[Luz Leywin POV]
"Yo, Guys! Over here" I saw Elijah waving at us across the dining hall.
I went faster by using my dashboots, while Art just walked until he was near the table. Noticing that my Four-eyes was with Broz next to him.
"Yo, Broz, how was your last class?" I asked as Art now noticed who was that dwarf with us.
"Djis was gud!" He said while was eating a great steak there, I was surprised that he also had a lot of salad in his plate, this seems that he isnt the steriotype of a dwarf augmenter with big weapon, that only eats meats.
"Yeah, Mama Utilization I is an interesting subject, it's a shame that so far, from what the teacher said, this subject has a lo of things I've learned from our training outside of school." Elijah said with his mouth full.
"Oh!... Wait a minute... Luz, did you have lessons with Broz?" Arthur asked curiously as he tried to feed Sylvie a piece of broccoli. I felt like I could almost hear her screaming for help, but I could only hear her doing "kyu"s in annoyance.
"Oh, yes. In the morning, you and I have the same classes as the first and third period. But in the second period, we have Chain-Casting, and that's where we met Broz again." I answered him while I started to eat something quite simple, a plate with meat, salad and grains.
"Wow, what a small world, huh?" Art said and the four of us would start laughing.
"Anyway, how were your classes?! I heard that the Sonic Boom happened because of you beating up a professor! What happened to make you lose your cool, man?" Elijah gave Art a smirk while pointed his fork at him accusingly.
"Yeah, about that, so I ended up becoming a professor for that class." He resoonded coolly, shoving a piece of meat in his mouth while avoiding my 'niece''s attempts at trying to steal it.
Elijah and Broz spluttered the food they were chewing towards us, as my brother instinctively leaned back, trying to get out of the range. I just put a wind/fire barrier to protect me, with everything that was in the barrier burning until they become ashes.
"Guys, that's gross." Art said while wipping some of the stray food particles that he couldn't manage to avoid from his face, while I just laught a little.
"Sorry. Djis was un-xpected" Broz wiped his mouth.
"Whaaaat?! You're going to be a professor?" Elijah also wiped his mouth while saying this.
"Mm... I ended up replacing the professor that was teaching the class. So you may now call me Professor Leywin." Art smirked.
"Waaait! I'm also Professor Leywin!" When I said it, he laughed, while the two dwarfs were confused.
"Oh, yeah! I'm also a Professor now. But I'm teaching with Gideon, so actually it's like I was a Extra one." When I said this, they two started to laugh.
"Oh god! Professors, my ass! But this is awesome, maybe I should ditch my class sometime and go to yours. It'd be interesting to see you two teaching." Elijah retorted.
"But, Elijah, I think Professor Vera wouldn't like to see that you arent in her class.. This and my class is at the same time as your Mana Utilization I. So yeah...." For some reason, I noticed Art having a type of tic in his eye.
"Ah!.... Okay! I get it! If you are still professors in the next semester, I'll try to go to your classes!" Elijah said laughing and after this, also noticed Arthur.
"Ahn, buddy? Some problem?" Broz said also noticing this on my brother.
"Nothing.. It's just... I knew a 'professor Vera'.. But I think isnt her. Anyway, this isn't a thing to talk about." He said as Sylvie once again was on top of his head.
"Right! I almost forgot, we find a girl that is a genius in artificing. She made that base artifacts that were used at the City Square in that Big Annoucement. We talked a little about you for her. Like, she doesn't have a QUEEN body, but she is cute." I said.
"Oh!!! Awesome! You guys are really helping??? Wait, she at least is better than that dwarf girl?" I didnt knew what he was talking about, but Art nodded.
"Much better, you will first fall in love about her way in the lab, and after will fall in love for her crazy, but cute hair." Art added, I didnt knew who was the dwarf girl they were talking about, so I didnt tried to understand.
"Goood!!! Oh yeah, Broz and I were going to go to Downtown Academy to do some shopping, it's a small part where there are restaurants and magic markets. Do you want to join us?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Ahn... Elijah.. Your forget about our role as a DC Officer?" When I said this, he facepalmed.
"Shit! You can cover me today?" He said looking at the two of us.
"We will try, nerd." We said in unison.
"Djis isnt goin to be problem?" Broznean said looking at our Four-Eyes friend.
"Hmmm I think this won't be.. Since we still didn't decided how would be our routine around Xyrus Academy." Elijah said a good point, Claire couldn't blame him for this if she didn't gave us a schedule routine before.
