I CHOSE to be a VILLAIN, not a THIRD-RATE EXTRA!!-Chapter 231: The Time Where the Villain Shines(3)

Ashok sat in the corner near the wall with his arms crossed, maintaining a perfect poker face while being stared at with serious scrutiny by three people, each reacting differently to his answer.

Their gazes weighed on him, heavy and unyielding, yet he did not shift or fidget even once.

'Umm… did I go way too far?' Ashok thought as the suffocating silence spread through the class.

Even while that doubt surfaced in his mind, his expression remained stiff and unreadable.

His eyes stayed fixed on Frederick, who was now glaring at him openly, the muscles on the old man's face twitching from time to time.

The glare was so intense that Ashok briefly felt Frederick might forget about magic altogether and simply leap forward to chew his head off in rage.

Jokes aside… definitely too far.

Still, Ashok did not panic.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the thunder snake continuing to circle around his neck, lightning crackling softly across its scales, yet it showed no sign of attacking—and that alone was enough to keep him calm.

'Well, if that Old Man had actually wanted to attack, I would be already lying half-dead in the infirmary instead of sitting here', Ashok thought calmly.

'Which means the point I wanted to make has already reached that old head.'

In all honesty, Ashok knew his words carried a very simple core meaning: 'I picked this class because I wanted to choose the bare minimum number of courses required by the Academy.'

That was all there was to it—nothing grand, nothing dramatic.

However, he was also painfully aware that people generally came with a more negative meaning than a positive one.

Surely, the same would also apply for how his answer would be understood.

The meaning that should be currently echoing in everyone's mind would be something like : 'I picked this class on a whim. If I wanted to, I could have chosen anything else. It's not a big deal at all.'

And that unspoken interpretation was precisely what made his answer feel like a challenge rather than an explanation.

Yet the truth was far from that.

The Mana Sensitivity and Control class was extremely important to Ashok, and mastering it would play a crucial role in his future plans.

In fact, the sooner he acquired both Mana Sensitivity and refined Mana Control, the better it would be for him.

Mana Control, especially, was something he had to grasp before the Ranking Tournament.

So why lie?

Aside from fabricating an absurd explanation, Ashok didn't have many options.

Althea's demonstration—her precise control of mana through the water element—had already set the standard impossibly high.

Any honest answer from him would have drawn even more attention, and that was the last thing he wanted at that moment.

And since Ashok knew Frederick's personality from the game, he was two hundred percent certain of one thing—no matter how reasonable his explanation sounded, he would still be asked to give a demonstration.

That was simply how Frederick operated.

Not to mention his demonstration would have to at least on the level of Althea or even grander to satisfy Frederick.

And what exactly was he supposed to demonstrate?

He wasn't a prodigy like Althea, someone who had already grasped the fundamentals of raw Mana Control and could display it so effortlessly.

Compared to her, he was still new to this world—his sense of mana incomplete, vague, and far from refined, let alone he started controlling this foreign energy.

Secondly, with three Divine Grade curses on his back in the form of tattoo, the situation was even worse. One curse completely prevented him from casting magic, while another caused the elements themselves to forsake him, responding with nothing but silence.

If the truth about his curses or his newbie mana sense were ever exposed, being thrown out of this class would be the least of his worries. He could be expelled from the Academy altogether— because then on what grounds will the Academy keep a student who can't even use Mana.

Worse, sealed and parceled with the stamp straight to the Church of Light for "purification."

The Church was the last place Ashok wanted to end up after finally making it into the Academy considering all the struggle he went through.

In such a state, what kind of demonstration could he possibly give?

Ashok also couldn't give an answer like those two fools—something along the lines of, "Teacher, I picked this class because I wish to perfect Raw Mana Control to the point of flawless manipulation."

A dreamlike answer like that would only secure him a bed in the infirmary like his predecessors from the Wyrd Class, nothing more.

And thanks to Althea, he couldn't even borrow Isolde's approach and speak about mastering Bloodline Magic.

