My Teacher Does Not Like Dragons

The pink petals that adorned the Sakura-like tree floated onto the ground, the trees that decorated the pavilion shedding their pink leaves. The warm rays of the sun cast a glow on the green grass. Diana could practically smell the flowers that bloomed at this time of season. If she closed her eyes, she could even hear the birds chirping and singing their songs.

Today was a perfect day to be outside. 

She let a sigh escape her lips.

Unfortunately for her, she could only be lost in the beauty from the inside of a classroom through the windows.

Instead of the beautiful sounds of nature, she was hearing the sounds of a busy classroom, intent on socializing.

She blew some hair that gathered in front of her eyes, and stared longingly outside, her head resting on her hand.

The sound of a door creaking open and heels hitting the floor entered her ears. As distinct as the sound was, she couldn't help but ignore it.

Why was she a Duchess studying? Even worse, a transmigrated Duchess shouldn't she enjoy the vast wealth her house was said to have? Well, if it was one thing she was grateful for, it was the warmth this academy had.

When she visited her duchy, it was freezing cold, apparently, that was the warmest it had been all year.

Her lips pulled downward.

"What's wrong?" Her ear tickled from the close proximity, making her flinch. Diana turned and glared at Ignis, her small phoenix companion perched on her shoulder. "I told you not to do that." Spotting the teacher, her words dropped to a mere whisper.

The classroom, which was once filled with chattering students, stopped as the blonde-haired teacher, Miss Kaed, tapped on the board.

Diana's enthusiasm to learn about summoning from the academy was greatly diminished when she finished the textbook. The formulas were all wrong, and the rituals to summon were suboptimal. What she thought she could learn was misguided; if anything, she should be teaching them. 

She was sure no one would believe that she, who had minimal talent in summoning, would be right. Diana even tried to correct a ritual, only to be met with disdain by her fellow students and a strange gaze from her teacher.

It wasn't really the Academy's fault either, she was sure this was cutting edge for the time. But that was all, only for the time. When she started playing, after the open beta ended, new knowledge started to surface.

With a world at war, offensive occupations thrived, and new innovative techniques emerged.

It wasn't the academy's fault, as there had been peace for a long time.

"Hello Hello." The teacher spoke, without looking at the students, placing her heavy textbook on the table and her bag on the floor. She cleared her throat, "Good morning, class." Her eyes, which looked like an endless ocean, scanned the room.

"Good morning, Miss Kaed," The students repeated.

"Don't forget class, tomorrow we are going to visit a dungeon." She snapped her fingers, and papers containing the information about tomorrow's excursion were handed out to all the students.

This mock dungeon would be their class's midterms.

Diana, as a veteran player, wasn't worried. She had done plenty of dungeons before; how hard could a test one be?

"As you all know, tomorrow we will pair up in groups and enter a dungeon controlled by the academy. I hope everyone has studied enough and has nurtured their summons." She tapped on the board.

She turned to look at the class. "Yes, Theodore?" The teacher acknowledged the blue-haired student raising their hand.

The corners of his lips curved upwards as he sat up and spoke with enthusiasm. "Miss, you promised to tell us of the reward today."

Diana's starting talent for summoning was abysmal, but with hard work and her trusty summon, she managed to raise it to an astonishing C level. From F to C should be grounds for accomplishment.

But she wasn't able to summon anything after the phoenix, not even a moon-swallowing wolf.

Which didn't matter much because her Phoenix was very strong.

His words made her ears perk up. She tried her best not to stand out, but after learning of the prestige of the academy, she was quite tempted by the rewards.

The whole class erupted in cheers and excitement at his question.

"Finally, someone asked."

"I was waiting all week for this."

"I can't wait, the upperclassman said the reward would be grand."

Miss Kaed, however, just rolled her eyes. "Settle down, class." Her piercing blue eyes stared into his before quickly looking over the classroom. With a sigh, she spoke while rubbing her temples.

"Impatience is unbefitting of a noble." Her stern words made him freeze, the smile on his face stiffening, before it was replaced by a frown. A blush crept up from his cheeks to his face as he nervously gazed down while slouching in his chair. 

The reaction wasn't very princely, but Diana couldn't blame him. She looked at the teacher.