"Welp, we also have more three classes now. So bye!" Art said while we started to walk into the hallways, making our way to our first REAL upper division class, since the Basic Artificing was for any division, and it was the Team-Fighting Mechanics I.
The classroom was on the other side of the academy, where all of the upper division classes were held. But, no! This wasn't a actual classroom, was more like a huge grass field. There were several obstacles placed randomly, with high walls with runes engraved in them. On top of each one of the walls was a separate little room protected by a glass encasing, so the students could see all the room while something happened in the field.
Arthur and I looked at some students that had arrived before us, and we saw familiar faces.
"Ah! I didnt know you'd be in an upper division class, Leywins." Curtis waved at us as soon as he realized who we were. Grawder, that same world lion from before and Curtis' bond, was lying with his eyes closed right next to him.
"Yeah, we didn't think we'd have a class with you. Please take care of us." Art grasped his hand.
"Good to see you again, master~" Claire whispered while put her arm around my neck, smiling brightly.
"We have to do our best not to embarrass the disciplinary committee, right?" she said normally now so Curtis and Arthur could hear.
"Ha... Ha. I'll do my best, Cupcake." when I called her by this she blushed a lot, making me laugh, but she counter attacked me, by slapping in my butt.
"Yeep!!!" I jumped getting a little far from her while some of the little amount of students laught about this, she gave me a smirk while I gave her my insane gaze, which made her stop of teasing me like this in a 'public' place.
"Where did you get the courage to do this with your mentor, Claire?" I said using a sound spell.
"Haha.. Sorry, I was just happy to see you." She said inside my sound spell.
"Okay, but please... Not more." after this I deactivated the spell, with Curtis and Art looking at me. "What?"
"Nothing. What are you talking about?" Art asked.
"Also nothing..... Really." I simple replied him.
"Oh. There is the some of the students" Curtis said as he looked at a direction in the field.
Walking this way amongst the small group of students, was Tessia, my 'sister', and Clives, the student vice president. She noticed us and started to walk towards Arthur and Me.
"Hello, Art. Hi brother. How are you going?" She asked, while I saw Clive giving us a death glare.
"Does that asshole still think we don't deserve Tess' attention?" I thought, a little confused.
"Oh, we had a great time. Thanks for the question... And what did you think of our last night?" Art asked.
"Last night? What did you guys do????" I asked in shock and Tessia giggled.
"No big deal, there was just a problem involving a student angry with Art and that friend of yours, Elijah. Then he used magic without activating the dueling system and being inside the cafeteria... I arrested him so there wouldn't be a problem and after this was just me and Art talking a little on the way to the dorm." As Tessia said that, I wondered what happened last night.
The way she looked when I saw her, the times, and timing, of our DC uniforms delivery meant that this could only have happened after I had delivered the cupcakes to the Student Council and received Cynthia's proposal to become a DC officer.
"I see, I hope it was a great date." When I said that, some students around looked weird, Claire and Curtis laughed and Tessia blushed, only Arthur looked somewhere without reaction. I found it strange, when I looked in the same direction, I saw a damn blond half-elf, Claire also noticed, becoming super worried, with good reason.
"Wykes..." I said quietly and irritably, just reminding myself of the disaster he caused in the Dire Tombs, but my body immediately seemed to be in a neutral state after controlling myself well.
I could feel Arthur's essence, it was red, very red, but he still could control himself. I thought a little about how ironic was, of all classes, this traitor being in a team-fighting class.
He looked at us, apathetically, like we were an insect on the ground, Claire noticed this and tried to tap our shoulders a little to get our attention.
"Good! Everyone's here!" A loud voice suddenly booms over the field. As all of the students started turning their heads to locate where the voice had come from, I sensed with my essence vision and looked up to see a massive hawk-like mana beast hovering over the field.
This beast was at least 4 to 5 meters long, and its wingspan was well over 8 meters. With its sharp talons tucked underneath it, the beast slowly made its descent, revealing a well-toned woman with a giant sword strapped to her back, standing up on the back of the hawk.
"God, she has style." I said as I looked at the woman.
"Welcome! My name is Professor Glory, and I will be the one teaching all of you brats! This Flare Hawk is Torch, my precious bond."
I slowly watched her and the flare hawk, while trying to analyze her mana core. She was clearly already in Solid Silver, which was impressive, and her essence seemed to be a confident, brave, determined woman who loves a good fight. She immediately looked in my direction, I got a little confused looking around and noticed that Arthur had tried to see her mana core, but clearly failed, as she was a full color ahead of him, while for me, I just needed to crack my current core twice to be at that level.
