Knock!

Practically drowned in her thoughts, the one knock resulted from the wooden pointing stick tapped on her table snapped Aediva out of her distracted state. Her initial shock disappeared, replaced with slight confusion and shame when confronted by the one who snapped her senses back to reality.

It was by a well-dressed man of towering height - even taller than Blackhorns whom she thought as tall enough. His platinum blond hair sleek and neatly combed to the back. A man of enigmatic air and pleasant smell of expensive cologne radiates from his haute couture wear. Even with his dark sunglasses on, Aediva could feel his gaze on her.

“... Sorry” is all Aediva could say - feeling her chest a little constricted after thinking a bit too much.

“Ms. Aediva, am I right? You looked a bit pale from the start of the class. If you’re unwell, I’ll give you permission to go to the infirmary before class ends” the male teacher said as Aediva stared blankly at him before letting out a sigh.

“Alright” she said, standing up from her seat and gathering her stuff and a sleeping Cath to bring along. She left the classroom without any further thoughts, returning back to her pondering state of mind - completely unaware of the new substitute teacher’s concealed gaze towards her.

“Alright class, returning back to our lesson--”

A long sigh escaped Aediva’s lips as she walked down the hallway. However, where she headed to is not the infirmary but the potions lab instead. Well, there’s no harm with going elsewhere anyway. That substitute teacher gave permission for her to leave early and she’s not actually sick or anything like that. She was simply thinking to herself if anything.

The one potions lab is always empty since it’s the ones provided for students to practice their potions-making lesson. With a big yawn, Aediva open the door and to her surprise, the first one she see is not Zielle but her male counterpart, Zayen. The female youth blinked and tilted her head.

“Well well, this is a surprise. Never thought you’d join in this operation” Aediva said with the usual grin on her face - noticing the twitching of Zayen’s eyebrow.

“Do you actually have the awareness of whatever you’re doing is--”

“Of course, I do” Aediva cut off Zayen before he could even finished what he is going to say.

“And honestly, I wouldn’t blame Zielle walking away from here either. Convince her not me, Yen.”

Truthfully, that day is not the day he gets to finish a lot of his sentences. Zayen frowned at Aediva, whose smile disappeared almost quickly.

“And you could bring her away from me right now, if you so wish. I won’t stop you” Aediva said with a monotonous voice. Zayen only stared at Aediva - not particularly sure what to reply to her indifference to his presence in the lab. She walked past him and to the table far back, wasting no time to set up the cauldron and the Bunsen burner underneath the black small cauldron. Her fingers busy prepping the tools necessary, the edge of her vision, she saw Zayen leaving the lab.

Aediva sighed.

“We won’t have much ingredients for any more trials…” she murmured, pinching the bridge of her nose before leaning back against the counter behind her.

“Even if someone suddenly revealed stuff to me, it doesn’t mean I can solve everything for them. Goodness gracious, these people are such demanding little shits” Aediva said.

“Because of some phylactery those group of people flooded the unused part of the castle… If they’re gathering that much magical energy than it’ll be more than just some grand performance… Are they creating something? And the people I saw inside those tube tanks… Think, Aediva. What requires that much mana to make?” Aediva mumbled to herself but after some time, going as far as racking her brain for everything she had read thus far, she came up empty. As expected, just some box hanzel mentioned won’t be enough to spark anything.

“Dammit, I should inspect that picture more last night. Ugh… And I don’t even have those flat box thingy…” Aediva sighed.

“It’s actually called a smartphone. It doesn’t just contain pictures, little one”

Aediva nods.

“Hm hm. So it’s called a smartphone. Well whatever it is, that picture last night, Zielle had it and Yen probably stopped her from joining me this evening…… hm?” Aediva’s words trailed silent as she blinked. She recalled right, she remembered the lab was not as dim as it is now…

She looked to the side where the male voice came from and her heart jumped through the roof when seeing the substitute teacher from earlier at her side, rubbing his chin as he leaned against the long counter completely laxed beside her.

“?!!”

The giant turned his head around and he smiled. Despite the sunglasses that obscured his eyes, his good looks are still clearly seen and enhanced by that charming cheerful smile of his face.

