*** PoV: Hanna ***

“As you maggots all know, the Academy’s Tournament is rapidly approaching,” came my most recently acquired big sister’s voice from inside the lecture hall I was waiting in front of. Even though Colette put me in her own class, she claimed she had some urgent official matters to attend to, and dumped her duties both as the lead professor for the armed combat course and as my guide on Sylvie. Thanks to that, not only was I stuck with her in the castle, but even here at the Academy.

“I have two pieces of information to share with you in relation to this. First, Director Hildakoa hired a new instructor for both armed and magic practical combat classes.” She never mentioned a salary though. Did work laws not apply to the deceased?

“Second, a transfer student will be joining this course starting today.”

“How is that related to the Tournament, Professor Hildakoa? Are they someone powerful enough to compete in it?” asked one of the students.

“I mean, there would be no point in hiring someone who isn’t appropriately strong as an instructor,” came the amused response from Sylvie.

“I wasn’t asking about the instructor, but our new coursemate,” the student protested, not understanding what she meant.

“You can’t ask about one of them without also asking about the other when they are the same person,” she responded, slightly annoyed.

“Eh? Is the transfer student our new instructor?” came the confused response.

“Yes, she is. You may enter now.”

As I opened the door, everyone but the facepalming Keith and bored Alan were looking at me. I could hear someone whistle from the back row, followed by the voice of the same student who was conversing with Sylvie before. “Why aren’t you showing any interest in her, Alan? Do you not like shorties, or did you perhaps outrun us and got a taste of her already?” Just like that the Ilishwa brat with the scarf got himself a reservation about being my assistant when doing fighting technique presentations. Anyone who wanted to be spared was better off not mentioning my height. Fortunately I never really liked black cats like him, so nothing of value was lost. The same applied to Shadow Elves, like his friends who were visibly smirking at me, but at least they weren’t wearing scarves in the classroom.

I walked up to Sylvie, turned to the class, and introduced myself. “Hi! My name is Hanna Hildakoa. I’ll be joining the academy as an instructor and an attendee of this course. Please take care of me.” Not having to use a pseudonym was strange, but other than some of the royals, no one seemed to recognize my name.

“Another Hildakoa? You can’t mean…” That curious, or more like observant girl was the sole Shadow sitting away from the Ilishwa brat’s group.

“Oh, that. As you might have guessed, I’m the sister of Director Hildakoa and Professor Hildakoa.” Calling them like that felt even stranger than casually using my name, but they asked me to do so.

“““Eeeh???””” came the boys’ surprised voice.

“You won’t get special treatment just for being my sister, so don’t come to me crying if they start bullying you. Now, go take a seat wherever you like, and let me start the class already.”

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I stepped off of the podium and turned right into the first row of seats, promptly sitting down in the most comfortable-looking place I could find. A seat that wasn’t too soft nor too hard, had a nice temperature, and also smelled pretty nice.

““““““EEEEEEEEEEEH?”””””” This time the girls also joined in, with some hardcode murderous intent in their stares.

Alan turned around to look at the scarfed bratcat. “Did that answer your question?”

“How sweet of you. I guess I won’t blab to Kathleen about how they assumed you would hop on me the moment you saw me.”

“I’m not fond of near-death experiences so I appreciate that.”

“You still keep asking for it though,” said Keith, poking fun at him.

“““Disgusting,””” arrived the unanimous judgment of the girls in the room.

“““Lucky bastard,””” the boys declared their disagreement on the topic.

***

The day passed quickly, and finally, it was time for my first class as teacher, armed practical combat.

My idea for the day was splitting my students into groups, and making them participate in a mock siege. One group would defend me and the earthen magic outpost I built outside of the city, while the others would try to take me captive.

“For today’s practice, you’ll be split into 3 groups. The group leaders are picked by me, but you are free to decide which group you want to join as long as it doesn’t tip the balance too much.”

“Won’t that just give you a chance to put those you already know in the same group while calling it balancing?” the boy with the scarf - whose name I knew as Claude Noir now - asked.

“No, I’m actually making them two of the group leaders.” I proceeded, handing Keith and Alan their teams’ armbands, yellow and red respectively. “I also planned to put you in command of the last team, but you can decline if you want to join one of theirs.”

“I like this line-up. Looking forward to beating your asses,” he smirked at the other group leaders before grabbing the remaining blue armbands from my hands. His lackeys didn’t waste any time and lined up behind him, forming a team of darkness from all the Ilishwa and most of the Shadows in the class.

The rest of the class split up to join Keith and Alan’s teams, and while their headcounts were almost balanced, the same could not be said about their gender ratios with most of the girls standing behind Keith.

“This took way less time than I anticipated. Are you all trying to take my job on my first day?” I joked. “At least let me do some minor balancing on the teams. You there, the Shadow girl in team yellow. I’m pretty sure you haven’t introduced yourself yet.”

“I’m Lina Durand, Miss Hanna.” I didn’t know why she seemed to avoid the gang of the Ilishwa and the other Shadows both in the classroom and here, but to pull off the prank I prepared for the day, I needed her to team up with them.

“Lina, I would like you to join Team Blue instead. Any objections?”

“As you wish, Miss Hanna.” Her sigh was so deep I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her soul leave her body. Still, she proceeded to walk over to Claude’s line with drooping shoulders.

“With that taken care of, let’s not waste any more time. Each team is to wait at the city gates. Team red, you’ll start from the northwest gate. Team Blue takes the southeast one. Yellow, south-west is left for you.” I could have used the northeast gate too, seeing how the area I picked was to the west from Crater, but I opted to avoid making any of the teams passing over the wastelands Colette left north from the city.

“You’ll be leaving in an hour together with your assigned escorts. I’ll be escorting the defenders, and the attackers will be escorted by the Honig brothers from the city guards.” One would think getting the prince consort and his brother to accompany the students on their fun little trip outside would involve some overcomplicated paperwork, but in reality, they volunteered for the task.

“My team will need about an hour to set up our defenses, so the attackers must stay in the camps their escorts lead them to until they give the signal to start the siege. They’ll also brief you about our approximate location, so pay attention.”