Assistant Professor Recruitment (1)

The day after the open duel…

"Aaaargh. I'm tired."

Aidan staggered along the corridor, his footsteps seemed almost like a zombie's.

Even then, as soon as the class was over, some students approached him and talked to him or pretended to be close to him.

The excessive interest of other students was too burdensome for Aidan, and it was to the point that it rather made him have a sour stomach.

"Uurgh. Why did it become like this?"

"That's because you did your best in front of everyone. Are you stupid?"

Leo, who heard Aidan talking to himself, scolded him with an incredulous expression.

"Is that so?"

"Phew. You're completely oblivious to this kind of thing, I see."

Leo sighed when he realized that Aidan was being sincere. Aidan scratched his head awkwardly.

Aidan had the type of personality where he wouldn't want to brag about how good he was in the first place.

He was the person who had entered Sören purely because he liked magic rather than having a determination to succeed as a wizard.

There weren't many people like that in Sören.

"It was not enough for you to win the magic duel against an aristocrat in the first place, you even used a strange spell to remove the opponent's magic, so of course, it'd be weird if you didn't get any attention."

"Is… that so?"

"Aidan, what on earth was the spell you used back then?"

Tessie, who was walking a step closer than usual next to Aidan, couldn't resist her curiosity.

Her eyes showed a strong will to find out the spell Aidan had used.

Aidan hesitated to reply as he saw her burdensome gaze.

"Oh, hmm. It's just… something I learned when I was young. It's nothing much."

"Nothing much, you said? Hey, if that's nothing much, then what are we?"

"Right. A spell that removed the other's spell. I've never heard of such a thing. Don't beat around the bush, and answer us quickly."

"Hmm."

Aidan hesitated to answer.

That was because his teacher strictly warned him not to reveal the spell recklessly.

That was why he had desperately avoided answering the persistent questions of other students.

Although he had been told by his teacher that he didn't mind him telling those he could really trust…

'Is it really okay?'

Aidan contemplated for a moment.

Tessie and Leo… Both of them were precious friends he had made there in Sören.

He didn't think that there would be a mix of political calculations in their relationship because they had been close even before he used Anti Magic.

Suddenly, he remembered what his teacher had said.

-You'll always have to make choices throughout your life. In that case, follow your heart.

Follow his heart…

The teacher himself spoke about it lightly, but Aidan had never forgotten that lesson.

Aidan made his decision.

"Alright. I'll tell you."

"Oh, really?"

Tessie was rather surprised when Aidan answered their question seriously.

In fact, she was indeed pushing him too hard when she asked him, but she didn't expect much from Aidan, as she saw him keep his mouth shut to the persistent questions of the other students even after the class was over.

She thought Aidan might have his own circumstances that wouldn't let him tell it to the others, so she was just going to poke him about the matter; that was why she didn't expect him to give her that kind of answer.

"Let's move to a quiet place for now."

The three then headed to Rose Park, a place that students did not visit often.

***

Rose Park was filled with a gentle scent under the dazzling sun.

Aidan was contemplating what to say as he was sitting on a secluded bench in a park full of colorful, beautiful full-bloom roses.

"Hmm. How to start telling you about the spell…"

Then, when he thought that it was good to talk from the beginning, he opened his mouth.

"What I used is Anti Magic, it's a spell to get rid of another spell."

"I understand that since I already saw it."

"So it's called Anti Magic, huh."

There was an opposite reaction between Leo and Tessie.

Aidan smiled awkwardly and continued.

"Hmm. And it was my teacher, a wandering wizard, who taught me this spell, but he said that I'm currently the only one who can actually use Anti Magic."

"What? Why?"

"I heard that it can only be used by people with a unique physical type. I didn't know about it either, but my teacher said so."

"It's only possible if the person has a unique physical type, huh…"

"Who is that teacher?"

What Tessie and Leo were most curious about was Aidan's teacher.

Who the hell was that wandering wizard to teach him Anti Magic? It would be strange if he hadn't publicized himself anywhere if he was that talented.

"I don't know either," Aidan responded while scratching his cheek with his forefinger.

"Whaat?!"

"…Is that even possible?"

Aidan held out his hands and made a hasty excuse as he saw Tessie and Leo's sharp gazes.

"No! It's for real! When I first met my teacher, I was so young that I was only eight years old. It was more than 10 years ago."

"Ten years…"

"And he's free-spirited and someone who's hard to understand, so I don't know where and what he's doing now, either. I also can't contact him. He disappeared like the wind when he left, so I didn't have time to ask him about his name."

