Chapter 347: There Shall Not Be A Single Shortcoming in This Academy
After three months of making preparations, April arrived to find Baiyi finished with the trivial activities. Now, all he had to do was wait for the completion of the academy’s building construction.
As the weather had become warmer, the skirts the girls wore had become shorter Whenever Baiyi suggested that they change into something more apt for the season, the girls would fervently protest.
‘Why do they love mini skirts so much?’ Baiyi thought as he flipped though his calendar. He recalled that there was to be another festival of some sort in April. If that was a certainty, then it was time for him to find another excuse to flee the scene temporarily.
At that time, there was a lively discussion ongoing in the Void, concerning the facilities the academy ought to have. Baiyi had already opted to provide facilities for magic, martial arts, soul armature summoning, and alchemy. He also sought to make available the less popular courses, such as Engineering, Literature, Economics, Sociology, and Psychology. Theurgy and Astrology — courses tailored to spread the ideologies of the Void — were also included in the course lineup.
The Voidwalkers were not satisfied with this, though. They wanted to provide over a hundred courses, including those studied on Earth!
‘Guys? Let’s not get carried away and forget the original purpose for which we started this school…’ Baiyi thought to himself as he listened to their banter.
“In my humble opinion, don’t you think we already have enough majors? Way more than other institutions offer, you know. In fact, with this many we already offer, I’m afraid we may soon be short on human resource. Perhaps, we should just focus on the electives, no?” The Apprentice Walker said loudly, trying to gain the attention of the others.
As the only Voidwalker with ‘Principal’ on his resume, the Apprentice Walker’s advice and guidance, for this endeavor, was indispensable to Baiyi, who did not hesitate to carve solutions out of the ideas and advice he was given by the Apprentice Walker. The Voidwalker had proven himself to be a genius in all manners of management — much to everyone’s satisfaction; he made quick work of trivial and important matters with a sufficient amount of professionalism.
Hence, whenever the Apprentice Walker offered a suggestion, the other voidwalkers listened.
Suddenly, the Astrologer, a member of the Void’s ‘Gentleman club’, offered his take on things, saying, “Yes! Electives — E for Important! In fact, I would like to humbly remind you all of the importance of education on ladies’ physiological welfare! Our female students must be undergoing some changes in their bodies as they physically transform under the spell that is ‘youth’, so why shouldn’t we teach them about it? In fact, may I be so very bold as to suggest that not only should we have this class, but we should also have myself be the class coordinato — mmmmf!” The would-be class coordinator for the astrology course had not finished his speech before he was publicly muted by Baiyi.
However, Baiyi knew that physical education would be an informative addition to the curriculum; there was just something about the way that the Astrologer Walker had said it that caused alarms to ring in Baiyi’s head. Baiyi conceded that Phys Ed would be an informative addition to their curriculum, but there was something about the way the Astrologer Walker had spoken that rang alarm bells in Baiyi’s head. Besides, are the female Voidwalkers not better suited to be the coordinators for this class?
“If I may, I recommend we offer a course on the art of knot-tying, as I have a surplus of fascinating designs that I’m most eager to tutor!” The Scholar Walker suggested.
‘I understand that she is talking about regular knot-tying, like making head knots and hand knots — the version that is rated E for everyone. However, does she know that there is another version of knot-tying that is not safe for work? Let’s face it; that’s the version everyone’s mind went to the moment you mentioned “knot-tying”.’
“Culinary class, too! I want to teach my students how to bake cakes!” The Assassin Walker hurriedly chimed in.
‘You can actually bake a cake? Tell me that you do not use human blood as an ingredient, please.’
“We must offer a course on women’s fashion designing! This is one course we could even make a major! I understand that Sir Hope does not have a modicum of talent in this field, but fear not, fair dames, for I shall take on this responsibility!” The Paladin Walker added, and to no one’s surprise, he was muted.
