I went out to the back of the school building, offered my unused laboratory to Middleton and Rhea, and then returned to the classroom for the time being.
I had the impression they wanted to entrust me with Rox’s education, but ideally, education should be handled directly by the parents.
If he still didn’t change, I would take a strict approach to his education.
With that thought in mind, I opened the door to the classroom. Everyone’s eyes turned towards me.
Feeling uncomfortable, I bowed my head to Speyside. "Sorry for the disturbance. Please continue with the lesson."
Speyside nodded with a complex expression and looked at the students. "When it comes to omitting chants, I believe it was explained in the junior section classes that each word in a chant has its own meaning. We need to break down these words and reduce them while maintaining the meaning. Additionally, the amount of mana infused changes, so we need to experiment with various patterns."
With Speyside’s explanation, the students nodded one after another and began to break down their chants.
You might think it would be better to just teach the completed three-verse chants, but the challenge of magic lay in the fact that there were ten different ways for ten different people. Since there wasn’t a single answer, even students who could only manage four-verse chants might come up with ideas that the principal would not have thought of.
That was why advanced students each developed their own methods of chant reduction and learned how to research magic.
Even if they failed to shorten the chant, they might end up creating a spell with a different effect. Therefore, there were many magic researchers in various countries.
Moreover, those who found a clue to create a new spell would go through many hardships and frustrations until the new spell was completed. Some spells required a lot of space, and others might involve challenging alchemy using minerals.
Currently, when teachers guided students, only solvable problems were presented. But once they became researchers, they embarked on the never-ending path of research.
I was able to learn and contribute to the creation of various spells by assisting Owen in his research.
However, since I wasn’t a researcher at heart, I could understand their difficulties but not their feelings.
If I said unnecessary things, I might discourage or even hurt the students.
Thinking this, I decided to refrain from giving too much unnecessary advice during the lesson.
I decided to observe the students who seemed to struggle with understanding Speyside’s teachings.
The one struggling the most was a large boy with golden hair like a lion's mane sitting next to the wall.
It was Felter Cairn.
"Felter-kun, are you weak with water?" I asked.
Felter glanced at me in annoyance. "It’s not that I have a particular weakness. However, I'm not good at reducing chants. I’m good at physical enhancement, though."
Even though he spoke it in an annoyed tone, he was seriously focusing at his desk. He just couldn't make any progress with his pen.
Thinking he might be more serious than he seemed, I stood next to Felter. "What part don’t you understand?"
"… I can’t break it down. I think this chant is for…"
"Oh, this one. This part is for generating a water sphere, this part is for compression, this part is for maintaining the compressed sphere’s rotation, and this part is the trigger for activation, which disappears if not activated. Try thinking about each effect separately and see if you can combine them."
"… I see."
After my simple explanation, Felter quickly understood the structure. Magic language was a unique system, but once you grasped the rules, you could reduce any chant by at least one verse.
Felter was smart, so he would soon get the hang of it if he put in the effort.
As I smiled while thinking this, I heard whispering voices.
"Hey, the witch is smiling…"
"Could Felter have been cursed…"
Hearing the rude conversation, I looked over. Several students turned their heads away so quickly that it looked like their necks were going to break.
As I glared at them, Speyside deliberately cleared his throat to get attention. "I'll continue the lesson. But first, Aoi-sensei…"
"Yes?" I tilt my head.
Speyside said expressionlessly, "What you just said… please elaborate…"
―――
As a result, Speyside seemed to have become a student and kept asking me questions about his research.
Speyside's questions were somewhat advanced for the students, but they still provided a good learning opportunity for them. By the end of the lesson, everyone had gained some hints.
Some students even managed to reduce their chants by two verses, making the lesson a great success in a way.
"… It’s annoying, but your knowledge of magic is unfathomable. For the sake of my research, I humbly ask for your guidance."
"I decline."
"… How about two gold coins for a one-hour lecture?"
"I decline."
For some reason, even after the lesson, Speyside kept saying strange things beside me. I hurriedly declined and left the scene.
Walking down the hallway, I wondered how Rox was doing, so I headed to the laboratory.
When I arrived, I saw royal guards lined up outside the laboratory. "Excuse me, where is Rox-kun?"
The royal guards silently pointed to the laboratory.
"It’s been about an hour already," I said to confirm, but the royal guards merely nodded silently.
Just as I was wondering what to do, the door to the laboratory opened, and a figure staggered out.
It was supposed to be Rox, but he didn't look like Rox to me.
In just an hour, his cheeks had become thinner, his back was bent, and he was looking around in fear. The moment he saw me, he let out a sound that was a mix between a gasp and a scream and then collapsed to the floor.
In shock at the drastic change, I instinctively extended my hand and approached him. "… Are you alright? What happened…"
"Hii, hiiiaaaaah?!" Rox screamed while flailing his limbs and retreating.
Stunned, I saw Rhea and Middleton appear from the laboratory, smiling with satisfaction.
"Hmm, sorry to have kept you waiting."
"Thank you, Aoi-san."
I glanced at Rox and said, "… Rox-kun is unusually terrified. What happened?"
Middleton nodded deeply. "We told him about the fate of a ruler who made too many enemies and explained in detail what would happen if he didn't change his ways."
"I can heal injuries, so we included some practical experience."
As they spoke and laughed, Rox started trembling violently.
"… Isn’t that too much?" I said it in an exasperated voice, but they didn’t seem to care.