"What? Then it means you don't know whether he's currently alive or dead."

"Hmm. But considering his skills, he must be living well somewhere. I think so."

They couldn't believe he had such a calm response after being left by the teacher who taught him the extraordinary spell of Anti Magic.

Tessie was about to say something about Aidan's behavior, but she shut her lips.

She unconsciously accepted the fact that he could be like that because he was Aidan.

Tessie had a surge of frustration.

'I want to know everything about Aidan, though.'

Suddenly, Tessie realized that she was overly interested in Aidan.

'Aaah! No! I can't believe I have an interest in him! The only important thing to me is reviving my family!'

Tessie immediately cleared her distracting thoughts and shook her head violently from side to side.

Her red hair that was tied in pigtails also shook in tune with her head.

'It's just curiosity, simply a mere curiosity. Yes. Just that.'

Leo, who was listening to Aidan while Tessie felt troubled inside, raised a question.

"More than that, it's amazing. No matter how it happened 10 years ago, the Anti Magic that you use is not well known."

"Hmm. Maybe it's because the spell is so rare?"

"The rarer the spell, the more famous it is. People are curious about that which is hard to come by. Moreover, if the spell can delete other spells…"

Anti Magic clearly had no killing power.

Compared to other spells, Anti Magic itself certainly seemed to do less.

However, when fighting against a wizard, Anti Magic showed a ridiculous performance just by its appearance.

"Aidan. That Anti Magic, does it work regardless of the spell tiers?"

"Hmm. I don't really know about that either. Honestly, it was my first time using it properly. I'd never used it like that before."

"Didn't your teacher tell you about that?"

"He never explained it in much detail because my teacher's personality isn't like that. Besides, I just liked learning magic at the time, so I just learned it without thinking."

"Pheew."

Leo sighed as he listened to Aidan's answer.

It was a collaboration between an irresponsible and secretive teacher who didn't explain anything and an immature little countryside child who thought nothing would matter as long as he would be able to learn the spell because he liked magic.

"But Leo, why did you ask me that?"

"Just because… I think I heard something a long time ago."

"Heard something?"

"Your teacher… You don't know his name either, right?"

"Huh, huh? Yeah. I didn't ask his name. Maybe he told me his name, but I don't remember it."

"Maybe it's right that he didn't tell you his name. It bothers me that you haven't heard from someone like that in the last 10 years. If he's that talented, it'd be no wonder if they put his name on a page in a newspaper."

"Is that so?"

Aidan was an outsider to that kind of thing, so he couldn't answer properly.

* * *

"I think it's because you're not aware of it yet, but Anti Magic is a spell that can definitely cause a fuss just by its existence, especially to the whole magic world."

"But the other students didn't seem to know much about it."

"That means it was that secretive. It's hard for students who are currently learning magic to know about it… well, something like that."

Then Tessie, who was only listening, stepped in.

"But if that's the case, didn't the Professors know about it? If they didn't know about it, the Professors wouldn't have left Aidan when he was attacked."

"Some of the Professors also reacted as if they were seemingly surprised. They knew about Anti Magic, but it was the first time they saw someone actually using it."

"Did you check their reactions amidst the attack?"

Leo nodded.

When everyone had sat in the audience seat and watched Aidan using Anti Magic with blank faces, Leo had focused on the audience's reactions.

Among them, several people had reacted naturally as if they knew it would happen from the beginning.

People who knew about Anti Magic, knew that Aidan used it, and were not surprised to see it in front of their eyes.

"First of all is the principal."

"The principal? Well, the principal is a great woman, so she obviously knew. Anyone else?"

"There was also Hugo and Mary Ross, who seemed to have been working as a Professor for a long time. Other than those people, the new Professors didn't seem to know about it. But…"

"But?"

"Professor Ludger Chelysie was different."

"Professor Ludger Chelysie…?"

"Yeah. Professor Ludger responded naturally as if he had known about Aidan's Anti Magic from the beginning."

Aidan suddenly remembered Ludger's appearance that day.

Aidan always thought that Ludger was a person who merely had a less expressive face, but when he thought about it, his attitude that had remained the same even though he used Anti Magic was somewhat strange.

"Maybe Professor Ludger knew a little about the Anti Magic that Aidan used."

"He knew it, you said? If he knew about it, then to what extent?"

"I don't know that much. But this is just a guess, he may have some connection with Aidan's teacher."

