Here, we were using the first type. It was a lot of work, because everyone had to harmonize their spells. I had three students assigned to me, and there was something I didn’t quite understand. While my grades were among the best, I had been assigned three people with less than stellar marks. Bear said the top students could learn a lot from guiding the lower-ranked students. Damn him—he probably just didn’t want to do it himself.
One of the three was a boy, Roselt Yasets. The other two were girls, Shinsea Dorza, and Wizelle Ohiveid. But I had bigger concerns than their names.
“Now then,” I began, “as for the spell we’re supposed to—”
“Excuse me? Why do I have to be taught by the likes of you?”
“He’s right. I’d much prefer to receive instructions from His Majesty.”
“We haven’t fallen so low that we need a class like this.”
I had to deal with, well, this, right out the gate. I didn’t know if they lacked motivation, or if they just didn’t feel like listening. These three had all started taking general magic this year. I thought they might be the sort the third prince had mentioned earlier, but it seemed I was wrong. They weren’t any better when interacting with Bear.
So what am I gonna do about this?
Option one: Give a rudimentary explanation, then abandon them on account of their lack of motivation.
Option two: Somehow persuade them.
Option three: Rule with an iron fist.
Personally, I was leaning toward option one. Except I saw Bear giving me that stupid grin of his, so maybe it would be option three after all? Option two? I threw that out there, but it was hardly realistic. Being a meathead, I preferred more physical methods of persuasion.
I started off by making it perfectly clear the position they were in.
“There’s a reason I’ve been put in charge of you three. You see, it’s because your grades are bad. Do you all get that? Meanwhile, my general magic grades were the best in my year.”
I said this with a big grin and a haughty voice, which they found intimidating for some reason. Three months had passed since the new school year began, and in that period, these three had never once scored passing marks. In other words, they were falling way behind.
It might surprise you, but Bear was actually good at teaching. Anyone who paid attention and followed his instructions should’ve had no trouble getting passing scores. If they were struggling to even keep up, then it meant they weren’t doing a good job listening. I really wanted to know why they were taking this class in the first place. If they wanted to learn spells, there were other magic-related classes they could’ve taken.
Whatever the case, as they had just made abundantly clear, they didn’t have any respect for Bear or me. At this point, giving them a taste of reality seemed like a good idea.
Though my high and mighty act was putting them on the back foot, they still knew how to run their mouths.
“Urgh. E-Even still, don’t think you can act like you’re better than the son of a viscount!”
“Oh? If that’s how it’s going to be, I’ll have you know I’m the daughter of an earl.”
Everyone knew that earls held higher status than viscounts. Even if the rank card could work here, it wouldn’t for him. However, the trio all gave me nasty grins like they had been waiting for this moment.
“Hmph. Don’t get ahead of yourself when you’re nothing more than an illegitimate child!”
“He’s right.”
“Someone like you is well beneath us.”
Oho? Illegitimate child, am I?
Speaking of which, my half sister Ribbons was in this class. I glanced her way and saw her smiling at us. Was she the one who had gone and made this more complicated than it needed to be?
“While I’ll deny that, more importantly, if you don’t have any desire to take this class, you should quit. You can still change your electives midway through the term.”
“Don’t make fun of us!”
The moment Roselt Yasets finished his sentence, he attacked me with the spell we were supposed to be doing. Since it was a spell that was meant for at least two people, it wasn’t hard to cast it solo. Nonetheless, it could still hurt pretty bad if it hit. If it hit.
The spell fizzled out a few inches from me.
“Wha?!”
It wasn’t the caster himself, but instead the two girls who were shocked.
“If you improve your magic, you can do things like this,” I said. “Now then, I’ll return the favor.”
I prepared a cast with three times the strength of his and unleashed it.
“Eeek!”
Of course I didn’t hit him. I dissipated the mana at the last moment. Not that any of the trio saw it; they were all covering their heads and had their eyes tightly shut.
Looking down at them, I asked with a laugh, “Now, do you want to keep this up?”
They started crying. If this was enough to bring out the tears, they shouldn’t have picked this fight in the first place.
The end of term exam for general magic wasn’t going to involve any spells that required cooperation. That was for the final exams. However, you couldn’t get any credits if you still couldn’t manage a coordinated spell before next year’s exam.
Not that I cared if those three had to repeat a year.
“If that happens, it’ll make you look bad,” Bear told me. We were chatting in his prep room after class.
“That’s not fair at all!”
I can’t believe this.
“Nothing odd about it. In any elective, the students with the better grades have to give their less talented peers a helping hand.”
“Don’t give me this role I didn’t ask for.”
“Just accept it. It’s academy policy.”
Damn.
“Did you know those three all think I’m House Duval’s illegitimate child? They’re never going to listen to me.”
“If you have to, feel free to beat the snot out of them if you think it’ll make ’em listen. You can just heal ’em afterward.”
I had a tendency to forget that Bear was also from the community of meatheads.
“Besides,” he continued, “it’s not just because they think you’re an illegitimate child that they don’t listen to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those twerps are from the noble faction.”
“Uuugh.”
Our parents’ faction affiliations were getting in the way of classes? What did they think this place was? Well, not that I had any particular attachment to what this place was or wasn’t.
“And you see, if they’re part of the noble faction, it’s possible they’re acquainted with that dimwit from House Nogdeid.”
That moron, huh?
He might not have been much, but he was backed by the marquess at the head of the noble faction. In which case, it wasn’t that strange that students from the same faction might do as he said to curry favor, or sporadically do things that might make him happy. So when they called me an illegitimate child, maybe they didn’t actually believe it, but just wanted to deride me?
“This pisses me off,” I said. “I guess I should just take care of this the Peylon way?”
“Just don’t go overboard.”
“If I feel like it.”
I probably won’t feel like it.