The meeting ended spectacularly with the headmaster literally jumping around and sharing his grand "vision" of the festival. The draft he earlier wrote has turned into a formal edict. A meeting to solve the lack of manpower has turned into full-blown planning of a school festival.
Problems such as disturbing the competitor's training have been blindly ignored by the excited headmaster. The other staff also opted to ignore those very important details. No matter what the outcome is, as long as they keep the students busy, then the festival can continue.
And at the end of the meeting, a full schedule of events has been laid out. It seems the headmaster was inspired by the other schools and decided to implement what he determined to be fun. Surprisingly, working with him is his regular nemesis, Ferd. Together, they singlehandedly laid down the whole plan and sequence of events. As a result, the others inside the room were highly impressed by the cooperation the 2 have shown.
With a definite solution in their hands, the meeting thus ended. One by one, the teachers and staff exited the room.
***
Still inside.
Everybody had already left the room except for a surprising pair. The gorilla-looking Ferd and the kind-looking Headmaster Steiner remained sitting on their seats profusely sweating. Their faces appeared to be relieved as if they dodged an apocalyptic scenario.
As the silence enveloped the room, Steiner suddenly spoke. "Who would have thought that woman will participate." His voice still trembling in fear because of the situation before.
"I'm glad we were able to bullsh*t our way out of there. I don't want to think of what would happen if we managed to piss her off." The gorilla replied in an equally frightened voice.
"Even if she has withdrawn from her earlier job, but her name still scares the heck out of people, including us. I still am clueless about why she applied here."
"Me too. To think that 'she' would become a simple school nurse still sounds impossible. Considering her earlier job, it truly is a miracle of some sort."
Gradually, color returned to their pale complexion as their ragged breathing caused by her presence subsided. Then suddenly, a mischievous idea sprouted in the headmaster's mind.
While Ferd was busy staring at something, Steiner sneakily wrote on a piece of document. Once done, he called on to Ferd. "Hey Ferd, I'm happy to inform you that the privilege of overseeing the battles has been graciously granted your noble self. Rejoice mortal for you have been blessed by the deities!"
"What?!" But before he could process everything, Steiner then presented him with a document. Written there is a signed declaration of his participation.
"You!" Ferd finally understood the feeling of dread he felt. It was not Doctor Rose who gave him the awful feeling. It was this annoying old man all along.
Knowing that the decision is already final, he can only lash out at the still grinning Steiner. "I'll kill you!" With a flash, he appeared behind the headmaster with his gauntlets glowing a furious black aura. But as soon as his fist made contact with his body, the headmaster turned into a puff of smoke. A log replaced him and when he shattered the log, a note emerged from the shredded chunks.
Still angry at being bamboozled, he picked the note up. It read, "I expect a good performance."
"STEINER!!!!!"
***
"STEINER!!!!!"
A man and a woman turned their heads towards the source of the sound.
"Was that Ferd?" The man questioned.
"Don't mind him. They're always like that. But I want the results so better hurry up."
The two arrived at the infirmary.
"So what are the results?"
The man appeared to be hesitating but seeing the look of the woman he relents. "I know you're the school nurse but doing this seems illegal."
"I am the school nurse, so checking a student's medical records is very legal here."
"I know, I know. But you could have just sent a letter to my office and I would have the records delivered to you." The man took a sip from his soda can. "It's also weird, you're asking for a specific student's records."
Rose is getting a little annoyed at this point. "Are you going to tell me, or not?" She asked.
The man shivered. Rose is pissed and he doesn't want to aggravate her further. 'There is something very illegal here!' He thought. 'But my safety is a top priority.'
***
"Sir!"
"You, the one who's raising the hand. What's the question?"
"What's the difference between mana and qi?"
Ye Han's ears perked up with this question. His interest in the innovation humanity has developed during his absence is obvious. If during his time the people were able to harness the abilities to wield mana and qi, his job would have been both easier and harder.
Back in his time, the use of these energies is not as widespread as it is now. Those with the abilities to wield energies were called blessed by the populace. As such, an unchallenged monopoly of these people was created by churches of that time.
But it was his friend, the wizard, who discovered that the ability to wield these energies is an inherent ability of humans. It was not the gods who granted these powers, the only thing they could grant are blessings in the form of artifacts or buffs. And in terms of controlling these energies, the Gods are worse than any normal people of today.
The gods would wield these energies in the crudest way possible that it would even make kids cringe in disgust. They may be the most attuned to mana and qi, right after the primordial beasts, but their lack of fine control is what made them worse.
The way they handled energy can be summarized into two terms, wasteful and simple. Even the supposed to be "God of Magic" is a mere kid in front of a simple mage, when it comes to controlling qi or mana.
"Achooo!"
But fortunately for them, the lack of control was solved by the sheer amount of energy they could produce. If a normal mage has 100 units of mana and can use 5 units of it to skillfully accomplish a thing that is worth 10 units, a God will have a million units or possibly bigger and will consume thousands to accomplish something of the same unit. That is how absurd their capabilities are.
But it is not the same case as their blessed ones. While a god has a ton of mana, these blessed does not even have a mosquito's worth compared to them. Additionally, the things they taught to these people were based on the abilities of their gods. So with lack of control and excessive consumption, it's no wonder they suck. But these pathetic abilities are more than enough to lord over other people during his time.
As for his friend, the Wizard, he's a former blessed one but was banished due to his heretical beliefs. His theory of humans inherently able to manipulate energy is what has lead to his downfall. And to spite the Gods, he devoted himself to improve and optimize what pitiful knowledge he learned from his former church. His efforts bore fruit, and he was able to create a magic system that is completely different from the Gods. A complete and much efficient way for humans to wield the energies. And this method became the foundation of modern magic.
He spread the knowledge to other humans and mounted a rebellion against the very rulers of the land. And in retaliation, almost all of the churches launched an all-out hunt against him. With his newfound knowledge and power, he was able to defend against his enemies. He proved to be a very powerful man, with the ability to destroy armies with a snap of his finger. His actions lead the way for humans to realize their own potential and soon kingdoms started to renounce their religion and vie for the hegemony of the lands.
But with all the power and abilities in his hands, the Wizard is all but one man. And finally, the gods decided to personally intervene and send their own avatars to hunt him down. This forced him in hiding but also annihilating all the avatars who chased him. It was until the fateful meeting with the hero that he re-emerged as the Wizard, a party member of the Hero's Party.