CHAPTER 6
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Me,
@AliceMoonvale ,
@sleepandeatallday ,
@Pennywise , and the rest of the class walked together out of the school backyard, with my friends chatting lazily among themselves like this was just another routine activity. Everyone looked relaxed, completely casual about where we were going.
Except me.
I was excited. Not just a little excited, but really excited.
Behind the SHF school building lay a magical forest, a place where magical beasts were supposed to roam freely, thriving from the overwhelming amount of mana surrounding the academy. I couldn’t help but think about the forest from Harry Potter, and the more I thought about it, the faster my heart started beating.
I wanted to see magical beasts up close, maybe even something rare. Fairies, unicorns, griffins. Anything!
“Baaaaaa.”
But what I saw… were sheep.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
And chickens.
And more farm animals scattered across a fenced field that looked completely out of place in the middle of what was supposed to be a magical forest.
I just stood there for a moment, staring at the scene in front of me as my expectations quietly died, replaced by what basically a very normal barnyard sitting in a very magical location.
While I was still trying to recover from that disappointment, a familiar voice called out from behind me.
“Hey, Bimbanana.”
When I turned around, I saw
@eagle_360 standing with her class.
“I didn’t expect your class would be the one doing fight training with us,”
@eagle_360 said casually, though what caught me off guard wasn’t the sentence, but the fact that the voice was now fully feminine.
I hesitated for a moment before replying, “Yeah… me too. Eagle… what happened to your voice?”
“Oh? This?” She gestured lightly to herself, completely unfazed. “After trying both genders a few times, I decided I like this one better.”
She smiled like that was normal. “See you in the fight.”
And just like that, she walked past me. I watched her go for a second, briefly considering whether I should ask what her original gender was, before deciding that I should valued whatever her decision.
Looking past her, I noticed
@Eldoria ,
@Assurbanipal_II , and
@CinnaSloth are also among her class, standing nearby.
“Professor
@JayMark , we’re here!”
@Eldoria called toward the barn area.
I had heard about Professor
@JayMark before. The academy gamekeeper, keeper of keys and grounds, and the care of magical creatures professor. With titles like that, I had already formed a very specific image in my head.
Someone big. Someone rugged. Someone like Hagrid.
“I’m coming! Mooo!”
That expectation gone instantly when I saw him.
What walked out of the cow pen was not a large bearded man, but a large bull. An actual bull. A bull that moving on all four legs like a completely normal animal, except for the fact that he was wearing sneakers on each foot and grinning as he walks.
I couldn’t help but glance back at the pen he came from, only to realize it was filled entirely with female cows, several of whom looked unusually exhausted, which immediately raised questions I decided not to pursue for the sake of my own sanity.
“Hey assistant-proffessor
@Conqueror_Quack !”
@JayMark shouted toward the duck coop. “The kids are here, moo!”
From the other side of the barnyard, loud quacking erupted, sharp and chaotic enough to draw everyone’s attention.
A moment later,
@Conqueror_Quack stormed out of the coop, clearly in the middle of an argument, with a female duck following behind him, crying.
“Quack! Quack quack!” he snapped, turning toward her.
“Qua~ck… quaa~ck…” she replied with a cry, her voice trembling.
“QUACK!”
@Conqueror_Quack snapped rudely to her.
She flinched, clutching several eggs tightly.
“Quaack… quaaaack…” she pleaded, showing the eggs.
“Quack quack,” he said dismissively, shoving his hand forward and rejecting them.
Then he turned away, but paused just for a second. Slowly, he looked back at her with cold eyes.
“Quack… quack quack.”
That last line hit her hard. She dropped to her knees, clutching the eggs as she cried helplessly.
“Quaaaack… quack…” Her tears flowing hard, dripping on the eggs.
But
@Conqueror_Quack ignored her completely and walked toward us.
“Mooo… you really need to start taking responsibility, duck,”
@JayMark sighed.
“Shut the quack up and mind your own business, cow,”
@Conqueror_Quack scoffed immediately.
They both then stopped in front of us.
“Well then, kids,”
@JayMark said with a grin, “ready for today’s fight sparring?”