OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 344: Choosing An Assistant

***

Sofia's POV

Anyone with a sound mind could pick up on what the girl was implying.

It seemed our professor did so midway through their short Q&A session as well.

She was being bullied. And it wasn't only her, but her friend as well.

It was an exaggeration of that, correct, but it was still the essence of what she was alluding to.

The "hundred men" were the Elite that surrounded her in school and went after her for anything and everything as if they were trying their best to get her kicked out.

Her "calling the UEF Guard" was simply him asking if she wanted help from a teacher.

But she didn't, she wanted to fight herself, willing to even get kicked out of the Academy because of it.

She, a poor girl, was picked as one of the very few to join us, the Elite, under the guise of a scholarship program aimed at grooming talent, all funded by the same credits our parents pay them with.

So feeling as if they were owed something, they went after them, choosing her as one of the first to bully since she seemed to be the weakest, a spineless coward with no brave bone in her body.

This was her wake-up call-an uncertain decision turned concrete. Not her asking for help. "Yes Sir!"

Shouting at the top of her lungs, she stood in attention, her right hand above her second heart, as our professor nodded towards her and the rest of us, leaving the room shortly after.

Ring ring~

As his heavy steps resounded outside, the bell rang, indicating the end of the lesson and the beginning of my wonderment.

...Just who is he?'

I didn't care for the girl... I cared for how he dealt with her.

He was truly unlike any teacher that I had met before.

His gaze was always clear.

His eyes seemed to know the answer to every question there was. As if every direction he looked at was the right one.

Hesitation, doubt, fear, regret.... He never showed any of that.

It hadn't been long since we first met, but I was now sure that he was different.

That man had to stay in my life... he was my muse!

***

Glancing at Sofia, whose eyes remained fixed on Emir's desk, Elijah thought:

'Did she see what I see in him?'

'She did, didn't she?'

Smiling with pride, he inwardly screamed:

'That's my brother, you know!'

Sitting next to him with her arms crossed, Aria beamed as well, inwardly announcing his brother as worthy to be the one teaching her.

'He'll be honored!'

Ava felt the same, thinking that her "daddy" picked well.

Xavier agreed as well; while he wished to know more about the mysterious professor for other reasons, he appreciated the fact that Emir had both the strength and knowledge to back up his ideals.

Meanwhile, Max couldn't deny his all-encompassing knowledge. While he knew of the man's strength, now he was further introduced to his intellect, and even that seemed to be more than good.

Finding fault in him was shaping up to be quite a tough quest.

Quinn reacted in a similar vein to Max, but she was way more delusional, thinking that this once again proved Emir to be a good enemy for her to kill.

The 'named' had varied reactions, but none of them differed as much as the next one.

Arthur, the protagonist of the world, vowed not to acknowledge Emir as his professor.

His feelings burned with envy hotter than the seventh layer of Hell itself, seething at the growing popularity of their professor.

'I'LL SHOW THEM WHO'S STRONG!'

He internally vowed, plunging into a deep end where his personality shifted, no longer the same as the 'novel' his flaws magnified-a puppet of the reincarnates' mind games.

Their constant whispers made his mind prone to emotional manipulation, which allowed them to pit him against their professor without him even noticing.

But why would they do that?

It was simple.

They knew Emir desired their deaths.

Back on the first day of classes, Arthur wagered that Emir's coin flip would reveal 'heads.'

To this day, no answer came.

He could have been toying with him, but given what they understood of the man, every action was deliberate, purposeful.

Emir had singled out Arthur for a reason. Moreover, the professor had dispatched the parasite they deployed against everyone they encountered...

So there was no denying it-Emir, for some unknown reasons, wanted them dead, and they weren't going to stand for that.

***

"His every step is confident... but there's something off."

Amon leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the owl mask concealing the face of the man standing across from him.

"Emir is terrified..."

Blinking, he motioned for the owl-masked figure to take a seat before continuing:

"All I see behind his confident demeanor is a man gripped by fear."

