CH 23

༺ Practical Training (2) ༻

Professor Fernando stood at the final destination. He looked at me with his usual cold blue eyes.

His teaching assistant walked over and took the performance evaluation bracelet from me while muttering, “That, yes, yes…” He looked like a zombie, overworked and exhausted.

Professor Fernando, who handled such an assistant, was like a necromancer.

“Group F, Practical Training is over. The results will be announced and feedback will be delivered in a week. Good work.”

“Can I tell the people in my group about that?”

I asked, since they had all been eliminated.

“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I’ll deliver it to them all at once before class starts tomorrow.”

Professor Fernando then told us that we could go home. Alan and Ethan, the first to fail, had already returned to their dorms.

The manner in which the performance evaluation was conducted, as well as the specific assessments made, were strictly confidential. Hence, there was no need to worry about the student council president, Alice Carroll, discovering something suspicious like the Sheath of Disaster.

The only thing made public were the Grades. A week later, the results would be posted in the central hall of Orphin Hall.

‘Can I expect a better grade this time?’

Even though I only got to perform once because of Rose, I still managed to defeat the final boss.

Can’t I have some expectations?

Of course, now that I had enough gels and had tested the performance of the Sheath of Disaster, there was no need to actually dwell on the results of this performance evaluation.

Still, it would be nice to get a good grade.

I walked out of Kalis Hall. The bright sunlight shining down was so dazzling that I momentarily shielded my eyes with my hand.

My entire body felt unusually light. It reminded me of how I felt in high school when I went home early after midterm exams.

But it wasn’t time to play around. I had to begin training immediately.

I’d barely begun walking outside Kalis Hall when I was stopped by someone saying “Wait a minute!” It was a fierce, yet delicate, young lady’s voice.

“How did you do it?”

It was Rose who asked me that. She stood in the shade of the building with her arms crossed while glaring at me. 

“What?”

I knew what she meant, but I was deliberately pretending to be clueless.

Snap.

Rose took a step toward me, veins forming on her forehead.

“I don’t understand how you, a Grade-E, can defeat Tauro! Even if it was an illusion, I don’t see how you could have defeated something so powerful! And besides, what the hell did you do? There’s no way you, a Grade-E of Class D, the lowest of the low, could have used five-star magic already!”

Her voice was filled with tears, the way she tried to deny it was truly pitiful.

It was probably her tendency to restore her self-esteem by putting others down.

But her pride was crushed in front of the person she looked down upon the most.

She must have been devastated that another person had so effortlessly jumped over a wall that she couldn’t.

Therefore, she tried to hide her own weakness by denying me. Otherwise, she would fall apart.

I often saw people like her in Sillim-dong1. Those kids definitely couldn’t pass the exam.

“You conceded to me a hundred times, why didn’t you save me when you had the means to defeat the enemy? Are you kidding me?”

But there was a very good lesson in this.

What’s the secret to being happy? It’s to not argue with fools.

“Whatever.”

“Eh…!”

When I snapped at her with an icy glare, Rose’s face blushed red, angry to the point of tears. I wonder if she was speechless because she was so angry and frustrated.

Well, I was sure she was aware of how pitiful she sounded.

“Ah, ughhh…!”

Rose gritted her teeth and stomped her foot.

She didn’t seem to have anything else to say, so I just started moving my feet again.

You stay down there.

I’ll head to the top.

* * *

A professor at the Märchen Academy’s Magic Department must be well-versed in all theories of magic.

Fernando Frost became a full-time professor at Märchen Academy’s Magic Department at the tender age of 25 based solely on his theoretical skills. 

Even at Märchen Academy, which gathered the best talents from across the continent, he was regarded as an object of envy. He was gifted with a great intellect, an outstanding appearance, and the ability to give a lecture that resonated in your ears.

As such, Fernando’s near-perfect appearance was the result of his rigorous self-care and obsession.

His appearance was immaculate. Sitting in a chair with his back straight and his posture upright. He mustn’t look disheveled even when no one was looking.

Every action he took must be dignified, as befitted an elite professor at an elite academy.

Deep in the night. The rain was pounding against the windows.

The sound of rain broke the silence of the night.

Fernando was sitting in the office in Orphin Hall, a building in the Magic Department, reviewing the results of the practical training.

Meanwhile, all kinds of documents were properly lined up in the air. Fernando had suspended them in midair with telekinesis magic.

Knock.

Hearing a knock on the door, Fernando raised his head.

“Ahhhhh…”

“Marco. Come in.”

Marco, a male assistant with brown hair, stepped into the office. His soul-less face did not resemble that of a human. 

He walked over to where Fernando was sitting and handed him the papers.

“Uh-huh.”

Marco grunted like a zombie as Fernando accepted the papers he had handed him. It was a document that summarized each student’s practical training results, including grades and evaluation reviews.

He had to review it to make sure there were no issues before sending it up the chain of command. Fernando skimmed through it, confirmed that there were no obvious problems, and nodded.

“Next, this one.”

“Uh-huh…!”

When Fernando pointed to the stack of papers next to him, Marco let out a sob that closely resembled a scream. However, the assistant had no other choice.

Marco, with both hands, picked up the stack of papers that were piled high enough to cover his upper body, and trudged out of the office.

Today, too, he would need to stay up all night.

“…….”

Fernando flipped through the papers, reading them quickly with his telekinetic magic.

In today’s practical training, he was assigned with overseeing Kalis Hall. He was using a crystal ball, just like the examiners, to monitor the progress of each group’s performance evaluation through a messenger.

In this practical training, his role was to guide the performance evaluation.

