Chapter 12
Come to think of it, something had seemed off from the start.
The professor was a genius favored by the Primordial Dragon himself.
Someone like that wouldn't drag students all the way up here on a mere whim without any purpose.
Everyone was just too exhausted from the grueling hike to think clearly. With a calm mind, it was easy to predict that something special must be hidden in this location.
"I never imagined it would be a Great Spirit Vein though."
One student muttered while breaking out in a cold sweat.
Judging by his expression, he still couldn't quite believe the current situation. But that wasn't something unique to just that young man.
Karen included, every single student was utterly shocked by this sudden development.
'Why on earth would something like this be here?'
Their reaction was understandable - after all, this was a Great Spirit Vein.
The source of mana in the natural world.
A nexus where all magical energy converges.
A sacred ground blessed by the Heavenly God himself.
As far as Karen knew, this was the fifth Great Spirit Vein discovered in the Empire. Moreover, judging by the sheer volume of energy flowing here, it was on an entirely different scale compared to the previously discovered ones.
Simply channeling the energy here would cause one's magical power to increase explosively. Training magic in this location would improve efficiency by at least three orders of magnitude - that wasn't an exaggeration.
They had been given the location of such a place.
While that was certainly something to be grateful for, Karen couldn't understand Professor Ryan's intentions in doing this at all.
'Though it's not like a Great Spirit Vein gets depleted from use.'
Human nature is to want to monopolize good things for oneself.
Even if there's enough benefit for everyone to share, how many people would actually be willing to share it?
Yet that professor had casually revealed this location to everyone. His actions left all the students gathered here confused.
"Maybe... he's proposing some kind of deal? The Imperial Family would definitely seize this if they found out. Perhaps he wants to use our families' influence to privately control this place in secret."
His commoner status.
Due to his lack of power, he might fear losing the Great Spirit Vein he discovered to the Imperial Family. So he needed backing.
One student put forth that theory.
While it was certainly plausible...
"If he was worried about the Imperial Family taking it, couldn't he just use it secretly by himself? That would be safer, wouldn't it?"
Things still didn't add up. After all, no one would normally venture out to such a remote location.
Simply using it quietly by himself would prevent the Great Spirit Vein from being discovered. If anything, involving others would increase the risk of information leaking out.
There's no way the professor wouldn't understand such a simple fact.
The situation plunged back into mystery. An unsolvable puzzle. Only silence hung among the students.
"M-maybe it was all just a coincidence? The professor was just climbing the mountain without any particular thoughts, and happened to arrive at a place where a Great Spirit Vein was flowing!"
Perhaps unable to bear the silence any longer?
A gloomy-looking female student put forth that hypothesis, but was met with only contemptuous looks.
A theory that made one question the speaker's intellectual capacity.
Even a five-year-old child could come up with a more plausible hypothesis than that.
While everyone kept quiet out of consideration for the dark-haired girl's dignity, they were all internally sighing 'How could such a dimwit be a student at the Imperial Academy like me?'
"I'm actually pretty good at sensing these things. I'm sure the professor didn't even know there was a Great Spirit Vein here..."
"Mmph!" The girl's words were cut off mid-sentence.
A friend beside her had covered her mouth, begging her to say something that made sense.
While she might lack intelligence, at least she seemed blessed with good friends.
Karen quickly checked the name tag of the lacking student.
'Cassandra Mayril.'
The Mayril family was a prestigious lineage known for producing famous prophets and witches throughout generations. It seemed this generation might spell the end of the family line.
A person who had mastered the difficult spatial magic.
A genius professor who had single-handedly seen through and perfectly thwarted the plans of a spy who had infiltrated the Academy.
There had to be a limit to nonsense, didn't there?
It was so pathetic it almost inspired pity.
"It seems continuing this discussion won't get us anywhere."
Karen spoke up, cleanly dismissing Cassandra's statement as if it never happened. Naturally, everyone's attention turned to her, but she didn't mind.
She had stepped forward prepared to take the lead anyway.
"We should just ask the person in question directly. Everyone wait here. I'll go find out myself."
The hot topic new professor whose reputation was on the rise.
To meet with such a person one-on-one and probe their true intentions.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't nervous, but hadn't she enrolled in this class specifically to learn more about Ryan? There was no reason to hesitate.
Karen took a deep breath and strode forward confidently.
*****
After deciding to make this the worst lecture in Imperial history and drive student morale into the abyss, I had contemplated two possible approaches.
One was the path of negligent duties deserving rebuke.
A plan to draw criticism by collecting professor's wages regularly while making students self-study instead of actually teaching.
The other was the path of becoming hated by students.
This plan involved deliberately doing things students would hate to make lots of enemies and get fired.
Which of the two should I choose?
After much contemplation, I eventually thought.
Why choose just one?
'That's how this perfect plan came to be.'
The traumatic experience of being forced to go hiking on holidays proved extremely helpful this time.
When there were piles of new games I wanted to play, I knew better than anyone the agony of having to climb mountains while sweating buckets with a bunch of old men.
So I made the students climb the mountain.
I deliberately chose an absolutely brutal route, and ordered everyone except myself not to use magic, making them suffer.
Nothing is more horrible than forced hiking.
Add to that the deflating realization that after all that effort climbing up here, all they get to do is self-study?
Even Buddha would curse at that.
And I even threw in that awful Korean saying about "hardship in youth being worth buying" - surely those kids must see me as their mortal enemy now.
-CRASH!
A thunderous sound from afar.
A massive tree falls, pierced by spears of ice.
The scale of their venting proved how far student morale had plummeted. This was practically a guaranteed victory.
That's what I thought as I smiled, but somehow the situation was turning out even more favorable than expected.
Footsteps approaching through the undergrowth.
They must have been absolutely furious. Not satisfied with just felling an innocent tree earlier, one female student had volunteered to come confront me directly.
"What business do you have? I believe I told everyone to self-study."
Holding back a smile that threatened to escape, I spoke in the most unpleasant tone possible. The blonde girl hesitated momentarily upon hearing my words, as if intimidated.
Sure enough.
What came from her lips was exactly the question I had expected.
"...Professor Ryan, I would like to know your true intentions in bringing us here."
After treating them so terribly - even I wouldn't accept the explanation that I just wanted them to self-study in a place with good air quality after all that suffering.
They must all be running on hopium.
Surely this must be some kind of prank. There must be some hidden intention behind my actions.
But unfortunately for them.
I had no intention other than to shatter those hopes.
"You came all this way just to ask something like that?"
I looked at her with eyes full of contempt.
After meticulously stacking up traits to make myself unlikeable, I delivered the finishing blow that would send my reputation plummeting to rock bottom.
Why did we go hiking?
Why are you tormenting us like this?
The answer to those questions was obvious.
"It's because you are my students."
There was no particular reason. You're suffering like this purely because you chose the wrong professor.
Blame yourself for choosing to become my student.
The girl's eyes trembled at such an unreasonable statement. She clearly couldn't believe what I was saying.
"J-just for that reason...?"
But I simply asked with a puzzled expression, as if I couldn't understand her reaction at all.
"You are my students, so I brought you here. What other reason would be needed?"
A declaration of purposeless torment.
Tears rolled down the girl's cheeks.
She collapsed helplessly to the ground.
I watched with an evil smile.
This was the moment the worst professor in Imperial history was born.