Chapter 63: The Light of the Second Semester

“Long time no see, everyone. Since I don’t see any unfamiliar faces, I assume you all had a good vacation.”

It was the first homeroom of the second semester. The homeroom teacher, who they hadn’t seen in months, glanced over the students sitting in the classroom and spoke.

“Well, if any of you are struggling and need counseling, feel free to come see me anytime. Since it’s the first day, let me give a brief overview of what to expect in the second semester.”

Holding a pen, Ferrent continued as he wrote something on the board.

“From the second semester onward, a lot of things will change. One of the biggest changes is the exchange programs with other departments.”

“Does that mean we can take classes with the saintess?”

A male student raised his hand to ask, and the surrounding female students began whispering.

“No! I’m just curious, okay? Is that weird?”

Unfortunately for him, no one here was willing to support him.

Of course, the other male students, unlike the girls, weren’t criticizing him. They were instead looking toward Ferrent, hoping for an answer, but none of them had enough solidarity to openly back him up and risk becoming enemies with the girls.

In fact, they were probably happy to have learned something they were curious about at his expense.

How do I know that?

Well, I’m curious too.

“Haha! Bad news for the boys. The theology department is very closed off, so there will be no exchange classes. And the saintess is a second-year student, so even if there were exchange classes, she wouldn’t be with you. So, the departments you need to focus on are the Magic Department and the Administration Department.”

Ferrent wrote “Magic Department” on the board and emphasized it by tapping the pen on it multiple times.

“Especially the Magic Department students! Sorcerers have many odd personalities, so you need to be careful. Back in my day, a student from the Magic Department put a curse on a student from the Knight Department, causing everything he ate to taste bitter.”

Hmm… thanks to that, I lost about 10 kg.

Ferrent nodded to himself as he recalled something, speaking as though it was someone else’s story. It was so absurd that no one dared to point it out.

“But don’t be too disappointed! As you all know, the biggest event of the second semester is coming up.”

Next to “Magic Department,” he wrote “Heavenly Festival” in even bigger letters.

“Right. Once a year, on the day of the Heavenly Festival, our saintess will offer prayers to the Goddess. You’ll be able to see her face from a distance, though, since you’ll be crowded out. Still, at least you’ll get a glimpse of her.”

The Heavenly Festival could be considered a type of festival.

To be precise, it’s just one of many events where prayers are offered to the Goddess, but it’s the largest in scale, so it also functions as a celebration.

The week-long festival that culminates on the last day is the biggest event at Griffin Academy.

Since it’s the most anticipated event for students who love to have fun, the festival aspect has naturally become more dominant, but the core—offering prayers to the Goddess—remains unchanged.

As I’ve mentioned before, the saintess of the current Griffin Academy is enrolled at the school.

Since she rarely leaves the temple, almost no one has seen her face directly, but on the day of the Heavenly Festival, it’s possible to catch a glimpse of her.

If the saintess weren’t here, the head of the Theology Department, an old man, would have been the one offering the prayer…

I should be grateful that I get to attend the academy at the same time as the saintess.

“By the way, Celie, have you ever met the saintess?”

After all, isn’t the combination of a hero and a saintess inseparable?

Therefore, although Celian is still a ‘candidate’ for the hero, he is essentially no different from the hero itself, so I decided to ask him a question.

“Of course, you’ve met her, but you’ve never walked around together, right?”

Isn’t it normal to say the opposite in this kind of situation?

I had expected one thing from the first part of the conversation, but my expectations were crushed when it turned out differently. Truly, Celian is as good at wordplay as he is with swordsmanship.

“Is that so? Well, once Celian is chosen by the holy sword and the Goddess and officially becomes the hero, all this will be irrelevant.”

By then, I might be able to get a signed autograph from the saintess with Celian’s connections. I’ll look forward to that.

After that, there wasn’t much more to say.

Other than giving a brief overview of a few major events happening in the second semester, the only thing to pay attention to in terms of classes was the exchange program mentioned earlier.

Then, the classes started on the first day.

“During the first semester, you probably just learned the theory, but from the second semester onward, you’ll be able to manifest basic magic. It’s good to learn basic magic because it will be useful in many ways.”

Beyond the lectern, a new professor from the Magic Department entered the classroom.

