I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

"Hello. I am Jacob."

"... Jacob?"

"Yes, Julia?"

"Why are you introducing yourself to the classroom entrance?"

"It's been a while, I just felt like I should."

"Right..."

I turned to look at the adorable elf girl to my side. I wasn't sure exactly how to describe the look on Julia's face, but my best judgment was some mix of confusion, disappointment, and exhaustion with a slight hint of amusement sprinkled on top.

It's an adorable look, so I can't complain~

I made no attempt to hide my smirk as the elf girl grabbed my hand and pulled me into the lecture hall and into our seats.

It really has been a while, though.

The battle phases weren't periods that could simply be skipped through; even the easiest of matchups would require staying at mortal time for extended periods just to select an Oracle and guide them through all of their preparations. Whether it was for attacking or defending, a massive army would need to be prepared, and such a feat required a ton of time and coordination. With a battle phase and preparation officially lasting for a combined nine hours in heavenly time, and one day in heavenly time being equal to one thousand years in mortal time, it was expected that all of the Seedlings would spend at least a few years in their domains before returning to the Academy.

The time I spent in my domain during Uunga's and Rynn's battle phases was nothing compared to this one, though.

My attempt to follow Tatton's training advice led me to spend the entire last battle phase at mortal time. Although I wasn't fully keeping track, that was around 360 years from my estimates.

If I remember correctly, I had to pick up Mr. Flippers from Tatton's office after class last time, so I didn't do the full 375 years of mortal time training that I was expecting.

It was hard not to consider the 360 years as excessive enough, though.

I glanced down at the small penguin in my arms.

"It feels weird to be back, doesn't it, Mr. Flippers?"

"Squawk! Squawk."

"Yeah, I agree. We spent so long with just the two of us- I'm honestly a bit claustrophobic."

"Squawk~"

"... Well, of course you don't mind. Aren't penguins built for huddling in groups?"

"Squawk..."

Ah- right.

"Okay, okay! I get it, please don't make me apologize again."

"Squawk~"

Julia eventually let out a sigh in the seat to my right at our bickering.

"... What are you two talking about?"

"Mr. Flippers is just guilt-tripping me. I guess being back here is making him nostalgic for other things."

"Squawk!"

I ruffled the top of the penguin's head.

"How are you feeling, though, Julia? I know you weren't gone as long as us, but it's still been a while for you, too."

"It does feel weird..."

Although she said this, it was easy to tell that she wasn't exactly paying the feeling too much attention. Rather than looking at us, her eyes were focused and scanning the room, seemingly looking for something.

What could she be... ah.

"You're looking for that swamp girl Seedling, aren't you?"

Julia flinched at my words, but continued searching after a brief nod, "It was that obvious, huh? I just want to ask her why she sent her lifeforms into my realm."

I knew it.

Julia's fury over the last battle phase was obvious. Despite winning overwhelmingly against those swamp-like invaders, there was a large number of non-combatant invaders that spread around her realm while her elves were busy fending off their main army. Although those original invaders all got teleported out of her realm after the battle phase ended, their descendants remained in her realm even after the portal closed. Even up until it was time to claim her reward, she couldn't actually kill all of them since they just swam away into the water every time her Oracle attempted to confront them.

It's probably like a never-ending game of Whack-a-Mole for her, except the moles have the potential to throw spears at her elves.

One look at her face was enough to tell how she was feeling.

"... You really just want to talk to her?" I asked with a wry smile.

"Mhm."

"I can practically see flames in your eyes, Julia."

"... I can talk with a super serious punch, can't I?"

"Not unless you want to get crushed by the sheep instructor."

"Squawk!"

"Yeah, or a Tier whatever punishment," I added.

Julia slouched onto the desk in front of her, leaning her head into her folded arms, "Ugh. It's not fair... why do I have to deal with this?"

I couldn't help but smile at her dramatic display and patted her back.

"Her back is soft..."

"Hah?"

Julia turned her head toward me with squinted eyes.

"... I didn't mean to say that out loud."

She simply rolled her eyes and sat back up with a stretch, "You're a very touchy person, Jacob. You're always holding the little one, too."

"Well, I can't exactly let Mr. Flippers run around with all of these creatures here. But yeah, he's also very soft," I muttered, smiling at the penguin sitting in my lap.

"Squawk~"

Julia just gazed at us skeptically, so I smirked back.

