[Red's POV]
After breaking the news, Irene dipped and dashed, leaving me looking like an idiot with half a spoon dangling from my hand.
Go to hell! What kind of idiot breaks the news of getting fired this way!!
On top of possibly getting fired and failing my semester, I can't force the students to participate as well. The fact is that all trainee teachers have the option to teach whatever subject they want as long as they have the qualification for it as well as the minimum required number of students that applied for that teacher's particular courses. That includes the Combat Training Class that Red manages to scout and undergo, which means that there is more than 1 Combat instructor in the academy.
It also meant that I'm fighting against other teachers for popularity as at any time the student can opt to withdraw from that subject to join another teacher who is teaching that same specific subject.
As I lament the situation, one by one, the students all showed up for lessons. It's been at least 2 weeks since they joined my lesson. In all honesty, I'm still surprised that they manage to stick around for so long if I'm being completely honest. Especially for Zenith, since the punk hated me so much that he tried to kill me daily.
But something was amiss. The expressions of the students were somewhat...bitter. Something must have happened between the classes.
"What happened?"
No answers. Most of the students kept their heads down and kept to themselves.
[Look at Riri's expression.]
Ryong prompted as I twist my head looking at her. Her body was trembling while her eyes were unfocused. Tears slowly filled up from within as she grabs her arm and started doing the breathing exercise I taught them. Eve went ahead to pat her back, calming her down."
Ava walked towards me and spoke.
"One of the teachers has been pushing Riri to leave this class to join his Combat training class. However, Riri declined and said that she liked it here and she was improving. In the end, after a series of exchanges, the teacher thus lashed out and humiliated her because of her status. Senior Zenith tried to step in, only to be stopped by someone else.
"Which professor is it?"
"Professor Alastor."
Turning my gaze over to the students, their expressions were bitter and cold, as some of the students look at me, hoping to seek any sought of guidance or solution to help with the situation.
Even the hot-tempered Zenith sat in one corner, wrapping his fist with his left hand.
[What do you plan to do?]
"So, this is where the commoners class takes place hmmm", a voice that I haven't heard before appeared from the back of the training ground.
It was another Caucasian male with blond hair again that looked slightly similar to Gerald but his face on the other hand...not as handsome.
Oh before that, Elderwinn is mostly filled with students that are mostly Caucasian, with some people from other parts of the world. Some of them are dark-skin like Riri and there were Asian people like me and my sister Jade.
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But people don't pay any attention to the race of the person here. Instead, it's the status of a person that's being judged here. Among the teaching faculty, the majority of the professors and teachers came from the nobility lineage while there are some that come from a commoner bloodline. In my case, due to my identity as Cedrick Jenkins being a commoner, occasionally there are rumors and gossip pertaining to how I got it.
Things like:
- The deputy head took pity on me to let me in
- How I poured my entire fortune just to convince the headmaster to allow me in the school even as a training.
- I gave the headmaster bribe and took Irene hostage to blackmail her.
The list goes on but generally, I ignored them. The only time when a commoner has earned the respect of the nobles is when they have the Mage's rank of Sage and above. This is when they began to give the mage, no matter what background he came from, the same treatment as how they would give a noble.
Back to the issue at hand, the man spat on the ground before heading forward in our direction. The man was wearing a blue-colored robe and behind him were students that accompanied him here.
I reach out my hand in a handshake position and tried to be as polite as I could to stop escalating any disagreements.
"Good afternoon, I take it that you are Professor Alastor?"
As I reached my hand further in for a handshake, he slaps my hand aside and bumped my shoulders, making his way right into the middle of the training ground.
While pinching his nose, he proceeds to say, "Riri. You really rejected my offer to come and learn at this dump? It really appears that you peasants really stick together."
Peasants? Did he just____
[Calm down.]
But____
"I implore that you accept my offer. The man teaching you is merely a fraud that the deputy head took pity upon."
Pity??
Ava thus walked over to me and whispered in my ear, "Mr. Jenkins, how are you able to stand him belittling you?"
"I simply have patience, my dear," I replied to her with a calm demeanor.
While that was what I said outside, deep in my mind, Ryong and Blue started laughing their ass out.
[*...I...Simply have patience...mY dEar.*]
[HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAHAHHAHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHH!]
Clearing my mind of their nonsense, I continue to observe what this idiot was trying to do in my class.
Riri finally calmed down a little, with the help of Eve's support, stood up, and faced Alastor directly. She lowered her head and replied, "I am sorry Professor Alastor, I really enjoyed my class here and would like to continue so."
Alastor stayed silent for a few seconds before replying, "Fine." But something was off. The moment he faced his head down, there was a weird moment when the nature of the mana shifted. Someone used a spell.
He raised his head up and proceeds to smile warmly, which was odd, considering he, a noble, just got rejected by a commoner no less.
"This is why, you peasants deserve to rot in the bottom, no matter how talented you are.", just as he said those words, he opens his eyes, revealing a bright purple light shining through his iris as he pressed forward, trying to lock his eyes against Riri's one.
Then- THUMPTHHH!!!!
**
With the help of Ryong, Red's sensitivity to mana increases at least 3 fold as he continues to train using the specific breathing technique bestowed to him by Ryong, This allowed him to be able to feel the change in nature from the mana as his naked skin could feel every flow and ignition made when a magic spell is involved. This was no exception.
Within seconds when Alastor started chanting and evoking his spell, Red already started moving silently. In the 4 seconds that Alastor made his move, Red was already right in front of Riri and Eve and placing his palm right under the chin of Alastor. All he needed to do was to stretch his arm and the man would be sent flying. He also thought to himself.
Should I be doing this?
But his intrusive thought won as he really wanted to see the man flying in the air and that was what he did.
THUMPTHHH-!!!
In that measly 4 seconds, Red purpose chose to appear right under his face to surprise him. This meant that he did not even see it coming. Making it even more painful due to the face, the man bit his own tongue when the palm landed on his jaw.
"AARRGHAHHHHHHH!!!", Alastor screams in pain while the rest of the students were confused as to what the hell just happened. All the students except Grace. Red specifically saw that Grace's eyes were fixed on him in that split second. But he ignored it and was ready to face a more pressing issue.
"Using a spell against a student just because she doesn't like you is pathetic, don't you think?"
"....yYuu YuUUUU FARRKKKKINNNNN PASTTTARDDDDDD!!!!" As Alastor yelled with a bloody mouth, he raised his wand and started hammering spells toward Red without care.
As Red summoned Fang in its greatsword form, he uses the flat surface of the sword to slam the spells in another direction, making sure that his students were safe.
"Now now, looks like I have to calm a baby down."