“I recalled giving you permission to leave early to go to the infirmary and yet you went here instead. I’m honestly disappointed, Ms. Aediva,” the male teacher said as Aediva turned speechless. For the first time since she woke up in that tower, she felt her heart racing so fast from nervousness. All this time, she never felt like she was ever caught doing something wrong and at that moment, she knew the feeling as something she would feel when caught red-handed by someone with a position of power. But wait, why is this so terrifying?!

“P-professor…” and great, she even forgot his name.

“I believe I’ve introduced myself at the start of the class but now I know you didn’t really think it’s important” the giant teased Aediva who immediately turned beet red.

“I-I-I-I cAN eXplaiN!” her voice shakily exclaimed as she sweats bullets.

“Mhm. Now what exactly are you doing here? I sensed that you have plenty of magic stones in your pockets. What you’re lacking now is ingredients. Do tell me young lady, what are you planning to do?” the man asked, the teasing lilt in his voice remained.

“Potion practice!” Aediva half-lied. It is true she’s making potions after all. She’s not lying. She’s not deliberately doing anything dangerous.

Even if the resulting potions ended up being explosives.

“Hm. Of course, a popular choice for lying students who wanted to make dangerous potions” the professor quipped. Aediva clamped her mouth shut as her cheeks turned red.

Oh, she is bad at lying if it’s something she had to do on the fly. But wait, if she just says she wanted to make mana potions- No no no, that’s a bad move. This guy might be aware of the mana disparity in Efren Dorm so he would know that she’s preparing things relating to going to that place.

Aediva felt herself shrinking under the gaze of the male teacher whose name she cannot remember for the sake of her life. He remained silent as she remained equally silent and looked at the setup she had done earlier. He walks away and Aediva scoots off as his back turns on her.

“Ms. Aediva.”

Damn it, he caught her.

He probably noticed her trying to leave when he called for her. While in her heart, she was begging for him to leave her alone.

“Y-yes, Professor?” Aediva replied.

“If you need guidance to create potions, I can help you” that man said as Aediva looked at him dumbfounded.

“Excuse me? But uh… Aren’t you… Uh… A history teacher?” Aediva said, her eyes looking everywhere but him. A chuckle escaped from the professor’s lips and he sighed right after with a shrug.

“I am. But I also teach a lot of other subjects. Since a lot of teachers suddenly turned in their sick leave and some even skipped going to the academy for some reason, I’ve been piled with substitute classes I have to attend” he complained and for some reason, Aediva felt like this is definitely not something an academy professor should say to a student. Is this a blatant sign that this guy is opening up to her or something? Nah, something’s fishy and Aediva is not about to drop her guard around this goofy-looking man.

Yes, even with that fancy suit and that really pleasant-smelling cologne. That dark sunglasses are really making him suspicious as hell.

She stared at him, squinting her eyes at him.

This guy knows something about what she’s doing but it is true that both Zielle and her had a hard time trying to complete a damn potion. So far the only things they made were only miscellaneous potions that did nothing for them. Well, except for that explosive potion…

She didn’t realize the little impish smile tugging at her lips when remembering the effect of that small vial of explosive unstable compound. That was fun, she thought idly at the memories of last night but she instantly snapped out of it when seeing that male teacher was bending down to look at her eye to eye (even if she couldn’t see his eyes).

Aediva fidget as she stared at the professor - unyielding eye contact like she was facing a dangerous animal that could pounce on her. She truly cannot ignore that one feeling that he is a threatening existence. Not in a way that he’s a bad guy or something but just… Like if she has a parent, he would be the perfect one to fill in that role.

“Ugh…” Aediva groaned silently.

“Oh? Professor Luzeheart!” Zielle’s voice broke the silence, attracting the attention of the one female student in the room. The green-haired girl skipped into the room with a cheerful smile with a gloomy Zayen strutting along after her.

“Ah, you’re here early, Aediva! I brought the ingredients! Ah~ But we don’t have a lot of them left isn’t it?” Zielle asked Aediva who was frowning at the girl who had just joined her at the lab.

“Ah… Zielle. It’s been quite some time since I last saw you” the professor said. Zielle giggled.

