103 A Day in Class

"...It's hard to teach you when you are all like this," Professor Claire Collin sighed as she slightly shook her head.

Currently, she is in α-100 class, designated as a special class with students with extraordinary potential, trying her best to teach Magical Compounds II while the students all remain slumped onto their seats.

In her entire career, she had never been in a situation where the students were not paying attention to her. She was confident in her skills to make the content fun so that even the most disinterested students would pay attention to her.

And yet, not a single student seemed to be listening to her today.

"I understand you all have it hard right now but you all need to get a grip. If you don't listen in class, you will fail the exams. I can assure you Magical Compounds II isn't easy, you won't be able to cram it in just a day and pass." 

"Funny, that's exactly what my teacher told me when I was studying Magical Compounds I. Guess what? I crammed it a day before the exam and passed." Aleister replied, his voice tired.

Professor Claire rolled her eyes.

Magical Compounds I was not really that hard. Honestly, as far as she knew a day's cramming is more than enough for a student to ace the exam. 

But Magical Compounds II wasn't anything like the Magical Compound I.

Magical Compound I, was simple, normal chemistry and by the end of its content it slightly introduces the reader to the concept of how the mana, aura, and demonic energy that assimilated with the atmosphere affects all the chemical structure of everything.

In other words, all chemical reactions, and structures that one had read would be flipped over in the study of Magical Compound II and that was why it wasn't an easy subject for students.

Professor Claire has seen many students who had thought they would be able to easily cram the subject a night before the exam only to fail it.

"Sure, you did" She gave her reply to Aleister as she let out a sigh.

There was no point in trying to make them understand, there was simply nothing she could do to help them understand, she had seen the same scene play in her eyes for years now.

The difference this time was though, she didn't think any of them were in the state to study effectively with how exhausted they all seemed to be.

"I don't think what the authorities are thinking will be helpful. You aren't going to learn anything if this continues. They need to slow down" She muttered in a low voice but enough for others to hear it.

"That's right! Why are we forced with such an absurd schedule!? I swear nothing's been going right since the first month of the academy ended!" Max shouted with annoyance evident in his voice.

The other students in the classroom shared Max's sentiment.

Right after the first month had ended, they had a duel with Noah, then they were beaten, pathetically so.

After that, yesterday they were assigned personal instructors who were none other than the former heroes and some still on the job, and in the name of training, they were tortured.

If that wasn't enough they also had to manage the monthly duels with other students who challenged them.

Then they had to attend those therapy sessions that Laura had told them to which they all found to be a pain and an uncomfortable period.

And before they knew it, the day had ended.

The teenage life that people dreamed of was nowhere to be seen in their lives.

And if that wasn't enough, they just saw Noah's duel today in the morning.

It was anything but sightly. Added to Laura's announcement yesterday that they had to fight Noah every month for their performance evaluation which worked wonders to increase their stress.

"...Well, with the Demon Lord moving against the treaties, it's obvious that we are being trained more harshly," Daphne nonchalantly replied.

Her words brought silence in the classroom.

This wasn't a topic anyone wanted to talk about.

The possibility of a potential war with the demons was frightening.

Even the weakest demon is of S-rank.

"I don't get it. How can a baby be born as an S-rank...?" Margaret had never really understood that part as she posed her question.

"...Margaret, you..." Daphne turned her head towards Margaret with disbelief on her face.

It wasn't just Daphne but everyone in the classroom had the same reaction.

"Margaret, demons aren't born as babies." It was the Professor who said it.

"They aren't...?" Margaret's eyes shook for a moment.

"They aren't." The Professor replied.

It was a known fact.

Like an electron, proton, and neutron merge to one day become an atom. Demons are also like that.

"Demons are like part of nature. Just like plants, like the oxygen, like the rain, like the wind, Demons exist. That is what makes them scary. Even if the demons were to be eliminated, one day they would simply come into existence again because they are part of nature. That was why it took such a long time for everyone to learn about their existence."

"If that's the truth, wouldn't the world be overrun with demons at some point? You know.." Margaret's voice trailed off as she posed her question.

"A good question. The thing is, there's something like a threshold for the demons that could exist in the world. Once that number is reached, it will stop producing them. Like how, back in the days when the demon lord's army had dwindled but now they are back to their original count of 50 million."

This was another reason why a peace treaty was preferred over the annihilation of the demons despite all that had happened, all they had done, and why everyone had to swallow their pride and anger.

If Noah was in the class he probably would have replied with a Dayumn...

As the novel reader, Noah already knew the plot twist or should one call it the truth, the reality that the world has been fed ...bullshit.

This information that the Demon Lord fed to the world was to keep the fear of demons in them so that they wouldn't dare to go into an all-out war with them so that the world wouldn't try to annihilate them while they are recovering from the war.

Added to the information that he learned from the hidden dungeon, Noah had realized how it was useless to try acquaint himself with the common sense of this world. It was a fucked up world, where common sense meant nothing.

"That sounds like serious trouble... " Margaret muttered as her cat ears twitched.

"It is a serious trouble. Seriously? Have you never been to a school, forget that where have you been even living to not know something so obvious?"

"I didn't know, okay. What, you have a problem with it?" Margaret gave her curt reply.

Sensing the conversation going in the wrong direction, Professor Claire clapped just before Ash could reply to her, bringing everyone's attention towards her.

