“Student Xi Ya, I am Kaelan West, an instructor at the Sword Arts Academy, one of the Empire’s five Sword Saints, and the sole disciple of Lady Sword Maiden. Now I wish to take you as my student. Are you willing?”
Kaelan stepped in front of Griffin and introduced himself with confidence.
Unlike Griffin, he was composed, as if his invitation would surely be accepted.
Griffin shot Kaelan an unhappy glare, but Kaelan ignored him.
Griffin reached out to block him, only to have his arm pushed aside.
Griffin panicked slightly and quickly positioned himself in front of Kaelan, afraid Xi Ya would be snatched away.
Kaelan tried to step forward, but Griffin shoved him back with his shoulder.
“Oh, Student Xi Ya, there are plenty of benefits to being my teaching assistant!”
Griffin clapped his hands together, speaking faster than before.
“I know those noble students often bully you. Once you become my assistant, they absolutely won’t dare cause you trouble. Really!”
Xi Ya stayed silent.
In truth, he wasn’t afraid of those noble students causing him trouble at all.
“Griffin, could you at least let me finish what I was saying…”
Kaelan’s view was blocked by Griffin, and he spoke with resignation.
“No!”
Griffin shot back, “Don’t you dare steal the student I’ve got my eye on!”
Kaelan sighed, crossed his arms, and watched Griffin’s “performance.”
Griffin leaned in half a step closer, his smile growing ever more genial, which Xi Ya found a bit unsettling.
“Student Xi Ya, don’t listen to him.”
“Look, your theory and magic scores are excellent. You’d fit right in at our Magic College! What’s so good about joining their Sword Arts Academy? Training with a sword every day is exhausting, and in battle you’d have to get up close with enemies. How dangerous is that?”
“Magic is so much better. You can end a fight from a distance—safe and effortless! And hey, if you don’t want to fight, you can stay at the Academy and do research with me, or go to the Magic Tower to craft scrolls. Do you know how much a scroll artisan at the Magic Tower earns in a month? I’m telling you, it’s more than ten times what you’d make risking your life as a mercenary!”
Griffin glanced at Kaelan and lowered his voice.
“Look at those who graduate from the Sword Arts Academy—they can only join the military, become mercenaries, or work as private guards, fighting for their lives every day, protecting employers with their hearts in their throats. They might even lose their lives.”
Xi Ya found it hard to keep a straight face.
Isn’t it a bit inappropriate to badmouth them right in front of Instructor Kaelan?
“Really, being my teaching assistant is the best choice for you! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely train you into a Mage. No, I can pour everything I’ve learned in my life into teaching you and make you the next Grand Archmage!”
Griffin kept laying it on thick, and Xi Ya was starting to feel a little tempted.
But during his past life’s playthrough of the story, he remembered reading a student’s review of Professor Griffin.
It said those promises weren’t false—Professor Griffin genuinely would give everything for his teaching assistant.
It’s just that… being his assistant came with a little bit of exhaustion.
Even if you made it through without going bald, you’d definitely lose at least half your hair.
Xi Ya’s gaze unconsciously drifted to Griffin’s bald spot.
Seeing how he was in the prime of his life yet already had a head full of white hair, it was clear being his teaching assistant was no easy task.
Better to decline.
To be honest, for magic, he had his game panel to spend skill points on—he didn’t really need to study it.
He could probably study for half a day and still not level up and spend points as fast as going out to grind.
As for sword techniques, he didn’t know a single one.
His panel was full of normal attacks.
Xi Ya did want to learn swordsmanship from Kaelan.
He really needed to train his sword skills.
Right now, he was relying purely on muscle memory, which wasn’t really using a sword properly.
And relying on instinct alone wasn’t a solution—he needed to truly master it, whether in his base form or his transformed one.
Besides, his swordsmanship was essentially the Sword Maiden’s style, and Kaelan was the most familiar with it.
He’d be the best teacher.
What’s more, Instructor Kaelan was the Sword Maiden’s only disciple, having inherited her true teachings.
Becoming Kaelan’s student was an opportunity most people could only dream of in eight lifetimes.
He’d have to decline Professor Griffin.
