“Greetings, Professor Boss,” Triceptarius greeted me with his hand out.

I gripped his hand, and we did the manly handshake, which involved trying to see whose grip is stronger, once more. Of course, I was just a skeleton and my hand was plated with heavenium so it was inevitable that this musclehead would lose.

“So these are the new equipment?” I said as I let go of his hand before inspecting the boxes being unloaded unto the academy grounds off a floating platform operated by muscle mages.

“Instead of dumbbells, the higher ups opted to allow us to use barbells instead. This one should be able to handle the students’ mana, I hope…” Triceptarius explained as he started lifting a barbell.

“Aha! Are any of these… SABOTAGE EQUIPMENT?!” Lard exclaimed as he tried to grab a barbell, failed, and nearly broke his arms. “Argh! Air! I, Vakasa of the Darkness, need air!”

I slapped Lard’s back then asked, “What in the name of The Abyss are you doing?”

“Boss! These are sabotage equipments! I just know that they’re going to sabotage our students!”

“Our students? Excuse you, I’m their teacher,” I chided.

“Be careful, chubby boy. Don’t try to lift more than what you could,” Triceptarius warned.

“I, Vakasa of the Darkness, will have you know that I am a member of Master Bicepticus’ gym!” Lard proudly declared.

“Oh? A fellow arms sorcerer?” Triceptarius asked as he rubs his chin.

This gave me an idea.

“Hey, Lard, since you two follow the same muscle art, you should go for a handshake. I heard it instills camaraderie among fellow sorcerers,” I whispered to Lard to which he excitedly gave me a thumbs up.

“Indeed, Master Triceptarius!” Lard said as he gave his hand out.

“Ho? A challenge?”

“Excuse me? ARRGHH AAAAAH!” Lard shouted in pure agony.

“Hmph. Shame. Train more, fat boy, and you will be on the level to have a handshake with me,” Triceptarius advised as he let go of Lard’s hand. “Professor Boss, I will now start the tests once more. Hopefully, we’ll be done by today.”

“Of course, of course,” I nodded before heading straight to the benches to relax.

Lard sat next to me while holding his hand in pain. “Grrr! I, Vakasa of the Darkness, will have my revenge on them! He could be the saboteur for all we know!”

“Saboteur? Ah, that reminds me, during the field trip months ago, I caught a demon agent and a demon. Apparently one of the students was a musclemancer, can you believe it?” I nonchalantly said.

“What?! Why wasn’t I, Vakasa of the Darkness, the main character of this universe, informed?! I should’ve been the one to catch the saboteur!” Lard exclaimed while attempting to pose.

“I don’t know nor do I care. Why don’t you go find Inez to help you fix your hand?” I asked.

“Geh. No way! Besides, healing magic can’t affect me!”

“Inez also has non-magical medical skills, you know?”

“My, Vakasa of the Darkness’, hand is fine anyway. It’s not as if that weakling managed to break or hurt my hand!”

I grabbed his hand then squeezed it, causing him to scream in pain once more. As much as I wanted to enjoy breaking Lard’s hands, I sensed someone entering my invisible detection bubble.

“Oh, hey, creepy old man!” a certain taller version of Kendra greeted.

“It’s Professor Boss, to you, Iova,” I corrected. “How did you find me?”

She tilted her body slightly then shrugged. “My examination was finished so I was let go early. When I stepped out of the stadium, I heard a really pathetic scream so I went to investigate.”

“It wasn’t pathetic! It was full of vigor and glory!” Lard protested.

“Ah ha! So it was you! It sounded like a little piggy, so I guess I was right!” Iova straightened her body then giggled.

Lard jumped off the bench then declared, “I, Vakasa of the Darkness, am busy so fare thee well!”

“And there he goes! I guess I’m stuck here with you, creepy old man,” Iova sighed.

“As I said, it’s ‘Professor Boss’. If you have trouble remembering that, I supposed ten sets of training would be enough to help you remember-”

“Sir, yes, sir, Professor Boss!” Iova stood at attention and saluted.

“Good,” I nodded satisfactorily then remembered something. “Iova, have you been feeling weird lately?”

Iova tilted her head then raised her brow. She pouted as she tried to search her memories before shaking her head. “I guess other than that one time Felixia attacked me, I haven’t felt weird.”

