“Hey, hey, hey — what are you lot doing making all that noise!”
Hera had just been about to explain the afternoon practical training precautions when the voices outside interrupted her.
Pouting unhappily, she poked her little head out and looked toward the large group of figures at the door, scolding in a coquettish tone.
They were the homeroom teachers and over a hundred students from Classes 37, 8, and 53 of the first year.
The red-haired, golden-eyed middle-aged man, Hess Loslat; the mature, curvaceous teacher with hip-length dark-green hair and matching eyes, Vis Simas; and the youthful-looking — actually quite young at just twenty-six — black-haired, dark-eyed teacher, Rolo Visconti.
The moment they saw Hera’s face, the air fell deathly silent.
Gulp
Hess, the burliest of the leaders, couldn’t help swallowing hard.
“Ah, hahaha… Teacher Hera, fancy seeing you here?” Despite his towering 180 cm frame, Hess shrank his neck, somehow feeling shorter than her in presence.
Hera raised an eyebrow. “What, does the great Hess — who’s about to ‘dominate’ everyone — have a problem?”
A problem?
Like hell he dared have one.
Though she rarely showed herself outside of necessities, Hera’s reputation was legendary in the Endless Mountain Range District’s Magic Academy.
Teachers here followed a class system, staying with their students for the full four years from enrollment unless something unexpected happened — replacements were rare.
As one of the academy’s top genius instructors, this old hag who was nearly fifty yet insisted daily on being a “sixteen-year-old beauty” truly had the skills to back it up.
Every class she led ended up averaging in the top three of their year upon graduation.
Hess in particular still bore the scars — last year, the graduating class she’d nurtured had utterly crushed his own. The resulting mockery haunted him to this day.
The other two teachers hadn’t directly clashed with her, but they’d heard plenty about this “Tianshan Tonglao.”
Realizing their classes were scheduled for practical exercises against hers this afternoon, cold sweat broke out. They felt like they were about to lose face big time.
(No, wait…)
Just as Hess and the others were half-ready to surrender on the spot, something occurred to him.
Today was the first day of school. No matter how skilled a teacher, enrollment day was pure luck of the draw — you got whatever students fate assigned.
And in his class, four students not only had personal machines but could reliably use second-circle spells, even if none had fully reached second-circle mage level.
In other words, there was no way he could lose today.
“Heh, of course not!”
“I’m feeling absolutely fantastic today!”
“I’m dying to see just how strong Teacher Hera’s prized disciples are!”
With that, Hess shot a meaningful eyebrow raise at his two colleagues. They instantly caught on.
— Exactly. All three of them had hit the jackpot this year. In past years, a single personal machine per class was rare; this time, every class had multiple!
The practical training session grouped classes by hangar — four or five per facility, based on yearly numbers.
After guiding students through their first Magitech Knight piloting experience, the groups would head to assigned training fields for joint exercises.
Though there were no official rankings or penalties, every teacher here was a minor genius with pride to match.
The results of this session often became bragging rights — or teasing fodder — for a year or more. Getting thoroughly crushed meant enduring endless ribbing.
But this year was different!
In previous years, only teachers pessimistic about their students’ quality would rush to the hangar right after lunch for extra adjustment time.
Hera arriving so early meant she was seriously lacking confidence.
In other words — this year, there was no way they could lose!!!
“Huff!”
Taking a deep breath, Hess puffed out his chest and strode boldly into the hangar with his class, shouting again:
“Little Irina! Hurry and power up the machines!”
“Teacher, I already—”
“Wait… no… way…”
He’d walked too fast. His students and the other two teachers had to jog to keep up, only to find Hess frozen at the entrance, staring blankly inside.
The others crowded forward in confusion, then…
— They saw the three machines inside, dominated by night-purple, platinum-white, and deep-blue color schemes.
“…”
Hess glared with dead-fish eyes, pointing at the trio of units while grimly addressing Irina in a tone that sounded like he was trying to convince himself: “You sneaky girl — always whining about how poor you are, how neglected at home.”
“Now you’ve suddenly pulled out three Radiant Sun Type-14s and stuffed them into your hangar.”
“Alright, I’ve seen enough.”
“Hurry and put them away.”
“…”
Watching the three teachers — Hess included — whose eyes already showed faint despair, Irina hated to kick them while they were down, but she reminded them anyway: “Teacher Hess, these three have nothing to do with me. They’re personal machines belonging to students in Teacher Hera’s class. They rented berths in my hangar and asked me to maintain them.”
Crack
The instant the words left her mouth, Irina felt as though dark, lightless shadows fell over all three teachers at the entrance. With a shattering sound, they seemed to crumble into pieces on the floor.
***
At that moment, the practical training for the four classes in Hangar 3 was effectively decided.
Hess and the others declared that competing against Hera when she was “not even trying” was utterly meaningless.
Three deeply customized Radiant Sun Type-14 units — piloted by drivers where even the weakest was an advanced second-circle mage proficient in third-circle defensive spells, and all clearly experienced.
If it came to blows, it would be one punch per child.
The annual practical training had no fixed format, but nearly every year followed tradition: after basic piloting instruction, classes would lightly spar.
It satisfied the teachers’ competitive spirits and let them gauge their new students’ talent.
Now, with three heavyweight players in hand, continuing the usual matchup against Hera would be pointless.
But precisely because of Ye Xu’s trio, the other three teachers thought it over and came up with an idea that would still provide training value — and be highly entertaining.
So they led their students to the training field. The moment they landed, the three teachers gathered around Hera — who had just been gently set down from Dawn Heart’s hand by Isxila — and began discussing.
Hera listened, then nodded with a sigh of “Not bad, not bad at all.”
She called Ye Xu’s group to gather around her and explained the revised afternoon training plan for Training Field 3 — now hosting over a hundred students in training machines.
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