"Do you wanna switch places with him?" I teased.

"Huh!? D-don't just say that out of nowhere!"

She quickly put her hand in front of my mouth and snapped her head around to see if anyone heard me.

Pfft. Her ears are red... I got a nice reaction out of her.

"Victory~"

Despite my cheer being muffled by her hand, Julia still glared at me in embarrassment.

"You are so- hey! Don't lick my hand! Gross..."

"Pfft!"

I couldn't help but laugh as Julia snatched her hand away and wiped it on her shorts.

"My offer still stands, so just let me know. I'm sure Mr. Flippers wouldn't mind trading seats~"

Before Julia could respond to my teasing, I noticed a red figure climbing up the stairs toward us.

"Hey, twerp!"

Dangit.

A familiar sharp voice pierced my ears. I could immediately feel Mr. Flippers start trembling in my lap as he quickly turned to bury his face in my chest.

Levon... I should've expected to see him, but I'm really not in the mood to talk to him right now.

Yet despite my internal grumblings, the red salamander-like Seedlings stopped in the aisle directly across from our seats with a smug grin on his lizardy face.

I guess I should greet him.

"Sorry, do I know you?"

""Huh?""

Both Levon and Julia looked at me skeptically at my question.

That got rid of his grin pretty easily.

"... I know you know me, you scaleless brat," he spat.

Prefering his new expression of confusion morphing into annoyance, I continued, waving off his insults with my hand.

"It was a long battle phase- I honestly only remember a few people from the Academy. Since I don't remember you, I guess you just really weren’t that important?"

"What!?"

"Oh high heavens. Really, Jacob..."

The sweet sounds of Levon's rage and Julia's disappointed sighs tickled my ears as I struggled to maintain my poker face.

"Let's see," I looked up and began counting on my fingers, "So, there's Alishia, who I met a few times, and Ferguson, who I had a battle phase against, and...."

"And...?" he spat, his voice filled with annoyance-laced anticipation.

"Oh- then there's this blob guy who sits next to me! How could I forget him?" I beamed, putting my arm around the large, purple jelly-like creature to my left, "You know, this dude saved me from falling to death when I first came to the Academy; there's no way I could forget him!"

Taking my arm off the wobbling creature, I could see a vein visibly throbbing on Levon's forehead and the corner of my mouth unintentionally twitched upward. Such a reflex failed to escape his eyes, however, and the lizard reached his breaking point.

"STOP PRETENDING YOU FORGOT ME YOU BAST-!"

"Ah- such an awful scream!" I cut him off, tapping my right fist against my left palm, "That terrible voice refreshed my memory! You must be Levon!"

"... I am going to kill you."

"Yes, it's all coming back to me now!" I ignored his comment and continued, "You said that same thing before you invaded my realm, and then you ended up losing twice in one battle phase! How could I ever forget how overwhelmingly my first Oracle dominated you?"

At this point, Julia's head was buried in her palms, yet I couldn't even hide the smile on my face as I watched Levon's eye twitch with rage.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MY REALM SUFFERED BECAUSE OF YOU!? A quarter of my realm was covered in lava! The sky was blackened for half a year, and it was freezing for decades afterward! Not to mention, it did not rain near my temple for over a century! Do you have any idea how many perished in my realm!?"

Although I saw Julia's ears twitch at his words, I simply rolled my eyes, "You're acting as if you're the victim somehow when you're the one who tried to invade me! And for what? Because this adorable little penguin got some water on you!? It's pathetic! You even said yourself that you'd kill every single one of my humans in that battle phase, so I don't want to hear your self-pity. Besides, if you’re gonna get mad at someone, it should be the Academy, not me. It’s not like I caused any of that.”

Levon clenched his teeth, "If it wasn’t for your tricks I wouldn’t have had to endure those punishments. I came to tell you that next time, I will not fail at your destruction. I know your tricks now... all of them- and I already have everything I need to get through your cowardly traps."

It was my turn for my eye to give a single twitch at his sudden declaration. Julia instantly turned her head toward him at his words- her eyes seemed oddly focused on him, as if inspecting for something.

He says he knows all of my tricks...

I slipped into thought.

Obviously, he knows about my arctic portal, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ferguson told him about my mountain passage and spear traps, too. He couldn't know about the wall that Ruglace built since that happened during the last battle phase, so the only other obvious trick I have would be that my realm has no... mana.

