Chapter 568

Freide, whose secret hobby had been exposed to the world, covered her flushed face with one hand and let out a deep sigh.

A woman who had once commanded the Northern Army, even if temporarily, wouldn’t be embarrassed by the gaze of just four hundred people. No, it was because her hobby of taxidermying beastmen had been discovered that she reacted this way.

Those who seek to taxidermy others must be prepared to be taxidermied themselves. It was nothing short of poetic justice.

Not long after, Freide removed her hand from her face, still red as a tomato, and stood up from her seat, walking toward the podium.

Her expression clearly showed she didn’t want to do this, but given Freide’s pride in her Pailoon lineage, she couldn’t just stay silent or run away now that her name had been publicly called. She was cornered.

I smiled broadly and lightly clapped, waiting for Freide to approach me. The students followed suit, filling the auditorium with applause.

The sound of clapping filled the hall, welcoming the birth of Assistant Instructor Freide.

Soon, Freide arrived by my side. Her face was so red it looked like it might explode if poked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Didn’t I say I’d make you do something? Well, now you know.”

“…This humiliation. I swear on the name of Pailoon, I’ll make you pay for this someday. Just you wait.”

Freide gritted her teeth and whispered back at me. Of course, I wasn’t scared at all. Her red face just made it all the more hilarious.

“You should’ve done your assignments diligently. Assignments are the duty of a student, and if you refuse that duty, you have no choice but to become the one teaching, right?”

“Funny. It’s not like I’m doing this because of the assignments.”

Well, that was true.

Why did you provoke me with the chalkboard then? You knew this would happen.

—

Freide trembled with humiliation, but now that she was out in the open, she had no other choice.

Other than to share her knowledge with the students as the assistant instructor for the special lecture on beastmen, as I had introduced her.

“Ahem, ahem. It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’m Freide of the Pailoon Ducal House, and I’ll be serving as the temporary assistant instructor for this lecture. Please take care of me.”

Freide cleared her throat and introduced herself, forcing a calm expression as she began the lecture. Unlike my lectures, which focused on unconventional tactics, hers was more about standard methods.

The differences in appearance between purebloods and hybrids, the characteristics that vary depending on the base animal species, and the basic strategies of Northern knights—she was surprisingly good at explaining.

Prepare silver or work with priests from the Menes Church Order.

Beastmen’s regenerative abilities consume stamina, so the more they bleed, the slower they become.

Instead of simply slashing or stabbing, it’s more effective to set them on fire or tear them apart with saw blades.

Due to the gap in physical abilities, close combat is disadvantageous, so try to keep your distance and subdue them.

If you must engage in close combat, avoid defense entirely. Focus solely on evasion.

If you pull out half their organs, they won’t be able to regenerate properly unless they remove the parts sticking out of their abdomen, so there will definitely be an opening. And so on.

Except for one thing, it was all so textbook that while it might help the freshmen, it was probably a bit boring for the second-years and above.

—

“That’s all. Any questions?”

The students had no questions. They were too busy scribbling down what Freide had said, their quills scratching away.

I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for questions like, “Why do you taxidermy beastmen?” or “Is it true your room is filled with beastmen organs?”

But from the students’ perspective, the Pailoon Ducal House was far more intimidating than me, so unlike when I lectured, no one dared to ask such blunt questions.

Anyway, after Freide finished her textbook-perfect lecture, I added some practical advice for the remaining time.

“Due to their beastly ferocity, mental or restraint magic has little effect, and attack magic can be endured through regeneration, but lightning magic works relatively well.”

While fire magic might deal more damage, lightning magic is particularly effective against beastmen who rely on close combat.

The lightning that penetrates their bodies burns and tears through their nerves and muscles, paralyzing them.

“If you can land a hit, it’ll create a clear opening. The moment it takes for their nerves to regenerate is brief, but for beastmen below the level of a Paladin, it’ll be enough to land a decisive blow.”

Paralyze them with lightning, then finish them with a silver sword. For those above Paladin level, their regeneration is too strong for this to matter, but for those below, this is a viable strategy.

“And if you ever fight in the North, make sure to get yourself some beastman hide. Their hides make excellent armor and insulation. Whether you use it as armor or a cloak, you’ll be satisfied with its performance.”

You can even use it to provoke and unsettle your enemies.

Though provoking them is pointless if you don’t have the skill to exploit the openings of an enraged foe.

—

And so, the second day’s lecture came to an end.

I made sure to erase all the drawings on the chalkboard, then took the eighty assignments the students had submitted and left the auditorium, heading toward the Heaven’s Sword Order Mansion, which had started to be called the Sky Mansion.

The only ones left in the mansion were Ferne, Hersh, Ophelia, and Claire. Damien and Milia had gone out on my orders to hunt monsters, and Ja-han was with them.

