Friday
The whole group sat neatly watching teacher Meil enter the class. Everyone still paid some attention to her long goat horns.
"Alright, did you all do the homework? Submit it to me later so I can grade it," Miss Meil said, taking out a cup of coffee to drink.
Only now did I notice her eyes were a bit dark. It seemed she had stayed up late doing something.
"Teacher! Why are your eyes so dark?" Lucas raised his hand to ask.
Oh my god Lucas, why are you so nosy??
"Lucas, you're deducted 10 credits. Next time if you want to ask something you have to raise your hand first and only stand when I call on you," Meil glared at Lucas, making him tremble.
But he already raised his hand though?
Well, people who stay up late are usually quite irritable, I guess?
"As for why my eyes are dark, you'll know later, because one day you will also become like me, haha," she smiled lightly, as if feeling relieved that later there would be people in the same situation as her.
Then she flipped her bag to take out a few things and looked at us.
"Today I will practice some of the most basic things, including making salt."
This time a few people looked a bit confused.
After all, according to what they knew, alchemy was usually about drawing circles, equivalent exchange, and turning dirt into iron spears or something.
"Looking at your faces I know I've already disappointed you. Alchemy is something composed of many different things. Things like drawing alchemy circles and equivalent exchange are just the most recognizable ones. If you truly want to pursue this path and become like me, you must understand that you have to give up your innocence in exchange for knowledge and your spirit."
With just one sentence, the whole group realized what she had gone through.
"So... do you have a boyfriend yet?" An unrelated sentence rang out, coming from Tryo.
...goodbye Tryo, it was nice to meet you.
Needless to say, that single sentence alone made everyone turn to look at Tryo.
"...what?"
"You know, I know you didn't mean it, but I think kindness should be given to the right person."
"So..."
"Yeah, Tryo, will you be the sample for me so I can demonstrate for the whole class?"
Oh dang.
Tryo then experienced the perspective of Jesus, however instead of dying for the sins of the people, he died because of a question asked at the wrong time.
Yeah, Tryo was nailed to a wooden cross.
"TEACHER?!?"
"Today we'll change from making salt to making potions. This is something an alchemist needs to carry with them, depending on whether you want to save someone or harm someone," she said, starting to take out tools like test tubes, candles, solutions and a few other things.
"Um teacher? Is it okay to learn the complicated stuff before the basic things?" Alvin raised his hand to ask.
"It's fine. Anyway while teaching I'll talk about those basic things too. It's accelerated learning, you know you know," Meil said with a confident look, but everyone wasn't so sure.
Meanwhile Lucas looked at Alvin with a pained expression. Clearly earlier he had also raised his hand to ask but got deducted credits.
"Alright, first I'll teach you how to make the simplest recovery potion. This is important and indispensable during wartime. Even though it's easy to make, at that time the war was so intense that recovery potions became extremely scarce, even though it was only the cheap type."
Ah, a history lesson mixed into the alchemy class. I already like it.
"First step, prepare the materials," she took out a flower-like herb, blood, a cup of water and one other thing.
"If you don't know, this herb is called Pityful Roses, an extremely poisonous herb but easy to handle. Still, poison is poison so you have to be careful."
"Second is blood. This blood must be human blood, blood type O or more specifically O negative. This blood is compatible with all other blood types," she shook a test tube containing a small amount of blood.
"These are the two most core things to create a recovery potion, because Pityful Roses is an herb that is very easily stimulated when touching human blood, causing it to release toxins into the blood. That's why it's poisonous."
"Therefore, to solve it, this is the thing that solves the problem," she placed a jar on the table, making the whole group notice and recognize it right away.
Salt?
"Because the poison of Pityful Roses is funny enough bacteria, and you know salt has disinfectant properties that are unmatched."
She then took a wooden bowl, put the Pityful Roses in and ground them. After grinding she put the blood in first so the blood would absorb the bacterial poison, then added water, and finally the salt.
"As for why it becomes a recovery potion, it's because Pityful Roses is an herb with an extremely good body regeneration ability. The problem lies in the bacteria parasitizing this herb. It always absorbs that regeneration ability to continue growing, and it always appears on this plant even if you make a greenhouse. This herb before flowering is even many times more poisonous, so when this herb blooms it is also the most perfect time but also withers the fastest."