“Professor Griffin, I’m afraid I can’t be your teaching assistant. I’m a student of the Elite Class now, so I can’t go to the Magic College.”
Xi Ya didn’t reject him directly but cited the Academy’s rules instead.
Professor Griffin was a Grand Archmage, after all—he had to show proper respect.
“No problem! If you agree, I’ll talk to the Academy right away to have you withdrawn from the Elite Class and join the Magic College.”
Griffin took over the conversation and leaned in even closer.
Xi Ya was startled by his approach and took half a step back.
No, please—don’t have him withdraw from the Elite Class!
If he withdrew, how would he level up?
How would he “keep an eye on” Feili’s movements?
Just as Xi Ya was about to find another excuse to politely decline Professor Griffin, Kaelan uncrossed his arms, stepped up, and patted Griffin on the shoulder.
“Griffin, stop giving him a hard time. What student would be willing to give up their Elite Class spot for your Magic College?”
“But being my assistant isn’t any worse than the Elite Class, is it?”
Griffin turned to retort, “This is being the assistant of a Grand Archmage! Can an Elite Class spot compare to that? Besides, joining our Magic College doesn’t even require leaving the Elite Class. Isn’t that better than yours?”
Kaelan gripped Griffin’s shoulder and turned him to face him.
“Is that so? Then what about being the disciple of me, a Sword Saint? Does that compare?”
“Also, you’re not taking him as a disciple anyway. You want him as an assistant—helping you prep lessons and organize materials, sure, but also running errands for you. Your last assistant, if I recall, quit after half a year, didn’t he?”
Kaelan directly exposed Griffin’s little scheme.
Griffin, hearing this, hurriedly waved his hand and knocked Kaelan’s hand away.
“Enough, enough! It wasn’t anything like that! That student just couldn’t settle down and focus, you understand? Doing magic research requires dedication and hard work…”
Griffin tried his best to explain, but Kaelan wasn’t listening.
Instead, he turned to Xi Ya.
“As for me, all you have to do is train in swordsmanship with me. You don’t need to do anything else extra.”
Kaelan nodded again.
“It’s that simple. So? Are you willing to be my disciple?”
Xi Ya stared at the smile on Kaelan’s face, feeling like those words were also a pitch.
In his past life, he’d heard too many lines like that.
They’d say you don’t have to do this or that, but once you got in, you’d end up doing everything anyway.
“Hmm…”
Xi Ya wondered what these two instructors saw in him, fighting over taking him as a student.
There were so many excellent students at the Academy, yet they came for him instead.
If he hadn’t known both instructors were good people, he’d have suspected a scam.
Kaelan saw his hesitation and didn’t push further.
He stepped back with Griffin, giving Xi Ya some breathing room.
“You don’t have to decide right now. We’ll come back tomorrow—after your class’s Ranking Tournament in the afternoon, you can give us your answer then. No rush.”
“Right, right, you can tell us tomorrow too!”
Griffin chimed in quickly, “Be sure to think carefully about becoming my assistant!”
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s go.”
Watching them leave, Xi Ya finally let out a sigh of relief.
Phew—no need to answer on the spot.
He’d bought himself another day.
In his heart, though, he’d already made his choice: he’d go with Kaelan.
Whatever, he’d deal with that later.
Tomorrow, he had more important things to do.
Xi Ya walked over to the Group Stage results board and briefly scanned the match results.
Dilon from Group Seven advanced.
If nothing unexpected happened, tomorrow he’d face Feili in the semifinals and send his follower to slip something into her drink.
But Feili had been reborn—she definitely wouldn’t fall for it.
No matter how Dilon tried to drug her, she’d be on guard.
The problem was, if he followed the game’s optimal route, Feili had to fall for it.
That was the only way for the instructors to discover the drug, trace it back to Dilon, get him expelled from the Academy, and trigger a key event down the line.
Xi Ya rubbed his forehead, feeling stuck.
He’d probably have to do it himself.
But making a reborn person who was on guard fall for it, without being discovered himself—that was incredibly difficult.
No way around it.
Tomorrow, he’d have to risk transforming and acting within the Academy.
That way, even if he was found out, his identity wouldn’t be exposed.