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An Otherworldly Scholar - 240
🕑 Added 2025-07-05 05:00:35 +0000 UTCThe success of Cabbage Class at the selection exam had consequences I hadn’t expected. Suddenly, our classroom had turned into something like a tourist attraction. Astur had been considerate enough to give me the heads-up a few days before the unexpected visitors arrived, and surprisingly enough, he had also apologized. Not about the blackmailing part, but it was a start. He told me he understood that spectators might undermine the students' performance, but his hands were tied. Our visitors were highly positioned royals.
Somehow, Astur seemed more docile than before. I couldn’t start guessing why, but I had a strong hunch that the royals had patted his back thanks to our performance. There was a chance he understood that his current behavior towards me wouldn’t win him crumbs, much less the secrets of our success, but I wasn’t convinced.
Part of me knew I had set a dangerous precedent, which had nothing to do with the envelope with gold coins sent by Rhovan.
Cabbage Class, after all, was a dump squad filled with cadets deemed defective by the rest of the instructors. The fact that everyone passed the test meant I could make even the worst recruits shine. At a simple glance, that might seem beneficial to everyone involved; however, I knew nobles weren’t so kindhearted.
My incursion into the Imperial Library had revealed how deep the schism between nobles and commoners was. In the Academy, that split was dimly veiled by martial tradition and the inherent honor of being a cadet. If nobles could pick who would become an Imperial Knight, they would choose other nobles every time.
The reason they allowed commoners was a pragmatic one. Filling the quota of Imperial Knights was more important than keeping the whole cake to themselves. They were open to sharing a few bites—just enough—as long as the new Knights played by their rules. It was a subpar solution, but the best one they had.
So far.
I heard the clatter of Talindra’s hooves as she turned the corner and walked down the corridor. It was early morning. The dawn barely hinted behind the distant Blacksmokes, that hour of the day when everything looked blue and ghastly. The cadets must’ve been preparing themselves for breakfast, but I was restless. When Astur told me about the interest of the royals, I realized something. One of us was in significantly more danger than the rest.
I closed my eyes and listened attentively. It wasn’t something [Foresight] could pinpoint, but it seemed to me that Talindra’s clatter sounded happy. She knocked on the door and shyly peeked inside despite knowing either the room was empty or I was alone inside.
“Something good happen?” I greeted her.
“I got my hooves done,” she replied with a smile.
Talindra was using hoof-shaped clogs with vines painted green and silver, so I didn’t get to see what ‘done’ hooves looked like. My mind wandered to the internet videos about hoof trimming. Was a faun pedicure similar? Did they use horseshoes? Why had I never asked myself these questions before? In the end, I didn’t inquire into the matter. There was a reason why I had summoned Talindra so early, and it wasn’t to talk about faun self-care.
“So, what’s the plan for today? Make the cadets squirm like usual?” Talindra asked in a playful tone.
There were a few days when I may have pushed a bit too hard on cardio.
I took a deep breath.
“Actually, I wanted to apologize. I didn’t plan things thoroughly and dragged you into the eye of the storm. I even bragged to Astur that I was training you as an apprentice. Maybe it’s the System messing with my brainwaves, or I’m just a tool, but I should’ve known better,” I said.
Talindra raised an eyebrow, which was leagues more than she dared to do the first time we met. She used to stay still, like prey, hoping I wouldn’t look in her direction. I wondered if that was a faun thing or a Talindra thing.
“What?”
“I’m afraid I gave you a juicy piece of meat and put you into a road full of hungry wolves,” I said. “The nobles want to replicate what we did with the Cabbage Class, and I’m afraid that will put you in danger. I need to know if you can defend yourself if they get physical.”
“Your metaphors are awful, Robert Clarte, and gross,” Talindra replied with a horrified expression. “Do I have to remind you I’m a high-level Silvan Witch? I have been shanking wolves around Mistwood since I was a spriglet!”
I still didn’t know how old Talindra was, and she avoided answering it whenever the topic arose.
“Show me your magic, oh-so-powerful Wolf-shanker.”
The fact that Talindra could reply to my taunts didn’t mean he could navigate the Imperial Academy. In the corridors, she was still called Cabbage by instructors and cadets alike. They were no less vicious than months ago. She could pretend she didn’t notice all she wanted, but [Foresight] could see even through her best efforts.
I opened my arms, challenging her.
Talindra channeled her mana, and the cold air inside the Cabbage classroom became warm and fragrant, like someone had opened a door to a flower field in spring. Green orbs danced around my ankles, and velvety white vines carefully climbed my body—it was reassuring to know that Ilya’s vines would eventually stop destroying the flooring. The vines coiled like snakes around my neck, but didn’t stop there. They continued to my head and they braided themselves into a silver crown. Then, with a pulse of mana, the vines flourished.
