21: Chapter 20: Do We Have to Stab Ourselves?
21: Chapter 20: Do We Have to Stab Ourselves?
After breakfast.
Thorne shouldered the bag stuffed with teaching tools and walked into the classroom carrying a mix of nerves and anticipation.
To his surprise, quite a few students had actually chosen this course.
Since it was an elective, only third-years and above could take it.
According to Professor McGonagall, the notice about this new elective had only gone out in the second half of summer break.
Even so, eleven or twelve students were already sitting in the classroom.
It looked like a mixed third- and fourth-year group.
Thorne was in charge of two classes total: one combined third- and fourth-year section, and one sixth-year section.
Fifth- and seventh-years, buried under exam pressure, had naturally been left out.
After all, this course wasn’t part of any wizarding exams, so there was no reason to eat into their precious study time.
Thorne stepped up to the podium and swept his gaze over the little bugs below.
“Welcome to the course, everyone.” His tone was steady — a perfectly serviceable opening.
“I’m Professor Eric Thorne.
I’ll be teaching you soul magic.” He rubbed his hands together, a more casual smile appearing.
“Today is the first class, so I mostly want us to get to know each other and give you a basic sense of what this new subject is about.” “I’m sure you already know this course hasn’t been added to any wizarding exam system.” Thorne paused, genuine curiosity in his eyes.
“So I’m curious — why did you choose it?
Are you interested in soul magic?” The words had barely left his mouth when a pair of red ants raised their hands almost at the same time.
Thorne’s eyebrows lifted.
They looked like Gryffindor students, and even as bugs these two ants were nearly identical… Probably twins.
He nodded at one of them to speak first.
“Professor!” the red ant said loudly.
“I picked this class because we don’t have to buy textbooks here!” Thorne nearly stumbled on the spot.
He instinctively scanned the room and saw quite a few students nodding in agreement.
“Uh…” Thorne cleared his throat.
“Good.
So you’re saying you think this is more of a hands-on course, right?” “Don’t worry,” he added.
“This course is almost entirely practical.
As for textbooks — well, the teacher is trying to write one himself.
No rush.” He waved for the red ant to sit, then motioned to the other.
“What about you?
Why did you choose this class?” “Professor,” the second red ant asked seriously, “I heard we can learn the Killing Curse here.
Is that true?” The classroom went quiet for a moment.
Thorne: “…” “…Student, as a newly hired professor, I’m not quite ready to go eat prison food yet.” The students broke into light laughter.
Thorne waved helplessly for the second red ant to sit as well, then glanced down at the student list.
Sure enough.
The list clearly showed a pair of brothers with the surname Weasley.
“I see…” Thorne sighed inwardly.
This class had apparently attracted two live wires.
Given that, Thorne decided to skip the pointless preamble and jump straight to the main point.
“Anyway… motivation isn’t really important.
What matters is that this class is extremely valuable.” “When it comes to soul magic, there’s only one thing that’s truly important.” His tone stayed calm.
“The soul itself.
That’s the foundation of everything.” As he spoke, Thorne pulled a small glass bottle from his waist.
Inside was a translucent liquid that flowed slowly, as if it carried a faint pulse of life.
Almost the instant the bottle appeared, every student’s gaze locked onto it.
“Professor,” a student couldn’t help asking, “souls… do they have physical form too?” “Of course,” Thorne nodded.
“Though it’s different from what you usually understand as a ‘soul.'” He smiled and gently pulled the stopper from the glass bottle.
“This substance comes from living beings.
It’s one of the foundations of life itself — very miraculous.” Thorne’s tone grew more serious.
“If you master it, it can cause enormous destruction.
But of course—” “It can also be used in reverse, to repair wounds that should be almost impossible to heal.” “I’ll demonstrate for you.” The moment he finished speaking, Thorne raised the bone nail in his hand.
The next second.
Without the slightest hesitation, he drew it across his own arm.
Shhk!
The sharp bone nail instantly opened a clean gash.
Blood welled up.
The entire classroom seemed to hit pause.
Several students froze on the spot.
One girl even let out a short scream.
Under everyone’s horrified stares, Thorne calmly extended his injured hand straight into the glass bottle filled with liquid soul.
Then he began condensing.
A faint glow rippled across the wound, as if something were being pieced back together.
In the blink of an eye, the bloody gash vanished completely, not even a scar left behind.
Thorne withdrew his hand, opened his eyes, and smiled.
“Well?
What do you think?” “This is just the basic application of soul magic.” But the students below were completely silent.
No gasps of awe.
No cheers.
Only stunned, shell-shocked silence.
After a long moment, a snail cautiously raised a trembling hand.
“P-Professor…” His voice was shaky.
“So for future classes… do we have to stab ourselves too?” “And if this is only the basic application…” The snail swallowed hard.
“Does that mean advanced applications involve chopping off hands or arms or something?” Thorne looked at him and was silent for two seconds.
“This was just a demonstration,” he sighed.
“I’m not going to make you hurt yourselves in class.” The students all let out a collective breath of relief.
Thorne thought for a moment, then added: “At least not right now.” “What?!” A wave of terrified whispers swept through the classroom.
Thorne acted as if he hadn’t noticed the rapidly paling faces and continued on his own.
“To use soul, you first have to obtain soul.” “And obtaining soul is the most basic of basics.” “As for the prerequisite for obtaining soul—” He patted the bone nail at his waist.
“It’s this.” “So the content for the first class is very simple.” Thorne set the bag from his back onto the podium.
“I’m going to teach you — how to properly use a bone nail.”