The Author's POV

Chapter 40: Changes happening in the academy [1]

The elective was in room B17

When I entered, the rows of the classroom were already filled with students, most of which were wearing a familiar azure blue blazer. There were about 40 first years of which 32 of them were girls. The reason for such disparity in gender probably had to do with the class president's bewitching appearance.

After glancing at the room for a couple of seconds, I turned towards Amanda's direction and sat a few seats behind her. All the front row seats had been taken by the girls.

Sitting down, I could smell a nice rose-like scent coming from her direction promoting my nose to greedily take in the smell. After being exposed to this scent for five minutes…

An elegant young man, with nicely combed hair, entered the classroom. He had a gentle smile on his face, and his looks could've been considered to be on the higher end of the spectrum.

…The club president finally showed up.

Arriving in front of the podium, the young man calmly placed his stuff down and looked at all the students that had come. Smiling he said

"Nice to meet you. I'm Elijah Turner. I am very pleased by your participation in our elective, food exploration."

Elijah Turner, the current president of the elective and a third-year.

As he smiled, apart from Amanda, all the girl's faces flushed red in excitement

Rolling my eyes, I rested my head on my right arm and carefully looked at Elijah. Though the class may be ignorant about his true nature, I wasn't

Elijah Turner was a Villain and professor Thibaut's second in command. Soon, several incidents would happen in the academy, including an incident involving Amanda. Elijah would be the mastermind behind it.

Of course, I had no reason to make trouble for myself by shouting, 'This guy is a Villain alongside Professor Thibaut—!'

They'd probably glare at me and kick me out of the club.

Wasn't worth the effort.

In any case, Elijah had made a pact with a demon that was part of the charm clan, a sub-branch of the demon clan of Lust. In exchange for selling his soul to the demon, he obtained his current appearance and an ability called 'Bewitchment' which was very similar to Donna's enchantment art. The only difference was that it only worked on females, whilst Donna's worked for anyone regardless of gender or race.

Currently, his main goal should be Amanda. Being such a talented individual, alongside her impressive background, the demons highly coveted her.

That was part of the reason why his contractor was a high-ranking demon within the Charm clan despite his talent being on the lower side.

"Since today is the first day, I'll do a brief introduction about myself and what the club consists of"

His charming voice drifted across the classroom pleasantly entering everyone's ears like it was a beautiful note from a fine-tuned instrument. Instantly the eyes of the female students started shining even brighter.

"In food exploration, we research and discuss monster and plant composition. We will look at which monsters and plants are edible, and how they benefit our bodies. The topics that we will cover in this course are, monster identification, methods of cooking, poison extraction, what combinations were most optimal, and plant identification."

"It may sound boring and all, but don't worry as that's just the boring part…"

Smiling brightly, Elijah looked at everyone in the class. As he was looking his eyes slightly paused on Amanda, who was quietly listening to the lecture.

Rolling my eyes, I scoffed at him. 'You think no one noticed you staring at Amanda?'

"…for the fun part, with the permission from the academy, we will be going to different places and taste amazing food!"

A wave of cheers instantly enveloped the class as the male students celebrated the fact that they were able to leave the academy, while the female students cheered for a different reason.

'Food exploration' as odd as it may sound, was one of the most sought-after courses for lower-end academies as not only did it pay well, but it also didn't have as high of a risk compared to dungeon hunting. This was especially tempting for those who didn't have any combat talent. As despite lacking talent in combat, they could still be widely recognized and regarded by most people. The more famous chefs even had celebrity status that rivaled that of most S ranked heroes.

Walking towards the table that was neatly set up in front of the classroom, Elijah pulled his sleeve upwards.

"I'll show you guys a quick demonstration. Let's take a look at this steak. As I'm sure most of you know, this is the meat of a D rank creature 'Man-o-War horse'."

Tapping his ring twice, a large steak appeared on the table. The steak which was the size of a wheel had fine white threats of fat extending like a spiderweb all over the steak reminding me a wagyu steak. Just one look and it was enough for me to start salivating.

Tapping on a button, a holographic image of a large horse popped up for everyone in the class to see. Just like its name suggested, the 'Man-o-War horse' was an evolved version of a horse. Having an enormous body that was as tall as three people, the 'Man-o-War horse' was an extremely strong D rank monster. What made them troublesome was their ferocious and fearsome personalities that would cause them to attack anything at minimal provocation.