My eyes focused onto Levon's- a sly grin slowly emerged on his face. He now knew that I knew he knew.

Shoot.

I bit my tongue in an attempt to hide my inner turmoil. Apparently my effort was in vain, however.

Seeing my expression, Levon continued speaking, looking much more amused.

"I heard a rumor that a siren will be attacking you next. As much as I would enjoy slaughtering your humans myself, I may not even get the chance to. Let us see how fast your puny humans fall without a wall of ice to hide behind."

With one last smug look, Levon returned to his seat, leaving me sitting there in thought.

What an awful return to the Academy.

To start off this trip, the Toad announced my arctic invader buffer zone to dozens of Seedlings in line for the prizes and punishments, overwhelmingly limiting who I’d be able to bait into attacking me in the future, and potentially leading me to an awful matchup against the half-siren.

After that was an odd visit with Tatton with a slightly tense ending.

And now I know that Levon figured out about my realm not having any mana.

While I couldn’t be completely sure about whether he came to this conclusion on his own or if Ferguson realized it and told him, this was definitely an awful revelation for the future safety of my realm. Now both the biggest secrets of my realm were known to the Seedling who was determined to get revenge on my humans.

I just don’t know if anyone else knows about this…but I don’t think they do. There’s no way that a siren who probably relies on wind magic would threaten to attack me if she knew.

At least for now, it seemed that the trio of Ferguson, Alishia, and Levon were keeping it to themselves, assuming they all knew.

“Hey, Jacob…”

A soft but serious voice shook me from my thoughts. I lifted my head to make eye contact with the elf girl next to me.

“… Are you mad that I was taunting him?”

Julia sighed but shook her head, “I still think that’s idiotic but I’m used to that by now. I was just going to tell you that I felt something different about Levon when he walked up.”

“Something different?”

“Yes…the mana in the Academy is so thick that it took me a while to realize it, but I’m pretty sure Levon has a mana core.”

“A mana core? That doesn’t make any sense…”

If Levon had a mana core, his lizards would’ve been able to use fire magic in the arctic when they invaded my realm- at least until the mana stored inside that organ was all used up.

But they didn’t use any and almost froze to death before Levon’s own Oracle massacred them.

“There’s no way he had one back in the first battle phase, so the only way he could have one now is if… shoot. He used a freaking mutation orb, didn’t he?”

A groan escaped my lips as I leaned back in my chair. I glanced back at Julia who had a worried look on her face.

“That’s a good catch… thank you, Julia,” I forced a smile.

“You both are crazy,” she said, shaking her head.

“He’s the crazy one… I can’t believe he got a mana core just to try to invade my realm. It feels like I got a stalker…. a really annoying stalker obsessed with killing all of my babies.”

“Squawk?”

I patted Mr. Flipper’s head.

“My humans are basically my babies, so hush, but speaking of which,” I wiggled the penguin on my lap, “What was with you hiding, Mr. Flippers?”

“Squawk!”

“Don’t deny it- your head was practically half way into my rib cage,” I sighed, “You haven’t even seen that dude in what? Like half a millennium? You gotta conquer your fear eventually, Mr. Flippers.”

Julia sighed next to me, “You say that, but you two are still holding grudges after that same amount of time.”

“Hey! The lizard started it; he came up to me! I was totally going to just ignore the dude before he got all up in our faces.”

“And then you decided to mess with him-“

“T-this isn’t on me, we’re talking about overcoming Mr. Flipper’s trauma here!” I interrupted, “We’re going to have to sign him up for some kind of penguin therapy class or some-“

“Good morning, Seedlings!”

My tangent was cut off as the bipedal sheep instructor entered the lecture hall and made her way to the podium. Mr. Flippers sat back down in my lap.

"I would like to congratulate you all on making it through your third battle phase!" she continued, "Unlike last time, we have not had any Seedlings who broke the rules, though there have been a few instances of people testing the limit. Remember, the Flower Box is observing diligently."

I watched Sky's wings twitch as she shot a few stern looks toward some random creatures in the lecture hall.

After she almost crushed the two dudes who teamed up last time, I'm surprised people are even coming close to the line... then again, I'm one of them.

A cold sweat dripped down my back as I reminisced on the islands in my realm, which I have yet to be called out on.

I don't have enough resource points left to even get rid of them if I wanted to...

Resolving myself to check up on them again when I returned to my domain. I turned my attention back to the sheep instructor.