I wasn’t sure if Talindra was mocking me or if she truly believed that was the pinnacle of mana control a Silvan Witch could show. Considering her satisfied expression, I leaned towards the latter. Daisies and begonias alternated around the velvety silver vines, their color so vibrant they looked like they were taken from a digitally retouched image. Strong mana currents flowed inside the crown, and I knew it would take a long time to whither away. It might not seem the most complex spell, but permanently bestowing mana into a separated object was tricky unless you were an Enchanter or a Runeweaver. Five or six meters between us might not seem a lot, but mana liked to stick as close to its user as possible.
I put the crown on the teacher’s desk and pulled a training rapier from the weapons rack near the windows.
“I gave you something too valuable. I just want to ensure you can keep yourself safe if I ever am inaccessible,” I said, swinging the sword from side to side. [Swordsmanship] triggered even before I could notice, filling my brain with information. Never controlling my body.
Talindra examined me from head to toe, contemplating whether I was talking seriously or bluffing. I didn’t blame her. My main tactic to approach her was friendly teasing.
“Is this a test?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to stop teaching me if I fail?” This time, she sounded hesitant.
I thought for a moment.
“No, but we’ll have to adopt countermeasures. Holst might have enough sway to keep most malicious parties away.”
Talindra shivered. “Now you triggered my fight or flight response. I thought you didn’t like him.”
My feelings about Holst grew more contradictory by the day. Although it was due to ignorance, he was extremely cruel to Zaon and Ilya back at the orphanage. He wasn’t Miss Sunshine with the rest of the kids either.
One way or another, he had helped me fight Janus even through a Silence Hex.
“Holst is a legit guy… if you stretch the meaning of legit… and squint your eyes even so slightly.”
Talindra raised her hand.
“Don’t treat me like a kid, Robert Clarke. We fauns have a good gauge for danger, and I knew since you said you aimed to pass everyone, this wouldn’t be smooth sailing. Those who make ripples are bound to attract unwanted attention. Why worry so much now?”
I knew there was no point in hiding it from Talindra.
“I plan to retire at the end of the year,” I said.
“I know, you said you were going to stay until your old students graduate,” she pointed out, confused. Her cogs gave three taps on the wooden floor.
I slowly shook my head.
“I plan to retire as a teacher. Completely. Here, at the orphanage, everywhere. The only vestige of my teaching methods will be you, making you the rarest resource in the kingdom—in the continent, even,” I said, running my fingers through my hair. “I can’t retire knowing I left a friend in a compromised position.”
Talindra pondered my words for a moment before speaking.
“Well, that’s a surprise. You love teaching kids. What are you going to do next?”
“You don’t want to know.”
This time, Talindra took offense at my words. She forcibly stomped on the floor a single time. Somehow, coming from a faun, the gesture came out a lot less childish than I expected.
“I’m not a kid! If you don’t want me to know, just tell me it’s a secret, but don’t decide for me. That’s not what friends do.”
I said nothing.
Telling her about the Fountain, the Corruption Cycle, and the Man in Yellow was too dangerous, but her words hurt me more than I expected. I knew the reason. Talindra was stating facts. Even though I considered her a friend, I treated her like a child. Did I even know better? In my heart, I knew she would keep any secret I told her, but because she was my friend, I couldn’t tell her. The burden of truth came with the burden of action, and I would rather Talindra live a nice life while I fixed the System behind the scenes.
My silence offended her even further.
“You are the worst friend I've ever had,” she spat.
I still had to test whether she could fend for herself if Astur or the royals wanted to use more violent means to obtain her teaching knowledge. I raised my sword.
“Fight me, Talindra.”
“Nay!”
“If you don’t fight me, I will stop teaching you,” I said, climbing to the platform. “And before you say you already learned everything, I want you to remember I studied for sixteen years before becoming a teacher. Show me you can fend for yourself.”
A shadow of doubt covered Talindra’s face.
“Astur will suck you dry if he ever had the chance. You can’t give it to him. The same goes for the royals, Evelisse, and more than half of the noble houses. You know it,” I pointed out. “I need to know you can stand up for yourself.”
Talindra fidgeted with her fingers.
“Y-you know perfectly well I have… issues with that.”
I lowered my sword, a bit disappointed.
“One way to avoid conflict is by staying silent and not asserting yourself, I guess,” I said with a sigh. Not a good one, but certainly not the worst. I wouldn’t be like the Man in Yellow, forcing quests over people’s shoulders, nor would I be going to tell a grown woman how to live her life. Still, Talindra was my friend. I could at least offer her my honest thoughts.
