While Alex was busy admiring the pale blue sky, trying to stay calm and remain in the present. However, he was unable to shake off the thoughts of how he had changed so drastically in a single day that he'd barely had time to catch his breath, let alone contemplate any of it properly. Well, he couldn't entirely dismiss that he'd been contemplating at all, only that instead of looking at things in a reasonable, orderly way, his mind kept leaping from one point to another among the events that had transpired in just that one day.
"Haah!!" He let out a sigh for the umpteenth time. He could never have believed it if, only days ago, someone had come to him and said that he would unlock his class, that he would level up, and that in doing so he would witness a battlefield so vast he had never seen nor even heard tales of in any book, let alone that he would meet a goddess and her two small twin daughters.
Life is truly full of surprises.
Even though it felt as though many days had passed since yesterday, when in fact only a single day had gone by, he couldn't help but feel grateful that he had finally leveled up.
While Alex was lost in his thoughts, the door to the room slid open too fast and too loudly. He turned his head sharply from the window toward the sound.
Students poured in, most of them running in a haphazard scramble while a few others strolled in with aloofness.
The students quickly took their seats, and once no more came pouring through the door, Professor Jaxon entered the classroom with steady, measured steps. He wore his usual white half-sleeve shirt, which showed off his muscular arms and biceps, along with black trousers and polished black shoes that caught and threw back the light.
The few students still lingering around the classroom dashed toward their desks to take their seats.
The professor didn't turn his head toward the class, instead walking with steady steps toward the center of the front, where his desk stood. Only after he reached the desk did he stop, and finally, he turned to face the students.
"Good morning, students." The professor's gaze swept over everyone, and for a second, Alex caught a flicker of surprise in the professor's eyes as they landed on him.
"Good morning, Professor." The students echoed the greeting, and the professor gave a quiet nod to himself.
The professor's eyes moved through the class once more and stopped on the empty desks that belonged to Eldric and the others who had been suspended for a week. Alex caught a flash of hesitation crossing the professor's face before he swiftly masked it away, turning his head aside as though he'd decided not to linger on the empty desks for long.
Alex had expected the professor to address the bullying, or at least something close to it, but the man said nothing of the sort. Alex had assumed the professor would, mostly because of the concern the professor had shown him the day before, the moment he'd walked into class without being in a proper state.
But seeing the professor deliberately steer clear of the topic of the suspensions now, Alex couldn't help but think that the professor's spine might not be quite as strong as his body.
The professor conjured a thin stack of papers from his dimensional space and set them down on the desk before him. He rested his hand grandiosely over the sheets and swept his eyes across the class.
"I have thoroughly checked yesterday's test answers, and I must say, you all wrote flawless answers." The professor announced and let the words settle before adding, "And some of you exceeded my expectations, answering in far more detail than I ever taught you."
The room fell silent, heads turning this way and that, and a few even craned toward Alex, stealing glances as though he were the one who'd written flawless answers.
Alex knew how wrong they were. He hadn't even been in a fit state to write a single line the previous day, so how could he have written anything flawless enough to exceed the professor's expectations? He'd barely managed to scribble down his answers, half his mind had been elsewhere the whole time. He knew his answers were correct, but it hadn't been presented well; it was scrambled, jotted down however the answers had come to him.
He simply returned a smirk to the students stealing glances at him. Seeing it, they muttered something inaudible and turned their heads away toward other students.
The professor, who had stayed silent all this while, drawing out the suspense, finally broke it. "Only one student exceeded my expectations and received full marks." He smiled, turning his head to sweep across a few of the brighter students, the ones who always raised their hands and engaged with him. This only drew out even more suspense. His gaze never once turned toward Alex. It was not surprising at all, since Alex had never interacted with him in class, nor had he ever raised his hand.
"Well, well." The professor's smile widened, his muddy brown eyes glinting with mischief. "First, I'm going to tell you all about the flaws in the second theory, and only at the end will I hand back your answer sheets."
The students groaned collectively in protest, and a few even banged their wooden desks. Alex, however, stayed silent, taking no part in his classmates' theatrics.
The professor said nothing, only knocked his knuckles loudly against the desk before him until the students finally quieted.
"Silence." The professor's voice cracked through the room like an order, and the students went meek as scolded children.
Most of the students came from prestigious families, and even the few who didn't understood the social etiquette expected of a student, so the professor never needed to repeat himself. The classroom fell still and silent.
Once Professor Jaxon was certain no one would speak or disturb the class again, he continued, "I'll quickly finish covering the flaws in the second theory, and after that, I'll hand back everyone's papers. If anyone wants to discuss or object to how their answer was marked, come talk to me, and I'll help sort it out, whether it's a miscounted total or something you feel was wrongly marked or wrongly assessed."
The students nodded, and this time, no one protested.
"First, before I get into the flaws, I'll give you a short overview of the theory." The professor turned on his heel and quickly wrote Second Theory and Its Flaws on the whiteboard in large black letters.
