Free Web NovelChapter 54: Chapter 54. The Weight of Trust
Outside the forest, the professors sat in a long row before an enormous magical display screen, its surface rippling like water as it projected scenes from within the canopy. Each of them watched, stylus or quill in hand, noting down observations and tallying scores as the student teams moved through their field examinations.
Ronald’s eyes were fixed on the screen.
He watched Dominic drive his blade through the neck of an Inverted Demonic Boar, and felt something loosen in his chest, that particular warmth a teacher feels when a student does exactly what they were trained to do, and does it well. But the warmth was hard-won. For the duration of that fight, Ronald had held his own hands clasped tight in his lap, knuckles pale.
He had watched Dominic nearly die twice.
After a long silence, he turned to the man seated beside him.
"Lord Eric." His voice was measured, but only barely. "Should we have intervened? They won. I won’t deny that. But it was desperately close. One wrong decision at any point and someone could have been seriously hurt. Or worse." He paused to let that settle, then continued. "I understand you were the one who held us back. And I know part of it was out of deference to Lord Necrotize’s presence. But he barely interfered at all during the fight. It seemed almost like entertainment to him." Ronald’s jaw tightened. "A god doesn’t weigh mortal lives the same way we do. He had no particular reason to worry. But we did. These students are our responsibility. We are their guardians. Our duty is to educate them, to develop them, and to keep them safe. You made the call to keep us on the sidelines. Was that the right one?"
It came out a little sharper than Ronald intended. He didn’t take it back.
Eric turned to look at him. Then, unhurriedly, he smiled.
"Your concern is completely valid, Ronald. Yes, I stopped you from intervening. But not because I was afraid of offending Lord Necrotize." He folded his hands in his lap. "After watching him this past week, I’m fairly confident he wouldn’t have minded either way. He came here to attend this academy properly. And the clearest proof of that isn’t his behavior in class, or his attitude toward the other students."
He let a beat pass.
"It’s the fact that he sealed his own power."
The row of professors went very still.
Ronald blinked. Several of his colleagues exchanged glances. It was Ronald who finally spoke for all of them.
"I’m sorry. Lord Eric, could you elaborate? I don’t think I understood that correctly. What do you mean, he sealed his power?"
Eric’s expression didn’t change. He seemed to have expected the question.
"Exactly what it sounds like," he said. "Lord Necrotize has placed a voluntary seal on his own abilities. Now, most of you probably haven’t noticed this, but there is an aura that radiates from his body at all times. Even when he suppresses his power as thoroughly as he does, he cannot fully contain it. The aura bleeds through regardless." Eric gestured toward the screen. "When he entered the examination grounds this morning, every monster in that forest sensed the change in his presence and fled, deep into the interior, far beyond the zones we’d marked for assessment. You all know that monsters have considerably sharper instincts than humans. They detected him immediately."
He paused.
"And he noticed what was happening. He saw the monsters retreating because of him, and he understood why. So he solved the problem the only way he could. He sealed himself completely. No more aura. No more presence for the monsters to run from."
Silence again. Longer this time.
Eric looked along the row of faces.
"Now, why do you think he did that?"
The professors turned it over quietly. It was a strange question. The answer felt like it should be simple, but none of them could quite land on it. Seconds passed.
Then an older voice, unhurried and certain, cut through.
"So that the students could sit their examination properly."
It was Professor Marcus. Weathered face, silver-streaked hair, the kind of calm that only came from decades in a classroom.
Eric nodded.
"Precisely, Professor Marcus. That is exactly why he did it." He turned back to the screen. "And now, to answer Ronald’s original question. The reason I stopped all of you from intervening."
Eric looked out at the assembled professors.
"Because of the trust he had in them." freewebnovel.cσ๓
He let that land before continuing.
"He didn’t stand aside simply to be entertained. He stood aside because he knew they could do it without him. Lord Necrotize is fourteen billion years old. Someone like that, you don’t need to observe a person for long before you can read exactly what they’re capable of. He saw their potential before the fight even began." Eric’s voice was quiet but certain. "He wanted them to see it too. If he had stepped in, they might still have won, but they would never have truly known themselves. Instead, they earned that victory with their own hands. And now there’s something in each of them that wasn’t there before. A confidence that can only come from that kind of experience. That, I believe, is precisely what he was after."
Eric exhaled slowly.
"I’ll admit, I’m old. My reasoning isn’t always sound." A faint, self-aware smile. "But in all my years, I’ve learned to read intent. And reading his, I chose to let it happen. If I had allowed you to intervene, we would have robbed them of the chance to discover what they’re actually made of." He glanced back at the screen. "And you all saw glimpses of it, didn’t you? The girl from the Alchemy Department. The technique she used was, without question, exceptional for a first-year. The combination the Summoning Department girl executed was remarkably sophisticated. And then there was the boy from the Aslan family."
Eric paused.
"He was trembling the entire time. And then, at the very end, he showed extraordinary courage."
He smiled at that, genuinely, with something almost like fondness.
Then he turned to Ronald.
"You know, Ronald, watching him, I kept seeing you. When you were young." His eyes glinted. "You were exactly the same. Terrified and brave in the same breath."
The color drained from Ronald’s face, and then rushed back all at once, flooding all the way to the tips of his ears.
"I... that is not... I have never been frightened of anything. I have always been, and continue to be, an exceptionally courageous individual." freёwebnovel.com
Three seats down, a woman laughed.
"Ronald, you are a coward and you have always been a coward. Need I remind you of the mission where you refused to leave the building because you thought you heard a ghost?"
Ronald’s head snapped toward the source of the voice.
Professor Helen. Arms folded, expression immensely pleased with herself.
"What did you just say?" It wasn’t a question. "That was you, Helen. You were the one who wouldn’t come out. You held up that entire mission by two weeks. Two weeks. And now you’re sitting there and..."
What followed was loud, enthusiastic, and deeply personal, as two veteran professors relitigated an argument that had clearly never been fully resolved.
Eric and Professor Marcus watched from their seats in comfortable silence.
Marcus shook his head slowly, the corners of his mouth lifting.
"Some things never change."
***
Eric simply smiled and looked back at the screen.
On one side of the forest, a battle had just ended.
On the other side, a different kind of fight was only beginning. It had nothing to do with monsters.
This one was between two students.
Carlos and Arthur.
