The first class ended well, if I would say so myself. The students were truly amazed and enlightened at the trials which would await them, and were probably excited for the next class.

Of course, the students were taking other subjects other than mine so they all had to move to different classes while I get to hang around the professors’ lounge which was probably better than lying down in my bed all day. By coincidence, Kendra was going the same way as I was, or at least partly.

“That went well, didn’t it, Inez? The drawing knocked them out of this world for sure!” I wiped imaginary dust off my shoulder, then raised my chin proudly.

“Yes, of course! Whatever you say, Boss!” Inez replied with a smile on her face, and a pile of books on her arms.

“What about you, Kendra? You didn’t expect that I would exceed in the plane of artistry, right?” I asked.

“Could you please… not walk closely to me?” Kendra hissed at me with a chilling gaze.

“Oh please, are you jealous of my skills?” I heaved with a hint of smugness.

“Those drawings were god awful! W-who taught you how to draw?! I will strangle them with my own two hands if I have to!” Kendra howled.

“Is it that bad?” I nervously asked as I scratched my head.

“Yes! I was glad that the others just thought that you made the drawings as a joke to brighten the classroom. If the students realized that you were serious, you would be a laughing stock!” Kendra explained with irritation in her tone.

“Is… this true, Inez?” I turned to the innocent gray-haired little girl veiled in white.

She smiled and simply said, “Whatever you wish, Boss.”

I sighed then gave up. “Fine, no more drawings. Inez, get rid of all of my artwork.”

Inez obeyed and threw half of her stack of books onto the trash can before running off to her room. Kendra stared in horror at the amount of art I made and screamed, “You made that much?!”

“Well, you see, it’s been a long time since I’ve taught some other people and I got excited so I spent the entire night-...” My explanation was cut short when an unfamiliar voice shouted across the hall.

“Kendra?!”

Before I even realized, a tall girl had pounced on Kendra. Like a tiger taking down its prey, the girl viciously hugged and tickled Kendra in all sorts of places.

“S-Stop! Somebody help! I’m being harassed!” Kendra pleaded as I carefully observed the situation from a safe distance. She turned to my direction and shot her hand out, crying, “Master! Heeeelp!”

The tall girl stopped her assault then turned to me with a curious look on her face. “Oh? And who is this supposed to be? Your adopted father?”

“Idiot! Who would want him as anyone’s father?!” Kendra retorted.

“In the first place, you can’t adopt fathers nor do I want anything to do with kids,” I added to Kendra’s retort.

The tall girl tightened her hug on Kendra as she replied, “Oh? But you’re a teacher?”

I touched the tip of my thumb with my index finger, then waved it around. “Money.”

“Oooh. How honest.” The tall girl finally let go of Kendra, then walked towards me. Once close enough, she reached her hand out and greeted, “I am Kendra’s sister, Iova.”

“Sister?” I skeptically asked.

“She’s not my sister! She was my classmate during my early years here. It just happens so that this girl likes to pick on me!” Kendra protested as she fixed her uniform.

“Kendra is so cute and short, even now! In fact she was the shortest in the class!” Iova started rambling about her supposed ‘sister’.

“Ooooh.” I nodded as I took in more information to blackmail Kendra with.

Compared to Kendra, Iova was much taller, adding to the fact that she had brown hair, if she said Kendra was her little sister, nobody would doubt her.

“So you’re the new Advanced Magic teacher?” Iova tilted her head and asked.

“What? How did you know this? Are you a stalker?” I pulled out my switchwand and flipped its tip forward, ready to defend myself.

“Hahaha! This guy’s a riot! You see, a lot of the professors are well-known. Besides, you’re the only one that wears a mask around. It doesn’t take too long to connect ‘some masked weirdo is teaching Advanced Magic’ with you,” Iova explained.

“Wait, who’s a weirdo?!” I shook my fist in protest.

“Iova, why are you even here?” Kendra interrupted.

“Well, my cute little sister, we’re both in the same class!” Iova answered cheerfully to which Kendra responded by falling onto her knees.

