Chapter 17 — A New Subject
Teacher Seraphine observed the students for a few more minutes before finally stepping forward.
The murmurs among the class slowly quieted as she planted her staff lightly against the ground.
“That will be enough for today.”
Several students immediately relaxed their posture. Some stretched their arms, while others sat down on the grass, clearly tired from the unfamiliar training.
Seraphine looked over the entire group with a satisfied expression.
“You did better than I expected none of you lost control of the mana inside your bodies, and that alone is already a good start.”
A few students exchanged glances.
“Do not misunderstand,” she added with a small smile.
“You are still terrible at it.”
Several groans rose from the group, but Seraphine simply ignored them.
“This exercise is not something you master in a single lesson. Control over internal mana requires patience and repetition.”
She lifted her staff slightly and gestured toward the surrounding beach forest and mountains.
“In the future, you may return here for other lessons,” Seraphine said. “Different environments force different kinds of growth.”
“For now, the lesson is over.”
Before anyone could respond, she lightly tapped the end of her staff against the ground.
The air around us distorted instantly.
In the next moment, we were back inside the classroom.
Seraphine walked toward the door as if nothing unusual had happened.
“Do not forget to practice what you learned today,” she said casually.
“Your future selves will appreciate the effort.”
She opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
“And try not to break anything while you're doing it.”
The door closed behind her.
And just like that, the lesson was over.
The classroom slowly filled with voices as everyone started talking again.
I stood beside my desk for a moment, thinking about the training.
Then I heard a familiar voice.
“That was pretty different from the usual lessons.”
I turned slightly and saw Latris walking toward me.
Her soft greenish hair moved lightly as she stopped beside me, a gentle smile on her face.
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t expect something like that either.”
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Latris looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Your group was working with internal mana, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Seraphine made us circulate the mana inside our bodies.”
Latris blinked slightly, clearly curious.
“That sounds difficult.”
“It is.”
I admitted.
She gave a small laugh.
“Our training was completely different.”
“How so?” I asked.
“We had to feel the mana in the air and then try to shape it in front of us.”
“Like clay.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Were you able to do it?”
“Barely,” she said with a soft smile.
“I managed to form something like a triangle once… but it collapsed right after.”
“Still better than me.”
Latris tilted her head.
“You couldn’t circulate the mana?”
“Not completely.”
“I could feel it moving at first, but it kept fading before I could guide it through my whole body.”
Latris nodded thoughtfully.
“Even so… today’s lesson was fun.”
“Yeah.”
“It feels like it opened a lot of possibilities.”
“If we learn to control mana better, we might be able to use our sigils in ways we never thought about before.”
I looked down at my hand for a moment.
She wasn’t wrong.
I was still looking at my hand when another voice joined the conversation.
“Mentally exhausting… that’s what it was.”
I glanced to the side and saw Izuo walking over. He stopped beside Latris, letting out a small sigh like someone who had just finished a long exam.
“Trying to keep track of that mana inside your body the whole time…”
“It feels like your brain is doing gymnastics.”
Latris let out a soft laugh.
“I take it your training didn’t go very smoothly.”
“You could say that.”
“Every time I thought I had it under control, the mana just slipped away.”
Then he looked at her with curiosity.
“But what about you?”
“Your group was doing something different, right?”
Latris nodded gently.
“It was.”
She paused for a moment, thinking about how to explain it.
“In the beginning, it was actually quite similar to when we first learned how to sense mana.”
Izuo tilted his head slightly.
Latris looked down at her hand for a moment as if imagining the exercise again.
“It felt like holding a pencil and trying to draw on paper.”
“You guide the mana and try to shape it into something.”
“A line, a form, a simple figure…”
She gave a small, amused smile.
“But every time the lines were about to connect and complete the shape…”
“The drawing would fall apart.”
“It kept happening.”
“I could guide the mana for a moment, but as soon as the form was about to stabilize, it just dispersed.”
Izuo rubbed the back of his head.
“Yeah… that actually sounds just as frustrating as what we had to do.”
Izuo sighed dramatically.
“Great.”
“So basically both groups were struggling.”
Latris smiled warmly at that.
“Maybe that was the point of the lesson.”
Izuo looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“If it were easy, we wouldn’t really learn anything from it,” she said gently.
I couldn’t really argue with that.
Still…
The incomplete circulation from earlier lingered in the back of my mind.
I stayed quiet for a moment after Latris finished speaking.
The more I thought about the exercise, the more it bothered me.
There had to be some kind of trick to it.
Some explanation.
Something we were missing.
I looked at the two of them.
“Hey,” I said.
“What do you think about going to the library after classes today?”
Izuo raised an eyebrow.
“The library?”
“Maybe there’s a book or something that explains this exercise better. Some kind of technique or advice.”
Izuo crossed his arms, thinking for a moment.
“That actually sounds like a good idea…”
Then he scratched the back of his head.
“But I can’t today.”
Latris looked at him.
“Busy?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I already signed up for a group mission in the city.”
I blinked.
“Nothing big. Just helping clean a guild storage.”
Latris smiled slightly.
“Well, that does sound interesting.”
Then she looked back at me.
“Going to the library is a good idea.”
“The Santiago Academy library is supposed to be one of the largest in the world.”
Her eyes lit up slightly with curiosity.
“I’ve actually been wondering what kind of books they keep there.”
She paused for a second before smiling.
“So I’ll go with you.”
I nodded.
“Alright.”
Then I looked back at Izuo.
“If I find anything useful, I’ll tell you later.”
Izuo grinned.
“Deal.”
“Then I’ll pay you back with food.”
I crossed my arms.
“You say that like you weren’t already going to do that.”
He laughed.
Right at that moment—
The classroom door suddenly opened.
The conversations inside the room quickly quieted as a new professor stepped inside.
The classroom door opened, and the conversations inside the room slowly died down.
A tall man stepped inside.
The first thing I noticed was his height. He had to be close to two meters tall, and the way he carried himself made the room feel smaller somehow.
His black hair was tied back loosely, with a few gray strands near his temples that hinted at years of experience. His eyes were a dark gray, sharp and observant, moving across the room as if he were studying every student at once.
What stood out the most, however, was the large scar across his face. It ran from one side of his face to the other, a long, jagged mark that clearly didn’t come from anything small. Whatever had caused it had been serious.
He wore the academy’s professor uniform, but over it was a long, worn leather coat, the edges slightly rough like it had seen a lot of travel. Attached to his belt was a short dagger with faint runic engravings, and a small field notebook rested at his side.
The man walked to the front of the room and placed a few papers on the desk before looking at us.
“Good afternoon,” he said calmly.
His voice was steady and firm, the kind that didn’t need to be loud to get everyone’s attention.
“I am Kael Draven, your professor for this new course.”
He paused for a moment.
“By now, all of you have spent roughly one month at Santiago Academy.”
“This means you’ve already been introduced to the basic foundations of magic and control.”
He clasped his hands behind his back as he slowly walked in front of the class.
“From this point forward, you will begin receiving the rest of the academy’s core curriculum.”
He stopped and looked across the room again.
“I will be responsible for one of those subjects.”
He turned and wrote a few words on the board.
Monster Biology — Monster Studies
Then he faced the class again.
“In this course, you will learn about monsters.”
Another brief pause.
“Their anatomy.”
“The classification of known species.”
“Their behavior in the wild.”
“Their threat levels.”
“And most importantly…”
His gaze sharpened slightly.
“How to deal with them efficiently.”
Ending of Chapter 17
monsters — something that hasn’t been mentioned for over 10 chapters now.