Then Tessie stepped up and refuted.

"Ayy. No matter how hard I think about it, it's a really wild guess. Did you ever think that Professor Ludger didn't know much about it but he didn't want to make it seem obvious in the first place?"

"It's you who doesn't know about it, Tessie."

"Whaat?"

"Think about it. Why on earth did Professor Ludger treat Aidan so well?"

"Treat him well, you said?"

Tessie frowned at Leo's words.

"Have you forgotten about it? When he was teaching about the elemental properties, Professor Ludger praised Aidan."

"Well, that's because Aidan did well…"

"That cold-blooded man? Haven't you seen Flora Lumos? It was Professor Ludger who bombarded that genius with hard truths and harsh words."

It was true when she thought about it.

"And the important thing is what happened next. Do you remember the bet that Professor Ludger made with Professor Chris?"

"I obviously remember that."

"Professor Ludger bet on Aidan winning the duel then without the slightest bit of doubt. Don't you think it's strange? Until then, Aidan had been an ordinary student whom he didn't know much about."

"That's…"

"What made Professor Ludger so sure that Aidan would win against the aristocratic student? And why did he teach Aidan Moving Magus while using his own personal time?"

The more Leo spoke, the less Tessie was able to say anything.

It was because the more she heard him speak, the more right he seemed to be.

"I checked and found out that Moving Magus is a real-life battle technique used only by special people in the military."

"They said that Professor Ludger served as a military officer."

"It's exactly that. The lessons that he learned in the military… Being a military officer… He knew about Anti Magic to some extent. I found a connection there."

"What's that?" Tessie asked.

Aidan waited for Leo's next words, intrigued by his speculation.

"Maybe, Aidan… Maybe Professor Ludger knew something about your teacher."

"Professor Ludger? But how?"

"I don't know the details, of course, but that's my assumption. Professor Ludger must have met your teacher when he was an active military officer. If that's the case, then the pieces of the puzzle match. Your teacher is not famous and is secretive, even though he had that many abilities, because he's from a secret army unit that shouldn't be known."

Leo was inwardly convinced that his deduction was almost correct.

Aidan tilted his head a little bit as he heard that.

The teacher he knew was a man similar to a soldier who was thorough in discipline and always restrained, so to speak, just like Ludger.

However, the teacher in his memory was not a soldier, but rather more like a free man akin to the wind.

'No, if he's from a secret army unit, he might be different from a regular soldier.'

In some way, Aidan thought Leo's guess might be right.

"Does Professor Ludger know about my teacher?"

"Considering the behavior he showed you, I think it's possible. There's no way he'd be nice to you otherwise. Maybe both of them were close to each other."

Ludger was not only naturally accepting of Aidan's Anti Magic, but also Ludger, who was unlikely to pay attention to others, had spent time teaching Aidan how to do Moving Magus.

Leo's words were certainly convincing.

"Then, if you ask Professor Ludger, will he tell you about your teacher?"

Aidan contemplated for a moment at Tessie's question and shook his head.

"No. Never mind. We're still not certain yet. Besides, I don't want to bother Professor Ludger again. I already gained a lot of help from him."

"…Well. As long as you think so."

Then, as the conversation was about to be ended, Tessie opened her mouth as she seemingly recalled something.

"Ah. More than that, have you guys heard about the rumor?"

"Rumor?"

"What rumor?"

"Well…"

***

I was eating with fellow new Professors who had just joined the Academy.

Most of all, they were fellow colleagues who had entered the Academy in the same period as me, and it was essential for me to maintain the least amount of personal connections, no matter how lonesome I was.

It was not a bothersome thing to do.

While I sat still and ate quietly, the other teachers would ask for current news on their own and exchange news with each other.

Professor Selena in particular liked to chat so much that she chatted nonstop while eating.

Of course, she was not annoying or anything.

Rather, Selena's behavior was like the life of the party.

Still, I didn't pay much attention to the information that they were talking about because 10% of the information was of no importance, among the 10 topics, only one topic piqued my interest.

"Ah, right. Professor Ludger didn't do that?"

However, the news was different from usual and was somewhat of an eye-opener for me.

"What do you mean by that?" I looked back at Professor Selena and asked.

"You've been working alone all this time. Collecting data, organizing textbooks, and even checking assignments, right?"

"Right."

Well, wasn't that the role and the job of a Professor?

As soon as I thought so, Professor Selena asked me innocently.

"Why don't you have an assistant?"

"…"

'…There was something like that?'