"As most of you probably know, the Man-o-War horse is an extremely hard creature to kill let alone capture. If not for the fact that after careful research and analysis we found its weakness, this steak's value would already be in the five digits."

As Elijah talked, a sudden wave of tiredness swept over me. It mostly had to do with the fact that I was overworking myself these days, but it also had to do with the fact that I already knew the contents of the lecture.

"Huaaaaaam…"

A yawn soon escaped from my mouth and the corners of my eyes teared up.

The yawn, which was fairly loud caused Elijah's eyebrows to slightly twitch. Soon every female in the class turned their heads in my direction and hatefully glared at me. It was like they were telling me 'How dare you interrupt our prince when he's speaking?'

Honestly, I wouldn't even be surprised if they attacked me for real if I yawned one more time. The girls had fallen deep.

Only Amanda kept her eyes on the hologram and ignored what was happening around her.

"Cough…"

Elijah let out a dry cough before continuing his explanation.

"Because of the food it consumes, which mainly consists of highly fatty food, the Man-o-War horse's meat as seen here is highly marbelized…"

…

-Ding! -Dong!

50 minutes have passed since then, and finally, the loud sound of the bells signaling the end of the lectures rang. Standing up, I packed up my stuff and prepared to leave. This time I held my impulse to yawn as I didn't want to get attacked by Elijah's crazy fangirls.

You never know how scary fangirls were…

I was on my way to the door when I saw Elijah approaching Amanda. My feet soon stopped.

"Junior Amanda."

"…hm?"

"Here, this is a small gift for entering the elective."

Taking out a small black object from his pocket, Elijah handed it to Amanda.

As I focused a lot on Kevin in the novel, I didn't really know what happened in between the events that led to the incident between Elijah and Amanda…so what he was doing now and what the black box was I had no clue. But I knew he was scheming something. Rather than that being just a gift for joining the elective, Elijah probably handed her something valuable just to strike a good impression with her.

"Ah, yes, thank you."

Amanda took the box and indifferently left the class. That seemed to be the end of their first encounter.

…well that was more anti-climatic than I expected.

Was expecting something more entertaining to be honest, but I guess Elijah was much more patient than I gave him credit for as he just smiled as if nothing happened.

Shaking my head, I walked out of the classroom.

'Well, not like I care anyways.'

All I cared about at the moment was getting stronger. As long as the plotline of the story didn't deviate too much from the main story, I couldn't care less about the minor details.

Walking out of the classroom, I thought for a bit before deciding to go back to my dorm.

I think I deserved a bit of rest. It wouldn't do me any good if I overworked myself.

…

-Click!

Arriving in my dorm, I opened the door and entered.

-Pomf!

Placing my keys on the wall hanger, I lazily slumped on the bed.

-Ding!

"…hm?"

Hearing the sound of a notification coming from my phone, I took my phone out and unlocked the screen.

[Class A25, A24, A23 announcement]

—Dear students we will be going on an excursion two weeks from today. We will be going to Hollberg, and we will visit their famous monster processing plant. The trip will be approximately a week long and thus will require you to come prepared. Read more…

"…ooof"

Lazily throwing my phone on the bed, I couldn't help but feel a massive headache coming my way.

Two weeks from now our entire class will be going to Hollberg, a city two hours away from Ashton city.

The goal of this trip was to let students see how monsters were processed and how they were used to create weapons and artifacts.

It was a very useful class as it helped students understand some of the topics in class better—it was always easier to learn visually rather than theoretically.

…too bad the trip was not as fun as it may seem on the surface.

"Just…ahh"

Thinking about the future that awaits me, a long tired sigh escaped from my mouth as I used my arm to cover my eyes.

"Let's just hope that I won't have to expose myself"

Though I said that, my hopes were low. The trip was definitely one that I would have to participate in even if I didn't want to.

Normally, in my previous world, in order to skip school, I could've faked a sickness or something. But here…the technology was so advanced that pretending to be sick wouldn't work.

With a simple check, the doctor could immediately tell if someone was lying or not.

"Let's hope for the best…"