<838 – Shimma (5)>
About half of the senior professors failed the Principal’s strict meritocratic reappointment review.
This meant that only half of the senior professors were replaced by new Foundation Faction Professors.
“Gasp! The Foundation is eating the Academy!!”
“I know that person… They were called a Foundation Spy and had to escape in the dead of night after being publicly targeted by a subordinate. They’re a renowned blacksmith, right? I heard they’re terrified every day, buying in-depth evaluation orders for magic swords given to prominent blacksmiths, worried they might be scanned as a disguised magic sword!”
“The woman over there… She’s a magic engineering architect who builds various mana-related facilities. I heard she even built a Magic Tower that collapsed during the civil war, but isn’t the mana from the tower from a Demon Minion’s mana instead of a magician’s mana?”
With each new professor harboring shady rumors, the students looked at them with eyes void of any expectations and unleashed their grievances.
“What’s changed?”
“Isn’t it just that the secretly trash professors have become openly trash?”
“But they went through the appointment review. They have to be better than the ones who just left.”
“Was there even a personality assessment in that review?”
“…Huh?”
“There’s no guarantee they have better personalities!”
As a result, the students might be in for an even worse situation!
The classes previously taught by senior professors had become empty, and the students, although pressed for grades, had zero intention of signing up for classes taught by the new Foundation Faction Professors.
There was absolutely no desire to enthusiastically scream, “Aahh! Don’t take this class!” while braving the scary and dangerous professors’ lectures.
“You brought them here! You go first!”
“That’s right, Oknodie. If the Foundation Faction Professors are truly safe, you listen and prove it!”
“Is it really turning out like this?!”
As a result, Oknodie, who had delivered a major blow to the professors, found themselves enrolled in a ton of new classes.
“I already have a lot of classes I’m taking right now…”
“Don’t worry! To balance the lecture schedules of the existing professors and the new professors, the lectures will proceed in a dimension with different time ratios.”
“!!”
The outcome of the civil war between the foundation faction’s advocacy professors and the lovers’ professors.
Confirmed: Oknodie enrolled in 9 additional classes!
“What the what?!”
“Oknodie is backing away! Let’s all run and catch them!”
“Waaaaah, I don’t want to go!”
“Why is this guy so strong? Let’s catch them and lift them all together!”
Faced with the scene of Oknodie stubbornly clinging to the wall and refusing to go, a teaching assistant suddenly cast a corrosion spell on the wall.
Crack!
As the wall crumbled, Oknodie lost their grip and flailed about, releasing a mana thread to activate a binding spell from a distance.
Mimicking Jiang’s vision technique, the strong adhesive strength and range of the sticky thread were so powerful that the surrounding walls trembled but didn’t fall off, prompting a hammer-wielding instructor to smash the area around them.
“I don’t want to go!”
This time, the instructor didn’t just stop; they slammed a stickiness spell onto the ground, causing the hammer-wielding instructor to hesitate.
The academy’s underground was full of various spaces where seniors might have hidden things, such as the underground jail and dungeon, making it risky to destroy the floor indiscriminately.
The instructors were at a loss before Oknodie, who was just like a kid stubbornly holding onto a stand at the store, refusing to go home!
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, Foundation Instructor!”
Before the distressed instructors, a junior butler with special recruitment from the foundation appeared. Though not at the professor level, they were too precious to just let play around.
“How does the Foundation deal with a little lady’s tantrums like this? Please show us your skills. If I hit her, it seems like I’d get hit back, plus she’s clinging on like gum, it’s driving me crazy.”
“I see. Now that I understand the situation, I’ve satiated my curiosity. I’ll be on my way.”
The wise Foundation instructor continued walking the same path they came from and disappeared.
The remaining instructors could only point at the absurdity of it all, unable to conclude with stunned expressions, clutching their necks.
“What’s going on?”
At that moment, a Foundation Maid appeared, and it’s no surprise that their gaze was not warm.
“I’m here to soothe your disobedient little gem.”
