I honestly did not know what the fuck this objective was supposed to mean.
So I just sat there staring at the text in the middle of my dorm room, reading the same ridiculous sentence over and over again until the words lost all their meaning.
'Seduce the trainee professor?' I thought to myself, rubbing my temples as a headache started to form.
'Is the Goddess of Life just horny right now, and she wants to watch humans have intercourse for her own personal entertainment?'
It genuinely felt like some kind of sick joke being played on a guy who just spent a decade fighting demons in the mud.
I was fully prepared to slay dragons, dismantle dark cults, or maybe even assassinate corrupted nobles in the shadows to prevent the tragedies of my past life.
I had the maxed-out stats to do absolutely anything I wanted in this world.
Yet the supreme deity in charge of my reincarnation decided my first life-or-death mission should be trying to flirt with a faculty member.
Suddenly, a loud, ringing alarm started going off outside the window, echoing across the courtyard and completely breaking my train of thought.
'Oh shit, system, what day is it?' I thought, suddenly realising I hadn't even checked the current timeline.
[Today is your very first day of classes, right after the opening ceremony of the academy.]
"Ah, fuck me," I groaned out loud while tossing the warm blankets off my legs.
I quickly jumped out of the soft bed and rushed over to the small wooden wardrobe in the corner of the room to change my clothes. The academy uniform was hanging right there. It was a black outfit lined with sharp gold outlines that honestly looked really good under the morning light.
It had been five long years since I last wore these specific colours, considering the academy was burned to the ground during the middle of the war in my previous life.
I stood in front of the mirror for a second and looked at myself once again.
The face staring back at me was young and completely free of the terrible scars I had earned on the frontlines, but the eyes looking back felt old and tired.
I still didn't fully understand why the Goddess brought me back to this exact moment or why I had to deal with these absurd new scenarios.
But the very real threat of the upcoming apocalypse still existed outside these safe walls.
I swore to myself right then, and there, that I would do whatever it takes to survive, even if it meant playing along with this ridiculous dating simulator the system apparently wanted me to complete.
I grabbed my bag, walked out of my dorm room, and immediately started running down the empty corridors toward the main academic building.
If this really was the very first day of classes, then my morning schedule dictated that I was supposed to be in Professor Gion's class. He was a strict and annoying old man who absolutely despised tardiness.
The main academy building was a creative structure with a lot of stairs spinning to the top. My luck was predictably terrible since his specific lecture hall was located all the way up on the tenth floor.
I didn't have time to wait for the crowded magical lifts, so I pushed open the doors to the stairwell and looked around to make sure no one was watching me.
Once I confirmed the coast was clear, I tapped into that ridiculous Agility stat sitting in my system window and basically started jumping up entire flights of stairs in single bounds. The physical sensation was completely surreal. I felt completely weightless as I launched myself upward without feeling even a single drop of sweat or fatigue in my muscles.
I reached the tenth floor in a matter of seconds. I took a moment to smooth down my black and gold uniform and casually strolled up to the large wooden doors of the lecture hall just as the final warning bell finished ringing.
I stood in the doorway, and the grey-haired man standing at the front podium immediately turned his head to glare at me.
Professor Gion adjusted his spectacles and looked me up and down with an expression that seemed to be judging my entire worth as a human being in a single glance.
"Name, cadet," he demanded with an irritated tone.
"Shane, sir," I answered while keeping my posture perfectly straight and respectful.
"Shane, what?" he snapped back, clearly annoyed by the incomplete answer.
"Shane Newman, sir."
"And exactly why are you walking into my classroom late on the very first day, Cadet Newman?" Gion asked, folding his arms across his chest while the rest of the seated students turned their heads to watch the unfolding drama.
"Sir, my dorm room was locked from the outside this morning, and it took me a while to get the maintenance staff to let me out," I replied smoothly without missing a single beat.
Now, obviously, that didn't actually happen to me this morning. But I knew for a fact that it was going to happen eventually because the arrogant nobles in this academy were always incredibly butthurt that a common extra like me managed to pass the entrance exams.
Professor Gion didn't reply immediately. His eyes studied my calm expression to see if I was lying to him. He knew exactly how the social hierarchy worked in this corrupt school, and he knew that upper-class students frequently pulled cruel pranks on the commoners on the first day to establish dominance.
He slowly turned his head to the side, looking over the rows of wealthy students sitting in the front benches.
"Which one of you did it?" he asked the room at large.
The entire lecture hall remained completely silent, because obviously no idiot was going to openly admit to sabotaging another student in front of the strictest professor in the entire academy.
"Go on and take your seat, but be much more alert next time, Newman," Gion finally said with a sigh, waving his hand toward the back of the room.
"Yes, sir, thank you," I replied respectfully. I started walking down the main aisle while looking at my past and present classmates.
It was a completely surreal experience walking past these people.
I saw Kiara looking out the window, Melissa carefully organising her expensive pens, Mia whispering to her friend, and Raven brooding in the corner with his arms crossed.
These were the legendary heroes and elite figures of the continent, the people I had bled with, fought alongside, and watched suffer terrible tragedies in the future. Right now, they just looked like arrogant kids who had absolutely no idea what kind of hell was coming for them.
I kept walking until I reached the very last bench in the back corner of the room, where a single guy was sitting quietly by himself.
He had striking white hair that seemed to catch the morning sunlight, piercing yellow eyes, and an almost ethereal beauty that immediately made him stand out from everyone else in the room.
Zephyr.
He was the main protagonist of this story, the chosen hero blessed by the heavens, and the person who was supposed to save this doomed world from the demon king.
I pulled out my chair and sat down right beside him, keeping my expression completely neutral while a wave of dark emotions washed over my chest.
I opened my bag and pulled out my notebook, acting like everything was perfectly normal, but my hands felt strangely cold.
'It is actually crazy to see you looking this innocent and young again,' I thought to myself, gripping my pen tightly as I stared at the side of his face.
'Especially because I am the one who killed you before the final war last time.'