The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 65

“Cats are unique creatures that are unpredictable and never end up playing as you expect them to.”

The classes conducted by the Monster Studies Senior Professor Flubin were very popular. The materials you learned were both plentiful and useful, so there was quite a bit to learn. Plus, he was very generous when it came to grades. Because of that, every semester—without fail—his classroom had a long line of students waiting to take his class.

“When you try to get closer to them by petting them, they will act stubborn—like they don’t have the time to be messing with you. However, if you act like you’re not the slightest interested in them they will come up next to you and play… It’s ridiculous that they will only treat you like their master when they feel the need to.”

His appearance was rather like a dandy’s, with moderately long hair and a clean-shaven chin. There was a reason he was so popular with the female students.

While conducting classes, if he noticed that the atmosphere was rather down, he would come up with a story to tell the class and raise the atmosphere. In of itself, that was a skill that showed just how experienced he really was.

“In the first place, that’s just the type of species cats are. So, if you want to handle them as you wish, the most important thing is to get their attention. Amongst you students there must be some of you that want to properly create a contract with a cat or even a magical creature… If you come across any cats or other animals, you should try giving it a shot. Rather than trying to be friendly and gain their favor, try to stop paying attention to them and take a stance that anything is fine… Surprisingly, they will try and come up to you first. I guess you could say it’s even harder than dating.”

The students started to laugh and clap their hands at that comment. The atmosphere seemed to have been raised in its own way.

“Surprisingly, within this monster ecology course there are many examples related to cats and other creatures… Let me give you an example…”

With all of the students concentrating, the rest of the lecture passed quickly. As expected, there was no one that could compete against Professor Flubin when it came to teaching the monster ecology course.

Anyway, I had completely caught up in terms of my course curriculum, so I was studying ahead of the regular course curriculum.

My grades, which were originally stuck in the lower ranks, had risen quite a bit. As long as I could raise my writing courses a bit more, there wouldn’t be many students that would rank higher than me.

But I couldn’t let my guard down. If I didn’t have a sufficient basis in terms of my writing grades, I wouldn’t be able to get good grades in practical either. That was why I concentrated on everything during Professor Flubin’s lectures.

“…I’ll end today’s class here. In the next lecture, we will consider the differences in ecology between a gremlin and an ogre. As for the related materials, please bring the third book on monster ecology theory… You can either borrow it from the student library or buy a copy of it for yourself, either is fine with me.”

As I was fully concentrating, I didn’t even realize the speed in which the class had already come to an end. However, before the class ended Professor Flubin added one more thing.

“Ah, that’s right. Ed, can you come to my lab once the lecture finishes?”

I’ve never had a good experience being personally called on by a professor. I had a bad feeling, so I was going to ask the reason first, but Professor Flubin ended up answering.

“A notice came from the academy, so there’s something I needed to ask you in relation to the academy’s scholarship program.”

It ended up being news that I was rather glad to hear.

* * *

“Are you familiar with the academy’s scholarship program? Besides Anise and Leon, there are about ten other second year students that are a part of it.”

“I believe it is a program that will reduce a certain amount of your tuition fee in exchange for contributing to the academy’s workload in some way.”

“Yes, that’s correct. You are already well informed.”

Unlike his easy-going and dandy appearance, Professor Flubin was unexpectedly respectful to the students. He even chose to speak formally, regardless of who he was talking to.

Thanks to that attitude of his, he had an image that everything he did was clean and neat. But looking around his laboratory, it was a complete mess. Barely anything was organized, so I started to think that wasn’t the case. Anyway, he was a person whose appearance and attitude didn’t match.

I couldn’t tell if he was a quiet and calm person, or someone who was easy-going and free-spirited. Just looking at him, I felt like it wouldn’t be surprising for him to speak informally to me.

“Recently, there have been some financial issues with the academy. Right now, it’s not particularly urgent, but… we are quite short in terms of manpower. I was thinking of recommending you, since they are planning to recruit more students for the scholarship program. It also seems like something you might be interested in.”

“I am fine with doing anything if it means the burden of my tuition fee can be lessened.”

“I see. Then I will recommend it to you. Right now, since we are lacking in manpower, everything is quite busy. Once all of the urgent issues have been handled, things will become a lot easier. Since we can’t replace any of the previously picked scholarship students, if you take care of a few errands then you can still receive a decent benefit to your tuition instead.”

For one semester or so, I could pay the tuition off from my transaction with Lortel. However, it wasn’t a long-term solution.

Hearing the story, it seemed that the sale of the Sage’s Seal had been carried out as planned. If that was the case, the question about what Elte Company would do with the Seal now that it was in their hands remained.

I was going to have to figure out how to take care of that right away… They wouldn’t sell it to Krepin within a day or two, so I still had some time. It seemed like there was another reason to go and visit Lortel again.

“Anyway, this is an opportunity for you, Ed.”

The supply and demand of manpower was not always able to meet the required workload.

Even when they were fully staffed, there was no way that they would be able to easily and safely manage academy operations during the busiest period.

That was why Professor Flubin was encouraging me to take the opportunity now and to take advantage of the tuition benefits as much as possible.

Even though it might not seem like it… He was a professor that kept track of every student’s personal situation and did his best to help them out.

“Is there not enough manpower within the academy these days?”

“That’s not particularly an area that a student should be worrying about… But either way, there does seem to be a pretty big vacancy.”

Hearing him say that, it seems the large vacancy would be coming from Professor Glast, as expected.

