I didn’t get exiled. Bea and I had gotten heavy punishments though. I had to teach students without pay and Bea had to do stupid errands for the council. This seems like a mild punishment but this meant that none of us could work on our research, which is quite a heavy punishment. Also, most students dislike me for more than one reason. I always hated lectures and here I was giving lectures. None of these students seemed to understand what I was talking about. All students are way older than me and they don’t seem to understand most of the basic concepts. Is this what Bea meant with there’s nobody on our level? Bea is only 12 human years older than me; most students here are more than twice as old as Bea and I combined.
I got a strange case of depression by teaching these students. I had the feeling our race was regressing. I don’t know where I would be once I get 1 year old but I wouldn’t be failing simple magic circles like half of these Misha. Unfortunately, most still thought they were superior to me. A mixture of bad rumors and my research being brutally rejected. I got called names, told to join a brothel, and the like. I can understand why they did this. Most didn’t have a womanly figure. While I look like an adult human woman most of these Misha seemed to look like they’re 16-year-old humans.
I know that Bea and I come from a different area than these but there can't be this much of a difference, right? Bea and I come from the other side of the Lucidus mountain range, from the country of North Hjuva. While these Misha are from Hjuva. I did not realize that the differences were that big. Most of my old classmates were also from North Hjuva and had returned there. This is the first time that I interact with the newer generation. They aren’t a newer generation… they are all older than me… What is going on?
More and more things start making less and less sense. I had made for a push to progress our race and here I see signs of our race regressing. Does nobody want to do anything about this? I had finished another lecture. I don’t think anyone had listened. I walked through the corridors absentmindedly.
“Hey, succubus! I have a human guy that I like, can you give me tips on how to get his attention?”
I looked at the short Misha with slightly messy hair. She looked like a 14-year-old human and she wasn’t attractive at all.
“Get into shape, work on your facial features, maybe some makeup to make sure you don’t look like a 14-year-old. Your fashion sense is terrible and you have no curves. Work on those and get to know what he likes because you surely aren’t attracting him with your looks sweetie.” This didn’t seem to be the answer she wanted to hear so profanity flowed out of her mouth like a waterfall. I just continued walking. I had given a small office but it had been destroyed by various types of magic. I sighed. I have to just survive this for 2 more weeks.
These Misha were brutal. They treated me like I was below them, and I hate to say it but they were even more stupid than Bea. I despaired. This isn’t good at all. What is going to happen to our race if they graduate? Or even worse, reproduce? I don’t care how they act toward me. That is just a temporary problem. One day several of these idiots will get into the council or teach other Misha. I would like to hope that they would wise up but it is a fact that the caliber of strong Misha had drastically dropped to the point that an idiot like Bea had become the future of Witchaven. I want to do my research not be stuck with these incompetent assholes! Knowledge and power are the 2 things that the Misha take pride in. These students possess none of these.
“Die!” I blocked a [Flintstone] with my hat.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that enough now, can't you be a bit more creative?” These students' vocabulary seems quite limited regarding insults.
“What?! Blocking an attack with your hat? Are you insane?”
“Insanity is what is needed sometimes to progress a race.”
I ignored more hateful comments and dispelled magic flying at me. It had been proven multiple times that our hats are indestructible. They will only disappear once we die and even that isn’t always true. I looked at my hat. It will be able to block attacks that could easily tear through my defences and kill me. I understand their reaction though. We are heavily reliant on our hats but as long as we’re touching our hats, we will be fine.
I arrived home and the decline of my race was on my mind. Maybe it is better to take my research and run. Find a race that would welcome me and help me continue the legacy of the Misha. I doubt that I can change the mindset of the council. And unfortunately, they decide what happens here. I could go to the Misha capital Mildowa but I highly suspect that it’s worse there. I made some Mistflower tea and pondered. Where would I go? Would I bring that idiot with me? I survived teaching these disrespectful Misha for 2 weeks and could finally delve into my research.
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It took weeks before I figured out the complete mana runic structure of my hat. I had noted down everything I had found. It could be unreliable in the grand scheme because I don’t know how my hat differs from other Misha. I will ask Bea and Remi if I can take a look at their hats later. Something that we never learned at the academy had surfaced. Our hats, at least my hat, will attempt to keep me alive the moment I’m about to die. It will flush all the mana it holds through my body to force me to heal, it might even be able to revive me if it holds enough mana. It will cause the hat to be depleted of mana, so if I don’t recover and escape or defeat my opponent, I would still die afterward. Just like all magic, my hat’s runic structure is quite inefficient.
