Chương 126: Controversial Topic

The students were definitely intrigued by his opener. It was a good one, to be fair, though Ryland might be a bit biased. But it wasn't untrue. Magic had existed long before the Grand Frame had come into being, and regardless of what happened to it, magic would continue to exist. As such, it was vital to learn about all its integral features and capabilities beyond just what the Grand Frame taught and allowed. Something Ryland slowly and steadily explained to all the students present.

He appreciated that they appeared to at least understand what he was trying to say, even if he did catch several dubious looks at times. Scepticism wasn't surprising. This was a brand-new concept for many here. But Ryland was confident he could make them understand before long. For the first part of the lesson, he briefly went over the preliminary concepts that all the students needed to know before he dove into the main lesson.

Ryland wanted to go over a topic that none of the students had seen yet, including those from Arcoryx Academy, many of whom had already attended the course in the last semester. But to understand it fully, they needed to understand ideas such as the soulfulness of magic, how the evolution of one's manasoul was shaped by one's experiences and choices, and so on. They all paid attention and noted things down diligently.

Ryland understood he was perhaps going a little too fast, covering too many topics too briefly in too little time. It really wasn't his fault, though. The structure of the exchange semester didn't actually afford him a full semester's worth of classes, and that was even if the students were actually interested in pursuing the course. He was trying to make it interesting enough to retain most of them, but to make it fully effective, he had to cover enough course material.

"Alright, thank you for bearing with me," Ryland said.

"I believe many of you have already gotten brief impressions of several topics you might not know much about. But now, we'll move on to the actual subject for today that I want to discuss, which is imbuing your spells with your manasoul." That brought in a lot of different reactions. Several were very interested, especially the students from Arcoryx and other academies. A lot of the Rhellian students, however, were frowning. Ryland understood their reaction.

On Rhel more than anywhere else, the sanctity of one's manasoul was respected and revered to an incredible degree. Any spell that tampered with it, any magical process that caused it harm or changed its form or anything of the sort would be viewed with incredible scrutiny. It felt ironic, considering what he had seen in that crazed guard's manasoul. But in truth, it was for that reason specifically that this revered view of manasouls had arisen in the first place.

That said, none of the students protested or raised any concerns yet, so Ryland forged on. Even the guard captain accompanying Ryland only gave vent to a mild frown. Hardly a real dissent.

"The idea is rather simple," Ryland said. He used a Glyph of Pyre to create a small fireball.

"Once you have any sort of magic active, your next goal is to attain greater control over it. To do this, you forge a connection between your manasoul and the external mana empowering the spell you've created. And then, you shape the mana into something akin to a soul." Ryland showed them the exact process with a live demonstration. The little fireball he had cast now grew to the size of his torso. Then it began changing shape.

Almost all the students grew very, very eager to see the final stage of whatever change Ryland was enacting. The fireball turned incandescent, glowing bright enough to shade the whole room with a fiery glow. It continued changing shape, maintaining the link with Ryland's manasoul and gaining its own simulacrum of the same. Eventually, it had turned into a copy of Ryland himself, just made of pure fire glowing with different levels of heat at different points to create three-dimensional impressions.

"Did you really make that from one Glyph, sir?" one of the other academy students asked. Ryland nodded.

"Do you recall seeing any other spell circles coming into play?" The student shook her head.

"Any other questions before I ask you to start?" Ryland looked over the entire room, meeting the eyes of random students.

"If you're still unsure, I can show the process yet again. And if you're really unsure and haven't been paying attention, I can highlight the mana itself to show you what is actually happening."

"Sir!" one of the students didn't just raise his hand, but stood up entirely, the plates of his armoured uniform of the Rhellian Institute clinking together.

"I have a question." Ryland nodded.

"Go on, please."

