Despite avoiding spitting out her tea, Lily was visibly uncomfortable by what Arakil had just said. It had come out of nowhere, leaving her completely at a loss for how to react. Her discomfort must have been noticed by the others, as Professor Melina even turned to her.

"Is something the matter, dear?" she asked.

Lily carefully placed the cup down, despite her mind racing. "Um… may I use the bathroom?" she managed to blurt out.

"Of course, it's down the hall over there," Melina said, gesturing.

"Thank you, and sorry," Lily replied, nearly jumping up from her seat and rushing off.

When she got to the bathroom, she closed the door behind her before letting out a deep and frustrated sigh.

[Is something the matter?]

"I should be asking you that," Lily whispered back, in an almost hiss. "You declared your love for my professor right then and there!"

[Ah…]

"Ah!?" Lily nearly shouted, but managed to keep it to a whisper.

[I think you've misunderstood me.]

"I certainly hope so."

[I'm not in love with her romantically, more so an aesthetic love.]

"That doesn't make it any better," Lily hissed back. "You mean you think she's pretty? How's that any different?"

[Hm… It's been a while since you've struggled to understand my meaning in such a manner. Aesthetic love is an appreciation for beauty, art, and creativity.]

"So you do think she's beautiful."

[I find her use of magic beautiful and creative.]

Lily paused, the gears slowly turning in her head.

[Not to mention her creed or ethos regarding magic for everyday life. Magic should be like eating or breathing; how else can you ever expect to master it if you don't treat it as such?]

"So, you don't love her?" Lily asked slowly.

[In terms of romantic, familial, altruistic, community, platonic, or spiritual? No. It's aesthetic, or you could even stretch it to comradeship since we tread a similar path towards the arcane.]

Lily frowned, mostly in confusion. She had no idea there were so many different types of love and couldn't really wrap her head or heart around what Arakil was saying.

[Anyway. With that cleared up, I suggest you get back to the class. I don't think you want to miss her lessons, and I'm curious to hear if she has any different theories from my own.]

"Okay…"

[Also, use your Magesight on her when you get a chance. While you don't have the full extent of it yet, you should be able to witness the beauty I'm speaking of.]

Lily nodded and then slowly began returning to the class. The professor barely missed a beat at her return, merely giving a soft smile before resuming her previous conversation. From what Lily picked up, she was currently explaining or answering a question relating to taking care of plants.

Lily took the opportunity to use her Magesight like Arakil had suggested, and nearly gasped at what she saw. Everyone in the room had the soft glow of their personal Mana, ranging in size and brightness between each individual, depending on various circumstances.

Melina's Mana, however, was like a colossal sun and was easily one of the largest she'd ever seen to date. Lily's own little shining moon, which she was so proud of, was dwarfed in comparison.

But size wasn't everything, and this was where Lily thought she finally understood what Arakil was talking about. Despite having such a massive reservoir of Mana, countless tiny strings of Mana were being pulled from it and directed towards various spots in the house.

Lily subtly followed one of the strings of Mana by focusing her Magesight as hard as she could, and saw it trailing to a small dustpan and broom that was cleaning the floor.

How many active spells does she have ongoing? While talking and everything. I can't even imagine how she's doing that.

[I presume you've caught a glimpse of what I'm talking about. However, to further explain my reaction, you should know that being born with such vast amounts of Mana is a curse just as much as it is a blessing. Imagine being born with tremendous strength, but the world around you is made of glass, and to interact with it, you need to constantly restrain yourself.

The same can be said for Mana; those born with too much can struggle with precision and efficiency. They often give up on trying to better themselves and simply think they are best suited for destruction. Compare Melina to Rose, for example.]

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Lily finally understood where Arakil was coming from, and she, too, had to admit it was beautiful. She also realized that while her own Mana Core would eventually grow to that level, it had started small, and she was forced to focus on precision.

It would be like asking a lumberjack to suddenly do needlework. While I started with sewing and have been slowly growing my strength to one day cut down trees.

Thankfully, this little insight finished before Professor Melina finished her conversation. Lily caught the tail end of it, but since it involved taking care of plants, she was mostly uninterested. She already had enough on her plate to even begin cultivating a green thumb.

"Since we have the full class again, let me give a little backstory that might help you understand why I feel this class is so important and why anyone and everyone can benefit from it," Melina said, moments before she dropped an unexpected revelation. "Believe it or not, I'm actually a Dragia."

The class expressed visible surprise with shocked gasps going all around, Lily included. Even though Arakil had mentioned comparing Rose and Melina moments ago, she would never have thought he was being that literal.

"Yes, I know, it's shocking to believe," the professor giggled. "You might say I'm the runt of the litter, or I got the short end of the stick. I'm effectively human except for one large part."

Melina gestured at the left side of her chest, tapping it twice in succession.

"My heart," she said and gave a smile that almost looked painful. "I have no scales, horns, tail, or even the muscles one would expect—I only have a Dragia heart. Naturally, as one might expect, that is the most important part for a would-be mage, our Mana is in our blood, and thus the heart is the source of it all."