Miss Kaed has such an effect on people. Someone who didn't care about ranks or nobility, as she was a former princess from a bygone era. An Archmage, one who has transcended mortality and successfully lived past their lifetime.

"However, I am a woman of my word." Her monotone voice rang out.

Diana couldn't even imagine what the headmaster had done to employ an Archmage to teach summoning.

She flicked her wrist, and red incandescent words revealed themselves on the board.

「First Place: Access to the Academy's Vault Levels 5-10』

「Second Place: Access to the Academy Vault Levels 1-5』

「Third Place: A Fire Wyrms Heart』

The words written on the board caused Diana's eyes to widen. The rewards, from tenth to fourth, were enough for a kingdom to fight over, but her eyes couldn't help to be attracted to third place.

For a warrior, consuming a Wyrm's Heart could grant them draconic-like features, and for a mage construction of an artifact was possible. 

But for a summoner, a Wyrm's heart was an excellent material more valuable than either.

Third place was an excellent material that could be used to summon a powerful draconic beast or nurture her phoenix.

If that was just third place, she couldn't even imagine what was in the vaults of the Academy.

The class started to Murmur. Her classmate sitting on her right leaned in and started talking.

"I bet he would enjoy that snack." Princess Ria looked at her with sparkling eyes.

"Who?" Diana pretended not to know who she was talking about and turned to face the board.

She playfully punched her shoulder, causing Diana to recoil.

A surprisingly sharp impact thudded against her shoulder. Diana winced, rubbing the spot. Her punch didn't feel playful. Diana turned and glared at her.

Ignis, her Phoenix, threw daggers at the princess with her eyes.

The princess laughed while swatting the air as if she had heard the funniest joke in existence.

"Your handsome, Lizard, silly." Her eyes narrowed slightly before returning to normal, and her laughter ceased into a smile. "And everyone says you're such a dud, but you're so funny." Her smile, which seemed to brighten up the room, appeared more mocking than the teacher's fake smile.

"Quiet." Miss Kaed's voice pulled everybody into silence.

"Excited, aren't you?" She shook her head. "Well, it's time to shift your excitement into today's lesson." She snapped her fingers again, the words disappearing.

She waved her hands in mock excitement. 

New words appeared

[The History of Dragons]

The words that revealed themselves made her sit up in her seat. No matter how hard she tried to research dragons, all she found was folklore. Every step of the way was adorned with exaggerations and things that didn't make sense.

"Yes, Dragons." She adjusted her glasses; the corners of her lips curved into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Her eyes roamed the class before settling on Diana's. Then, jumping to the rest of the class.

'Crazy woman,' She inwardly muttered.

The class groaned.

Diana found that odd but chalked it up to the saturation of dragon folklore.

She looked around before looking at Ria, who looked uncharacteristically studious.

Diana shook her head and focused on the teacher.

"Silence." Miss Kaed sat down behind her desk, opening up her textbook.

"The Church of Dragons, and our founder so graciously provided these fragments of a story, it's only fair that we should go over it." Her tone was dripping with sarcasm, it seemed she also wasn't so excited about this topic.

"Isn't that so exciting?" Her fake smile was replaced by a thin line. "Dragons," She trailed the last syllable before rolling her eyes. The teacher then turned to face the board.

"Our Exciting tale begins with our creator god Rylai, who formed our world from nothing." She circled his name and then drew two lines, connecting them with two other bubbles.

She stood up and smoothed out her skirt.

"According to the church of Dragons, Rylai split himself into two forms, a yin and a yang. Evil and good, day and night." She hadn't written anything down yet. "Once in perfect synchronicity, his evil side wanted more, and in an act of envy, he struck him down, but Rylai was not to be trifled with; he also struck his evil side down."

She wrote down evil and good above the bubbles.

"From Rylai and his corpse, two beings were born," She started to write below the good. "Bahamut" and then switched to the Evil side. "Tiamat"

"From these two beings, all dragons came into existence." She stopped for dramatic effect, "Of course, this could all be marlarky." She turned to face us. "First of all, it doesn't make sense that the good side of a corpse turned into a dragon and don't even get me star-"

"Nonsense." The princess interrupted, her chair scratching the wooden floor as she stood up. Her lips trembled as her eyes narrowed at the teacher.

