Demon's Virtue
chapter-378

"Welcome to 'Introduction to Utility Magic'. I'm going to be your teacher for this semester. Go ahead and just call me Eiro." The Demon explained in a loud tone, his voice reaching all the students that are sitting in his class. They were roughly fifty people.

"Now, can someone tell me what they understand under the term 'Utility Magic'?" He asked. For a few seconds, the students thought about it, until a young man raised his hand.

"Erm... Magic that is actually used in day-to-day life?" The boy asked. Eiro quickly nodded his head in response, "Yes, exactly. Utility Magic is any kind of magic that has actual, non-combat oriented uses. Think about any random spell, right now. It's very likely that the spell you thought about was a combat-spell. Compared to many utility spells, they're more flashy, they're easier for onlookers to remember."

Eiro snapped his finger and pulled flames from one of the nearby candles, creating the spell 'Flame Spear' for reference. He got rid of the flame spear again, "I think you get it. Now, let me show you an example of a more utilitarian spell.

Eiro snapped his finger, and the candle that he took flames from before was snuffed out, "In comparison, it's quite anti-climactic, right? But for most people, it's a lot more useful than a giant, burning spear. In this class, you will not learn specific examples of spells, but you will rather learn how to use basic magic for different practical means. Can someone give me examples for how basic air magic can be used? Just from the top of your heads."

Multiple students raised their hands. They gave different simple examples, ranging from how air magic can be used to clean, to it being used to put out or start flames. The rest of the class went smoothly. The students were incredibly interested, and Eiro explained the basics of the process of choosing what to do with certain spells.

He started explaining the most common uses for certain spells, and that there is a thin line between the different 'types' of magic. Utility magic can be used for combat, and combat magic can be used for certain utilitarian means. For the most part, Eiro just covered basic introductions of what he would teach in this class.

And once it ended, Eiro waited for the students to leave and then also headed out of the room. For his first ever class that he taught by himself, that went pretty well. Next, he had a practical class in the combat division.

As he walked from building to building, he noticed some children standing around together in a group. They were huddled around something rather obviously, so Eiro couldn't help himself but pay attention to them.

And when he noticed what they were doing, Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose and walked over to them. The students saw him approach and quickly threw away what they had been holding.

"What are you doing?" Eiro asked in a cold tone. One of the students, a first-semester, had bloodshot eyes and was clearly shaking with his whole body, as if he was freezing. Sure, it was cold out and there was snow on the ground, but his body-temperature seemed actually pretty high.

Behind the group of students, Eiro could spot the combat-division's two student representatives, Richard and Avelina Melachine. They were sitting on a rock right next to each other, and stood up once they spotted Eiro.

"Oh, we're just talking a bit, you know? It gets a bit loud inside of the buildings inbetween classes. I hope you don't mind." Richard pointed out with a smug smile, and Eiro rolled his eyes. He looked at the young student with bloodshot eyes and pressed his index finger onto the boy's forehead.

The next moment, the boy fell to his knees and threw up. The vomit melted the snow, and inside of the vomit, Eiro could see some things that were less than edible. It probably wouldn't have killed the boy, but they surely would have made him sick. They were things like half-smoked tabacco, paper notes they surely wanted to hide, and even some rocks. In the middle of it, Eiro could even spot an earring that the boy was most likely wearing just a few minutes earlier.

"Did any of you make him eat all this stuff?" Eiro asked, still in an emotionless tone as he melted some of the snow and had Nelli quickly purify it from any rough dirt. He swiftly knelt down and placed his palm onto the boy's stomach and used healing magic to make him feel a bit better.

"Of course not! How would we know why he ate all that stuff? We're just here to give him a few tips, as his seniors!" Richard laughed as if Eiro's suggestion was ridiculous. The Demon slowly stood up as he helped the boy stand up as well.

Of course, Eiro knew that Richard was blatantly lying about this.

"Richard, you're quite the brat. If I had the power to make those decisions myself, I would have you and your sister thrown off this school immediately for this behavior. It's obvious that it isn't the first time you're mistreating other students in this form. But I'm going to give you another chance. If you stop being such an absolute miscreant, I will not report you to the principal for this." Eiro explained bluntly as he kept making sure that the boy next to him was alright.

