Professor Lacerta... (Sad)

Stardust Academy dormitory.

Having just gotten her fill of sleep, Dania picked up her terminal and opened the Star Torch Forum, ready to begin her extensive study of human behavior for the day.

A post titled "Shocking! A newly admitted student actually did this to Professor Lacerta!" caught Dania's attention.

The title was naturally just clickbait. Dania had spent nearly two years observing and imitating humans, so she understood that.

What mattered was whether the content lived up to the title. Otherwise, the forum moderators would surely have removed it as false information.

The fact that it hadn't been removed, and had even been pinned, was enough to prove that its contents were explosive.

The post described in detail how a new Huanglong student named Lu Guan had caused an incident above the ice field on his first day of school-or rather, before he had even officially enrolled-that could only be described as a terrorist attack...

As a result, Professor Lacerta, who had gone to collect the new students, had taken the full force of the accidental explosion caused by the new student to protect the others. She was still on an IV drip in the infirmary...

Several photos of the scene were attached to the post, including an innocent-looking Lu Guan, Lacerta lying unconscious on the ground, and the Great Spiraling Ring of Yu right beside her.

Dania paid no attention to how the photos had been taken. Her attention was entirely on the new student named Lu Guan.

"How strange... He did something like that, yet he can still put on such an innocent expression." Dania muttered to herself. From her years studying human behavior, she understood that the best way to handle this situation was to honestly admit fault, stand at attention, and take the beating...

"Should I call you thick-skinned... or shameless?"

Academic affairs office.

"..."

"..."

Since Lacerta was still in the infirmary, Professor Mornye, who had come to fill in for her, and Teacher Voss sat facing each other in silence.

Clearly, they both had a headache over the problem student before them. Mornye went without saying: she had been drafted into this, and as a woman in science and engineering, she barely knew how to communicate with students...

Teacher Voss also had a terrible headache. A student named Lynae, who had enrolled earlier, was already hard enough to manage. She hadn't expected to meet an even more outrageous expert today.

"...Ribbit?"

Mornye and Voss both turned around, their four eyes fixed on Lu Guan.

"Eek? Can we make peace?"

Mornye thought for a moment and decided to follow the rules. She asked Voss, "Teacher Voss, do the school rules have a plan for handling this kind of situation?"

"They do, but... they don't apply to Lu Guan." Voss rubbed her brow, her head aching. "He hadn't officially enrolled when he made the mistake, so he wasn't a student of the academy yet. It would clearly be inappropriate to punish him according to the school rules."

The two fell silent again.

At that moment, Lu Guan asked timidly, "Um... since that's the case, why don't we wait until Teacher Lacerta wakes up and let her decide?"

The two women exchanged a glance, then nodded.

Mornye said, "For now, that seems to be the only option."

Teacher Voss nodded in agreement and comforted Lu Guan. "Don't be nervous. Given Professor Lacerta's personality, she'll probably just give you a talking-to. Be sincere about admitting your mistake, and she won't really be angry with you."

"...I still have things to do at the research institute." Mornye got up and climbed onto her hovering vehicle. "Since we've found a solution to the problem, I'll be going."

Seeing this, Lu Guan's lips inexplicably began to move, as though something was about to slip out. In a panic, he hurriedly clamped his hands over his mouth.

"Hmm? Lu Guan... what's wrong?" Mornye noticed what was happening and steered her vehicle closer to ask.

"Mmph, mmph, mmph!" Lu Guan's eyes widened, and he hurriedly waved for Mornye to stay away from him.

Mornye grew even more puzzled. She tilted her head toward Voss. "Teacher Voss, do you know what's wrong with this student?"

"Let me see..." Voss looked through the information Huanglong had sent over about Lu Guan. "This student's resonance ability... activated through speech... impossible to control at will... danger level... extremely dangerous?!"

"Extremely dangerous?!" Mornye's mouth fell slightly open. This was the first time she had seen a Resonator rated as extremely dangerous, let alone one who struggled to control his own ability... Wouldn't that make him a ticking time bomb for the academy?

No... he was more like a bomb that could go off repeatedly, because Lu Guan had already achieved the remarkable feat of sending Principal Lacerta to the infirmary before he had even enrolled.

