The door opened, hasty steps halted to a slow stop as the room flew into view.
'Could've been worse.'
Thud!
My attention snaps to the sharp thud at my feet.
Multiple bricks had crashed down to the floor, most probably a stupid prank from the children.
Eyes flick toward the old office chair that I would be sitting on from today onwards.
There wasn't much to say about it, just the thought that it could've been more comfortable.
Finally. I step inside, room chilly with tension denser than tungsten.
The floorboards creak as the weight of my steps settle onto them.
Taking a single look at the classroom, my thoughts drift with their expressions seared into my skull.
'Intimidation is working well, huh?'
I didn't really like the idea of using fear to make children no older than twelve behave. But it wasn't like they were being diced and slashed into pieces. So it wouldn't really affect them mentally....Probably.
'However, a similar effect can be achieved if I get the holy blessing of Mana Emperor.'
Mana Emperor mixed very well with Intimidation as the holy blessing of Intimidation was closely tied to mana.
Currently, my mana should be automatically chilling the surroundings, while also making organisms around me instinctively fear my very presence as if I were their natural predator.
Honestly speaking, for daily use. Intimidation was A-tier for me. Not only is it great for self defense, it also makes people jump at the sight of you, truly infinite scare potential....As for saving the world however.
"Cough..."
"...!"
"Hiek!"
Yeah, it's better if I don't go down that lane...
Without another second wasted on useless emotions. My heel twists, nose of my shoe facing the frozen in place students.
My voice boomed across, lips flat as my shrewd nice-guy imitation cracks.
"Nice to meet you, while my experience is lacking. I look forward to thoroughly teaching every single one of you one by one as your new homeroom teacher."
I get straight to the point. Not wasting my time on making the students feel warm around me or think that I'm soft.
"Now, take out your books. We're starting class."
Like small baby chickens, they listened, clumsily taking out their books and textbooks meant for history and placed them on the desk for me to see.
However, a couple pale heads seemed to not get the memo.
They stood out as sore thumbs of the class.
A white haired kid avoided my gaze, sweat clinging to his skin as strands of his hair stuck to him, pupils shaking as I felt his fear from all the way here.
'Uh. I guess it makes sense? Even without Mana Emperor, Intimidation on its own can make a grown man pee his pants...'
Of course, the output of Intimidation can be controlled depending on the amount of mana I released outwards. Mana Emperor simply made it more cost efficient than anything.
So, the output, while restrained to a small droplet, should've made a child or two try to run away.
Now, me saying that doesn't really make sense, right?
Why would I, a regressor get Intimidate if it had the chance to mentally scar the ordinary around me? Was it to make my job easier? It was part of it, but not the underlying reason.
The true reason was painfully simple.
It just seemed fun to mess around with. I mean, why wouldn't it be fun? Would it be harmful to those around me? Heck yeah. But did I care? How could I?
Everyone was going to die anyway, so what if that fate was slightly accelerated forward? it didn't matter, did it?
Well, despite the desensitized conditioning I was put through. Scaring children wasn't really my thing. So despite my desire to scare them a little more...I decided against it and instead trusted my abilities in manipulating mana.
If I couldn't protect a couple of children from my blessing after so many regressions...Then maybe I should've never tried so hard to save the world.
My fingers coiled around the cover of the textbook, eyes burning as I kept forcibly condensing my mana, making sure that none of the children here were directly affected by it.
Their frightened faces brought a profound joy to me, which was more than enough for my hunger for more to be satiated.
Before I even realized it.
Trr! Trrr!
The school bells screeched out wildly like phones.
"Ah."
I stopped, chalk in my hand mid-motion, writing some key historical events that a transmigrated regressor knew better than most, for the students to study obviously.
Tapping the chalk lightly on the board, every student attempting escape stopped in their tracks to look back at me.
With a flat smile. I motion them with my hands to sit back.
