Shang looked at the new teacher.
The new teacher looked like someone in his early thirties. He had long, emerald green hair, and he wore a green suit of leather armor.
This teacher's appearance surprised Shang. First of all, that teacher didn't wear the normal silver getup that all the other teachers wore. Second of all, he appeared a bit on the younger side for teachers. Most of the teachers looked like they were in their forties or fifties.
"Follow him, boy," the first teacher said to Shang with an annoyed tone.
"Oh, right!" Shang answered. Then, he looked at the new teacher and nodded politely. "Thank you."
"No thanks necessary," the green-haired teacher said with a smile. "After all, you're paying for all of this."
Shang only nodded.
The teacher looked at the others. "Talk to you later," he said.
"Don't abuse him too hard," a woman from the side giggled.
"Why do you always have to do this, Melena?" the teacher asked with a groan. "If you keep doing this, the students will one day start believing your crap."
The other teachers only giggled as they entered the academy.
The teacher watched them leave and sighed. "You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your colleagues," the teacher said to Shang.
"You can," came a distant shout from one of the teachers.
"Stuff it!" the teacher shouted back with furrowed brows.
Shang could only hear more laughing.
"Come," the teacher said as he gestured to the school with his head before entering.
Shang followed behind the teacher and looked around. For the first time, Shang could actually see the inside of this legendary academy.
Shang could see empty fields filled with rubble, some clean training places, and even a small forest, which surprised him. Warrior's Paradise was already very limited in terms of space, and the academy just placed a forest here?
"Hide and seek," the teacher in front of Shang said.
"What?" Shang asked.
"Hide and seek," the teacher repeated as he gestured towards the forest. "You won't always fight in open terrain. Sometimes, you are outmatched, and you have to flee. Sometimes, opponents might hide in the area to ambush you. That's what the forest is for."
"Oh, okay. Makes sense," Shang said absentmindedly.
The teacher noticed that Shang was too preoccupied with looking, so he didn't elaborate further.
"The atmosphere between you teachers feels more personal and comfortable than I anticipated," Shang commented suddenly.
The teacher snorted. "Why wouldn't it be? We're colleagues."
"Yes, that's normal, but it's not a given that the relationship between your boss and you is that relaxed."
"Oh?" the teacher uttered as he threw a glance toward Shang. "What gave you that idea?"
"You're not adhering to the obvious dress code," Shang answered. "Additionally, one of the others shouted that you can choose your colleagues, hinting at personnel responsibility."
"Personnel responsibility?" the teacher repeated with confusion while scratching his chin. "That's an interesting word. I've never heard of it before, but I can take a good guess at its meaning."
"Anyway, quite impressive of you to see these details. It might seem obvious to you, but not everyone notices these things. A lot of people look at what I wear, and they think that I'm just some janitor or something. After all, my uniform isn't as lavish as the other teachers' uniforms," the teacher said with a chuckle.
"Where did you learn of these things? From which family are you?" the teacher asked.
Shang felt a bit awkward after receiving that question.
"I'm not from any family," Shang said.
The teacher looked at Shang with a skeptical expression. "So, you learned that all on your own?"
"That's the difficult part," Shang said. "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Yes, I don't know," Shang confirmed. "My oldest memory is from when I woke up in Duke Whirlwind's garden a bit more than half a year ago."
After hearing that, the teacher stopped walking as he looked at Shang with a strict expression. "With your bright mind, you can probably understand why that story sounds so unbelievable. There is also plenty of reason to keep one's affiliation with certain families and organizations a secret."
"However, you have to know that this academy is run by the strongest warrior in the world, and he's a very altruistic person. He isn't interested in politics, and he only wants to further the advance of humans in terms of physical power."
"All your past political affiliations are irrelevant here. Yes, we might be in Duke Whirlwind's territory, and yes, we might have a deep connection with him, but the dean has made it very clear that we accept everyone."
"So, with all of that said, are you still adamant about the fact that you lost your memory? I must warn you. We have ways to check if your claim is true," the teacher explained.
"Yes, because that's what happened," Shang said calmly.
The man looked at Shang with a skeptical expression. "Alright, then let's test that right now. Please don't resist."
Shang only stood there without moving.
The teacher pointed his finger at Shang's forehead and then…
He started to cast a spell.
Shang was surprised when he saw that the teacher was casting a spell.
Wasn't this supposed to be a warrior's academy?
Didn't the guy wear leather armor and a long spear on his back?
Why did that guy suddenly start casting a spell!?
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ The teacher took several seconds to finish his spell. Obviously, he was unused to casting spells or, at least, to casting this specific spell.
Additionally, Shang felt the words the teacher said to be familiar.
Hadn't he heard similar words before?
When the teacher was finished, some Mana came out of his finger and entered Shang's mind.
Now, Shang remembered where he had heard that before.
Duke Whirlwind had cast the same spell to check if everything was alright with Shang's mind.
However, the Duke hadn't even needed a full second to cast that spell.
After traveling through Shang's head, the Mana came out from the back of his head.
The teacher looked at the Mana, and his face showed surprise.
"So?" Shang asked.
"Well, it seems like you've spoken the truth," the teacher said with a surprised expression. "I can see that something in your mind doesn't make sense."
"Can you tell me more about it?" Shang asked, fully knowing what the answer was going to be.
The teacher sighed. "Sorry, but I'm only training in Magic to supplement my fighting style. I'm a Magic Warrior, if you've heard the term before. I know some spells not related to combat, but using them is very difficult and draining for me."
"The only thing I can test is to see if the Mana coming out of your mind is normal-looking or not. We mainly use that spell to check if someone's memory has been tampered with. That's basically the only thing we can do with it."
"Alright," Shang said with a nod.
The teacher scratched his chin in surprise.
He had been certain that this kid had lied to him, but, apparently, the kid hadn't.
Amnesia, huh?
Who would've thought?
Then, the teacher wanted to continue leading Shang to the academy, but he stopped when he noticed how weird Shang's reaction had been.
How would an amnesiac person act when someone had just cast a spell on them that demonstrated their amnesia?
Wouldn't they immediately ask for ways to cure it? Wouldn't they be anxious or hopeful?
Yet, Shang acted like it was only normal.
"Someone has done that to you before, right?" the teacher asked.
Shang nodded.
"And you perceive that person to be even better at casting magic than me, right?" he asked.
Shang nodded again.
"You don't even know how good I am at casting spells, and you assume that I'm automatically less skilled than that person?" the teacher asked with a frown. "Any half-skilled Adept can cast that spell. What made you so sure that I'm less skilled?"
Shang only looked at the teacher.
"I haven't seen you fly through the air."
This shocked the teacher.
Flying?
There were only less than ten people in the world that could fly, and this guy was telling him that he talked to one of them?
However, the teacher quickly remembered what Shang had told him.
Shang's earliest memory was of him waking up in Duke Whirlwind's garden.
So, wasn't it logical…
"Did you meet Duke Whirlwind in his garden?" the teacher asked.
Shang nodded.
The teacher took a deep breath and released a sigh.
"Alright, if he can't see what's happened to your mind, I don't even need to attempt. Let's continue. We don't have all day."
With that said, the teacher continued.
Shang only looked at the teacher.
Shang was pretty sure that the teacher was regretting his earlier words about Shang not being able to tell whether someone was more powerful or not.
After some seconds of increasing the teacher's discomfort by only looking at him, Shang followed the teacher.
In the front, the teacher only rubbed his face.
When cheeks flushed with blood, they often itched.