The shield dissipated.
A small, delicate figure stood serenely atop the mud, his gaze fixed on the young women embracing each other ahead. Upon closer inspection, a thin layer of dark light enveloped his feet, isolating him from the mire. At that moment, he appeared to be entirely suspended above the mud.
“So that’s how it is?” Aya Tone murmured to himself, stroking his chin.
Though he might have claimed it was unbearable to watch, Lin Ling and the others were, after all, his responsibility. Moreover, as their teacher, wasn’t it only natural to protect his students? Who among them hadn’t experienced a period of weakness?
Compared to the utterly insignificant ‘lumps’ he’d been forced to swallow (he gritted his teeth), he had also witnessed precisely what he sought: the power of their bond.
He had always maintained that magical girls should harness the power of the heart. And just like that!
When the two encountered danger, Lin Ling, without any prior instruction, instinctively used magic without relying on a weapon. Yet, the trio’s combat was truly a disaster. Despite being capable of ranged, stationary offense, they insisted on mimicking close-combat mages. He wondered which ‘brilliant’ mind had taught them such a strategy.
Clutching his aching stomach, Aya Tone decided, ‘This won’t do. For the final dungeon, I’ll simply bestow them with defensive magic and let them venture in alone.’ Watching too much of this, he feared he might suffer a cerebral hemorrhage and perish prematurely. It truly was no exaggeration to say that teachers lost years off their lives.
****
“Are you seriously messing with me?”
Before the fading teleportation array, Aya Tone tilted his head, his brows furrowed as he opened his mouth, on the verge of speaking, then hesitated. In the end, he couldn’t hold back his exasperation.
In the previous two dungeons, with him trailing behind, their performance had been abysmal, worse than a stray dog on the roadside. Now, with him not even entering, they claimed to have cleared the dungeon in less than ten minutes?
The defensive magic he had cast upon them was designed to trigger only in moments of danger, yet from the moment they entered to their return, there had been no sign of it activating. If this wasn’t an obvious act, what was it?
“Please don’t be angry, they are still just students,” the warrior guarding the dungeon said, quickly trying to soothe him. Though they didn’t understand what had transpired, the three girls lacked adventurer certifications and, judging by their age, were merely university students. They held a lenient attitude towards these ‘flowers of the nation.’
“What’s wrong with being a student?! Is being a student so grand?! It’s as if I’m not still a baby myself!” Aya Tone was genuinely furious, angrier than when his boss cheated him out of wages, delaying payment indefinitely. What he detested most were ‘actors’ and ‘slackers’ – those who sabotaged a winning game in seconds, playing mind games!
“Uh…” The warrior, who had initially intended to offer a few words of comfort, glanced at the fuming Aya Tone. It seemed that, compared to those three young girls, this ‘general’ was even more childish… Besides, he was educating his students… ‘Forget it,’ the warrior thought, ‘better not to take sides.’
All the soldiers exchanged glances, seeing the same helpless resignation in each other’s eyes. They quietly withdrew from this ‘battlefield without smoke,’ resuming their cleanup duties. In an instant, only the four of them remained before the teleportation array.
Lin Ling and the others, chastised, dared not speak. Their heads hung low, the joy on their faces completely dispelled. They, too, were keenly aware of how poorly they had performed in the first two dungeons. Their teacher’s anger was not entirely incomprehensible.
With no one else nearby to intercede, the pent-up fury in Aya Tone’s stomach could no longer be contained. He launched into a tirade, dredging up past grievances against the three girls.
“Don’t tell me you’re new students, that your abilities only just awakened! Don’t you even look at the opponents I found for you?”
“E-rank! While I don’t know your ability evaluations upon awakening, anyone recruited by Dragon Court Academy wouldn’t have a low rank. Yet you all… in front of me, you’re as useless as a stir-fry master, and now what’s this? Pretending to be weak?”
“Huh? Speak up!”
As he spoke, Aya Tone felt his own eloquence severely degraded by their antics. That warrior was right; they were still just students, so he was already being incredibly diplomatic. He was practically on the verge of pointing at them and asking, ‘Are you even human?’ If he could, he would unleash a torrent of expletives, four sensitive words in every three sentences. He was finally experiencing the plight of teachers from his own youth. Having to scold while constantly monitoring his words, unable to speak his mind freely – it was truly exhausting.
“…”
“Teacher, we truly weren’t pretending…”
“Mm-hmm, keep going. I’m not listening.”
“We… we really weren’t…” Tears shimmered in the girls’ eyes, holding an unspoken litany of grievances, as if ready to spill forth at any moment. They had realized their excessive reliance on their teacher, and throughout the journey, all three had maintained utmost caution. In the end, without their teacher’s accompaniment, they had successfully cleared a dungeon. They had intended to share the joy of their success with him upon returning, never expecting to be so gravely misunderstood.
The tears of injustice finally broke through the confines of their eyes, streaming down their faces. Though Aya Tone remained unmoved by the girls’ tear-streaked faces, resembling pear blossoms after a spring rain, the anger in his heart quietly extinguished with each soft sob.
Ultimately, he simply disliked being deceived, being played for a fool.
“…”
After a long while, the crying slowly subsided into soft whimpers. Glistening tears clung to the girls’ long, delicate eyelashes, and the redness around their eyes at that moment revealed their vulnerability completely. Anyone else would have longed to embrace them and offer comfort.
But alas, Aya Tone’s ‘little brother’ was currently in a runaway state, unable to influence his brain’s judgment.
“Done crying? If so, let’s continue.”
At his words, the girls pouted, glaring indignantly at their tactless, childlike teacher. They bit their lips, stubbornly refusing to let any more glistening tears fall. Ye Liu wiped away her tears with a swift motion, gazing defiantly at Aya Tone. Though she usually appeared gentle, she was the most stubborn of the three.
“Teacher, we know we disappointed you at first, but we never intended to hold back! We were able to resolve the battle so quickly this time precisely because of the experience we gained from the first two times you led us into combat!”
Ye Liu’s final, hysterical outburst, a roar of frustration, pierced Aya Tone’s heart.
“That’s right!” Lin Ling and Liu Fei echoed in unison. They had never intended to, nor had they done so, yet why was their teacher blaming them like this? They refused to accept it!
“…” Aya Tone remained silent, looking up calmly, his expression serene. Yet, within his heart, chaos had erupted.
‘Oh no, oh no. Looking at their expressions, could I have actually made a mistake…? Should I apologize…?’
This thought had barely surfaced before he forcefully suppressed it. ‘No! They were the ones who made me swallow those two huge lumps first; I can’t let them get too arrogant! I need to act like an anime villain and give them a good ‘beating’!’
And so!
He stepped forward with an exaggerated, theatrical gait, a wild grin spreading across his lips. Yet, such an obnoxious expression, plastered onto his youthful face, appeared exceptionally awkward. It felt more like he was forcing an emotion he wasn’t adept at portraying. This unintentional display caused the girls’ furrowed brows to slowly relax.
The next second, as if remembering they were in a tense moment of confrontation, he abruptly concealed his smile, his face tightening into a stern expression.
Man, he’s bad at rhis.