Chapter 15

◈ Chapter 15: Source Code (2)

I will select a few students who follow my class well and teach them the source code.

When I mentioned this, I shook the carrot a little, and the students listened to my class without a word afterward.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

After finishing the explanation of the theory and a simple method of mana emission, the bell of the clock tower signaling the end of the class rang.

I sighed in relief, thinking that I had completed the class without any trouble.

By mixing the tips used in practice with the content written in the textbook, the students didn't seem to notice anything suspicious.

Since the first button was fastened smoothly, I thought I could maintain this atmosphere for the next class.

My lecture time is a total of 4 hours a week.

Since I have two classes of 2 hours each, there was plenty of time until the next class.

Now, I needed to think about how to proceed with the next class, the basic personal information of the 80 students attending my class, and the unresolved information about the secret society.

* * *

'Wow. Really.'

Aidan, this year's new student at Seorun Academy, truly felt he had come to Seorun after attending Ludger Chellis's class.

'I had a vague idea, but it was really amazing.'

Aidan, who came from the countryside, was a commoner but a young man brimming with passion for magic.

Thanks to his accumulated efforts and a bit of luck, he passed the entrance exam to Seorun and attended his first class with a heart full of dreams.

Ludger Chellis's lecture on general manifestation magic.

To be honest, I didn't expect much.

When I first entered the lecture room and secretly listened to the other students, I found out that the class I chose had more talk than I thought.

-There are originally two manifestation classes, and this one is taught by a fallen noble.

-He was a new teacher who shouldn't have been able to enter here, but because five positions opened up due to retirements last year, he got lucky and came in.

-All the rumors circulating in the Akashic Record are just exaggerated lies.

Those who said such things were, of course, the noble students who were tight-lipped and looked down on others.

However, Aidan, who had come from the countryside, only knew that they were seniors and didn't suspect their words much.

'Is Teacher Ludger Chellis really that bad?'

Since he chose the class without much thought, he felt a bit regretful.

But Aidan immediately realized how short-sighted his thoughts were when Ludger appeared.

The man, who stood on the podium and dominated 80 students with his mere presence, seemed like a soldier facing a fierce battle.

What happened afterward was even more astonishing to Aidan.

He had a conversation with a female senior about the impossibility of shortening a magic formula and then demonstrated a single formula.

The moment Aidan saw the magic Ludger Chellis called "source code," he felt his blood boil.

The shock was like fireworks exploding in front of his eyes.

It was the light of knowledge that appeared when he witnessed a mystery he had never seen before, a moment of enlightenment that broadened his horizons to a wider world.

It might seem like an exaggeration, but at least Aidan felt that way.

When he was a snot-nosed kid who knew nothing, there was a wandering magician who showed him magic.

The first magic he showed was only a 1st-tier spell, and looking back now, the formula was imperfect and crude.

But at that time, Aidan thought it was incredibly cool.

After that, he continued to study magic under the wandering magician, and although he didn't feel the same thrill as when he first saw magic,

he still remembered how enjoyable it was to learn magic.

Thanks to his passion for magic and, unexpectedly, his talent, Aidan grew rapidly over time and managed to enter Seorun Academy, a place of fierce competition.

Thinking that this place might fulfill his desire for magic and open up a new world, he attended his first class.

And he really witnessed something amazing.

'Teacher Ludger Chellis is truly an extraordinary person!'

From the first impression, he seemed extraordinary, and he really was.

Not just showing superficial magic, but demonstrating real magic, something new that didn't exist in this world.

Aidan felt incredibly fortunate to be in this class and couldn't hide his excitement.

"Hmph."

At that moment,

a voice filled with overt disdain came from the next seat.

When he turned his head, a first-year male student with a similar look was staring at him with his arms crossed.

He had a handsome face, but his blond hair, parted to show his forehead, made him look quite slick.

"That's why commoners are no good. You're amazed by just that."

"Huh? Are you talking to me?"

"Who else would be a commoner in here?"

Aidan finally looked around. Most of the students had already left the lecture room, and there weren't many left.

"Ah! You were talking to me!"

His innocent reaction distorted the face of the noble male student who had started the trouble.

"Are you. mocking me now?"

"Huh? Mocking? No way."

Aidan tried to laugh awkwardly and say that he didn't mean it that way, but the opponent in front of him was already in a state of being insulted.

"Are you ignoring me, the first son of Baron Pelio?!"

Aidan broke out in a cold sweat. It seemed that things wouldn't go smoothly.

'What should I do?'

While pondering how to handle the situation, Aidan received a helping hand.

"Isn't the Pelio family in the farthest border of the empire?"

"What, what?! Who are you?!"

The one who came to Aidan's aid was a boy with sky-blue hair who was unusually short compared to others.

Jeban Pelio sneered at the sight of the boy.

"Huh. So even Seorun admits such brats now?"

"Better than the son of a mediocre noble family, at least."

"What?! How dare you insult the Pelio family?!"

