March passed by so quickly. It's already the third Tuesday of the month.
As I quietly stared at the calendar, I focused my attention on the Professor's movements. If I were a different animal, I might have perked up my ears—that's how much my senses were drawn to the sound.
When I turned my head toward the noise, I saw the Professor pulling out a chair from the desk and neatly arranging some papers.
"Professor, are we going now?"
"Yes, we should. We got lucky though."
The Professor stood up with a slight smile.
This was supposed to be a second-year lecture that should have been held on Monday morning.
Due to sudden work commitments, the Professor had no choice but to cancel the class, but fortunately, most students taking this lecture had Tuesday mornings free, so we could immediately make up the class the next day.
I suppose having a lecture on Tuesday morning is better than Monday morning. Of course, after getting through Monday, Tuesday morning might feel like hell.
"But what happens if someone can't attend the make-up lecture?"
"That's why I provide plenty of handouts."
The Professor showed me the thick stack of handouts in hand as if to say it wasn't a problem.
"Shall I carry them?"
"Urr, could you take this instead?"
"Sure!"
When I casually offered to help, the Professor asked for something else instead.
It was the attendance book that listed all the students' names. Shaped like an approval file, it was incredibly thick and seemed to exude an intimidating presence just by existing.
There's a terrifying legend that if you get four absences marked in here, your grade immediately becomes an F. It was truly frightening. Such tyranny kept students coming to school.
Of course, Academy students had excellent academic enthusiasm, so they would attend more lectures rather than skip them. Even when they did miss class, it was usually because the make-up lecture overlapped with another class.
Hugging the attendance book, I glanced at the Professor.
"Professor."
"Yes?"
"By the way, how many credits do students take per semester at the Academy?"
"Huh?"
I was just curious after seeing how hard the students studied, but the Professor seemed surprised by my question, as if never expecting it.
The clicking footsteps came to a sudden halt.
Tilting my head in confusion, wondering if I'd said something wrong, the Professor let out a dry laugh and said:
"I didn't expect you to ask a question typical of first-year students. Did the others talk about this?"
"I just heard you mentioning it before."
"Really? Anyway..."
This was common knowledge for anyone attending the Academy.
But that only applied to people familiar with the education system and other races, not to a Demon God who had been completely removed from such a society.
That's probably why the Professor was surprised that I knew about this.
I felt my shoulders rise with pride at having surprised the Professor.
Hehe, I know this much too... The Professor is so shocked.
I chuckled to myself as I thought of the playful remark I couldn't say out loud. The Professor, who was about to continue speaking, saw my expression and tilted their head.
"Urr, what's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing. Just had an amusing thought."
When I awkwardly avoided eye contact, the Professor slightly turned their body to follow my gaze. As I pushed my eyes to the corners trying not to make eye contact, the Professor seemed to give up and sighed.
"You shouldn't hang out with strange friends."
"...Eh."
The only friends I have are the Study Group the Professor created.
Oh, of course, Lenya from the first year of the Institute was also my friend. And although we hadn't talked much yet, I was planning to become friends with Iris from the second year too.
Actually, most second-year students wanted to be friends with me, so I was likely to have double-digit friends soon.
I understood the Professor's concern to some extent, so I nodded slightly.
"You seem to be having strange thoughts again."
"N-no, I'm not!"
When I denied it with a startled voice, the Professor roughly patted my messy hair.
"Oh my."
"Eep."
My head tilted slightly from the pressure.
Meanwhile, my unkempt hair added weight to my body.
Unlike yesterday, my hair wasn't neatly arranged, so the unbalanced weight pulled me in different directions.
As I took a few steps to regain my balance, the Professor burst out laughing.
"Urr, your coordination is amazing!"
"It's the result of training."
There was something about receiving praise that made me feel proud. It felt like my shoulders might shoot upward.
With a small "hee" and a raised corner of my mouth, I looked at the Professor, who patted my back and urged me to hurry.
