The afternoon had settled over Aetherion Academy with the kind of quiet that only comes after something loud. The corridors were calmer now, students moving between rooms in small clusters, voices kept low as though the earlier tension still hung in the air like smoke that had not yet cleared.
In the middle of all that stillness, one man walked with a frown he had been wearing since he left the classroom.
Ard Le Ventias, professor, reincarnator, and someone who wanted nothing more than to go home.
He had been thinking it over.
First, he had caused a scene in class by releasing an aura powerful enough to seep through the walls.
Second, he had openly humiliated the descendants of several noble and influential families and races.
Third, he had made a girl cry. Not just any girl, but one widely known for her talent and strength, the daughter of a prestigious house, a student who had earned the title Frost Lady for the cold aura surrounding her and the colder expression she always wore.
Claire Winterfail.
The Winterfail family held their estate in one of Tarthahar's most extreme cold regions. Every member of pure blood carried within them a body of extreme cold, a trait passed down without exception. Their ancestor had been one of humanity's representatives during the Great Racial War. It was said that Rey Winterfail once cut down fifty soldiers from opposing races with a single swing of his blade. Over roughly four hours of fighting, the final count reached seven thousand, one hundred and forty-five.
'Is that not absurd.'
Even after that slaughter, he had not run short of stamina. He had kept going until he finally met an opponent he could not defeat, and that opponent had come from the demon side.
"Still. No matter how strong Winterfail is, the pure bloods even more so than the rest. But Claire—"
"Senior Ard!"
A girl with short brown hair and wide eyes full of light like a night sky crowded with stars came running toward him down the corridor, waving with a wide smile that made Ard squint slightly at the brightness of it.
'She looks like a character from a romance story'
She stopped in front of him and immediately launched into conversation with full enthusiasm.
"Senior Ard! I was so surprised to hear you became a professor here too! We used to go on missions together, do so many things together, and sometimes you even taught me magic. I thought we would rarely see each other after graduation, but fate brought us back to the same place! This is going to be so much fun having you here, Senior!"
Ard listened with a flat expression, one hand in his pocket. He nodded at the appropriate moments.
'who is this...'
He genuinely did not remember her.
During his time as a student, Ard had never been particularly good at keeping track of people. He had been popular enough, though he had never fully understood why. A fanclub had apparently formed in his name at some point without his knowledge, and this girl was apparently one of its members. Not in a romantic sense. In the sense of someone who looked at him the way people look at something they find genuinely impressive.
"Ah, since you are a professor now, I will call you Professor Ard from here on. And you should call me Professor Celi."
'So her name is Celi.'
"Alright, Professor Celi."
Celi let out a small proud noise, clearly delighted at being called professor by her former senior.
"So, Professor Ard. What are you doing out here?"
"Nothing much. I was just thinking about what to teach in my next class."
"Oh. That does not sound like you at all."
"Not like me?"
"You said at graduation, and I am quoting this exactly, 'Finally free from this miserable academy! From here on I will live by my one true motto: be lazy, relax, and never think about anything ever again!' And you said it loudly enough that everyone nearby turned to look."
Ard went very still. His expression did not change, but somewhere behind it, he was quietly dying.
"Ahem. That was then. Now I am a professor, so I have no choice."
"That is exactly what we would expect from Professor Ard!"
Celi clapped her hands together.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Do you remember Claire? She is one of your students, right?"
"Yes. My former junior, now my student. Why?"
"Earlier, when I was walking back to my room, I saw her at the training grounds. She was holding her sword and her hand was bleeding. I thought at first it was just from training, but when I looked more carefully, her face was like someone very upset. And she was crying."
Ard's expression shifted slightly.
"I do not know why she was crying. It is unusual. She has always been the Frost Lady, cold and without expression. But this was the first time I have ever seen her show emotion like that. Professor Ard, do you know something? She is your student. Did something happen between you two?"
Ard exhaled and pressed a hand to the back of his head.
"She did say something to me. Though not anything pleasant."
"What did she say?"
"I hate you. That was it."
Celi stared at him.
"You made a student cry on your very first day. And if I recall correctly, I also heard that you made several students faint by releasing your aura in class. Quite a grand introduction."