It might have seemed like he was only concentrating on his research of Celestial Studies, but in fact he was a senior professor that made sure to never neglect his duties… From research, education, and even academic administrative work, only a few people like him were able to do it all on their own.

“Right now, Assistant Professor Cleoh is taking over his duties as a substitute, but… in the first place, an entry-level professor with a short career wouldn’t be able to completely take over Professor Glast’s position. The academy has been trying to give some of the other veteran professors part of her work, and they are also assigning many assistants to her out of consideration.”

Professor Flubin reached out his hand towards a corner in the room, where a steel cage had slowly opened.

Inside it was a grayish-brown snake that had crawled out, its tongue hanging out as it climbed up Professor Flubin’s arm. My eyebrows furrowed a bit, but I didn’t express any complaints. After all, he was a monster ecology professor, so there shouldn’t have been a reason for him to be unable to control a snake like that.

“Assistant Professor Cleoh must be going through a lot right now. But the assistants she has in charge of helping her are quite capable, so that should relieve her workload a bit.”

“Does that mean I will also be one of Assistant Professor Cleoh’s assistants?”

“A student that receives a scholarship is a bit different than a regular assistant. In particular, you won’t belong to a certain professor’s laboratory… Anyway, it’s easier to think of it as being similar to outsourcing to help the academy with their work.”

“What kind of work will I have to do, specifically?”

“Of course, you will mostly be doing things related to the academy’s work. Naturally, to not negatively affect the students’ personal studies, none of the work being requested will be too intense… In my case, I sometimes ask them for help with paperwork or assistance in a field survey.”

Professor Flubin lifted the snake, its tongue hanging out as he checked around it to see if it had any health-related issues.

“Since Assistant Professor Cleoh ended up taking over all of Professor Glast’s work… Well, I guess first off, once end-of-semester evaluations are completed, she will also be responsible for making the conference’s agenda for the break… Also, before the break ends she will have to be in charge of the incoming student’s class assignment examination. Though, usually the other professor also helps with that.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right. So, for the time being you can help out with things like that. You will be in charge of doing operational work, which will not negatively affect your studies. If you happen to run into one of the incoming students, please don’t discipline them. These days people are quite sensitive to that. Also, there are many important people in that year.”

I shook my head, agreeing that I definitely would not. After all, I had no intention of making contact with any of the other students more than necessary.

Well, since I was in Silvenia, I also had a desire to make all sorts of valuable personal connections, but… I wondered if I even had the mental strength to focus on making those connections at the moment.

Taylee was already completely on the right track. The start of it all was a bit nerve-wracking, but unless another problem occurred, Taylee’s growth would almost be as high as an exponential function graph.

The problem was that it was hard to gain that elasticity. However, thanks to having a protagonist’s growth trend, once he started to pick up momentum he wouldn’t be able to stop growing even if he wanted to. In fact, that was also the case during the Glast Subjugation. Despite numerous unexpected events taking place, everything was eventually completed just like the original story.

Pretty soon, his Swordmaster’s Skill would be fully complete. Then he would become a proper Swordmaster and start to distinguish himself amongst everyone else.

I started to wonder if I could finally worry about other things besides him… But suddenly, I started to feel a sense of anxiety creeping up on me again. There was nothing wrong with taking care of everything thoroughly.

“There are a lot of things we need to be careful about, especially when it comes to the incoming first years. More than anything… They are saying that a saint from the Telos Religious Group is going to enter the academy.”

Professor Flubin let out a deep sigh.

There was bound to always be one student in each grade that would gather the most attention. That was different from their individual strengths.

Within the current first years, it was Princess Penia of the Kroel Empire that had gathered the spotlight. And next year’s first year that will do the same was Clarice, from the Telos Religious Group.

The person that takes up the final seat as one of the four heroines in … The heart of Telos, Clarice.

“In fact, all of the attention has been gathered on the saint that will be entering next year, but aside from her there are all sorts of other interesting incoming first years. Ed, since you are also somewhat affiliated with the academy now… it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to check them out, right?”

After saying that, Professor Flubin grabbed a document and began to quickly skim through it. No matter how much they tried to keep it within the academy’s faculty, it seemed that already information regarding the incoming freshman had been leaked out.

I supposed that, from the academy’s point of view, they would start to feel some sort of pressure. In addition to last year’s, this year’s incoming first years… It was a generation where there was an extreme number of students with a natural-born talent, or those that came from an honored bloodline. The more that became the case, the more the academy’s burden grew heavier.

“But when will you, as their upperclassmen, have the opportunity to stand in front of all these brilliant talents? The only son of the commander in charge of the Northern Border Corps, the descendant of the disaster alchemist, or even one from the most powerful houses in the continent…”

After saying that, Professor Flubin suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

It looked like he was worried that he was talking too comfortably in front of a student such as myself. He ended up slipping up, despite how an intellectual professor should have behaved.

I guess he thought it might be a sensitive subject for me, since I was excommunicated from that family, after all.

I glanced up and looked at the report Professor Flub had received. Sure enough, it was exactly what I had expected.

There was no reason for a professor to feel self-conscious about what he said to a student, but… Still, it wasn’t like their words wouldn’t hurt a student.

Seeing him being considerate of my position of being someone that had been excommunicated by my family and forced to live on the streets, I could tell for certain that he had a good heart.

“It’s okay, Professor.”

The picture imprinted with magic was an image of a single girl. She had plentiful blond hair that wrapped around her upper body, almost like folded wings.

Along with her sharp eyes, her distant facial features resembled someone else exactly. You could tell her grace was suited to a duke’s daughter… but I couldn’t lie and say that she left a good impression.