Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 38: Delivered Results

"Hmmm..." I look at the five students sitting in their seats waiting. Eirwen still hasn’t shown up. If she takes much longer, I’ll have to go after her. Astrid sent me a message yesterday about why one of the students had been absent repeatedly.

’Better focus on the assignments...’ I look over everyone’s work. Each of them did their assignment — even Tanya, surprisingly, though I suspect Tanya only did it to prove she could and that she’s good.

"Since everyone did their work, I gave it all a general look and I’ll tell you what I thought... let’s start with Ashlyn, whose work I looked over yesterday... hers is excellent, though overly packed with information."

"If she cuts down the dense explanations, it’ll read better, but overall there are no other errors considering the limits of a student." Ashlyn is at the back staring at me, as if she wants to say something, but she says nothing.

"Now... Rouge..." I call the attention of Rouge, whose wolf ears perk up attentively.

"Yours is garbage. The handwriting is honestly painful to look at, and your notes are... completely disjointed. On that note, why is there a drawing of a steak next to a sliced-up monster? Do you think this is art class? Not that you could even call that childish scribble art." Rouge’s ears droop while her tail moves aggressively.

"Honestly, it looks like something a child would make. Learn how to write." Since pretty much everything uses technology, there are a lot of people who genuinely don’t know how to pick up a pen and write. I can see Rouge is one of them.

"Professor, that’s offensive. My drawings are easy to understand for identifying monsters." When she says that, I look at the drawings.

"Girl, we left the Stone Age a long time ago. You may look like a wolf, but let’s not be primitive. If you want to be primitive, go draw in a cave, not in my class."

"If you want to draw so you understand things more easily, go ahead, but don’t do it on assignments I assign. Do it for personal things."

"...I—"

"Next student." I proceed to ignore Rouge completely, picking up the next paper. Rouge, unsatisfied, crushes a pen, getting ink all over herself.

"Charlotte... excellent... everything is perfect..." I say, looking at her as she makes a surprised face.

"Really, Professor? That’s amazing. I never imagined I’d be able to meet your high standards." She tries to sound humble, but to me it comes across almost like terribly unpleasant mockery.

"..." I wanted to find something to criticize, but it really is excellent. No mistakes, well-summarized where it needs to be and well-detailed where it needs to be. At most, her choice of monsters wasn’t great, but that’s something that varies from person to person — not grounds for demerit.

’Edith...’ I read her work. It’s pretty mediocre, but there are some flirtatious lines between the words. I glance quickly at Edith, and she gives me a little smile.

’Dammit... I shouldn’t have reacted like I caught the flirting... no wonder it’s mediocre. She used the assignment to stuff it full of hidden flirts.’ I sigh, looking at her.

"Your work is mediocre. Improve it." I won’t give her the satisfaction of a longer conversation, so I wrap everything up quickly and surgically.

"Professor, mediocre where? I—"

"Now... Tanya." I move on to the last of them, and to my surprise, her work is so good that I look it over multiple times.

"...Shockingly, Tanya has the best work in the class." When I say this, Charlotte, stunned, immediately looks back, staring at Tanya, who gives an arrogant smile.

"Do go on, Professor. Tell me what’s so good about mine." She puffs out her chest with pride.

"...Don’t try to get a rise out of me, girl. A single assignment really doesn’t define much, does it? Since you put in so much effort and surpassed your classmates, I expect all your work to be perfect from now on. Otherwise, I’ll have to punish you."

"W-What?"

"Yeah. Now that you’ve shown you can do it, there’s no excuse not to. So if your next assignments are poorly done, I’ll punish you instead of helping you correct them."

"..."

"You’re targeting me, aren’t you, Professor?! You think this is going to slide?"

"I’m targeting you because you have potential." When I say that, she stops whatever she was about to say and blushes. She seems confused and then looks around before quickly looking down.

’So she’s shy when it comes to sincere compliments?... she really is a spoiled brat.’ It seems like she’s never received a sincere compliment, so something about sincere praise stands out to her, since it’s different from the usual compliments she must have gotten.

"Does anyone here know why I had you do this assignment?" I ask, crumpling everything up and tossing it in the trash. I’ve seen what I needed to see and already assessed each of their abilities to seek out information on their own and write reports.

