Let the Lecture Begin
"Luca, what do you mean, you'll take the nametag?"
Tia looked a little flustered at Luca's words.
Suppose someone with enormous power or authority could bend the world to their will and claim 4-Star jobs whenever they pleased. Wasn't that what Luca was getting at?
It would be a lie to say she'd never imagined such a thing.
But there were things she'd learned while wandering the continent at length.
"Jobs granted to a person by other people never last forever."
"There's no such thing as a permanent job?"
"For a while, actually, I tracked down the Imperial Capital's Knight Commander who took you all away. I wanted to know where you'd gone."
Luca, Tia, and Yuri were the most important figures in the original story, which was apparently why no wiki search turned them up. She'd had no choice but to hunt for them on foot.
"You... did?"
Tia bit her lower lip. Wicker pinned another clip into her hair as he recalled that time.
"But right after that, the Knight Commander vanished without a trace, along with her entire house. It seems she fell out of favor with the Emperor."
"I see."
"Other nations are no different. Supreme Court justices, admirals, cardinals, merchant guild heads—the moment they pick the wrong side or get assassinated, that's the end of them."
"So you're saying that no 4-Star job made by human hands is permanent?"
"Not even 5-Star jobs. When the Taek Kingdom collapsed, the became a 5-Skull . He'd propped up a cult and had a dazzling military record to boot. But the jobs the Goddess grants are a little different."
His trust in the Principal's claim that the Academy judged people purely on merit rested, in part, on his own experience.
"Become a master of the sword and earn , or prove your ability to educate and earn . Those nametags never disappear for as long as you live. I've concluded that the Goddess keeps her own rules fairly faithfully."
"Rules..."
"And merchants are a breed that runs above all on trust. Now that the contract is signed and sealed, I intend to carry out my role to the best of my ability. Especially now that I have all of you."
Right now, Wicker was not an adventurer, not a merchant, not a baron. He was Professor Phedia.
He was acutely aware of it.
"I'll help you. Of course, I'll be passing the apti... that exam too."
Whether she understood his words or not, Luca gave a vigorous nod.
"Leave some of it to me, too!"
"Good. Having all three of you help will be a real asset."
Luca gave him a faint smile. She showed her emotions far more easily than before, and it suited her wonderfully.
They were children with undeniable talent, so they were bound to be a good influence at Earth House. His shoulders felt lighter.
"Now then, which ones do you like?"
He'd tried every color of hairpin and ornament imaginable in Tia's hair. Tia, studying herself in the mirror, pressed her lips tightly together and turned the corners of her mouth all the way up.
"I'll take all of them!"
"All of them? Isn't that too much?"
"You put them on me yourself, Professor. I don't want to let a single one go."
Tia rose from her seat and spun around in a full circle. Her gleaming golden hair swayed.
Hmm... this might be a bit much for an Academy debut, but if she's happy with it, it's fine.
"All right. You look pretty."
"Hehe, right? I told you we should've come to the Academy sooner."
Luca, watching Tia, asked,
"By the way, why do you use honorifics with the Professor?"
"Th-that's only natural! It's weird that you're still talking casually, Luca!"
"It's fine. Speak however you're comfortable. Now, Yuri is..."
At some point, Yuri's uniform had gained so many Eastern-style ornaments courtesy of Xuehua's magic that it was losing its original shape. He'd broken out in a light sweat reining in the two of them.
"You're telling me the Sword Saint wishes to apply for an instructorship?"
"That is correct."
Upon meeting the Sword Saint Aisha and hearing those words, the Principal's mind grew complicated.
A wedge left by the Empire? A watcher?
For the time being, the continent would be too busy scrambling over the Holy Kingdom's former territory for the Emperor to deliberately leave the Sword Saint—a General, no less—stationed at the Academy.
What was His Majesty's intent?
"May I ask your reason for applying?"
"The Emperor grew tiresome... no, that is, it isn't a natural meeting... either. I have leave coming, and I came to fulfill a long-held wish."
