The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 55

My body couldn’t help but tremble in suppressed anger at the thought of being in the same class as that brat Lucas, and of all classes, a team-fighting class. The sick irony of having that traitor in a class focused on learning team cohesion in battles almost made me want to laugh.

Our eyes met but he looked at me apathetically, like I was an insect on the ground.

"Good! Everyone’s here!" a loud voice suddenly booms over the field. As all of the students started turning their heads to locate where the voice had come from, I looked straight up to see a massive hawk-like mana beast hovering over the field.

This beast was at least 4 meters long and its wingspan was well over 8 meters. With its sharp talons tucked underneath it, the beast slowly made its descent, revealing a well-toned woman with a giant sword strapped to her back, standing up on the back of the hawk.

"Welcome! My name is Professor Glory, and I will be the one teaching all of you brats! This Flare Hawk is Torch, my precious bond."

The first thing I did was measure the stage our professor’s mana core was at, but upon trying to inspect her level, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my head as Professor Glory whipped her gaze at me. Giving me a confident smile, she gazed down in my direction. Hopping off of her Flare Hawk, she made her way around the group of students in her class. Studying each of the students she passed, she took a closer look at some of them before making her way towards me.

It wasn’t unusual for mages to build defenses around their core stages, especially the higher level ones. It was also a lot more difficult to hide which element they used, since the mana particles of their element naturally surrounded them. Most don’t find the need to hide their elemental attribute so it wasn’t a big deal even if they couldn’t, but needless to say, it was surprising to see how strong Professor Glory’s defenses were.

I couldn’t tell what her core stage was or even her elemental attribute. While I got the hang of masking my core stage level, I needed to use seals in order to completely hide my elemental attributes. I wasn’t sure whether she used seals like I did but one thing was for sure: she knew I was the one inspecting her.

"I have to say, you guys have set the bar pretty high for all of the other classes," she announced after inspecting Lucas. She took quite a bit longer to inspect the disciplinary committee and the student council members, nodding every once in awhile.

"Well if it isn’t my newest colleague, Arthur Leywin. It’s a pleasure to meet you," Professor Glory gave me a playful grin, as if she was itching to tease me.

The students started murmuring amongst the group in confusion.

One of the male upperclassmen raised his hand. "Professor Glory, what do you mean by colleague?"

"Ah! Most of you probably saw him at the commencement this morning but this boy is a freshman disciplinary committee officer. A real prodigy if I do say so myself. He’s also a newly appointed professor for the Practical Mana Manipulation class that you guys all took during your underclassman years." She gave me a firm pat on the back.

"WHAT?!!"

"You can’t be serious, Professor!"

"If that brat is a professor then I’m the king of this continent!"

"What has this academy turned into, to accept a freshman as a professor?"

"How is that even possible? Even the best upperclassmen these days don’t get picked to be professors, but that first year did?"

The various noises of protests made me sigh. They were bound to find out eventually but it would’ve taken the upperclassmen a bit longer to find out this news, considering they didn’t really get much information about the lower division classes.

"GRRRR~" Sylvie’s fur stood on-end as she growled warningly at the group of students. ’Papa is stronger than all of you combined!’

Everyone had seen Sylvie by now, whether it was from passing through the academy or at the commencement ceremony earlier today so no one really cared much about the tiny mana beast on my head that could turn big enough to swallow them whole.

"Now, now! Before we jump straight into complaints, we should have more faith in the director’s decision. He has qualified to some degree by beating the professor that taught the class previously!" She shot me a wink.

"But Professor Glory! The underclassmen professors aren’t all that great anyway! I bet some of the upperclassmen students here could beat most of them!" Another round of complaints issued on, making me grow sleepy. Must’ve been the food coma setting in from lunch.

"Haha! To be honest, I’m itching to test how strong you really are, boy! Unfortunately, Director Goodsky made it clear for us to not do that. So! These students here will test you in my place!" She put her hands on her hip, grinning in anticipation.

By now, I noticed a sudden raging fire burning in some of the male students’ eyes as they looked at me. I could almost see the words they were thinking etched into their face.

’I’m going to kill this bastard.’

’Who does this brat think he is?’

’Murder, murder, murder, murder...’

’I’m jealous. Why is he good looking too? He needs to die.’

The female students, on the other hand have a look in their eyes that scared me even more. Their stares remind me of hyenas looking at fresh meat as they almost drooled over the ’goods’ that I suddenly became to them.

Taking a glance at Tess, I notice that she has a surprised look on her face, her lips curling slightly in pride, but when she noticed that I was looking at her and quickly glanced away, her ears a little red.

Sigh, you know... it’s not weird for you to talk to me.

Clive, on the other hand, scowled in contempt while Lucas looked at me with his brow raised in renewed interest, as if I had gotten promoted from an insect to a mammal.

"Director Goodsky told me to take it easy on my upper division classes until I adjusted to school. This is my first day, after all," I tried to ease my way out of this. Fighting against these hormonal teenagers wasn’t going to end well.

"Oh, come on! That’s no fun now, is it? In order to get proper respect, a certain amount of skill needs to be shown, you know? It’s just to prove to us that you are actually capable of being in this upper division class. Isn’t that right, class?" she shouted.

"Yeah!"

Was this a military boot camp or something? Why was there always a reason to prove myself in whatever situation came up?

"Sigh... What did you have in mind, Professor Glory?" I said in defeat. This wasn’t going to end and I didn’t want to waste my breath in arguing with people who didn’t want to hear logic.

"Fear not! I am a just and fair woman!" she harrumphed.

Just and fair, my ass.

I felt as if she had just read my mind because she wrapped her well-built arm around my neck and squeezed. Unlike the Twin Horns’ Angela’s chest, hers was muscular and hard, not much different from a man’s.

"We will start off this semester by playing a little game! Aren’t I so nice?" By the look on her face, she was the most excited about this. Continuing on, she said, "So! What kind of game should we play... a mock team battle? War?"

"How about having the three disciplinary committee officers on the same team, Professor? I feel like that could be a good way to let us work on teamwork as well," Curtis raised his hand as Claire nodded in agreement next to him.

"Hmmm, not a bad idea!" she responded while rubbing her chin.