CH534

On the final day of teaching his students, Ben couldn’t keep from clicking his tongue in disappointment as he finally freed them from his mind for the last time.

“So you guys only managed to get to the seventh level of connect in the end, huh? A shame, but nothing we can do there. When I’m gone, make sure you all keep practicing, alright?”

He got nods from the two girls, but they and Zallith were all teary-eyed in their relief. After the worst week of their lives, they were finally going to be free of him.

Saying it was just a week didn’t even do it justice. They all felt like they’d been forced to spend at least a year in his head by the end of things, having knowledge shoved into them as they were either forced to practice connect or stuck helping Ben with training his. But it was finally over, how could they not want to shed some tears?

“If you assholes keep thinking like that I’m pulling you back into my mind for another hour of practice. An hour of real time to be specific. When I came here I had fully planned on being a very nice teacher so all of you make sure you remember that for anyone you guys meet in the future, understood?”

Again his question was met with swift nods while the only three others in the room looked on.

“These are your friends?” Insia asked Thera, both her and Rocky feeling unsure after what they were seeing, only for her cousin to try and paint a brighter picture than what was really there.

“Oh, don’t worry. Ben’s just a bit of a tough teacher. They all get along very well otherwise, isn’t that right everyone?”

She shot them all a murderous look as Insia was turning to see their reactions, getting to watch all of them fall in line.

“He’s really a great guy!”

“He’s worked really hard on teaching us this entire time too!”

“He’s definitely a sane individual and not a danger to society!”

…Good enough I guess.

It seemed like enough reassurance for the small fairy at least and she went to fly around them, letting her curiosity take over as Ben continued his last lesson, handing both Nati and Xilly knives while signaling Zallith that his feet were getting tired, letting Ben enjoy his footrest one final time.

“Okay you two. Your last project is going to be applying the stuff I’ve taught you to those knives the best you can. Both of you make something interesting for me to judge. Oh, and it’s good to test your multitasking too, so Insia, do you think I could ask you to chat with them while they work? Just to be sure they can handle juggling a couple different things?”

“Can do!”

“Excellent, thanks. And that just leaves me with one final thing. Nare, what do you think?”

<It looks like you’ve gone above and beyond.> The god said cautiously. <But after all of that, I’m not sure if I should be punishing them further for mistreating you at first. They’re all uncomfortably close to mental breakdowns and I’d like to remind you that one’s my family.>

“I would like to remind you I literally almost died.”

With them only hearing half the conversation, it wasn’t hard for the three to figure out that Ben was talking about them from that sentence alone, even if the sudden eyes on him were waved away as he tried to make them focus on their work.

<Will community service be good enough at this point then?>

Hmm, I still hate all of them but on the plus side they’re all afraid of me now and even if they sucked, only one of them was actually in a position to help me but didn’t…

“Fine, that works, their fate is sealed.”

He felt Zallith clench under his feet while the other two froze briefly, again needing to be waved back to work after that misleading statement.

<That was mean.>

You’ll clear it up later, it’s fine. Aside from that, any complaints with how I’ve done?

<Pfff, how could I possibly? Both girls were able to enchant items to at most high rare in quality before, I can already tell that what they’re each working on is going to be making it to ultra rare. As sadistic as it might have been, I can’t exactly argue with your results.>

It wasn’t that sadistic.

<You made them live out a year in the span of a week, with that entire time being devoted to having them do nothing but train and study. If that’s not sadistic then I don’t know what is.>

Fine, fine, my title of monster is well earned but my students leave fully educated, it’s worth the trade. So if you’re that worried about their mental state, does that mean you don’t want me teaching them again in the future?

<Is that something you’d seriously do? I’d assumed it had been a threat to make them more willing to befriend the little fairy.>

It’s not something I would go out of my way for but if I’m ever in the city again I’d do it for a couple hours to try and push them up a level, or if they ever get to the ninth if you let me know I’ll come back and try to awaken then. Of course, since the only way I can really think to do that would be to expose them to a significant portion of my mind, we’d need to make sure there’s healers around in case that ends up being a bit too much for them.

<...I’ll give a hesitant yes for now but only if I’m sure it’s not going to be too detrimental to their overall mental health.>

Sounds like a plan.