"Hmm."
In the Principal's judgment, the Sword Saint Aisha was not the blindly loyal servant of the Emperor she might appear to be.
'Despite being the Emperor's direct subordinate, she has never joined every war of importance to the Empire. She is an aloof one who doesn't move without righteous cause.'
That was precisely why she'd stood at the vanguard of the alliance and led the expedition against the Demon King's army.
Even now, her gaze seemed fixed not on the Principal but on something beyond him.
Perhaps the Sword Saint had glimpsed a new path for herself at the Academy, and wished to pursue it here.
'My, what lovely wallpaper they've used.'
Aisha, for her part, was looking at the space above the Principal's head and thinking exactly that.
"Very well. If the Sword Saint herself will lend her strength to the students' education, then of course you are welcome. There is but one condition: you must not pass the Academy's internal information to any foreign nation. You will be required to use a Gears Scroll. Will that be a problem?"
"You mean I must have no contact with Imperial spies?"
"Precisely so."
"Then have me sign at once."
The perfect excuse to be free of the Emperor's nagging, no? What an absolute steal. Aisha whipped out her quill pen immediately.
"Ah, and there is the matter of the three recommended students you brought with you, Sword Saint."
"You mean Lucas, Testia, and Yuri."
"We received advance notice, so the paperwork posed no trouble. However, a rather curious result came back—all three assigned to Earth House. It is them, then?"
'What is he on about? This is why nosy old men who read the newspapers are a pain.'
Aisha, understanding not a word of it, kept her eyes closed and held her silence. Seeing her attitude, the Principal's mouth curved into a sly smile.
"I see. It makes sense that the Goddess herself recommended them. Haha! So she intends to throw her weight behind the Academy for once. All the more reason Earth House suits the three of them, I'd say."
"Earth House... where the slave merchant professor resides."
"That's right. He is, after all, the man who taught those Heroes."
"...Pardon?"
The teacher of the Heroes? For a moment, Aisha dismissed it as yet another baseless rumor.
Because the Heroes' identities were kept secret, opportunists seeking to exploit them had multiplied endlessly.
Some claimed to be the Heroes' teacher, some lied that they were their parents or siblings to puff themselves up, and there were plenty more who went so far as to impersonate the Heroes themselves.
Eventually the numbers grew so large that no one believed such claims anymore unless they came from some simple, honest soul from the frontier.
There were far too many to deal with one by one, so the Empire had essentially let the rumors run wild.
The Holy State, apparently, branded it blasphemy and hunted down every impersonator to punish them.
'Hold on. The kids did seem to know each other already, and if the Principal himself vouches for it... does that mean the slave merchant professor is the real deal?'
Only then did the scattered puzzle pieces begin snapping together in Aisha's head.
'Why has that brat Lucas, ever since coming to the Academy, not shown her face to me even once?'
No, wait, that's a little unfair, isn't it? Lucas's teacher is me, not him.
I taught her everything—how to use sword energy, how to control aura, all of it.
...Though she did catch up to my level almost immediately.
'The moment I brag about it, my neck flies off, but apparently the slave merchant professor gets a pass?'
It was state secret of the highest order—information about the Heroes that could shake the balance of the entire continent.
Worse, the web of who knew and who didn't, and everyone connected to them, was hopelessly tangled.
And the only person on the continent capable of grasping all of it was Aisha, and Aisha alone.
'Who cares. Harem, it's harem!'
Aisha brushed the whole matter aside without a second thought and signed the instructor's contract the Principal slid across to her.
Two days later.
He walked down a polished marble corridor. The click of his heels rang out crisply in every direction.
He pushed open a door trimmed in ivory and stepped inside. It was a vast lecture hall laid out in a semicircular, tiered arrangement. It was already full of students waiting for the first lecture.
There were the faces of Earth House watching him with anticipation, and there were students from the other houses wearing open hostility or contempt.
He walked to the lectern. He channeled a light stream of mana into the enormous whiteboard, activating it.
