Chapter 66: Spatial Magic
"Well, not in a literal sense actually..." Medea pauses as even she herself thought that this might be too lacking of an introduction, hence why she decided to go on a little bit more to explain how she is connected to this freshman professor.
"My mother and Sister Runia’s mother are sworn sisters, so yeah, we’re technically cousins, I guess..." she goes on to tell him, with Novus nodding as he listens with quite the interest regarding what she is explaining.
’Hm~ at least he listened, I thought he’s just going to dismiss it again~~’ noticing his attention to her words, the smile on her face reveals a faint trace of pride as if it is some significant achievement to her, her lips opening as she intends to speak once again, only to be interrupted as Runia began to speak.
A couple of claps is all that it takes for this lady to grab the attention of everyone in the auditorium, students and academy staff alike, the attention prompting her to reveal a smile on her face before she begins.
"Mhm, impressive for all our dear students to arrive just right in time..." she spoke as she nodded in approval. Only then did she continue with her words.
"...first, as the representative of the academy, we would like to apologize to our dear students regarding the now resolved delay," she told everyone as she swept her gaze to the side where the supposed late assistant was, her eyes lingering at their direction for a few more moments, prompting the assistant to act.
There was not a single nervous bone in the assistant’s body; the gaze they received from this authoritative figure merely made them smile before they respectfully bowed, as if they were already prepared to receive a scolding from the professor.
Runia’s gaze lingers towards them a bit more, pausing for a second as she stares at their smile before she faintly smiles as well, eventually directing her attention towards the students once more.
"Well, things like this happen every now and then, but do bear in mind that something like this is as rare as it can get, so we hope for your understanding." she ended the issue at that, the students nodding at her words as they can see the seriousness in her eyes, allowing her to carry on with the momentum she had built up to begin explaining the rules of the exam.
"First of all, I would like to congratulate those who seem to form their group with upperclassmen, you’ve spent the three preparatory days well~" she pointed out first with a faint smile on her face, nodding in acknowledgement towards this group of students, all while scanning faces familiar to her.
’Hm? Interesting~~’ eventually, her attention was pulled towards two figures who she never expected would team up during this match.
The student who is supposed to be the weakest among the freshmen, and the individual who stands among, if not the sole strongest, of the seniors.
Her sharp instinct as a lady, along with the long experiences she has living in this world tells her that there’s more than likely enough reason for her cousin to join forces with this new student, but the situation, her explaining the remaining rules of this surprise exams, calls for her undivided attention hence why she decided to shove those thoughts to the back of her mind, for now, that is.
"Mhm, I can also see some other freshmen group who seems confident in their abilities alone~" she said as she notices groups who are composed purely of freshmen, making her smile in anticipation, as just any educator would, she wonders what sort of surprises these groups will show during the exams.
"...enough of that for now, your homeroom professors had already explained the basics of the exams three days before, so I doubt there’s anyone here who is still completely clueless regarding what they will do once they are sent down..."
"What I am about to tell now are just supplements, take it as some sort of assurance for our dear freshmen~~"
"You might not be aware of this, but your upperclassmen also undergo this kind of ’preferential treatment’, call it as you will..."
"It’s simple, really, freshmen can never be challenged by upper years first. Should this rule be broken, the offending party will be immediately disqualified from the exam, and they will be given a five hundred student points fine upon disqualification."
The crowd, particularly the freshmen who are the only ones who were unaware of this rule up until now, couldn’t help but get a bit louder in celebration, the professor standing in the middle of the stage letting them have their fun for a little while before she decided that it was already about time to crush the hopes and dreams starting to form in their minds.
"Well, of course, that doesn’t mean that the upperclassmen cannot hit the freshmen, because that will be completely unfair, hence why an extension to this rule is imposed, that is, if freshmen were to challenge the upperclassmen first, then it is to the discretion of the upperclassmen whether to accept or deny the challenge~~"
With that, the excitement among the freshmen immediately died down to a lower level, causing a faint smile to appear in the professor’s face as she just felt way too amused with the naïve thinking of these younger students, naïve thinking that she thinks is quite precious, as it stays for only a short time before they are woken up to the realities of things.
’It’s not bad, but they need to mature faster if they want to stand worthy of being a student of the academy~~’ she thought to herself as she continued with her explanation of the ’special rule’ of the exam, what sort of things upperclassmen cannot do to the freshmen, and what sort of things they can.
’The boiled down version being, if it interferes directly with the freshmen, then upperclassmen will be punished for interfering, stealing kills, direct attack included, but they can still drag us to problematic places and won’t be blamed for any injuries we sustained...’
There might be a bit of variance for each individual’s mind, but the freshmen collectively understood this fact without being told straight, prompting the once excited look on their faces to turn into contemplating seriousness, some of them even wondering whether teaming up with upperclassmen will be beneficial at all.
After all, they might just be used by the upperclassmen as frontliners to clear the weaker beasts and monsters to save strength for the stronger ones.
Those thoughts weren’t given time to grow into larger negative assumptions as Runia’s melodious voice enveloped the entire auditorium once again.
"One last thing, dear students..." she paused as she raised one of her fair hands, snapping her fingers as if she intended to do something that was out of the ordinary for these young minds.
And something out of the ordinary truly happened, as with a single snap that envelops the whole auditorium with its sound, identical devices appeared right in front of the students without any rhyme or reason, bringing the guard of the freshmen up with the upperclassmen, already familiar with this professor’s gimmick, couldn’t help but marvel at the phenomena she just conjured.
"Every damn time, she never fails to show off~~" despite her words sounding a bit annoyed, there is an unmistakable pride in Medea’s tone as she reached for the silver bracelet in front of her, a faint smile on her face as she stares at that professor’s figure with burning flames of competitive spirit raging calmly underneath her gaze.
There’s only one explanation that Novus can think of as he reached out for the simple silver bracelet still floating in front of him, an esoteric discipline of magic thought to be one of the most difficult branches of magic to comprehend.
’Spatial Magic.’
