Flynn's Wonderful Class

Flynn's teaching results were far from ideal.

As an ancient gold dragon, her talent for magic was practically like the heavens prying open her mouth and pouring food down with a funnel. Combined with all the time she had, she had achieved something in nearly every school.

Except the Divination School.

That stuff simply wasn't something a normal mind could understand.

According to Drogo, if they fought to the death in open ground, he could win a miserable victory with heavy injuries. But if they competed in an enclosed space, Flynn would win completely.

Part of the reason was that Flynn loved and excelled at illusions most of all, while most illusions had countermeasures that hurt the enemy eight hundred and oneself a thousand. Drogo was thick-skinned.

While delving deeply into illusions, Flynn also greatly enjoyed teaching students. The sense of accomplishment from spreading knowledge was second only to collecting art.

Thus, she had become the most hardworking instructor at Liebin Spellcaster Academy. While supervising a scattered handful of illusionists, she also offered many electives, determined to promote illusion magic.

But things had gotten worse and worse in recent years.

In the past, since most adventurers needed to identify illusions, her electives were never popular, but enrollment had remained steady.

Now, the research institute had developed lamps that could detect illusions, replacing even that remaining demand. Fewer and fewer students enrolled, and soon she would not even be able to gather enough people to hold a class.

To make matters worse, even the students who enrolled had poor attendance. She did not dare take attendance, either. If she made the rules any stricter, even fewer students would come.

Flynn patted her face in the dressing mirror. As long as there was even one student left in her classroom, she would teach properly. That was the sense of responsibility of a gold dragon.

She chose a fitted black robe with a simple design and exquisite craftsmanship. She had always advocated against dressing too flamboyantly at school.

She mounted her bicycle and slowly rode toward the academy.

She loved trying new things, and bicycles were the newest novelty around besides Magic Shadow. Ever since chains and rubber tires had been added, they had become extremely convenient to ride.

The reason she did not teleport to the academy was, first, that her magic resistance was too high. She could teleport, but it was exhausting. Second, observing how other living beings lived on the streets was genuinely interesting.

Still, she tried not to form deep friendships with people. Their lives were simply too short, while a dragon's memories were far too vivid.

Yet she admired the madness, passion, and endless creativity of short-lived species. Those were things that had gradually worn away from her over the long years. If the world was ever to change, it would surely be because of them.

Oh, no. That completely un-dragonlike red nuisance might change it too.

She soon reached her destination. Liebin Academy did not have an enclosed campus; its various schools and departments were evenly distributed throughout Twin Towers City.

In a sense, Twin Towers City was surrounded by Liebin Academy.

Kosses Building was the shared teaching building of the Divination School and Illusion School, though more than half of it belonged to those divination people.

When she reached the fifth floor, she found that, for some reason, the academic office had notified her that her classroom had been changed to a four-hundred-seat lecture hall on the top floor. Even forty people could not fill her usual room.

To her surprise, the corridor was packed with people.

What was going on?

Did that old fat man who loved divining people's romantic fates have a class today too?

Near the end of class, he often randomly divined the romantic fate of a student in attendance, and even students who were already in relationships could be selected.

As a result, his classes were hugely popular. If you were chosen, it was a massive win; if not, you could still enjoy watching the chosen person make a spectacle of themselves.

She squeezed through the crowd of students with difficulty. Of course, the difficulty came from having to restrain her strength at all times, lest she accidentally crush someone's child.

When she pushed open the classroom door, all she saw was a sea of heads.

The four-hundred-seat lecture hall was packed to the brim. Not only were all the seats occupied, but there was no room to stand beneath the podium or in the aisles. Several Conjuration School students had even used the Floating Disc Spell to build themselves a second floor.

"Sorry, I came to the wrong classroom." Flynn's first reaction was to apologize. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. How could her class have so many students?

"Instructor, this is the right place," a timid voice said from beside the podium.