"With that in mind, there should be no delays in awarding you all with your increase in divinity provided by your lifeforms."

With the wave of her hand, I felt myself growing exponentially stronger as a warm feeling enveloped my body.

Wow...there is a lot this time! I guess because there's so many more humans in my realm, they're generating a lot more divinity for me.

It was honestly an amazing feeling; I could feel myself getting so much stronger over the course of only a few seconds with raw power extending though all of my limbs.

Seriously, why did I even bother training for so long when this just dwarfs all of... hm? That's not-

"AGH!"

"J-Jacob?"

A sudden, sharp pain shot through my brain. I reflexively grabbed the sides of my head as my vision blurred.

"W-what... the heck... is this!?"

A pain that felt like a dozen headaches at once plagued my brain. Pounding noises filled my head, stemming from my rapidly pulsing heart. The excruciating pain engulfed me internally, only beginning to diminish once the flood of divinity being granted to us came to a halt.

"Squawk?"

"Jacob... what happened?"

I could hardly even make out the concerned stares of my two companions in my spinning view of the lecture hall. Even though the pain was gradually fading, my head was still throbbing to the point where it felt like my brain was trying to break out of my skull with a hammer.

"Hah... hah...."

I struggled to catch my breath as sweat covered my body. Mr. Flippers quickly hopped onto Julia's lap as I leaned onto the desk in front of me, too tired to even sit up.

After a few moments, the pain gradually faded. The pain that felt like it was trying to escape my skull seemed to slowly collapse inwards before disappearing in the center of my brain.

"... That was awful."

My blurred and spinning vision quickly returned to normal as the pain disappeared, and I was able to finally see the stares, not only of Jacob and Mr. Flippers, but also of the Seedlings in the rows surrounding me.

Did... no one else feel any of that?

"Jacob, please stay quiet during class time. I know we have not yet started covering our topic, but that does not mean you can just shout for no reason."

I weakly raised my head to see Sky addressing me from the podium.

"Sorry... I was just... so excited to get the divinity that I couldn't contain myself."

"Yes, well that is understandable, "the sheep instructor nodded before turning her attention away, "Now that everyone has gotten their increase in divinity, let us begin the lesson!"

With her words, the eyes on me finally vanished- all except two pairs, that is.

"You two are both okay? Neither of you felt any of that?" I whispered.

"I just felt the usual divinity increase! What in Alghelme was that, Jacob!?"

"Squawk!"

As much as I wanted to ease their worried eyes, I was just as bewildered as they were.

"... I have no idea. I just got this splitting headache out of nowhere. I don't think I've ever felt anything as painful as that before... I'm just glad you two didn't have to go through that."

Julia's eyes lingered on me for a few more moments.

"... I don't feel anything off about you anymore. Are you really okay now?"

"Yeah... I think so..."

I weakly gave her a smile and patted Mr. Flippers on the head a few times. Eventually, Julia let out a sigh of relief, though a worried glint could still be seen in her eyes.

"Let's focus on class for now.... but I'm going to be asking you more about this after."

I could only give her a nod, "Alright. I don't know how much more I can even say, though."

Still, something lingered in the back of my mind.

She said she didn't feel anything off about me anymore.... what does she mean by 'anymore'?

Before I had the chance to ask her, Sky's voice cracked through my thoughts.

"In a previous class, we were discussing the basics of divinity. Some of the more perceptive Seedlings have noticed some similarities between divinity and mana, so I thought we would base today's lesson around that," she began.

"As all of you are familiar with using mana, you should be aware that it relies heavily on the will of the lifeform using it. I have heard some people describe mana almost like clay, except it is shaped not physically, but with willpower instead. It can be turned into anything, as long as the lifeform using it has the knowledge, skill, and willpower to do so. Let's use creating an orb of water as an example; when the lifeform goes to create the water, they need a strong image of that water in their mind. Focusing is what enables that orb to exist- it is applying the lifeform's willpower to the surrounding mana to turn it into that image. In other words, the mana is being used to manifest the will of the lifeform."

This... is actually pretty useful information.

Despite my mind still not being fully back to normal, I did my best to focus on what she was saying. My exposure and knowledge of mana were very minimal; I wasn't going to miss this prime chance to learn things that might help me prepare for the future.

