The classroom was silent, eagerly waiting for the teacher to arrive. The bell rang just a second ago and everybody worried to be tested by a weird method like yesterday. They were all serious since they knew that the school was talking about their fail.
"Aghh...pfff! Sorry for being late, got some stuff to do..." said the teacher when he entered the room, not expecting anything from them. He sat on his chair and looked at them. Few minutes of silence and only his vision slowly scanned the room. Then he stood up and came close to the first row of the tables.
"My name is Hito, I was a third lieutenant of the special unit before coming to teach the Spellcraft lesson here at the academy. I have never taught anybody but soldiers, so that is who you are now. You are soldiers! Unit! Treat me like the system you obey not as a superior!" he threw a small pebble casually in the middle of the class and turned back to sit down at his desk.
"I am sorry my hand slipped, could somebody please bring it to me?" he asked nicely. Boy with glasses sitting nearest to it quickly took the ball to him.
"What is your name kid?"
"Harry,"
"Hmm... I guess you are the chosen one! Your fail is now history,"
"What?" the boy couldn't hold his surprise and the rest of the class moved restlessly in their seats.
"Come back to your seat! Now I have several words about my last lesson. Before I explain, what it was all about I want to tell something to those five who didn't fail it outright. Leaving the lesson is against the school rules and for that, you are all prohibited from using magic outside of school lessons!" this was a very big punishment for those five and they expressed their disagreement with angry faces but were silent. Since they were all adults, they could normally use magic as they pleased, which greatly helped them in their jobs, but no more.
"I was tempted to not fail one other student, for using the hour to learn something at least remotely useful. But you are at the top of your class in alchemy, studying alchemy for non-mages as a novice is simply useless," he looked at one female student and continued.
"The point of my lesson was simple. I wanted to see you do anything remotely interesting, or helpful for the lesson. Doing your homework is also a cute idea, but it didn't impress me enough. Overall I was disappointed by your actions!" he said and let it sink in for a moment.
"That said since is the beginning of a new semester you need to pick your representative but choose only from these two who are not failing my class and don't break important school rules," he said and pointed at Harry and Anala. They were both surprised again, but the teacher didn't let them talk and continued.
"Before starting the lesson there is one more thing! I will answer the questions I deem good! If you ask me something banal or stupid... Well, don't do that! So, for today's lesson..." he turned around and wrote on the board only one word. Self-study.
"But you haven't even told us what to study," whispered one boy with a confused look, but looking at the class most people picked up their books for the class. Some did other work, but not one of them slacked off in fear of failure. The bell rang and everybody waited for the teacher who was reading his own book to close it and leave.
"Oh I am not leaving, the next lesson is also here with you lot, there is no point going around the place," he said and gestured that they were free, so they reluctantly started to talk.
"Let's vote for the leader now, to be sure he doesn't question why we didn't," said the brown-haired girl in the front seat.
"Yeah that is a good idea, the vote is going to be easy! Just everybody who wants Harry to be the representative shows your hand."
It was easy since most people voted for Harry. Anala was relieved, she knew that they would vote for the normal guy who everybody here liked over her, somebody who failed two lessons already. Harry was a bit too shy getting the position but he smiled all around.
"Everybody sits!" said the teacher when the bell rang.
"Now take a piece of paper and write what you learn in self-study! The form doesn't matter, just make it coherent so I can read it. I hope nobody will fail for the second time, because you know what that means..." he smiled. While having three fails overall meant expulsion, having two in one subject meant that they would have to be tested by a teacher in the practical use of the subject and could be held back a year.
Hito watched them all react in surprise again but he noticed a bit of change. Some of them only smiled nervously and started to write right away, with great fighting energy. It looked like at least some got his message, or were simply cautious. After getting all their work, he left with a simple goodbye.
"Holy shit! He is a devil!" somebody relieved themselves as the door closes.
"What did you write about?" people start asking each other.
"I couldn't focus so I only learned a bit from the textbook..." one girl with braids answered a put her head on the table so nobody could see her face.
"What about you?" she asked without raising her head.
"I copied the first important thing from the notes I did, then I talked about how I learned to be nice and bring stuff for people..." says her dark-haired neighbor.
"That was the reason Hito took the fail from Harry?" The braid girl turned her head to see her, but still let it lay on the table.
"I dunno," said a boy sitting below them.
"I also think it was something else than just kindness," said Anala, who overheard their conversation when coming to the bathroom.
"What did you write? You talked to him before, did you think of something?"
"I was learning for my Monsters exam, so I wrote what I learned," she simply answered and few people were relieved, not everybody learned from the textbook. However, they all could only guess what was going to happen next lesson.