That kind of bluff was completely out of the question. It would have been exposed instantly—and worse, it would have been a lie, since his bloodline remained unawakened.

With no safe path left to walk, Ashok did the only thing he could. He gambled everything on the exact opposite choice.

The proof that Ashok's gamble had worked was simple—he was still sitting in the classroom, even as Frederick continued to glare at him with barely restrained fury.

'The old man must be plotting something insidious', Ashok thought, his mind racing beneath his calm exterior.

'If he didn't throw me out immediately, then he's definitely planning a more troublesome way of dealing with me.' With that realization, Ashok subtly steeled himself, mentally preparing for whatever was about to follow.

Althea and Isolde, on the other hand, were quietly preparing in their own way. From the look of pure anger on the teacher's face, they were convinced that this madman was moments away from being executed—most likely through the highest level of electrocution the thunder snake could deliver once it decided to bite down.

Since Adlet was sitting so close to them, Althea and Isolde knew they might not be spared if the teacher unleashed his spell.

A stray current or two could easily strike them as well, so it was safer to prepare for the worst rather than trust in luck.

As the seconds dragged on, it was Althea and Isolde who began to sweat, not Ashok.

Fine beads formed on their foreheads as the silence stretched further, and with each passing moment, their fear of what the teacher's pent-up anger might unleash only grew stronger.

Althea: (ᵕ•_•)

Isolde: (ᵕ•_•)

'How can he remain so calm in a situation like this?' Althea wondered, stealing another glance at Adlet. By now, even she might have begged for forgiveness.

Of course, she would never have given an answer as reckless as his to begin with she was not mad—but that only made his composure all the more unsettling.

'No matter what anyone says, he truly has nerves of steel', Isolde thought, watching Adlet continue to meet the teacher's gaze after giving an answer like that. Just sitting there so calmly felt unreal.

After roughly thirty seconds of heavy silence, Frederick finally broke it. He exhaled loudly, "Haaaa!" then lifted his hand and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger, as if trying to ease a growing headache.

"I see. I see," Frederick said at last, lowering his hand. "After giving it some thought, I've come to the conclusion that your words… are not wrong."

The statement landed quietly—but its impact echoed loudly across the stunned classroom.

Althea and Isolde, who had been on the verge of deploying their defensive measures, instantly snapped their heads away from Adlet and toward the teacher.

The disbelief on their faces was even greater than when they had first heard Adlet's answer.

For a moment, Frederick's words failed to properly register in their ears. They replayed them again and again in their minds, struggling to believe what they had just heard.

But more shocking than the words themselves was the sight before them—the teacher had actually calmed down.

After everything that had happened, after that answer and the long, suffocating silence, the fact that Frederick stood there composed felt almost unreal.

Their eyes lingered on him, searching for any sign of a delayed outburst, yet finding none.

Althea: ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

Isolde: ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

'Where did all that anger go after glaring at him for more than a minute?' Isolde and Althea wondered in disbelief.

Weren't the Teacher about to give that madman the greatest shock of his life? Why did he suddenly calm down? And what's wrong with those words of acceptance.

The questions kept piling up in both Isolde's and Althea's minds, one after another, with no answers in sight. No matter how they replayed the moment, they couldn't understand what had caused such an abrupt change.

The shift felt unnatural, as though something important had slipped past their notice while they were bracing for disaster.

Hadn't the teacher just kicked out two students only moments ago? And not to mention—their answers were far better than this madman's. Then why would the teacher suddenly claim that his words were not wrong?

What kind of conclusion was that supposed to be?

Now even Althea and Isolde wanted to know what kind of incomprehensible reasoning had crossed the teacher's mind when he said 'After giving it some thought' for him to accept such an answer.

The more they thought about it, the less sense it made.

Althea, in particular, began to show signs of irritation mixed with disappointment and confusion. If this madman was somehow right, then didn't that mean all the effort she had poured into her demonstration was meaningless?

All that praise the teacher had given her—started to lose its value in her mind?