Haa~ yawn
Ye Xu arrived at school the next day yawning.
No helping it. He had started working at 5:30, only finished at 1 AM, then gone home and spent another hour in the basement drawing blueprints based on the collected data, roughly designing the armaments and modification parts needed for Infernal Prison’s follow-up upgrades.
After all, this was his first time creating a Throne Knight, and it was a modification at that.
In fact, if Ye Xu had been building a Throne Knight from scratch with the right equipment and sufficient materials, he wouldn’t have been this exhausted. The Night God Throne System already stored several complete Throne Knight blueprints; he could have simply followed them step by step.
Custom modification was different, however. It required specialized design tailored to the machine’s actual condition and Anlor’s various abilities.
The moment he sat down, Vitt and Eamon—who had arrived early—immediately leaned over from the front row.
“Boss, didn’t you sleep well last night?” Recalling how Anlor had shyly stuck close to the boss after school yesterday, the two asked with mischievous grins.
“Boss, to be honest, back in my hometown there’s a secret recipe. I…”
As little brothers, it was only right to share the boss’s burdens and solve his problems.
As commoners from a border kingdom in the human world, Eamon knew far too many shady tricks.
Seeing the boss looking utterly drained, he immediately rubbed his hands together like a fly ready to “offer treasure.”
However, although Ye Xu didn’t know exactly what these two idiots were thinking, their lewd expressions made it perfectly clear they weren’t up to anything good.
“Don’t jump to conclusions or chase every rumor. I parted ways with Classmate Anlor before six yesterday. If you don’t believe me, go ask her yourself when you have time.”
He gave each of them a forehead flick, making them clutch their heads and turn away aggrievedly.
As a result, Isxila—who had been sitting nearby and was about to feel jealous again upon hearing that Ye Xu and Anlor had been together yesterday—couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh softly.
……
Wait, when had this girl moved to the seat right next to him? She was only three desks away now.
“Hi~ everyone! Teacher’s here~ Did you miss me~?”
Before Ye Xu could wonder how Isxila had gotten so close, that energetic voice—completely unlike her actual age and bearing no resemblance to the real age Professor Vilans had accidentally revealed—rang out again.
“How well did everyone master yesterday’s lesson?”
“Did you preview today’s material?”
Looking at the students who were still brimming with energy today, Hera nodded in satisfaction. She inserted the lesson materials into the lectern, projected the images onto the blackboard behind her, and asked,
“We studied~”
Whether they actually had or not, everyone chorused along anyway.
Understanding the nature of students, Hera let out a soft “pfft pfft” laugh.
Still, that didn’t stop her from explaining everything once more.
“Alright then. Yesterday we experienced magic for ourselves.”
“Today, we’re officially stepping into the world of magic…”
Compared to yesterday’s class, today’s was undoubtedly drier.
Yesterday the entire period had been spent teaching students a few basic first-circle spells so they could learn something tangible first. Once interest was piqued, they could delve deeper.
This approach was completely different from most teachers’.
After all, a magic class was supposed to teach what magic was. At most it would let students simulate mana circulation inside their bodies; it was never meant to let them actually cast spells.
It was like how Earth’s middle- and high-school physics and chemistry classes mostly just recited theories and rarely let students perform real experiments.
Only Hera—with her exceptional skill and courage—dared do this. If any student lost control, she could stop the accident with her unique mind-control magic.
Actual training and spellcasting, as well as applying the theoretical knowledge from magitech and alchemy classes, were all things students had to practice privately—either during practical combat lessons or outside class.
Practicing and casting magic carried too much risk and required supervision by a dedicated instructor.
Magitech and alchemy consumed far too many resources, so only students from major families or those who had joined a teacher’s research lab could research freely to improve themselves.
No matter how wealthy the Magic Academy was, it couldn’t provide such treatment to over five-digit numbers of students. Therefore, while basic benefits remained the same, students had to fight for their own extra resources.
In reality, magic was different from magitech studies and alchemy.
You didn’t need to understand it deeply to use it. Memorize the incantation, practice repeatedly, and as your control over internal mana improved, you would naturally be able to cast it.
Knowing the principles and structure at most made the spell more flexible and variable—even allowing adjustments to its release method during combat.
But that was obviously meaningless.
Because in most situations, that amount of effort was already enough to master several different spells to perfection. Such knowledge was mainly used for developing and modifying new magic.
This was also one of the reasons why Senior Irina—as an academic overlord—still got beaten black and blue by those “barbarians” who barely recognized a few big characters during the Degree Battles.
Those guys had completely abandoned theoretical knowledge, settling for bare passes. They earned the rest of their credits through other means—club activities, taking missions, and the top ones even fought for Combat Ranking positions.
Coincidentally, quite a few students at the Magic Academy followed this path—at least around forty percent.
——They came to school to become knights. Why bother with all that messy theory?
This was exactly where Teacher Hera differed from the other instructors.
She had taken these students into consideration and avoided formulaic teaching.
When giving them what was essentially their first physics and chemistry class of their lives—i.e., their first magic class—she had directly taken them to the lab, taught them a few formulas, and guided them through some fun little experiments.
Only afterward did she begin the dry, flavorless theoretical lessons, interspersing practical practice so that even if they didn’t understand the principles, they could still master the spells first.
“Alright, that’s all for today’s class.”
“Everyone, line up and prepare to head to the ‘Etiquette Department’~”
Hera’s teaching method was clearly effective.
After yesterday’s experience, most of the students—eager to learn higher-level magic—maintained great enthusiasm even though today’s material was much drier.
Once the morning magic class ended, the teacher hummed cheerfully, ready to clock out early.
In their class schedule, the second period every Tuesday was etiquette class.
As the most special subject, it took up two periods, and every Friday she only needed to swing by the training grounds to greet the students preparing for practical combat and call it a day.
Although etiquette class didn’t carry the same weight as practical combat, it still had its own smaller dedicated department building.
After all, the Magic Academy emphasized elite education. The students it produced would become pillars of every industry across the human world, and more than half of them were nobles. Etiquette could not be neglected.
She naturally didn’t have to handle that herself. Etiquette and practical combat classes both had dedicated instructors and coaches. She only needed to wait for her own class to end, then supervise the students to make sure no one skipped or arrived late~
“Mm, goodbye, Teacher~~~”
The students stretched lazily, slowly stood up, and waved goodbye one after another.
“Bye~”
“See you tomorrow~”
“Teacher, we’ll miss you~”
The students bid their farewells and left the classroom under the teacher’s watchful gaze.
At the back of the room, Ye Xu—having slept through the entire period because he was too tired—had been noticed by Hera. But since she knew this lesson wouldn’t do much for a genius who had started at third-circle, she hadn’t bothered him.
Yet right now, as Ye Xu was shaken awake by his two little brothers and prepared to leave with the same goodbye, the teacher suddenly smiled sweetly, clasped her hands behind her back, and hopped over to the three of them like a little rabbit.
“Classmate Nal, please stay behind for a moment. The teacher has something to talk to you about~”