24 Training Routine.

The following dawn, I woke up to Evangeline sleeping like a log in the chair beside my bed.

I got up and looked around the room. There was no one there.

I was almost tempted to get a closer look at her face, but singing 'Bury The Light' loudly in my mind helped to defeat the intrusive thoughts.

I put my hand on her shoulders and shook her.

"Hey. It's morning already. Wake up.", I said in a monotonous tone.

"....mmm.... just a minute more..." she fumbled.

"*Sigh... wake the fuck up. There's school today. I need to get ready."

She sighed and woke up. Her hair was a complete mess. Gently rubbing her eyes and dazing around the room, she still wasn't quite in her senses yet.

'cute...'

"Good Morning.", I was the first one to greet her.

"... y-yeah... g-good morning...", she looked embarrassed for some reason.

'what the fuck? what happened? why's she so fidgety right now?', I wondered before putting those thoughts aside and getting up from the bed.

My left arm, which was entirely shattered is now fixed and I can move it around without much pain.

I paid no heed to Evangeline's moans and groans right after waking up and picked up Amaranth, my robes and left the room after saying goodbye to Evangeline.

...

'The next big arc is gonna be the academy island field trip... *Sigh... that's going to be so tiring...', I grumbled as I remembered the novel's contents.

On the field trip, an S+ grade dungeon will suddenly open up, flooding the entirety of the islands with monsters. The main cast will have to rescue their classmates and fight off the monsters on their backs.

They will eventually be rescued by the high-level hunters called in by William, who will subjugate the dungeon outbreak.

Of course, that was just the climax of that arc. There was a whole 10 chapters of just romance and competition between the main cast and their rivals. Julian and Sophia's relationship also got more intimate on this field trip, and Evangeline's despair grew more and more wildly.

'Tsk... that puts a bad taste in my mouth and I don't like that thought at all...', I thought as I remembered how Evangeline had suffered in the novel.

I don't exactly know why, but I'm starting to become protective of Evangeline...

'Bah! I'm sure it's some kind of side effect of the transmigration...', I dismissed that pointless worry and focused on my plan to make the most out of the field trip arc.

'I'll steal every good artifact the villains get their hands on...', a slight smirk appeared on my face.

'I could steal the main character's power-up items too, but there would be no point to it... the main character is a swordsman, and all of his power-ups are swords related. I'm a mage, and most of the villains were also mages. It's simply the only choice I've got.'

As I was thinking of ways to monopolise the precious artifacts of the island, I remembered something.

I remembered how exactly I got injured in the duel with Julian. I realised just how weak I am in close combat.

Well, I can't really do anything about it, I'm a mage, so Putting more effort into training close combat would be a waste of time. Putting more time into magic training would be more beneficial. Also, my body is not made for that kind of thing. I'll injure myself way more than injuring the opponent.

But, there is a way... I know the existence of a skill that can help me defend against physical attacks. It's called the 'Staffmanship' skill. Many high-level mages, especially healing mages know this skill. It's a powerful skill that helps the mage to at least defend him/herself from the imminent danger of a close-combatist using their staff as a blunt weapon. It can by no means actually harm the opponent, but it can defend against them quite well.

But the only way to get that skill is to go through a rigorous training regime. I can train under an already high-level mage who knows the Staffmanship skill, and inherit the skill after weeks of training.

There's obviously only one choice here. I'll have to seek Professor William's help.

I'm sure if I ask him properly and give him something in return, he'll teach it to me... But it probably isn't as simple as I think it to be.

'Okay... I'll ask Professor William to teach me the skill today after school...', I determined myself.

--- Willaim's POV ---

William was sitting in his designated room. Being both a high-level mage and the homeroom teacher of one of the best classes in the academy, his authority was one to be feared and respected.

The handsome and cold-expressioned William was currently thinking about something deeply.

'Hmm... that Samuel Francis boy... Anna told me that he had some new, never-before-seen type of magic. *Sigh... As much as I'd like to make him into my test subject, I can't possibly actually do that in reality, as he's one of the precious heroes of humanity... and he's my best student...', he thought.

William was a morally grey character. He wouldn't hesitate to torture his enemy to get information out of them, and at the same time, he'd do anything to protect his students from danger. A selfish, cruel and cold-hearted man, but caring towards his students and friends.

Many may call him hypocritical, but he calls himself 'Realistic'.

'Today as well... he seemed... out of it... like he was thinking of something extremely grand and elaborate, something no one in the world but him would understand... He looks so serious all the time and answers all the questions correctly almost every time... It's very hard to catch him off-guard.', he thought.

Suddenly, he heard 2 knocks on the door, indicating that someone wanted to talk to him.

"Come in.", he ordered.

"Sir, it's me. Samuel Francis. I have something I would like to personally request of you, professor."

William wasn't a person to get surprised very easily, but this certainly did surprise him quite a lot.