"Who gave you the right to violate manasouls in this way?" A deep silence fell on the whole class at that. Everyone was silent, several almost disbelieving the fact that someone had dared to raise a question in such a brazen manner. But it appeared the boy was actually the breaking of a dam. Several other students rose up and echoed the same concerns, displaying the same anger at what they perceived to be a terrible violation of everything they believed in.

Ryland noted that almost all of them were the Rhellian students who had looked sceptical, if not concerned, from the start. A quick glance revealed that the guard captain was stoically ignoring the minor uproar. If anything, it was a tacit agreement with the Rhellian students. He hadn't appreciated the lesson either.

"I have no intention at all of questioning your values and ideals," Ryland said, raising his voice to make them all simmer down.

"That certainly isn't what this class is about. However, if you do have legitimate concerns, could you articulate them in a way so that we all can understand?" Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The Rhellians caught his emphasis and glanced at the still-seated students with somewhat annoyed looks.

"The issue, sir," said the first student.

"Is that manasouls are sacrosanct. They are sacred. We gain them through our parents and we learn their form through the blessing of the Great Demiurge. To tamper with such a thing, to insinuate that we can use it for such mundane tasks as burning our spells with it, is a terrible violation of a manasoul!"

"That makes no sense!" Viren had stood up, his hands clenched at his sides.

"We're always using the mana driven by our manasouls to cast our magic. How is this any different?"

"You can enslave someone and force them to perform labour for you," a girl said, her voice tinny in her helm.

"But that doesn't make it right!" Viren stared at her.

"We're not enslaving our manasouls and forcing it to do anything. And manasouls aren't even alive to begin with!" That was the entirely wrong thing to say, going by the Rhellians' subsequent reaction.

"Not alive!"

"How dare he—""What a mongrel." Ryland loudly cleared his throat. They quieted down for a second, though it wasn't because they were done chewing out Viren. Instead, it was the first boy who spoke again.

"All of you at Arcoryx are inexperienced and deluded," the first boy said with a scathing tone.

"You're not willing to stand up for anything because you have nothing to stand up for."

"What in all the Realms are you talking about?" Viren asked.

"You've got no values. No ideals. Nothing you believe in! You let in everyone from all over in your blind need to be the greatest academy for sorcery there is. And you don't stop to think for a second whether the student or teacher you're taking in will help whatever it is Arcoryx Academy is supposed to stand for. Because you don't stand for anything! You're all cowards. Worthless and weak!" Well, that was really the wrong thing to say. Shouts started up. Name calling reached astronomic levels.

Almost the entire class was pointing fingers and threats with equal intensity, and Ryland even managed to catch several sparks and glints of mana foretelling spellcasting. Since he was well aware that simply calling out the need for calm wasn't going to work, he cast a Glyph of Tranquillity. Its radiant light shaded everyone in glimmering ivory hues, and soon enough, things started calming down.

The yells reduced, fewer fingers were pointed, and most importantly, the magic that had been about to fly now faded away to harmless sparks.

"Thank you for your assistance," Ryland said to the guard captain. The man blinked back at Ryland.

"Somehow, I thought you were incapable of sarcasm." Ryland sighed and faced the rest of the class.

"I will not brook any chaotic disagreements in my classes. I understand you all are from vastly different Realms with vastly different lives and viewpoints. That said, we are all here to learn, and keeping that in mind is vital."

"But sir." One of the third-year Arcoryx students was still scowling mightily at the Rhellians, many of whom still hadn't taken their seats.

"They insulted us!"

"Yes. And you can reply via the tournament you'll have. Resolve your disagreements on a field that's built for it, not in a classroom, please." Ryland turned to the Rhellian students with a hard expression.

"Understand that this sort of behaviour is inexcusable. I will be reporting the entire incident to the institute administration, and I expect no further chaos." The Rhellians clearly didn't appreciate that. So much so that they still refused to get back to their seats. It was then that Ryland realized he had been rather blessed at Arcoryx. What minor disagreements and trouble he'd had paled in the face of this brazen aggression against him from the students of Rhel.