Actually, it’s not that I’ve never seen the professor before; it’s just that the person lecturing at the front is not someone I’ve seen recently.

That’s because the professor is our boss.

I had heard that she had a position as a professor without actually teaching for various reasons, so it was a bit of a surprise when Presia came to teach.

When I met Presia before, I hadn’t heard of this at all, so it was a bit startling but also pleasant to see her here in the classroom.

Watching her teach at the lectern made me realize again that Presia is a professor in the Magic Department.

“One of the most basic magics, Light, can be manifested with a magic circle like this…”

Presia began drawing the magic circle for Light on the board with a pen.

However, since Ferrent had adjusted the height of the board to fit his own height during the homeroom session earlier, Presia had limited space to draw the magic circle.

She tried to draw it as briefly as possible by stretching her hand high up, but because of the height difference, it seemed difficult for her to do so.

She could lower the board by using the adjustment tool next to her, but Presia, unfamiliar with the classroom, seemed unaware that such an adjustment tool existed.

Of course, one of the students could have told her, but everyone, as if in agreement, remained silent.

Watching Presia hop around in front of the board trying to complete the magic circle was so cute.

In the end, it seemed like she gave up drawing the magic circle with the pen and instead used her magic power to draw the circle in the air, projecting it onto the board.

It might have been a waste of magic power, but for Presia, who had overflowing talent, it probably wasn’t much of a problem.

“Okay. Now, everyone, draw the magic circle in your magic notebooks and try injecting mana into it. If it’s not working or seems strange, speak up immediately.”

The students alternated between looking at the board and their notebooks, diligently trying to replicate the magic circle.

I followed along as well, but since I wasn’t familiar with magic, I struggled to follow the Light magic circle, which was supposed to be simple, and kept checking the board.

I glanced sideways at Celian, and she, already accustomed to such magic circles, finished it quickly with a bored expression and created the light.

Not wanting to lose, I worked hard to finish the magic circle from the board and then tried injecting mana.

However, instead of a ball of light appearing, only a small puff of smoke rose with a popping sound.

I tried to carefully compare the magic circle drawn on the board with the one in my notebook, but I couldn’t find any difference.

I wondered if I had done something wrong when injecting mana, so I checked again, but still, all that appeared was smoke.

While I was deep in thought, Celian, who had already successfully manifested the light, approached me and spoke.

“I’ll help you.”

I guess he felt sorry for me, stuck on such a simple magic.

Following Celian’s suggestion, I looked closely at the magic circle, and indeed, I started noticing slight differences between the one on the board and mine.

“Here, the line goes outward…”

“Talking during class is prohibited.”

While Celian was explaining the issues with my magic circle, Presia approached us and issued a warning.

“I was just helping my friend who was struggling.”

“That’s the professor’s role. I’ll handle it.”

It seemed like Presia, having some connection with Celian, wanted to take care of me since I was struggling with the lesson content.

“No, it’s just a simple issue, so the professor doesn’t need to worry about it.”

“No. Even if it’s simple, if a student doesn’t know, I can’t just ignore it as a professor. I’ll teach Elisia.”

“Really, you don’t have to…”

“As your professor, I…”

Is it an overestimation of my self-awareness to think that they’re both arguing to teach me?

More than that, seeing the eyes of those around us turning toward us, I felt my face turning red. I really hoped they’d stop.

“Professor! I don’t understand this part.”

Amidst that, one of the students in the front row raised their hand to ask a question.

And with that, I heard Celian’s quiet laugh.

“You said you couldn’t ignore a student who didn’t understand, right? It looks like they’re calling for the professor?”

“…”

Why Celian was grinning triumphantly and Presia was scowling in frustration, I decided to keep ignoring.

After all, knowing the reason probably wouldn’t help my mental health.

“Alright then, I’ll finish teaching in place of the professor.”

Since this was Presia’s first class, I was a little worried as her disciple and assistant, but fortunately, it seemed that Presia was quite popular among the students.

The fact that they didn’t mind even the casual way she spoke to them, which was unusual given their younger age, was probably because of her appearance, which made it seem cute.

After all the classes, including the basic magic session, ended, Presia, for some reason, seemed even more enthusiastic than usual and continued to teach her celestial magic.