"Teacher, then why not use salt to kill the bacteria while growing the plant?" Alvin raised his hand again to ask.
"That bacterium is quite nasty. If it doesn't get what it wants, it would rather destroy everything," she shook the medicine for a while then walked over to Tryo.
"...why are you coming near me?" Tryo asked with a pale face.
"It's not personal, kid," she dropped a still-burning candle onto it, and the fire started spreading on that wooden cross.
...Dear god, she really doesn't hold back at all?
"UWAAAAAAAA!!!" Tryo was terrified to the extreme, struggling continuously in the heat of the fire.
"Then you heat it up, wait about 10 minutes and the result will be complete," she poured the finished product into a test tube, then fixed it tightly onto a long stick that was secured and left it there.
The whole class blinked continuously, looking at Tryo screaming and crying while Meil was still calmly lecturing.
Oi oi oi, are you a demon? Why do I feel like you're even more evil than a devil?
After a while, the result had become a recovery potion when the liquid inside contained a transparent red color that could be seen through.
"And this is a recovery potion. Do you find it easy to make?"
"..." The whole group blinked, looking at Tryo sticking his tongue out, blackened and unconscious.
Damn, burned but still alive? Is your luck good within the bad luck?
"Alright, let me test it on Tryo," she then approached, opened Tryo's mouth and poured it in.
As soon as she finished pouring, Tryo opened his eyes, his hair suddenly grew longer, and his appearance became holy.
"Don't worry my children, I, Tryo will save you all."
...
'Is Jesus reincarnated?' my eyes twitched a bit.
"Stop acting like a cow," Meil pulled the nails out of Tryo's clothes, making him faceplant onto the floor.
"Ouch ouch..." Tryo had now returned to normal, then sweated and backed far away from Meil.
"Go back to your seat."
"Y-Yes!"
Experiencing a feeling unlike anyone else, Tryo could only sit there with a stunned face.
'Best not to anger the teacher. Who knows what she's thinking?' I thought to myself.
Besides, earlier when listening to her lecture about bacteria, I noticed one thing.
'Ah right, it seems bacteria can be used to make cards, right? Not sure if monster, spell or trap cards though?'
Interest surged up. I decided to focus on it because you should remember, there is a card related to Virus used by a famous Yu-Gi-Oh character.
Crush Card Virus of Kaiba!
And hearing what the bacteria parasitizing Pityful Roses did, I have a feeling it can be turned into a pretty good troll card that destroys cards, hehehe...
It's good that this era still focuses on monster stats and battles exactly like Pokemon, not yet inflated in power to the extreme like later Yu-Gi-Oh.
After that time passed quite quickly. Meil's two periods were over so she left, then the magic teacher Lucy entered the class.
"Have you done the homework I assigned?" With a small figure like a loli, she said.
"Ah yes, let me submit them," Alvin stood up and started going through each person to collect the notebooks.
Then a stack of notebooks was placed on the teacher's desk. Lucy counted each one and realized one was missing.
Who didn't submit was easy to recognize because everyone wrote their name on the front of the notebook.
"Lucas!"
"Oh damn!!"
"What did you say?!"
"I miss my mom."
"DON'T MAKE EXCUSES! TELL ME WHY YOU DIDN'T SUBMIT!"
Lucas stood up with an embarrassed face.
"Well... Well... My Vulcan accidentally burned it..."
"Wow, you know you have a fire monster and still let it out and burn the notebook? I think you did it on purpose."
"Don't blame Vulcan! It has no fault at all!" Lucas said with a serious face.
"...I was talking about you, not that pet of yours?"
"Oh is that so? I'm sorry."
Has anyone told you that you resemble the hot-blooded brainless main character in shounen?
"Lucas, deduct 50 credits."
"UHAH!"
Lucas collapsed, while Lucy no longer cared and started teaching.
I don't know whether to say he's pitiful or what...
This time she taught about how to use magic linked to the user's element. After all this is the easiest way to become a mage during wartime.
