"Finally a cadet in my class."
Aiden felt the grip of a hand on his shoulder tighten up as he felt chills running through his whole body.
'W-what?'
He questioned in confusion as he felt a scary vibe.
Whoosh
Jumping forward, Aiden quickly turned around as he looked at the teacher in caution.
"What are you trying to do?" Aiden asked as he frowned.
"A cadet."
The teacher said as she raised her hand forward.
"H-huh?"
Aiden felt bad vibes from her as he used his skill without a doubt.
[Reflection]
Forming an invisible wall between himself and the teacher, he prepared himself for any attack.
The teacher stood still with her hand forward, pointed at Aiden.
'What is she trying to do?' Eden asked as he carefully observed her.
"A cade-"
KOFF KOFF KOFF
Thump
Suddenly bursting into a series of coughing fits, the teacher fell to the ground as she lay there flat on her face.
'What the hell is going on?' Eden said as he looked at her in confusion.
'I would like to know the same thing.' Aiden replied as he looked past the teacher at the door.
'Should I make a run?' He thought as a drop of sweat slid down his face.
KOFF KOFF
'You won't be able to reach it in time. She is standing up.' Eden said as Aiden frowned.
"…Stop it."
As Aiden observed her in caution, he heard a hoarse voice from her.
'What's wrong with her voice?'
"EXCUSE ME. TEACHER." Aiden yelled as he tried to wake her up.
"…Huh?"
That yelling seemed to have worked as the teacher raised her head and looked forward.
"Hmm. A cadet." She said in that hoarse voice of hers as she stared at Aiden.
"D-didn't you get the notice? *KOFF *KOFF The trial class is cancelled today." She said as she adjusted her round glasses.
The round glasses made her eyes appear bigger than how they actually are.
She stood with her shoulder and neck crouching forward a little.
Her hands shook ever so slightly to not be noticed easily.
"You wouldn't attack me again, would you?" Aiden asked, as he was full of doubt.
"A-attack?…" The teacher seemed to have gone into a deep thought upon his question as her hands started to tremble a little more noticeably.
"W-was I attacking you?" Coming back to her senses, she asked as she looked at Aiden with her eyes also trembling.
Looking at them, Aiden found it weird. He could tell if someone was trembling from fear or not.
In her case, she wasn't trembling from fear. It was more like a natural thing for her hands and eyes to shake in small vibrations.
"Yes. As soon as I entered the class, you suddenly got behind my back and grabbed my shoulder." Aiden explained as he observed her.
KOFF KOFF KOFF
She started to cough again as she gently pressed her chest.
Her face and eyes were red; in addition, her nose was slightly runny… It was easy to deduce that she was sick.
Sigh
"I-I must have fallen unconscious because of my fever." She said with a gloomy tone as she looked forward.
"Don't worry, c-cadet. I won't attack y-you. You can leave now; the class is cancelled." She said as she again adjusted her glasses.
"It wasn't m-me that attacked you, b-but my summon. You are safe now." She said, looking at Aiden, who was still full of doubt.
"…You are the teacher for the summon class, right?" Aiden suddenly opened his mouth as he asked the question that had him doubting.
"Y-yes."
She replied, holding her trembling hands together.
"I have a question to ask."
"A-ask ahead. But just one question." She said as she scratched her head and walked towards her desk.
"…I have looked into the summoning book, but I couldn't find the answer there."
Aiden said as the teacher nodded her head.
"…Let's say, hypothetically, if a pet of mine is stuck inside a dungeon and that dungeon disappears… Can I summon my pet back to me?"
"…A d-dungeon only d-disappears when it is cleared. Was the pet accidentally left inside the dungeon, or what happened?" She asked.
"…No. In this case, let's say the dungeon disappeared without being cleared." Aiden said as the teacher blanked out again in deep thought.
'But what if it really was cleared?' Eden asked as Aiden shook his head.
'No. According to Louis, the dungeon only disappears when the people who cleared it exit. And also, he said that the dungeon should have emitted a blue beam when cleared, which it didn't.' Aiden said.
"I-I see. So, you are the infamous A-Aron Belur." The teacher came out of her blanking phase as she looked at Aiden.
"…infamous?" Aiden said in confusion.
"Y-yes. There was an uproar in the adventuring community recently about a dungeon that disappeared suddenly with an exploration team still inside and a boy who alone got out of the dungeon." She said as Aiden frowned.
'That's problematic.' Aiden thought.
"A-anyway, the answer to the question you asked is—"
…
Clack
Walking out of the class, Aiden felt frustrated as he scratched his head.
"…Tch. So, it's not possible after all." He muttered as Eden raised his eyebrow.
'No need to feel defeated already.' Eden said as Aiden shook his head.
'I'm not. It's just frustrating.' Aiden replied, as he was already, at the corner of his heart, aware that it wasn't possible.
Summoning is a magic where the summoner brings the creatures from lower dimensions to this world and controls them.
Lower dimension, from what he had read, is an alternate place to this world that is dyed in red and inhabited by creatures.
By that, he didn't actually understand anything, but when he tried to look for information about the lower dimension, he couldn't find any.
'Information regarding the lower dimension is probably locked at the upper floors of the library.' Aiden said as Eden nodded his head.
'Yeah. The book you are searching for might also be there.' Eden said as Aiden clenched his hand.
'If only my rank were higher.' He thought as he walked through the silent hallway.
In this academy, ranks were the thing that determined most things.
Aiden, who wasn't interested in rank before coming to the academy, had thought that whatever rank he would get would not affect his actions. But soon, he realized that he was wrong.
As he first entered the library, he tried to go to the upper floors of the library, but there was a barrier that stopped him.
Upon questioning Donna, he learned that to access the book on the upper floor, he needed to raise rank to the required ranks.
The library had four floors, including the ground floor.
Cadets from rank 3000 to rank 2501 were only accessible to the ground floor.
Then, the cadets from rank 2500 to rank 101 were accessible to the first floor, while the cadets from rank 100 to rank 11, and finally, the top 10 students were the only students that had access to the top floor.
The quality of books increased from floor to floor, so it should have raised voices in discrimination against lower-ranked students, but the reason that hadn't happened is because the academy wasn't discriminating but protecting cadets.
The library also contained special manuals that provided strength, but to use those manuals, a certain level of power was required within the individual.
To fulfill that power requirement, ranks were given a new function, and the books were separated accordingly.