Leaving her bond, she was watching the students in her class. Studying each one, until she was approaching Arthur and me, we were still standing next to each other, with Claire on my left and Tessia on my brother's right.
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"I have to say, you guys have set the bar pretty high for all of the other classes." She announced after inspecting Lucas. She took quite a bit longer to inspect the DC and SC members, nodding every once in awhile.
"Well if it isn't my newests colleagues, the two brothers Leywins!! It's a pleasure to meet you." Professor Glory gave us a playful grin, as if she was itching to tease us.
The students started murmuring amongst the grouo in confusion, until one of the male upperclassmen raised his hand. "Professor Glory, what do you mean by colleagues?"
"Ah!!! Most of you probably saw them at the commencent this morning but these boys are a freshman disciplinary committee officer. Two REAL WONDER BOYS if I do say so myself. This one is also a newly appointed professor for the Practical Mana Manipulation class that you guys all took during your underclassman years, while this other was indicated by Professor Gideon to become our new professor in Basic and Advanced Rune learning for under division AND upper division." She gave us a firm pat on the back.
"WHAAAAT?!?!"
"You can't be serious, Professor!"
"If these brats are professors then I'm the king of this world!"
"What has this academy turned into, to accept a fresh student as a professor?"
"How is that even possible? Even the bet upperclassmen these days don't get picked to be professors, but those first-years did?"
Everyone seemed annoyed with that information that came out of nowhere. I mean, Emily said how gossip flies around this school at lightning speed, but it seems the upperclassmen never pay attention to what's said in the under division. Unless everyone is talking about it.
"GRRRR~" Sylvie's fur started to stand on end as she growled at the group of students. "Papa is stronger than all of you COMBINED!"
"Oh.. She is so cute, defending her pap— woah.. Wait a fucking minute!... WHY I CAN HEAR HER?!?!" I thought, little in shock.
"Something seems to have happened that made your mental connection a little more open than expected, to the point where you unintentionally invade other mental connections. Interesting... Later I'll rewind the recording of your nervous system and some areas of the mind realm to see if it's something in your body causing it, or if it's the work of an outside force." Zalgnity spoke to calm me down.
"Oooh! My daughter's voice is so cute! I know it's really weird that you're listening to her too, but isn't she adorable?" Sylvia said it in a super silly way, like a mother laughing when she sees her daughter playing.
"Okay, it's a cute voice, too bad she's currently trying to threaten them... Isn't it?" I thought, as I saw that none of the students gave a attention about her.
"Well, if she was in dragon form, I think they would have pissed themselves in their pants by now." Zalgnity commented on that situation.
"Now, now! Before we jump straight into complaints, we should have more faith in the director's decisions. In Arthur's case, he has qualified to some degree by beating the professor that taught the class previously!" Professor Glory shot a wink for my brother.
"But Professor Glory! The underclassmen professors aren't all that great anyway! I bet some of the upperclassmen students here could beat most of them!" Another round of complaints issued on, I was getting tired of this.
"Haha! To be honest, I'm itching to test how strong you really are. Unfortunately, Goodsky made it clear for us to not do that. So! These students here will test you in my place!" She put her hands on her hip, grinning in anticipation.
Soon I noticed the atmosphere of that place changing intensely, noticing that the male students' eyes were on fire as they stared at my brother. I could decipher their thoughts just from seeing that aura, they wanted to destroy my brother alive.
Apparently the fact that Arthur is a teacher of a fighting class, while I am a teacher of a mostly theoretical class, made me not the target of the boys. But I couldn't say the same for the girls.
The young girls and teenagers there, they looked at both me and my brother, seemed to devour us with their eyes and I swear, I felt that some were even drooling thinking we were trophies waiting to be caught. The only person who made me feel something like this before, in the current world, was Kathyln, but even she didn't have such a malicious look, she is more of a look of insane admiration.
Claire and Curtis were surprised, I think Cynthia didnt talk at least to her when she send the reports about the problem in Art's class. Tess was looking impressed by us, while clapping her hands with pride. Clive scowled in contempt while Lucas looked at us with his brow raised in renewed interest, as if we had gotten promoted from insect to mammal.
"Well... Director Goodsky warned us to go easy on our upper division classes until we get used to it." Arthur tried to make things simpler to get him out of this problem, I on the other hand didn't care. Taking people to the infirmary seemed like a great plan to earn the respect of these noble students.
"Oh, come on! That's no fun now, is it? In other to get proper respect, a certain amount of skill needs to be shown, you know? It's just to prove to us that you are actually capable of being in this upper division class. Isn't that right, class?" she shouted.