“I see…”

“Oh, but for some reason, I keep remembering that one time I met you when I was younger,” Iova said.

“What? I didn’t meet you when you were younger…” I muttered.

“No way. Years ago, I found Kendra on the streets and thought she was lost. That’s when I met you,” Iova explained.

Ah, it must had been that one time Kendra and I ‘resurrected’ Iova. Since she mentioned it, my curiosity was itching against my back.

“Can you remember what happened after that?” I asked while leaning forward.

“Whaaat? Why? I don’t even remember what I ate two nights ago, how would I remember what happened years ago?”

“Just try. Maybe we’ll find something funny about Kendra.”

When I mentioned Kendra, Iova’s eye sparkled, and she started being cooperative.

“Um, um. I was about to shout that there was a creeper, then you explained that you were her teacher or something? But, wait… Isn’t Master Yomi her teacher for much of her early years? Huh?”

“Who knows. Maybe you were just remembering it wrongly,” I replied with a shrug.

“Ye-... Yeah… Wait, but then why were you with Kendra at that time?” she asked.

“Maybe I’m just a figment of your imagination,” I snarked then leaned back on my bench.

Iova glared at me then sighed. “I think I’m getting a headache. I’ll just go look for Kendra instead.”

Just as Iova left, her counterpart arrived as if someone had to accompany me at all times or else I would disappear. It wasn’t like I would somehow end the world if I disappeared from everyone’s sight. I swear!

“Hey, Master. Have you seen Iova?” Kendra asked.

“She left just now. If you hurry up, you can catch up to her,” I answered.

“No thanks. I’m actually avoiding her. I just have to wait for the rest of the class to finish so I could go home,” Kendra sighed. “Wait… you’ll let us go home, right? Last time, you made us go through another round of training…”

“Huh, now that I thought about it, now would be a good time for training…”

“Curse The Abyss! I should’ve kept my mouth shut!” Kendra cried.

“Relax, I was joking. By the way, I talked to Iova and so far she’s not affected by the resurrection too much,” I said.

“Oh, really? I guess I could rest easy. The fact that I messed with the natural cycle of life and death is stressing me out,” Kendra groaned.

“Well, she has her memories somewhat jumbled…”

“WHAT? Is it serious?!” Kendra shouted then ran up to me.

I pushed her off easily thanks to her height, then assured, “Relax. It’s not too troublesome. Other than an insignificant portion of her memory, everything is all fine.”

“How can you be sure?!”

“I told you to relax. I’m an expert at this, remember? If I say it’s fine, then it’s fine.”

Kendra looked like she wanted to say something, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath instead. “Alright. I’ll trust you on this.”

“Enough about Iova, you’re finished with your examinations?” I asked.

“Of course. Why else would I be here?” Kendra said as she hopped onto the empty seat next to me.

“Excellent. As you know morale is needed to be maintained in order to motivate the students for the competition,” I said.

“Uh huh. And why are you telling me this?”

“I need you to make a speech to boost the morale of the students!” I declared with a fist pump.

“What? Why me? Couldn’t you do it yourself?” Kendra asked.

“No way. I’d rather have someone else do it. I mean-... it’s better if it’s a fellow student that makes the speech, right? Come on, it’ll be easy. You get a few days to prepare anyway,” I explained.

“I don’t want to-”

“I’ll give you bonus points.”

“I guess it can’t be helped, then! A speech, huh? When’s the deadline?” Kendra asked with enthusiasm.

“The delegation has to go back to the Coordinators, then give us the heads up if the student pass the examinations… which they should. So maybe a week?”

Kendra placed a finger against her lips as she thought about it. After a few seconds of thinking, she snapped her fingers and exclaimed, “No problem, Master! I’ll get on it!”

*

*

*

Although I, Yomi, couldn’t be with the students for much of the time, I still taught them when I could find the time to teach them. I didn’t know why, but whenever I substituted Senior because he had something to do, the students looked very relieved and were so absorbed in my class.

One time, a student begged me to take over the whole of Advanced Magic Class, but unfortunately, I only knew how to teach magical theory. Besides, it was the only part of Advanced Magic Class which Senior gave me the responsibility for!

Senior was very intent on teaching the students the ‘Old Sorcery Method’...

But still, it was nice being wanted by my students!