"Exactly, nonsense, because if we look into the creation Mythos of the God of light, it doesn't add up with what the church of dragons spews as truth." Her eyes turned strangely passionate. "Our world, Rylai, named after the father of Light, only has proof of a Heaven and Hell." She continued unabashed. "How can something that formed the Heavens and birthed the god of light also make a dragon?"

Ouch, I could feel the burning glare from Ria just sitting next to her.

Her mana started stirring around her, and in front of her, a visual started to play.

"If that is to be believed true, which it is, because we have proof of it, then that would mean Bahamut is the brother of Lux, the deity of light."

A miniature platinum dragon stood beside a being shrouded in light

"Good luck trying to say that without being burned at the stake."

"And a dragon being the god of good, how naive." Her expression changed.

It would be funny for her to find out that the small dragon that Diana first summoned was Bahamut. Her eyes scrunched up as she listened. 

"Everyone knows, the god of light is the god of justice and all that is holy. That's coming from a mage who's glimpsed into the world of gods." Her lips moved passionately as she started to ramble.

The miniature dragon dispersed, and the being shrouded in light raised a sword.

"Not to bring up the fact that no one has even seen Bahamut or Tiamat. Only dragon worshipers claim to have. Yet we have physical proof that the god of Light exists, and the record of Bahamut cannot be trusted. In essence, I firmly believe they are false deities."

"Watch your tongue." The princess growled, her hands breaking the desk she gripped.

The whole class looked at the teacher like she was crazy. In a world where gods truly did exist, denying their existence was a dangerous thing.

"Why? I have not been struck down, have I?" She rolled her eyes, and shook her head. Her face visibly calmed down.

"Sit down, I will excuse your outburst because I myself have behaved unruly." Her eyes were pointed as they looked at Ria.

Princess Ria glared back but begrudgingly sat down.

"Regardless, as our great founder Daria Brecht, the gold dragon." She emphasized the word dragon "Claim that history as true and it is part of the curriculum."

She rubbed her forehead. "All this talk about Lizards." She muttered under her breath.

I could hear the princess move in her seat uncomfortably.

"There are many types of Dragons, usually categorized into three different factions." She paused and looked at the class. "Can anyone tell me which three?" Seeing as no one volunteered, she introduced incentives.

"For an extra point in the mid-terms"

Diana's hand sprang up.

"Diana?" She nodded towards her.

"Teacher's pet." A snicker came from behind her, but she merely frowned and answered the question.

"Good, evil, and Nondragons." It was something she read in the limited-edition collector's book. It was the only sentence that talked about dragons. It was also in the textbook, which was surrounded by praise for dragons.

Knowing the founder's race, it finally made sense.

"Excellent, it seems like at least someone did read the textbook," She praised with empty eyes.

Someone raised their hand.

She clicked her tongue and called on him.

"How can a dragon be a non-dragon?"

"Good question, Julian." She turned back and continued to write.

"Dragons that have forsaken their identity to become something more, like demonic dragons, shadow dragons, undead dragons, and so on." Her voice sounded bored, but the information had Diana leaning in.

"Like spirit dragons?"

"No Spirit dragons, and regular dragons are both considered true dragons, just different beliefs and systems."

Diana wanted her to elaborate. The word' Spirit dragon' was unfamiliar. Her only brush with another dragon was the first Raid boss, Eun Yong. It was the first server-wide event, with thousands of players participating in its defeat.

But the system only classified it as a regular dragon. Was a spirit dragon an eastern dragon? Diana touched her chin as she listened closely.

"For such a rare species, they sure like to discriminate." Her eyes gave away her disdain.

"Now, why did I talk about dragons when we aren't able to summon them? Well, one, it's mandatory, and two, we are going to be summoning wyverns in the class after the exam."

"Yay." She cleared her throat.

The third-place prize became all the more important.

"Wyverns, much like Flood dragons (Jiaolong), Imugi, or wyrms, are lesser dragons. But unlike the others. There is no path to becoming a true dragon." She scratched the back of her neck.

"Which is why it's okay to summon them, as they are usually considered mindless beasts." Her eyes roamed over the class before landing on Diana's.

Causing the hair on the back of her nape to rise.

"After all, no one is foolish enough to attempt to summon a dragon, and even if they were, none have succeeded." Her eyes that lingered moved past hers and onto the board.

She tapped on the board, and it cleared as she sat down.