Terminally-ill Instructor in Romance Fantasy-Chapter 51: ༺ I’m Not Some Relationship Therapist [1] ༻

"Alright...

Before any of you decide to fall asleep with your eyes open, today’s topic is Spell Imprinting and Memory Crystals."

Noel stood at the center of the lecture hall, one hand tucked into his coat pocket, the other lazily holding a thin piece of chalk.

His expression, as always, looked mildly inconvenienced by existence.

A few students straightened instantly.

"Spell... imprinting?"

Someone in the third row murmured.

"Yes."

Noel replied flatly.

"The creation of crystal-based storage units capable of recording, replaying, or containing a spell for later use."

He turned and drew a simple circle on the board.

"At its core, this is structured mana encoding."

He paused.

"Think of it like writing."

Silence filled the room.

"Except instead of ink..."

He continued, tapping the chalk against the board.

"...you’re using mana.

And instead of paper, you’re using crystal lattices."

A hand shot up.

"Yes."

A brown-haired student stood.

"Instructor, are we storing the spell itself... or the mana required to cast it?"

"Good.

That’s the first intelligent question today."

A few students shifted awkwardly.

"You are not storing raw mana.

That would be inefficient and unstable.

Mana disperses and it reacts to environment.

So being sensical it degrades."

He drew a small jagged shape inside the circle.

"You are storing the structure of the spell.

The pattern and the formula."

Another student frowned.

"So like... instructions?"

"Exactly."

Noel nodded once.

’On earth we had something called data storage.

Information encoded into physical mediums.

Magnetic disks and Solid-state drives.’

The class blinked.

’How will I be able to explain this better to them...’

"Imagine a spell as a program."

Noel continued smoothly.

"If I write a program and save it onto a device,

I can run it later without rewriting the entire thing."

He tapped the board.

"A memory crystal works similarly.

You imprint the spell’s mana structure into its lattice.

Later, you feed mana into the crystal, and it executes that structure."

A student in the back raised his hand hesitantly.

"So... it’s like a scroll...or old world Grimoire?"

"No."

The answer came immediately.

"A scroll contains pre-charged mana.

Once activated, it burns out.

A memory crystal stores the pattern so that it can be reused, revised, replayed."

He drew a square next to the circle.

"And unlike scrolls, crystals allow long-form magic.

Sustained constructs with complex automata routines."

At the word automata, several Magic Engineering students leaned forward with interest.

"Yes."

Noel said dryly, noticing.

"The reason you’re paying attention."

He set the chalk down.

"To achieve spell imprinting, three primary mechanisms are required."

He raised three fingers.

"Mana-Infusion Chambers."

A diagram formed midair as he flicked his wrist.

A pale blue magic circle unfolded before him, lines intricate but controlled.

The air hummed faintly.

Within the circle, an illusion of a cylindrical chamber appeared.

"This device stabilizes ambient mana and creates a pressure-balanced environment."

A student squinted.

"Pressure... like air pressure?"

"In a sense."

Noel nodded.

"Mana behaves like a fluid under high density.

If you attempt to imprint a crystal in open air, fluctuations will distort the pattern."

He tapped the illusion.

The cylinder glowed brighter.

"The chamber ensures uniform mana distribution during inscription."

He dispelled the image with a flick.

"Second.

Crystal Scribes."

Another circle spun open beside him, this one more geometric, sharp lines forming a mechanical arm tipped with a thin needle of light.

"This is the engraving mechanism.

It translates the spell formula into oscillating mana pulses."

A girl in the front row frowned.

"Can’t we just pour mana directly into the crystal?"

"No."

The word was patient. Almost tired.

"Crystals are not buckets."

A few students chuckled nervously.

"If you flood them with mana without controlled frequency modulation, the internal lattice fractures."

He paused, then added.

"Or explodes. If you’re unlucky."

The chuckles died.

"The Crystal Scribe functions like a precision needle."

"It vibrates at specific frequencies corresponding to segments of the spell matrix."

He drew a sine wave on the board.

"In physics-"

Hee caught himself, then continued anyway.

"-frequency determines energy distribution.

In mana theory, frequency determines structural alignment."

He folded his arms.

"It’s resonance."

A student’s eyes widened.

"Like sound?"

"Yes."

Finally, someone connected it.

"That brings us to the third mechanism."

He snapped his fingers lightly.

From his desk, a slender metallic instrument floated up—a tuning fork, faintly glowing.

"Spell Resonator Forks."

He struck it lightly against the desk.

A low hum vibrated through the room. The air shimmered.

"These are used to synchronize the crystal’s internal mana frequency with the spell structure before final imprinting."

A boy raised his hand eagerly.

"Instructor! If the frequency is off by just a little, does the spell fail?"