"Cool, right," Ard said with a short snort. "That was a joke."
Celi looked at him with an expression like a flat line.
"Senior, I mean Professor. Were you not being a little excessive? Especially with Claire. She may seem cold and indifferent, but she is actually quite fragile underneath all of that."
"So. You want to blame me? Tell me to apologize for going too far?"
"I am not blaming you. I only want to say this for your sake and for theirs."
"For my sake." Ard began walking in the direction of the training grounds. "I appreciate the advice, Celi. But I have my own way of teaching my students."
Celi watched him go, worry written clearly across her face. She could not force her opinion on someone she respected as deeply as she did Ard.
"Haaaah. I hope this turns out alright."
A pause.
"Professor Ard called me by my name directly. Does this count as a significant development?!"
---
The bell rang and the next lesson began.
The students filed out to the training grounds in orderly rows. Ard stood at the front, hands at his sides.
"We are starting practical training. I will be teaching theory, magic, swordsmanship, alchemy, and even forging. But since most of you specialize in magic and swords, those will come up more often than the rest."
A student raised a hand.
"So we will not be doing any theory? Just practical work?!"
Ard smiled gently.
"Of course we will be doing theory."
A ripple of quiet suffering moved through the rows. They had the look of children promised something good and then told it was not coming.
"I will focus on three things. Theory, magic, and swordsmanship. If any of you want to study something else, come to my room directly. The same goes if you do not understand something. That is what a teacher is for. But do not misunderstand. There will be times when you have to make your own choices."
"Alright. Before we begin, a light warm-up."
Ard turned his back to them, pressed his palm toward the ground, and let a black aura with blood-red edges sink into the earth. It lasted only a moment. Then he turned back around.
"Run twenty laps around this field."
"Twenty laps? That is it?"
"Is that not too easy?"
"Stop talking and run."
The first five laps were fine. By the ninth, their breathing had grown ragged. By the fifteenth, every step felt like dragging something enormous while carrying something equally large on their backs. Their legs turned to stone. The air felt wrong.
But they were still Class A. They finished.
"Are all of you this exhausted from twenty laps?"
Some had sat down. Some lay flat. A few were still standing only by bracing their hands against their knees.
"I placed a magic into the ground before we started. That is what made you feel as though you were pulling and carrying something massive at the same time."
"What..."
"And the mana used was zero."
The field went silent.
Mana was the fundamental energy behind magic. Without it, magic should not exist.
"From your expressions, I take it this is the first time you have consciously noticed it. Though you have all seen it before." He paused. "The Headmaster. If you have ever seen her moving at low altitude when she could simply walk, you might have assumed it was magic. But there is no mana in it whatsoever."
"But is that even possible?"
"Tania Volka." Ard looked toward the girl who had raised her hand. "Yes. Entirely possible. Even someone without a magic circle can do it."
"Can it cover different types?" Luna asked.
"All types. Fire, water, wind, earth. The exception is elven magic. Elves draw from nature and from Spirits. Is that not right, Sai Lucius."
"I do not care— ugh!!!"
Sai was elbowed sharply in the stomach by Viona.
"Yes, that is correct, Professor Ard!"
'That looked like it hurt'
"Elven magic is rooted in nature and Spirit. Mana comes from everything that exists in the world. Elven magic draws from the World Tree or is borrowed from the Spirits. The source is entirely separate."
"In short, the clearest difference between mana-based magic and magic without mana is in the casting."
Beginners recited long incantations. As they grew more skilled, those incantations shortened. A mage at circle four could manage it in a few words.
"Let us begin."
Ard raised his hand toward the practice dummy.
"A lower-circle mage recites a long incantation to control mana consumption. If they force magic out without it, the mana in their body will be completely exhausted. What follows is mana deviation. And mana deviation means death. Watch carefully."
Every student fixed their eyes on his hand.
"Light Beam."
A pale golden light gathered in his palm. Not a brief flash. Sustained, long, and steady. The upper half of the practice dummy ceased to exist. The wall behind it developed a hole.
The students stared.
Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.
In the end, the only thought shared across the entire training ground was the same one, worn by every face present.
'You must be kidding'
* * *