The Mob Character Who Woke Up!-Chapter 78: History Class! (2)

Professor Morgrave's voice cut through the classroom like a blade through silk.

"Any questions?"

The silence that followed was absolute and suffocating. Not a single hand rose from the sea of nervous students.

Nobody wanted to be the first to draw her attention, not when those cold eyes seemed capable of freezing the very marrow in their bones.

"Good. Open your textbooks to page one."

For a heartbeat, the class remained still, and then a student in the second row committed what could only be described as academic suicide by raising his trembling hand into the air.

"Yes?"

The poor fool swallowed hard before speaking.

"Professor, we were not told to bring textbooks on the first day."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees as Professor Morgrave fixed her gaze upon the unfortunate student.

Her expression remained perfectly neutral, which somehow made it infinitely worse than any scowl or glare could have been.

"Then I suppose you will be listening very carefully and taking excellent notes, won't you?"

The student nodded so frantically that Kaizen half expected his head to simply detach from his neck and roll away.

The scratching of his pen against paper filled the sudden quiet as he prepared to document every single word that might fall from the professor's lips.

Kaizen leaned slightly toward Leo, keeping his voice low enough that hopefully only his seatmate could hear.

"I like her teaching style."

Leo's enthusiastic nodding was perhaps too visible, but at least he kept his voice to a whisper as well.

"She's scary but cool. Like an aunt who you respect but also fear will murder you in your sleep if you misbehave at the family gathering."

From somewhere across the classroom, Kaizen could feel Klaus's unblinking red eyes boring into the side of his head with an intensity that suggested the demon noble had decided to make staring at him into a full time occupation.

The weight of that crimson gaze was like having a target painted on his skull in blood that only Klaus could see.

Kaizen kept his eyes firmly forward and refused to acknowledge the staring contest he had never agreed to participate in.

'Everything is fine. I am surviving this somehow. This is completely manageable and not at all a disaster in the making.'

Except it absolutely was a disaster in the making, because from the corner of his vision, he could also see Lance glaring at him with the kind of pure, undiluted hatred that suggested murder was not just on the table but being seriously considered as a viable option.

'This is not fine at all. This is the opposite of fine. This is un-fine. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen and I am standing at ground zero.'

Kaizen forced himself to focus on something productive, like not dying in the next few hours, and pulled out his pen and notebook with hands that only shook slightly.

Since this very first class was essentially a history lesson about the foundations of magic itself, Professor Morgrave was undoubtedly about to reveal crucial information about the world's lore that he absolutely could not afford to miss.

The stares from Klaus and Lance would simply have to wait because knowledge was survival and survival was very high on his list of priorities right now.

Professor Morgrave stood before them in perfect silence, letting the anticipation build until the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

When she finally opened her mouth to speak again, her voice carried a weight that seemed to make the very air grow heavier.

"What I am about to tell you is the generally accepted history within the circles of those who practice the magical arts. The origin of magic itself. How it came to exist in this world, and how we mere mortals learned to harness its power."

Kaizen felt his interest spike immediately like someone had just injected pure curiosity directly into his veins. He did not know any of this.

The knowledge that had been implanted in his mind when he woke up in this world apparently had convenient gaps in extremely important areas, which was both frustrating and terrifying in equal measure.

'I am learning this at the exact same time the players controlling Leo are learning this.'

'Which means I only know what the players who bothered to read the guidebooks know, and clearly the guidebooks didn't cover the fundamental history of magic in this world because that would be too useful.'

The realization settled over him like a cold blanket. All his knowledge about hidden ruins and secret dungeons and legendary weapons and rare items came from the general information that would have been available in player guides.

That explained why he knew locations and trigger conditions but not detailed layouts or specific mechanics.

The guidebooks gave enough information to point players in the right direction, but the actual experience of clearing dungeons was meant to be figured out through experimentation and wit and probably a lot of dying and respawning.

Around him, the other students had perked up considerably at the professor's announcement.

The promise of learning something fundamental about the world had captured their attention in a way that mere academic instruction could not.

Of course, some of them probably already knew this information from private tutors and expensive education, like Princess Rina Valentina with her royal resources or nobles like Cedric Alexander and Lance Wind whose families had likely passed down such knowledge through generations.

Does Leo know this already?

The question answered itself almost immediately when Leo leaned close enough that Kaizen could smell whatever sweet pastry he had eaten for breakfast.

"Dude, I am so pumped to hear this lore drop. What do you think happened, eh, best friendo?

"Maybe a dragon descended from the heavens and granted humanity the gift of magic in exchange for eternal worship, or perhaps the gods took pity on us pathetic mortals and blessed us with power so we wouldn't go extinct from being so weak and helpless.

"Man, this is so incredibly cool."

Kaizen opened his mouth to...