I started altering my hat to be a perfect fit for me. I would have expected that at least my hat would be a perfect fit for me since I was born with it. But that was not the case. I could recognize parts that would suit my mother, Zaerith, more than me. Maybe it just passes on general properties found within the family.
It took me 5 months to do a complete overhaul of my hat's runic structure. It looked no different than it did before. I felt a stronger connection to my hat than ever before. The mana it can generate and store had multiplied by 81 times. I did it again… what will the council think if they learn about this… my connection was so strong with my hat that I’m sure that I will be able to fight off the elders without my hat… I leaned backward in my chair. I should make plans to run. I can’t stay here. I can’t reliably hide the strength of my hat. I would need a skilled illusionist for that. I can only change the balance of mana between my hat and myself.
Normally our hats hold 70% of our mana. I can now shift it to 50%. I had made mana partitions in my hat. 10 to be exact. Each of these partitions holds enough mana to theoretically revive me once I’m about to die. The hat has a tendency to use all its available mana to achieve this but currently, that will be overkill for me. So, I have technically 10 lives with this.
It can also allow me to use elements I normally can’t use. I don’t have an earth, lightning, dark or light magic affinity but at 5 times the normal mana cost, I can use those as if I had an affinity for those. I had partially found out why our hats are so tough. And I had created a passive skill that would make my body tougher. I had named the passive skill [Azure Aura]. I leaned too far backward and fell over. This would normally hurt but it didn’t because of [Azure Aura]. I don’t want to be arrogant but I might have found out how to bring my race to new heights. I could easily manipulate mana now. The amount of skills I had made were countless and their efficiency was quite high. But apparently, this isn’t what my race wants… I took the notes and a book I had written with me. I would write a simple research paper about our hats. I will leave out anything that can antagonize the council. It will purely be about cosmetic changes and quality of life changes.
I noticed something the moment I stepped out of my lab. The ambient mana was quite contaminated. The mana my hat provided was pure but the mana in the surroundings was anything but pure. It is a big deal because anyone who uses magic draws ambient mana in to aid their natural mana generation. Misha might not be heavily affected by this because of their hats but other races will. I will have to ask my friend Paula about this. She studied something similar before she got kicked out of Witchaven. My lab had pure ambient mana because I had just spent 5 months in it and I hypothesize that the mana my hat gave off had driven off or purified the ambient mana in my lab.
As usual I got the same treatment but everything seemed so weak and inefficient. The magic the Misha flung at me, the compositions of their defensive magic and their hats. I wonder if this is how the gods look at the mortals. I don’t claim to be a god but it looks to me now that my race puts in no effort. I sighed as my [Azure Aura] made me take hardly or no damage from all the attacks flying at me. Another rumor was going around that I had fucked a whole village nearby. I’m sure that it wasn’t Bea this time. I wonder what that idiot is doing?
I found 2 important professors attempting to break into my house. “What is the meaning of this?”
“You are a suspect in the murder of Gillian Skytear.” 2 of the Misha pointed their wands at me.
“And what evidence paints me as a suspect? When did this even happen?” I said as I wondered how they came to the conclusion that I was connected to this event.
“2 weeks ago, and we are well aware that you hold a grudge against the council, you even sent her flying into a wall a half year ago!”
“That is not evidence, I stepped out of my lab after 5 months of research. You have the wrong person.” I shook my head.
“How convenient, the main suspect had been holed up in her laboratory, you need a better alibi than that!” I threw an orb holding my laboratory log at them. They caught it and inspected it. “I... impossible! then who killed Gillian?”
“As I said, you have the wrong person, I don’t know who is responsible for the murder but it wasn’t me, now could you please step aside?”
One Misha was still pointing her wand at me. “Do you mind if we take a look?” She gestured at my house with her head.
“Sure.” I used [Azure Spear] to unlock my door. These Misha seemed to be unusually focused on where my magic circle would appear but it flashed by so fast, they couldn’t learn anything from it. This seemed to upset them a bit.
“Come in,” I said as I smiled and opened the door.
The Misha coughed as my house was dusty. It was apparent that nobody had been here for almost half a year.
“Ugh, we apologize, we don’t detect any magic that might have put your house in this state.” They walked away but they seemed disappointed. I decided to not put any energy into finding out why.
I easily cleaned my house with [Azure Petals] and started to write my research paper. Since I can’t use my previous research and I have to keep it simple by only including cosmetics and useful functions it was quite easy to write. I finished the whole paper in 4 hours.
“Hmm, this paper barely adheres to the standards. Maybe I need to wait until this situation around the murder case dies down.”