Talindra remained silent.
“I can shun you,” I offered. “It’s only been a few months, and nobody would believe I taught you everything about teaching. The royals will lose interest, and you can maybe return to Mistwood.”
I could see from a mile away that Talindra wasn’t happy at the Academy. She wasn’t particularly open to discussing her life at the Library, but it couldn’t be all that different. The untold rules that governed both institutions were similar, save for a few details.
“I’m offering you a way out. Your call.”
“I don’t want a way out! I’m enjoying it here for the first time ever. I want you to teach me.” She sounded pleading, but my worries stood. Knowledge was powerful, but dangerous.
[Foresight] dug through my memories from the first days at university.
“Okay. Lesson number one, ‘Class Management’. A teacher must establish authority, create clear expectations, and foster an environment to promote meaningful learning in their classroom. The latter two are impossible without the first. However, all the authority in the world would fall through the gaps if the students don’t believe the teacher is a capable and knowledgeable professional,” I said with my best teacher’s voice, expecting to get a reaction from Talindra. “Show me you are a capable professional.”
Talindra didn’t seem to mind getting a condescending lecture from a peer. Instead of getting mad, she pointed at the flower crown on the desk.
“The Imperial Academy isn’t a headdress workshop,” I said, even more patronizingly. “If you want me to teach you, you will show me you have something to teach your students. Let’s fight. If I’m not satisfied, I will ignore you and do things my way.”
This time, I knew I would get a reaction from her.
Talindra stomped.
“I hate you so much, Robert Clarke,” she said in a grunt.
“Good. Let the hate flow through you.”
Talindra exerted mana and [Foresight] threw me back to the fight against Captain Kiln and Janus. It was a warning. Although it was easy to overlook, Talindra was a Silvan Witch Lv.47, almost up there with the outliers. The air rippled, and mana enveloped her body. In that moment, I knew she wouldn’t walk to the weapons rack for a sword.
Dark green leafless vines spiralled around her body, fusing into solid organic plates, layering over her skin in seamless interlocking segments. The vines covered her vitals: head, spine, heart, lungs, neck, abdomen, and the femoral arteries in her thighs. The picture was disturbingly reminiscent of the Chrysalimorph’s exoskeleton, but good defenses didn’t mean she could do much in combat.
I shouldn’t have talked too soon.
A shiver ran down my spine as the vines coming from the spine of the Chrysalimorph armor coiled into eight articulated appendages. At first, they looked like the branches of a young tree, but then they stiffened and segmented with natural joints. Four slammed into the ground, spreading out in each direction, and feeling the wooden floor like an alien intelligence guided them. The other four curled above her head and around her shoulders, like spider legs with spearheads on their ends. A drop of radioactive-green liquid hung from the tip of the lower left. The tip of the lower right ‘offensive’ leg was serrated, probably to grasp Talindra’s enemies in place.
“All right, I get the ‘witch’ part now,” I thought, raising my guard and looking at the poison stinger. “New plan: not get hit.”
Through the gaps of the incomplete helmet, I could see Talindra’s eyes. She was still mad.
I fortified my training blade and covered my body with mana armor.
“On your mark—”
Talindra lunged. Her front spider legs gave her a range hard to match for us lesser bipeds. Both upper appendages—those with spearheads as tips—thrusted in unison. I parried the upper right leg and dodged the left with a well-timed side step. Blue and green sparks exploded where my blade met her spider leg. Instead of retreating, Talindra stepped forward, her front legs closing to my sides and restricting my movement range. Then, she stabbed with the serrated leg.
With a pirouette, I jumped over the left leg, gaining some space to maneuver.
Talindra wasn’t as sluggish as the size of her new legs hinted. She didn’t have a huge exoskeleton to move around like regular spiders; on the contrary, she seemed to hold her weight with her own two flesh legs.
With a hand movement, Talindra summoned a leafstorm.
An illusion—and a very convincing one.
Suddenly, one of the upper arms broke through the leafstorm, aiming at my sword hand. I pushed more mana into [Foresight] and time slowed just enough for me to react and jump back to safety. Part of me knew I was lucky we weren’t fighting in a forested area. The combat capabilities of Silvan Witches, Mountain Druids, and Marsh Hunters increased considerably when fighting in their preferred territories—their very skills were tailored to them.
Talindra grunted and attacked with her forelegs, trying to catch me off guard.
The sheer reach and speed of her new appendages made it feel like I was fighting inside a cage. Every strike came from a different angle. The upper ‘arms’ weren’t fixed in place, and she could move them all simultaneously.