To make sure that no problems occurred during the evaluation.

If something went wrong, he had to fix it.

And to remove the eliminated students from the field.

Currently, he was evaluating the students after checking the videos of the practical training at each location.

This time, the first years of the Magic Department could hardly be called the ‘Jade Generation’, but as with every year, there were some diamonds in the rough.

‘Top Seat, Luce Eltania.’

Luce Eltania, the top seat of the Magic Department. Her mana capacity was overwhelming. Both her mana control and elemental firepower were impeccable. During the practical training, she used water magic to defeat the illusions of monsters with ease.

However, her collaboration score with her teammates, was zero due to her lack of social skills. Even when her teammates were friendly with her, she remained cynical.

You can’t survive on the battlefield alone. Luce Eltania’s weakness was her uncooperative, dogmatic attitude.

‘And second seat, Kaya Astrean…’

Kaya Astrean, a first-year student and the second seat of the Magic Department. She was the student with the second-highest mana capacity after Luce Eltania.

Her skills were also impeccable, but she was an unfortunate prodigy who was overshadowed by Luce Eltania.

‘Ciel Carnedas needs to reflect.’

Ciel Carnedas, a top-ranking student in the Magic Department, had shown no remorse for hurting her teammates.

She even got into a fight with Ian Fairytale, who was in the same group as her.

Even if she has excellent magic skills, her divisive attitude reflected poorly on her collaboration score.

‘Mateo Jordana is pretty good.’

Mateo Jordana, one of the top students in the Magic Department, was one of the topics of gossip among students. Contrary to rumors, he had a diligent side.

Compared to Luce Eltania or Kaya Astrean, he was on the weak side.

During his practical training, he used effective tactics while aiming for the weak points of the demonic creatures.

In addition, he had the charisma to make his members follow him. He possessed the qualities of a leader.

‘Tristan Humphrey… has talent in magic, but he has a lot of problems.’

Tristan Humphrey was another outstanding first-year student in the Magic Department. While his elemental magic was powerful, he had a lot to work on.

To begin with, it was a major issue to give up the task of analyzing the weaknesses of the demonic creatures while simply firing powerful magic.

While the power of his magic was strong enough to defeat the demonic creature illusions, it deserved the worst score in the ‘whether they fought while considering magic efficiency’ evaluation section.

In addition, because of his family’s prestige, he compelled the students to follow him. His collaboration score was also zero.

In the midst of evaluating the students, Fernando stopped moving in the material for Group F of the practical training.

“This kid…”

If he had to choose the student who stood out the most today, it would definitely be a male student named Isaac from Class D.

Silver hair with a hint of blue and blood-red eyes. He was a student who came out with Grade E during the mana measurement class and was clearly embedded into Fernando’s memory.

This student had used the 5-star spell [Frost Explosion] today. The skill level seemed low, but it was certain.

It looked like he used a magic tool. Was there a magic tool that could engrave a 5-star magic circle?

The world of magic tools was vast, so Fernando couldn’t easily figure it out. However, common sense dictated that the existence of a magic tool capable of engraving a 5-star spell was an anomaly.

In theory, there was no problem. As long as the number of mana circuits in the magic tool was extremely high and the durability was very good. However, that level must be extremely high in order to withstand 5-star magic.

In other words, you couldn’t get away with the structural issues of the tool. However, his main concern was the user of the magic tool.

It was hard to put anything above 3-star magic into a magic tool. This was because the magic circuit itself was much more advanced than that of a 1-star or 2-star magic, and the amount of mana that needed to be stored was different.

This meant that, even if a magic tool contained 3-star magic or higher, the user must be able to use the magic in order for the complex spell to be triggered. Otherwise, the trigger wouldn’t activate. Exceptions belonged in the realm of the impossible and were unworthy of discussion.

Perhaps the professors who acted as examiners were searching through the books right now to figure out the identity of the magic tool Isaac used. It would be difficult to ask directly, as contacting students about exam content was prohibited by the Marx Pact.

Fernando was curious as well, but he was no exception to the ban.

‘The mana evaluation was only two months ago. What are the odds that a student with Grade-E mana would be able to learn 5-star magic in just two months?’

…Not impossible. However, it was extremely, terribly low.

If he was originally a genius that lived without realizing that fact…

Is it possible that he realized his genius only after entering the academy?

‘It’s not a novel or a play…’

Could there be such a dramatic story?

Fernando stroked his chin, pondering, then shook his head.

There could be such a student. In fact, this student’s performance scores had been steadily rising.

There was also a record of him recently repaying all of his bank loans at once, including the interest at maturity, without waiting for the loan’s scheduled deadline and without paying the accrued interest.

He must have been working diligently. It could have been a case of him awakening to his magic talents.

This was the prestigious Märchen Academy, after all. It was a place where nothing was out of the ordinary, no matter how brilliant the student.

“…”

Professor Fernando decided it would be better to give a positive review this time.

He wrote an additional personal evaluation of Isaac’s feedback.

[Isaac is a student who has shown exceptional growth. He tends to rely heavily on magic tools as an alternative to mana, but given the timing at which he uses it, he deserves a positive evaluation for his actual combat ability. However, as a first-year student, it seems necessary to refrain from using magic tools as much as possible and focus on developing the ability to effectively apply pure personal abilities.]

Students who demonstrated their potential were fascinating to watch. Aside from Isaac, Ian Fairytale, who was also evaluated as Grade E in terms of mana, was also showing incredible growth these days.

“It’s fun…”

Watching the students you teach grow.

That was Fernando’s favourite aspect of his job as an Academy professor.