Unlike me, Ja-han was a pure Ka`har, and since he hadn’t achieved as much for the Empire as I had, he needed to work hard from now on to be accepted by the Empire.

Hunting monsters is no different from saving people, so if he keeps at it, he’ll eventually earn the same goodwill I have.

…Though, given how much he looks like a bandit, it might take a while.

Anyway, when I entered the reception room, Ferne, sprawled on the sofa, lifted a bottle of alcohol and greeted me.

“Welcome baaack… So the lecture’s over, huh? Wanna drink?”

“I quit drinking.”

I ignored Ferne’s offer and placed the stack of assignments I’d collected from the students on the table in front of the sofa she was lying on.

“What’s thaaat?”

Ferne tilted her head, pointing at the pile of papers on the table.

“Eighty ways to kill fairies, devised by four hundred academy students. And now, it’s your job to grade them.”

“Whaaaat…?”

Ferne’s eyes widened in shock, but I had no intention of taking back my words. I’d planned to leave the grading to her from the start. I’m not a fairy, after all, and I can’t possibly know which of the eighty methods are effective and which are pointless.

When it comes to fairies, Ferne, who’s been one for hundreds of years, would know far more than I do.

“What do you mean, ‘Whaaaat’? This is your job. You eat my food, drink my alcohol, and sleep soundly here. If you have any conscience, you should do this much, right?”

I snatched the bottle from Ferne’s hand and set it aside, then tapped the stack of papers.

“Sober up and start grading. Don’t even think about drinking until you’re done. If I catch you sneaking a drink, I’ll get rid of every drop of alcohol in this house.”

“That’s not faaaair…”

Ferne lamented in a tone as tragic as a fallen independence fighter. Well, actually, she’s more of a traitor than a fighter.

Anyway, I dumped the grading on Ferne, chatted with Hersh and Ophelia about daily matters, and then headed back to the professor’s residence where Rana was waiting.

“Finally, you’re back!”

As soon as I opened the door, Freide pounced on me…

“What are you doing?”

Unfortunately for her, the gap between a master and a hero isn’t something that can be closed with a mere ambush. In the end, Freide was left tied up with the rope she had brought, trembling on my sofa.

The rope, made from beastmen tendons mixed with wire, was unbreakable once tied.

“Hey! Untie me! Untie me!”

“Would you untie me if it were you? What were you even planning to do with that rope?”

Freide shut her mouth. She must’ve realized that anything she said would just be turned back on her.

—

The third lecture was about dragonkin and monsters. We skimmed over dragonkin and focused mostly on monsters.

After all, there’s no real strategy against dragonkin. They’re powerful beings with exceptional physical abilities, vast mana, and ironclad defenses.

Their violent nature makes them prone to falling for taunts or traps, but without the firepower to pierce their scales, it’s all meaningless.

On the other hand, there was plenty to talk about when it came to monsters. Excluding the powerful ones that only masters could handle.

I drew various pictures on the chalkboard and explained the weaknesses of the monsters that students and knights might encounter.

“Bat frogs, also known as imps. Most are female, but occasionally you’ll find males that emit paralyzing poison. Since males are extremely rare, capturing one and using it as a hostage will prevent other imps from attacking properly. But if you kill it, the others will go berserk, so be careful.”

How to survive when surrounded by imps. The students were baffled by the idea of taking a monster hostage, but it was actually one of the most effective methods.

“Centipede snails have no eyes, so they’ll swallow anything that touches their mouths. Feed them poison or holy water to weaken them before fighting.”

There aren’t many poisons that can harm hybrid monsters, but they’re not so rare that you can’t find any. If you can’t get poison, holy water will do.

“Spider birds are tricky to deal with because they fly so fast, but when they attack, they charge in a straight line. Use that moment to trap them with a net and take them out easily. They prioritize moving targets, so you can use that to lure their attacks.”

The net would only immobilize them for a short time, but that’s enough to take out one monster.

“The Cursed Mother. If you have a mage or priest in your party, their help is the best way to fight the curse… But if you must face her with only knights, you can easily defeat her by exploiting her nature.”

If Freide had known this, she wouldn’t have struggled so much in the Karmaine Dungeon.

“True to her name, the Cursed Mother retains her maternal instincts even as a monster. In the heat of battle, if she hears a baby’s cry, she’ll turn her attention toward it.”

It was a fatal weakness. The moment she heard a baby’s cry, she would stop all actions and stare blankly in that direction for several seconds.

“So, bring a baby to distract her, or have someone in your party mimic a baby’s cry to draw her attention. You’ll have enough of an opening to kill her three or four times over.”

Monsters can learn, so this trick won’t work more than a few times, but honestly, if you can’t kill the Cursed Mother after using this method four times, there’s nothing I can do for you.

If you’re that bad, you deserve to die.

Anyway, that wrapped up the third day’s lecture.