"Well, you shouldn't be worrying about all this. It's not guaranteed that the Demon Lord is planning on having a war. We might all be simply misunderstanding the situation. The current situation is pretty confusing for everyone."

"Because of the message...?" Allen asked.

"That's right. There has never been a situation where the people received a notification by the system that someone has entered the hidden dungeon." The professor replied.

"Yeah, and who knows maybe demon lord just found the hidden dungeon but then someone jokingly pushed him from behind resulting in him falling into the dungeon" 

"Do you think an SSS+ ranker would get pushed by someone just like that?" Allen looked at Max, his face screaming that he thought of Max as an idiot.

Max being an idiot didn't understand Allen's expression he simply shrugged as he replied to Allen

"Anything could happen"

"Oh God..." Allen rolled his eyes.

"That's right, Max. Anything could have happened. That's why there is no guarantee about the war. I am sure a high-ranking official of demons would give us a reply soon." The professor replied as she continued "At any rate, putting this topic aside, I have to say that everyone seems to be less tense than yesterday."

"Oh, that's because Noah's isn't here. Whenever he is around, we are all shitting our pants"

"Talk about yourself Sofia. I have never shit my pants watching him" Ash replied.

"Oh, did you miss what happened in the morning? I am pretty sure that the referee in the arena peed himself a little"

"For god's sake... don't use words like those" Aleister scrunched his face as he said so while Ash simply looked the other way, he didn't fear Noah when he saw him in today's duel, nope, not at all.

"Boss is amazing though! He made sure no one would ever bother him with any duels anymore. I should do it in my next duel too! That's right, I should do it too!" Maria stumped her fist in the air, determined.

Sofia smacked her sister's head without a second thought.

"Why is he the boss? And did you forget we are being supervised? Don't do anything reckless to put a bad impression of ours on the authorities."

"B-but he is the boss! Didn't our new homeroom teacher tell us yesterday!?" Maria replied rubbing her head

"She said he is class representative, not our boss"

"It's the same thing! Also, if there was something wrong with what the boss was doing then the duel would have been stopped by the teacher or something but it wasn't! It means it's within the rules to torture!"

Maria's words made everyone's face scrunch up a little.

There was no questioning that Noah had crossed the line in the morning's duel.

"I really don't get why the duel wasn't stopped" Allen muttered under his breath, his question similar to everyone else's.

"That's because of the new guidelines of the duel's. This will bring us back to the previous topic, the demon lord." It was Ashly who had replied.

"And how do you know?" Allen raised his eyebrow.

"Because I was going to intervene in the duel but I was stopped by a teacher, I asked why they weren't stopping it and he told me the reason"

"..."

"Why are you all staring at me?"

Ashly looked around to find everyone's gazes on her.

"Right... you do want to be a hero."

"What's wrong with that?"

"No, nothing."

Ashly couldn't help but frown at such a reply.

"So, we are being trained for the possible upcoming war?" Lisa couldn't help but mumble.

"That's not it, everyone." Professor Claire slightly shook her head as she continued "Ashly, you tried to intervene right away when you saw that Noah's torturing the cadet in front of him, didn't you?"

"That's right. The moment he crushed his right arm and then healed it. I instantly moved."

"Girl's got the balls of steel..." Max muttered.

"I don't have any balls, Max"

"...Ovaries of steel."

Ashly rolled her eyes shaking her head as she focused on the professor.

"The demon lord's situation has indeed changed a few things in the duel rules and curriculum but there's no questioning that Noah had crossed the line"

"But the teache-" Before Ashly could finish professor continued

"That teacher isn't wrong. The beginning was within the new rules. But the degree Noah took the entire thing to was not within the rules. He had crossed the line. Even if we say that we want to train you mentally, we can't just throw you from level 1 training to level 10 at once. What happened back then was simply Noah running rampant. He had broken the rule, that's all"

"Then why didn't no one stop him?"

"Because we couldn't. He tempered with the barrier making it impossible for anyone to enter or interfere. The teachers who could have simply broken the barrier, well, they weren't available at that time. As for the instructor who worked as a referee for the duel, Noah had threatened him with his kid"

"..."

The class had gone silent at those words trying to register them.

Aqua already knew what had happened with the help of Jane.

It was absurd, and honestly, a bit scary but the intention behind his actions seemed to be justifiable.

"...And he is moving around freely? Isn't the academy going to expel him?"

"Well, he had his reasons" Professor Claire shrugged as she went on to explain "Noah didn't seem to like the academy's stance related to bullying. As you might know, bullying in this academy is something the teachers will turn a blind eye to. Because you are supposed to become a hero in the future you need to learn to protect yourself before learning to protect others. Noah didn't seem to like it. His exact words related to the morning's duel to the headmaster were I was just bullying him, in front of everyone. Just turn a blind eye, like you always had."

"Goddamn..."

"Boss has my vote!"

"...That doesn't justify anything," Ashly replied feeling conflicted.

"Of course, it doesn't dear. That was why he was suspended ...and the academy has made a new rule, regarding no tolerance towards bullying. While his methods were not okay, his intentions weren't bad even if you think of it as an excuse, there's nothing more we could do. The headmaster had already made the decision."

Professor replied, the thing she didn't know though was that Noah already wasn't planning on coming to any classes, so that suspension meant nothing to Noah.

Regis had let Noah go scot-free. 

Why? Only he knew.

"...But how did he temper with the barrier." It was Lenny who posed this question with a curious tone.

"That's...."