The Transmigrated Professor

The next morning Ray headed straight to Star Academy.

Since he was no longer a Professor there, having been tactically asked to resign from his position after the scandal involving his family, he had to report to the office to receive permission to meet a student.

“What do you mean he isn’t a student anymore?” Ray was shocked after hearing the news.

“Mr. Rohan Claeg submitted his withdrawal form this morning and has already emptied his dorm room.” The receptionist informed him.

“Can you at least give me his contact information? I need to talk about something important with him.” Ray gave her a charming smile, hoping his good looks could give him an advantage.

Unfortunately, lookism wasn’t as influential as had hoped in this world.

“I am sorry, Mr. Ray, but you are no longer a part of the Academy faculty. As such I cannot give you a student’s private information, especially with your current situation.” The receptionist denied his request within a heartbeat.

‘The reputation of the Laxon Family is coming to bite me in the back. Should I have tried to save the family instead of running away with Izzy?’

Agonising over the future hardships this would bring him, Ray headed back to his car.

“Hey, isn’t that him?” Deus, Ray’s Spirit, pointed out, as they were entering the parking lot.

The boy sitting at the bus stop, a duffel bag on his shoulders, and that gloomy appearance was definitely his former student - Rohan Claeg.

Ray quickly brought out his car and drove to the bus stop where Rohan was waiting.

This might be the only opportunity he would get to talk with this student now, so he grabbed it without hesitation.

“Hey, Rohan Claeg, right?” Ray carefully pulled up beside him so as to not startle him. 

“P-Professor Ray?!” Rohan was surprised to see his former teacher suddenly approaching him. 

“Are you doing well?” Rohan could hear the caution in the professor’s tone.

‘Does he already know?’ There was no other reason why a Professor would chat up with a student who didn’t even respond much during his classes.

“I am doing fine, Professor.” He decided to lie, just in case.

“I see. I heard from the other Professors that you were quitting the Academy.”

‘Ahh. He already knows.’ Rohan lowered his head in shame.

Seeing Rohan’s scared response made Ray feel guilty as if he was interrogating someone. 

“I wasn’t interrogating you or anything. I was just worried about you.”

Despite his attempts to clarify, Rohan still looked frightened.

Ray sighed in frustration “Hah…I think the bus is gonna be a little late. Want me to give you a ride?” Ray offered him. This would also give him a chance to talk with the boy regarding recruiting him to his party.

“Um, a ride…” His hesitation was very evident.

“What, you think I am going to take you to some Demon and make you sign a contract?” Ray joked to lighten the mood.

Rohan coiled further away in fear.

“Just in case it wasn’t clear, I was just joking.” Ray quickly added in the end, seriously praying that he hadn’t chased away his chance with the boy.

“Just get in, I will drop you off at your home.” He was being a bit forceful, but Rohan’s indecisiveness had surpassed his expectations.  

Rohan finally got in the car. “Please drop me at the nearest subway station.”

As the car drove the city roads, Ray decided to strike up a conversation with the silent boy. “So, now that you have quit the Academy, what are your future plans?”

‘Ugh, I feel like that teacher who can’t mind his own business. How repulsing!’  

“I think I might help my mother at her clinic for now. Oh, my mother’s actually from a famous line of powerful shamans.” Rohan didn’t like that the silence was broken, but he still answered, not to seem rude.

“A shaman, huh…” the Professor didn’t look surprised at his reply.

“So, why didn’t you ask your mom to pick you up at the Academy?”

“Uh…well…” Rohan hesitated at the question. 

Quickly understanding the problem, Ray decided not to push further.

If he was being honest, Rohan hadn’t really thought much about what he was going to do after dropping out, so he didn’t tell his mother about it either. Well, all she can do is scold him once he gets back home.

“Will it be alright if I ask you about your family?” 

Since the Professor was asking questions so proactively, Rohan decided to ask him something that was nagging his mind.

“Are you talking about the news that the Laxon family was colluding with the Fallen?” It was obvious to Ray what the boy would be most curious about.

Rohan nodded.

“If you really want to know, it’s true that my brother became a Fallen and joined the Chaos Alliance”

“Shouldn’t you be in prison then?”

“Everyone in the upper circles of society knows this, but I never really had a good relationship with my family.” 

“And I don’t know if you know this but I got kicked out of the family register recently. So legally, I am not a Laxon anymore.”

Ray patiently explained to his student. It was also the reason he had come up with to not look suspicious now that he was released. 

“Hmm, so you are not with the Demons, I see…” Rohan let out a dejected sigh.

“Hey, I am warning you, but if a Demon ever tempts you, don’t take the offer. The cons far outweigh the pros. You understand?”

“I wasn’t thinking anything like that. I was just wondering…Can Demons take away your Powers” Rohan asked in an unmotivated tone.

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“No reason.” The buildings outside the window seemed unusually gloomy to Rohan at that moment.

“Professor, if a ghost ever takes over my body, what do you think I should do?”

Considering that he himself was a ghost who had taken over a body, Ray didn’t seem qualified to answer that question. The rest of the journey passed away in haunting silence, as the rest of the world noisily passed them by.

Soon they reached the subway station. Rohan thanked his professor before leaving.

“Do you think he’s going to have a Demon take away his powers?” Deus popped out of Ray’s arm as soon as Rohan was out of sight.

“Hopefully not. I might have to recruit him faster before he truly decides to go down that path..” 

“Guess not everyone is happy with the Skills they Awaken.”

“I am not so sure about that.” Ray was beginning to understand what he needed to do to bring Rohan on his side.

.“Let’s go to the bakery now, it's Izzy’s birthday tomorrow.”