Commanding Lecture Lv.8
Persuasion Lv.8
Impeccable Diction Lv.7
"Welcome, everyone. I am Wicker Phedia, Chair Professor, and I will be lecturing you on Dungeon Studies."
This was lecture time, and he couldn't very well cheat without any flair. He'd prepared plenty.
He closed the wiki.
"First, a question. Does anyone in this lecture hall have actual experience clearing a dungeon?"
At his question, eight of the fifty-two students raised their hands.
"Floor three or higher?"
Every hand went down.
Half of the students gathered here—twenty-four—were the full incoming class of Earth House. The rest was an even mix of new students from other houses, plus second- and third-years.
The new students were one thing, but the second- and third-years looked utterly unmotivated—people who'd failed to register for a popular elective, or who intended to coast through their hours.
Dungeon Studies, before it was abolished five years ago, had apparently been theory-only, so they'd likely assumed this would be more of the same paper-pushing and planned to slack off accordingly.
In other words, most of them were pampered noble children who had lived lives that never once required setting foot in a rough place like a dungeon.
"Fine by me. I wasn't expecting much."
"Aren't you the same, Professor? Never set foot in a dungeon yourself, have you?"
A slurred, insolent voice and scattered laughter rose from one side of the hall. They were academic-probation second-years from Water Hall.
"You were too busy buying and selling slaves to ever fight, I'd imagine."
"An excellent point."
He poured mana into the whiteboard.
'Slave Brand Drafting.'
The skill activated. In an instant, two intricate, patterned brands were drawn onto the whiteboard.
"A tip from a slave merchant, then. The one on the left is the common brand you see all the time. As you know, anyone bearing it is marked as someone's slave, and the brand links a mana pass between them and their master."
"Uh..."
The Water Hall second-year, clearly having expected a flat, stammering response, faltered instead.
"This brand can be removed at a church through a few formal procedures, provided the slave has no master. However."
His pointer indicated the brand on the right.
"Mind this one. It's called the Permanent Inscription. The moment it's engraved, the bearer can never escape the master-servant bond for the rest of their life."
He turned back to the students.
"And as a slave merchant, I can engrave either of these in the blink of an eye. Hmm. I suspect the one on the right would be quite effective at closing the mouth of anyone who disrupts an important lecture... but what do you think?"
"...I'll be careful."
The Water Hall student lowered his head slowly.
"The rest of you, remember this as well. You needn't focus on the lecture. Sleep through it if you like. So long as you don't steal another student's chance to learn. Understood?"
A tense round of replies came back.
"Now, on to the main subject. When it comes to clearing dungeons, I am a veteran. Faster to show you than to tell you, I'd say."
His eyes met Tia's, seated in a corner of the hall. She gave a little smile, stuck out her tongue briefly, and beamed at him.
'Slave Exploitation.'
Tia, may I borrow this for a moment?
"Celestial Projection."
Five magic circles unfolded in sequence behind his back.
"Whooooah?!"
"A 5th-tier spell?!"
"Unbelievable!"
Borrowing Tia's skill, he cast the 5th-tier magic, [Celestial Projection]. The students' eyes went wide, and every last one of them locked their attention onto him.
Well then. Shall we properly begin the lecture?
"Tia, do you... have one of those brands on you too?"
Yuri whispered the question, tiny and timid, to Tia seated beside her. Tia rolled her lips inward and flushed pink.
"I have one."
Luca leaned her head over and answered.
"Whoa. S-so that's how it was.... Thankfully, mine's in a place you really can't see. What about you two?"
"Mine's usually not visible either."
"...Mine could be seen if I'm careless."
Tia swallowed hard.
"Where is it? Isn't it dangerous?"
"S-secret..."
Unable to answer, Tia whipped her head away.
"Kind of a waste."
Luca's remark drew nods of agreement from the other two.
"It really is. There was even one with a permanent effect."
"Yeah. That one would've been better."
"I should ask him to switch mine later."
The three, deep in their whispered conference, quieted down and turned their focus back to the lecture.