Elite Instructor at a Third-Rate Academy

18 – Another day, scolding the kids☆

In her entire life, she had never fallen in love first.

While others may ask what that means in algebraic terms, Ochia felt a sense of pride from it. She had never known she was pretty until she turned ten. It was because she had always been playing in the nomadic tents of her ethnic group, where everyone was like family.

“Hey, who’s going to be the princess today?”

Since moving to the city, Ochia’s friends usually played role-plays. With boys and girls mixing together, the setting was often an imaginary kingdom, with various roles from emperor to common people. Among them, the prince and princess were usually taken by the most handsome boy and prettiest girl of their age.

“Ochia will do it.”

“Yeah, she’s the prettiest!”

Pushed by the boys, Ochia just went along with it. In fact, whether it was a princess or a maid, it didn’t matter. At the young age of ten, she didn’t desire any particular role, and she often found it boring to always play the princess.

“Why is it always Ochia as the princess?”

“It’s unfair!”

“There are other beautiful princesses in the world, you know.”

But one day, the girls began to fiercely protest. Ochia was simply confused and remained silent. She had no words of mediation for this conflict, and her passive nature made her reluctant to actively participate.

“Ah, I don’t know. Maybe you should all become as pretty as pumpkins?”

“Yeah, who’s going to protect a princess who looks like a pumpkin!”

“Fools, they’re always complaining while expecting the prince to do everything.”

After that, the daily role-playing activities became distorted, and eventually, the boys and girls started playing separately. Ochia had no choice but to join the group of girls reluctantly, participating in activities like playing with air, but her friends were colder towards her than before.

“Did I do something wrong?”

When Ochia asked in the accent of her immigrant background, the girls only mimicked her tone and didn’t explain the reason. They started to avoid her naturally, and reluctantly, she took on the unwanted role of a princess while mingling with the boys.

Feeling increasingly lonely, she approached her friends to apologize and even gave gifts, but nothing changed. The wounds deepened. The simmering anger ignited from within, exploding out of her mouth like a chimney.

“Being pretty isn’t my fault!”

Instead, she received mocking remarks. Young Ochia couldn’t understand why her protests sparked even more backlash. So, a few days later, she honestly spoke to her friends.

“What should I do when the boys are nicer to me?”

The response she got was nothing but teasing, mocking her with words like, “What can you do, Maria?” Ochia still couldn’t understand her friends, feeling unfairly rejected due to the subtle exclusion from other girls that had persisted since her childhood.

“Teacher, I should go clean the room.”

After reporting to the principal that her work was done, she was instructed to clean the homeroom during the remaining time. Ochia had suspected that he wouldn’t like her cleaning his room, but he seemed indifferent, as if it were natural.

“Isn’t it okay because it’s me?”

“Well, because I’m a student in the class you teach, and I’m also Amy’s friend and a student, you know.”

“Also, you’re pretty enough to match the teacher!”

Although she didn’t voice such nonsense, Ochia suspected that the teacher allowed her to clean because she considered her beautiful. All the men she had encountered so far had been like that, so she naturally misunderstood.

“What if the teacher falls for me?”

Since she knew it wouldn’t happen, she muttered to herself and laughed.

Lately, she had often, perhaps too often, thought about the teacher, but that was because of Amy’s gratitude. Amy had helped her clear potential charges, assisted with Amy’s funeral, and contributed to Velasquez’s expulsion.

It was all out of gratitude, and certainly not because she liked him.

Ochia inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. Neat. The homeroom teacher was always in the library or the practice field during this time. She quickly swept away the dust with a broom, wiped the simple furniture with a cloth, and time passed quickly. After quietly closing the door and coming out, she ran into Urtaga, the homeroom teacher of Class A-3, on the first floor.

“Ochia, right?”

“Yes… The principal asked me to… I cleaned the homeroom teacher’s room and came out.”

“Ah, admirable. What did the homeroom teacher say?”

– Of course, I know. But it’s a bit disappointing not to have a thank you or praise.

“I… I have to go check right away.”

Urtaga was not a disciplinary officer throwing punches at female students, but he had a bit of a reputation for his handsome looks. Not wanting to get tired, she covered her bangs and stepped back. As she left the dormitory for instructors, she got lost in her thoughts.

– Have I become a bit less pretty than before?

It was just a mood. Since she couldn’t have fallen for someone, it was undoubtedly because Urtaga didn’t take care of herself properly.

[#18 – Saint]

Finally, another week has passed. Yesterday, the prefect Priddy came to visit. She complained about why a female student was cleaning the room instead of her, but she immediately quieted down when I told her it was the headmaster’s orders.

“But…”

Not wanting to talk anymore, she stubbornly held onto the doorknob and continued speaking.

“Do you know that I’ve been told not to associate with you?”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“They even issued a clear instruction to not be seen together.”

─ Luckily.

It was best to stay away from the inadequate and corrupt officials. Kanis definitely realized that while investigating Amy’s case. There are no colleagues worthy of being called educators here, so there’s no serious interaction.

“The headmaster is a great person, so there must be a reason.”

“But I’m not the type of person who listens to others.”

“It would be better for you to listen to Instructor Bendelin.”

“As far as I can see, she may be odd, but she doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

“Yes.”

“Anyway, if you feel like you’ll be sulking all by yourself like last time, let me know. I’ll buy you a drink or something.”

“What I cried about last time…”

“I know, it was because of your mother. You said you’ll help if I ever remember it again, didn’t you?”