I excitedly walked towards the Advanced Magic classroom. It had been a week since the sorcerer delegation arrived, and they had finally sent me the confirmation that all of my lovely students are going to participate in the Interstate Academia Games.

On my way to the classroom, I found Senior sluggishly walking along the hallway.

“Goooood morning, Senior!” I greeted

“Gruh. Aren’t you a necromancer? Why are you so lively early in the morning?” Senior grumbled.

“Eh? Is it bad if I’m a morning person?” I asked.

“Never mind. Forget what I said,” Senior sighed.

“Is that so? Ah, by the way, have you picked a student to give the speech to the class? I know it was supposed to be my responsibility but ever since I got the necromancy tomes, I’ve been teaching more necromancy so…”

“It’s fine. I had Kendra to do it. In fact, she’ll make the speech after we announce that the students will be going to the competitions,” Senior assured.

“Really? Senior is very efficient! As expected of an Archlich!” I praised.

“Archlich. You know what? Forget it. Stop talking so loudly, there are students around and you’re basically a celebrity around here, so all their ears are pointed towards you,” Senior grumbled once more as we arrive to the classroom.

The students’ faces shone brightly when I entered the classroom first, but for some reason, a gloomy atmosphere immediately took over the moment Senior stepped in.

“Ahem. Um, er… Let’s see…” I stuttered when I arrived at the teacher’s desk. “C-Congratulations my students! You all have passed the examinations and the selection process, so tomorrow, you will be heading to the city which would be holding the games!”

The students simultaneously gulped but did not look relieved. I wonder why?

Senior stood up from his seat then added, “Yes, you all passed MY examinations as well. There will be no suicidal attack against the Demon Lord.”

The class erupted in cheers, but…

What did Senior mean by that?!

Once the class calmed down, I continued with my announcement, “As you know, Cahalot gives a speech to all the participants, but as we are the sole representatives of Cahalot, we’ll be giving the speech now. Wait, now, right?” I nervously turned to Senior and asked.

“Yes, now. Kendra, get up here,” Senior called out then sat on a chair to the side.

As Kendra stood up from her seat and walked up to the teacher’s desk, I sat down on the corner next to Inez.

Much like Kendra, I was eager to learn a lot about magic when I was younger, and I was even chosen to participate in the sorcery games many years ago. It brings me great joy that my students were all going to compete in the games! In fact, I was even the one that gave the speech to my class!

Now, it’s my successor’s turn to give a speech, and I was excited to hear what Kendra has to say.

Perhaps something about friendship? Enjoying youth?

Kendra stood straight behind the teacher’s desk, and faced the class. She coughed once, then gave a bright smile.

“My friends, it has been often said that I like sorcery,” Kendra started.

Ooooh! This is going to be great!

“My friends, I like sorcery.”

The lights in the classroom were snuffed out, and the window blinds were pulled down. The only source of light was from the fireball which Kendra made as her grin started to grow wicked.

“No… My friends, I love sorcery.

“I like earth spells. I like mana interference spells. I like arcane bombardment spells.

“From the air, from the ground, from the sea. Spells could come from every direction, and just one mistake could prove very fatal.

“I love every kind of sorcery this divine-forsaken world has to offer. I like it when I freeze the ground and watch as the opponent’s feet break off from frostbite. When the non-mages charge towards me, it always brings me great joy when I incinerate them while they couldn’t even lay a finger against me.

“When my enemy barely escaped from a wave of my arcane bombardment, I couldn’t help my chuckle at their naiveness as my second wave of arcane bombardment cuts them into tiny bits.

“When I was nearly frozen by an enemy mage, I could feel every beat of my heart, ever beating slowly until Death knocked against my own doors. Truly an exhilarating experience which I desire to have once more.

“My friends, I desire sorcery that is like hell.

“My friends, fellow sufferers and seekers of knowledge, what do you desire? Do you also wish to cast spells where no quarter is given? Do you desire magic that will test the limit of our sanity, our body, and our will?”

“Sorcery!”

“Sorcery!”

“Sorcery!”

The class erupted, cheering same word over and over again - ‘Sorcery’.

The small fireball on Kendra’s hand spread throughout her body, but it did not harm her at all. The fire turned bloody red then to white before extinguishing itself as Kendra grabbed the air as if she was choking someone.

“Very well. Let the world know of what it means to suffer through sorcery!”

Well, I...- I guess this is fine, too...