The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 354

Chapter 354: Somewhat Teaching

Holding out the half-sphere relic, I imbued a small amount of aether into it. The relic flared to life, burning with a quicksilver glow that coalesced around the zone’s exit portal. The opaque field of energy rippled and became clear as glass. It was like looking through a window into my rooms at Central Academy.

I gestured for Caera to go first.

“I’d call you a gentleman but I know you’re using me as a test rodent for your new toy,” she said with a smirk before disappearing through the portal, immediately becoming visible again on the other side.

Walking through it was as seamless as going through a door. There was no discomfort or sense of vertigo, as people sometimes felt when using the teleportation gates around Dicathen. It felt strange to move so smoothly from the Relictombs into my clean, mostly empty rooms at the academy.

Caera was standing in the middle of the room, her scarlet eyes tracking my every movement as I bent down to deactivate the ascension portal. When both of the pieces were pressed together, they made a faint click and reconnected, forming a perfect sphere. I stored the Compass in my dimension rune.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work, Grey,” she said finally, her gaze softening.

“It’s fine,” I grunted. “It will, eventually.”

Caera gave me a tight-lipped smile and waved a hand across her body, which was covered with spatters of dried blood and black gore. “Anyway, I better go get cleaned up.” She glanced out the window, where light was already creeping across the campus. “Looks like we were in there for most of the night. Class is soon.”

“You should probably clean up here,” I pointed out, gesturing toward the bathroom connected to my bedroom. “It might raise a few eyebrows if anyone sees you roaming the building covered in blood.”

Caera looked at the ceiling as if charting a path from my room to hers. “Good point.”

After handing her a fresh towel, I sat down at the Sovereigns Quarrel board and mindlessly prodded the pieces.

‘Maybe it didn’t work because Sylvie is an asura and we were in the Relictombs?’ Regis asked, picking up on my own half-formed thoughts.

No, I thought. It felt the same as before, just after I’d formed the aether core. Except now, instead of putting buckets of water into a lake, I’m dumping lakes into an ocean.

With my aetheric reserves having grown ten-fold by fortifying my core with a second layer of binding aether, I had thought for sure I could break the second seal within Sylvie’s stone. I was wrong. Instead, I had watched as all the power I had gathered—both from the Relictombs itself and the seed of Three Steps’ dried-fruit toy—disappeared into the vast depths of the runic framework, draining away like sand through a sieve.

But you’re right, I continued, closing my eyes and letting myself sink into the soft mattress. We shouldn’t try it in the Relictombs again. We don’t know what’ll happen if a full-blooded asura emerges from inside.

Caera appeared from the bathing room a few minutes later, scoured clean of the grime and clad in fresh clothing. “It just occurred to me while I was in your shower that my leaving your room in the early hours of the morning, freshly bathed, might start just as many rumors as if I were covered in blood,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Less damaging rumors,” I said.

She frowned down at me, one brow raised. “For you, perhaps. But then, you are not a highblood lady with a reputation to maintain.”

I tilted my head, holding her gaze. “Do you want me to open the portal so you can cover yourself in blood again?”

Caera deflated and wearily waved my words away. “Have a good day in class, Grey.”

When she was gone, Regis’s voice filled my head. ‘It’s impressive, you know?’

What? I asked, sensing some trap in his words.

‘How you can be so good and so bad with women at the same time.’

***

It was obvious how much the mood within the Melee Enhancement Tactics class had changed as I walked down the steep stairs of the room.

After it was established that they would be competing at the Victoriad—in front of retainers, Scythes, and Sovereigns—students began to arrive early, even those who had mocked the idea of learning to fight without magic only a few days ago were eagerly waiting with their peers.

Enola and her subservient friend, Laurel of Named Blood Redcliff—Professor Abby’s niece, I found out—had taken up most of the training platform, while the rest had paired up with one another and were spread throughout the classroom, sparring awkwardly.

‘What…are they doing?’ Regis asked, disturbed and unsettled.

My brows furrowed in confusion as I watched the students.

These were mostly highbloods from powerful houses—including several from Vechor, where young men and women were trained to be soldiers from the moment they could walk—but only a couple of them seemed to have any idea of what they were doing.

Their punches and kicks were lacking, like they were play fighting with a toddler. Of the entire class, only Valen, Enola, and Marcus of Highblood Arkwright looked like they were actually sparring. _{fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓}

I let out a scoff in realization. “They’re not using mana.”