“It’s Oknodie!”
Recognizing Oknodie, the maid greeted her.
“Greetings, Oknodie.”
“I can’t say hello! Help me!”
“I’m not sure if you remember, but I’m one of the palace maids you saved.”
“Ah, you’re the maid from the palace!”
“That’s right. It’s an honor to see you again.”
The maid pulled out a stored snack from a secret pocket in her apron.
“This is one of the special products sent from the Eastern Empire as a token of goodwill to our Western Empire. I preserved it with food preservation magic, intending to give it to you when we meet again. It’s gukwha!”
“Gukwha!!”
Though Oknodie looked like a Western child, inside, she was all Korean, drooling at the sight.
“Would you like to have it?”
“Please give it to me!”
“Here you go. Take it.”
As the maid offered the box containing the gukwha, Oknodie couldn’t restrain her appetite and twisted the binding spell to wrap the box in a mana thread.
Whirr!
The box was pulled into her bag like fishing, but of course, with the grounding adhesive spell distracted, the instructors seized the moment to pull Oknodie towards them, and soon the remaining threads snapped apart.
“Oops!”
Realizing her mistake too late, Oknodie cast a binding spell to the surrounding floor, but the instructors quickly blocked the spell with a mana shielding and whisked Oknodie away to the gate.
It was the unfortunate end that a child experiences when unable to control their appetite.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Maid.”
“Children can be soothed with food. Please keep that in mind from now on.”
Though butlers are trash, maids are kind.
The instructors’ distaste towards the foundation was redirected towards the butlers.
It became apparent that there were indeed factions between butlers and maids within the Foundation Faction.
“Katarina. Is it really acceptable to repay kindness with malice like this?”
“I’ve left a note for our Foundation Professors who’ve already begun the additional classes. There won’t be any classes like what you’re thinking.”
“What kind of classes do you mean?”
The maid went by the name Myeong Jang, a former direct commander of the foundation.
…and sister to Katarina.
She had been dispatched personally to assist Oknodie, cornered by the decree of Empress Masugaki.
Following the Empress’s gentle heart, believing that one should help the clumsy in times of trouble, she settled into the academy for thorough support.
What she left for the Foundation Professors was naturally…
“A special lesson tailored for the lady who isn’t attending classes due to insufficient growth levels, designed to provide ample growth.”
“……Is that really okay…?”
“Are you doubting my judgment?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t doubt it. The lady is now progressing at a speed 3000 times faster than the standard growth curriculum, starting her internal adjustments and now working on resistance against paralysis and corrosion.”
“Isn’t that too much strain on the standard?”
“Our common sense is simply a preconception for the genius. The lady can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. Don’t define her limits with your trivial common sense. Do you understand?”
“Yes, understood.”
The junior maid reflected deeply.
Indeed, the chief scholarship student of the foundation and future leader had surpassed human potential from the start.
Even the sight of the lady, dragged into what could only be described as hellish training disguised as special lectures, was now seen in a different light.
The lady wasn’t avoiding training; she was refusing to endure inadequate training!
“Hehe. She’s truly a lady worth serving.”
Unlike other ladies, she absorbed everything taught to her, even going so far as to protest that the teaching was too inadequate.
Her proactive demeanor, so different from other kids who fell over with just a little increase in intensity, filled my heart with joy.
“Rife is reportedly gathering Medusa’s eyes, Basilisk’s tail venom, and the essence of Poison Slime for a special candy production. Maids wishing to volunteer for the gathering mission, please line up.”
The junior maid willingly volunteered for the foundation mission.
It had been ages since she had made a decision to willingly dive into danger without a direct order compelling her actions.
Seeing the lady, who didn’t fear danger, sparked a desire to help that overcame the threat to her life.
“Given your muscular build, it seems there’s much for you to learn as well, junior maid. Let’s do our best together.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
The junior maid’s bond with Hestia crumbled, only to be restored upon witnessing the spectacle of severing the Basilisk’s tail with sheer strength.