"Yeah!"
"Okay, what do you have in mind, Professor Glory? After all, if you want him to show what he's capable of, it has to be something intense, because he's a quadra-elemental with three deviant forms." I said, adding more fuel to the fire, with the students there now in complete shock, with the exception of the girls, they now seemed to look at me like a little prize while they looked at Arthur as if he were a royal title.
"Oh!? I knew that, but wait, three deviant forms? Wasn't that two?" Glory asked confused to me.
"He unlocked the third at the end of the battle against the old PMM teacher." I explained to her, and her eyes gleamed with emotion.
"Thanks bro..." Art glared at me.
"Hehe, relax bro. Even though these guys are more focused on you, I'm the strongest in the magic sense. So you can do your best while I protect you." I whispered in his ear, he still didn't like the idea, but it was better than nothing.
"Okay! We are going to start with some games this semester! But what could be? Mock battle? War?" Professor Glory continued to saying the options.
"How about having the four disciplinary committee officers on the same team, Professor? I feel like that could be a good way to let us work on a teamwork as well." Curtis raised his hand as Claire nodded in agreement next to him.
"Hmmmm. Not a bad idea!" She responded rubbing her chin.
"But Professor, both Curtis and Claire are top students in this academy! It wouldn't be fair to have both of them on the same team as him." A tall, black-haired teen argue.
"That's true... Aha! I got it! For the DC team, we will have Arthur play the role of king, the match resulting in an immediate loss if he gets put out of battle. I think that should be fair. Now, what about the other team?" as if she was talking to herself, she started muttering off possibles candidates when a hand raised.
"Professor. How about having the student council president and I as their opponent? Like, using the 'fair mode' that you were talking." Clive suggested.
"Wh-what?!" Tess turned her head to Clive in surprise, but before she had a chance to object, Professor Glory clasped her hands.
"OOH!!! Now things are getting interesting! But even so, it would be unfair because they are four." She looked around.
"Welp, Professor, we can get Claire out. In this way will be Curtis, Me and Art." I give the option, Claire looked at me confused.
"Why?" Professor asked me, in surprised and with a really big smirk.
"Well, Claire and I have the same attributes, Fire and Wind, so it would be kind of repetitive. And the reason I kept going, and not her, is because she already has a lot of fame around here, it would be nice to let the newbies show themselves too. I also feel that most people here are not considering me a 'threat', as they are doing with Art. Just because I'm a Professor of a theoretical subject, it doesn't mean I'm weak, in fact, until now, all training with mana that I had with my brother, I always won." Now everyone was staring at me, while I had a serious voice.
"But now.. How about another student for the SC team? So this could be an 3v3." I asked.
"I would like to be on the Student Council Team." Lucas Wykes said calmly while leaning on his staff.
"Hmmmm, Mr.Wykes, our other genius freshman... Very well! It would be a good chance to see your abilities in action as well!" I could tell by her essence when she talked this, she heard the rumors about him being a trash.
I had a big smile on my face now, my plan had worked, I did all this to get that little shit interested... I could beat him up until he went into a coma... No. That would be overkill... Depending on how trash he turns out to be during this game, I'll decide if he deserves to go to the nurse or the graveyard of failure.
I'm sorry Claire, I'll give you five whole trays of cupcakes when this is over.
"The match will have a time limit of 30 minutes, where we will have a short discussion and a breakdown of it afterwards. Please Gear up!" with that, a pile of what looked like exercise gear dropped to the ground out of Professor Glory's dimensional ring.
Turning serious, she began explaining. "This is special equipment designed by artificers to measure the amount of damage that is dealt. This equipment will activate, releasing a shrill noice, if the damage it takes passes the threshold that's encrypted into it. If anyone chooses to ignore this warning and continues to fight or cast spells, it will lead to immediate expulsion from my class and other possible consequences regarding your stay here as a student. This rule goes for any upper division fighting class in this academy, so engrave it into your guys' brains. All of you are the level where protecting yourselves with mana shouldn't be a problem. Let me reitarate this but, this equipment won't protect you so don't rely on it as a source of protection." She announced to everyone else in the class as well.
Clearing her throat, Professor Glory shouted "Do I make myself clear?!?"
"YES!"
"Good! Now, the six of you gear up!" She got back on her bond while the rest of the students headed towards the viewing platform.
I looked at Claire and winked at her, but she looked angry with me. "Don't be upset! As an excuse, I'll cook for you for a whole month!" I yelled at her, I could see her smiling about it.
