Seeing Henny working so hard for him, Victor couldn't help but step forward.
Henny, noticing a figure slowly approaching, looked up warily.
"Professor Victor?"
When she saw clearly who it was, she hurriedly stood up, greeting him nervously and pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
Victor, for the first time in a long while, broke that poker face of his and asked in concern, "Aren't you tired?"
He knew Henny's job as his assistant was arranged by the academy, but her level of knowledge was clearly enough to qualify her as a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Magic.
Having such a talented person serve as his assistant, whether society would question it later was one thing, but his conscience already felt uneasy about it.
"Not tired at all!" Henny shook her head firmly without hesitation.
"It's an honor to prepare your lectures, Professor!"
A silly yet somewhat adorable little girl.
If it were the old Victor, he probably would've squeezed this little lamb until not even the bones were left.
Drain her for every bit of value she had, and then discard her.
That was Victor in a nutshell.
If something benefited him, he held on tightly and never let go.
In truth, with Vega around, he didn't even need an assistant to help prepare his lessons.
Since no one else was around, Victor decided to let this naive little lamb off the hook.
He adjusted his tone slightly, speaking with the usual cold indifference of Victor's voice.
"You don't have to write my speeches anymore."
Hearing those words, Henny froze. Her body trembled and she could barely keep standing.
She thought she must have made a serious mistake, so bad that Professor Victor wanted to fire her.
"Professor, I can spend more time perfecting your speech drafts…"
Tears welled up in her eyes before she could stop them. Henny's voice trembled as she pleaded, begging Victor not to abandon her.
"Please don't abandon me! I can do my job as an assistant perfectly!"
Victor frowned slightly. He hadn't expected such a reaction. He'd only wanted her to rest more, and then, when she returned to the academy, to pursue her own potential independently.
But clearly, all she could think about was asking Professor Victor for another chance, to stay by his side as his assistant.
Almost as if… she were about to graduate.
Vega flapped her wings beside his ear and softly explained, "Do you know why?"
"This kid is just a magic apprentice, she hasn't even stepped through the threshold of a mage yet."
Only then did Victor come to a sudden realization. Looking at Henny before him, he felt a pang of pity for her talent.
In the game terms he knew, a "magic apprentice" ranged from level 1 to 9, basically, a beginner.
The Royal Academy of Magic never kept idle people. To become a teacher there, the most basic requirement was to first become a mage.
Only after that would the academy evaluate one's teaching ability.
Even if Henny's knowledge far surpassed her peers, even if she could prepare lessons for the most gifted class in the academy, as long as she hadn't become a mage, she had no right to become a teacher.
From her perspective, Victor now realized just how hurtful his words had been.
Henny was just an assistant.
If even he didn't need her anymore, then only two paths awaited her, wait for another professor's assistant position to open up…
Or leave the Royal Academy of Magic, graduate.
And once she graduated, no one would say the academy had been unfair. They would only believe that she hadn't been good enough and got dismissed.
She was a woman of deep learning, someone who had devoted her entire life to study, yet she might end up with nowhere to go.
But Victor wasn't someone who comforted others. He was a notorious, petty villain.
So he merely threw out a single line, "Fine, I take back what I said. Henny, you did well. You didn't make a mistake."
"I'll continue to use you, at least until you completely burn out."
"So before that happens, don't overwork yourself."
Henny brightened up immediately, nodding excitedly. "Professor! I won't disappoint you!"
Victor was curious, why would someone as capable as Henny willingly stay as an assistant?
So he asked.
Henny was surprised. She hadn't expected Victor to ask about her background. A flicker of sadness flashed through her eyes, but she still answered calmly, "I graduated from the Royal Academy of Magic, but by the time I graduated, I still hadn't become a first-rank mage. So I stayed here voluntarily as an assistant."
The rest of the story became clear.
Other professors naturally preferred assistants they personally liked.
Although Henny was capable, her lack of magical talent kept her from catching anyone's eye.
Until the academy recruited a new professor, Victor.
That was how she finally got the chance to work beside the infamous genius mage.
After hearing her explanation, Victor nodded and patted her shoulder.
"Work hard. Since the academy let you stay, it won't treat you unfairly."
"I'm new here. Would you mind showing me around the campus?"
Flustered but happy, Henny quickly agreed and began tidying up her desk.
"Since I just arrived, I haven't explored much, this is a good chance to take a look around."
That's what Victor said out loud, but in truth, he knew the place inside out.
He'd been here countless times in the game. He even knew there was a secret garden behind the headmaster's office.
He only said it to keep her from tiring herself out writing too much.
Especially since watching her write for him made him feel… guilty.
It was clearly his own responsibility, yet someone else was doing all the work.
Then again, guilt aside, it was kind of nice.
Who doesn't like slacking off?
