I stared quietly at Aisel after she returned from her meal.
Charlotte seemed to be running a little late because she had gone to buy coffee after lunch.
She had probably done it out of consideration, intending to give the two of us some time to talk alone.
Aisel sat on the spacious leather sofa provided for guests, steadily picking at the refreshments laid out before her.
Apparently, being left alone with me was unbearably awkward, because she kept glancing blankly in my direction.
Even the way she continued eating the snacks seemed like an extension of that discomfort.
Still, judging by the fact that she had even brewed herself some tea, she seemed to be eating quite well despite how uncomfortable she felt.
RIIIP.
I heard another individually wrapped snack being opened.
A pile of empty wrappers had already accumulated beside her.
“…Um, Professor?”
“What is it? Speak.”
I nodded as though I already knew what she meant.
Yes.
I was staring directly at Aisel.
If someone else saw me doing this, they might have told me not to stare at a young woman like that, but what I saw was a chitinous insect, not a woman.
What significance did male or female have when it came to that horrific ‘thing’?
If someone other than me had encountered something like that, they probably would have killed it on sight without even asking why.
Besides, even if I wanted to distinguish between the sexes, I could not.
Nor did I particularly want to examine one closely enough to try.
“So your hair is gray?”
“Ah… yes. As you can see?”
Her tone suggested that she could not understand why I was asking such an obvious question, but I could not see it.
Having successfully obtained the correct answer, I nodded in satisfaction.
“Um, Pro… fessor?”
Sensing that something was strange, Aisel began considering how she might escape, but I was already immersed in my satisfaction.
I had no room to respond to her.
The reason I could confidently determine this particular feature despite seeing everyone as chitinous insects was that Aisel’s chitinous shell was gray.
I still could not distinguish facial expressions or exact appearances, but I could at least use colors to tell people apart.
That was how I had begun broadly classifying people when I could not properly recognize their actual appearances……
“Professor!”
When I opened my eyes, a cockroa—
No, Aisel was directly in front of me.
I had been so lost in thought that I had not even noticed her approaching.
She slammed her hands onto the desk where I was sitting, her cheeks apparently flushed red as her eyes darted restlessly from side to side.
If she was going to act like that, why had she risen so boldly in the first place?
“Um… well, ahem. When you stare at a lady so intently like that, it is a little… embarrassing, I suppose? Or perhaps I should say it makes me self-conscious. In any case, it is uncomfortable!”
“Is that so?”
“Yes!”
A lady……
I let out a long, thoughtful hum as though I somewhat agreed with the description.
Just as Aisel sighed in relief, apparently believing I had understood, and began returning to her seat, I asked another question.
“How can you be certain of your own sex?”
Every movement Aisel was making came to an abrupt stop.
Her head slowly turned back toward me as though accompanied by the creaking of poorly oiled machinery.
Her eyes were filled with a single unmistakable question.
What kind of nonsense are you talking about?
I took back what I had thought about being unable to understand emotions without seeing human facial expressions.
Humans possessed the excellent tool of nonverbal communication.
The tiny eyes of the cockroa—
No, the chitinous insect moved around in small circles.
As a potential future authority in the newly established academic discipline of [Insect Emotion Studies], I carefully memorized Aisel’s nonverbal expression.
But understanding her expression and having my question answered were two entirely different matters.
“I mean exactly what I said. Most species can be divided into male and female, can they not? But even if the one making that distinction were a god, that god would still be someone other than yourself. In that sense, even the standards of male and female are merely criteria established by others, not standards you personally chose.”
“……”
“My question, then, stems from wondering what exactly allows you to recognize yourself as female. Can you explain?”
I cleanly ignored the nonverbal response that roughly conveyed, ‘I do not know the answer, but I do know that you are extremely strange, Professor.’
This was a considerably important issue.
At this rate, I had no way to distinguish men from women apart from their voices.
What was I supposed to do if the other person remained silent?
Even my ‘method of distinguishing chitinous shells by hair color’ had obvious limitations.
There could easily be a man with pink hair—
which meant a man with a pink chitinous shell.
It might be an unlikely possibility, but one should never judge based on prejudice.
“Um… for one thing, a woman’s voice is usually higher and thinner than a man’s?”
“Good. What else?”
She seemed to gesture vaguely in the air with her hands, but whenever her gaze met mine, she occasionally lost every word she had been about to say.
