A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

“Teacher Taiga, you were brilliant earlier. You had me spellbound.”

“Thank you, Teacher Günter.”

Following the slightly prolonged morning assembly, on the way to the first-year classroom on the fourth floor, Elpis Günter, the homeroom teacher of Class 3 next door, deepened the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes with a smile. His pure white hair was meticulously styled, and his appearance was that of a veritable nice middle-aged man.

“Yeah, I was also touched by your speech earlier.”

Murrue Cannamilla, who was ascending the stairs following me and Günter, assented in her distinctive, prolonged voice. This individual happened to be the homeroom teacher of Class 2 of Year 1.

“No, Teacher Cannamilla, you hail from the nobility, right?”

“Even if I am an aristocrat, not everyone slacks off like Teacher Tupel. Besides, I am younger than you, so you can call me Murrue.”

“No, I don’t think we’re linked at all…”

Murrue was one of the few younger teachers at the school, with a lovely child-like face that could be mistaken for a student, but her family, the Cannamilla, whose nobility was so grand that it surpassed even the Tupel family discussed earlier, was not the sort of person I honestly sought to have a relationship with.

Selbeth Academy consisted of four classes in each grade, so another first-year teacher, Ursula, was in charge of the first-year class and shared the same medical magic teaching duties as me, but unfortunately, her schedule was extremely tight as she was temporarily teaching alchemy classes as a substitute for Xenia Marius, who had abruptly disappeared the other day. Even her homeroom class has been delegated to an assistant homeroom teacher recently. On the rare occasion of spotting her with dark circles under her eyes in school, guilt washed over me more or less.

“Regardless, now that we have said all that to Teacher Tupel, we should strive to hone the quality of our teaching instead of treating it as someone else’s responsibility. And as for Teacher Taiga…”

“You mean Karen and the others, right? Well, the underlying problem has been addressed, so I suppose the rest can be settled. I will speak to them today after school.”

“Please do so.”

When Günter stated this, his back was turned to me and Murrue. Each classroom arrangement was set up in such a way that the first and second classrooms were on the right side of the stairs and the third and fourth classrooms were on the left.

Günter and I split off in front of the second classroom not much longer after that. The classroom on the far right of the fourth floor belonged to our first-year class.

It took a little bit of time to catch up after the morning assembly, so I immediately entered the classroom.

“Good morning, everyone! I know I am running a little late, but let’s get homeroom started.”

With my entrance, the classroom, which until then had been buzzing with chatter, gradually quieted down. Nonetheless, the whispering did not cease even when I walked up to the platform.

To keep tabs on the students’ daily school lives, I have periodically placed a fragment of Envy in this classroom. The primary usage of Envy focused on mimicry of others and preying on corpses, but since it can share its senses, it can also be surreptitiously shrunk down to a small size and utilized as a camera or a listening device. In contrast to other messengers, Envy, being a slime, can adjust its size, which constituted a unique feature, yet its mimicry cannot be blended into the surrounding scenery like animals on earth, so it cannot be frequently utilized owing to its high likelihood of being detected.

The teacher, Kanaki Taiga, was perceived by one set of pupils as being “well-spoken, but of low ability, for better or worse, entirely harmless” in this circumstance as a result of eavesdropping on their conversations in the classroom.

For the most part, the students seemed to have perceived the impression that I intended, but perhaps the image of “low ability” was conveyed a little overly strong. Students with excellent ability, such as Karen, and those who belonged to the aristocratic circle, like Olga Schmel, tended to regard me with an immense proportion of condescension.

For students with whom I had no particular contact, such as students in other classes, this was acceptable, but not so for the class I was in charge of. In times of crisis, controlling the class as a whole would be tough, and above all, meeting each other every day with such open animosity against me would lead to a sense of discomfort.

Well, that was why, once the problem I now suspected was exposed and solved, I could deal with those students considerably smoother―

“Now, let’s dispense with the chitchat and review today’s schedule―”

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“…So, in today’s staff meeting, I made it very clear that I want all the teachers to thoroughly review their lectures to ensure that they are being conducted properly.”

By the time I had summarized what had unfolded at today’s morning meeting, a trace of admiration had mingled in everyone’s eyes as they gazed at me.

Predictably, though, some of the students showed blatant displeasure with my performance. Students from the family thought to be the most prominent of all of them were seated in the rear of the classroom, interspersed among the aristocrats.

Aristocratic and commoner relations have gotten better in recent years, and most aristocratic students now treat commoners equally, but exceptions existed in every circumstance. Even in this class, to my understanding, there were about three students who still adhered to the anachronistic noble-commoner philosophy.

Of these three, Olga Schmel, the leader of the group, was blatantly leering in my direction. Olga Schmel, a highly qualified magician whose family name was distinguished, was believed to dominate the class and was initially considered for transfer to the class of Murrue, the daughter of a prestigious aristocrat. In the hopes that he would mature up and take over the sole leadership of that class, something nobody else wanted to do, the teacher who was initially assigned to teach Class 4 suggested placing him in the same class as Karen and Fina. This teacher, who had a keen sense of responsibility and was zealous about education, would certainly be willing to do that, and for that reason, I was disappointed that he demonstrated his unwarranted intuition and snooped around in my vicinity. In the end, I ended up being assigned to that class, and only then did I have to resign myself to the fact that my karma had rolled back to me.

“What’s the matter, Teacher, you suddenly let out a sigh?”

“O-Oh. Excuse me. The number of people coming to the infirmary has been increasing lately, making things all the more intense. The selection rounds are crucial, but please don’t get hurt, everyone.”

Luis Albas, who was occupying a seat in the front row, called out to me, snapping me out of my daze. Not only was he one of the few students who could talk to Karen unassumingly, but he was also a student with a keen intuition. In front of such a student, what I did was unwittingly release a sigh.

With a strained smile on my face, I offered a reasonable explanation and ended the homeroom. In the midst of putting away the attendance sheet in my hand, I glanced at Andrei Kandel, who was taking a seat in the middle row.

He was on his way out of the classroom, his hunchback further arching.

Shortly after, Olga left the classroom as well.

Both Olga and Andrei had contrasting personalities, and I had never heard them conversing in the classroom before.

After all, there is a high possibility that it is “that direction”…

Originally, I would have loved to talk to a student who expressed a positive opinion about me, but unfortunately, there was no sense in doing so unless I could solve the problem on my own this time.

As if I didn’t notice anything at all, I left the platform and strode out of the classroom.

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T/N:

All the different color text is unreliable narrator that I didn’t get its meaning. It is simply translated conveniently. I will change it if I ever figured it out. If you see any different color text in future chapters, it means the same thing.