“I heard you’re now a lecturer in the academy, Lord Luzeheart! Oops, I mean, Professor Luzeheart” Zielle said, placing the bag of ingredients she had taken from he lockers beforehand.

“As energetic as always, Zielle. And Zayen? You looked like you’re having some serious stomach ache” hearing the comment about the way he looked, Zayen straightened up with an enduring look on his face.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Lord Luzeheart...” Zayen greeted as that man who was called Luzeheart chuckled. At the side, Aediva only watched at the group of three, that feeling of suspicions lingering around in her chest. Just what’s exactly up with that guy? Honestly speaking, she’d rather not have any adults knowing anything they’re doing so seeing Zielle just carelessly telling her about the ingredients with her make Aediva’s mood turn foul.

“Oh yeah, Aediva! It seems like our ingredients are running out fast. Hm… If possible, I really don’t want to go and return to take more from where we harvested these… Although it’s really is the only place we could find the best substitute for the mana potions…” Zielle said, immediately noticing Aediva’s scowl the moment she mentioned mana potion.

“E-eh?! I’m not supposed to say anything about that?!” Zielle said, instantly realizing her mistake when looking at Aediva’s reaction. Zayen scoffed.

“You’re being rude, woman! You’d at least admit that you need the help of someone better than just some students!” he said as the professor beside him hummed, as if amused.

“My my, mana potion? Something so expensive yet redundant? Surely, I can’t exactly think of why a group of first-years need it in the first place” the platinum blond-haired hair chuckled, having found out the thing that Aediva wanted to hide from him. He looked at the silver-eyed female student who looked absolutely displeased with the turn of events - aware that she truly wanted him gone from there. Unfortunately for her, he was not planning to do so. At least not readily so.

“So then, it seems like all you have is a bunch of already dried herbs and unrefined magic stones. Perhaps enlightened me of your past workings. I may be a great teacher but I’m not exactly omniscient with how you operate things.”

Zielle nodded and rummaged her bag for the notebook she always kept with her. Willingly, she gave the book to the lecturer at the page where she had been keeping track of the calculations for the potions and the male teacher’s inspection on her book was brief. The guy with sunglasses looked at Zielle.

“The calculations here are not the original ones isn’t it?” he asked, startling Zielle who looked at him wide-eyed.

“Uh… Well, it’s in Aediva’s book but…” she faltered.

“Let me see” with that one firm-toned sentence, Zielle gave up the other notebook in her bag that originally belonged to Aediva - sweating bullets herself when sensing Aediva’s glare burning holes at her back. But the male in front of her held more authority than Aediva for sure.

Cypher Lleurutte Luzeheart, after all is no ordinary person. In the Valleys of Dragons, he is none other than one of its most prominent ministers and someone who holds the aristocratic position of Grand Duke. A man who holds billions-worth of assets from his multinational company that delved in so many other fields in the corporate world.

It does feel bad that she’s actually making Aediva upset by roping the billionaire teacher, Cypher into one of her operations though. Zielle wouldn’t drag any stranger adults into their covert operation but she knows that Cypher is a trustworthy man.

Zielle looked up at the man who easily had went past 2 metres tall and noticed something odd. That handsome man is placing his one hand on his mouth while his body trembling. At first glance, she knew his exact thoughts on what he’s seeing. Zielle glanced at Aediva who is visibly livid at far side of the table where both her and Zayen stayed with Cypher.

Then, the adult male burst into a jolly laugh - much to Aediva’s chagrin.

“Hahahahahaha!!! My goodness, this is possibly the worst handwriting I’ve ever witnessed! Huh… In any case, very well. I’ve gotten the picture of what you kids are trying to do. Right, let’s start working on the inventory check first before we proceed with the calculations” Cypher said, remaining laughter still heard as he finished talking. He saw Aediva as she stood at her place with a displeased look on her face.

“I apologize if I offended you, little one” Cypher said, reaching out to pat Aediva on the head, only to have Aediva swat away hand to the man’s surprise. She walked away, feeling conflicted and upset. Whatever, in the end, she must finish that damn potion that day - even if she had to break the rules and stay in the lab.