Some of the students nodded, clearly having heard some variant of this before.

"This may come as a surprise, but a human body with Dragia levels of Mana is on the verge of being entirely incompatible. Growing up, I would have frequent fits of Mana poisoning, only made worse by the fact that my attempts to expel Mana would lead to explosive results. Imagine trying to light a candle and instead you cause a conflagration. That was the majority of my life."

It almost sounds like Lotte…

"Of course, there are ways around such an issue. I could have used magic tools to funnel my Mana and avoid my poor control, but who wants to be bound to an object to live a normal life? Instead, I focused on limiting, controlling, and harnessing that raw power—like wrangling a wild boar until it can perform a ballroom dance. It became my life's goal, and eventually, with stubborn commitment, I succeeded."

She held out a finger, and a single small flame appeared on it. Compared to most magical displays, it looked pathetic; in fact, it was almost identical to the fake performance Lily would put on.

"I know, to many of you this must look like an absolute joke. But when I first managed to conjure a flame this small, I broke down in tears."

She retracted the finger, smothering the flame in her palm, before opening her hand again and having five identical ones reignite on each finger. Despite their diminutive size, this impressed the rest of the students; each of them knew how hard it was to maintain multiple active spells.

Lily was even more shocked because, unlike the rest of the students, she knew that there were so many more spells ongoing throughout the rest of the house. They were impressed by the opening act, while Lily had already caught a glimpse of the main attraction.

"I can already imagine that some of you are wondering how this applies to you. You don't have a Dragia heart, nor do I imagine any of you currently cannot control your magical abilities, or Headmaster Fabrelis would have brought you directly to me on your first day."

She paused for a moment, and when none of the students said otherwise, she continued.

"But everyone can benefit from improving their control, which in the simplest of terms will allow you to save Mana and potentially maintain multiple active spells at once. Other benefits are less tangibly noticeable, such as improving your quality of life, but I really hope you will all come to enjoy truly living a magical lifestyle."

Judging by the reactions Lily noticed from some of the students, they actually seemed to prefer the latter more so than the former. Almost everyone wanted an easier life, and Lily could guess that most of them had never needed to be frugal with Mana.

I started off being unable to even light a candle, but I wouldn't call myself a master of efficiency. As Arakil often says, there's always room for improvement.

Finally, Professor Melina opened the floor to any questions, which she encouraged by even stating "there are no silly questions".

Lily heard Arakil scoff, so clearly he finally disagreed with her approach. She almost wanted to tease him and ask if his crush was broken.

"I understand efficiency can help in a dungeon, but can't we just rest more?" a boy asked.

"Yes, of course, and you should be resting more regardless. Fatigue, both mental and physical, is potentially far more dangerous than running out of Mana," she replied. "And you can improve your rest by living a magical lifestyle. It might not sound like much, but try to imagine resting with a warm meal, clean clothes, and a pleasant atmosphere. All of which I'll hopefully be passing on to all of you."

"If this is so beneficial, why isn't it a mandatory subject? Why the limited slots?" a girl asked.

"The limited slots are due to my house having only so much space. I can only give so much of you my undivided attention without it diminishing the quality. As for why it's not mandatory, that's a bit of a controversial matter… Some students and even professors prefer to believe in natural talent, or find this nothing more than a hobby subject. Admittedly, I do understand the pushback of using magic to cook or clean, even though I disagree with it."

"Why?" the girl asked.

"Because magic is supposed to be more noble, a great responsibility," a boy answered. "Using it frivolously can be seen as petty, or even childish."

Melina nodded. "That about sums it up. Aristocrats in particular do not like seeing magic used for chores. Admittedly, some commoners share a similar opinion, but from the opposite side, as you are using magic to effectively remove a potential job."

"Do people really think that way?" the same girl asked again.

"My father would probably beat me if he knew," the boy replied honestly. "But I'll be the one in the dungeon, not him, and I can't bring servants down there."

"And like I mentioned earlier, I can understand the other side," Melina added. "I alone could replace a chef, half a dozen maids or gardeners, and probably a few other jobs. Of course, I'm a bit of an outlier in that regard, but imagine if every one of you could put even five people out of work. It definitely has the potential to be disastrous."

This took a weird turn. I really didn't expect this to suddenly become a lesson on society.

"Hence why it's not mandatory, and why there is some pushback. Now, shall we move on to some more pleasant subjects?" she asked.

Everyone seemed to nod in agreement. They sought to experience the wonders of magic and improve themselves, rather than dwelling on potential disparities between the magical and non-magical.

"Is doing chores with magic really going to help us in other fields?" a boy asked as the final question.

Melina chuckled. "I think some of you have no idea how inefficient almost everyone is with their Mana. Once you see how quickly you run dry after trying to clean a room, you'll quickly understand where I'm coming from."

She finally stood up and gestured toward a door that opened. "Speaking of which, shall we get started for our first lesson?"

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