Temporary Professor (3)

1.

The next day.

After finishing morning worship, Elia left the temple.

Normally, she would have gone to the clinic to prepare to care for patients or study Divine magic, but today she had other plans.

“You must be suspecting the Saintess, right?”

Rael, walking a step behind her, asked.

There was only one class that could be.

The lecture Elia had opened as a temporary professor this time.

Basic Swordsmanship, teaching swordsmanship to all grades.

“It seems like there are a few professors who doubt me becoming a temporary professor. Professor Touare seems to be one of them.”

An hour ago.

Before the morning worship began, Professor Touare of the Swordsmanship department had come to find her.

‘I heard you’re in charge of the Basic Swordsmanship class.’

Saying such words, he asked her to attend his class in the morning because there was something he wanted to confirm.

Since the president and dean had already approved the class, there was nothing to confirm separately.

She could just ignore whatever complaints the other professors had.

But it worked out well.

She was worried because students weren’t gathering.

To think he would provide a place to gather students like this.

It was something to be thankful for.

“Whatever.”

Elia shrugged her shoulders.

“If they want to see my skills, I’ll just show them.”

She stretched her arms above her head and yawned.

“Honestly, Hyung Rael is curious too, right?”

Stretching, Elia looked up at Rael.

Rael believed in Elia.

No matter what happened, she would never lie.

Although he hadn’t seen it himself, he believed that she had really defeated a Legion Commander with just one sword.

However, if he was asked if he wanted to see her skills, the answer was yes.

Aside from trust, he was curious.

Skills that defeated a Demon King Army Commander.

Who wouldn’t want to see it?

“…I am curious.”

Elia smiled brightly at Rael’s honest answer.

“That’s good. I’ll show you this time.”

Elia hummed a tune and headed to the training ground.

Rael glanced at Elia, who was walking happily, swinging her arms back and forth.

She had changed.

Her personality had changed since the Demon King Army Commander incident.

Not in a bad way.

The Saintess was still pretty, cute, lovely, and kind.

It felt like freedom had been added to that.

Until now, she seemed to have been suppressing her original personality and acting to become a textbook Saintess.

The Pope’s words came to mind.

He was sorry for tying up someone so free.

As he said, the current Saintess seemed to have become free.

What was better.

What was worse.

It wasn’t like that.

That appearance.

This appearance.

Rael watched with a pleased expression.

“Saintess, are you enjoying academy life?”

He heard that she had stubbornly refused to become a Saintess at first and had also refused to enter the academy.

“So-so. It would be more enjoyable if I could skip morning worship.”

“You have to do that…”

She seemed to have become too free.

2.

Professor Touare was a War chief from the Southern Kingdom.

On the battlefield, he had swung a greatsword, swallowing enemies and tearing them to pieces.

The warriors of the Southern Kingdom revered him as the ‘Boar of the Battlefield.’

Was that why?

Professor Touare was a man with very, very high pride.

In simple terms, he was a man who lived for his own ego.

Whenever he taught students, he would often talk about his experiences on the battlefield and boast about his heroic deeds.

If there was someone even slightly better than him, he had a nasty habit of picking on even the smallest things and trying to belittle them in any way he could.

No one liked him.

No, that wasn’t right.

Professors who were equally annoying got along well with each other.

Even among them, they would badmouth each other behind their backs.

Anyway.

Professor Touare was very dissatisfied with this situation.

To be given the title of professor without any evaluation.

And that too, a cowardly clergyman who wasn’t a warrior or a Knight, but only knew how to pray in the temple.

It was clear that the Holy Nation had instigated it.

He didn’t like making assumptions, but he had no choice.

Because there was no other explanation.

It had to make sense.

It was logically impossible for a frail girl who looked like she would fall over if you poked her to have single-handedly defeated the protagonist of the historical massacre.

How many people had the Imperial Knight Order sacrificed over the years to defeat that Legion Commander?

Tens of thousands, no, hundreds of thousands.

Yet, they hadn’t been able to inflict even a single wound on him.

Even the Sword Saint, a master who had mastered all the swordsmanship in the world.

Even though he wasn’t fully ripe at the time, it was true that he hadn’t even swung his sword properly once.

But a girl who had just become an adult had defeated him?

What a joke.

It was a story that would only appear in the myths that clergymen liked.

In the first place, wasn’t it a lie that the Demon King Army Commander had invaded the academy?

It was strange that there were no casualties.

That too was said to be because the Saintess had handled it well.

He would find out today.

“I’m sorry for being late.”

A girl entered the training ground where the 3rd graders of the Swordsmanship department were gathered.

Golden hair fluttered, creating soft golden waves.

The Saintess, Elia.

Perhaps the girl who would be called temporary professor Elia.

“For someone called a Saintess to break a time promise, tsk, tsk.”

