Cedo half closed his eyes. "That's up to you. If you think my classes are a waste of time, you don't have to come."
The student chuckled, but immediately became wary. And Cedo added in an even voice, "But there is one thing I can guarantee."
He concentrated the energy in his palms.
"Spiritual arts are capable of destroying the regenerative ability of the distorted ones, but they don't work the same way on human bodies. Only a wound remains, because this power was created for destruction. And that is precisely why it cannot be used as a toy. Please remember that."
One of the students snorted. "Seriously, power is just power, old man. What can a lesser being say about it anyway? He tells us not to use our power, so he's just a weakling. No match for us."
Cedo slowly turned his gaze to him, then sighed, loudly and distinctly. "If you think I'm weak, you can test it yourselves."
The student sat up, narrowing his eyes. "What?"
Cedo replied that he would allow him to use the strongest attack he could against him. Let him hit with full force. "If you can even scratch me, I'll leave here and never appear again."
An excited whisper swept through the hall. Gita covered his head with his hands in horror. "Enough. Have you lost your minds? It'll hit me too."
But the student was no longer listening. He raised his hand, concentrating a whirlwind of energy, and shouted, "You'll regret opening your mouth, you inferior creature. And don't even think about taking it back."
A powerful flash rushed forward. For a moment everything was shrouded in smoke.
When the smoke dissipated, it turned out that right behind the student, mere centimetres from his head, a thin dagger had pierced the wall, as if materialized out of the energy itself. The student froze, feeling the cold metal against his temple.
"If I had wanted to, you would already be dead," Cedo said calmly. "Judging people by their appearance alone is like signing your own death warrant. In this world no one lives to old age that way."
Leon, stunned, wondered: what was that? What spiritual art did he use?
Cedo slowly descended from the podium and stood in front of the students. "You call someone inferior because you consider them weaker, right? And if someone is stronger than you, what should you call them then?" He added, "Teacher."
Then he asked whether they knew the conditions for activating spiritual arts. He turned to the student who had attacked him and asked him to try to answer the question.
The boy stood up, frightened, and said that it must be the imagination, right? A person summons sacred power, sends an image from their head to the spirits, and the spirits manifest it. That was the very foundation, wasn't it?
Cedo replied that imagination was certainly important, but that was not how spiritual powers were activated. Spiritual power turns into art when you attune yourself to it.
"What?" the boy asked again.
All of them were stunned now, and listening attentively. Cedo explained that there were eight basic frequencies. The first was fire, the second lightning, the third healing, and then ice. They should be familiar with those four. Besides them there were gravity control, light control, atmospheric tension, and the one he had demonstrated earlier — spatial protection.
And on that foundation he went on explaining the material, until the old teacher was stunned and wondered to himself: does he really mean to say he can use all of the spiritual arts?
Cedo explained that he had transformed lightning into a spear and thrown it. That was where imagination came into play. And now, he said, they were beginning the real lesson.
He folded his hands in front of him, confident that all the students were enjoying his lessons.
After the lesson ended he went outside and thought that in any case he needed to continue his investigation in this huge academy. Students were wandering everywhere and nothing seemed particularly suspicious. He should look where the students did not go.
He noticed Lismeria, who happened to be nearby, and exchanged glances with her. She glanced at him too, and when he passed she asked who he even was.
He replied that he thought he was just a lowly being to her.
Lismeria admitted that he was unusual. A lowly being would not be able to use all the arts at once.
As he had said in class, anyone could do it if they learned to tune into the frequencies.
She was surprised that he said it as if it were easy. If they could all do that, he would not be causing so many questions. After all, every student in the academy was seriously discussing him now.
She turned abruptly and asked him to come with her to a more secluded place. When they had walked a little further, Lismeria asked whether he would answer her question.
Cedo replied that he was simply an ancient man who had slept in Kodama village for a hundred million years.
She replied that he was a joker. So would he answer her properly — what did he do a hundred million years ago?
Cedo replied that it was many things, but that he had been an agent.
Lismeria wondered what that meant.
He replied that he was someone who worked himself to exhaustion for his country. He had defeated so many scumbags that he could not even count them, and even though it was a hundred million years ago, for him it felt like yesterday. He remembered all the battles, and he felt a real nostalgia in his soul.
Lismeria asked how such a man could sleep for a hundred million years.
He replied that he had failed. That he had believed in himself too much and thought he could handle everything alone. And because of that he could do nothing at all, and lost absolutely everything. He had taken this job because he thought he might need help in the future.
Lismeria wondered how much of this was actually true.
"By the way," Cedo asked, "where are we going?"
Lismeria decided that she at least needed to show him something.
When they entered the abandoned hut, she showed him a particular room and said this was where they were supposed to come.
Cedo looked around in surprise and asked, "What is this?"
She replied that it was a room for the supplies teachers used in classes. A utility room, Cedo realized — and then suddenly he saw a wooden owl standing on a shelf. He examined it carefully, then turned to Lismeria and asked why they had come here, of all places.
She said that she had been investigating too, and there was a strange empty space next to this room. She showed it to him on the map and said it was big enough to fit another room in. Wasn't that suspicious? Didn't he think so? If there was something hidden there, then—
But before she could finish, Cedo suddenly turned the owl. It clicked, and he said that he understood everything. He opened the doors to a tunnel, which surprised Lismeria, and said that it seemed she had been right.
There was a staircase inside the room, and Lismeria asked how he had known.
He replied that in such a dusty place only one thing was strangely clean, and that was the owl. The rest was just a guess from experience.
He decided to check something down there and told her to wait here.
Lismeria cried out in fear. She would go too.
Cedo replied that there was a possibility of a distorted one being down there, and that was dangerous.
Lismeria told him not to dare underestimate her. She had the best grades in the entire academy. She was no weaker than her brother.
"All right," Cedo answered. Then he trusted her. He smiled, and they both went inside.