I Favor the Villainess Chapter 116

This was the sports ground at the Royal Academy.
A gentle sunlight befitting of early spring shone over us, and the temperature was no longer chilly.

"Good morning, everybody."
"""Good morning!"""

When I delivered a greeting to my class of around twenty students, they energetically greeted me back.
All of them donned their school uniforms, their faces looking like they were overflowing with enthusiasm.
Today was the first day of the new school year, and the beginning of the spring semester. It was also my first time meeting with my new students.

This was something that I thought since I began teaching one year ago, but making a good first impression is important.
Although the school was no longer predominantly comprised of children of nobility, even students from a commoner background will not take you seriously if you leave any gaps open.
That being said, I also don't think anything good would come out of being too overbearing either.
It was important to find a middle-ground and maintain that balance.

"My name is Rei Taylor, and starting from today, I will be your practical magic instructor alongside Claire-sensei, who is also a magic teacher. It's nice to meet you all, and I hope we will get along."

Magic theory and practical magic classes were subjects that got newly introduced just last year. As the names would suggest, magic theory classes concentrated on the academic side of things, whereas practical magic classes focused on applying those skills.
In the past, both sides were taught as a single subject.
In any case, I was the teacher for practical magic, while Claire-sama taught magical theory.
Because we were both particularly knowledgeable about magic and very skilled at it, we were chosen for the job.

"Since today is the first day and we gotten around to measuring your magical aptitudes yet, we'll just be doing self-introductions today, and I'll explain the curriculum as well."

However, before that…

"As I mentioned before, my name is Rei Taylor. Please call me Taylor-sensei."

I personally didn't mind being called Rei-sensei, but this was a different matter.
I wanted to make something clear.

"There may be some students here that are older than me, but I would like to stress that I will not take age into consideration here."

It was the same even back when the academy was primarily meant for nobility.
When I was a student at the academy, there were people of various different ages attending the same lectures with me as well.
This was completely different from 21st century Japan, where students were sorted into different classrooms based on their age.

"I've heard of you before! Taylor-sensei was the youngest student to achieve the highest test scores in the history of the academy!"

One of the students spoke up.
Ahh, here we go again…

"I've heard about her as well! Sensei, you were the hero of the revolution, right!?"
"I feel extremely honored to be taught by such a teacher!"
"Please show us what top-level magic looks like!"

The students suddenly started chiming in one by one.
Oh dear.

Fortunately – if I can call it that – it seems that my name became somewhat well-known within the kingdom.
Because I did everything I could to save Claire-sama during the revolution, it seems that I became painted as one of the protagonists of the events that transpired.
How strange.
All I wanted to do was prevent Claire-sama's execution from happening.

In any case, I had to deal with the current situation somehow.
I decided to put the solution that I came up with last year to use.

"Is anyone here afraid of heights?"
"I'm fine with them!"
"Me too!"
"More importantly, can you show us your high-level magic–"

So no one here was afraid of heights.
Okay.

"――Uplift."

As soon as I casted my magic, the soil beneath the students' feet began to rise.
It kept going and didn't stop until everyone was about ten meters from the ground.
This was similar to the magic I used when I dueled with Claire-sama, only this time, rather than setting up a pitfall and having the ground cave beneath everyone's feet, I had it lift them up instead.

"Wawawa….!"
"S-So high…!"
"I'm scaaared!"

Ten meters may not seem like much when you're just imagining it, but in reality, it's much higher than you'd expect.
What's more, nothing was linked together since I gave each student their own little platform to stand on, so for some, their footholds were unstable.
If anyone were to fall, I would be sure to catch them with my magic. However, because that was something I deliberately chose not to tell them, there were some students that were trembling in fear.

"Please don't talk over me when I'm speaking. If you do, the punishments that I give in the future will be just like this. Got it?"

The students all nodded their heads quickly.

"That's good. Now, let's get back to where we left off."

I brought the students back to the ground.
Looks of relief washed over their faces.

"Now then, please introduce yourselves one by one, starting with the student on the very right."

After that, things began to go relatively smoothly.
To maintain some order during my lectures, it was important that I didn't get carried away by the students.
Of course, as I mentioned before, it was important to not be too overbearing, but this was different.
I think it's important to become acknowledged as a well-respected teacher that your students want to be taught by.

That was why I made a display of my earth magic.
Although there were lots of outstanding students at the Royal Academy, there were also many students who had never seen magic actually being put to use before.
So I thought showing off a bit of my magic was an efficient way of introducing it to them as well.

However, if I had decided to flaunt some flashy magic, it would've resulted in too much excitement.
So instead, I went with the magic that I used earlier.
Depending on how you used magic, it could even be quite scary sometimes.
That was something I was also trying to get them to understand.

As I listened to the students' self-introductions, I observed their expressions.
Most people were still feeling the shock from my earth magic earlier.
There were some people that spoke loudly, but they were most likely putting on a brave face.
That was something I found somewhat amusing, but there were also students that were a bit strange.