“I understand.”

“Do you know your nickname is ‘dung beetle’?”

When I tried to send her away saying that I didn’t want to know, she replied with an insult, saying that’s why she’s being bullied. Kanis forcefully closed the door and focused only on writing her textbooks. Thanks to that, she spent her Sunday well, creating sentences for pronunciation correction and making a list of books to buy with her spare money.

“I will check your homework.”

I decided to check last week’s assignment during Monday morning assembly. The number of students who came to school this time was still eleven.

“Ugh, did we have homework?”

“I don’t remember either!”

“I think you gave it to us last time, but what was it?”

“Hey guys… I remember you wrote it on the blackboard before leaving… why are you pretending not to know…?”

Except for Jeffrey and Ochia, everyone had no clue. Kanis blamed herself for only writing on the board and not conveying it verbally. Honestly, even if she had, she didn’t think they would have seriously considered it.

“Logically deduce how many teachers and students there are in the current Railand Academy.”

I wrote it on the blackboard again, and there was a sound of realization. Nonchalant Cerrana shrugged her shoulders as if pretending not to remember. And when she tried to put her legs on the desk, I threw her a lap blanket.

“Cover up.”

“Is this something the teacher wrote?”

Without answering, I stood at the podium, thinking it would be noisy if I said I bought it because of you.

“What’s important is not getting the correct answer, but how close you can come to the conclusion using logical reasoning.”

Kenneth told Jeffrey to start reasoning. He raised his glasses and confidently declared that it was impossible.

“Why is that?”

“Because there are no facts to start with.”

“If that’s the case, there shouldn’t have been an assignment given to you.”

“To establish logic, you need at least some facts, but since there is a lack of basic evidence, it’s impossible.”

– I can’t tell if ignorant people are brave or if brave people are ignorant.

Kenneth glanced at Orchia for a moment. He stopped telling her to do it when their heads clashed. Judging from the fact that Orchia still looked pale, she must have suffered a lot mentally from the Amy incident. If Warren hadn’t announced that Amy had committed suicide due to his argument with Velasquez, it would have been a bigger shock.

“What’s important is not the correct answer, but how plausible your reasoning is.”

That was a competency that one must possess no matter where they work.

“No matter what mission you come up with in the future, do you know what the most important skill is when it comes to executing it?”

“Teacher, I’m in the combat unit, so I don’t think I’ll be doing anything like a duke.”

“Unless you’re at the front line, you still need to plan and command even in pure combat.”

“Teacher… Can’t you just teach us?”

Kenneth wrote “approval” on the blackboard.

“No matter how unreasonable it may be, you have to package it as if it makes sense in order to get approval for your mission. Impossible missions that are unacceptable to superiors cannot be carried out, even if the success is guaranteed. And if you can’t achieve meritorious service, the foundation of everything is to write logical reports and persuade others through persuasive language.”

“Ah, I’m already bored!”

“Sir, since that doesn’t help at all, should we chase her away?”

“Everyone, be quiet.”

“Eerie, I just finished the Laro!”

“Now it’s Dana’s turn?”

“hahahaha, it’s Dana!”

– Should I break a window or something?

Kenneth quietly listened to the commotion while writing. From a state of having nothing at all to reaching a final conclusion, he felt that the few students who were focusing on the necessary three premises could be sensed.

“First, we need to clearly determine what we can clearly know.”

He pointed to the first premise he wrote on the blackboard.

「① ▸ The spaces used by teachers and students have different densities.」

“This is a premise that everyone can agree on. Therefore, we need to first find out the average area of the spaces used by each teacher. For example, we can take the dormitory as an example. By measuring the length, width, and height of the entire dormitory, we can roughly estimate the volume of the building. Then we can investigate how many teachers live here and divide that number by the number of people to gauge the average space each person uses.”

Someone muttered, “Who can’t do that kind of thing?”

“Next, we calculate the total volume of the student dormitories and the average space used per student. It’s the same method as before, so it shouldn’t be difficult. Now, we have obtained a crude result. Since we know the different densities, let’s assume we have a rough estimate of the number of teachers and students based on that. What should we report to the principal?”

“It seems like they’re asking us to calculate the total area of the academy!”

It was Jeremy. He wasn’t exactly a fool, but he didn’t seem very smart either.

“We have already estimated the total number of teachers and students using the metric of area. Even if we add the same factor here, the numbers won’t become more accurate because it’s just an enhancement of the similar logic. Therefore, we need to approach it with different assumptions. Look here.”

“② ▸The amount of water used by teachers and students is similar.”

“There is no reason for the amount of water used to differ based on rank, so logically, this makes sense. We draw water from the well, so we start by calculating the total amount of water used based on the water level there over the course of a week. After that, we select a few samples to calculate the average water consumption per person and then inversely calculate the total number of people. If we want to make it more accurate, we can also consider factors such as last week’s weather, temperature, and seasonal evaporation of water.”

Everyone was just staring as if wondering what they were saying, so Kenneth continued with his one-sided explanation.

“Now, before combining the values obtained from these two results, let’s compare them. If the values are similar, it means we have approached the correct conclusion to some extent, and if they differ significantly, it means we should only use one of them as the reference.”

Just as Kenneth was about to say, “Therefore,” the classroom door opened.

“Are you guys making a fuss again?”

It was Friede Bendelin. Someone hurriedly left, fearing they would vomit, and the meeting ended like that.