I wasn’t really sure what kind of answers Lisa was looking for so I basically wrote down the common sense answers.
Things like poisoning yourself and your friends like Lisa had mentioned before and also making it explode too.
I then went on to list out things like misidentifying the materials you’re using and also possible addiction to the components and the creations themselves, all of which were taught to me by Lisa the first time I had my lesson with her in her shop.
Oh… I only just realised that Lisa might have been preparing me to attend her class from the very start. Was this her plan?
The appointed ten minutes quickly passed and Lisa told us to cease our writing, going down the aisle to pick up our papers to read them one by one.
Picking up the first student’s paper, her aura changed to give off a feeling of disappointment.
“Blank. Like I thought. Are you even aware what Alchemy is about?”
The boy shook his head slowly.
“Of course you don’t, your parents selected this class for you without knowing about it either. Do they want to kill their child or something? Get out and reevaluate your life choices, we don’t need aimless students in this class.”
Ouch… Lisa… Come on. That’s a twelve year old boy… He probably doesn’t even have any choice in his life yet so at least go easy on him… Or is this like some kind of tough love thing?
Ignoring the boy who was sniffling while packing his things, she went ahead to look at the rest of the class, “Those of you who have not written anything, feel free to show yourselves out right now and don’t waste my time.”
A few more students begrudgingly stood up and got out of the class as well, a few of them throwing hateful looks in Lisa’s direction.
I would have been worried that they might plan to do something to Lisa but remembering her actual stats, I don’t think she would have any problems handling some twelve year old kids.
Lisa merely continued inspecting the rest of the students’ work, kicking out a few more when she found out some of them had written nonsense or were just plain bad.
Now, there were less than half the original number of students still present in this class with quite a majority of them being the senior students.
On another note, Lisa had left me for last and only took a quick glance at my paper before moving on, giving me the feeling that she was winking at me.
She then returned to the front of the class and turned to face us, “Thirty-two students.”
All of us looked at her in confusion, wondering what those numbers meant, seeing that we don’t have that many students in this class.
“That was how many students have died in the history of this class,” Lisa explained with a serious tone.
Woah, what? People died in this school? How is there no complaints about safety and there’s not even a scandal or something?
Is this a thing in this World again? Where student casualties are simply just a statistic to be noted?
Though I suppose there should be a reason behind that if people are still willing to send their children here to study.
But from the look on some of the juniors’ faces, I can tell that they were most definitely thinking along the lines of not having signed up for this.
Lisa waited for a while more for her information to sink in before gesturing to us, “This would be my last and final warning. Continue in this class and I cannot guarantee your life. There is no shame in doing something else other than alchemy~”
Surprisingly, no one left this time.
Lisa crossed her arms, “Huh… So about twenty students this year huh? Good enough.”
She erased what she had previously written on the blackboard and wrote in new words with a flourish.
“Congratulations all of you for becoming the students of this Basic Alchemy class! As I said before, I am Professor Lisa and you shall address me as such! I see a number of seniors here and I assume you guys found out about the truth of this class huh?”
Most of them nodded which left myself and the rest of the juniors confused.
Lisa laughed, “Ahahaha~ Well, I guess I should explain for the sake of the newcomers~ It’s true that there were deaths in this school but those happened several decades ago when some students did something they shouldn’t. There hasn’t been any death since then but it’s still true this class is dangerous though!”
I had to raise my hand to get her attention for a question I had.
She pointed at me, “Yes! The especially charming and beautiful student over there!”
I managed to keep my face straight, “So… What was all that for?”
“I suppose the first thing I should explain is the real reason why this class is located away from the main building. It’s the smell and the potential for accidents. Also to keep troublemakers from messing up the rest of the school.”
I tilted my head at her, unsure of what that meant.
Lisa waved her hand towards the cauldron, “Now I believe all of you are students who seriously want to learn alchemy, a subject that I will do my best to teach you for the coming years~ But consider students who are only here for the sake of coming here. The potential for alchemy is high and many different types of things can be made here, including… Well… Potions that may increase bowel movements or even just concoctions that smell absolutely revolting~”
Ahhh… I get it… The reason why Lisa acted like that was to weed out all the pranksters, the practical jokers and the troublemakers from this class before they learn to make something that could cause disturbance in the entire school.
Sure, those elemental magic spells could also cause problems but I guess it’s less likely for a student to shoot a fireball at someone for a practical joke than slipping laxative potion into the school lunches.
And it’s also easier to set an enchantment in place to lower the effects of these magic spells than it is to lower the effectiveness of potions.
I’m guessing Lisa’s serious persona was also just for the sake of that act.
Another student raised her hand, “Professor Lisa… What’s stopping the other students who left today from finding out about this and returning?”
“Heh, with the exception of special class students, no one else is allowed to join this class partway through~ So congratulations on being a part of this exclusive class!”
Right… I guess that makes sense.
“Oh, before I forget! Make sure you don’t go teaching your friends what you learned here! You could be expelled for that! If your friend truly wants to learn alchemy then they can join next year~”
“Eh? Then those pranksters could just join next year, can’t they?” I pointed out.
“Heh heh~ The question I just asked all of you just now? That changes so that I could weed them out as well! I admit it’s not foolproof and some do slip in from time to time so… Heh. You might want to be careful of what you put in your mouths~”
That… Does not sound very assuring… I guess I should be glad that I have my meals prepared by Katsuki instead of the school…
Lisa clapped her hands together, “Alright! Let’s now start the class for real! Oh, by the way. For that really cute and beautiful special class student over there, the homework I gave you about that flower is real~”
Eh? Really? I guess I’ll just go look it up in the library or ask Mother about it later.
“Now, we’ll start off with the basics of the basics! Classification of potions and the process of making one! You might all want to take note as we’ll be doing this in the practical lesson in the afternoon! You’ll need to drink your creations yourself so make sure you don’t mess it up!”
That most certainly sounds like a threat to us not to mess it up… I hope there’s some kind of precaution in place to prevent us from accidentally killing ourselves…
At least I don’t need to worry that much since I’ve already made one before. This should be easy.
I listened to Lisa start her lecture, only to realise that I was already taught all of this by Lisa back in her shop.
She even gave me a wink when no one else was looking, confirming my guess that she had indeed taught me this before and she had been preparing me for her lesson from the start.
Well, that doesn’t mean I would just stop paying attention to her. Who knows, she might just sneakily slip in some information she didn’t before just to catch me off guard. I’m not taking any chances for this class at least.
The fact that she’s teaching the class properly and acting like a normal teacher was a good thing I guess, considering this was a far cry from her Lumenmancy class with me where she was basically flirting with me most of the time…
I admit I’m still worried how the practical class would go later though…