"It doesn’t fail."

Noel’s lips curved slightly.

"It mutates."

Silence.

"An incorrectly tuned fire spell might produce smoke...or plasma.

Or even a directional blast you didn’t intend."

Several students swallowed.

"That is why you will not attempt advanced imprinting unsupervised."

He waved his hand and the fork returned to the desk.

"Now."

He walked between the rows.

"Why is this useful?"

A student answered cautiously.

"For storing spells long-term?"

"Yes.

And?"

Grassia’s voice spoke up clearly.

"For automata routines.

Instead of programming from scratch, we can embed operational spells into memory crystals."

"Correct."

Noel nodded.

"Automata require consistent behavior. Human mages are inconsistent while crystals are not."

He paused near the window.

"In archives, memory crystals preserve rituals.

Defensive wards and historical spellwork."

Another student frowned.

"Can you store something like... a person’s memory?"

A ripple of whispers spread.

Noel’s expression didn’t change.

"In theory..."

"...you can record mana signatures associated with cognitive patterns."

He turned slightly.

"But that is not today’s lesson."

The air felt heavier for a moment before he continued.

"Let’s simplify."

He moved back to the front.

"If I want to store a basic illumination spell—step one: construct the formula."

A glowing magic circle expanded beneath his hand.

Lines intersected in layered rings.

Several students gasped softly.

"Step two: stabilize mana flow."

The circle brightened, controlled streams feeding inward.

"Step three: modulate frequency."

He flicked two fingers.

The lines vibrated subtly.

"Step four: imprint."

He reached into his pocket and removed a small, clear crystal no larger than a coin.

The circle compressed.

A thin beam of violet light connected the circle to the crystal.

The room held its breath.

After a few seconds, the light faded.

He tossed the crystal gently to a random student.

"Inject mana."

The student fumbled but complied.

The crystal glowed and a soft sphere of light formed above his palm.

Gasps filled the room.

"It’s stable."

Noel said.

"Because the structure was encoded correctly."

A student near the aisle hesitated before speaking.

"Instructor... how long can it last?"

"As long as the lattice remains intact then decades...possibly centuries."

He rubbed his temple briefly.

"This world underestimates structured mana theory..."

He muttered to himself.

"It’s just applied mathematics."

Honestly, combining what he knew from Earth...physics, wave mechanics, data encoding with this body’s absurd magical intuition...

It was easy.

Too easy.

He suppressed that thought.

Another student raised a hand.

"What if someone steals the crystal?"

"Then they own the spell."

"..."

"Security measures can be added.

Locking signatures and Mana-recognition barriers."

He paused mid-sentence.

A faint dizziness brushed the edges of his vision.

’Not now...’

Casually, without breaking eye contact with the class, Noel slipped his hand into his coat pocket and retrieved a small glass vial.

While turning to write on the board, he uncorked it with practiced subtlety and drank the liquid in one motion.

Warmth spread through his veins.

The slight tremor in the air around him stabilized.

He corked the vial and returned it before anyone noticed.

"Where were we?"

He asked evenly.

A student blinked.

"Security signatures."

"Right."

He continued the lecture as if nothing had happened.

"For your assignment, you will design a basic mana-infusion model and outline how you would prevent frequency distortion."

Groans echoed lightly.

"Yes.

I expect diagrams."

The bell chimed faintly in the distance.

Noel clapped once, softly.

"That concludes today’s lesson."

Chairs scraped and students gathered books.

Conversations buzzed with excitement.

He turned back to erase the board.

Footsteps approached.

"Instructor Noel."

He didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

He did anyway.

Talia Veloria stood there, clutching her books against her chest.

"Yes?"

She hesitated only slightly.

"Why is Leor Dawsen ignoring me?"

Noel stared at her.

’Why is she asking me that...

I’m not some relationship therapist.’

"I’m assuming..."

He said calmly.

"...that has nothing to do with what I just taught."

Her lips pressed together.

"No."

"Why? Did something happen between the two of you?"

"That’s what I’m trying to find out."

Noel exhaled slowly.

’Should I have just punished them yesterday night.’

The thought passed quickly.

He could already the subtle shift of events. The storyline moving pieces into place whether he liked it or not.

*Sigh...

"You know..."

He said carefully.

"...personal situations are opportunities for growth.

Students are advised to handle them independently."

She looked slightly disappointed.

"...but..."

"...I’ll try and ask him and see."

Her shoulders relaxed.

"Thank you."

She gave a small nod and turned, leaving the classroom with quiet steps.

Noel watched the door close.

A thought surfaced immediately.

’Wait... does she think I influenced Leor not to be around her?’

He stared at the now-empty room.

"...Unbelievable."