"Sir," the first Rhellian student said.

"You never really answered my question."

"If you truly have issues with the course material that was approved by the Rhellian administration," Ryland said.

"Then I request that you leave. It's already late. I'd like to get on with my class." The student shook his head.

"No, sir. It's not entirely about that. My question was who are you? Who are you to teach this?" For some reason, they were all hanging on his potential answer to the question. They were all staring at him, eyes wide, leaning forward in their seats. He had already mentioned his name, but that was hardly anything in the grand scheme of things. They wanted something more. They wished to learn who he really was. Even the guard captain was paying far too much attention to him.

Ryland took one of the deepest breaths he had ever taken.

"As I stated, my name is Marionys Ryland, and while I've gone by other titles and names at other times and locations, I honestly prefer this one the most as this is actually the name I was born with at my old fishing hamlet—which is actually a major port city, now—but as you can tell, living in a fishing hamlet doesn't exactly improve one's living standards, so I—""Stop, stop!" The protest came from multiple sides, though Ryland did catch several of the Arcoryx students all grinning smugly.

"Wait, did I answer your question already?" Ryland asked.

"I have a very long way to go still." The first student just scowled at him, and his expression was echoed on the faces of several of his companions.

"I should have known that simply asking you would be dumb. You just want to tell us what you care to tell us, nothing that we care to know."

"Well, you're certainly free to run your own course the way you see fit when you've become an Academ."" Argh! That's not what I meant." With a curse, the student leaped over his desk to start approaching Ryland.

"The clearest way we're going to settle any of this is by a challenge. A duel. If you won't answer me clearly, then I'll get the answer I seek from your magic." Ryland blinked.

"You really believe you will?"

"I'm positive." About five armspans away from Ryland, the older boy pointed a confrontational finger at Ryland.

"I hereby challenge you, Marionys Ryland, to a duel." Ryland deliberated for a little while. On the one hand, duelling a student of all people felt like a deplorable act for a teacher. He'd had his fill of it when facing down the arrogance of Kleador. So he was entirely disinclined to accede to the Rhellian student's request. Yet, he couldn't simply ignore it too. Much as he had asked the student to leave, he knew that spelled disaster for his teaching efforts.

If enough Rhellians saw no benefit to his class, it would simply be dropped from the roster of available courses in the exchange semester, and the institute would stop supporting it as well. It would be termed as an utter failure. He cared enough about his class to avoid that situation if at all possible. And yet, if he did accept, then he'd really hate fighting a student of all people. Not to mention what Rhel would think about an Arcoryx sub-Academ picking fights with their youth. Ryland sighed.

"How about this, then. Let me set you a challenge. You can do whatever you wish, call whomever you want, cast whatever magic you think you need to. And all the while, I will not respond. I won't be fighting back. At all. You will have fifteen minutes to bring me to heel, and if you can't in that time, then you will return to your seats and remain silent."

"That's insane!" the student said. The others shouted out much the same thing.

"You'll never survive anything of the sort." Ryland slowly smiled.

"Are you scared what might happen when you fail even with that sort of handicap on me?" He flicked a quick look at the guard captain.

"We can even bring in a Star Shackle to keep me restricted further."

"Those things barely work on you!" the guard captain hissed.

"Well, we can use multiple at the same time, then." Ryland clapped his hands.

"Come on. This is the condition I've set you. Now unless you'd like to admit that even this —""Alright, alright!" Another one of the other students was coming over, face twisted in a light scowl as he took his spot next to the first Rhellian student. He wasn't alone. Several more of his companions were coming over.

"Let's get this over with. I've never seen anything so…"

"Overpowering?" Ryland suggested.

"Ridiculous! I've never seen anything so ridiculous!" Yet, for all his complaints, he wasn't backing away. In fact, several more had gathered around him, and many of the students who weren't participating in the mass magical brawl had taken up seats much closer to the action.

"Good," Ryland said.

"Let's begin."