The Academy's Strongest Undercover Professor

When I saw her cry, I knew I had to do something. So, I quickly got by her side and wrapped my hand around her small shoulders, trying to comfort her.

"It's okay…I'm here. You can tell me anything."

I rubbed my hand against her shoulder, which seemed to surprise her as she looked up in my direction for the very first time since I had asked that question.

Her eyes were brimming with tears and the color of her cheeks were of a bright red. Her bright blonde hair was flying in the slight breeze, completely revealing her face to me for the very first time since I had met her.

She looked amazing. Well, if we ignored the crying part.

"T-Thank you for everything…I don't know why you're doing this, but thank you," she said with quite a bit of difficulty.

"Ah, don't worry about it. It was the right thing to do."

She cutely nodded a few times as she took a deep breath, preparing herself to say the rest of her story.

"Do you know a little about how the elven politics work, Mister Stuard?"

I shook my head. "Caedrel, call me Caedrel, okay? But, no. I don't know much about it. Could you tell me so that I can understand your story better?"

"Okay…I'll tell you then." She nodded as her tears were slowly replaced by a soft smile. "As you must know, there is the Royal Family, which I'm a part of. As of now, my parents have 6 children, including me. I'm the second youngest of the family, and as I just said a few moments ago, I have never awakened any kind of power in my entire life.

Mother Nature, the Goddess of Nature, had never once come to me."

As she started talking about her story, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to talk about Isolde being in my class. After all, she had just said that she didn't like her family, which meant that she most likely didn't like her siblings all that much.

"Because of that, I was deemed useless almost immediately, especially since my youngest brother managed to contact her at the age of five, which is unheard of."

Her breathing was getting rougher as she continued to share her story, and I felt instantly, which is why I slowly rubbed her back, letting her know that I was still there.

"When they discovered his talent, I was thrown away as if I was nothing better than trash. That's why I don't want to see my family again, they never loved me, and I never loved them either. I know this might be weird to say, but somewhere deep inside me, I was glad to have been captured and put up for auction."

It was sad, and to be quite frank, I had no idea what to say, especially with what she had just added at the end. It was the last thing I had expected to come out of her mouth.

"What about you, Mister Caedrel? What happened to your family?"

'My family?' I thought.

It had been so long since I had thought of them, my real family, I mean. It had been so many years since I had last saw them, that I had no idea what they had become and the family I got when I was transmigrated in this world, wasn't any better…after all, they all died after one year. Ever since then, I had been left to myself, I had to feed myself, I had to learn how to survive by myself.

And mind you…I was fourteen years old at the time. Imagine losing everyone you know and love at that age.

It sounds hard, right?

Well, it is. If it wasn't for him, then I probably wouldn't have managed to survive and become as powerful as I am right now. He is the reason why I can say that I'm proud of myself right now.

"Mister Caedrel? Are you still there?"

I shook my head, coming out of my thoughts. "I thought I already told you to stop calling me mister. Just call me Caedrel, no Mister, no Stuart, Caedrel. Okay?"

She nodded. "But what about my question, aren't you going to answer it? If you don't then I won't answer yours either."

"Right. Sorry, it's just nothing very important," I said, lying straight to her face. "My parents died when I was young. I barely knew them."

"How did they die?" She asked with a frown, clearly not satisfied with how I answered that question.

I sighed. "The war. They died in the war against the demons."

"Oh…I-I see. I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

I shook my head and lied again as I clenched my teeth, making sure that no emotions of mine would appear on my face. I had to stay strong; I couldn't show her my emotional side when I had just met her. "It's been a long time. It doesn't affect me anymore. Haha! I barely even remember it."

"I guess it's my turn to ask my question!" I said, changing the subject right away. "Do you know of a certain Isolde?"

Ariella momentarily stopped walking as soon as she heard that name.

"How do you know that name?" She said as she stopped walking, simply glaring at me, dead in the eyes.

I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly. "Well, she's part of my class…is there something bad about her?"

I couldn't tell if she was on bad terms with Isolde or not. However, it was better for her to know about it then be surprised tomorrow when we headed for the tournament venue.

"Isolde…well, her story might be considered even worse than mine. She's an even greater genius than my younger brother. The most talented elf in a few decades. However, that title made everything about her life take a turn for the worse. If there's one person in the family with whom I can empathize, it's her. She's gone through worse than me by a long mile…"