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chapter 19
Somehow, he had regained control over his body, but the events unfolding before his eyes were so shocking that he hadn’t even noticed.
Regardless, Kanis tilted the corners of her mouth slightly and continued speaking.
“By the way, number four is the teleportation problem recently published in academia, isn’t it? That one… actually, none of these problems seem to be part of the Academy’s curriculum… really.”
In front of the stiff, frozen Vernua, Kanis finished her words in a tone that sounded almost mocking.
“No matter how much you wanted to crush the students’ spirits, there are limits. Or perhaps you just weren’t confident in your own skills?”
“What did you just say to a professor!”
It wasn’t about speaking rudely. Kanis turned her head and rubbed her ear, ignoring Vernua, whose face had turned red as he shouted.
The Academy had a rule that all students should be treated equally, but no one truly expected it to be enforced. In reality, it wasn’t.
No matter how much she was disliked by the Duke, Kanis was an Escliff.
The only student admitted to the Academy without magic.
Her family’s prestige within the Empire and the Mage Tower was such that even the Emperor had to tread carefully.
With her backing and now her growing abilities, the rebellious student crossed her legs and rested her chin on her hand.
“Or… can you solve these problems, professor? Mentally?”
“That’s…!”
“You said they were ‘basic’ problems, right? Then you should be able to explain the solution process and answers for number seven just verbally. Since it’s simple.”
She tilted her head and gave a sly smile.
The mischievous smile looked striking on her pretty face.
“Oh… why are you just standing there? Surely you can’t be…”
Vernua flinched. His body trembled.
Kanis delivered the final blow.
“Can’t do it?”
A clear chuckle escaped her lips.
The classroom stirred again.
Vernua, openly scolded by a student, trembled uncontrollably.
As Kanis had said, he could not simply see a problem and know the answer. Despite his brilliant intellect.
Unlike Kanis, who could see the solution and answer immediately thanks to her skill, he had to solve each problem one by one based on what he had learned.
It was like an adult racing against an infant.
Vernua didn’t know Kanis’s secret, but he felt a similar type of pressure.
“…Hmph.”
Watching Vernua unable to say a word, Kanis spoke with an expressionless face.
“You have nothing more to say, right?”
“Uh… uh…”
Is this what it feels like for your brain to freeze? Vernua, whose earlier momentum had vanished, stammered blankly.
He was certainly angry, but had no idea what to do.
Kanis pointed at the podium with her finger.
“Then please get back to class. Everyone’s waiting, right?”
And at that, the other students were taken aback.
“No way!”
“I thought we’d get to skip class today!”
“I wasn’t waiting at all!”
“If we’re doing this, fight more!”
It was always more fun to slack off during class.
And a fight ranked among the top three spectacles was even more thrilling, so everyone was secretly watching with interest.
Even though they usually ignored Kanis Escliff, as a student, she was someone they could root for over a strict professor.
Vernua eventually returned to the podium. He wrote the prepared problems on the blackboard and continued his lecture, but hardly anyone was listening.
“What… was that just now?”
“She made that infamous professor completely mute in an instant.”
“How? Last semester she was at the very bottom of the school. Not just in practical exams, even in written ones.”
Though not as shocking as Vernua, the students could sense it.
Kanis had just done something extraordinary.
And that the strict senior-year professor had returned quietly to his seat without a word.
Then one student frowned and said:
“Was the problem just easy?”
That was a question born of not seeing the problems Kanis had received.
No matter how simple they were, they were upper-level magic problems for fourth-year students. Simply looking at them would not suffice.
Yet, for the students, “Kanis Escliff” was naturally someone beneath them, so gradually, they began to agree.
“Yeah, that must be it.”
“They were probably really basic problems.”
A perfect example of self-rationalization.
People naturally think in ways that benefit themselves.
And, of course, there were always those who thought differently.
“It may be just the answers, but it’s not simple at all. If it were simple enough to do mentally, Vernua wouldn’t have reacted like that.”
Asphodel stared intently at Kanis, who was scribbling in her notebook. Her fingertips, chewed red from biting, were bloodshot.
“What method did she use?”
It’s not so hard to move from 400th to 300th place in the school.
But moving from last place to first, surpassing a professor in just three weeks… impossible.
…Unless everything we’ve seen so far has been an act.
“N-No way?”
Asphodel shivered at the thought.
She shook her head.
“No… how could it be an act? That’s impossible!”
But… then how had it happened?
Asphodel’s vision spun.
The first day was lucky in that she only had one class and the rest were free periods.
“The original owner of this body was actually decent, huh?”
What a perfect schedule. She had nailed course registration.
“Well, I had to at least do this well.”
Without magic, she couldn’t follow lessons, and if her schedule had been a complete mess, life would have been miserable.
With nothing else to do, she slept soundly during lectures and then walked lightly to Mei’s classroom.
In the building mostly for first-years, students were scattered around.
Since first-years shared a fixed schedule, the first class had probably just ended.
As soon as she entered, all eyes turned.
“Hey, hey, look over there.”
“Princess Escliff? Why is she in the first-year building…?”
“Isn’t she the transfer student and her sister starting today?”
“Wow… impossible. Both her younger siblings are geniuses, and she’s the only average one.”
Ignoring their whispers, she walked silently. As she got closer, the students fell silent, as if doused with cold water.
“A miracle like Moses parting the sea,” she thought.
She saw the students parting around her.
Different from the fourth-years or Claude’s second-year group.
And being first-years, they had probably only seen Kanis get defeated once in a tournament.
“There she is.”
She found Mei among the crowd.
Perhaps due to her striking appearance and rare healing ability, Mei was surrounded by students.
“Why didn’t you come to the Academy sooner?”
“I saw you in practice just now! You were amazing! I’ve never seen a healing mage!”
“You’re silly. Of course, there are only three healing mages in the Empire, including Escliff.”
“Ha… it’s nothing special.”
Two of them were sticking very closely to her.
All characters not from the original story or minor ones they couldn’t immediately recall.
“Mei.”
She called Mei, who had been distracted. Mei turned her head and brightened when she saw her.
“Unni!”
“Ah!”
“W-what? Why are you here…?”
“You weren’t on bad terms with your younger siblings?”
The other three students flinched.
Ignoring them neatly, she approached Mei. The students slowly stepped back.
It felt like being a predator.
No, in this case, it wasn’t fear—they were avoiding her out of disgust…
So, she’s the “garbage”?
“That’s… a bit annoying.”
Better to adopt the approach of making them fear her quickly.
“I really enjoyed the first lecture today!”
“Really? That’s great.”
She smiled awkwardly at Mei, who grabbed her arm and shone with excitement.
“Guess you started with practice…”
No theory, just hands-on.