Henny led him around the academy, enthusiastically introducing the various buildings.
Gardens, lawns, the training grounds.
Victor nodded along to everything, though to him, these places were as familiar as his own backyard.
When they reached the Arcane Hall, he stopped.
This was where players used to duel each other, PVP battles, and where they practiced magic proficiency.
At that moment, loud commotion came from inside, students arguing.
Victor frowned slightly. Suddenly, he understood why school administrators liked patrolling noisy classrooms.
Rowdy kids need discipline. Rowdy students, even more so.
So he pushed the door open and entered.
———
Erica was in an absolutely foul mood.
She'd wanted to teach Victor a lesson, but instead, she'd been the one taught a painful one.
To make things worse, her most cherished hair clip was gone.
It had been a gift from her mother, and she had accidentally sent it into the space between teleportation arrays herself.
In order to retrieve it, Erica had come to the Arcane Hall to practice teleportation magic, trying to undo whatever tricks Victor had placed on her array.
But clearly, she couldn't.
After another explosion from a failed teleportation, she clutched her golden hair in frustration.
"So annoying! Why did it fail again!?"
With each failed attempt, Erica grew more impatient, and in that impatience, she made a grave mistake.
While practicing, she forgot to cancel her teleportation spell.
The portal's location, due to her carelessness, appeared in the middle of the Arcane Hall.
A student in uniform happened to step right into her array.
The spell activated automatically, a strange red glow lit up…
Whoosh!
A blinding flash of crimson, and the student vanished.
Erica saw it with her own eyes, the student disappeared inside her teleportation array.
"Jack? Jack!?"
"Damn it! He's been teleported away!"
The faces of the other boys and girls with her turned pale.
Panic flashed through Erica's eyes, she had made a terrible mistake.
"Oh no! He's been sent to another dimension!?"
She frantically cast spells, trying to locate the unlucky student.
But no matter how she tried, the teleportation array gave no response at all.
The poor student, just like her lost hair clip, was gone without a trace.
And the scene right now, it was almost identical to what had happened in the lecture hall before.
At that moment, everyone noticed Erica's panicked expression and the magic flaring from her hands.
The teleportation array in the center, its magic signature clearly matched hers.
And just today, word had spread that Erica had mastered teleportation magic.
In an instant, the students inside the Arcane Hall erupted in anger.
"Erica du Croy!"
"You did this! You're the one who sent Jack away!"
"You did it on purpose!"
The academy students were split into two major factions, the noble faction and the commoner faction.
They'd always been at odds. In the nobles' eyes, those who got in through exams were just future servants for their families.
Disputes between commoners and nobles were common, though fights rarely broke out, this was, after all, the Royal Academy of Magic, where strength decided everything.
But now, in the eyes of the commoner students, Erica du Croy, the noble faction's top prodigy and the daughter of a duke, had just publicly humiliated them all.
Noble heirs rarely came to the Arcane Hall. After studying all day, they usually returned home to be tutored privately by family mages.
Only the commoner students, those with modest backgrounds and no private teachers, kept coming here to train diligently.
If they couldn't surpass nobles in wealth, they'd surpass them through magic.
But who could've guessed that, of all days, Erica, already in a foul mood, would accidentally cause this disaster while trying to retrieve her hair clip?
Now, no one cared about the truth. The commoner students just needed a target, a way to vent all their frustration.
"Erica, you need to apologize for what you've done!"
"Apologize! And bring Jack back!"
Standing alone, Erica couldn't defend herself against the shouting crowd. Head bowed, she said nothing, continuing desperately to try and bring back the lost student.
But the louder the shouting got, the more chaotic her mind became. She couldn't calm down enough to think straight.
Finally, she snapped back,
"I can't do it!"
"It was a mistake! I don't even know how to bring him back!"
That only enraged the commoner students further.
"You made our friend disappear, and you won't even apologize!?"
"Damn nobles, they finally show their true fangs!"
"To you nobles, your lives matter, but what about ours!? What do you take us for!?"
Erica bit her lip, saying nothing.
Her fists clenched tightly, unwillingness and frustration boiling in her chest.
'Victor! How am I worse than you!?'
'You can do it so easily, why can't I!?'
She knew she shouldn't hate others, but after meeting Victor, she realized… she couldn't compare.
Victor surpassed her in every way, in knowledge, in magical talent.
Even among the nobles, her family praised him endlessly.
And once jealousy takes root, it's hard to ever pull it out.
"Do you all have too much free time?"
A cold, abrupt voice echoed from the doorway.
The glow of the setting sun spilled in, casting a blood-red hue across Erica's flawless face.
Victor leaned against the doorframe, a strange crow perched on his shoulder.
His hands were in his coat pockets, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the crowd.
"If you want to write self-reflection essays, then by all means, keep arguing in front of me."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