As Jeban gritted his teeth and tried to gather his mana, the sky-blue-haired boy, Leo, didn't lose his smile.

"How dare you insult a noble with such words…"

"Try it."

"What, what?"

"Go ahead. See what happens if you actually use magic to attack us here."

Jeban was taken aback by Leo's bold words.

He thought that a commoner would bow their head if intimidated properly.

"Is this still your house where they treat you like a prince? Get a grip. If you cause any trouble here, even as a noble, you'll face consequences. Didn't you receive a notice about that before entering?"

"You, you…!"

"If you have nothing to say, stop glaring and just shut up. And control your voice. Can't you see the others around you?"

Leo realized that several students were still in the lecture room. Among them were children of high-ranking nobles who wouldn't dare look at him.

"Ugh! We'll see about this!"

Jeban glared at Aidan as if he wanted to kill him, then left the lecture room.

Aidan was at a loss about what to do.

But first, he needed to thank the friend who helped him.

"Thanks for helping me. I'm Aidan."

"I'm Leo. Oh, and you don't need to thank me. I just couldn't stand seeing a noble act so arrogantly."

"You're a really good person?"

"…What did you hear from my words?"

Leo looked at Aidan as if he were a strange person and then shook his head.

"Whatever. I'm leaving now."

"Ah! Can I go with you?"

"Do you know where I'm going?"

"To the next class, right? That thing in your hand. It's the alchemy class for the manifestation series, right? I have that next too."

"…Tch. Do as you please."

Leo spoke curtly but didn't chase Aidan away or reject his offer. Aidan sensed that Leo was a good person, despite his slightly odd tone.

As Aidan was picking up his textbook for the next class, Leo suddenly spoke.

"It's better not to show too much of yourself."

"Huh? Show what?"

"Rural traits. Commoner traits. Signs that you haven't learned magic properly. Whatever it is, you're showing too much of it."

"Really? Sorry. I don't really know about that."

"Don't forget. This is Seorun Academy. It's full of all sorts of impressive people."

"Impressive people? Ah, I see. Like Teacher Chellis."

Leo sighed at Aidan's clueless reaction. It seemed he had a lot to explain to this naive friend.

"Listen up. Now that you're in this class, you need to understand how things work here. And you need to be careful about certain students."

"Certain students?"

"There are students in Seorun who have an overwhelmingly dominant position. We first-years are just starting, so we don't know much, but it's different from the second year onward."

The most representative example was Flora Lumos.

"Flora Lumos from the second year. I didn't expect to be in the same class as her, but it's best to be cautious."

"Why?"

"There are rumors that she has a bad temper. The teacher who taught the manifestation class last year suddenly quit, and it was largely due to her influence. Honestly, I thought the same might happen this time…"

Leo also recalled Ludger Chellis's class. The groundbreaking magic he demonstrated, called "source code," was indeed impressive.

Even Flora Lumos couldn't say a word and had to retreat.

However, Leo didn't think Flora would collapse just because of this. There was a possibility that her anger might spill over to others.

"So it's best to avoid her as much as possible."

"Are there others?"

"There are a few more. One is from the noble bloodline of the Exilion Empire."

"Ah, I heard about that. They said there's a princess in the second year, right?"

"The third princess, Erendil von Exilion. She's so noble and cherished by the emperor, which is why she could enter here. Of course, it's not good for us commoners to get involved with her."

"Ah, her."

Aidan recalled the woman with golden hair.

While golden hair isn't rare, there was only one person whose golden hair exuded nobility.

"And lastly, Freud Ulbruck."

"Ulbruck? The Ulbruck? One of the three ducal families…"

"Is there any other Ulbruck in the empire? Freud Ulbruck, the eldest son of the ducal family, leads the largest faction in the second year. It's a faction of the upper class, made up of nobles."

"Upper class… faction."

"It's best to avoid them. They see us commoners like bugs on the street. The good news is that Freud isn't in this class. By the way, the idiot who started trouble with you earlier seems to belong to that faction."

"That was just a matter of circumstance. Are there any others?"

"…You're marked, yet you're curious about others. Should I say you have guts or that you're dense?"

Leo couldn't figure out what kind of person Aidan was. But he was sure that Aidan wasn't a bad or malicious person.

"There are a few more."

"Oh, really? Who are they?"

"I'll explain on the way."

"Great! Ah, do you want to have lunch together later?"

"What? Why should I?"

Aidan and Leo bickered as they left the lecture room.

Unaware that one of the remaining students was watching them.

* * *

'Hmm. Is this the personal office?'

Standing in front of the door called an office or a laboratory, I felt a bit strange.

Indeed, it's Seorun, so even a new teacher is given a considerable personal space.

The nameplate at the entrance also had my name, Ludger Chellis.

'Should I go in?'

Curious about what the inside looked like, I decided to check it out.

I opened the door and entered the office.

And I couldn't help but be surprised to see a guest already inside.

"Oh. Teacher Ludger. Welcome."

One of the people I needed to be wary of in Seorun.

The headmaster of Seorun Academy was there.