He turned back to the class, set the marker down on the desk, and continued, "The second theory tells us that there was once absolute emptiness, absolute nothingness, and that from that very emptiness the gods appeared, wielding power beyond reason. Over a long course of time, they grew bored and created the world: the sky, the day, the night, the mountains, and the creatures within it. Still bored, craving something more entertaining, they created the beastkin first, then the elves, then the dwarves, and finally the humans. After that came the dragons, and last of all, the demons were created because other creations of the gods beside dragons, didn't fare well in the wild surrounding. But instead of praying to the gods and living in harmony with the rest, the demons turned on humanity and attacked."
The professor let the words settle, and after a moment, he continued. "The gods, enraged by the demons' betrayal, gave the world mana, the status window, and the gates. While giving out status windows, the gods feared that their creations might one day rise to challenge them, so they decreed that everyone's status window would begin at level one, and that everyone would have to level up to grow stronger."
The professor paced back and forth at the front of the room, giving the students time to recall what had been taught on the first day. Alex, who already knew all of this before even joining the academy and had even learnt it once again on the first day, simply listened to the brief overview. And true to his word, the professor kept it brief, explaining everything in the shortest form possible without fleshing out things in great detail.
The professor stopped in his tracks and turned to face the students. "The flaws aren't hard to notice if you look at the theory carefully." His eyes swept the room expectantly. "Would anyone like to point out a flaw in the theory?"
Alex turned his head, scanning the class to see who would answer and satisfy the professor's expectant gaze.
From the very last seat in the very last row, a girl raised her hand.
Alex knew immediately who she was; how could he forget her, after seeing her in the assembly hall the day before, especially since she'd ranked second in the entire class. Her brother, too, shared the same dormitory as him. He hadn't spotted her in class on the first day, and yesterday he hadn't bothered looking for her either, but today he saw her sitting at the very last desk, near the end of the room, the classroom wall rising just behind her.
"Yes, Student Natasha." The professor called on her, and Alex noted that Professor Jaxon already knew her name.
Natasha rose from her seat, and even though a white ribbon covered her eyes, she turned to face the professor directly, as if she could see exactly where he stood.
"There are many flaws in the second theory. However, the most notable one is that the gods gave the demons a status window just as they did everyone else. And the other flaw that undermines the theory is this: if the gods could create the demons out of thin air, why didn't they simply kill them, or erase them completely?" Natasha answered calmly, without a trace of anxiety.
The professor nodded, smiling. "Correct. You may sit." Natasha promptly sank back into her chair.
Alex couldn't help but wonder how the girl could see through the ribbon at all. From what he could tell, it didn't look transparent from the front, though perhaps it was transparent from the other side. Otherwise, there had to be some other way she was perceiving the world, since her head kept turning and following the professor's every movement.
All of a sudden, Natasha's head snapped toward him, and Alex quickly averted his gaze, turning to face the front to avoid her. She can see through the ribbon, Alex thought. Otherwise, there was simply no way her head would have turned in his direction.
The professor, who had been silently pacing back and forth as though gathering his thoughts, stopped and turned to face the students once more. "Natasha is right. The gods had no need to give the demons a status window, and if they were truly the ones who created the demons in the first place, they should have been capable of erasing them just as easily," he said calmly.
"But there's an even bigger flaw in this theory," the professor went on. "The very fact that they came from absolute emptiness, from nothing at all, is something no one has ever been able to explain. And if they were truly as powerful as the theory claims, why didn't they foresee that their own creation, the demons, would one day become a problem? If they were really that powerful, they should have seen all of this coming before they ever created the first demon."
The room fell deathly silent. Some students nodded, while others simply leaned back against their chairs. Alex, meanwhile, kept his eyes fixed on the professor. The professor was right, and Alex had thought the very same thing himself, without ever finding a satisfying answer. Even the book he'd read in the carriage on his way to the entrance exam had raised the same point. The book was banned and burned. He had luckily received the very copy of it from the princess. The book had openly challenged the notion of the gods' omnipotence and denied outright that the gods had created any of them at all.
The professor shook his head as the classroom fell utterly silent. "There simply is no right answer, even though scholars have spent centuries searching for one. All the theories are flawed, and we have no choice but to believe in one of them regardless. The second theory portrays the gods as omnipotent beings, and yet those very omnipotent gods failed to foresee a future in which their own decision to create the demons would backfire on them."
The professor let the words settle, and with a sigh, he added, "There are other flaws too, like this: if we were all created by the hands of the gods, then why aren't we united, living together as one?" His eyes moved from student to student, humans, elves, dwarves, and beastkin alike.
"If we truly are the creations of the gods, then shouldn't the dragons be helping us, instead of living off on their own continent with such a haughty attitude? Shouldn't the demons have been cursed, or erased entirely, by the gods themselves?" Professor Jaxon added, unable to fully mask the resentment and quiet anger that crept into his voice.
Alex noticed it, and a few others seemed to as well. Alex recalled that the professor didn't have much experience teaching yet. This was apparently his third year at teaching, which likely explained why he kept forgetting to mask his emotions and not let his emotions while teaching.
As if he'd heard Alex's thought, the professor quickly masked his expression, returning to something more passive, before finally offering a smile. "That's it for today. I'll hand back everyone's answer sheets now."
***
I wish everyone a happy weekend. I will be back next week with new chapter.
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