Chapter 3. Professor Vane.
On the way to his classroom, Silas glanced at the schedule in his hand, already feeling the first tinges of boredom creep in. His first hour didn’t include his girls’ class, and his lesson was about mana basics. Which was insulting really. How many newbies had never heard of mana in this day and age? This was like teaching an adult how to count from 1 to 10.
But he knew he had to at least go through the motions, so he arrived in his assigned room. It was a standard classroom, nothing too flashy. Rows of empty seats faced a large screen. Silas leaned against the desk, arms crossed as students started to filter in. They were whispering, glancing at him with a mix of curiosity and hesitation.
As the class settled, Silas gave them a lazy grin.
“Alright, so this is Mana 101. The basics. But honestly, I think you all already know most of this. You’ve got mana, you’ve got ranks, and you probably think you’re hot shit if you got a B-rank.”
A few students chuckled awkwardly. One raised her hand. Her blonde hair was tied up in a perfect bun, and her eyes gleamed with interest.
Checking his roster, he saw that she was named Jessica. “Yes?”
She asked with confidence, “Why did you become a teacher after being an S-Rank? It seems like a downgrade and frankly a little... pathetic.”
He tilted his head. Pathetic? Chuckling as he pushed off from his desk. “Fair question.”
Grabbing a chalk, he turned toward the board behind him. The moment his finger touched the surface, the entire chalkboard dissolved, replaced with the image of a sperm cell swimming toward an egg. The room filled with stunned silence. He wrote “Biology 101” in bold letters.
“Because when you make a life decision—like starting a family,” he pointed to the board with a dramatic sweep of his hand, “You sometimes have to take a step back from your old life to nurture what matters most. Now, my dear student, do you understand the concept of responsibility? Or do I need to draw you a diagram of how life works?”
The class broke into laughter. Jessica blinked at him, cheeks flushed as she slumped back in her chair, clearly not expecting a lesson in snark along with her answer.
The rest of the class went by in a blur of half-hearted discussions about mana flow, basic ranks, and the usual nonsense he had to drill into their heads. It didn’t take long before he dismissed them, his eyes already on the clock. Fifteen minutes before the next period.
His next class included his daughters. Time for some fun. Standing at the door, he waited for the students to arrive before greeting them at the doorframe, scanning the crowd as they walked in.
Victoria and Katherine stopped at the threshold, both of them eyeing him with different expressions. Victoria smiled sweetly while Katherine looked like she was considering a strategic retreat.
“Dad why are you at the door?” Katherine said, eyeing the door behind him as if there was a trap. “We need to enter you know, and you are blocking the entrance.”
He just leaned forward with a smirk, “Just making sure I properly greet my favorite students.” He placed a hand on Victoria’s head and ruffled her hair, earning a soft giggle from her. Then he did the same to Katherine who flinched away and slapped his hand off.
“Cut it out,” Katherine hissed, pushing past him.
Victoria followed her inside, but not before giving him an innocent smile. The two sisters took their seats next to each other at the back of the class.
So far away, he thought.
The rest of the students filtered in, their attention drifting between their new classmates and their teacher.
Silas took a few steps toward the middle of the room, then he paused, scanning them all with narrowed eyes. A couple of kids looked like they might be trouble—a loud boy in the front row was already making jokes to the girl next to him. Not to mention there were more boys than he liked. Something had to be done to all the balls.
“You,” Silas pointed to the loud boy, “what’s your name?”
The kid grinned, his teeth too white. “Lucas Everheart, teach. Nice to meet ya.” He winked at the girl beside him.
Everheart huh? He remembered that name; the boy came from a prominent family of hunters with at least 1 S-rank. A guy he hated back in the day. It was too bad for him that his kid would be taking his class.
“Alright, Everheart, stand up,” Silas commanded.
The boy obliged, a cocky expression plastered on his face. He looked like one of those guys who thought he was the main character, and Silas didn’t have patience for that nonsense.
He motioned for the boy to walk toward the front, where he could make a better point. He then turned his back to the class for a moment as he picked up a piece of chalk.
And just like that, a penis was drawn on the board, small and sad-looking, next to the words “Mana biology”.
There were some muffled snickers from the class.
Lucas narrowed his eyes. “That’s supposed to be funny, old man?”
Silas turned around slowly, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
“This is just a random picture of a penis I found online. Or do you recognize it as your own?”
The class erupted into laughter. Lucas’s face flushed red as he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. The boy was at a loss for words, and Silas couldn’t have been happier.
“Good. Now sit down and pay attention. We’re about to cover mana biology.”
Another mundane hour followed. He went through the same material he had with his last class. Only this time, his attention kept drifting back to Victoria and Katherine who tried their best to be invisible.
Once the bell rang, Silas dismissed the class but paused at the door as his daughters walked by. He leaned in close to Victoria.
“Your sister looks like she might snap at any minute. Keep her in check, alright?” he said, earning a soft nod from her.
“Dad. Don’t make it worse.” Katherine muttered as she stormed out of the room.
He just grinned and watched them leave, already looking forward to their next encounter. This was just the beginning.
The school day continued, and it was time for his lunch break. He should meet up with Elizabeth. She was already on the campus somewhere, doing her thing as the Academy’s new counselor. He could feel her mana signature from across the campus, the warm pulse of it as familiar to him as his own. With a quick flicker of thought, he teleported.
Appearing behind his wife in her office, she didn’t jump as he anticipated.
“Hello honey. You finally remembered you had a wife?” She patted the empty chair in front of her desk. Her smile was soft but with an edge.
“Of course, how could I ever forget the most important person in the universe?” He kissed her cheek before sitting down.
She tilted her head to the side and batted her lashes, “Oh really? I didn’t know concealing your employment counted as remembering you have a family... and your daughters hate you right now by the way. Just so you know.”
Taking out her phone she showed him some texts from the twins. Their words were basically a tirade of complaints. How dare he be their teacher and ruin their new life in school?
Silas took the phone and scrolled. “I think this just means they love me.”
She sighed dramatically. “You’re impossible.” But the twinkle in her eyes said she otherwise. “By the way, what is this about you drawing dicks on the chalkboard? I already had two students ask me if you were mentally stable.”
He burst out laughing and handed her phone back.
“Teaching is so boring. I need to spice things up.”
His wife shook her head. “You’re going to get reported and arrested soon. I can see it now, ‘Famed S-Rank Hunter arrested for sexual harassment of students’... I’ll visit you in prison, of course, but I won’t bring the kids. You’ll just have to wait.”
Silas chuckled, leaning back in the chair, arms crossed behind his head.
“Who’s going to arrest me? Berlin? He’s our friend. And the principal loves me...I think. She said she wants to talk with me after school today.”
Elizabeth gave him a pointed look. “Berlin has thrown you in jail many times honey. And...the principal? The beautiful, single principal that was staring at you like you were a snack at the opening ceremony?”
She crossed her arms.
“I didn’t notice that she was beautiful. And besides... she has nothing on my perfect little angel right here.” He grabbed her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist.
Her cheeks flushed, and she looked away with a smile.
“You are impossible. Just keep your flirtation in check, and I won’t have to punish you for it later. Maybe.”
Silas’s grin widened. His wife had always been his weakness—and his strength. The world outside could go to hell, but as long as she was by his side, everything was right where it should be.
She pulled out a lunch box, ready to eat. But he had something more exciting in mind.
“I’m a bit hungry for something else,” he said eyeing her up and down. She giggled.
“Oh? What might that be?”
With a flicker of space, the two of them vanished from her office, reappearing in their bedroom at home where no one could hear or disturb them. Lunch could wait.