"My name is Lana Lahna, and I'm from Euclid! Just like Rei-sensei!"

A girl who seemed unfazed by my magic earlier spoke, her brown-colored eyes sparkling as she did.
She had red hair and wore a white headband.
She was about my height, but possibly a bit taller than me.
She wore a bright and cheerful smile.
I thought she kind of gave off the aura of a gyaru.1

"I'm kinda hopeless when it comes to studying, but I'm suuuper interested in magic! I want to be just like Rei-sensei! It's nice to meet you all!"

As Lana spoke, she waved her hand in a gentle, fluttering motion.
It seems that I became the subject of someone's favor again.
Well, it may seem a bit strange to say this about myself, but my personality was a bit on the eccentric side, so I'm sure she'll become disillusioned with me soon enough.
I give her my condolences in advance.

"….. Eve Nunn. I'm from Euclid. The same as Lana. Nice to meet you."2

Eve delivered her introduction after Lana, although she gave off a bit of a downer vibe.
Eve was also somebody who remained unbothered by my "Uplift" spell earlier, but she and Lana were complete opposites.
She had long black hair that was tied into braids.
It was rare to see people that wore glasses in this world, so for her to be wearing them meant that her family was most likely well-off.
Well, that's enough of that.
Even if some of the students were a bit strange, since everybody was so different in personality, there would be no complaints coming from me.
However――

Somehow, it felt like I was being stared at.
Eve glared at me like I was her parents' worst enemy.
I'm pretty sure this was my first time meeting her, though…..

"My name is Joel. Joel Santana. I was born here, in the royal capital."

The next to introduce themselves was a tall boy.
He had blue hair and brown eyes.
He gave off a lone-wolf vibe.
Perhaps he kept up a training routine, but his body appeared to be quite built.

"Since I was born to and raised by a soldier, combat is my strong suit. I also like studying, but I'm no good at it. Nice to meet you."

Joel's introduction was simple and straight to the point from start to finish.
His introduction gave off somewhat of a machine-like impression.

All of the self-introductions ended without a hitch, and I took the time to explain how pre-lecture warm-up exercises were going to look.

"Well then, I'll see you all again next time."
"""Thank you very much!"""

After we all exchanged farewells, the class was dismissed.
Right as I was about to head to the staff room, I was stopped by Lana.

"Rei-sensei! There was something I kinda didn't understand during class."
"I haven't started teaching anything yet though?"
"I was referring to the warm-up exercises! This part's too hard for me!"

Is what she said, but I didn't spot anything wrong.
Perhaps she made up an excuse just to talk to me?
I'm a bit flattered, but since I already have Claire-sama, I needed to draw a line somewhere.
Just as I was about to put my foot down, I felt a gaze coming from behind me.

"……?"
"….."

When I turned around, I found Eve staring at me again.
I didn't know what was going on, but having a strained relationship with a student was never a good thing.
Hoping that we could get along, I gave her a smile and waved at her.
However, Eve simply gave me an obvious look of contempt in return before turning away and marching off.

"Aa~h, Eve is being rude."
"Lana, you and Eve are from the same town, right?"
"Aha, you've already remembered my name, Rei-sensei?"
"I'm also from Euclid, so is it possible that we've actually met before?"
"No way! I might know of you, but that's just a one-sided thing! If anything, I'm just a fan of yours!"

Somehow, Lana's enthusiasm gave me a sense of deja vu.
Yeah, that's probably just my imagination.

"Ahh, but I think Eve mentioned something about having a complex towards you?"
"A complex?"
"Yep. Something about having her lover stolen away from her."
"…. Sorry, I can't come up with anything."

I mean, Claire-sama was the only one for me, after all.

"Well, whatever, just forget about Eve and pay more attention to me!"
"Sorry, I've got another class to teach."
"Aa~h, you're mean! But that's something that I like about you!"

Somehow, I managed to get away from Lana, and I returned to the staff room.
In the meantime, I was thinking about Eve's matter.

(Stealing her lover……?)

I'm sure everything was just a misunderstanding, but the problem was, how did this misunderstanding even start?
I'll have to think about it more in-depth later.

"….. This year's students might end up being more difficult than I thought."

I muttered as I sighed before taking a deep breath of the fresh spring air.

1) A “gyaru”, or “gal”, is a sub-culture of girls that follow specific trends, usually certain makeup or clothes and styles. They are stereotypically known to be a bit frivolous. They also speak with more informal language in Japanese, which is exactly what Lana does, which, along with her general attitude, is partly why she gives off a “gyaru” impression to Rei.↵

2) I would like to note that I kept the machine translation of Lana's last name (“Lahna”) since I couldn't find an actual last name for it (I assume it is written that way just for fun, since Lana Lahna really rolls off the tongue). Meanwhile, I used “Nunn” for Eve's last name because it is (or was) a real last name. Given its history, it also matches with Eve's wealthy background here.↵

Chapter end