The owl complied with his request and sat down.

"I can 'see' the weight, Isaac."

Tapping his mask, the founder and leader of the Hunter Association asked:

"Right, but what else do your eyes see? Haven't you spent much time with him?"

Chuckling a little, Amon nodded his head.

"It's quite confusing. Emir defines conflict with his very being. He shows himself as lawful, a man of order, cleanliness, and uniformity, but while fighting, his chaos reveals itself... It's

where his soul leans."

Before Isaac could get a word out, he added:

"But just as he ends the battle, he resumes his act... Or it might not be an act. Maybe a disorder, some type of OCD, meaning that he has something corrupting his thinking while in

battle, a curse of sorts."

After letting those words sink for a little, Isaac said:

"It's good then; he's bordering the edge but hasn't jumped off yet. Simply put, he's fucked in

the head, like how the world's fucked in the head, like how you're fucked in the head, and like how I'm fucked in the head... Guess if you wanna be something in this world, that's the first step. Get fucked in the head."

|| ||

...

"..."

They silently stared at each other for a long moment then burst out laughing.

***

While they scrutinized him physiologically, the man himself was at ease, strolling with Ragnar through the halls as he escorted the bearded Viking to his class.

Following behind were two unfamiliar students.

"And those kids are?"

Surprised at being mentioned, they lowered their heads, but Ragnar gave them a tap on the

back, encouraging them to keep their heads held high.

"My assistant's. Don't be too mean to them; not everyone can take it as well as I do."

"Yeah, yeah-"

Cutting Emir off, Ragnar asked:

"By the way, where's yours?"

||||

Not answering, he ignored the man and looked forward.

"I said, where's yours?"

As if he were talking to the wall, he received no reply but the echo of his own voice.

This didn't continue, however, as Emir finally replied with a simple:

"I don't see their use."

This was quite true. He had an AI that did almost everything for him; how would a couple of

students even compare?

Ragnar agreed with the answer he received, but still questioning the random pause, he asked:

"But why-"

"That's why."

Emir cut him off as he did him a few seconds ago.

Chuckling while shaking his head, Ragnar accepted that dumb reason and moved on, talking

about something else.

"Anyways, so today morning my wife was..."

As Ragnar yapped away, Emir telepathically confessed the true reason for his pause to Lyra:

[I forgot.]

[No worries, I did too.]

Neither of them bothered with it since they had each other, and it seemed their neural

networks dismissed that information as something entirely useless.

Inwardly snickering, Emir said:

[I can see a way to use this, though.]

He took a quick glance at the students around them, silently telling her what he had planned.

[Mhm, let's see if he'll accept it.]

Lyra easily caught on and watched as the brother's talk of assistants flowed in whispers

between nearby students.

"See ya later~."

"You won't."

And as they went their separate ways, one to his classroom and the other to his office, the

story was passed on, with each retelling altering the details slightly, changing it bit by bit.

From one friend to another, this repeated hundreds of times throughout the day, muddying

the story to the point where something that Emir had never said was seen as fact, spread like wildfire through the Academy. "Emir was in need of an assistant."

By the end of the school day, a wave of students flooded toward his office, eager to seize the

opportunity.

The first 'named' of the lot was Elijah.

He walked in with Xavier Jr alongside him, all buddy-buddy, as if they were the closest of

friends.

Emir looked at Elijah unblinkingly for a few seconds.

'That got out of hand quick, but I guess it at least got him to come here.'

He then turned his gaze to Xavier Jr.

[That's new...]

Visible only through his eyes, Lyra materialized next to the kid, looking down at him as if

studying his features.

[But expected.] Emir inwardly nodded.

[Right, the kid who's always going after injustice had to step in. I mean... How could Elijah live

while being so discriminated against?!]

Giggling at his sarcastic words, Lyra added:

[It runs in the family.]

'...Though it's a pity his first outside friend came from an obligation.'

He grinned and turned his gaze back to Elijah.

"What do you two want?"