Cassel wiped the sticky blood off his sole against the carpet and continued on his way. Because from the floor below, he could still hear the sounds of battle—the sounds he had mistaken for fireworks.
Clang!
Sparks flew. The beast’s claws and a greatsword collided.
“Ugh…!”
A student couldn't withstand the force and was pushed back. The tip of their sword shook lonely in the air.
However, the first thing students in the Academy’s Knight Department learned was none other than teamwork. The student who had been facing the beast was immediately replaced by the next.
“Support!!”
The beast swung its front paw. A chilling murderous intent radiated from its sharp claws. Feeling the hair on their bodies stand on end, the mages supporting the vanguard gritted their teeth.
They reached out and cast their spells.
Guidance. Resistance.
Basic buff spells. Bolstered by the buffs, the freshman gripped their handle tightly and blocked the beast’s next attack.
But—
“Hup…!”
That alone was not enough for a freshman to block the beast’s attack. A Mana Beast. According to ancient records, they were the ‘Beasts of Disaster.’ Those monsters, which only appeared in the North, were completely different from what was written in the swordsmanship textbooks.
—It takes two ordinary knights to handle one Mana Beast.
That was definitely what it said.
“Cough…”
Already, the third vanguard had fallen. Now, the only combatants left were the mages.
“Support… just hold out until support arrives!!”
If they could just hold on a little longer, reinforcements would come. This was the capital of the empire. They were inside the academy grounds.
Clinging to a single thread of hope, the magic students reached out in unison. Their target was the beast.
Fireball. Witch Bolt.
The beast took those attacks with its entire body. It was a characteristic of the beast. A miraculous level of elemental resistance. Not a single scratch remained.
“P-please…!”
The magic students poured out magic incessantly. It was like pouring water into a bottomless pit. Only dust flew about. Even when they tried to scatter, the beast drove the mages into a single spot as if closing a net.
Slowly, the beast approached. They stepped back in time with its pace. This was a struggle that could not last forever.
Thud.
Their backs hit the wall of a building located across from the wreckage of the clothing store. It meant there was nowhere left to run.
“Grrr.”
Finally, the beast, having reached the mages, opened its maw. Looking at those sharp teeth and sticky saliva, the magic students sensed their end.
“A-ah…”
It was at that moment.
“Hmm.”
A groan was heard from the roof of the building where they had collapsed. They lifted their trembling heads to look in that direction. They saw small, dangling feet.
“You’re not supposed to do it like that.”
It was a small stature they had seen before, a voice they had heard before. It was the professor they had thought had sacrificed herself for them just a moment ago.
“H-how…?”
It was an attack that was hard to even react to. She should have been buried in the wreckage.
Receiving their gazes, which were a mixture of doubt and expectation, Ruen jumped down from the roof quietly.
“Krrrroarrr!”
Her position was right in front of the beast. The beast reacted immediately and attacked. Yet, Ruen raised a finger toward the beast with a leisurely gesture.
“You shouldn’t attack like that.”
“P-please, be careful!”
Expectation turned into despair. Crunch! Her raised finger had gone straight into the beast’s maw. Teeth like saw blades. There was no way she could be fine if she were bitten.
The students squeezed their eyes shut in unison.
At that moment—
—Kwoooaaargh!!!
A thunderous roar echoed. It wasn't the beast’s cry, nor the sound of magic surging. It was just an explosion.
“Geez… my finger’s covered in spit.”
They opened their eyes at the sound.
“……Huh?”
All they could see was Ruen flicking her finger in the air, looking annoyed. The form of the beast, which had looked like a disaster just a moment ago, was nowhere to be found. Only a single pool of blood remained.
That annoyed gaze soon fixed onto the students.
“You guys got spit on me while I was explaining!”
It was a voice filled with pure anger, devoid of any sense of crisis.
“Uh… S-sorry…?”
They could only apologize. They couldn't even grasp the situation. The only fact they knew was this:
‘She handled the Mana Beast…’
That small, young professor had taken down the beast in an instant. That was all. What magic had she used? What was the method she had been trying to explain just a moment ago?
“…I’ll forgive you just this once.”
They couldn't know right now. Because Ruen, who had nodded for a brief moment, had already left the scene in a single stride.
The students gasped, dazed. A moment later, as the tension faded—
“What… did she do…?”
Curiosity as mages, as scholars exploring the laws of the world, replaced the tension. But there was no time to enjoy that lingering feeling leisurely.
“Ugh…”
“Ah! Just hold on!”
Because nursing the knight students who were groaning from their injuries was the priority. Even while wiping away blood and wrapping bandages, their minds were in chaos.
‘Are there… only monsters in the North?’
They had almost been wiped out by just one Mana Beast, let alone the endless waves of them coming…
“…I’m curious.”
A newfound respect for the shield of the empire, which they had forgotten, blossomed in their hearts.