# Chapter 49. Practical Class (1)
“Young Master, are you all right? You haven’t been looking so well lately…”
“Ah… I’m fine. Don’t worry too much.”
After the first special class with Professor James, we’ve met for training about 2 to 3 times a week.
The basic lessons weren’t too challenging, but the one-on-one special classes with the professor demanded high concentration and an almost inhuman level of intensity.
If it were only the Department of Combat courses, I might not have noticed, but since I’ve chosen double majoring in the Department of Magic, my body seems to be aging twice as fast than expected.
“Isn’t the special class with the professor exhausting you too much? Considering your condition, it might be better to rest this week…”
“Thank you for worrying, but I’m really fine. Please don’t worry. Arthur, you know how sturdy I am, right?”
“The last time you fell ill from overwork was just last year, wasn’t it?”
“……”
There’s nothing I can say to that…
I remembered the time around when I started learning magic last year. Ria looked at me with pursed lips, glaring.
“Back then, I wasn’t fully trained yet, and I didn’t know my limits, right? But now, I consider all those factors while attending class, so I’m fine.”
“I’ll trust you this time. But if you collapse again, I’ll scold you.”
“Haha, understood.”
Honestly, even though Ria scolds me, I don’t find it that scary, but I feel bad for worrying her, so I decided to adjust my personal training schedule a little.
“Oh, by the way, how about that guy lately?”
“What guy?”
“I mean Arthur.”
Arthur’s flirtations with Ria happened about 2 weeks ago.
I secretly followed her and saw her firmly reject him. After that, I haven’t seen Arthur around, which made me curious.
While I didn’t see Arthur when I was with Ria, I worried whether he had met her alone while I was absent and caused trouble.
“That person? He hasn’t come since the last time I sternly told him off. I doubt we’ll see him anytime soon unless he visits when I send a letter of greetings to his parents.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.”
Although the future I knew has completely changed, Ria seems happy, so that’s good.
Being handsome and talented, Arthur might have already attracted other women.
In the previous story, it was mentioned that Arthur had a flirtatious nature, so it’s a relief that he doesn’t suit Ria.
“Hmm~”
“Why are you saying that?”
“Are you jealous?”
“… No, nothing like that.”
Jealousy. Should I call this feeling jealousy?
I believe that it’s just me, a pure lover, being relieved that Ria hasn’t developed a bond with such a rogue.
I’m unsure if this feeling is real jealousy. I’d know if I had experienced love before.
“It’s not the right time yet… I understand.”
Ria muttered something, then returned to her usual expression.
For some reason, I feel as if I’ve grown closer to Ria by a step.
“Tomorrow is the practical combat training.”
As our training was wrapping up, Professor James gathered the students and announced the details of tomorrow’s practical session.
The academy invests a lot in practical sessions, alongside its high-level theoretical courses.
For combat-related departments, we get to test the skills we’ve learned in real conditions.
As for liberal arts departments, they take part in internships or collaborate with public institutions to ensure vigorous self-development through external interactions.
The place we will visit tomorrow is the Forest of the Night.
In the game, it was a common early-game dungeon where players often circled around for leveling up or gathering materials, so it’s a place quite familiar to me.
“By the way, students from the Department of Medicine will join us for emergency assistance during possible accidents; but if any of you try to flirt with those female students, I’ll leave you with them all day.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“You’ll spend the whole day lying in bed.”
It’s not just lying—what the professor’s implying is more like leaving you half-paralyzed.
The Department of Medicine is a female-dominant department, often attracting attention from male students.
Since combat students tend to be muscular and rugged men, their curiosity towards the opposite gender naturally increases.
The guys who were excited about the arrival of medical students and started secretly making plans immediately quieted down after the professor’s following remarks.
“Hey, Rab Netoire.”
Just as I was pondering over the concrete evaluation details for tomorrow’s practical session, I heard a familiar voice.
I turned my head and saw Maiten glaring at me with a serious expression.
After losing to me during a sparring match a few weeks ago, Maiten hadn’t spoken to me, so I was surprised to see him approach me so suddenly. However, I replied calmly.
“What’s up?”
“Tomorrow’s practical training will probably focus on monster extermination.”
“How do you know that?”
“My older brother told me.”
Oh, right. This guy is the second son.
His brother is probably a few years older and a senior who graduated earlier. Perhaps he provided Maiten with some inside information about academy life, including the practical.
“That’s nice.”
“So, I want to challenge you to something.”
Suddenly, a bet was proposed.
Seems like the frustration of losing to me twice before is driving him to compete again, aiming for a moral victory through the practical.
“Not really interested.”
“Hah. Are you scared?”
“Yeah, I’m scared. Let’s say I’m running away. Take it that way, and just forget the bet.”
I have no reason to accept Maiten’s wager. Besides, if I agree and let my competitiveness get the better of me, my academy life might be unnecessarily complicated.
Even if I don’t cause trouble, if Maiten, driven by excessive ambition, leaves the designated area and ventures deeper into the forest only to die, it will create unnecessary drama for everyone involved.
“Hmph! Don’t you want something from me?”
“I have no interest in money or fame, so just go away.”
“I have an Emotic Flower. Does that matter?”
“!”
Emotic Flower.
It’s an extremely rare flower that changes color based on the emotions of the people nearby.
In the game, it could only be purchased in the cash shop, and even then appeared randomly with an exorbitantly high price, so the fact that Maiten possessed such a rare flower was certainly eye-catching.
“Is that true?”
“Yeah. I got it through my cousin’s connections. Even someone like you, who isn’t interested in money or fame, might be interested in gifting something nice to your fiancée, right?”
It’s definitely tempting.
Though very difficult to obtain, an Emotic Flower is an incredible gift that could raise someone’s affection from 0 to 80 out of 100 in one go—making it a dream present for Cecilia.
Even though I don’t have a status window to know how much she likes me, if I gave her this flower, I could surely see her genuinely happy smile.
“So, if I win, you’ll give me the flower, right? And if I lose, what do you want?”
“Pfft. I don’t care about that flower. All I want is for you to kneel down before me and admit your defeat.”
If I lose, all I need to do is kneel down once—no big deal. Winning would get me the flower, so this is a bet I can’t miss.
“Alright. I accept.”
“Haha, good. That’s the spirit. I’m already imagining how grand it will be when you kneel down before me.”
I later found out that Maiten had accompanied his father on a few monster hunts from a young age, which gave him the confidence to make this challenge.
He probably thought that with his so-called rich experience, squashing someone like me would be easy.
Meanwhile, I was busy thinking of the best wrapping paper for the Emotic Flower.
Late at night.
Behind the academy forest.
In front of the huge, tightly shut iron gate, several shadowy figures appeared silently.
“Is this the place…? The academy seems to be wasting a treasure. If we can just find the core of this forest that releases monsters, we can plan something much bigger. They’re foolish to use it merely as teaching material for children.”
“Leader, we’re ready. Shall we install now?”
“Good. Install it at the designated location. You’ve done the preparations to wake it up during tomorrow’s practical session, right?”
“Yes. When it awakens tomorrow, the suppressed instincts will explode all at once, turning the place into chaos.”
“Excellent. Peace often leads to complacency. You all need to be more vigilant.”
As the henchmen carefully moved the massive iron cross wrapped in black cloth, the person called “Leader” let out a deep laugh.
“New beginnings always emerge from chaos. I wonder if a new hero will arise from this chaos… I sincerely wish for this to be a joyous time of slaughter.”
