Heaven's Greatest Professor

Warden awoke rather late in the morning with all the stressful interventions on his mind. A slight prickling sensation crossed his mind as he found himself in the guest room bed of June's quarters.

He recalled how many times they had engaged in picking on his mind and had failed. In the end, he was spent to no end and slept on the bed. June was kind enough to let him stay, it seems. Of course, he hadn't been mistaken in recognising her character. She was just as kind as she looked aloof. She was also strict with herself and had values and ideals she would rather not bend.

Warden sighed, remembering all of their failings. Even when putting in almost everything they could, they hadn't managed to penetrate his subconsciousness, leading him to realise that he might be hiding something—something weak but significant.

What surprised him was how he could feel his spirit standing defiantly as the guardian to protect his subconsciousness. Warden, perhaps, could have subdued his spirit when he was awake, but June refused to intrude into his mind, concerned about leaving permanent traumas in his soul and mind. That was one of her rules she was disinterested in breaking or even bending.

Honestly, Warden was at a loss. He did not consider himself to have a poor spirit or willpower to be traumatised by just some intrusion, though perhaps there was merit to her words. Nevertheless, he had to respect her ideals, if not anything else.

"You will be late for your first class," June said as he emerged from the room. "I have prepared breakfast. Go refresh yourself quickly. You cannot set a poor example for the students to follow."

Warden obeyed and did as she asked, having the same thing in mind. Warden had already recognised both of them had a similar mindset, even though they were very different types of people. To his rash personality, June was always so collected. But to her aloof and serious personality, Warden was freer and more comfortable.

There were more resemblances and contrasts in their nature. Unfortunately, he was running out of time to contemplate that.

The combat class was held in the gymnasium. Hurrying, Warden managed to arrive just in time with all the students present by then.

"Good morning, instructor," the students greeted him the moment he entered the classroom.

It wasn't unanimous, and not everyone greeted him—perhaps only a third of them did. Considering most of the students came from noble families who were taught to look down on some lowly combat instructor like him, it was rather a high number.

There were over 40 students, including the lot he had instructed in the mock class for his final test. Some of them didn't look pleased to see him. Warden smiled coldly to himself.

"Wait, I forgot to ask if I need to take attendance or not," Warden muttered and turned to face the students. "Is anyone missing?"

The students looked at each other as half of them began gossiping.

"That's enough. I'd be gratified if you all remain silent for the rest of the class," Warden said. "I see there are quite a lot of you for me to instruct individually. Raise your hand if you are a close combatant."

Over half of the class raised their hands, and Warden counted to find there were 27 of them.

"How many are on the path of a mage or of a similar kind?" he asked again.

Four hands were raised—three girls and a boy.

"How many archers?"

Seven hands went up.

"Is there anyone left?"

Seven more students raised their hands. It turned out three of them were healers, two were scouts, and the others possessed unique abilities that led to their admission to the academy.

"You might be wondering what a general warrior-type individual like me is to do with those on the path of a mage or healer," Warden raised the question.

He allowed them to gossip among themselves for a few seconds.

"The thing is, everyone needs to learn at least the basic form of combat and physical conditioning if they want to graduate from the academy," Warden broke the news as he observed the faces of those non-close-combatants, like magicians and healers, twisting into ugly expressions. "I think most of you would want to graduate without any inconvenience. So let us begin.

"I would be dividing you into a few smaller groups according to your stat points, needs, and mastery. But we will start by dividing by attribute points first. Those that are below 30 points in their strength, dexterity, or other physical attributes stand on the left in the gymnasium court."

Over two dozen or so students moved to the left, causing Warden to frown.

"I forgot to add, if I were to find you lying about your stats to make it easier for yourself, I would give you the same treatment as I did to the six of them in the mock class a couple of days earlier." Warden gestured to the six, who were standing closer together.

Everyone's eyes led to them. Those who didn't know about the event soon heard what it was all about and reconsidered their approach.

Five students crept out of the group and gave some ambiguous excuses to Warden. One said he only made it to 30 points in strength a couple of days ago, while another claimed to have over 30 points in strength but dexterity below 20, and so on.

A couple of students even joined the lower-ranked students with embarrassed looks on their faces. Warden clicked his tongue and turned to the rest of the group.

"Those that are below 50 points in physical attributes go to the right."

Twenty students were left, and sixteen of them joined to go on the right. Three of the four that remained were familiar faces—Arsela, Dirk, and Tam—along with another guy whom Warden didn't recognise. To his surprise, all six students he punished the other day were in the middle group.

***

Mass Release 3/5