Chapter 21: Flying Lessons

"Did you get something wrong? Aren't we the students?" Nicola frowned and asked. I was worried that the teacher would punish us, but now the situation has completely reversed. 

"I know!" The teacher quickly lifted her head and said, "But you are all six-winged angels like me. Although we are of the same rank, you want me to be your teacher. This makes me feel a bit awkward..."

"It doesn't matter if we are on the same level! This is not a fight or battle. We mainly want to learn some basic knowledge," I said puzzlingly, also wondering what Elara had told her. The choice of location was also very problematic. Were we going to learn through fighting each other?

"You are newborn angels who have reached six wings after just one month. It took me over 300 years to reach this level. The pressure on me is tremendous..." she replied with a wry smile. 

"Furthermore, Lady Elara attaches great importance to you all and has specially instructed me to teach you well and be sure to satisfy any of your requests without slighting you."

"This is..." Both Angela and I were somewhat speechless. 

It seems Elara is used to imprinting memories and has no clue about normal teaching. Her orders have turned a teacher into a servant. 

"Is she usually like this with you?" I whispered to Cyra, feeling Elara's personality was also problematic for making such an angel our teacher. 

"No! Although Teacher Aetna is usually very gentle, Reed and I have lower ranks so she is not as respectful to us," Cyra denied while adding:

"But what she just said sounds a bit familiar. After I created magic and got recognition, the orders Elara gave to Mona assisting Reed were quite similar..."

"I see!" Nicola suddenly realized. 

"It looks like Elara puts us and Reed in the same category and thinks such arrangements would also aid our learning. Little did she know Reed does research and would take the initiative to study, completely different from me." 

"Um, Teacher Aetna right..." Noticing the situation, I quickly spoke up: 

"You don't need to be so cautious with us. Just teach us basic knowledge like usual. just teach us the way you did to Cyra. That will do!" 

"What? Then wouldn't I have to learn it all over again?" Cyra protested discontentedly. 

"With so few angels, we can't possibly find another teacher. We'll just have to understand!" I helplessly comforted her and proposed:

"You've learnt it anyway so no need to redo it. You can read books by yourself like Reed."

"No way! I don't want to learn like Reed, all by myself. I'd rather learn together with you again. Since I know it all, I could even crush you! Just thinking about it excites me!" Cyra rejected. 

"You're just wasting time!" I tried advising her but she could do as she wished.

"Teach the way I do? So I get to decide everything to teach? Is that okay?" Aetna still felt uncertain and sought confirmation again. 

"After all, Cyra only has two wings while yours are so high-ranked. You must have comprehended a lot yourselves, right? My repeating it might seem redundant..."

"It's fine! Elara should have told you, just teach us the basics. And even if we comprehend some things, we still want to systematically learn them. We may have missed stuff," Nicola impatiently urged. 

"I see..." Hearing our affirmation, Aetna finally breathed out in relief and slapped her chest saying: 

"I was worried you might not obey and want to test my abilities by fighting me...that's why I purposely chose this arena today..."

"..." I also felt that was going overboard. Why must Elara arrange a six-winged angel to teach us? Choosing an eight-winged one would solve everything! 

"Hurry up and start class! We won't fight you. Should we move indoors then?" Nicola couldn't stand it and hurried her. If communication completely failed, she was considering whether to ask Elara to change teachers.

"Well..." Aetna looked around and pondered before deciding: 

"Since we're already here, let's not run back and forth. Today's lesson will be on flying!"

"Flying lessons?" I asked puzzlingly. 

"But we can already fly. What's the point of you teaching us that now?"

It's so frustrating. I just said we wanted to relearn things even if we comprehended them, only to immediately contradict that. Can this Aetna not adapt at all? She saw us fly here...

"You misunderstood. I'm referring to high-speed flying! Although you can fly already, there are still many techniques to fly faster." 

Fortunately, she wasn't as inflexible as I imagined and quickly explained:

"It's mainly for angels above two wings. The extra wings allow them to fly faster but often hamper speed due to not knowing how to control them. So the higher ranking and more wings an angel has, the more complex techniques needed to fly faster." 

"Oh, there's such knowledge?" Nicola immediately became interested. Looks like the teacher also has reliable moments! 

"Yes! This isn't included in the knowledge imprinted when angels descend. Only after joining the angel legions do you have the chance to learn it." Aetna nodded and answered: 

"But Lady Elara specifically ordered me to hide nothing so I'll just teach you while I can."

"I see!" Hearing her, I instantly understood. No wonder Serena with just one extra pair of wings flew so much faster. Turns out there was a reason. 

"What about me then?" Cyra suddenly complained. With only two wings, she likely won't need these so-called techniques. 

"So I've got nothing to do here? Can I leave first?" She hugged her head, wanting to slip away. But Aetna hurriedly called her back.

"Wait! You can listen for now. It'll be useful after you ascend in rank." 

"No way! Just listening without practicing would be so boring. I'd rather go back and sleep!" Cyra grumbled, extremely reluctant. I suspect she felt unable to show off in front us us, losing motivation to stay.

"Cyra—!" But before I could speak, Aetna suddenly frowned and yelled at her first: 

"How can you be so lazy! Among the four new angels left alive, you are the most hopeless. You need to work hard and catch up!" 

This was rather unexpected. I thought the teacher would never get angry. Looks like even a clod has a temper that Cyra finally exceeded.

"The assignment I gave you yesterday! One hundred Holy Light bullets! Did you do it? Show me the wooden post you practiced on!" 

"Of course I did it! Just not on the post. I practiced with others instead." Cyra hurriedly explained. 

"Oh? Who did you find? Norma?" Aetna half-believed her and eased her expression a little. 

"I'll go find and check with her later..."

"Wait! Not Norma," Cyra panicked upon hearing of verification and quickly corrected herself, pointing at us: 

"It was Nicola. They happened to arrive here yesterday so I took the chance to practice with Nicola."

"Practice with me? When?" Nicola was dumbfounded, surprised the blame extended to her when she didn't even remember Cyra asking her to practice Holy Light bullets yesterday.

"Don't you remember? How can your memory be so bad!" Cyra anxiously gave Nicola hints with her eyes. 

"Just after we left the Sanctum yesterday and were in the sky..." 

"Oh, could you mean that time?" Nicola seemed to recall something and uncertainly said: 

"You did use Holy Light bullets on me then..."

"See! She admitted it herself!" Hearing that, Cyra immediately stopped Nicola from continuing and pleadingly said to Aetna: 

"So I already finished my assignment!" 

"That's good then. I thought you skipped it again..." Surprisingly, Aetna believed her just like that after pondering, leaving me completely dumbfounded. Wouldn't she think to check further with Nicola?

"Actually..." I really couldn't stand it and wanted to expose Cyra's lies. But she had noticed my intention long ago, pulling me aside the moment I opened my mouth for "confide talks".

"Are we still friends? Still classmates?" She seriously asked me, as if I was going to cut ties with her.