The Teacher of Budding Villains Suffers Today, Too - Chapter 42

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 42
“That sounds wonderful!”
The response was exactly as expected. The children cheered with delight, their voices rising together.
Rachel stretched her hand toward the children, and Theo and Noah, the closest to her, quickly grasped it.
“This is the best day since we came to school.”
“Me too.”
The children’s reaction was explosive. Rachel smiled brightly and swung their joined hands back and forth.
Somehow they ended up walking with the children like a procession. The mood was so pleasant that a smile never left Rachel’s face.
During lunch and dinner, the atmosphere with the children was wonderful. She found herself thinking it might be time to send them home soon.
‘Sending the children home is our school’s ultimate goal, after all.’
Once this group of children returned home, others would come to the school. The building would stay the same, but everything inside would be completely renewed.
Meetings and partings intertwine, and such moments are not always joyful. Yet watching children grow to this extent is always a profound happiness.
‘I think I need Colo and Henry’s opinions regarding the children. Should I suggest we have a meeting tonight?’
About once a week, the teachers gathered for meetings after the children fell asleep. Back when she was an elementary school teacher, staff meetings had been so tedious and dull, but here they were nothing but pleasant. It was the process of documenting the children’s growth together, after all.
“Henry, Colo.”
After sending the children to their rooms, Rachel called the two over. They looked at her as if they’d been waiting.
“Should we have a meeting tonight?”
“Of course.”
“Yes, would midnight work as usual?”
They too knew by now that this was the right time for a meeting, so they nodded without hesitation.
“The outdoor activities today must have tired the children out.”
“You’re right. Usually they hold on until midnight, but today they said they were going to bed early.”
The children had mentioned their exhaustion and headed off to their rooms. They were usually quite resilient, but clearly running around in the field had worn them out significantly.
After confirming the children were asleep, the three of them gathered in Rachel’s office. Meeting again after some time, there was much to discuss.
Rachel, as principal and the children’s homeroom teacher, listened carefully to every opinion.
“So to summarize, you’re saying the children are approaching Graduation?”
“That’s right. They’ve more than demonstrated sufficient readiness.”
“I only just thought of them as so young. It’s difficult to hide my joy hearing such words.”
Colo seemed moved by emotion. Henry wore a quiet smile as well.
“Then let’s observe them for two more weeks, and after that we’ll make a decision on their Graduation.”
Rachel set the timeline. Colo and Henry stood and expressed their agreement.
“Miss, please rest well. I’ll check on the children once more before I leave.”
Henry spoke warmly to Rachel. She nodded in response.
Henry and Colo walked out into the hallway. Rachel stretched and began organizing the meeting materials in good spirits.
That was when it happened.
“Theo! Noah! Eckard!”
Henry’s shout echoed loudly.
Rachel, who had been gathering papers, rushed out immediately.
“Henry, what’s wrong?!”
“The children are gone! Theo, Noah, and Eckard—all three of them!”
The children gone? Where on earth could they have gone in the middle of the night?
Rachel’s body went rigid. Missing children—not something else, but missing children. The worst possible incident that could occur at the school had just happened.
“What… what are you saying!”
“It seems they slipped outside while we were in our meeting. We must find them immediately!”
Rachel bit her lip harshly. It was already midnight. The night was late, and the children had vanished.
Could there be a more critical situation than this? If only this were all a dream.
Yet everything was vivid reality, and Rachel quickly regained her composure.
“They couldn’t have gone far! We need to find them quickly! Colo, you stay here and watch the other children. Henry and I will search outside!”
Rachel issued orders with decisive clarity. Henry was already dashing toward the stable to mount a horse, and Colo was calming the children who had woken from the commotion.
Rachel herself ran toward the front gate of the estate.
‘Please, let them be unharmed. I’m begging you.’
Rachel prayed with more desperation than she’d ever felt. Everything else could be forgiven. All she wanted was for them to be safe.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
She was rushing down the stairs when she suddenly turned her head.
‘Why…?’
The classroom door, which should have been closed, was standing open. Rachel quickly changed direction and entered the room.
In the silent classroom, several items lay scattered about.
‘…The Cloud Creation Experiment materials are gone.’
Everything else was in its place, but the Cloud Creation Experiment materials were nowhere to be found.
‘Surely not….’
Could it be that the three of them were conducting a Cloud Creation Experiment out in the Field right now?
The thought seized her instantly. Rachel broke into a run, racing toward the Field. She had to get there. As fast as possible.
* * *
“Hey, you can really make a big cloud? You’re not just making that up?”
“Making it up? Just trust me. I know how to do Mana Manipulation. A little of it, anyway.”
Theo grinned widely, trying to persuade Eckard, who frowned as though deeply unconvinced.
Noah was wearing the same skeptical expression.
“Do we really have to do this?”
“Yeah. It’s going to be incredibly fun, I’m sure of it. Why wouldn’t we?”
“Everyone’s probably looking for us by now. We’ve caused an uproar.”
“That’s exactly why we need to hurry and get back.”
Logic held no sway over Theo at this moment. He had only one thing on his mind: combining his own Mana Manipulation with the Cloud Creation Experiment.
“I brought back a Magic Stone when we went to the Imperial Palace last time. With this, even my small amount of Mana should amplify plenty.”
Theo pulled a blue Magic Stone from his pocket.
“Don’t you think it would be amazing to ride on the cloud?”
“I suppose it would, but…”
“Then just do as I say.”
Theo pushed his point with firm conviction. Noah would normally have protested to his older brother, but the desire to ride a cloud overwhelmed his objections.
Even as Noah pouted, he set down the Ice and the other experimental tools on the ground.
“Shall we start?”
“Okay…”
“Go ahead.”
Theo was the one who studied the experimental process most carefully. Performing a simple experiment was hardly difficult.
“Oh! A small cloud formed!”
The moment a thin vapor took shape, Theo, grinning brightly, immediately placed the Magic Stone above a glass cup.
“Alright, now I’m going to channel my Mana. Since the Magic Stone is top-tier, you can expect remarkable results.”
Theo closed his eyes gently, his expression turning blissful. And at the end of that smile came Mana Manipulation.
How much time had passed?
“Oh… oh…!”
“Wow…”
Eckard and Noah stood with their mouths agape, their astonishment unmistakable. And for good reason. What stood before their eyes was nothing less than a cloud—an actual cloud.
“Did you really make a cloud?”
“What, did you think I was going to make a fake one?”
Theo shrugged his shoulders proudly and gazed up at the sky again. No matter how many times they compared it to the real thing, what appeared before them was unmistakably a genuine cloud. And a massive one at that.
“See? I told you I could do it.”
Theo smiled with satisfaction.
“Can I ride it?”
Noah asked Theo, who immediately nodded in response.
“Go on, climb up.”
“Me too!”
Eckard and Noah bolted toward the cloud. But the cloud did not wait for them. It had been hovering at eye level for only a moment before it began ascending into the sky.
Its color shifting to a dark storm cloud.
“What is that…?”
As the cloud rose higher and higher, the sky began to darken. The clouds around it too transformed into storm clouds.
Pitter-patter.
And then, as if by some cruel jest, rain began to fall. A torrential downpour, in fact.
As though determined to wash away a single human being.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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