‘Fashion designing is bloody fashion designing! Why place the label “women” on it?’
The other Voidwalkers were still engaged in the banter when the Sorcerer Walker nudged Baiyi in the Void. “Is it just me, or do we not have archery amongst our majors?”
Baiyi froze momentarily, then he looked down at the list of courses in his hand. The Sorcerer Walker was right; there were no classes on archery. This was not out of the norm, though.
Archers possessed laudable attack prowess — with abilities that naturally countered those of sorcerers — but most academy institutions did not offer specialized classes on archery. They would either include it under Martial arts or dismiss it altogether.
Hence, legendary archers who had appeared throughout history were either from the military, or they were of a species which had a high affinity in archery, such as fairies.
“It’s not like we can’t have this class, too. I mean, don’t we have an archery expert amongst us?” Baiyi asked.
“Uh, hello? Did you forget about your ‘wife’? I know you’d picked her up easily that one time, but still.”
“No, I did not. I happen to remember her so well that I can clearly remember her title — The Walking Bane. This begs the question, are you sure you want me to wake her up, which will have her realize how many girls are around now? This will surely maker her jealous, and with the uncontrolled tendency she has to attract disasters… will it be wise to have her descend?”
“Oo-kay. Look; if your hands are tied, I can become the instructor,” the Sorcerer Walker replied confidently. “My archery skill may not be topnotch — probably even just average — but! I can still shoot hit a bullseye from a hundred steps away.”
‘Huh? Why would a sorcerer be good at archery? Nevertheless, that’s an impressive feat! How could you call that ‘average’?’
“That is only sensible! As long as that wife of yours still exists, who would dare consider themselves anything better than mediocrity? She’s not just any archer, she’s the archer who had inherited the title: ‘Zephyr’!” The Sorcerer Walker said, with a rare tone of humility.
Baiyi had to admit that the Sorcerer Walker was right. Although the Fairy Walker had inherited this title because she had caused too much trouble for her own village, making the locals wish she would vanish without a trace, her archery skill was still as impeccable as the Sorcerer Walker had described it; that was why she was able to wield the Caudillo Butterfly bow.
Baiyi believed that her skill with a bow was the real deal; that held true even without the Caudillo Butterfly bow in her possession.
This was an incident that had happened close to the moment the Fairy Walker was banished to the Void. Back then, she was hiding in a remote village hidden in the hills, living with the unsuspecting villagers. There was a war ravaging the realm at the time, and some mercenaries accidentally stumbled on the village. The leader of this rogue group ordered the male villagers to join them, with the intention of using them as cannon fodder, and ordered the females to take on the role of ‘comforting’ him and his members. He threatened to massacre the village if anyone disobeyed his orders!
At first, the Fairy Walker tried to talk the mercenaries out of it, but one of them pulled down the hoodie of her robe, exposing her breathtaking beauty to all. Seized by carnal desire, the mercenary leader charged towards her without a single word.
Without the Caudillo Butterfly bow in her possession at the time, all the Fairy Walker had to defend herself with was a toy bow, which she used to teach archery the local kids. It was no match for the heavy armors and sharp blades wielded by the mercenaries; compared to these equipment, she might not have been holding any weapon at all! At that point, the charging mercenary leader could already imagine himself between the pretty girl’s legs, having her whimper and moan without stop.
However, the Fairy Walker picked a few leaves from the ground, calmly raised her toy bow, and moved her fingers to the string gracefully as though she was playing a harp; in the next moment, the mercenaries, including the leader, all dropped to the ground, their hands clutching their throats.
Their throats had been pierced through by the soft leaves!
With leaves and a toy bow, the Fairy Walker had still hit all her targets, who were wearing heavy armor, despite being three hundred feet away; none of her shots had missed. To her, the mercenaries had been nothing but mushy bean cord, and the situation was nothing more than a child’s play.
