Practical Class (1): The Author's Reward
A few days had passed since the first practical class. In that time, rumors about me had spread quite a bit, and the way people looked at me had changed. For the better, surprisingly.
“Professor, I heard your lectures got insanely good?”
“Yeah, from what I’ve heard, he’s killing it.”
“Wow. Class A is so lucky.”
“Why? You can still sign up even if you’re not in Class A, right?”
“Sure, but Class A has mandatory attendance. I’m jealous.”
It was almost surreal how the conversations around me had shifted from insults to compliments. Well, I’d received similar looks in the previous timeline, so I just took it in stride.
-Even so, Master, they seem to really like you?
“Must be my imagination.”
-If you say so.
Anyway, I turned my thoughts to the reward I’d received on the first day.
Victory reward granted for defeating Veil.
After winning the spar against Veil, that message had popped up out of nowhere.
-Is this the guy you were talking about, Master?
“Yeah.”
-What did it say?
“Something about how the story took a different direction from the original, so it was giving me a reward.”
From the author’s perspective, it made sense to be happy that I hadn’t gone down the failure route. Still, I never expected an actual reward.
But then…
-It talked a big game but didn’t actually give you anything?
“Maybe I really was mind-controlled.”
It was hard not to have that reasonable doubt when Jukchang-i put it that way. After all, the author had promised a reward and then gone completely silent.
-At this point, is it even real?
Sorry, but it's not a hallucination.
I’d thought it on purpose, but the author must have been listening the whole time and answered with sincere politeness. I asked again.
“Really? So what exactly are you giving me?”
I'm still thinking about it. I need to figure out what would improve the story progression.
“How about Mind Reading? That seems pretty good, right?”
With that ability, identifying who had regressed would be easy. In web novels where refreshing moments were all the rage, this kind of cheat ability was practically mandatory. Maybe the author agreed with me, because the response came quickly.
Understood. I will grant you Mind Reading.
The moment the message appeared, the magic formula and usage method for Mind Reading flashed through my mind. After confirming it all, I couldn’t help but curse the author.
“You son of a bitch.”
Excuse me?
“Ah, slip of the tongue. Sorry.”
That didn't sound like a slip of the tongue at all!
“Yeah, just your imagination.”
It was definitely on purpose, but the reason I had to curse the author was the condition attached to the skill. It consumed mana, which was expected for something like Mind Reading. The real problem was the cooldown.
“Once a week? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
The mana pool in this body was already pathetically small. I couldn’t even use it once right now. And the restriction was a full week? At this point, the ability was basically useless.
As I silently cursed the author and fell into thought, a hesitant voice pulled me back.
“Young Master…?”
Jane had approached carefully, noticing that the lecture had ended. I snapped out of it and spoke.
“We’ll end today’s lecture here. Class B representative, take Professor Veil with you.”
“Y-yes!”
And so the first lecture concluded after demonstrating Physical Magic twice.
While I was reminiscing, Jukchang-i asked with a voice full of curiosity.
-Master, what are you thinking about so hard?
“Nothing important.”
-Anyway, does that mean you still can’t use it? That Mind Reading thing?
“Yeah, pretty much.”
I’d been training steadily for days, but my talent was so abysmal that the mana and circuits in my body hadn’t grown much. If anything, my physical abilities had improved more.
-Well, that’s from a normal person’s perspective.
With that thought, I opened the classroom door. The moment I did—
“…….”
“…….”
The students clamped their mouths shut just like on the first day, as if they’d rehearsed it. The only difference was that their eyes now held a distinctly positive light.
“We’ll skip attendance and start the lesson right away.”
With those words, I began the lecture.
There was once a woman called the future Saintess. She prayed to the Sun God at the church every day and was revered by the believers. But that was only the surface story. In reality, she was nothing more than a puppet exploited by the church’s high priests.
Her divinity shone as brilliantly as if the Sun God had descended, and it was powerful enough to purify monsters and demons. Unfortunately, her intelligence didn’t match her combat prowess. As a result, she was constantly used by the church.
The one who had saved her—the girl who had lived without emotions, exploited every single day—was none other than the man currently lecturing in front of her.
“Sena. What page are we on?”
At Elric von Vandesar’s question, Sena answered with a flushed face.
“Um… page 120?”
“We passed page 120 a while ago. We’re on page 142 now. Try not to space out during class.”