Flynn looked toward the voice and found her adorable little assistant, Yuffie. She thought very highly of Yuffie. Despite her young age, Yuffie was astonishingly talented, diligent in her studies, and serious in her work.

Flynn had been training Yuffie as her successor, teaching her everything she knew in the hope that Yuffie could pass her knowledge on to more people.

"They're here to attend an illusion class?" Flynn's tone was deeply uncertain. She seriously suspected that she had fallen under an illusion, but with her intelligence and perception, what kind of person could possibly fool her? Had the goddess of magic come in person?

That would not be a good thing.

"Yes, they all are," Yuffie confirmed. "The ones in the middle of the first row are the students who originally enrolled. Everyone else is here to sit in."

If this was an illusion, then she was happy to be caught in it.

As she stepped onto the podium, she even felt her legs go a little weak. As an experienced teacher, she was nervous.

In all these years, she had never taught in front of so many people. Not even a fraction of this many!

Nervousness mixed with excitement, forming a stirring emotion she had not felt in many years.

The last time she had been this excited was when she had taken advantage of Drogo's late growth spurt to steal his prey and force him to polish her scales.

After he grew up, she had never gotten to enjoy that treatment again. Once he had grown up, she could neither beat him nor catch him.

After steadying her breathing, she said, "Today's lesson was originally going to cover Illusion Mimicry, but since so many new students have come to observe, I thought I would demonstrate something more interesting and more practical from illusion magic..."

"Instructor, Instructor," Yuffie interrupted softly before Flynn could explain what it was. "Illusion Mimicry is the most interesting and practical thing right now."

"Huh?"

Flynn did not understand at first. Wasn't Illusion Mimicry merely a toy among illusion spells? It could not truly deceive anyone. Even theaters did not want to use it for scenery; if they could use an illusion, they used an illusion.

But the students below stared at her expectantly while frantically shaking their heads.

"Then," Flynn said hesitantly, "shall we still cover Illusion Mimicry this lesson?"

The students nodded like the needles of telegraph sounders.

Something was wrong, but she did not know what.

Only then did she notice something unusual about Yuffie. She was normally such a clean little girl, so why was her hair greasy now, with dark circles beneath both eyes?

Though she loved studying, she had always kept regular hours, sleeping early and rising early.

And now she was even dozing off!

When had she ever acted like this in Flynn's class?

Could she be in a relationship? What brat dared try to snatch her precious cabbage? Yuffie absolutely could not be delayed before she completed her studies and became independent.

Then she must be exhausted from preparing for a competition. She should give her two days off.

Feeling guilty toward Yuffie, Flynn taught the entire lesson with utmost seriousness. When class ended, the classroom erupted into applause that lasted several minutes. She was touched. There was hope for the revival of illusion magic after all. Surely heaven was about to entrust this dragon with a great responsibility.

"Does anyone have any other questions?"

Hundreds of hands shot up at once.

Tired but happy, she answered questions for several hours before finally finding time to rest for a while.

Then she turned and noticed Yuffie intently fiddling with something.

At a glance, it seemed to be Illusion Mimicry.

That was not right. Yuffie had mastered Illusion Mimicry long ago. There was no need for any post-class review. What was she mimicking?

Flynn watched closely. A long purple block slowly fell, fitting into a gap between blocks of different colors. Four rows of blocks vanished, earning points.

Was this a game?

Yuffie had actually stayed up late playing games!

Wait, so all those people had come to learn Illusion Mimicry just to play games!

She was furious. Here she had thought the revival of illusion magic was imminent.

"Where did you learn that spell?" Flynn's pressure even leaked out as she spoke.

"From, um, Senior Aisha."

"Senior Aisha? Which Senior Aisha?"

"The one from the toy shop."

"The toy shop..."

Flynn's mind went blank. After processing it for a moment, she suddenly let out an angry roar.

"Drogo, you've ruined my legacy!"