NOVEL NEXT Chapter 201: Far too… safe
As he walked, Caius heard a bird's cry from above in one of the many branches that stretched overhead to cast down their dark shadows due to the many leaves that grew out of them. Now, in a forest such as this, such sounds might not be particularly out of place but Caius recognized this one even though he had only heard it a few times before today.
*CRAW* *CRAW*
After a few more bird cries, Lea whistled, and it sounded like code with the way she took an intake of breath between each intonation as she let the sound of her beautiful puckered lips.
There were flapping sounds of wings then and soon, a raven came flying down and landed on Lea's shoulders. But as it got settled, it turned its head around and nailed Caius with its deep black eyes.
It opened its beak then and let out another cry, this one more insistent and so differently intoned, Caius could have sworn his name was being called.
"Karen says Hi, Caius," Lea said then without looking back or reducing the pace with which she led the class, "Would be rude of you not to respond."
There was a way Karen's head was turned up at him that told Caius she was definitely not being polite with her greeting. Still, he smiled lightly.
"Hello, Karen," he greeted, "It's nice to see you again."
*Craw!*
With that one last call that sounded a bit snooty, Karen turned her head away, facing ahead while Caius's lips just twitched. He could just imagine how loaded that single sound would have been had he been able to actually comprehend Raven-speech. Or maybe just Karen-speech.
The class looked lost with the interaction. Those who cared to, remembered the Raven from when it had been sent to deliver a message to Caius but they hadn't known exactly then that the message had been from Lea or that the bird belonged to her. Though, if anyone were to make a guess, they would likely assume the 'Study of Magical Beasts' Professor would be the one kind of person in the academy to use a Magical Beast to pass on a message.
The class walked a few more feet, heading far deeper into the Lochxen Forest than Caius had ever gotten while being led by Lea during the two times they had their trysts under the canopy of the forest trees.
And then, Lea paused.
"Can you smell that?" She asked.
Aylin coughed.
"I'd have to be dead, not to," she said with her nose wrinkled.
Everyone else in the class agreed. They had perceived it from a few feet away but now it was unmistakable.
"Many Magical Beasts mark their territories in various ways. The scent of piss, which you can smell right now, is one of those."
Many had their fingers pinching the bridges of their noses now while others had an entire hand clasped over it and, without turning back, Lea could tell.
"Don't plug your noses," She said looking quite comfortable, "You need to be able to take it in. You need to be able to contextualise what you smell. In cases like this, every creature's excrement carries enough species-uniqueness that can help you identify them down to the last detail with just a whiff. A useful tool if you're hoping to avoid them as I'm sure many of you are.
You should be taking notes now."
Hearing about how important this would be to avoid while being so close to this pungent scent inspired most in the class to take out their books and begin scribbling all that Lea said. Eloise let go of Caius's hand just so she could be able to write.
"By the way, today, your education will not be restricted to only Three Star Magical Beasts. In the wild, you don't encounter Beasts based on what Circle Mage you are.
You should be learning to know how it might be possible to survive even when faced with a Beast that outclasses your strength. Ideally, you would try not to be in such a situation but the world is certainly not ideal," Lea said.
She let that sink in and then began to gabble on about the beast whose piss-marked territory they were at the edge of. The class was ushered to cross over the boundary so they could walk over to where they would be able to actually spot and study the beast they were learning about.
Lea retrieved a disc from one of her pouches and it enveloped the entire class in a spherical dome. Far smaller than the netted dome she usually employed during class to keep the Magical Beast she brought in contained.
This spherical dome left very little room for manoeuvring within and caused the class to stand very close together and also walk when Lea walked because the dome moved with her and pulled them over, sometimes roughly.
"Please, keep up, students," Lea said a few times when someone got caught by surprise and was smooched in the face by the dome.
"In here, you will be safe," Lea said.
It appeared as though she was right. They saw the Magical Beasts up close and saw them raise their heads and sniff a few times but never once tried to get close.
Students such as Eloise let out breaths of relief that this forest visit might not be all that bad.
Despite the crampiness within the dome, they could still write and they did so with even more enthusiasm now that there was no real danger.
But Caius knew better. He had the original story to guide him and while things with Lea had taken a different turn personally as they never had in [To Kill A Demon Lord…], professionally, it had all been quite on point.
When he looked and observed the faces of certain others, Caius could tell he wasn't the only one who could tell things were far too… safe. And unlike him, they had actually figured it out by knowing what sort of maniac their Professor was.
Delia was one of those others. Kaya was another. Aurelius was a third.
During their class last week, Lea had shifted from the usual Three Star Beast practicals that she had done two weeks prior and instead spoke at length about a couple of Four Star Beasts. The fact that last week's class had been followed up with this week's class where they actually were now in a position to run into the unideal situation of meeting a Four-star Beast made it so clear that this was not just about seeing things in a bubble.
If it were any other Professor, these thoughts may not have risen. But Lea had shown herself to be far too gleeful at the thought of putting and watching her students in harm's way.
They spent half an hour learning about this set of Beasts in the safety of the dome. Kaya waited with bated breath for Lea to then raise the dome and send them out to put what they had learned into action, but she didn't. She just turned around, let them out of the territory, and on to the next.
The first of the double periods passed with stuff like this. Head to a Beast's territory, observe them. Take down notes and then move on to the next. They even got to revisit the old lesson of Wind Puffing Rabbits. They didn't need the dome here and the class could try and grab up one of the cute fellows to snuggle with.
Lea also taught them how to identify what could be fed to the rabbits from all around them in the Forest.
The challenge here was being able to get one of those cute little things. The rabbits remained as fast as ever and, without the netted dome to keep them contained, they could dart into burrow holes and hide away. Only getting lured by the feed that their chubby cheeks just couldn't resist.
Aylin and Eloise opted to work together here with Aylin using her Ice Magic to successfully capture one of the cute things and feed it some feed that Eloise had picked out from the surroundings by following Lea's instructions on what was edible and what was not. At least for Wind-puffing Rabbits.
For a moment, there was peace.
And then the ears of the Rabbits all perked up at the same time and they ran. Not into their burrow holes but far away from there. No amount of food could convince them to stay.
Only Aylin managed to keep a hold on her Rabbit despite how much it fussed.
"Hold still," she groaned, just managing to avoid its wind-puffing that would have blasted her many feet away,
"Why are you fussing so much?"
Eloise tapped Aylin on the shoulder then while pointing ahead.
"What?" Aylin asked with a groan of effort before looking at where Eloise was pointing.
Her jaw dropped.