"Now, let's begin the lesson."
*Clap!*
In sync with the doctor's clap, the floor suddenly opened up, and a chair emerged. A chair which he promptly sat down in, while signaling for us to seat ourselves on the floor.
Though I did as he wanted, it was hard not to be reminded of kindergarten with both of us sitting down in front of him. It was another kind of feeling than during Mrs. Bright's lessons, where the surrounding ambiance of being in a dojo helped the situation a lot.
Sitting here, in a completely white room, with white walls and a white ceiling, completed with bright led lamps, it was a lot harder to not feel awkward. However, as Sarah didn't seem to care, I had no reason to either.
"Let's start by just talking a bit. As I am new to the academy, and I'm only here because the principal made a deal with me, this will be my first time teaching. Although I know both of you a bit already, I would like to hear why you want to become healers."
With me having no idea why, the first thing that popped up in my head wasn't an answer to his question. Instead, I had an inquiry of my own, "You have met the princess as well?"
To my surprise, his face shifted into a huge grin, showing that he very much enjoyed my question. At the same time, I felt a sudden pressure being emitted on my right, "Dr. Smith... No, teacher Smith, I don't think it's a good idea to..."
Though it was obvious that the princess wasn't too happy, he didn't care at all, interrupting her as he gave me an answer.
"Well, you see, Zero. When Sarah was little, her father was a bit... overprotective. This led to him hiring me to make sure that whenever Sarah even as little as sniffled, nothing bad would happen. And this also led to cute, little Sarah falling a little bit in..."
*Tap!*
"I think that's more than enough, Dr. Smith! As a student of Ainu, I would appreciate it if we don't waste time with meaningless chatter!"
Now standing on her feet, the small, cute princess desperately tried to get our instructor to stop talking. Though she had tried to play it off as well as possible, her bright-red face still gave away just how embarrassed she was.
And right there, it felt like I got thrown back in time, and I couldn't hold myself back, "Oh, so the princess had a crush on Dr. Smith as a kid? That's pretty cute!"
Of course, I forced myself to keep an innocent smile on my face, making sure they wouldn't get to know that I was actually teasing her. Somehow, the reaction I got was even more entertaining than the reactions I got as James.
"I-I! I didn't have a crush on him! Or I mean, I did but... Agh!"
"Hehe, no need to beat yourself up over it, Sarah. I am quite a handsome man, after all."
"Just start the lesson already!"
It was unusual to see Sarah get this riled up over something, but it made sense when thinking about a maiden's heart being fragile. Luckily for her, our instructor was mature enough to know it was time to let go.
"Of course, but it's always good to get to know each other a bit. But fine, let's go back to my earlier question. Why do you two want to become healers? Let's start with Sarah."
With a face that was still carrying signs of her earlier embarrassment, she sat herself down again, and spoke, "I want to become a healer because that's where my talent lies. Even if I'm probably going to do a lot of fieldwork in the future, I don't want to waste my talent."
Rubbing his chin a bit, our teacher didn't look so surprised, "Hmm, seems like it changed since you were a child. Back then you were just talking about..."
"That's my answer! Now it's Zero's turn, right?!"
Still grinning wide, Dr. Smith decided to once again let her off the hook. Somehow, I felt like he had already gotten what he wanted out of his question, but he still had to continue hearing my answer if he wanted to keep the façade up.
Turning his head to me, he gave me a light nod to signal that it was, indeed, my turn to give my answer, and for some reason, it wasn't as easy as I expected.
I could probably give up control and let Zero do the talking, as I suspected that side of me had a very clear view of why, but I didn't dare to. Not in front of Sarah.
Instead, I gave them something that I felt I could to some extent relate to, or at least what Zero could relate to.
"I want to become a healer because I don't want people to get hurt, and I will do everything I can to make sure as many people as possible survive."
It was a simple reason, a reason that on the surface didn't carry much meaning, but in context said a lot. And with Dr. Smith's face straining a bit, I could see that he indeed understood what it meant for Zero to say that.
Zero wasn't a child that didn't understand the weight of his words and didn't understand the profound pressure that came with them. We completely understood that it was a fever dream to expect no one to die during the war, and although James didn't care, Zero would indeed do anything it took.
Including giving up his life.
Immediately, I understood that I had somehow killed any semblance of a good atmosphere in the room with my answer and I made an attempt to recover it, "Or something like that! Haha, I mean, as a healer isn't that what you're supposed to do?"
Neither of the two people around me were dull enough not to understand what I meant to do, and therefore they both allowed it, "You aren't wrong. That's indeed the role of a healer, isn't it?"
*Clap!*
Standing up again, he dismissed the chair he had been sitting on, showing us that we were about to move on to the next part of the lesson. "I have no complaints about your answers, and to be honest, this was just a tip I found on the internet. That it was a good idea for a teacher to understand the motives of his students."
'That's a lie...'
I had no idea how, but I knew that it hadn't been the reason for his question. Most likely it had something to do with not wanting to create healers that would continue the trend of sticking to price ranges that made it impossible for the common people to afford them. At least, this is what I wanted to believe his reasoning was.
"Now, let's move on. I know for a fact that Sarah already has an affinity for healing, and as your former teacher raised you to the skies, I have no reason to doubt it. However, Zero, what about you? What former experiences do you have with healing?"
With a bright smile, I gave him the answer he didn't want to hear, "None! I just had a feeling I would be able to do it!"
"..."
There was nothing I could do about it. Healing as a subject was heavily guarded by healers all around the nation, with most of them being completely against it becoming more common amongst hunters. After all, that could decrease the amount of money they could charge in exchange for their services.
Sadly, this was just one of the many dirty things that I had learned about the human nation during my research, and it could also be said to be one of the more mild things. When money and power were involved, no one was innocent. Or rather, when money and power were an essential part of the system, no one was innocent.
Placing his hand on his forehead, he let out a deep sigh, "Haaaa... Guess we don't have a choice then. Let's begin by seeing if you even have an affinity for it or not."
"Hmm? How do we do that?"
This time, it was Sarah that answered, "Usually, you do multiple tests a couple of times a day for about a month. These tests consist of feeling..."
*Splurt!*
Suddenly, red blood sprayed like a fountain in the air, with none of us noticing how insanely our instructor had acted. Turning our eyes, we got to see him having sliced open his wrist, most likely with the scalpel he held in the other hand.
As the blood started painting the white floor red, I felt a surge of emotions starting to be created inside of me, my brain quickly losing focus of the situation.
"Dr. Smith?!"
"Ah, you're not allowed to heal me, Sarah. If you try, I will block out yourgh...! I will block out your mana... Now, come on Zero. Heal me, or I will most likely die in a couple of minutes."