I Am a Lord

Josh still had no idea what Hermione's baffling expression had meant, but he did not care much. She had looked somewhat embarrassed and angry at the time, but to Josh, it had been utterly inexplicable. She was simply far too young.

Over the following days, Josh settled into a fixed routine, teaching students from every year each day. Most of his classes were in the mornings, so he rarely had any unpleasant encounters with the Quidditch players during their training.

Of course, no unpleasant encounters could really happen. Those people did not dare spout nonsense at Josh, and they genuinely enjoyed his classes as well. That said, Josh was not without troubles. Madam Hooch had complained about him several times because the training grounds kept getting damaged.

Since Josh was rather lazy, he simply combined the third- and fourth-years, as well as the fifth- and sixth-years. The seventh-years only needed meditation instruction, and could handle the rest of their time themselves. These older Young Wizards had already mastered quite a few spells, and after meditating for some time, each of them had developed Magic elements.

As a result, their combat sparring often led to uncontrollable incidents. For example, Crouch Edward from Hufflepuff, someone Josh knew, had once beaten someone badly enough to injure them. Though the fellow seemed a little afraid of Josh, he was quite talented.

This meant that, apart from weekends and the days when lower-year students had Combat class, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries received students injured by all kinds of elemental magic almost every day. It gave Dumbledore quite the headache. Still, there was good news: not a single parent had come to lodge a complaint.

There was no need to explain why. Dumbledore once again sighed over how wonderful it was to have someone like Josh at the school. Madam Hooch, however, was having none of it. She taught flying lessons and was also responsible for Quidditch pitch maintenance. Every day's Combat class took place here, so one could imagine what the turf looked like after being ravaged by Magic elements.

"This looks like a graveyard after grave robbers have been through it! There are holes everywhere!"

After one upper-year Combat class ended, Madam Hooch came to the Quidditch pitch and let out that roar. More importantly, she had no way to restore the blasted turf immediately. Though she had learned meditation and possessed Magic elements herself, the entire field was saturated with a dense mixture of different Magic elements. It was far beyond her ability to repair.

But none of that was Josh's concern. Dumbledore shielded him from every trouble and problem, so Dumbledore was the one who ought to have a headache. As for troubles outside the school, Dumbledore dealt with them far more directly.

Some aristocratic families demanded the method of cultivating meditation and pressured Dumbledore through their positions as school governors. Dumbledore simply gave them one answer: "Go find Professor Augustus. He invented it, or perhaps brought it from his family. We do not own it."

It was not as though those families had not tried to learn it from their children, but the knowledge had all been dealt with. No one could speak it aloud, and no one could write it down. Naturally, anyone who tried to force the issue would likely receive an Obliviate Spell.

There were also those unafraid of death who went looking for trouble with Josh, some relying on their status as school governors and others on their magical abilities. Josh blasted them with a single spell in front of all the students, hitting them so hard they could not recognize their own mothers. One unlucky fool even attacked Josh first, and Dumbledore ended up informing his family to come collect the body.

If someone took the initiative to attack another person and was killed, that did not make the other person a murderer. It was self-defense. And since it happened before the entire student body, there was even less to argue about. The people who came to collect the corpse had it particularly bad—they received only a box of ashes.

After that, no one dared come looking for trouble with Josh again. Of course, he gained several titles in private. One was Augustus the Brutal, because Josh was ruthless and had killed someone. Another was Augustus the Great Pioneer, in recognition of his strength and his contribution of meditation.

Josh could not say which one he preferred. In any case, his life finally settled down.

After teaching in the morning, he spent the afternoon dueling Garen—practical combat. At Garen's suggestion, mainly because Garen knew Josh possessed a close-combat spell called Void Blade, Josh began training his agility.

Josh accepted Garen's suggestion. He had sensed it himself: the Void element seemed to have improved his physical condition considerably. He had also seen an old text claiming that all paths of power ultimately converged, which reminded him of the novels he had read before. Their protagonists always seemed to make their bodies incredibly powerful.

Still, Josh was a mage. Though he believed physical training was necessary, he had no intention of turning himself into a muscle-bound man like Garen. It was enough to train his agility and flexibility so he would not be at a disadvantage in close combat.

Evenings were reserved for studying. He spent plenty of effort consulting Dumbledore and going to the library to research this world's studies of space. Though some of it was complicated, Josh could gradually understand it. His days were exceptionally fulfilling.

Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, Christmas had arrived. Christmas held little meaning for Josh. In his previous life, he had never felt much for the holiday, mainly because he had not had a girlfriend. After being transported to the Muya Continent, there had been even less reason to celebrate such a holiday.

Garen was the same and could not understand the holiday at all. Though he attended the Christmas banquet with Josh, he merely ate a meal before returning alone to his room to continue cultivating his Battle Qi.

Josh also wanted to leave, but as a professor, he stayed behind. This period had been very peaceful. Aside from a few fools who did not know their place, there was practically no plot left to speak of—at least, only Voldemort and Professor Quirrell's storyline remained.

Harry Potter still won the Quidditch match, while Ravenclaw only came in third. The little students were miserable about it, and as their Head of House, Josh had no choice but to step in and comfort them properly. Josh himself did not care much about the House Cup.

"Though I don't know whether Dumbledore will still favor Harry Potter as he did in the original story, I don't really care. But if the favoritism becomes that obvious, then I can only have a proper talk with Dumbledore."

Josh did not care, but as Head of House, he did not want his house to suffer any unfair treatment.

After the banquet, some Young Wizards chose to go home and reunite with their parents, while others stayed behind—Harry and Ron, for example. Harry did not want to return to his aunt and uncle's home, fearing that if he went back, he would never be able to return to Hogwarts. Ron was rather unlucky; his parents had gone to Romania to visit his brother Charlie, so he could only stay behind.

What Josh had not expected was that, although he felt he taught rather ordinarily, a whole crowd of students came to bid him farewell. Josh had no choice but to respond to them one by one. Even Hermione, the girl who usually never gave him a pleasant look, came by, which surprised him somewhat.

Ever since Josh had told her that his language and understanding of this world came from her memories, the girl had looked at him strangely. Josh had even wondered whether he had somehow offended the know-it-all from the original story.

"I'm leaving tomorrow, Professor. Aren't you going home?" Hermione, dressed in her black school robes, still wore a stiff expression.

"Me? I can't go back for now." Josh sat behind his desk and smiled at Hermione. "Don't you know? I'm not from this world. If I went back now, I probably wouldn't be able to come here again."

"Do Professor Dumbledore and the others know that you come from another world?"

"Of course they do." Josh found the girl rather interesting. "Otherwise, why do you think meditation and Magic elements, which had not appeared in this world for thousands of years, showed up after I arrived? It's because I brought them from my world."

"Then what is your purpose in coming to this world?" Hermione asked curiously, though she was clearly very nervous.

"Are you a police officer?"

Josh found it amusing. He suddenly wondered whether Hermione had come to his house because she thought he had some conspiracy or other nonsense behind his arrival in this world. Josh did not know that his guess was entirely correct, but even if he had known, he would probably only have burst out laughing.

Hermione blushed at Josh's words. Josh did not continue teasing her and said directly, "My purpose? There isn't much of one, really. It's just that time flows much more slowly in this world than in mine, and it's less dangerous than the worlds I experienced before. Hmm, it would be more accurate to say there is no danger at all. So I plan to conduct a few experiments here for the time being."

"The worlds before this one? And experiments?"

"Yes. My companion came from a world I visited before. But because we could not understand each other's language, he mistook me for an invader from another world and attacked me. Unfortunately for him, I was preparing to run away, but he chased after me and ended up being brought along. He is with me now because he wants to see whether he can find a way home."

Josh did not know why he was willing to share some of his little secrets with her. He had not even told Dumbledore about his relationship with Garen. Perhaps Josh felt that Hermione was the first person he had met in this world, and also the first person to know that he came from another world, so he did not hide so much from her.

"Time flows differently?"

"Of course. No matter how long I spend here, when I return, it will still be the moment I left. Though that would be fatal for ordinary people because of their lifespans, it is no difficulty for me. Living for several hundred years is no problem for me now."

Since he had already started talking, Josh could not be bothered to keep hiding things. He might as well tell the girl everything she was curious about.

"As for the experiments, you have already participated in one. My first experiment was to see whether meditation would work in another world, and the results have been unexpectedly good. As for the others, I want to see whether I can stabilize this world's portal."

"That way, I can return home, and I can also bring a few trustworthy students with me to help transform my territory properly."

"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you one premise. I'm a prince—though only the fourth prince—and I'm also a lord. Well, of a very backward and barren territory."