First Magic Academy, Logistics Department.
“Well, well!
If it isn’t Instructor Asher, the First Magic Academy’s most hopeless romantic!
Haha!
Don’t be in such a rush to leave!
Why don’t you stick around and share some of your simping secrets with the rest of us?”
The mocking voice grated against Asher’s ears.
Hearing the undisguised ridicule in the tone, his brows knitted together.
He stopped in his tracks and turned around.
Three young men were strolling toward him.
One of them wore a Level Two Instructor badge pinned to his chest, while the other two sported Level One badges.
The trio was clearly led by the Level Two Instructor, who had just spoken.
He had sparse eyebrows, beady little eyes, and a sharp, rat-like face with high, pointed cheekbones.
Recognizing those signature ugly features, memories of the man instantly surfaced in Asher’s mind.
‘Drake…’ Asher’s gaze turned a bit strange.
Yes, this guy who looked like an insult to society was named Drake.
Even though he tried to act tough, he was nothing more than a glorified lapdog.
His absolute favorite pastime was kissing up to the strong and bullying the weak.
He constantly relied on the backing of his boss—the academy’s star instructor, Loke—to torment new teachers who lacked connections.
Naturally, Asher, whose teaching evaluations were perpetually at the bottom of the barrel, was one of his prime targets.
“What’s wrong, Asher?
Cat got your tongue?
Are you embarrassed, or just not willing to share?
Don’t tell me you’re actually shy?” Drake sauntered up to him.
Even though he was a full head shorter than Asher, he kept his hands shoved in his pockets and tilted his chin up, putting on an incredibly arrogant front.
His two lackeys smoothly moved into position behind Asher, expertly blocking his escape route.
There were plenty of other instructors present in the hall—teachers from the Year One training classes and the Year Three written exam classes were also in line for resources.
But seeing this unfold, everyone silently lowered their heads.
No one wanted to get dragged into this mess.
In terms of sheer combat power, quite a few of them could easily beat Drake, but unfortunately for them, Drake had Loke—the heir to one of Magnolia’s Six Great Families—standing directly behind him.
“What do you want?” Asher asked.
Taking in the situation, he narrowed his eyes, his voice turning cold.
A dangerous glint flashed in his pupils.
As the memories of his past self’s torment flooded back, he felt a visceral, almost biological disgust toward Drake.
“What do I want?” Drake paused.
Then, as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world, he looked Asher up and down and burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!
Did you hear that?
Oh my god, did you guys hear him?
He actually asked what I want!”
Drake clutched his stomach, bending over in a fit of hysterical laughter, practically blowing a snot bubble.
“Hahaha!” The two lackeys immediately joined in, staring at Asher with mock pity.
The laughter dragged on for a good ten seconds before Drake suddenly stopped.
His smile vanished, and his tone turned downright nasty.
“Cut the crap, Asher.
You know exactly what I want.
Hand it over before things get ugly!”
Asher’s voice was dangerously calm, betraying no emotion.
“You want half of my class’s cultivation resources for the month?”
According to his inherited memories, a huge reason the previous Asher was always dead last in the academy rankings was all thanks to Drake.
It wasn’t just the students’ resources—even Asher’s personal cultivation resources as an instructor were extorted, with Drake taking half every single month.
Caught in this vicious cycle, the original Asher had failed to advance his own magic, and his students naturally suffered.
He had reported it to the administration multiple times, but they had always brushed him off with empty promises of “launching an investigation.” Crushed by years of oppression, the news that he might finally be fired had been the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Half?
No, no, no!” Drake sneered, shaking his head.
“Normally, it would just be half.
But too bad for you, you just had to go after Director Diana!
You really need to look in a mirror and see how pathetic you are!
Someone like you has no right to even look at her!”
Drake’s voice grew louder and more agitated until he was practically screaming.
“Don’t you know Instructor Loke is pursuing the Director?!
You dare try to steal a woman from him?!
Loke might be generous enough to ignore a bug like you, but I won’t stand for it!”
He puffed out his chest proudly, as if merely speaking Loke’s name gave him some sort of divine glory.
Asher just smirked.
“Heh.
What a good dog.”
Those words worked like a powerful silencing spell.
The entire logistics center was instantly muted.
Everyone froze stiff, even the logistics administrator, whose hands stopped dead in mid-air.
Shock, bewilderment, and absolute disbelief washed over the faces of the crowd.
No one could believe that Asher—the academy’s eternal punching bag who always took his beatings lying down—had actually just said that out loud.
“Damn you!
What did you just say?!” Drake’s face turned as black as the bottom of a charred pot.
A simp hates being called a simp, and a lapdog absolutely hates being called a lapdog.
Asher’s words had stabbed directly into his most sensitive nerve, making his shoulders tremble with fury.
“I said, good dogs don’t block the way.
Scram!” Asher’s dark pupils suddenly constricted into vertical slits, the faint, terrifying silhouette of a massive python flashing deep within his eyes.
A fierce surge of magic slipped out, fueled by his rising irritation.
He couldn’t change what kind of coward the previous Asher had been.
But the current him?
He was absolutely not the type to swallow an insult.
“You…” Stared down by Asher’s imposing gaze, Drake violently flinched, a jolt of sheer terror shooting up his scalp!
For a split second, he felt like he was being hunted by a venomous snake.
Goosebumps erupted all over his skin.
It took a few seconds for the suffocating pressure to finally fade.
‘It has to be an illusion.
That was definitely an illusion,’ Drake told himself, swallowing hard to push down his rising panic.
Even though they were both C-Class Enhancement mages, Asher was only at Tier Three, Level One!
Drake was at Tier Three, Level Three.
There was a two-level gap between them!
The advantage was entirely his!
Finding his fake courage again, Drake steadied his racing heart.
“Asher, how dare you speak to me like that?!
Are you looking to die?
Beg for my forgiveness right now, or I swear I’ll make you regret it!”
“Oh?” Asher’s eyes gleamed with a dangerous light.
“And what exactly do I have to do to earn your forgiveness?”
Seeing what he thought was Asher backing down, Drake discarded all his doubts and sneered.
“It’s simple!
First, obediently hand over every single resource in that bag.
And you’re going to give me your share every month from now on!
You’re going to get fired anyway, so giving you resources is just a waste!”
He crossed his arms, looking immensely pleased with himself.
“Second, since you had the nerve to insult me, I won’t make it too hard on you.
Drop to your knees right now and slap yourself in the face ten—no, twenty times!
Do all that, and I might consider letting you off the hook.”
After carefully listening to Drake’s demands, Asher nodded solemnly.
“I see.
Thank you for the lesson.”
“What the hell do you mean you see?!
Hurry up and get on your knees!” Drake tilted his chin forty-five degrees into the air, looking down his nose with supreme arrogance.
The onlookers looked away, unable to bear watching the scene unfold.
They had already resigned themselves to Asher’s inevitable, humiliating defeat.
Asher’s voice was eerily quiet.
“I finally understand.
In this world, raw power really is the only thing that talks.”
Drake’s brows furrowed in annoyance.
“What the hell are you muttering a—”
But before he could even finish his sentence, his vision blurred.
By the time his eyes refocused, a massive palm was hurtling toward his face, whistling through the air with terrifying speed.
The next second—
*Smack!*
With a sickeningly crisp crack, Drake was sent flying through the air like a broken ragdoll, slamming violently onto the hard floor.
The entire logistics hall instantly plunged into dead, stunned silence.