Curtis came up to Arthur and me with a big smile. "Claire may have stayed a little upset for that, but I think you were right when you said that, you guys are so much alike, it would be unfair, besides we already have a great reputation, you still have to earn that respect."
"Nah, fine, but I feel pressured right now that they've spoken so openly about me being a quadra-elemental." Arthur said looking me in the eyes, and I just laughed.
"We have to show all our power. But... Seriously, as we have Lucas as an opponent, Arthur, you better not use any techniques you did before when we were adventurers, okay?" I warned, whispering.
"Oh really, there's that detail too." Curtis said understanding the situation, after all he and Claire were the only students there at school, with the exception of Tessia, who knew about our identities as adventurers, as well as our problem with Lucas.
"It must be hard for her to be on the same team as him... Shall we take him out first?" Arthur said, chuckling.
"Of course. And luckily, in that dungeon I didn't use some items." I said low again as I put on my gear.
"What would it be?" Curtis asked curiously, also putting his gear on his body.
"Well, it's a staff and a bow.... It's kind of comical these are the only weapons I didn't use in front of Lucas, while that he and Clive use a staff and a bow respectively." I raised that point, making the three of us laugh at this coincidence.
Curtis and I had already taken our positions, as we looked back and noticed that Tessia had approached Arthur and seemed to help him put on his gear, his right arm protection, which he gained with our communication dagger, seemed to have gotten a little in the way.
I heaved a sigh, picking up my committee shield, while in my right hand I turned my special ring into a staff, it was considerably large, with the area where the spells came out surrounded with sorts of blades. This staff could be used as a sort of mid-range melee weapon if I wanted to, I love how multifunctional each MW form is, even though the ring itself gives me access to a variety of five weapons.
I looked at Arthur again, he was covering Tessia's mouth with both of his hands, Curtis was super confused about it. I warned him that this was nothing strange, since Tessia was someone who talks too much, it was obvious that at some point he would try to shut her up.
But that vision was ended when Professor Glory got close to them, by her personality I would have bet 900 gold coins that she was making jokes involving the two of them flirting with each other, by Arthur's red face approaching us, I was pretty sure I would have won that bet if I'd made it with Curtis.
"Well, we have to be careful guys, I know about your fame outside of the school, but what it takes into account is the damage received on the equipment. Even though I have Grawler, we have the problem that Lucas and Tessia are conjurers, while Clive is a long-range Augmenter. If they are infinitely lucky, they can hit you hard, Art, since dealing a lot of damage to you is the least they need to do to win." Curtis was saying this as he climbed into that World Lion.
I remembered all too well when King Blaine had bought that mana beast for the prince, I patted the great lion's fur. Curtis did the same, with Grawder now 'purr'ing.
Arthur seemed to be thinking deeply about something, and soon after he left Dawn's Ballade exposed. Curtis whistled at the beauty of the sword, as it was the first time he'd seen it, as I looked over to where Tessia, Clive, and Lucas were.
The other team was a dozen meters away, I couldn't help but give a light and weak laugh at the whole situation, already having an incredible idea in mind.
"Curtis, you focus on Tessia, I warn you, I know her grandfather's training method well and the way Cynthia taught her. Don't take it easy, but also don't go all in. She's the type who knows a few tricks." I warned the prince, who nodded in agreement.
"Arthur, let's do a trick to confuse Clive and Lucas." I spoke as I started to draw five runes in the air in front of me.
"Unknown" I make several movements, forming countless crosses, all on different slopes.
"Black mana" this rune appeared to be a mixture of the letters D, M and A, with the letters at different angles as well.
"Wind - Fire" I drew the runes of the two elements, one on top of the other.
"Null" I drew a rune that resembled the number zero.
"Mobility" This rune looked like a mix between the drawing of a smooth wind and the symbol of wings.
With the five runes made in the air, they came together and transformed into that small gray sphere that resembled a completely solid fireball. I handed the sphere to Arthur and whispered my idea in his ear, he seemed incredibly excited to see this happening.
"What was that?" Curtis asked curiously.
"The reason of why I'm the new professor of Basic and Advanced Rune learning." I smirked
We were now prepared, Curtis was wielding his dual double-edged swords while mounting his bond. Arthur was coating himself with fire, wind and water mana, while in the ground he stepped in was showing traces of earth mana. And I started already to coat myself with wind and fire mana, while my staff was with a fireball already prepared to be launched.
Our Professor's powerful voice echoed through the battlefield, singnaling us to begin.
"LET THE MATCH COMMENCE!"