On our way to the lecture hall, the Professor remembered the topic I had forgotten.
"Oh right, you asked about credits earlier."
"Yes."
"You need to take 110 credits over three years, so... just under 20 credits per semester, I guess?"
The Professor seemed to be calculating in their head.
Just under 20 credits per semester.
Compared to my vague memories of university, despite having one less year, there didn't seem to be any need to desperately accumulate credits.
Either the quality of lectures was different, or perhaps those in this field could gain sufficient recognition with this number of credits. It was an impressive world either way.
Or maybe the world had become too monotonous due to the existence of magic for specialized courses.
"Well, shall we go in now?"
"Yes."
We had already reached the lecture hall.
At the Professor's signal, I nodded and stepped inside with them. As usual, to avoid repeating my mistake from the third-year lecture, I held my belt with one hand and watched the floor carefully as I walked.
I climbed onto the platform, placed the Professor's attendance book down, and scanned the seats where the students sat.
Among the second-year students taking the Demon God lecture, those friendly toward me were all wearing name tags around their necks.
There was no need to take an unfavorable gamble by choosing students without name tags. So naturally, my eyes scanned those with name tags.
When I thought of second-year students, Iris immediately came to mind—the one who had asked if she could touch my head.
With lighter blue hair than Sera and darker blue eyes. It was as if her hair and eye colors had been swapped, but the overall impression was completely different.
That's probably just because they look different.
Sharp eyes, a slightly calm voice. As always, Iris waved her hand.
Many students were trying to get me to sit next to them, but I thought it would be nice to become friends with Iris first.
It's not that I disliked the others, but they were all so evenly welcoming that I didn't have any priority friends, so to speak. No one I could definitively say, "I'm close with this person."
Whatever the reason, it made me feel awkward, so to resolve that feeling, I took the seat next to Iris.
Iris's charm point was her attempt to maintain a gentle expression despite her sharp eyes.
"Hello, Iris."
"You're sitting next to me again today?"
"Yes. I want to become friends with you."
When I nodded in response to Iris's comment, she quietly smiled.
Just as I thought I'd listen to the lecture quietly today, the students sitting at the desk below glanced up.
"Hi Urr. Do you remember my name?"
"Yes, hello Louise."
Orange hair and blue eyes. Someone slightly taller than me.
Though I'd feel bad telling her this, Louise was the easiest to remember because our height difference was the smallest.
The blonde student with green eyes next to her waved slightly.
"Urr, what about me?"
"Rain?"
"Wow... I deliberately covered my name tag."
Rain laughed like someone caught in the middle of a mischievous prank.
People generally find it easier to match faces with names rather than memorizing them as text, so that's how I remembered them.
Since I wasn't particularly good at memorization, it felt easier to gradually make friends and remember them this way.
"Good thing you sat here, right?"
"I figured you'd sit next to Iris again since you did last time."
Louise, who seemed happy to be sitting near me, clenched her fist and bounced slightly, while Rain analyzed my behavior pattern.
Though it was too simple a choice to really call it a behavior pattern.
This lecture hall was designed like a staircase, so the further back you sat, the more you could take in the entire large hall at once.
It was just a lecture hall, but somehow looking down gave me the feeling of being an omnipotent god.
"Ahem."
"...?"
As I was looking around at the students, I noticed one student with his head down, hands moving busily. The boy with dull silver hair was clearly using his phone.
I wasn't sure how it looked from the front, but from behind it was quite obvious.
I thought, "How dare he during the Professor's lecture!" but then realized it wasn't my place to intervene—that was for the Professor to handle—so I just pursed my lips.
As I stared at that student, Iris whispered a question beside me.
"Why are you looking at him like that?"
"He seems to be on his phone the whole time."
When I whispered back, Iris gave a bitter smile.
"I heard he's into some cryptocurrency thing, so he's probably too caught up in that to pay attention to lectures. Just leave him be."
As soon as I heard that, my indignation disappeared.
He instantly transformed into Student #1 Who Deserves Pity.