“Yes…”
Even though she was being scolded, she felt strangely happy. She had already experienced the future once. She didn’t know why she had suddenly returned to the past, but this was clearly an opportunity.
In the previous timeline, the professor in front of her had tried to run away.
This time, I won’t let you escape.
She needed to be more careful this time. Instead of charging in recklessly like before, she had to approach slowly, like a careful push and pull. Otherwise, the professor might flee again.
And before that—
I need to make contact with him during the monster terror incident in the next class.
Originally, she would have needed to save him when he fell into danger there, but his strength had grown far beyond expectations. His behavior was completely different too. That raised the possibility that he had also regressed.
Still, it’s too early to be certain.
The professor had mentioned it during a previous lecture—parallel worlds might exist. He had explained that choosing one option could create another world with a different choice. So this could be one of those parallel worlds. There was no guarantee he had regressed.
If he had, he would have used that green wooden spear.
Sena imagined herself being struck by the bamboo spear. Just thinking about it made her whole body tremble with delight.
Hurry… I want to be hit by it soon.
With that thought, Sena stared at the lecturing Elric with eyes full of madness.
The next day was the weekend. It was safer than usual, at least.
-Master, if you have nothing better to do, lick me.
“Does that really feel that good?”
-Yeah! It feels so good!
I had no idea how her mental state had deteriorated to this point. She got way too excited about it.
-It’s all because Master trained me!
“Don’t make excuses. Anyway, sorry, but I’m busy.”
-Huh? Master is busy?
She had a point. From the outside, I just looked like I was rolling around in bed. But in reality, I was slowly consuming the mana inside my body.
-So I really am busy.
-What a useless training session!
“Hey, don’t talk back to your master like that.”
The moment I considered giving her another proper lesson like on the first day—
-More importantly, shouldn’t you prepare for the future? You said monsters went on a rampage during the next class, right?
Jukchang-i quickly changed the subject. Normally I wouldn’t let it slide, but the topic was important enough that I generously decided to overlook it.
“That’s right. Back then I didn’t have you and my power was pathetic, so it was a real struggle.”
No exaggeration—I could have easily died to those monsters that day. No matter how much knowledge I had, there was a clear limit. It was inevitable that I couldn’t do much against the sudden monster attack.
But now it was different.
-Because I’m here?
“You could say that.”
As I’d said before, Jukchang-i’s power was enough to make even the Demon King cry. In my prime, I’d knocked the Demon King unconscious several times with her. Even—
“Professor Veil passed out after one hit.”
-It was two hits. Well, if you count the indirect strike, you’re right.
Jukchang-i could not only nullify magic but also inflict curses on the target. That was why Veil had writhed in agony even though he hadn’t been directly struck.
-I really am amazing!
Jukchang-i read my thoughts and praised herself. Considering the materials used to create her, I couldn’t exactly deny it.
“With you around, something like that would be a piece of cake.”
-As expected of the great Arcana, me!
“So you don’t have any more questions?”
-Huh? Master, why are you being so random?
Jukchang-i sounded puzzled by my sudden blunt question. I couldn’t really answer her. After all—
The word count is still too low, so please keep talking. (T_T)
The author was asking me to continue the conversation because the chapter was too short! While I was internally dumbfounded by the message, Jukchang-i asked another question.
-Hmm. It seems suspicious, but Master, why are you doing mana training then? You said I could handle everything by myself, right?
“Well, that’s true, but I need to train my mana to use Mind Reading sooner. That way I can check who’s regressed.”
No matter how powerful Jukchang-i was, letting my guard down would be foolish. The Demon King’s army that I had barely avoided in the previous timeline had been crushed head-on by them. So I couldn’t get complacent just because I had one bamboo spear. She had weaknesses too.
“Anyway, I need to train, so don’t interrupt.”
-But Master asked first…
I casually ignored Jukchang-i’s complaint and slowly released my mana. Then—
Hmm. Not bad.
Unlike the first day, mana now flickered throughout my entire body. Considering I’d grown this much in just a few days, it seemed I really was a child of the Vandesar family.
How did Elric waste this kind of talent and only reach that level?
Feeling dumbfounded, I continued releasing mana. The flickering energy gradually subsided, like a candle flame going out.
Hmm. It increased a little.
If I kept consuming mana while drinking the potions I’d stockpiled, I’d be able to raise it quickly.
Let’s keep going, then.
I repeated this training until the next incident occurred, and I finally succeeded in raising my mana enough to use Mind Reading once.