Alacryans awakened as mages earlier than Dicathians, so it made sense that the majority of their training before attending Central Academy relied on mana to fuel their movements and attacks, rather than muscles and technique.

“Professor Grey!”

I turned my gaze to see Mayla scurrying up the stairs toward me, brows lined with sweat.

“You’ll be teaching today, right? Seth has been showing me some of the exercises he read about in a book to help us warm up for your lesson!”

“Seth?” I felt a small pinch in my chest at the name, my face involuntarily scrunching into a grimace.

I had kept Seth far back in my mind. It was easier to ignore his existence than continuously trying to convince myself that I was justified in despising him for his sister’s actions during the war.

After all, it had led to countless elves being enslaved and eventually the decimation of Elenoir.

Who cares if it wasn’t directly his fault.

His family got what they deserved…

‘Even if Seth was personally the one that charted the path to Elenoir instead of his sister, let’s not forget, you did some terrible things as a soldier in the war. too,’ Regis said, his voice tinged with annoyance.

I know that… I know. Just…

I rubbed my temples, walking past Mayla. My eyes shifted away from Seth, who was struggling to do push-ups. I made my way toward the office, ignoring the stares of the students I passed until I was stopped by a figure standing in front of my door.

Enola had her arms crossed, eyes staring icily at me even as sweat rolled down her face.

“Is there a problem?”

She lowered her arms and let out a scoff. “It’s been days since it was announced that our class would be in the Victoriad, and you haven’t done anything besides tell us to exercise our bodies.”

I raised a brow, jerking my head over my shoulder. “It looks like you all are doing more than that already. I don’t think sparring was part of the regimen.”

Enola clenched her hands tightly as she stepped forward. “Because we’ll be fighting in the Victoriad for Vritra’s sake! We have to do something!”

“And you’re free to do whatever you want,” I responded coolly. “This facility is at your disposal. I’m not holding you back.”

“That’s…that’s not what I meant.” The Frost blood’s heir lowered her head, her shoulders sagging. “Train us. Show us how we can fight like how you did against Valen’s tutor.”

I hesitated, looking away from her pitiful display when my eyes caught sight of Seth once more.

Annoyance and resentment flared as I turned my head back and stepped around Enola. I opened the door when I felt a small tug at my elbow.

“Please,” Enola whispered, her voice quivering faintly.

I waited, silently hoping that Regis would crack a joke or just remind me of the justifications I had made before that were eluding me right now. And for once, he didn’t have anything to say.

I looked back, regretting it immediately. Regretting having to see how the students all looked at me with hopeful eyes, Valen even going as far as bowing slightly along with his friends. Seth stood and peered from the corner of his eye, too afraid to look directly at me, while Mayla smiled meekly.

‘You made the right choice,’ Regis thought.

Who said I made a choice, I replied, gently removing Enola’s hand.

‘That stubborn brain of yours,’ my companion responded with a chuckle.

I shook my head and faced the class. “Everyone on the training platform!”

The kids dropped everything and rushed to the elevated platform, Enola somehow being the first one there despite the fact that she had just been next to me.

I made my way toward the crowd, scratching the back of my head and trying not to think about whether or not I had made the right choice.

Inside the ring, Enola had sat down with Laurel while Valen, Remy, and Portrel were close behind. One by one, my eyes scanned the rest of the students, recalling how they had sparred with each other.

Marcus and Sloane, both Vechorians, had been training together with similar styles, a close-in form of combat utilizing hard-hitting knees and elbows. Another of the students from Vechor, Brion of Named Blood Bloodworth had been sparring with the kid he was sitting next to now, a tanned, blonde boy from Etril named Linden.

Linden looked more like a farmer than a fighter and his swings were messy and wide compared to Brion, who had obviously had some level of training.

Out of all of the students watching me eagerly like baby chicks, only Deacon seemed uninterested sitting next to Yanick in the back, his face hidden behind a book.

I let out a sigh. “What would you get if you injected babies with the muscles of a veteran warrior?”

Raising my right hand, I pointed my finger at the class. “You.”

This statement was met with a mixture of responses, ranging from confusion to annoyance and even anger.

‘That’s one way to get them fired up for class,’ Regis responded.

“Simply put, you guys might as well be punching with your wrists,” I said, demonstrating with a flick of my own wrist. “And the only reason why it’s been working is because you have enough mana to make even that hurt.”

Enola bolted up to her feet, her mouth already open, but I cut her off. “I’m not here to stroke your ego or make class fun and exciting,” I said. “I’m going to be teaching one thing today. Whether you choose to listen is up to you.”