“…Women have breasts. Their waists tend to curve inward, and as they mature, their hips become wider……”
I shook my head.
That explanation would not do.
None of those features were particularly helpful to someone like me, who saw nothing but cockroa—
No, chitinous insects.
“Um… then, perhaps……”
Her voice gradually weakened until it was barely above a mumble.
Just as I began sensing that something was wrong, the door burst open.
Charlotte grabbed a sofa cushion and hurled it directly at my face.
“HEY!! YOU BASTARD! WHAT ARE YOU MAKING HER EXPLAIN!?”
“L-Lady Charloootte!”
Every cushion in sight came flying toward me.
I used the first cushion as a shield to block the rest and hurriedly began explaining myself.
“That is not what this is, Charlotte. I was approaching the matter academically and raising a question regarding the precise nature of one’s own sexual identity.”
“Do not make me laugh.”
She did not believe a single word.
This was unfair……
I sat there half dazed while enduring her complaints and scolding.
Eventually, a practical question finally came up.
That was only after Charlotte had vented every last bit of her frustration on me.
“So, Professor, what subject are you planning to teach?”
“Are you going to be assigned to my office?”
“For now, that is how the paperwork is being handled. Normally, you would select someone from among the graduate students, but Lady Charlotte insisted that making you into a proper human being came first, so I was assigned here as an undergraduate intern in your office because I am also a maid.”
I ignored the quiet remark she added at the end.
“It really does look like we need to make you into a proper human being first.”
After seeing Ellin, I had already firmly established my identity.
No matter how much anyone treated me as though I were not human, I was unquestionably and undeniably a human being.
‘Still, just in case.’
“Do I look like a cockroach to you?”
“What? A cock… what?”
Aisel tilted her head as though wondering whether she had heard me correctly.
Unlike Aisel, Charlotte immediately understood the implication behind my question and looked thoroughly disgusted.
“No, Aisel. It is fine. Ignore him. You can safely disregard about eighty percent of what that man says.”
“Ah… yes.”
Aisel nodded vigorously.
She clearly did not understand, but she had accepted the advice anyway.
I did not argue because it would only prolong the conversation, but I felt I was being treated rather harshly.
“…As for the subject of my lecture, the students will be from the Department of Knighthood, so naturally, I should teach something suited to them.”
Aiden had indeed served as a professor, but the setting never specified exactly what he had taught.
What had they said again?
That they had removed it because there had not been enough space?
‘What a useless, half-finished setting book. It is only missing information when I actually need it.’
I cursed inwardly and blinked.
In the end, that meant I had to decide the subject myself.
“Aisel, demonstrate your Aura.”
“Aura? Yes.”
I made the request because she had a practice sword hanging from her waist.
Charlotte remained nearby, watching closely to make sure nothing like the previous incident happened again.
I sincerely wished she would leave.
Mana flowed through the blunt practice sword.
It coated the weapon smoothly enough, but that was all.
Feeling rather unimpressed, I shook my head.
“That is merely a thin layer of mana wrapped around your sword. What I asked for was Aura, Aisel.”
“I have not yet reached Aura Expert, where I can imbue my Aura with a distinct property……”
I looked at her with genuine confusion.
“At your age, should you not have awakened Aura long ago? When I was your age, I had already……”
“That is normal. Do not judge students by your standards.”
Charlotte finally interrupted, apparently unable to listen any longer.
“She might fall short of your absurd standards, but Aisel is still ranked second among the second-year students, and she receives a scholarship every year. She is an honors student. I am telling you again, do not force the students into your standards.”
Her voice carried a half-warning tone, so I signaled with my eyes that I understood.
“Their level is lower than I expected.”
Aisel’s shoulders wilted like a dying plant, but this time Charlotte did not interrupt.
She merely looked at me with dissatisfaction.
‘The protagonists like Ellin used Aura so effortlessly that I assumed this level was normal. Apparently not.’
Come to think of it, protagonists entered the story loaded with all kinds of advantages precisely because they were protagonists.
Even if I did not judge ordinary students by my standards, I could not judge them by the protagonists’ standards either.
Still, should there not be some reasonable minimum?
I pretended to contemplate the matter before opening my eyes.
“It would be best to start by teaching Aura.”
Aisel’s eyes widened.
