Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 10: Efficient Tutor

"...Well, looks like this is it! So I hope you have a productive class," Delilah says to me as we arrive at my class’s study wing. She leaves with a smile while I think about what she said.

’What mediocre teaching.’ She revealed a lot to me, and all I can think about is the mediocrity of these studies. There isn’t a single piece of content about the war, and they barely talk about how things are outside this island.

Most students probably don’t even know the hell that exists beyond the island, and the academy completely ignores that curriculum. I know perfectly well why — it’s obvious they do it to prevent student numbers from dropping while maintaining their public image.

But that also means when these students finish at the academy and are taken to the battlefield, most of them die or end up traumatized.

’Now I understand why the rookies were always a bunch of cowards.’ I always questioned, back when I was leading, why the new soldiers were so cowardly and barely knew how to deal with the monstrosities down there.

Now I understand why. It’s simply what I can confidently call "Natural Selection." The school trains thousands of students, turns them into soldiers, and throws them out to die. Whoever survives proves their worth and receives benefits, while the useless ones die or serve as temporary shields.

A very cruel way to treat someone, but it’s exactly something I would expect from Astrid.

’Hypocrite...’ I head to my classroom. Unlike this sloppy, poorly made education that only aims to strengthen students without strengthening their minds, I’m going to teach real lessons — show them clearly that life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows!

"I should start by teaching them the two most basic factors." Monsters and Vectors. None of them seem to know what vectors truly are or how powerful they can be.

"..." As soon as I arrive at the classroom, I see the six of them are here, but of course none of them are in their seats.

"Go to your seats immediately. I’m giving a lesson on vectors today. You need to understand what vectors really are so you can understand why—"

"Why would that be relevant?" Rouge asks, interrupting me. I place my materials on the desk and sit on top of the desk itself, since I couldn’t care less about looking proper.

"Because monsters also use vectors. Do you think you’re the only ones who have vectors?" Monsters that control vectors are the worst. Dealing with certain types of monsters is hell.

"Besides, monsters don’t care about using vectors to their maximum even if it kills them. Tell me, what do you think a vector’s limit is?" I question them all, and they remain silent.

"V-Vectors d-don’t have established limits... they’re only based on physics, s-so they’re bound by the same rules," Ashlyn interacts for the first time.

"I thought you were mute since you never spoke," I say sarcastically to that generic response. That makes Ashlyn bite her lips and shrink into her corner with obvious displeasure at the attention she received.

"That’s wrong. It’s true that in the past, humanity thought vectors were limited to the rules of physics, but that is extremely wrong, and I can give a good example."

"I’ll give an example here with something I’ve seen a monster do. If a human or monster has a photon or light manipulation vector, depending on how that vector is applied to matter—"

"The individual in question could accelerate their body to the limit of matter, reaching a speed close to that of light, or in the most extreme case, literally reaching the speed of light. And that would obviously destroy their body and everything around them at the spot where such a being collided."

"But oh! My god, mass shouldn’t be able to reach the speed of light, right? How messed up is that, don’t you think? A physical body that has mass just broke the Theory of Special Relativity." The sarcasm in my tone makes them uncomfortable.

"...I see you have nothing to say. Well, that was a real example of something you can do. The laws that define physics, biology, and everything else don’t actually work."

"Not because they’re wrong, but because they were created thinking about vectors that humanity didn’t control. The moment we started controlling the vectors of the universe, new laws emerged to define rules and limits."

"It’s true that someone with photon manipulation can reach the speed of light, but that being would destroy their body, which shows that the absolute maximum is a suicide attack and shouldn’t be done."

"Professor, if it works like that, then someone who controls space, if they pushed it to the maximum, wouldn’t they destroy the reality around them?" Charlotte asks with a dangerous glint of interest in her eyes.

"...You’re correct. Theoretically, yes, that’s what could happen. Because we live in three spatial dimensions and one temporal one, and if one of the spatial dimensions is broken, everything collapses at that point." I don’t like teaching such dangerous things to equally dangerous people, but I’m a professor now, so it is what it is.

"...Wow, Professor, you’re not just pretty but also really smart. But if monsters can do that and don’t care about dying, why hasn’t humanity been wiped out yet?" Edith asks in a curious tone that’s almost a flirt.

"...Because that’s not what Nemesis wants... yet." When I say that, she gets confused.

"Nemesis?"

"...I’ll talk more about that later. For now, let’s focus on what really matters when using vectors. Tanya’s usage was far too basic, and I bet all of you use the most basic of the basics." Tanya makes a sour face at me, crumpling the notebook in her hands.

"Professor, even if what you said is true and there’s a reason monsters haven’t finished us off yet, what’s the point of just killing monsters without eliminating the source that creates them?" Eirwen raises her hand, asking a cold and arrogant question.

"Hahaha, what a funny question! Seriously, really good. It’s actually very easy to eliminate all monsters from existence! You can do it yourself right now," I say in an exaggeratedly cheerful tone to make it clear it’s fake.

"Really?" She asks, unsettled by my attitude, which is terrible for a teacher.

"Yes, yes. All you have to do is... exterminate all of humanity. No humans equals no monsters. After all, they’re born from us. And look at you, you’re quite strong. I bet you could kill a lot."

"Like, in a few days, you could wipe out a large part of humanity before someone stopped you. Want to give it a try? If it were so easy to get rid of monsters, someone would have done it already."

"Besides exterminating humanity, the only other possibility would be if we could absolutely control all the results and variables that come from controlling vectors."

"In other words, become a god who controls any and every form of vector that exists in the universe. Other than those two options, all that’s left is to survive and wait to see what happens."

"..." Eirwen lowers her head and averts her gaze, because killing all of humanity is something her fragile mind can’t conceive of as a real solution.

"Now that we’ve had our fun, let’s start with what truly matters," I say, picking up a holographic pen to write on the board.

’Nemesis...’ Monsters are born from fear. What sense would it make for them to go extinct? Even though they’re born to decimate humanity, it would be foolish when Nemesis is conscious of her own existence. She wouldn’t let herself be wiped out, even if she was born to destroy.

’Truly ironic. The monster of monsters keeps us alive because she’d vanish without us...’ My hand trembles a little when I think about Nemesis. I hope I never have to see her in front of me again.