"Now, as I said in that previous class, divinity works in a very similar way. As a refresher, divinity, in essence, is the power of will- and willpower is not isolated internally. Whether unintentional or not, the hopes, beliefs, and desires of lifeforms tend to be manifested into the world they inhabit. Some lifeforms have more willpower than others, yet every creature has a small amount of influence on its world. As I said back then, it's not as though one lifeform could simply desire rain and instantly make a storm appear; the power of their will is hardly even a fraction of what is required to manifest such an event. It is only when all of those fractions add up, however, that you might see a few drops start to fall."

The sheep instructor looked around the classroom.

"You Seedlings are tasked with gathering all of the willpower entrusted to you by your lifeforms in the form of divinity. A lifeform may not be able to manifest a drop of rain, but the divinity granted by an entire realm is enough to allow for far greater feats than a storm could ever manage. As such, the more divinity one has, the greater one's influence, and the stronger one will become."

She stretched at the podium.

"Of course, you all already know that. What I wanted you all to focus on is that both divinity and mana center around willpower. You may be wondering what the difference between them is- and that has to do with their nature. Mana is everywhere. Aside from things like mana organs and other special materials that can contain it, mana will spread out and go wildly on its own. Although it can be embedded and molded with willpower, it returns to being mana once that willpower fades."

"Take that water orb, for example; if it were used to wash a weapon, the water would not stay as water forever; it would likely dissipate back into mana once the weapon was clean, and the lifeform using their willpower to keep it as water stopped supplying it. Even so, the impact the mana had in its water form would stay; the weapon wouldn't become dirty again simply because the water it was washed with returned to being mana."

As she said this, I turned to Julia.

"Hey, Julia. What if someone drinks the mana water? Does it like actually make them not thirsty?"

To my surprise, she actually nodded at my whispered question, "Yes, that's right. Most of the effort -or I guess willpower- used in mana is actually in the initial shaping of it. So once that water is already conjured, it really doesn't take much willpower to maintain it. Even plants can grow with water made from mana... the water just returns to being mana after the plant uses it."

"Wow..."

That's interesting, but it really leaves me with so many more questions.

I couldn't help but wonder how that would work for actual digestion.

If a plant were watered with water made from mana, could it use those water molecules to make leaves? Would it have to use a small amount of willpower just to maintain those leaves if it did?

Honestly, I had no idea, but it wasn't really a question I thought anyone here had the answer to, so I turned my focus back onto the sheep instructor.

"Divinity is different from mana in the sense that it is willpower. Mana can only be shaped by willpower, while divinity has this willpower baked into its essence. When you all use domain creation in your domains, you are essentially doing the same thing as making a water orb out of mana, except unlike the mana water orb, the divinity water orb will never return to being divinity. The divinity was exhausted to create the water; for all intents and purposes, that water is real water... or rather, it is extremely close to it. Some hints of the Seedling's divinity signature remain, which is why objects made through domain creation can't be brought into the Academy. Of course, divinity can be used for much more than simply creating things- it can also manipulate, reinforce..."

Huh...

I continued listening to her words as I tried to grasp everything in my still foggy mind. It was all equally interesting and complicated.

But I guess I can kind of summarize it as being that mana is temporary and divinity is permanent. Honestly, this might be the best class we've had in a while.

I continued to do my best to focus on her words as the sheep instructor spent the rest of the class going into more details of the specific uses of the two before changing topics to how mana organs are able to store mana almost indefinitely due to the materials they are made out of.

Eventually, however, the class was dismissed, and I watched the usual chaos of the Seedlings rushing back to their domains to start the battle phase.

I turned to Julia exhaustedly, "I guess it's time for the next battle phase."

“… It is.”

I really don’t want to go back.

As much as I loved my humans, I had just spent nearly 400 years in my domain. There was more I wanted to do besides sitting at a desk and training.

My eyes focused on the elf girl to my side.

One day is just not enough time to spend with her.

“Are we gonna train at mortal time again?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“I think I will. We did get the advice to, and besides…” Julia picked up the bow leaning on her chair, her new divine weapon, “I really want to try using this more!”

Despite how melancholic I was feeling, my lips naturally smiled at the sight of her sparkling eyes.

“Alright, I guess I… oh.”

A familiar figure draped in a purple robe suddenly emerged from the lecture hall entrance, making me pause my sentence.

“Hm?” Julia turned around following my gaze, “Tatton? What are you doing here?”

With no hesitation, the figure answered.

“I would like for you three to come to my laboratory. I have a favor to ask of you.”