Chapter 22: Day 3 as a Temporary Professor

As I listened to Ayla recount the events, I had to suppress the rage welling up inside me.

It wasn’t particularly shocking that a demon had corrupted a student to infiltrate the academy—such things happened often.

What truly concerned me was the identity of the demon who had lured her.

In the original story, a doppelganger approaches Marcus after he suffers humiliation at the hands of Luke.

The corruption begins when the doppelganger, disguised as a close friend, cunningly injects demonic energy into him.

So naturally, I assumed that Ayla had fallen through a similar process—that a doppelganger had approached her and followed the same routine.

But the demon she encountered wasn’t a doppelganger.

According to Ayla, the woman had a voluptuous figure, a heart-shaped tail, and bat-like wings.

‘I should’ve realized the moment I saw Ayla turn into a succubus…’

The demon who corrupted Ayla was none other than Eleneze of the Phantom Dream, the Queen of Succubi and the pinnacle of dream demons.

I couldn’t be absolutely sure since I hadn’t seen her with my own eyes, but all the details Ayla described pointed unmistakably to Eleneze.

‘Why is the final boss of Chapter 2 showing up already?!’

Eleneze of the Phantom Dream is supposed to be the climactic demon of the first year.

Under normal circumstances, she should still be in the Demon King’s castle, only appearing after the boss of Chapter 1 is defeated.

Yet for some reason, Eleneze of this world had shown up right at the start of the first semester.

It felt like I had just begun training and someone had suddenly thrown me into Stage 20.

In gaming terms, I’d skipped straight past “hard mode” into “hell difficulty.”

‘The first act followed the original pattern somewhat, but things won’t continue the same way from here.’

Eleneze wasn’t just powerful—she excelled in crafting elaborate schemes.

‘If I mishandled one of her plots, Wellton Academy could face total ruin.’

‘I want to find her right now and kill her before she causes more trouble…’

‘But that wasn’t possible.’

‘If I killed her prematurely and triggered the appearance of the bosses from Chapters 3 and 4, there would be no hope of recovery.’

‘So I had no choice but to uncover her plans while the students continued to grow and develop.’

‘And I’d have to judge whether each ordeal was something the students could handle on their own—sometimes stepping back, which wasn’t easy.’

***

“I’m tired.”

The growing pile of responsibilities was weighing heavily on my shoulders.

I had to train with the instructors, mentor Erin and Lucia, carry out my duties as a temporary professor, fight Karen to unlock Jerome’s journal…

And now I had to uncover and dismantle Eleneze’s schemes on top of everything else.

I had vowed to live a productive life, but I never signed up for death by overwork.

There was so much to do, and time was slipping through my fingers.

Before I knew it, the second class had arrived.

To teach the class, I returned once again to the Royal Hall.

This time, I wasn’t late.

I didn’t barge in like a lunatic, and my outfit was clean and properly put together.

I wasn’t planning on assigning self-study today.

Creeeak—!

The door opened, and all the students’ eyes immediately turned to me.

Thanks to Lucia’s earlier instigation, they were all smiling expectantly.

It looked like they were dying to show off their special skills to me.

They must have come here brimming with hope—but those hopes were about to be dashed.

“Starting today, we’ll have an actual class instead of self-study. Everyone, take your seats. Erin, go get our friend who’s hanging around outside with a bow.”

“Understood!”

Erin threw open a window and leapt outside.

With a single bound, she reached the student hiding in the trees, grabbed him by the collar, and jumped back into the classroom.

“I brought him.”

“Good job.”

Once everyone was seated, a hand shot up unexpectedly.

It was Lucia, wearing a concerned expression.

“Professor, if it’s not too much trouble, may I ask what kind of class you’ll be teaching today?”

Lucia had previously explained that, since all the students had different specialties, it was impossible to satisfy everyone with a single lesson—and therefore self-study was more reasonable.

Now that I had suddenly announced a class without any warning, it was understandable she’d be worried.

Especially since she’d made the others more aware of what to expect, the standards for judging the class had risen sharply.

I was aware of that too, which is why I had decided to prepare a class that would be beneficial to everyone.

Now that the difficulty of the situation had risen, I also needed to raise the academy’s standards if we were going to survive what was coming.

“During my time as your temporary professor, I’ll be teaching you how to attune yourselves to nature.”