As much as I had the eternity for myself, I decided to leave the two girls to their reunion so that I could finally check out the professors’ lounge. As soon as I thought I had peace to myself, I heard a familiar smug laugh.

I stopped in my tracks then turned to my side. If I had a heart, it would’ve suffered from an attack. Nevertheless, I was still surprised when I saw a fat, Lard, standing next to me. His supposedly white hair was tied into a ponytail as usual, and he wore his usual black oversized jacket probably in an attempt to hide his tubbiness.

“Where did you come from and why are you laughing?” I asked.

“Huh? I, Vakasa of the Darkness, was beside you the whole time. You forgot? In addition to that priestess, I, Vakasa of the Darkness, was assigned as your assistant,” Lard answered.

“You were?” I muttered and thought back to when I was teaching in class. I was standing, talking to the students…

Yes… it was all clear to me, especially since it was just a minute or two ago.

But… what is this?

Part of my memory was corrupted. A wall of black and white mosaic had formed right beside the lecturer’s platform in the classroom and it actively blocked my vision. What was that? I concentrated my will and focus onto it until I found what was behind the fog of mystery.

It was him.

It was Lard.

Somehow my mind had automatically assumed him to be a threat to my sanity, which he is, anyway.

“Right. So why were you laughing?” I asked.

“Well, you see, I always wanted to be in a magic school and my world only had boring schools. Ah, I am glad that I, Vakasa of the Darkness, am alive,” Lard proclaimed.

Speaking of which, Lard was a ‘hero’ which I summoned in order to be my replacement as teacher to the heroes’ party. It was unfortunate I couldn’t get a massive angry barbarian berserk, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Well, you can’t learn magic anyway, so I don’t know why you’re happy.” I shrugged.

“You see-...” Lard cut himself short when we passed by a hall. It was filled with students crowding around tables. There were plenty of cheers and insults being hurled across the gathering.

Curious, we approached one of the table. There were two students sitting across each other placing cards in front of then. Whenever they placed a card, a miniature monster was summoned onto the middle of the table which was divided into equal tiles.

“What’s this supposed to be?” I asked.

“It… It can’t be! It’s a real summoning card game!” Lard gasped.

“How do you know this?” I questioned since it was impossible for Lard to know much about this world.

“In my world, we also had these kinds of card games without the summoning part. We had to use our imagination. Of course, I, Vakasa of the Darkness, was a champion when it came to these games,” Lard covered his face and threw his arm outwards, posing for victory in his own way.

“Wow. Just cards? Nothing else? Sounds lame,” I mocked.

“Hey, mister. Are you calling this lame?” One of the students called out. He pushed up his thick glasses then challenged, “How about I teach you a lesson with a card duel?”

“I wasn’t calling this lame-...” I was about to defend myself but Lard nudged me. He whispered to me, “Listen. You’re a powerful undead and I’m a natural-born genius. If we work together, we could win against these underbeings.”

“I guess…” I decided to take on the challenge and took a seat across the glasses kid. I was given a beginner’s deck and some students crowded around to watch. I picked out some cards, following after my opponent. Lard stood behind me then looked at every card carefully.

“I, Vakasa of the Darkness, have formulated a plan for you to beat him. It seems that the rules are similar to the games I’ve played before, but with better twists,” Lard had a cunning smug which he would usually put up, but this time, he was brimming with confidence. He instructed, “Place these cards here, these card on this side…”

I followed as he told, placing a card face-down on the corner of the table, then summoned a monster. “I call upon ‘Withered Tree Guardian’. I place it in this… uh…. forest tile.”

“Fufu… for a beginner, you seem to know your basics. I summon the ‘Green Skylord Knight’, and I place a card face down.”

My opponent and Lard (with me as proxy) began dueling in a battle of wits. The opponent began summoning more monsters, advancing towards my side of the table. Meanwhile, my forces was either being dwindled down or forced into a corner of the map.

“Once my monsters reach your edge of the table, I could begin massacring your health points, buahahaahah!” The kid made the most annoying laugh I had ever heard. More annoying than Lard’s, which was bad enough.

“Hey, Lard. Can we even beat this kid? If we lose, I could always call upon my companions to beat him up and steal his lunch money,” I whispered.