Professor Touare checked the time and clicked his tongue.

The class had already started.

A minute ago.

“Professor Touare, I would appreciate it if you showed a little more respect to the Saintess.”

Rael glared at Professor Touare.

His eyes sharpened because he only felt rudeness in Professor Touare’s tone.

“What? This is an academy! If you’re going to argue about positions, argue outside the academy. Here, the only positions are teacher and student!”

He wasn’t wrong.

The academy was an equal place.

Regardless of rank, everyone was the same student.

Although inequality implicitly existed.

“Hyung Rael.”

Elia raised her hand to stop Rael.

“The professor is right. Here, I am a student.”

Rael quietly stepped back.

Outside, he was one of the five Holy Knights of the Holy Nation, but here he was just a student.

Of course, he wasn’t a student because he liked it.

He had entered as a student to be the Saintess’s escort Knight.

Because it was impossible to bring private soldiers into the academy.

For reference, you shouldn’t be mistaken just because Rael was a student.

He was a skilled person who didn’t need anyone’s teaching.

His swordsmanship skills were so guaranteed that he could be a professor, not a student.

He was currently working as the Saintess’s escort Knight and only following her around, but he was one of the top five swordsmen in the Holy Nation.

He was doing just enough to not fail his studies, so his grades were in the upper-middle range, but if he did it properly, he could easily be the top student.

“Once again, I apologize for being late. So, what did you call me here for today?”

“I’ve been waiting.”

Clicking his tongue, Professor Touare started the class.

Elia only smiled.

It was a beautiful smile, but Rael was the only one who felt a chill from it.

“Today, I’m going to teach you a technique to incapacitate your opponent in battle. There are many ways to incapacitate, but what I’m going to teach you is Sword Break. It’s a technique to destroy swords.”

It was a technique that warriors from the Southern Kingdom liked.

They preferred crude and rough swordsmanship over refined techniques.

That’s why Hoth charged at the enemy with a hand axe in each hand, wasn’t it?

“No matter how strong a sword is, you can destroy it if you master this technique. The reason I was able to become a War chief was thanks to this technique. At that time, my opponent was someone you’ve all heard of at least once…”

His digression was long.

The students felt bored.

Only those from the same Southern Kingdom were shining their eyes.

Elia felt like yawning.

What was he doing, calling people here?

She wanted to beat up that grumpy guy quickly.

“Can you call a swordsman whose sword is broken a swordsman? No, can you call a swordsman who can’t beat a swordsman whose sword is broken a swordsman? If there’s anyone like that, they should grab farming tools and go to the countryside right away. Anyway, what’s important? If you break the sword and incapacitate your opponent, you can achieve absolute victory.”

His boastful explanation was about to end in 20 minutes.

It was worthless.

15 minutes out of 20 were about his own anecdotes.

“First, I’ll demonstrate, and then I’ll explain in detail. Saintess.”

Professor Touare pointed at Elia with his finger.

“Come up to the sparring arena.”

The students began to buzz.

Some students were thinking, ‘Is this right?’

On the other hand, some students were watching with interest.

And they all commonly thought that it was an opportunity to find out the truth of the rumors.

“What about my sword?”

“Grab anything that’s there.”

Elia really grabbed any sword and went up to the sparring arena.

A sword that wasn’t well maintained.

It looked like it would break right away if you hit it hard with a strong sword.

On the other hand, Professor Touare picked up his sword and came up to the sparring arena.

She didn’t complain.

Of course, a good sword was good.

Elia used any sword without being picky.

“I’ll attack slowly, so try to block it. You can block it, right?”

Professor Touare smirked.

“Yes.”

Elia raised her sword.

She wasn’t putting any strength into her body, so she looked clumsy.

“I knew it.”

Professor Touare muttered to himself and chuckled.

He could tell just by looking at the way she was holding the sword.

It was all a lie after all.

He had to show the students.

That the rumors circulating among them were fake.

Professor Touare approached Elia lightly and struck down with his sword.

-Clang!

Elia leisurely raised her sword above her head and blocked Professor Touare’s attack.

It was an attack that was very, very slow, so anyone with some reflexes could block it.

-Clang

Elia’s sword broke.

This was…

Not even a proper class.

If he was going to show Sword Break, he should have struck down on a greatsword.

And this wasn’t even Sword Break.

“Sigh…”

Elia sighed deeply.

“Everyone.”

Elia looked at the students.

“You don’t need to break the sword to incapacitate your opponent. Sword Break consumes a lot of Magical power in an instant, so it’s inefficient.”

Elia swung the broken sword leisurely.

“Look.”

She pointed at Professor Touare with the broken sword.

“I incapacitated him without breaking the sword, right?”

Professor Touare, with his eyes wide open, was stiff, holding his sword in his hand.