The moment I said the title of the class, sighs of disappointment echoed throughout the room.

They made no effort to hide their dismay, clearly thinking it had nothing to do with them.

Honestly, they should be grateful I wasn’t dropping them off a cliff in the name of physical training.

Spoiled, overfed kids—all of them.

“Disappointed? If you’re really not interested, you’re free to leave. But I promise, staying and listening will help you.”

I gave them a choice.

I told them clearly: “they could drop the class right away or walk out in the middle—either was fine by me.”

As soon as I said that, several students stood up without the slightest hesitation.

About half the class ended up leaving, but I actually preferred it that way.

The room felt much more comfortable.

I had no desire to force anyone to learn against their will anyway.

“More stayed than I expected.”

The ones who remained didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic, but they must’ve thought it was worth giving the class a shot.

Still, I could tell from their eyes that if the lesson turned out to be disappointing, they’d walk out without a second thought.

What they thought didn’t matter to me.

After all, I was only here to pass on the teachings I’d received from my own mentors.

“Before we start the actual lesson, let me begin by scratching the itch you’ve all been feeling.”

The reason I chose nature as the topic of this class was simple.

Martial arts, medicine, magic, faith, war, civilization—they are all deeply intertwined with nature.

As long as the world exists, nature will always be present, and humanity is just another part of it.

The problem was that students had never taken the time to think deeply about nature, and in doing so, they were missing out on a chance to grow.

“First, raise your hand if you’ve ever formed a contract with a spirit.”

Out of the hundreds of students gathered in the hall, only one raised a hand high.

That student was the only spirit mage enrolled at Wellton Academy.

“How much do you know about spirits?”

“As the heir to a family of spirit mages, I’d say I’m the best in the Empire!”

“Is that so? Then I’ll ask you two questions about spirits. Think you can answer both?”

“Of course! I’ll answer whatever you ask!”

Seeing the student’s confident attitude, I began.

“Do you need mana to use spirit magic?”

“No, you don’t. Spirit magic is activated by requesting a spirit to act, so the mage doesn’t use their own mana.”

“Have you ever seen a spirit refuse a request because it ran out of mana?”

“A spirit might refuse for personal reasons, but never due to a lack of mana. After all, spirits are born from the mana in nature.”

“Exactly. So as long as mana exists, spirits can use magic endlessly. In other words, the mana infused in nature is infinite.”

“Even if someone used a special tool or technique to block mana in a specific area, it was impossible to erase mana from the entire world.”

“Then why can’t we, as humans, use magic endlessly like spirits do?”

“Because human mana is fundamentally different from natural mana. Unless you’re a pure being like a spirit or a dragon—who are loved by mana—natural mana is just an impurity to us, and therefore unusable.”

It’s like how 70% of the human body is water, yet we still can’t drink seawater.

The impurities in seawater prevent our bodies from absorbing it properly and even lead to dehydration.

Mana works the same way.

If a human tries to forcibly absorb natural mana, their own mana becomes diluted and escapes from their body.

That’s why mages are forced to rely solely on the mana within themselves, and their talent is judged by how much of it they naturally possess.

“But what if humans could use even a portion of nature’s mana?”

The students started to seriously imagine the scenario I had proposed.

Most of them licked their lips and let out sighs of frustration.

“Just imagining it gives me goosebumps.”

“Even if your theory is perfect, so many people hit a wall because of how little mana they have.”

“Not to mention it would solve the whole ‘mana depletion’ issue to some extent. You’d rarely be left helpless just because you ran out of mana.”

“Still, isn’t that all just a pointless fantasy?”

“It’s not a fantasy. It’s actually possible.”

While everyone else was speaking as if it were a lost cause, I alone declared it could be done.

All the students who had been chatting fell silent and turned to look at me.

They were all staring at me in disbelief.

“Once you learn the breathing technique I’m about to teach, you’ll be able to filter and use natural mana.”

“Y-You’re joking, right?”

“I’m serious.”

‘How was I, someone born with an insufficient mana supply, able to cast 5-star magic?’

It was thanks to a breathing technique developed through the combined efforts of Sherthia and Maya.

By supplementing my lack of internal mana with filtered natural mana, I was able to perform high-level spells.

But it felt like a waste to keep this technique to myself.

So I got permission from my mentors and shared it with the students.

Little did I know that this decision would eventually shake not only the academy—but the entire magic tower.