I spent the whole time before the lesson inscribing magic circles into the walls, as, knowing the protagonist, he was likely to go over the top in whatever it was that he was doing.
Just as I was finishing the inscriptions, the protagonist walked in.
"Oh, you're here already, give me a minute, I need to finish this up and put away the materials."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm just making sure that I absolutely won't lose any money."
"W-what do you mean?"
"Come on, you know yourself that you can't fully control your power yet, so if anything happens, I don't want to have to be paying for the damages."
"Oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that." Said Ryker, scratching the back of his head.
"But how did you know that I couldn't control my power?"
"Again man, just use your head. Because I'm a teacher that has to teach each individual in my class, do you really think I haven't done research on you guys yet, so, it should be obvious that I watched the videos of your admissions exams, I mean, that part where you almost blew up the whole train was very memorable."
The tips of Ryker's ears turned red as he looked away, clearly embarrassed by his lack of skill.
You see, although he was extremely powerful, he still wasn't able to precisely control his spiritual power.
I mean, when I read this, I found it really unconvincing as everybody else in this world could control their spiritual energy, but I guess that the author had just put it in as an obstacle that Ryker had to overcome as a plot device for his growth.
"So, today, unlike everybody else, I'm going to be teaching you how to control your spiritual energy."
Walking over to the center of the training room, I motioned for Ryker to sit down.
Sitting down behind him, I placed my hands on his back.
'You know, this really feels like something that happens in the first chapter of a xianxia novel.'
Feeling out his spiritual energy flow, I slowly injected my spiritual energy into him.
"Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"
He screamed out in anguish as I forcefully started controlling his mana.
"Calm the fuck down man! Endure the pain, stop being a pussy."
With those words, he stopped screaming, but he was definitely still hyperventilating his ass off.
"Take a deep breath in through the nose, and then let it all out through your mouth."
"Hoo... Hahhh, Hoo... Hahhh, yes, that's it."
Forcefully calming himself done, he regained his composure and just gritted his teeth from the pain.
And then, just after a minute of the excruciating exercise, he grabbed the flow of his spiritual energy by himself and started circling it.
'Fuck this damn protagonist, overcoming his weakness in a minute, the world would be so much better if everybody could do that.'
"Well it looks like you got it, so, want to test it out?"
I took a step back, as he started channeling his spiritual energy through his stigma whilst reciting the incantation for a spell.
As the incantation reached its conclusion, everything in the surrounding area froze, as if stuck in time. The clock on the wall literally started ticking at a comparably slower pace.
Well, it actually was, and as I watched, Ryker started moving around freely in his "domain".
He stared in wonder at his completed spell, one that hadn't blown up on him, before looking around and trying to see if he could have done anything better.
I just stared at him as he went through this process, waiting for the duration of the spell to end.
As it ended, and I could move freely again, I walked up to him and patted him on the head.
"Whooee-uueet! (it's a whistle) You sure learn quickly."
He purred a little under my touch, smiling brightly up at me like a proud Asian child that had just been praised by his parents for good grades.
I congratulated him, because, even though I was jealous of his ability, I still felt really good about a student being able to learn from me that quickly. I then started to teach him how to apply the theory that I had proposed the other day, which, being the protagonist he was, he was able to apply in literally two seconds after he had learned how to control his mana.
We found out that he only had an affinity for time magic, which, unfortunately, he already had the stigma of, so my theory was of no help to him.
"Well, it was fun teaching you today, next time, I'll be testing you on your spiritual energy control, because I have nothing else to teach you, so be prepared!"
With that, I sent him off.
'Well, meeting the protagonist of this novel in real life, was certainly... interesting.'
You see, I was really surprised at his ability to hide the other side of himself.
The scheming, scummy, ruthless, manipulative, sociopathic, serial killer, bastard side of him.
To explain, you first had to understand his background.
He had been born in one of the side families of the noble house descended from the "Time" hero, the Constantine family.
At his birth, he had been declared a threat to the main family, due to his immense spiritual energy, so the entire side family had been killed, but Ryker had somehow escaped the slaughter with the help of a kind butler.
Being the fortunate protagonist, he had been left at the doorstep of the actual hero of "Time", a remnant of the War of Havoc, who had survived to this day due to his mastery of the "Time" element.
Growing up, he had gone through hellish training in order to inherit the special stigma of the "Time" hero, often having to commit atrocious acts at the behest of his teacher, who, after all his time in this world, had come to the conclusion that all people were inherently evil, believing that the only way to save everyone was to achieve your goal in the best way possible for yourself, not sparing any method.
Ryker, being his student, had obviously inherited this twisted way of thinking, but after his teacher died, and he was finally released into the outside world in a situation where he wasn't forced to use people, he got to see the good side of humans, which, slowly but surely, made him question his mentor's teachings.
Now, whether you met the cold, cunning, ruthless Ryker, or the nice, little brother type Ryker was solely based on your luck, and the situation he was in.
I mean, reading about this, I had thought that there must have been some indications that he was a sociopath from his behavior, but, now seeing it in real life, I really had to acknowledge and marvel at how well he hid his other side.
'My my, Ryker Constantine, you truly are one interesting fellow!'
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A/N: So, I'll now be posting chapter updates on my Instagram, which that same cousin as last time had told me to create, so if you want instant notifications whenever I post a chapter, make sure to follow me at @worthyadversary7.
Also, the same cousin has started translating my novels into Vietnamese, so if you can't read English or if your friends can't, try checking it out here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/312527227-l%E1%BB%85-c%E1%BA%A7u-h%E1%BB%93n-cho-nh%E1%BB%AFng-k%E1%BA%BB-suy-s%E1%BB%A5p-a-requiem-for-the