Aena was perplexed by the discovery, but she duly listened to the ongoing lesson. Instead of giving a conventional lecture followed by homework, Instructure Willowsage structured her syllabus a bit differently from the other instructors.
One's grade would be solely reflected by the student's improvement, regardless of where they fell skill-wise. While she did teach lessons, those were geared for the students' benefit, and whether they utilized the knowledge or not was up to them.
Because of this, some students just took the class to meet a credit requirement, which Aena personally did not understand—why pay tuition if you're not going to learn?
Of course, the only ones who did that were the really rich nobles who threw around money like water and didn't hold a single care in the world except indulging in pleasure. Most nobles were bound by reputation or family burdens, so the former types were an oddity at Astral Academy.
Aena took care to pay extra attention to Instructor Willowsage's lessons since they seemed very informative and beyond the scope of what even most noble houses taught. The students around her exemplified this—their eyes were glued to the front of the room, eager to learn despite their previous prestigious education. Astral Academy was on a whole other level in terms of their curriculum.
Instructor Willowsage's personality and teaching style also helped contribute to the engagement. The theories and advice were padded with well-known examples and succinct explanations.
"How many of you are mages?" Instructor Willowsage glanced around the room.
Almost everyone raised their hands. The only ones who didn't were Cassidy, who Aena was already aware of, and an unassuming-looking girl she hadn't noticed before. She had stormy gray hair that was tousled like she had just recently awoken. A thick curtain of hair partially blocked her eyes, and her uniform looked two sizes too large, drooping on her small frame.
Maybe it was the girl's nestled figure or her voluminous hair-to-body ratio, but she looked like an etiolated plant, withdrawing on itself.
Aena couldn't imagine anyone like that ever holding a weapon, but as they say, "looks aren't everything." The girl looked like someone from the Delta Class, specifically the variety that stayed holed up in their workshops for months on end. She even had the tell-tale slight bags under her eyes to show.
"Most of you here are mages, but mages have one fatal flaw," Instructor Willowsage said.
"Can someone tell me what that is?"
A boy in the front row confidently raised his hand.
"Mages have a limited mana pool, which means they have a limit to their power. However, they make up for it in utility and attack power," he said assuredly.
Instructor Willowsage hummed in thought.
"No."
The boy looked crestfallen, but seeing everyone else's puzzled faces, he felt better about his lack of knowledge.
"Can't melee warriors fight forever though?" Instructor Willowsage hinted.
"But they have less destructive power," someone protested. "They can only attack one at a time."
Instructor Willowsage unleashed a wide grin.
"That's right," she admitted.
"But how many mages do we have? How many powerful ones?" she asked the class.
"All it takes is one well-placed strike, one well-aimed arrow, one unseen dagger, and they're dead."
That was true—while a swordsman just had to swing his or her sword to attack, a mage had to cast a barrier to block, and a swordsman could definitely swing more times on average than a mage could keep erecting barriers. Warriors relied on stamina; mages relied on mana.
"In short, armed fighters are much more efficient in one on one fights," Instructor Willowsage said. Many people frowned at her statement.
"That's not even adding on the mana stipulation that we talked about last time. A lack of understanding greatly inhibits a spell's output."
Last time? She wasn't here last time. Aena would have to ask Cassidy about that later.
"But enough about fighting, this isn't combat class after all," she waved her hand to dismiss any rebuttals arguing the greatness of mages.
"However, this IS Spiritual Attunement, not magic theory—" She raised her hands for emphasis.
"—and that doesn't just apply to mana."
"As you may be aware, we personally have a few warriors in here," she said, glancing at Cassidy and the reticent gray-haired girl.
"This is something I believe more people should know," she said with resolve in her eyes.
"Out there, on the front lines, there is no such thing as dedicated roles," she said gravely.
"It isn't organized like what those outdated textbooks claim, but I guess you youngsters wouldn't understand anyway," she said dolefully.
Listening to Instructor Willowsage's words, Aena couldn't help but feel a sinking pit in her stomach. Maybe it was because Aena had always had a propensity for sensing others' intentions through tone or body language, but she could feel the weight behind the instructor's words.
She must have experienced a lot of things—painful things—in order to have such emotion embedded in her speech. Maybe she would find out someday.
"What I recommend to you all," she said, briefly locking eyes with each of them individually.
"Is to have a secondary method of attack. You don't know how useful it is in many situations," she proclaimed.
"It can deter the enemy, be used as a surprise attack, and be saved as a last resort."
Instructor Willowsage then reached into her cloak and pulled out a small dagger.
"This is what I personally used." She waved it around gracefully and turned it so the light reflected from every angle. The material seemed to be some sturdy metal and shimmered with a deep emerald green. A sleek narrow-bladed kunai.
"I can't count how many times this has saved me," Instructor Willowsage said. After displaying it for a moment, she hid it back into the inner linings of her cloak.
"It would be prudent to start learning how to wield a weapon."
"I won't force you," she added hurriedly, "but if you plan to go far along this path, you will need to master a secondary weapon."
Seeing that some students were still unconvinced, she added an example.
"You all know Starflare right?"
Even Aena knew who that was. She was the trending star of the generation. The newbie swordsman had quickly risen through the ranks and was one of the current icons of the nation. Her signature move was a wave of energy generated by a swing of her sword that carried terrifying destructive potential.
"She's a mage."
Aena was stunned. So a swordsman can be a mage? Interesting.
"I'll leave you all to think about that. If you're looking to learn a weapon, come talk to me sometime."
She stepped off the podium, signaling that the lesson was over. Instructor Willowsage didn't explicitly state everything outright since she wanted her students to think critically for themselves. She would tell them next class of course, but it was more beneficial for their growth to ruminate on their own.
Students began trailing out of the class, some looking lost in thought or displeased.
Aena just remained seated behind her desk, and so did Cassidy, who was watching the others. Aena thought she saw a flash of disdain on the girl's face that seemed to convey "idiots."
It was a while before everyone left since a few students had asked for weapon advice, and only then did Aena go up to the instructor.
"Instructor Willowsage," she started.
"You wanted to talk?"