brother's retry (the beginning after the end)

classes and professors III

My body couldn't help but tremble in suppressed anger at the thought of being in the same class as that brat Lucas, and of all classes, a team-fighting class. The sick irony of having that traitor in a class focused on learning team cohesion in battles almost made me want to laugh.

"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 looked straight up to see a massive hawk-like mana beast hovering over the field.

This beast was at least 4 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.

"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."

The first thing I did was measure the stage our professor's mana core was at, but upon trying to inspect her level, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my head as Professor Glory whipped her gaze at me. Giving me a confident smile, she gazed down in my direction before I saw her eyes flick to Art, who was standing next to me now. Hopping off of her Flare Hawk, she made her way around the group of students in her class. Studying each of the students she passed, she took a closer look at some of them before making her way towards us.

It wasn't unusual for mages to build defenses around their core stages, especially the higher level ones. It was also a lot more difficult to hide which element they used, since the mana particles of their element naturally surrounded them. Most don't find the need to hide their elemental attribute so it wasn't a big deal even if they couldn't, but needless to say, it was surprising to see how strong Professor Glory's defenses were.

I couldn't tell what her core stage was or even her elemental attribute. While I got the hang of masking my core stage level, I needed to use seals in order to hide my fire element constantly but in short bursts I could hide it and my ice. I wasn't sure whether she used seals like we did.

"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 disciplinary committee and the student council members, nodding every once in awhile.

"Well if it isn't my newest colleague, Arthur Leywin. It's a pleasure to meet you," Professor Glory gave me a playful grin, as if she was itching to tease him.

The students started murmuring amongst the group in confusion.

One of the male upperclassmen raised his hand. "Professor Glory, what do you mean by colleague?"

"Ah! Most of you probably saw him at the commencement this morning but this boy is a freshman disciplinary committee officer. A real prodigy if I do say so myself. He's also a newly appointed professor for the Practical Mana Manipulation class that you guys all took during your underclassman years." She gave me a firm pat on the back.

"WHAT?!!"

"You can't be serious, Professor!"

"If that brat is a professor then I'm the king of this continent!"

"What has this academy turned into, to accept a freshman as a professor?"

"How is that even possible? Even the best upperclassmen these days don't get picked to be professors, but that first year did?"

The various noises of protests made me sigh. They were bound to find out eventually but it would've taken the upperclassmen a bit longer to find out this news, considering they didn't really get much information about the lower division classes.