Act One: Starting Today, I'm the Principal

Bang—

The heavy slap against the desk jolted Chen Mo awake. Thinking he had fallen asleep in the office, he hurriedly looked toward the person who had slammed the table.

But what he saw was not a familiar colleague, but an unfamiliar woman.

The woman was clearly not Eastern. She looked no older than twenty, with a high nose bridge, fair skin, and a graceful figure—the picture of a Western beauty. Her long golden hair was tied into a ponytail behind her head, and her violet eyes held a trace of anger as she stared straight at Chen Mo.

She was not wearing professional attire either, but something more like the robes from a medieval European film. Though old-fashioned, they were spotless. For some reason, she also wore a pointed hat, making her look exactly like a witch.

"Principal Ian Gray, didn't I tell you that if you want to sleep, you should go back to your own room?"

The woman spoke in a language unlike any on Earth, yet Chen Mo could understand her.

"Uh?"

A confused sound escaped him instinctively. Wasn't I supposed to be preparing materials for my next class in the teachers' office? How did I suddenly end up here?

At that moment, countless memories flashed before his eyes like slides.

They were the life of another person.

Rainer Ian Gray. That was Chen Mo's current name.

It sounded like the name of a noble, and Rainer Ian Gray was indeed one: the third son of the renowned Ian Gray Family, once a spoiled young master and now the principal of this aristocratic girls' school, Crescent Magic Academy.

Yes, this was the principal's office, and the woman standing before Chen Mo—or rather, before Rainer—was Claire Sally Wynn, the academy's vice principal and dean of students.

This was a world with magic. What kept the world running was not electricity or the internet, but magic.

Likewise, the teachers at Crescent Academy did not teach physics or chemistry, but Alchemy and elemental magic, magical theory, and astrology.

This school was a magic academy for girls. A girls' school meant it admitted only female students, and Crescent Academy took that even further: aside from Rainer, every student, teacher, and staff member was female. He suspected the original owner of this body had bought the academy without hesitation precisely because of that.

"Honestly, how could the old principal have been blind enough to sell the school to someone like him..."

Seeing Rainer's bewildered expression, Teacher Claire muttered quietly.

After hearing Teacher Claire's words and rapidly digesting the memories, Chen Mo could only remain silent.

Chen Mo had originally been a high school teacher. Because he was young and upright, he offended a teacher who had gotten in through connections with the principal. He was then falsely accused of molesting a student. With no way to defend himself, he arrived in this world and transmigrated into this body. As for the body's original soul, no one knew where it had gone.

According to his memories, Rainer Ian Gray's family possessed enormous power. However, his father had come up with the fanciful idea of testing his children. He gave each of them a certain amount of capital, drove them out of the family home, and allowed them to return only after five years.

When that time came, whoever achieved the most would be qualified to inherit the family estate.

Rainer Ian Gray only knew how to paint, play the piano, drink, and chase women. He had no business sense whatsoever. In a muddle, he had been persuaded to spend all his money buying the nearly bankrupt Crescent Academy. Rather than handling any proper work, he spent every day harassing teachers and students.

So the student before him was someone he had harassed?

Chen Mo—or Rainer Ian Gray—shifted his gaze to the other side of the desk, where a girl dressed similarly to the woman beside him stood.

The girl had an adorable face. Most striking were her long silver hair flowing down her back and her ruby-like scarlet eyes, which gave her a mysterious air. Yet she looked rather nervous at the moment, lightly pinching the hem of her clothes as she watched Rainer and Teacher Claire uneasily.

"Ahem, Charlotte, do you know what what you wrote on the exam means?"

Teacher Claire cleared her throat and spoke to the girl before her.

"Mm."

The girl called Charlotte nodded, then glanced at Rainer. She seemed quite afraid of the principal.

Only then did Rainer remember that this student had not been summoned to the principal's office because he had harassed her, but because something had gone wrong during the entrance exam.

"'There may be no Fire Element during combustion. Instead, a gas with particular properties may act as a catalyst.' Where exactly did you see such statements? This is practically blasphemy against Alchemy!"

Teacher Claire reprimanded her, causing Charlotte to lower her head even further.

Yet Rainer found it rather intriguing. He looked at the desk, where Charlotte's exam paper lay. The red-marked section was an essay question asking students to explain the process behind combustion, an alchemical phenomenon.

On Earth, combustion was an oxidation reaction, one of the earliest chemical reactions used by humanity. Flame had given birth to civilization and distinguished humans from beasts. It could be said that the age of humanity was the age of fire, and its principles were so familiar to Rainer, who had once been a high school physics teacher, that they could not have been more familiar.

However, the term Fire Element left Rainer somewhat puzzled.

He roughly scanned Charlotte's answer. While he did not understand some of the terminology, and some of its descriptions were not particularly rigorous, there was no doubt that it was a simple account of the combustion reaction. As for the Fire Element, Rainer remembered that it should have been a long-discarded theory. On Earth, it had been called phlogiston, a hypothetical substance similar to ether, mentioned only during the early days of chemistry.

But judging from Teacher Claire's reaction, was this student actually wrong? Was that why she had been summoned here to be reprimanded?

"If there is no Fire Element, then how do you explain the changes in an object's weight after combustion? Where does the energy from combustion come from? Why are combustible and noncombustible materials different?"

Teacher Claire was extremely agitated. Even Rainer found her stream of questions somewhat frightening. She paused, then spoke earnestly to Charlotte.

"Charlotte, I always thought you were a good student. Your Alchemy grades have always been excellent. Why would you do something like this? Has someone been bullying you?"

Teacher Claire's patient, guiding manner instead made Charlotte feel quite troubled. After hesitating for a long time, she finally answered weakly.

"Teacher, I don't think I'm wrong."

Upon hearing Charlotte's answer, Claire's expression froze at once.

"I think there may be something wrong with what the books say, or perhaps they are incomplete, or..."

Faced with the stern dean of students, Charlotte did not dare insist further on her own opinion and explained haltingly.

"Charlotte Clune, I'll say this again—"

"Please wait, Teacher Claire."

At that moment, Rainer, who had remained silent the entire time, spoke up. Both women turned to look at the principal, who had nothing going for him except his face.

Rainer cleared his throat before continuing.

"I think Charlotte's answer makes some sense."

The moment those words left his mouth, Rainer felt two entirely different gazes settle on him.