Loren brought the group to the classroom Paqina had told him about yesterday. By the time Loren arrived, class had already started.

The way classes worked here was basically the same as university—no fixed classrooms.

When Loren pushed open the classroom door, the teacher who was currently lecturing froze for a moment. He recognized Loren immediately, and also spotted Casper following behind Loren.

“Master Mentor... Headmaster... is there something you need?”

“Oh, I’m here to take over this class for you. You can clock out now.” 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

“This...”

The teacher on the podium looked troubled. The sudden development left him unclear on what was happening.

“It’s exactly as it sounds. You can clock out now. From now on, Master Mentor will be teaching this class.”

“No, no, no. I’m just taking this class on a whim. I can’t come every week, so let’s forget it.”

At this point, the teacher understood the situation. Basically, Loren had agreed to teach, but it would be entirely based on Loren’s mood. If Loren showed up, the current teacher would just leave on his own.

So without another word, he silently departed. Then Loren stepped onto the podium, turned back to Anna and the others, and said:

“Find a seat for yourselves. This is your class now. Casper, make sure to get their enrollment sorted.”

Loren made no attempt to hide his blatantly corrupt approach.

Some students in the class didn’t know Loren, but they all knew Casper. From Loren’s tone with Casper, they could tell Loren’s status was extraordinary.

So, they didn’t dare voice any complaints about Loren’s obvious corruption.

“Understood, Master Mentor...”

Casper acknowledged and then left. He now had to handle Anna and the others’ enrollment.

“So that’s Master Mentor...”

After hearing Casper’s address to Loren, the students who hadn’t recognized him let out exclamations.

If it was Loren, they could fully accept him doing something like this.

Anna scanned the classroom and quickly spotted Paqina. She locked onto her and walked straight over.

Jessica, on the other hand, brought Luna to the front row, the closest spot to Loren.

Feeling the gazes of those around her, Jessica felt incredibly proud. Back at Gedlan Royal Magic Academy, commoner students like Jessica were the most discriminated against.

Conversely, whenever a noble student from the Nofica Theocracy visited the academy, they would be the envy of everyone.

Being from a small place and envying people from a big country was only natural.

But now, those whom the Gedlan nobles had once looked up to were looking up to Jessica.

“So satisfying...”

Jessica sighed inwardly. People at Gedlan Royal Magic Academy had said that without Luna, she was nothing. Now Jessica just wanted to say there was no “if”—this was the reality. The current Jessica was no longer the same person.

...

“Where did your teacher leave off before I came?”

Loren casually grabbed a chair and sat right on the podium, crossing his legs and placing the cola he’d brought on the lectern.

This was a Supernatural Creatures class, mostly covering Magical Beasts. Ordinary Magical Beasts had long since ceased to pose any threat to Loren. Even if he accidentally bumped into one on the road, he’d just treat it like a speed bump.

In fact, Loren had enough leisure to protect endangered species, since these Magical Beasts couldn’t harm him, and he saw no value in killing them.

“The teacher was just talking about...”

A girl sitting in the front row suddenly stood up to answer Loren’s question, looking like a model student. But before she could finish, Loren interrupted her:

“Never mind, I’ll teach you something useful today. There aren’t many normal Magical Beasts left. With the Outer Gods’ corruption, many have mutated. The textbook content is probably useless.”

Loren didn’t care whether skipping the textbook would affect the students’ grades. If it came to it, he could just have the academy change the exams to match what he’d taught.

The girl who had just stood up sat back down awkwardly. She didn’t feel discouraged; in fact, she was looking forward to what Loren was going to say.

On the other side, Anna had sat down next to Paqina. She noticed that Paqina wasn’t paying her any attention—she was staring at Loren the whole time, until Anna’s little hand waved in front of her face.

“Hi, I’m Anna. Nice to meet you.”

Once she had Paqina’s attention, Anna extended her hand.

Among all the students, she had spotted Paqina instantly. Even though Paqina didn’t dress up and had a rather plain look, that didn’t change the fact that she was the prettiest girl here.

Up close, Anna caught her scent. It was very similar to the scent she’d picked up on Loren before.

So Anna had some guesses about Paqina’s identity.

“I’m Paqina. I remember you—you’re Master Mentor’s adopted daughter, right...”

Paqina shook Anna’s hand and spoke.

Loren’s family wasn’t exactly a secret. Anyone paying close attention to Loren knew about it.

“Wow, you actually know me. You must pay a lot of attention to Master Mentor...”

“I... I just really admire Master Mentor... He’s the most respected person among all Bountiful followers...”

In the past, saying that would have been true. She had been paying attention to Loren for a long time, but back then it was pure admiration—until she recently met Loren for real.

Thinking about Loren’s trust in her and his gentleness, Paqina felt some other emotions rising in her heart.

The image of Loren wiping her tears yesterday was still vivid in Paqina’s mind. Just recalling Loren patting her head made a blush creep up her cheeks.

Most importantly, Loren had affirmed the Witches.

“...”

If Anna had only been guessing before, now she was certain. Paqina was a Witch. Only a Witch could be this innocent.

Anna had figured out the pattern. Every Witch except herself was incredibly naive and hopelessly lovesick. All it took was a head pat from Loren to win them over.

Even the games Anna had played back in Uridia with cheat codes weren’t this easy. Anna could only marvel that Loren was the real Succubus.

At the same time, Paqina suddenly realized something. Her behavior yesterday had been way too extreme.

With Loren’s intelligence, he could easily figure things out. But Loren had said nothing in the end, and from the looks of it, he hadn’t told anyone either.

Paqina looked up at Loren, meeting his eyes for a moment. Loren flashed her a smile, and Paqina immediately lowered her head—only to see Anna’s face below the table:

“Are you trying to become my mother?”