It might lack versatility, but in wartime you can't be picky and the number of mages was severely lacking.
So the teaching method has changed quite a lot from before. If in the past they valued appearance and the flashiness of magic, learning whatever they liked, in this era they focus more on practicality.
Humans have learned too many lessons from the worst war humanity has ever experienced.
And funny enough, thanks to the war with the Demon King, humans started valuing kindness more. So in this era there are quite a few kind kings who ascended the throne and governed the country very well without upsetting the people.
I wish Earth was also like that...
By the way, Lucy is quite proficient in light magic, her element is fire.
What? What does light have to do with fire? A bit heartbreaking for those who believe in the light god, but most light sources originate from the sun.
And the sun is a giant sphere of magma.
Moreover, light from light bulbs is electricity, light under the sea is due to glowing stones or something and those are stones.
Breaking the faith of religious people is really not my hobby...
So the two periods passed quickly like that, until Lucy's two periods were also over.
"This is the homework I assign to you. See you next week," Lucy said quickly then hurriedly left the class.
What's the rush?
"My 50 credits..." Lucas buried his face in the desk in pain.
"No need to worry. You can earn them back each class. After all 5 periods also give 50 credits," I said to calm him down.
"Hmph, fool," Kaiser said in a not-at-all friendly tone, making Lucas stand up and glare.
"What did you say?! Anyone can say that about me but not you!"
"So is there a problem? Petty kid?"
"GRRR!!"
So Lucas charged over to fight Kaiser. Truly a typical rival trope...
After a while, the homeroom teacher of my class, Rook, entered.
"After 5 days of observing you, I have seen a few people I can assign class officer duties to," Rook said straight without beating around the bush.
"Alvin, you will be class monitor."
"Huh?! Me??" Alvin stood up, pointing at himself.
"Yeah. You are the most serious. You occasionally remind and prevent classmates from having conflicts, especially Lucas and Kaiser."
"...but I didn't prevent Lucas and Kaiser?"
"Those two are stubborn so even if you stop them it won't work, but I appreciate the few times you did try to stop them. Besides you often help the girls, and the teachers also have a good view of you, so you fit very well."
...did the teacher install cameras in the class?
Besides, when did Alvin do all that? Off screen?
"What do you think?"
"Yes... Let me think about it."
"When you decide, meet me at the teachers' office. Next, Mint."
"Y-Yes?!!" Mint jumped up startled, trembling extremely.
"You will be the Academic Deputy Class Monitor"
"W-Why is that?"
"You study the best. Any problem?"
"Ah... Ah yes."
"Then if you have any opinion you can ask me. Next, Vux."
The green-haired girl with a huge lizard tail stood up, her face indifferent but a bit serious.
"You will be the Discipline Deputy Class Monitor."
"Can I ask why?"
"You are quite hot-tempered in a quiet way. The boys sitting near you are all quite mischievous at home yet they are quite quiet when you're there, so I guess you can discipline the class well when the class president can't."
"...thank you," Vux nodded and sat down.
Coincidentally, this is the area Vux is best at because when she was in the lizard beastman tribe, her father disciplined others very strictly. She had learned quite a lot from her father.
"And finally, Alice, you will be the Hygiene Deputy Class Monitor."
"Huh?" Alice was surprised.
"Your cute face is quite easy to order others around, so I assign that duty to you right away."
"..."
The reason is so brief.
"If anyone has any complaints raise your hand. I'll wait."
There was a hand that intended to raise but then lowered, as if hesitating.
I noticed quite quickly. That hand belonged to the person who has no goodwill toward me, Siutsu.
With his personality, he is certainly not satisfied with teacher Rook's arrangement.
Wanting attention and recognition, so becoming class president or vice president is the best?
Yes, a thought very similar to some bald guy from DC, famous for being racist toward Superman for stealing all the attention.
But seeing him hesitate like that, perhaps he also realizes where he stands compared to those the teacher assigned, because his talent is insignificant and he really not a good guy at all.
"Is something wrong, Siutsu?" Rook asked.
"No, nothing at all," Siutsu chose not to answer.