Although reluctant at first, my presence that dominated their egos made them fall back onto their chairs.
The children's faces paled as my smile stretched unnaturally longer.
'Nevermind, Intimidation rocks!'
"Write this first and then I will allow you to go out."
The students nodded. I nodded to myself for the great restraint I showed and stepped away from the board.
Sharp sounds of steps recoiled from the wood. The children that sweated buckets beforehand began their writing. All desperate to escape my eyes.
One soon finished writing what was on the board, vitality returning to his eyes as he quickly scurried away from the class. Another one soon ran away, finished with what they were doing.
A white-headed kid kept their gaze locked onto their desk, fear pounding on their chest as I stepped toward him.
With a sigh. A thin piece of fresh white paper appears in my hand as if it had always been there.
"...!"
The sight startled many around to catch the move.
'All for the image I guess.'
I hand out the paper to the kid, only seconds from opening my mouth.
"Her—"
"Here!"
"....?"
Brows furrow as a paper stained with ink dared to lacerate in front of my eyes.
'What?'
Now I was the one on the confused end of things.
'What did he just?'
Do? I was certain that he was as stiff as a rock before, face paler than a ghost's at the mere look at me.
And more importantly, he didn't have anything in his hands.
'Unless I'm going crazy from the countless regressions, this kid...'
Altered my perception? Which also meant that he was an awakener.
A child, a literal toddler in my eyes essentially had the ability to alter how I perceived him.
'There is a monster like this in this school?'
How come someone like him never became popular in the future?
Did he die?
But...That doesn't make—
"T-Teacher?"
The white haired boy's voice shattered the trance I was in. No, was his hair even white in the first place?
My gaze hovers over his small, but otherwise healthy frame.
The next words flow out naturally.
"Leave."
With just that, the boy scrambled for his stuff. Everything on the desk rang alarm bells inside my mind that always hated being wrong.
There definitely wasn't so much crap sprawled randomly on the desk.
"...."
One by one, the students left for recess, the last student being a girl named Medea Mender.
Not that I cared enough to remember that name and sear it in my soul.
The only thing my eyes paid any sort of attention to was the boy still scrambling for his stuff.
Sensing that no other child was near me...
Cra—Crackle!
The circuits carved onto the outside of my veins flared open, unleashing a wave of mana well above what the average awakener could handle.
The boy....His silhouette faded, the paper given to me with his own, unnervingly realistic hand also faded.
"...."
A face full of blank emotion reflected back onto the window.
I didn't feel much of anything when staring at myself. Not when the illusion shattered and definitely not when the child played me.
"Interesting...."
An awakener was at this school.
That much was obvious.
But one as young as 12? And one that could alter my perception at that?
"If only I had met him sooner...."
With a drop of my tone, the light in my eyes flickered. Understandably so, because if someone like that was there at my beck and call.
If a person that could alter the perception of those around him and affect even me, so many annoying pricks that ended previous runs due to their insatiable greed would've been on my side instead, making everything far easier.
Jaw clenched, fist tightening as veins sprouted.
'No, that doesn't matter. What matters is that kind of talented person never stepped onto the spotlight, that is the most concerning.'
Before I could even realize it myself.
I had already found my resolution with saving the world conflicting with my innate nature to help those in need.
'Old habits die hard?'
It seemed to be awfully true in this case.
But, there wasn't like anyone here blames me for being worried about a child despite enduring countless failures.
'Just...Mayb—'
Before the thoughts could finish, my hand rippled, clawing at my mouth that was about to part in hypocrisy.
"No, this is just a virtuous act that I decided on making for my conscious self, all for satiating my selfish desire to sleep well at night, knowing that I saved someone."
With those thoughts hypnotizing me into a trance, mindlessly muttering words to remind myself not to suffer for no reason again.
I walk outside the classroom, the holy blessing of Intimidation's mana pulsing harder as a single step that pretended to be cold, recoiled for all to hear.