"Hah... hah..."

At last, Lu Guan managed to swallow the words in his mouth. "I... I finally held it in... Otherwise, I'd have been done for..."

Just now, when he saw Mornye get up, he had immediately recalled that "Pipa Song" fan creation featuring Mornye from his previous life.

If he had hummed the song's melody...

Lu Guan could already imagine the absurd scene of Mornye controlling her prosthetic limbs to perform that addictive dance in front of him, then looking back confidently with a devilish smile, her inner shame off the charts...

After a heaven-defying stunt like that, Mornye's favorability toward him would definitely drop below zero!

"Student... were you trying to say something just now?"

There was a reason for the saying "genius on the left, madman on the right." Seeing that Lu Guan seemed to be back to normal, Mornye, driven by curiosity, actually dared to ask him what he had wanted to say.

"No... Professor Mornye." Lu Guan wore a serious expression. "For the sake of your physical and mental health, and my future class participation grades, I personally think you're better off not knowing..."

"...Physical and mental health?" Mornye was puzzled and was about to press him, but, as luck would have it, a sudden incoming call cut her off.

"Mm... yes, this is Mornye."

"Oh... I see... All right, I'll bring him over now."

When the call ended, Mornye said to Lu Guan, "Professor Lacerta is awake. She wants to see you."

"Come with me."

Lu Guan stood at attention and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Cough, cough... Professor Mornye, did you bring Lu Guan?"

"All right, that's a great help."

"Doctor Lu, sorry for the trouble. I'd like to speak with Lu Guan alone now."

After Mornye brought Lu Guan to the infirmary, Lacerta asked the school doctor, Lu Hes, to take the other visitors out with him, leaving Lu Guan sitting alone and anxiously beside her hospital bed.

"Um... Teacher Lacerta, I didn't mean to do it." Remembering Teacher Voss's advice, Lu Guan immediately and openly admitted his mistake. "It was all my fault... I caused you to get hurt."

"I'm not badly hurt." Lacerta shook her head. "I only overexerted my resonance ability. Compared to that, I think your current problem is more serious..."

"I can tell you're a kind child. If you can't learn to control your resonance ability, it won't just affect everyone at the academy. It will also become a burden on your own heart."

"Teacher Lacerta... I'm sorry..." Lu Guan lowered his head even further. He hadn't expected Lacerta not only to refrain from blaming him, but also to show concern for his situation.

Lacerta let out a gentle breath, her expression softening considerably.

"The Huanglong Court sent me your information earlier."

"Some of its descriptions of you didn't leave me with a very good impression. To be honest, before we officially met, I had always regarded you as a problem student."

"But just now... I changed my mind."

"Then... Teacher Lacerta, you don't blame me?" Lu Guan asked cautiously. "After all, it's my problem that I can't control my resonance ability..."

Lacerta chuckled. "As a teacher, I don't believe a student willing to openly admit his mistakes is a problem student who's difficult to manage..."

"Besides, teaching students well is a teacher's duty in the first place."

"However..." Lacerta changed the subject. "You did make a mistake in the end, so a small punishment is necessary."

"As it happens, one of the compulsory first-year preparatory courses is 'Rinascita Royan Tribe Culture and History,' which I teach."

"This semester, you can be the temporary teaching assistant for my class!"

"Teaching assistant...? Me?" Lu Guan pointed at himself.

"What? Do you think you can't do it well?"

"No..." Lu Guan shook his head. "It's just that I didn't expect you to entrust me with something like this, Teacher Lacerta..."

It wasn't that he thought he lacked the ability. Rather, neither in his previous life nor now had he been the kind of student teachers liked.

Being a class representative or a class officer... naturally, none of those roles had ever gone to him.

"Mm-hmm... Being a teaching assistant isn't easy," Lacerta said seriously. "You'll need to have a firm grasp of the course material and explain it in the teacher's place when needed. Sometimes, a class representative even has to help organize study activities..."

Lu Guan patted his chest. "Leave it to me."

"As long as you're confident." Lacerta nodded in satisfaction, then suddenly discovered that the young man in front of her was gone.

"Where... where did he go?"