From William's Auditorium on the tenth floor of Huygen's Zenith, we had to go down the building, through the main pedestrian road, all the way to North Star Tower 4, and up to the 7th floor. The sight of almost one hundred teenagers together without supervision was almost scary, but luckily we were too hurried to care.
From one class to the other was less than nine minutes, and by the time we had our chance to go down there were only five.
The size of the classroom was plenty of proof that there weren't many rooms per floor. It could clearly fit more than the students currently there.
Once we found our seats, once again near the front of the class, we stared at the professor who observed the commotion. Her eyes were clear, wide, and focused, and she gave us her wholehearted attention. Somehow, that stopped the students from casually conversing with each other.
Unlike yesterday, Lessie wore a formal black one piece, which her personality in a strange way. Her white hair and cheerfulness was a sharp contrast to how she dressed.
When the clock hit 800, Professor Lessie spoke up with a smile.
"I'm just going to wait another minute, in case someone is a little late."
Indeed, several more students arrived, and apparently there were even more to come, but the professor wouldn't wait.
"Alright! Good morning, everyone! I hope you're all excited for this class, because I am!" She almost squealed in delight.
"I'm going to be teaching Algebra I, Algebra II and Statistics I, back-to-back! Are you excited? You, yes, you, what's your name?"
She pointed to a boy in the front row.
"I-I'm Charles."
"Charles, what are you most excited about in this class?" Her eyes shone stars even as she put her student on the spot.
As expected, he didn't answer well.
"I-Uh... So... R-Right, so... Um... I guess... I'm excited about... learning math...?"
"Learning math! Why, yes! You are definitely going to learn math at this class, lots of math!"
She smiled brightly as if his answer was really good, but his awkward smile froze on his face with her next question:
"What else?" She still looked only at him, her eyes ablaze with passion.
Poor boy...
"Uhhh... So..."
Abruptly, she looked to the boy on his left side and changed targets.
"What about you, what are you most excited about, in this class?"
"I... want to learn to apply math to magic."
That answer caused a shift in her atmosphere. Professor Lessie straightened up and switched her smile to a less passionate one.
"What is your name, student?" She asked.
"Ray Villanova." He answered.
"I see. Well, you see, Ray? It's natural that you would want to apply math to magic. It is why you are studying it in the first place. However..." She paused, her eyes sweeping over the entire class. Without any change in her faint smile, she continued. "You won't learn that in this class."
"Rather, you will learn the foundation for everything you are going to learn next, from today to the day you die. But cheer up, for mathematics is the language of the universe, and I shall teach you how to read it!" With that, a beaming smile was once again drawn on her youthful face.
Addressing the entire classroom, she officially started her class.
"For those who don't know me, my name is Lesselia Cameron, but you can call me Lady Lessie or Professor Lessie as you deem fit. Even Lessie is fine, just don't be caught saying it in public, hehe."
"Like you all, I have once been a student at the National Academy, but on another campus, Mansul. I lectured there for a couple of years before being invited here just this year. I'm a novice here, just like you. By the way, I'm just 30 years old. Isn't it great?!"
I wondered what exactly was great about that.
"Anyways, she has been waiting for a while now, so let me also introduce my Teaching Assistant, Miss Blacksworth. Ta-daaam!"
She appeared beside Lessie as if out of thin air. A ruckus of whispers automatically echoed.
"Where did she come from?"
"Was she right there the whole time?"
"Rank 4..." I heard from my right. When I looked at him, Fred continued. "That's the Rank 4 spell, Invisibility Cloak."
"You can turn literally invisible?" I wondered aloud.
"Okay guys, clap clap, back to me. Miss Blacksworth is at her fourth-year on the curriculum, and a Rank 2 mage. She has also proven that she knows her maths: a very impressive child indeed." She dotingly caressed her hair.
The person in question was emotionless when she said to the class: "Nice to meet you. I'm Qiling Blacksworth."
She had long, black hair, made in a beautiful braid and ponytail. She had her blazer off at the moment, wearing the white academy shirt and the indigo skirt over black stockings. Her face had a reminiscent of Asian traces, complemented by the cold, emotionless expression.
"She will be present throughout all of my classes, everyday, so if you have any questions regarding math, she can help you. Otherwise, don't bother her. This is mostly for you boys: don't bother her if it's not math!"
I heard Sam whisper, "...you heard her. Let's work hard to come up with hard math questions so as to increase our time with beautiful Miss Blacksworth!"
I suppressed a chuckle. He may have been kidding, but I'm well aware of how boys this age think and behave, being one of them.
"She is also from the Student Council, so you all don't stand a chance, anyway!" Lessie joked with light laughter.
Blacksworth lowered her head, probably in embarrassment.
I did not imagine a teacher like this given our lessons today and yesterday. It seemed the academy highly valued the professors' freedom.
"A-hem, anyways, let's start the class. I won't try to remember all your names, we will have pleeenty of time for that. First, I'll introduce the course books for the practice questions and free study. Then, I'll introduce my study methodology, including grading and whatnot, and then I'll go through the topics we will be discussing this semester. And finally, we will start the lessons. Sounds good?"
This time, she waited for our answer with a gentle, but eager, smile.
""Yes."" We all said in a low tone.
We were in for a most-bothersome time.
...