With that done he got up and walked over to where the two worked, both of them having a spirited conversation with Insia as they did, trying to put on the friendliest moods they could as they answered the girl’s questions and explained what they were doing while Ben peeked at their work, pleased at what he was seeing, even without then being finished.

While they weren’t using his complex system to its full potential, both of them limited by the more normal way they each thought, they were making use of it, pushing their minds to place down blended weaves and rings while applying the enchanting modifier to each, giving it that extra boost of power.

Hmm, but they are both a little strained by it. It would be good if they could also get some mind skills but with Zandale so busy they might just need to hope they can gain them themselves.

<Since they have awakened magics, they’ll both be learning spirit empowering from him eventually.> Nare chimed in. <When that happens I’ll see if he’ll teach them parallel thought as well to make things easier on them.>

And that means another problem solved. Okay, everything looks good.

No matter how rocky it had been, in the end he couldn’t help but feel just a little satisfied at having taught them both so much, hopefully leaving the world just a little better off for it too.

---

After the two finished their enchanting, Ben looked over the final results one last time, commenting on where he thought they could improve but largely giving praise as his last bit of teaching finally came to a close.

With it done they moved on to a bit of lighter conversation, trying to make sure Insia opened up to them while watching to be sure they’d behave themselves, but after a few hours of that passed with things moving in the direction they wanted, it was finally time for the two to say their goodbyes and go home.

While Thera focused on her cousin and Rocky, Ben looked at his three, with Nati managing to come off as genuinely sincere at the end of it all.

“Thank you for all you’ve done for us,” She told him, bowing her head and thinking less about the horrors that were his lessons to instead focus on the way he’d helped improve her relationship with her grandfather. “Even if it was hard, I appreciate it.”

“Don’t worry about it, and if any of you guys have any questions about anything, just pass them on through Nare. No matter how it turned out, I’ll at least answer the best I can.”

It was a far less sentimental goodbye compared to what Thera got to enjoy, but it was appropriate. They weren’t leaving as friends, he still didn’t even particularly like them, but they had all officially learned from him which was good enough.

It was only a few words, but with that they parted, Ben and Thera walking back to the gate, one seeming a lot more depressed about it than the other.

“You think she’s going to be okay?” Thera asked him. “If those three actually do anything to hurt her then I’m going to be going to jail for murder Ben, I hope you’re prepared for that.”

“It will be fine,” He laughed. “And if it's not then she’ll have the rest of your family and you too. With the two gates in your parents’ place, you can visit as much as you want to make sure things are going okay.”

“Mmh, I’m going to have to,” She sighed before focusing back on him. “Actually, are you okay? You seem tired.”

“I am tired. Teaching was exhausting, I’m so glad to be done.”

“Ha, well you can rest when we’re back home.”

“Oh, your uncle is going to wish I’d be willing to do that,” Ben told her, wearing a wide grin as he imagined everything he’d be doing soon. “The man is never going to know peace from me now that I’ve got him as a resource and I’ve got a lot of plans for him.”

“You do remember that you’re the student in your relationship, right?”

“Of course, a fantastic, wonderful student who’s ready to learn everything he can.”

And test everything too.

There was always more to try and with the time Ben had, he fully intended to get as much explored as he could.

Even if I might make time for a small nap first.

Author's note

Here we are, the end of arc 16 and it was certainly one of the longer ones, with plenty happening in it to boot. 

From Ben cheating the job system in a pretty big way at the beginning and fighting a duel to him starting a riot and threatening a god, with him going to deal with some unruly students and finally plundering the depths of the archive from there, only to find some greater secrets within, a lot has happened these last 50ish chapters and on the whole I'd say I'm pretty satisfied with them. I liked them and I had fun writing them.

But as with any time I do one of these little personal arc reviews, I've gotta look at where I think I could have improved and on that front I'd say it falls squarely on Thera's story with Insia. While I did have fun with it and had been planning the reveal that another one of the great spirits had secretly had another child all the way back since the second arc, I feel like my execution was lacking there. The build up could have used a lot more work to be sure and could use a bit of tweaking here and there to make it a bit more fun.

Juggling A and B plots in general is something I want to aim to be a bit better at when I'm doing that sort of thing but like so much else it's going to come down to practice, but in the end the most important thing of all is how you guys felt about and my greatest hope is that it managed to be something fun as we move into the next arc tomorrow so hope you all look forward to that and enjoy what's to come and from there, as always have an excellent one!