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Loud murmurs and conversations echoed from all directions. The din of the crowds that felt foreign and unfamiliar to me fit the academy grounds like a puzzle piece.
Within the blink of an eye, a month had passed us by. The opening ceremony was now just a day away.
Students flooded the dorms and the many facilities of the academy with more of them joining in each hour. The ones carrying old school books casually walked around while the ones with empty pages marveled and gawked at every turn and twist of the academy grounds.
Quite a lot of them were also intrigued by the changed staff, the increased security, and the completely remodeled facilities that the academy now boasted.
Though the students were numerous enough to leave barely any quiet spots in the academy, the academy too was large enough to keep them all free and airy.
Wading through the sparkles of youth and the allure of school life that only a student could know, I walked with my hat pulled low.
“What about your fiancée?” I asked my companion, the vice principal of the academy, Richard.
“I’ll be able to see her soon.”
Tap, tap, our boots clacked against the stone paths as we strode against the spring breeze.
Within the blink of an eye… the month had passed by.
Just like the students with an empty book, I was starting on a fresh new page of my life too.
Though I planned to just relax and find a way to spend all the money I had accumulated at first, a new thought had settled in my head.
A strange longing. It was simply to be a good professor for the ones who would need me.
“Are you nervous?” Richard asked, turning his gaze my way.
“Not really. I do find teenagers rather… uh, enigmatic. But I think I’ll manage.”
Richard nodded.
“They have pushed a tough role on you, Ethan. But with your skills, it’ll be easy to pull off.”
I wondered if that was the case. As far as meeting with the kids went, I knew I shouldn’t go up and just pspsps someone again, but that was all.
“What kind of professors did you like, Richard?”
The ages I should have been at the academy were spent on the frontlines, and before that age, everyone in the Kalenice family was homeschooled. The same was the case for my siblings.
Richard contemplated my question with crossed arms. He leaned back a little and hummed.
“I would say someone mature or hands-off, I could even say someone involved and ready to listen, but you shouldn’t try to be like any of those.”
He then nodded, satisfied by whatever he thought up.
“The best educators were the ones who were genuine. Leave all pretense behind and treat the kids as equals, as people, that alone will go a long way.”
“Is that so…”
“Far too many people think that as teachers, it’s their job to show the kids the right path or solve their problems or make them the best version of themselves, but that is not true. It undermines the student.”
Richard placed a hand on my shoulder and lightly patted it.
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“In the end, they are their own people. People who will have to face their own problems and emotions. You can only show them the path, you can’t walk it for them.”
A smile lingered on my lips.
“You must have been popular during your professor days.”
“It took me too long to realize these things.”
“Hah. I guess the kids aren’t the only ones who would be learning.”
Richard and I broke into a shared laughter at those words.
Tomorrow…
The entrance ceremony. I didn’t think I would last the whole month all alone, but it seemed that the boredom was going to be replaced soon.
I only wished the students wouldn’t be tough to deal with.
I am probably prepared well.
“On that note, Ethan. Tomorrow, please make a test for the students who join Black Rose.”
That came out of nowhere.
A test? What subject?
Hey, what subject was I even supposed to teach? Wait, aren’t I completely unprepared?!
“It’s just a tradition!” Richard quickly waved his hands side-to-side at my confusion. “We test kids in every class. Some teachers subject them to an illusion, others give them an unsolvable problem, and some even have mock duels. Anything you want to push their buttons.”
What kind of tradition was that?
“Unsolvable problems? Isn’t that just harassment in the name of education?”
“Life is unfair.”
Whoever started this tradition definitely did it out of spite. Kids were tougher to handle than what Richard just made it seem like, right?
“Don’t worry, everyone will be busy with their tests so you can do whatever you want. Tomorrow, the head of the magic department plans to throw a bunch of kids in the forest.”
Seriously?! My image of an entrance ceremony was quickly crumbling.
This sounded like something straight out of a novel—
Wait…
Fuck…
I forgot, but isn’t this world really inside a novel?! The war had kept me so busy that the thought never entered my mind, but I was truly living in the world of that one novel whose fanboys couldn’t shut up!
On that note, I have no idea what the novel was about. I had never even read it. Was I living in a time after the story? Before?
There was no one who seemed like a main character during the war!
“Ethan? Are you alright?”
My head was spinning. In the end, I sighed and shrugged.
If things aren’t in my control, they aren’t in my control. To be honest, if not for the name of the Empire and the Emperor, I wouldn't have ever known I was in the novel. It was nice that the Emperor had to change his name whenever they took the throne!
Original story? It can flow away in a ditch for all I care, there can’t be much worse than the war with the Demons.
I heard the novel was more slice of life anyway.
“A test, huh…?”
Since I was in a novel, I did feel like doing something that people would only see in novels.
Should I?
They are all important kids, they should be able to handle something just a little tougher than what normal kids can do.
Right?
“It seems I should go prepare for this test, Richard.”
“I suddenly feel like I shouldn’t have informed you of it…”
***
Jackie was a young carriage driver. After his father injured his back, the boy decided to take over the driving job to feed the family.
‘Don’t underestimate the wonders of carriage driving son.’
Those were the last words his father had left him. Before going to sleep. This morning.
“Hah, foolish old man. How can carriage driving be weird?” That was what young Jackie had thought.
Until he met a strange customer. Today.
With a nervous gaze, Jackie brought the carriage to a stop and stepped out, opening the door for his customer.
“We’re here, mister. This is as far as I’ll take you.”
With a soft smile, the customer picked up his attache case, adjusted his hat, and stepped down from the carriage.
Jackie pointed in the distance, at the grand forest stretching far away.
“That’s the only forest outside of Glorenstein. I’ve heard crazy monsters lurk there, reconsider going to that place.”
“Oh, it should be fine. Please wait here for a moment, I will go there and be right back and we can return to the city.”
“Go there? It’s still a kilometer away—”
Before Jackie could finish speaking, the black-haired man disappeared from his sight.
With an incredulous gaze, Jackie turned toward the forest.
He had heard that some soldiers in the war were very fast, maybe he was one of those? It wasn’t rare to see retired soldiers these days.
“Still, a moment…?”
Unlike his father, Jackie was not so hot about carriage driving and its mysteries. He only did it to help his family.
The forest that the customer wanted to go in was the most dangerous place in the vicinity of Glorenstein. It had only become scarier when rumors of a two-headed troll spread.
Jackie was about to get back on the carriage and turn away when loud caws filled the sky.
[https://i.imgur.com/M8mLD98.jpg]
The boy gazed up and saw a giant cloud of dust rising in the distance.
His face hardened at once.
The cloud of dust was coming closer.
Closer and closer, by the damn second.
“Shit! What is that?!”
He jumped back on the carriage, but the poor boy was too late.
Right in front of him, the black-haired man with a hat and a bag had appeared again.
“There you are! Thanks for waiting, let us go back.”
And slung by his shoulders was a giant bag, about five times the size of the person.
Hands and legs stretched out of the bag as something alive writhed inside.
“Oops.”
The man kicked the bag, and it stopped.
“There’s nothing weird here, let’s return.”
Jackie had many objections, but he swallowed them all.
The wonders of carriage driving… He could see some sense in his father’s words.