Lucian had never expected something like this to happen. He had been quietly focusing on his magic experiments and spell analysis, drawing no attention to himself — chatting only occasionally with Roark, Jerome, K, and a few other familiar teachers who shared his office. Yet even with such a low profile, someone had still filed a complaint against him. He couldn't help but feel both frustrated and irritated.
But Lucian was not the type to give up easily. After a moment's thought, he said earnestly: "Principal Donald, I believe my methods for teaching Arcane and magical fundamentals have been quite effective. The students in the 'Thornwood' and 'Bloodbird' classes have shown significant improvement in ancient magical language, Infernal, and magical creature knowledge. Their opinion of me is reportedly quite favorable as well."
"I know." Donald's reply was brief and forceful — once again catching Lucian off guard. He actually acknowledged that Lucian's teaching methods were effective?
But after affirming the evaluation, Donald's tone shifted sharply: "However, Lucian, have you not read the school regulations? Apprentices must maintain absolute respect for their magic instructors and classroom order, and instructors must project sufficient authority. Your teaching style, on the other hand, encourages apprentices to be disrespectful toward teachers and classroom discipline — this is a serious violation of both our regulations and our traditions."
"Many methods may produce excellent results, but when they come at the expense of breaking the rules, that is something we cannot permit. For example, when it comes to a magical artifact — obtaining it by completing a task yourself versus seizing it from the weak — the difficulty is vastly different. Which one should we be encouraging and teaching our apprentices to choose?"
"Lucian, I hope you will reflect carefully and come to understand these principles."
Lucian found himself at a complete loss for words. Even if he proposed measuring the apprentices' performance across all three subjects as grounds for appeal, Principal Donald would never accept it — because what he cared about was not the quality of Lucian's teaching at all, but the preservation of the strict hierarchical order between apprentices and full mages, inherited from the ancient magical empire. The system was rigid, yes, but it genuinely suited the realities of this world, which made its logic virtually irrefutable.
Seeing Lucian remain silent, Donald assumed he had grasped the gravity of the matter. He smiled and offered a word of encouragement: "Lucian, I understand — young people are always full of ideas, some bad and some good. For instance, I greatly appreciate your approach of reinforcing exam practice, and I've decided to implement it across the entire magic school."
So he had stripped away the parts the apprentices actually liked and kept only the grueling drill practice they despised. Lucian rubbed his temples, already imagining himself being turned into various cursed objects by his students — even though all he had done was assign daily exercises and give a weekly quiz.
…………
Leaving Donald's office, Lucian found Roark waiting outside — he had apparently heard something and rushed over. Roark gave Lucian's shoulder a comforting pat. "How did it go?"
"Suspended for a month, pay cut in half. I retain the right to use the magic laboratory, the school library, and purchase materials at reduced prices. If I violate the rules again, I'll be automatically dismissed." Lucian didn't mind the suspension much — it would give him time to focus on consolidating his advancement to the Second Rank — but losing half his salary was genuinely painful.
Hearing this, Roark muttered a curse under his breath. "Those petty bastards from the Electromagnetic faction — Beatt's bunch. They teach the 'Thornwood' and 'Bloodbird' classes too, and the apprentices have been secretly comparing them to you, saying their electromagnetic fundamentals courses are rigid, dull, and ineffective. Eventually, some of the apprentices let those comments slip to them, and they decided you were the one poisoning the atmosphere and violating school regulations — so they filed the complaint with Principal Donald. Bastards. If I ever get the chance, I won't let them get away with this!"
"So that's what happened." At last Lucian understood the source of his unearned misfortune. Any new thing inevitably met resistance from the old order, regardless of whether it was good or bad. At the same time, a touch of absurdity made Lucian grumble inwardly: Are those guys really so petty? Is it because my name ends in an "x" and my nickname is "Professor" that I have to face the enmity of the Electromagnetic faction? Beatt always seemed the quiet, reserved type — I never expected he'd pull something like this.
Beatt's image flashed through Lucian's mind — black hair, black eyes, an utterly ordinary appearance. But anyone who could teach at the Douglas Magic School clearly had considerable skill in the field of electromagnetic magic. He was currently a First-rank Archanist and a Second-rank mage.
Walking side by side with Lucian up the stairs of the magic tower, Roark said half-jokingly, half-seriously: "Lucian, you've been rated by the apprentices as the coolest and most charismatic teacher. Even with the daily exercises they despise this week, you're still more popular than me. But saying things like 'In my class, you don't have to pay attention or practice — you just need to pass the final exam' — how could you just blurt that out? Even if you're actually doing it, even if you're tacitly allowing it, you shouldn't say it out loud. The reason their complaint succeeded was mainly because of those words, not because of your humorous teaching style."
"Thank you, Roark. I understand." Lucian nodded slightly. He had brought this upon himself with his own words.
Roark dropped his serious expression and grinned with a mix of amusement and indignation: "Honestly, what 'order' and 'tradition' — doesn't it all come down to what the powerful ones decide? If you were a Grand Archanist, Lucian, and you said those things and taught in this style — do you think they'd dare file a complaint? Do you think they'd dare accuse you of violating tradition and school regulations? They'd probably be showering His Excellency Grand Archanist Lucian with praise for being progressive and humorous, anything but rigid, for dramatically improving apprentice education — the very model for them all to follow."
"Haha, you're quite the comedian, Roark — but there's some truth to it." Lucian laughed.
…………
By lunchtime, Jerome, K, Verna, and several other magic instructors had come one after another to the garden villa to comfort Lucian, and they all shared lunch together.
Just as the meal ended, Anik, Leiliya, and Heidi — having heard about the punishment — came hurrying over as well.
To Lucian's surprise, Sprint and Katrina had come along with them, as well as class monitor Grant and a pretty, quiet girl Lucian didn't recognize — she appeared to be seventeen or eighteen, with distinctive seaweed-green hair.
"Mr. Evans..." Anik, Heidi, and Leiliya wanted to comfort Lucian but didn't quite know what to say. After struggling for a moment, they blurted out together: "We'll always support you!"
Sprint hung his head, his dark red hair swaying slightly as if nodding, while Katrina and Grant followed their example and pumped their fists: "Mr. Evans, we think your lectures are absolutely brilliant, and we'll keep supporting you!"
After that, Grant muttered under his breath: "It'd be even better if there were no daily exercises."
"Thank you all. I'll be back in the classroom soon." Lucian didn't encourage them to fight on his behalf — in a school as strict and tradition-bound as this, any apprentice who did so would certainly be expelled.
The long-standing authority of the magic school and its full mages meant that Grant and the others had never harbored such ideas in the first place. After chatting casually for a bit, Heidi suddenly spoke up: "Mr. Evans, several of us Magic Apprentices come from across the Storm Strait. There's still a considerable gap between us and the local apprentices when it comes to the finer points of Arcane and magical fundamentals. We struggle with our daily study and spell analysis — it feels like we can barely keep up. Since you have a month of free time, would you be able to set aside some of it to guide us?"