Richard let out a deep sigh as he took a step closer toward Eiro, "Do you really think that scares me? I thought you realized who we were already. I guess lesser commoners like you really are as uneducated as I thought. Listen here, instead of doing what you suggested just now, we'll do something else. You will turn around, leave our new friend in our care, and never bother us ever again. That is, if you want your children to have fulfilling school-lives."

Eiro knew that he was being threatened. It was clear that something was wrong with Richard on a deep level. His heartrate didn't change even slightly for that whole thing. His sister, Avelina, was getting a bit scared being faced by Eiro. He was exerting a bit of pressure onto them, after all. Richard, however, wasn't scared in the slightest. His mind was calm, and he stood there perfectly collected in front of Eiro.

"Mhm, right." Eiro rolled his eyes, proceeding to melt more of the snow. He made it wrap around the limbs of the group of students that had been bullying this boy next to Eiro, and quickly made them follow him.

"You have a practical combat class now anyway, right? Coincidentally, that class is one of the few where the arena is shared amongst all students. While I am teaching the first-semester students, since you will be there anyway, I'm pretty sure that it's fine if I punish you children for now." The Demon said, not caring for anything that Richard was trying to tell him as he struggled to get out of the control of this ice.

It seemed like he was trying to use basic Fire Magic to melt the ice, but Eiro's ice magic was capable of withstanding that bare increase in temperature.

And just like that, Eiro led this group of students to the arena, where the other students had already gathered. There was also another teacher that was awaiting Eiro, but didn't expect him to bring these students with him like that.

Kristoph approached Eiro immediately, staring at him with a deep frown, "Eiro, what are you doing?"

"Oh, they were bullying this first-semester student, and Richard then proceeded to threaten me by insinuating he would bully my children as well, so I'm going to exert some disciplinary action upon them right now. If you don't mind, that is." Eiro said bluntly, and Kristoph blinked in surprise, "Ehh... No, I guess that's fine? You're not going to hurt them, right?"

"What, of course not! I'll just make sure their whole bodies are sore tomorrow." The Demon pointed out as he snapped his fingers, "And that's going to start with you guys running fifty laps around the arena."

"What? Fifty laps, are you insa-" One of the students asked, but Eiro just turned his head and glared at him, "Did I stutter?"

Defeated and unable to do much against this now, all of the students started to jog around the arena, "I did not expect such a lenient punishment..."

"Kristoph, that's just the start. For now, I'll just make sure they're physically exhausted and in immense, horrifying muscle-pains. And I'll be talking to all of their parents, of course." Eiro pointed out, and Kristoph stared at him as if he was insane, "Some of their parents live across the country. How do you expect on doing that?"

"I have my ways of getting from point A to B quickly, you see?" He replied with a smirk, and then sent off the bullied students to meet up with the other students in his semester, "But I must say, I'm surprised. I didn't think you'd speak to me this openly right now."

"Well, I was thinking about how I could kill you, but then I was visited by 'C'. Well, I guess she's 'D' now... Either way, she assured me that you were trustworthy, and since I know she's probably the kindest person in the organization, I let your chaotic actions pass for now."

Eiro couldn't help but smirk when hearing Kristoph talk about Ariella, but before he could say anything, Kristoph spoke, "Well, today we will be doing a lot of free practice anyway, since we have to wait for the theory classes to finish first, so it's fine that you're making them work out like that. But for other classes, they'll still have to pay attention."

"Oh, of course. If you need them to take a break for anything, that's fine. I'll just have them continue afterward. Just don't be too lenient on them, or otherwise it's going to defeat the purpose." Eiro pointed out, and Kristoph shrugged, "Fair enough. Alright, then go ahead and start your class with the first-years. You remember all the content, right?"

"Of course, I have absolutely perfect memory. Shockingly so, actually." The Demon pointed out, and the man next to him groaned loudly, "Of course you do."

And so, just like that, Eiro made his way over toward the first-year students and started the lesson. Basically, for now they were just supposed to practice basic moves using the wooden weapons that were handed out to them earlier. And although Eiro said he knew what to teach them, he wanted to change everything up a little bit.