Prince Ier von Kelvin Bezark stepped into hell.

He agreed to be trained by me, and for the next week, I did not let him have a moment of rest.

It was a memorable training experience for me, too. The events of a whole week flew by…

***

A cold wind blew in the mountain ranges as the clouds moved overhead. The clouds looked close enough to get into my hands if I reached out, but they were probably further than the sun for someone else here.

"WHY AM I HANGING FROM A MOUNTAIN!?"

I clicked my tongue and peeked down from the precipice of the mountain. I casually fiddled with the rope in my hand, the one that went down the edge of the hill and was tied to the feet of Prince Ier.

"There is no better activity than this to make you understand your muscles," I said, peering down from the cliff. The drop was steep and deep; it would probably be a hundred feet before he met anything on his way down.

"And why!" Prince Ier flailed like a fish as he tried to pull himself up. Whenever it looked like he was establishing his balance, I swayed him with the rope. "In the world! Do I need! To learn THAT!?"

He was freaking out. He was about to use magic. As soon as I felt the movement of mana, I dropped the rope.

"Ah—AHHH!"

He flitted further down the mountain. I grabbed the rope and stopped him.

"What did I say? You can't use magic! Only pure mana!"

The mana emitted came out as a one-to-one deal. If he could push mana to move himself, he'd know exactly what to do.

Prince Ier tried to use the mana to stop himself from swaying furiously and to get back to the mountain, but every time he tried, he shot out a whole burst of mana, which only made his position worse.

"You'll do this every day until you manage to pull yourself out with only mana."

***

"Don't slow down!"

Prince Ier did not even snap back with a reply. I made him walk on his hands around the perimeter of the Black Rose Academy for ten laps.

He groaned and bit his lips but worked as I told him to. Every time he was about to slow down, I forced him to walk faster.

Want support? He could take all of it, though only through pure mana. Not using mana would be impractical for him, after all!

"Oh! It's Professor Ethan! What is going on?"

I even ran into Jeremy, and some of the other Black Rose graduate students, and they all cheered on Ier with all their might.

It embarrassed him more and made him go faster; it was perfect.

***

The week wasn't all training.

"Professor…"

Lumine tugged at my shoulders and handed me an envelope.

"Pictures…"

"Oh! They are here!"

Lumine and I also looked at the developed pictures and decided to take some more. It had a picture of almost everyone in the classroom.

We should also take a picture as a whole class.

"Why are they all tinted green, though?"

It was almost as if someone had dropped green blood on it and wiped it away. Lumine shrugged at my words and turned to the next picture.

***

Not all training, but most of it was training.

After finishing his laps, I guided Ier to the back of the academy, to a small thicket overlooked by the forest, and handed him a wooden sword.

"Your mana refinement should be good enough to cut through a wooden doll with a wooden sword."

Ier grumbled but raised his sword.

Before he could swing it down, I pulled him back.

"From ten meters away."

"Without using any magic?! How do you expect mana to do something?"

"It's a skill, student Ier. Now, don't complain and swing."

***

I also got some information from others about the events that happened around us.

Richard, in particular, came to me one day.

"You guys are hosting a spar between the students?" he asked.

I nodded. "Professor Glober Loriosus said this will help the students."

"You mean Professor Jim?"

"Yeah, him. I thought he officially changed his name?"

"He didn't. He just likes to call himself that." Richard said. He then told me about the student from the Red Dahlia class.

"There's a genius amongst geniuses named Wilbur Smith. Prince Ier will likely face him. If anything happens to the students…"

I shook my head.

"Nothing should happen. We'll bring Mr. Gladwin to the venue, too."

"Right, he did agree for now since you will be the supervisor," Richard said.

"By the way… does Professor Jim?" I asked.

Richard immediately nodded.

"Yes, totally. A lot…. He scares me."

***

If our enemy was a genius, we had to be one too.

"Learn your affinity. Keep trying more spells."

I guided Prince Ier inside the training halls to practice his spells.

"Affinity…?"

"You don't have to make sure you use every magic well. Most people have a stronger sense of one element than another. It will help your mana control a lot if you can use more of a strong weapon."

Prince Ier would try all types of spells to test his affinity and find what worked best for him. But in very few minutes, he slumped to the ground.

"I can't. I used too much mana."

I smiled.

"Then drink a potion and get back to training."

***

Soon, we started seeing results.

"You're almost there! Come out! Grab that rock and come out!"

"AAH! I'll do it!"

From climbing…

"Oh hey, Professor and His Highness the Second Prince?"

"Jeremy, hey."

"Good day, Senior Jeremy."

To casually greeting someone in a headstand…

"Profesor, I think the element that I can use best on instinct is Ice."

"I see, you have found your affinity too…"

Just like that, the days passed by. Linearly, slowly, but shortly. It all worked.

And on the day before the battle.

"Argent… Ken… Zacka… Ier… and Atlas."

Five students were missing from my class.

"You kids, wait here for a bit," I said. "I think I might know where these five went."