“Not to worry, my honorable friend. It is time to enact my grand scheme!” Lard proclaimed. He had me summon a peculiar card. First, I removed a few cards from my hand, then sacrificed two of my monsters.

Finally, I took out a card from my hand, then stared at it for a few seconds, unable to make a comment on it. Why was this lady so scantily clad? Do kids like these?! Who made these?!

“I… summon Light Sorcerer Girl…”

A miniature girl wearing red hat and miniskirt popped up into the table. She made a ‘yaaay!’ then blew some kisses towards the onlookers.

“Whoa! Light Sorcerer Girl!”

“Yeaaaah!”

“Woooo!”

The crowd cheered as my opponent screamed, “W-what?! Damn it! I thought you’re a beginner! How did you know how to summon her?!”

“Fu fu fu. Do not understand me - Vakasa of the Darkness! Boss, have her destroy three of his monsters!” Lard shouted as he shot his arm forward, posing as if he was ordering ‘Chaaaarge!’ to his army.

“I can do that?” I muttered.

“Yes. Just do it!” Lard answered.

I randomly picked three monsters, to which my opponent screamed and cursed on how his ‘grand plan’ was being shattered.

Honestly, being in between one nerd crying and another nerd mock-laughing, I just wished I didn’t walk into this hallway. I had no idea what was going on.

“I will have to use my trump card! But with this, I can just simply cut through you! I summon Darkest Path Paladin! Attack!” my opponent screamed. All of the enemy monsters disappeared and a giant black knight popped up in the table, then killed my Light Sorcerer Girl in one hit.

“What?!” Lard screamed.

“Ha! The Darkest Path Paladin’s attack rating goes up against opponents that had defeated two or more enemies. The great the number of enemies defeated, the greater the paladin’s attack rating is! You spelled your own doom!” the kid with the thick glasses gave an exposition which I didn’t understand a single thing. Not that I would care. Lard was basically playing the game for me.

“No matter! Summon the Vallenian Princess! Charm his Darkest Path Paladin!” Lard ordered and I did so right away.

“Fu! You’re correct thinking that knight-types have weakness against royal-type, alas you’ve made a blunder! Darkest Path Paladin is immune to normal charm! Counter-charm and attack, Darkest Path Paladin! It’s all over!” my opponent shouted. The crowd cheered as the battle was about to reach the climax.

“Not so fast! You’ve activated my trap card!” Lard shouted back and the crowd gasped at the plot twist.

“W-what?! You have no cards facing down!” the glasses kid refuted.

“The princess is a trap! It was actually a Vallenian Prince the entire time!” Lard shot his arm out, then proclaimed. The entire hallway erupted in a collective applaud. Lard wasn’t finished yet and continued, “Now, the Darkest Path Paladin cannot be immune to his charm and he joins my side! Attack his health points directly!”

“N-noooo!” With no monsters defending himself, the Darkest Path Paladin shaved his health points until it was zero. At last, the duel was over.

“D-damn it! I will have to give up one of my cards to you…” He shuffled his cards, then picked a random card. Upon realization on what he was giving up, he cried, “Not my Red Eyes Tired Dragon!”

Lard swiped the card from the kid’s hand then turned to make his trenchcoat sway in the air. He ended the round with “It was nothing!”

It was lame to me, but apparently the crowd went wild. But still, I managed to win my first ever card game! Lard handed me my new card then examined it.

“I mean… it looks interesting and all, but can we even sell this?” I asked.

One of the students explained, “Some cards like the Red Eyes Tired Dragon could net you a lot of money especially in Cahalot. I know some people take up card duelists as a profession.”

“What?! Seriously?!” I exclaimed.

As I was indulging in my plans to make money, a student emerged from the crowd and shouted, “I challenge you! It seems that the fattie has some skills! Let me see your mettle!”

“Wouldn’t these cards need magic? This guy can’t use magic,” I pointed out.

“Then you’ll be his assistant! Come and face me, or are you too cowardly?” the newly arrival mocked.

Lard pushed his glasses up, then nodded. “Let do this!”