“Make yourself comfortable.” Kazuya invited his prisoner inside the apartment.

Amara looked around the large three-bedroom house suspiciously, wary that soldiers would pop out of the rooms and shoot her.

Seeing the Elf tense up like a cornered cat, Kazuya reassured her. “Don’t worry, nobody’s going to find you here.”

“Why did you even bring me here in the first place? Shouldn’t you have handed me over to the Heroes at the League?” 

This situation was very suspicious to Amara. After running away from the crosswalk, she found herself lost in a deserted street. 

When she tried to send a messenger butterfly, it burned down into fire petals, before materialising into the Hero before her.

The next thing she knew, he had kidnapped her and brought her to his apartment.

Kazuya sat down at the dining table, motioning her to do the same. “Just in case, if you are thinking I saved you due to a change in heart or something, don’t delude yourself.”

“As if I will accept the pity of a lowly Human like you.” Amara didn’t take a seat, preferring to remain standing so that she could defend better if someone attacked her.

“So, why did you decide to bring me here?” 

“Same reason I let those other Elves and Beastmen get away. Capturing you would mean a fight between the two Races. I prefer peace to war. Much better than pity, right?”

Amara snorted at his pathetic attempt at flaunting his bigheartedness. “If you were that concerned about peace, you should have just let us all go in the first place.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I couldn’t do that. I had aspiring Heroes with me at that time. Can’t let the new generation down, you know.”

“So, are you going to let me go now that your grand plan for peace has been executed, oh Mr. I-Can’t-Let-Others-Down?”

“What?! Of course not. How gullible can you be?” Kazuya scoffed at the assassin for having such naive thoughts. “You guys aren’t entirely blameless, since you did break the Treaty. You are my prisoner now.”

“Ha! So what, am I just a wall decoration to you.” That guy’s ambiguous answers were seriously pissing her off. She needed to know what he wanted if she was ever hoping to get away from this place.

“Don’t worry. You will have your uses soon.” Kazuya reassured her with a cheerful smile that sent chills down Amara’s spine. “You want a beer? I hope you Elves drink alcohol!”

Since she was powerless for now, Amara decided to wait patiently and send Kyla a message once the Human let his guard down.

“We Elves drink alcohol. I would like a can, please.” 

The wounds she had gotten during interrogation were hurting her, but she felt it would hurt her pride if she asked for help. She decided to numb the pain through some alcohol.

Kazuya took out two beers from the fridge, handing one to Amara who had finally taken a seat opposite to him, a bit relaxed now that it was clear that he had no intention of handing her over.

“By the way, I have always been curious about the Elves and the other Races.”

“What about it?” Amara asked lazily, as she gulped down the beer. Elves had a pretty high metabolism when it came to plant-based beverages, so she wasn’t worried about getting drunk and accidentally revealing secrets. 

“All of you Races seem so strong, so how come you ran away to Earth? Don’t you think it will be easier to fight the Demons on your home planet? You know, your element?”

Amara let out a drunken sigh at the question. 

“Well, it’s something you guys will find out eventually, so I don’t necessarily need to hide it from you.”

“Demons haven’t truly entered your planet till now, you know? At best, they are only spreading their fear through the Fallen they have contracted with. Once they enter Earth, you will see Hell descend in the truest sense of the word.”

“Wait, what do you mean Demons will descend upon us.” This was news to him. The League had never told anyone about the Demons possibly descending on Earth.

“Yeah, they are going to descend - SOON! And once the Four Dukes come here, your planet is doomed. Each one has the strength of an SS-Rank Awakened with ten hearts to protect themselves with. Their very existence corrupts the mana around them and pollutes the very ground they stand on. But you guys still have a couple of months to prepare before the Second Catastrophe occurs and the Dukes come down.”

“A Second Catastrophe?!” Kazuya wasn’t born during the Great Catastrophe, but he had learned of the horror through the history books and the fear that rampaged during that time.

He found it unbelievable what the Elf before him was saying. That soon a second era of war was about to descend upon Humanity that had barely begun to stand back up after the misfortune that struck them.

“Tell me, human, have you ever wondered how everyone among the Four Races can use magic, yet only a small percentage of Humans can manipulate mana till now?”

Hearing her words, Kazuya pondered about what she was implying. 

It has always been questioned why everyone among the Four Races had the mana and Skills that belonged to their respective Races, yet among Humans only a few were given the ability to use mana. 

Many scholars debated over the issue, and the answer they finally came to was…

“Isn’t it because Humans have only recently been exposed to mana? Once a few generations pass, and the mana users and non-mana users mingle, won’t everyone be able to use mana?”

Amara just scoffed at the shallow level of thinking. 

“People are more greedy than you think. Those who can use mana will try to keep the power to themselves, only passing it to their descendants and oppressing the non-mana users. That’s how power works. And even if, in some ideal utopia, they do ‘mingle’ with each other, how long do you think it will take for everyone to be able to use mana? A couple centuries? Millennia?”

“Well…” Kazuya wasn’t the philosophical type, so he couldn’t answer her rebuttal.

“The answer to your question is the Second Catastrophe. Soon, your planet’s mana density is going to spike so high that even foetuses in their mother’s wombs are going to start showing abilities.”

“And once this mana reaches its peak, the Demons will be able to work their demonic mana here and bring destruction to you all.”

Seeing the panic on Kazuya’s face, Amara felt a little satisfied about her current situation. “I would advise you and the League to prepare yourselves. I don’t think there’s much time until Earth begins its countdown to destruction.”

“Soon the Five Races will have to prepare themselves for the doomsday.”