<743 – Unbeknownst to Anyone (1)>
If it seems like the academy professors are dedicated to tormenting students 365 days a year, you saw right!
Year two of Professor Dihtart from the Empire Faction really looked like that!
“Nongnongnon Senior! What should I do if the kids keep chatting even after the lecture has started?”
This was just last year.
Feeling underestimated by the students in his third-year class and seeing no sign of a studious atmosphere, Dihtart sought help from his senior professor.
Professor Nongnongnon had a piercing gaze that said, “Are you even a professor?”
“Starve them.”
“Excuse me?!”
“It means they have excess energy to chat.”
“But according to the rules, students can’t go without food for eight hours under any circumstances. It’s impossible to starve them for long periods outside of meal times!”
“That eight hours is in Middle Realm standard time.”
Dihtart’s lecture was [Banging Adventures in Another World].
It was a class where kids could be dipped in another world and pulled out.
Spirit Realm.
God Realm.
Unlike dimensions where various attributes and divine powers reign, the Empire referred to the dimensions where a dominant subspecies ruled, which fell outside any major league.
Such dimensions had vastly different time ratios when crossing between the realms, depending on the distance from the Middle Realm.
Some would return after just a minute, only for a month to have passed in the Middle Realm, while others could explore for a year but only a minute would have gone by.
“What a great idea! Thank you! Professor Nongnongnon, expert in [Slave Economy], truly is a master of peasant hunting and a powerhouse of the emerging nobility!”
Having received senior advice, Professor Dihtart took the students to the dimension known as [Goblin World], where one year would pass as just a minute.
“In one year, if your study attitudes improve, I will open the door again.”
“Wha, what the?!”
“This is another world!”
“I’m sorry, Professor! I won’t chat anymore!”
“Please don’t leave us behind!”
“What about food? How do we get food?!”
“Damn it, Professor!! What’s so wrong about being chatty?!”
“Someone shut this crazy guy’s mouth!!”
Leaving behind the desperately wailing students, Professor Dihtart pulled out a coffee cup and a kettle from his portable coffee pouch.
Shwoop!
He filled the cup with water, added coffee grounds, and stirred slowly with a spoon.
As the rich aroma rose, a smile crept on his face.
One sip.
The bitter taste of coffee eased his educator’s worries.
Tick-tock…
‘Looks like it’s about time.’
As he opened the sealed dimensional gate and returned, a massive boulder thrown by an Ancient Giant Race Titan struck the rocky fortress, causing both the magic circle and protective facilities to explode.
“Ahhh! The purification chamber has exploded!”
“Crazy! Are we really supposed to use unrefined corrupted mana from the goblins?!”
“No… if this continues, we’ll fall under the mana of Goblin Lord and become subspecies!”
On the ground, the countless goblin armies stretched to the horizon, while the massive subspecies under their control launched powerful assaults like siege weapons against the students’ fortress.
“Arrows! We’re out of arrows!!”
“Stop complaining about luxury when there’s nothing but rocks around!!”
“Calling Rain!”
“Electric Field!!”
“No… my mana has already been dominated… now my attacks won’t damage the goblins!”
The students, seeing their means of resistance crumbling, let out a cacophony identical to just a minute ago.
Clap!
Dihtart clapped his hands, reversing all attacks on the battlefield with a massive mana wave.
The students all turned their eyes towards Dihtart.
Anger. Hatred.
Regret. Sadness.
Joy. Pleading.
He savored the emotional panorama unfolding before him and asked,
“Are you all ready to quietly listen to the lecture now?”
“Yes!!!”
“Please, please let us go back to the classroom…”
“I’m dying to hear the lecture, Professor!!”
“I won’t talk during the lecture again!!!”
Seeing the orderly eagerness for learning and respectful gazes towards him, Dihtart’s heart finally softened a bit.
“I cannot know whether your apologies are sincere. You might reflect now, but no one knows how you’ll change by the next lecture time. However, I believe at least for today’s lecture, we can listen quietly. Now, let’s begin.”
As Dihtart clapped again, the crazed eyes of the large monsters mixed among the goblins regained their madness.
“This dimension has many realms dominated by non-human beings. They construct their kingdoms in ways that humans and monsters from the Middle Realm can’t even imagine. If you don’t familiarize yourself with the proper strategies, overcoming that danger will be extremely difficult. Conversely, learning those strategies makes it easy.”
The students gazed in despair as the enemies they had been fighting scattered in panic due to a giant rebellion.
The violence of the small fry was no different from the training ground’s dummies crumbling under the chaos of the powerful large races.
“Many methods exist for learning strategies. You could crudely push your body into the fray, painfully send minions to explore designated dimensions, or smartly attract entities from that dimension to the Middle Realm, capturing them to imprison in the lab.”