After Baiyi watched this scene in her memories, he was completely astonished; he could not fathom how she had managed to aim the leaves so accurately and use them to pierce through heavy armor. Had she mastered archery to the point of using anything she wished as an arrow, like in wuxia novels?
This was perhaps the peak of archery skill — a level most archers could only dream of attaining. Breaking the laws of physics with archery was not something humans could do, only fairies.
“Her skill is a little too good for teaching. We don’t need our instructors to be that good,” Baiyi replied.
“Well, I could suffice as a military instructor, but our Academy is of a different tier, remember? I’m not good enough to be a teacher in the academy, especially when the other teachers are literally masters in their own field. I’m just going to make the archery class a joke!” The Sorcerer Walker replied.
Baiyi believed him, hence he shifted his attention to the teachers of other courses, for the time being.
He had the Archmage, the Sage-Emperor of the Magi, teach Magic, and the Sword Saint, the Knight Walker, teach most of the topics under Martial arts, with help from the Hitman Walker and the Barbarian Walker. The Soul Armature Practioner Walker was handed the reins of the soul armature practitioner course, and the Alchemist Walker, God’s Right Hand, was to teach Alchemy. The expertise they had in their fields could not be questioned!
Then, the Cleric Walker, Apostle Joel, and the Paladin Walker, Sir Hentai, were put in charge of the Theurgy course — while the Blacksmith Walker, the legend who freed the dwarves, and the Engineer Walker, the champion of the Blacksmith’s Association, were tasked to teach Engineering. As for the course that was easiest to fail, Psychology, it was handed over to the realm’s greatest con artist — the Charlatan Walker!
Just as the Sorcerer Walker had said, the academy’s lecturers were the realm’s best in the subjects they were to teach, except for the Archery course. This was akin to a small flaw in an almost-perfect puzzle, which is enough to turn a perfectionist or someone who suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder into a furious maniac.
Nevertheless, Baiyi did not want the Fairy Walker to teach the archery class; she possessed a certain trait which made her descent an undesirable option. Baiyi himself could not take the class. Who was he kidding? He was a Rohserlian sorcerer! He had no need to learn archery; after all, to him, bows were for heathens!
“Maybe the Hitman Walker could help? He’s pretty good at ambushing people with clandestine arrows, right?” Baiyi muttered before attempting to contact the Voidwalker in question.
However, the Hitman Walker was quick to pour cold water all over the thought. “Sorry, I am no good with bows. It’s a wimpy a** weapon; indirect and ineffective — definitely not my style.”
Baiyi was speechless. If a bow was not suitable for a hitman, what weapon would be? Dual axes? A morning star?
If his vision for the academy was for it to be the very best in the realm, then there had to be no tolerance for flaws or shortcomings. Since that was the case, did he really have to let her descend to the world?
After giving it some thought, Baiyi dismissed the idea. Even if he turned a blind eye to the Fairy Walker’s tendency to cause chaos, the relationship problem would cause him constant migraines. The two puffing piggies, the Warrior Walker and the Assassin Walker, were already crazy as it was; if he released the Fairy Walker, she may leave his students alone, but she definitely would not let Aya go. Baiyi may just return home one day to find the dragon lady pierced with an uncountable number of arrows, making her resemble a porcupine.
“Er… maybe we can go out and find another fairy? The current heiress to the Zephyr title? Maybe we could come up with a ploy to get her banished to the Void?” The Sorcerer Walker suggested.
‘Have you… have you started to look at the Void as some of Hall of Heroes?!’An important note though: OCD actually doesn’t entail perfectionism! It’s actually pretty different. You don’t have to read the DSM-V (published by the American Psychiatric Association), but it’s always better to know what mental disorders really are than to believe the Hollywood version of it! Then… you can brag about your knowledge too, hee hee!Hall of Heroes is this place in Mount Liang where heroes would gather to convene and stuffs. Every self-respecting hero would be there. Featured in the classic Chinese literature “Water Margins”.