I blocked a strike, only for another to nearly catch my thigh. Even if she wasn’t trying to kill me, it would take one false step for her to have me pinned. I dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, just in time to avoid a leg that pierced straight through the enchanted floorboards. [Foresight] screamed in my ear. I wasn’t sure anymore that she wasn’t trying to harm me at the very least.
I threw myself back again, and the stinger leg cut through the air, leaving a thin trail of glowing green mist.
My words came back to bite me. All the authority in the world would fall through the gaps if the students don’t believe the teacher is a capable professional. There was a non-zero chance that Talindra was a more capable professional than I was.
I summoned a flying mana sword and attacked the gap in her armor, but Talindra used her hands to create a green shield to protect her actual body. Then, I summoned four more mana blades to match each of her upper arms. I almost had to overcharge them so they could withstand Talindra’s attacks.
It had been a while since I could really stretch my muscles. The fight at the Red Hawk Trading Company was almost there—emphasis on almost. I had been too worried about Kili to enter the flow state.
I used [Mirage] to create a body double, and for a flashing moment, Talindra didn’t know who the real one was. I pressed forward, driving the first real offense in the fight, but Talindra was a slippery opponent. Her movements were steady, and I wasn’t sure she could be caught on the wrong foot. Even the best footwork in the world wouldn’t save her from four mana blades and four illusions.
Talindra moved away from my blades, but she was running out of space. I had her cornered. We hadn’t agreed on a combat zone, but instinctively, we both treated the raised stage as our arena. I expected Talindra to attack. Two of her legs shot forward, aiming not at me but at the ground. Talindra kicked the floor and vaulted her entire body over me. She flipped mid-air like a slightly terrifying gymnast to land safely on her spider legs.
That was a perfect ten if I have ever seen one.
Talindra knew how to fight, now I had to figure out why she let everyone trample her.
In return, I was the one cornered and wasn’t pulling an Obi-Wan any time soon. Not with that radioactive stinger pointing at me. I braced for the attack, but Talindra raised her hand instead, signaling me to stop.
I summoned two mana hands, one to grab her hair and the other to pull the hem of her robe, just as she emptied her stomach on the floor. It smelled just as expected, but that didn’t stop me from replacing the mana hands with my own as soon as I threw the practice sword away. She seemingly thanked me for my help with a second stream of bile.
Talindra rummaged through her robe and pulled a small vial with a translucent liquid.
“This will make me feel better. Go find an aide,” she muttered.
Fortunately, a young girl dressed in the simple clothes of a servant walked down the corridor.
“Right away, Lord Clarke,” she said after I explained to her the situation.
Still baffled me that every single member of the service knew me.
I returned inside and sat by Talindra’s side, rubbing her back. She was holding her head with both hands, and despite the potion, she didn’t seem to feel much better.
“Did I pass?” She asked between long breaths.
“With flying colors,” I replied. “You can skip today’s class if you want.”
“I’ll be fine in a moment.”
I pushed a dash of mana into my [Foresight]. It felt like an invasion of privacy, but puking after a single backflip didn’t feel normal. “Are you sick?”
“I’m not sick. I’ll be fine!” she snapped.
[Foresight] registered as true.
The aide wasn’t lying when she said ‘right away’. Not a minute later, a squad of six gnomes entered the room with mops, cleaning cloths, and floor polish. They greeted me like I was an old friend, although I only remembered two of them from the party at the servants' housing. To say they were efficient was an understatement. It took them another minute to clean and leave the room.
Some gave me mischievous smiles, and a few gave me thumbs up.
I moved a few centimeters away from Talindra in the name of decorum.
Part of me knew it wasn’t the moment for questions, but I asked them anyway.
“If you can do that, why do you let those idiots tell you awful things?”
Talindra cleared her throat, but someone knocked on the door before she could speak. [Foresight] told me there were fifteen minutes before the start of our training session. I raised my head to find a different aide standing in the doorway.
“A royal delegation arrived, Lord Clarke. They want to know if you were so kind as to let them observe one of your classes,” the girl said.
It wasn’t one of those requests one couldn’t say no to.
At least Astur has given me the heads up.
“We will be happy to have them,” I said with the fakest smile a Sage had ever stretched across their face.
Comments
Ben Bass
TYFtC! I love the little self reflection that Tallindra forced on Rob before their spar, I hope he takes it to heart, especially as the kiddos are not going to be kiddos much longer. Great to see Tallindra knows how to fight, she needs more confidence and to actually show a bit more of a spine in her day to day life.
Ty’s
Rob Sounds like palpatine, I love it. I really like talindra as a character, tho I wish there was another reference to her “bookshelf’s” this chapter.