“…”
“By the way, the original way you were meant to learn was through painful experiences, not crude methods. The intelligent strategy is reserved strictly for teaching assistants. If you’re intrigued, you’re welcome to visit my research lab anytime. The opportunity for learning is always open.”
Would anyone want to be subjected to this?
As the students’ expressions turned sour, Professor Dihtart opened a dimensional gate.
“Ah, of course, the opportunity for advanced learning is offered exclusively to diligent students. I intend to provide additional education to delinquent students needing crude learning opportunities, but is there anyone left who still desires to adopt a bad lecture attitude? I see a few attempting to draw my gaze.”
“……”
“If not, let’s return.”
Victorious in the battle of wills against the students, Professor Dihtart swaggered back.
Naturally, his teaching evaluations had plummeted, and Dihtart, suppressing his sadness, sought out his senior professor.
“Nongnongnon Professor, the students blame their own unsatisfactory attitudes while only holding me responsible. What should I do?”
“Offer a mandatory course.”
“Excuse me?”
“If they have to attend forcibly, how can they resist?”
“Oh my goodness, what a brilliant idea!! Senior Nongnongnon is truly a god among professors, even taller than our Professor Pinkberry!!”
“…Did you just mock my mana compression rate being lower than Pinkberry’s?”
“Oh, so you prefer being short! Senior is the smallest person in the world!”
The brutal and cruel advice from his senior made Dihtart think that perhaps they were indeed creatures born to torment students.
The issue was that as Dihtart, now a sponge absorbing advice, stood before the academy, he had utterly demolished the fourth-years.
[To protect the students who would run away to wage war against the Foundation, send professors to the vulnerable new city Frill.]
Under Principal Omoshiroi’s orders, the principled guardian Professor Mahabharata convened a faculty meeting.
“First, all professors with fewer than three students enrolled must attend.”
“That’s an overreach!”
“Are you disregarding the transmission of the Non-Human War?!”
“Have you seen this ungrateful fellow? Our precious students are squawking with hunger for teachings, yet you dare to disturb the cozy moments between teacher and disciple?”
“If you infringe upon our educational rights, I will forcibly bring the students to the field!”
The statements of the few professors who seemed to care for students, or perhaps use them as hostages!
“If you don’t attend, you’ll be selected as a target during the Principal’s year-end Creation Magic demonstration. Of course, even if you refuse, the Principal will be excited to come find you.”
“What a cruel one…”
“Having fallen to reptilian instincts, do you finally have the blue blood of a serpent coursing through your veins, losing even the human heart?”
“I would rather not hear it from someone who threatens with student hostages.”
While cleverly mobilizing the professors, Mahabharata suddenly glanced at Dihtart.
Startled, Dihtart naturally turned his gaze elsewhere, pointing at senior professor Nongnongnon, but the senior, having transformed into a tiny 10mm figure through high-speed reduction magic, had long since evaded the gaze.
While admiration for his senior and a desire to stomp him rose within him, Professor Mahabharata sternly commanded.
“As Dihtart, who is teaching a mandatory course while having the poorest student evaluations this year, I will add to the list at my discretion.”
“Why are you singling me out when others are guilty too?! This is discrimination against lesser experienced junior professors!”
“Do I have to uncover the reason why students age as if they’ve grown older every time they finish the course?”
“…”
After many twists and turns, Professor Dihtart, who had been among the faculty in the hidden city of Frill, found himself caught up in a situation involving the city now in another dimension.
While the fourth-years probably laughed at the consequences of his actions, his presence ended up helping other professors suffering from dimensional disasters in ways they could not have anticipated.
“This place… is it the dimension of desert lizards? Something resembling ancient ruins is peeking through the sand.”
“Oh, that’s the foundation made by my students.”
“?”
Why would students be here?
The demon-born Professor Demon wore a puzzled expression.
“Why are the dimensional creatures that should be hostile to humanity bowing to us?”
“Oh, that’s because my students have liberated the oppressed slave class, toppled the dynasty, abolished the slave system, and set up a friendly nation.”
“??”
Professor Stand Mill from the Administration Department shot a baffled look.
“By the way, only those with their tails dyed blue are on our side.”
“How many other dimensions have you put your students in, exactly?”
“Why am I being blamed for this? The young people nowadays are so eager to learn. There was even a top student who voluntarily came looking to showcase exemplary performance after repeatedly training in a place with different time ratios!”
At Dihtart’s protest, Professor Bronze, who had been silently observing, flinched.
“Was that student’s name by any chance Oknodie?”
“Oh, you know them?”
The news that his student was messing with even the fourth-years without their knowledge left Professor Bronze confused about whether to feel proud or scold them.