Charlotte furrowed her brow and asked in a concerned tone,
“Are you sure you can teach that? Is that not one of your house’s secret arts?”
“Secret art?”
At my question, Charlotte fell silent and stared at me as though wondering whether I was serious.
‘A secret art, a secret art……’
“Is that not a fundamental technique?”
Could someone who could not do that even be called a swordsman?
How was it any different from a Mage being unable to reconstruct a Spell Formula?
To express it in terms of magic, it was like being permanently trapped within the default form of whatever spell one intended to cast.
A Mage incapable of altering even a single property.
‘Half-baked? No, that is even worse. A Mage would have to be exceptionally incompetent for that. It would be difficult to even call such a person a Mage.’
Therefore, a swordsman who could not give even a single property to their Aura was not a swordsman.
At least, that was how the explanation in the original work had described it.
I shook my head, firmly rejecting the notion.
Both of them fell completely silent.
“The direction of the lecture has been decided, then. Aisel, according to what you said, does that mean most undergraduates cannot use Aura?”
“…There are some third- and fourth-year students who can.”
“So most of them cannot.”
“……”
I clicked my tongue.
The protagonists had to make their way through the academy storyline while dragging students like these along with them.
They were obviously going to hold the protagonists back.
That could not be allowed.
Absolutely not.
‘Those parts had been unbearably frustrating.’
Every time an attack event occurred, cries of distress erupted from every direction.
The protagonists would even have to let enemies they could have defeated escape because they were too busy protecting everyone else.
That kind of infuriating development!
I adopted a solemn expression, filled with determination.
‘No more of that.’
The less these students held the protagonists back, the more easily the protagonists could defeat their enemies.
Then I could safely and comfortably keep renewing my position as a professor.
Two birds with one stone.
“I came here with certain expectations because this is the Imperial University, but this is far below them. Did I come to some provincial branch campus instead of the main university?”
When their silence continued, I stated my decision in a forceful tone that made it clear I would not accept objections.
“We will begin with an Aura Cultivation Method. From there, we will move on to improving physical capabilities through mana. As for the more detailed categories… practical integration of mana with the body should suffice.”
Once the overall direction was decided, I spent some time discussing the finer details with Aisel.
Charlotte gave Aisel a look that made it clear she was genuinely worried about her, then said she had work to attend to and left the office first.
Silence returned to the office.
As I sat there quietly, Aisel, who had been cleaning various parts of the room, suddenly spoke as though a question had just occurred to her.
“By the way, Professor. Why did you tear that curtain? And what are all these Mana Traces?”
I could easily fabricate some excuse for tearing the curtain, but……
‘Mana Traces?’
My eyes naturally narrowed.
“What are those?”
“What? You do not know what Mana Traces are? They are automatically left behind whenever someone uses mana……”
“Why would anything be left behind? You could simply use the mana efficiently and cleanly from the beginning.”
Aisel looked at me with an expression hovering on the edge of realization.
“Professor, perhaps that is because you are such a genius, but most people leave Mana Traces after using mana. That is why they can be analyzed as forensic evidence at crime scenes and similar places.”
My expression gradually stiffened.
“Mana Traces, you say. What can you sense from the traces here?”
“Hmm… I am not really sure, but they seem like flames. Although compared to the flames produced by students in the Department of Magic, they feel somewhat more… pure?”
Of course they did.
Those flames had been invoked through the Rune Language.
[Pure Magic Theory] had defined the use of runes as magic in its purest elemental state.
If so, magic invoked directly through a rune would be the purest possible form of magic in the world.
Nothing else could possibly compare to it in purity.
My suspicions rapidly snowballed until my pupils began to tremble.
“…Aisel. Are there any of those Mana Traces on my clothes?”
“Yes, there are some left on them. Were you playing with fire or something? Haha.”
She said it like a joke, but after seeing the serious expression on my face, Aisel stared at me with sudden suspicion.
“You really were…? You are joking, right?”
But I had no room to answer her.
Aisel had described them as pure.
If even a student from the Department of Knighthood who knew little about magic could sense that much, then someone far more talented—
someone who even possessed exceptional Spirit Sensitivity—
would certainly notice them.
In other words, Ellin, one of the protagonists.
‘She might notice the Mana Traces of the rune left on my coat—’
I hurriedly shook my head.
No.
Surely not.
…It had better not be.