"..." A few of them look at me indignantly for throwing out scrap paper. Now that paper will be recycled and reused for whatever else is needed.

"You don’t need to answer. The answer is simpler than it seems. I just wanted you all to look more into monsters. In a fight, information matters."

"I recommend that everyone here spend some time every day researching at least the strongest monsters we have on record — learn what powers they used, who killed them, whether they were killed, and how they were killed if they died."

"After all, if you had known that Nemesis had extreme resistance to vector attacks, you wouldn’t have tried just attacking her carelessly. That shows your complete lack of information."

"Once I feel you’re all adequately prepared, I plan to take all of you down below the island so you can get accustomed to the world."

"Honestly, it’s like field work, and it’s pretty tedious. I won’t force any of you to do it, but if you’re smart, you will. And if any of you shows an exceptional result, I’ll talk to Delilah and grant you access to the simulator for training."

"Professor, using the simulator sounds great, but I don’t need it!!! We can easily see what a monster is capable of in a fight! And we’ve already learned to reduce damage like you said!" Tanya speaks in a conceited tone.

Though she’s partly right — many Kairas leave learning to the last minute, and it’s not uncommon. I did it myself plenty of times, because often the monster we’re fighting isn’t cataloged, so we have to figure it out from scratch.

"You’re right, Tanya. To some extent, everyone here, when encountering a new monster, will have to fight and test it to learn what it does and defeat it."

"However, you all still want to use the simulator whenever you feel like it, right? Besides, you’re still required to learn about powerful monsters we’ve already faced. Any powerful fear monster we’ve fought and wasn’t killed — all Kairas have to study them."

"Not to mention, all of you here generally have powers that, in large part, can kill nearby allies. Especially you, Tanya. You are literally the worst possible ally to have by your side."

"Hey! I’m not a bad ally!! Who would think it sucks to have someone as powerful as me around?" Tanya speaks as if being powerful were all that mattered in being a good ally.

"Me, Astrid, and many others. Honestly, a lot of Kairas hate having an ally who could kill them in seconds by accident. On that note, I was pretty hated for that too." My power has a very large range and is highly unstable. Early on, I was pretty hated, and even to this day people don’t like me, though a big part of it is that they don’t like my attitude.

"Professor, you talk too much!! You only complain about me, but what about Rouge!!? And Charlotte!! Or Edith!!" She tries to shift the blame to the others. It makes me laugh at her.

"Tanya, be serious, will you? Charlotte can only use her powers within a 30-meter radius around her. It’s probably one of the most ridiculous ranges I’ve ever seen in a spatial power, aside from her portals, which can reach farther." Charlotte makes an offended face.

"Rouge works with air, winds, and atmosphere. It has a high range, but it’s a basic and simple vector, not that hard to control, to the point where I doubt Rouge even has issues."

"She can easily fight without hitting allies. It’s a more precise power... and Edith? Edith is the funniest one for you to mention, since her power depends on prior materials."

"It’s true that it’s a dangerous power for nearby allies, but it’s nothing compared to a literal nuclear bomb with an impulsive personality... Tanya, you’re the most complicated one here."

"..." Tanya grows furious, closing her hands into fists and slamming both fists on the desk repeatedly in a tantrum.

"How arrogant, Professor! Bullying your students sounds really bad! Aren’t you supposed to teach us?" Charlotte says as if trying to defend Tanya, but it’s obvious she just wants to add fuel to the fire and not actually defend her.

"...Hmmm... you’re right. Let’s all head to the academy’s training area. I want to see all of you using your powers."

"...!!!?" Charlotte freezes in shock, then immediately looks at Tanya, who has a confident smile about her abilities.

"P-Professor, wouldn’t it be better to use the simulator?" Charlotte grows tense, asking with a trembling voice.

"No. Don’t you trust your classmate? You defended her earlier. That means you trust in her potential, right?" Tanya gives a smile of approval to Charlotte, who has a dangerous look on her face. Clearly, she didn’t want this risk.

Since it’s outside the simulator, if Tanya blows something up or uses radiation, it’ll affect us for real — meaning real risk.

"..." Charlotte stares at me and clicks her tongue, clearly dissatisfied with the outcome that backfired on her.