The Old Scholar

As the days dragged on, Leilani was still clamping down hard on her students, slowly but surely breaking their problematic parts into smaller pieces she destroyed with ease before breaking them entirely. 

For the past few days, she was determined to break the problems of Michele and Himari which were getting easier for her to handle as she continued to crack down on them. For Michele, it was his belief that because of his superior power he could do anything to anyone and thereby escape any type of actual punishment. To remedy that, Leilani would show him the cost of such arrogance and allow him to openly challenge her, and then crush him without a shred of remorse and even use a bit of torture to help him get the message quicker. For example, when he attacked her after she pressured him for the correct answer after getting so many wrong, Michele leaped out of his seat with fangs and claws drawn only for Leilani to catch him midair by the throat and begin to squeeze tightly, causing him to squirm in pain and his eyes filling with fear like the rest of the class as a purebred vampire like Michele had very strong and dense bone and muscle structure but here he was being squeezed like a fucking ragdoll. He then let out a gasp of pain as she slammed him into a disk made of magical energy repeatedly as punishment, paralyzing him temporarily from the neck down before chucking him at a chair and telling him to get his shit together or else. 

Then there was another time when he tried defending his stance on why he was like this in which he summed it up as "Because I am stronger than them I can do this" Which really irked Leilani who then waved her hand and stripped him of everything that made him a vampire, from his superhuman strength, speed, endurance and high levels of magic before plopping him down in the middle of a field outside of Imperia surrounded by the people Michele had bullied and harassed, and then telling those he bullied to "Get due vengeance" and then displayed the punishment in front of the class via display crystal for all to see and hear. By the end, Michele was bloody and beaten near death, begging for help which Leilani did by restoring everything that made him a vampire before he blacked out. 

After this experience, Leilani and Michele sat down in a secluded room 

"Did you learn your lesson?" She asked him as she sat across him with her legs crossed 

"Mhmm" Michele could only offer a weak set of noise with a shaky nod as he looked down at the floor, clearly still shaken and traumatized by the experience 

"You go back to your old ways again, and I will do this" Leilani said as she placed her hand on his head 

She then flooded him with the most gruesome images of vampires from years past being executed that Michele had ever seen. From being set ablaze after being impaled to being reduced to ash or having their head chopped off before being consumed by fire, or even being torn apart limb from limb by massive tendrils or being turned into mindless slaves before being detonated into nothingness. All of this flooded into him along with the screams and the intensity of the scenes before him, and a constant face in those images was Leilani looking disappointed. 

Reeling from the images after Leilani let go, Michele began to shiver and cry as he glanced up at the woman before him, an executor of her own kind who showed no remorse to those who misused their power, to even be alive at this point to him was a mercy. 

"Will you do your lessons properly and diligently?" She asked as she stared him down

"Yes Ma'am" Michele answered with a quiver 

"Good" 

After dealing with Michele, Himari fell in line rather quickly. After seeing the vampire being tormented extremely in an effort to break him and his problematic personality and attitude, she was inclined to not continue her own manipulative and exploitative personality out of fear of being thrown to the wolves like her batchmate. Leilani noticed this but still punished her in her own way as she just stripped Himari of her magic and forced her to do lots of work that Himari wouldn't normally do such as manual labor like tilling the fields around campus since she came from a family of farmers and actually answering her tests and quizzes which she normally avoided as she forced other students to take them for her.  After a few days, Leilani sat her down in a secluded room just like Michele 

"So. You have been rather compliant nowadays...care to tell me why?" Leilani asked as she stared down the nervous and slightly shaking elf 

"Well...I am not stupid Ma'am" Himari answered, nearly throwing up in fear 

"Mhmm. That doesn't answer the question however. So, answer me" 

"I...I wish to change"Himari answered 

"Uhuh....but is it out of the genuine urge to change or...out of fear?" The Dean asked as she leaned forward 

"....both...Ma'am" 

"Explain" 

"Well....I have seen what my batchmate has been doing and the reprisals you have done to him, which led me to do a lot of self-thinking that made me realize that I as a person will probably meet an even worse fate if I never doing anything for myself and continue to treat others as simply playthings and objects. And so I have decided if I wish to have a future then I have to change for the better" The elf student explained herself as she tried her best to keep her composure, still slightly shivering 

"Mhmm...well that's all well and good but is that all?" Leilani asked as she leaned into her chair 

"No. I also wish to be a person that my family will be proud of and someone deserving of being in this academy...Ma'am" Himari answered 

"Hmmm....if that is the case then I shall let you off with a warning if you were to ever double back on the statements that you made today" Leilani told her as she placed her hand atop Himari's head 

Himari's vision was filled with the screams and flashing images of elves being hung by the neck in front of mass graves, as well as entire elven kingdoms being destroyed by crimson-red arcane beams from the sky bringing death and destruction in their wake. She also saw herself being gutted like a fish and being tossed aside without much thought by large shadowy figures and was also subjected to a lot of gruesome and torturous scenes involving herself. By the end, Himari was at her limit and collapsed to the floor, holding back her insides from spilling out and trying to keep her composure. 

"That is a warning Miss Himari...don't let it become a reality" 

"Yes Ma'am" 

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After dealing with her problematic first years, Leilani then focused on the second years. She had subjected them to a torture she found fitting for them, actually using their heads instead of throwing money at the problem by letting them play Europa Diplomacy and balancing the game with the lessons from the textbooks she had told them to read. And today, she was going to check on their seventeenth restart as she told them if one of them failed in the governance phase and died they all did. 

So far in their seventeenth playthrough of the game, they were all in relative stability and population happiness. And this time around they were finally experiencing the fun part of the game in Leilani's eyes, the war portion of the game. And by the looks of it in her eyes, they had recreated The Great War minus the guns and artillery which were replaced by magi-cannons, magic, and swords and spears. 

"So. What is the report so far?" Leilani asked as she turned to the duo leading the Central Powers 

"Well...I have invested heavily in infrastructure and industry to help bolster my nation. I have built more roads, researched better transportation and building technologies..I am relying on Augustina to bring the military power to this alliance. The Austrian Empire does not have the means as of the moment as the background of my nation hinders me as I need to get rid of the modifiers that give me a horrible army to begin with" Augustine answered as he laid out his nation 

"Mhmm. Augustina?" 

"Well. I have heavily invested in the military per the military tradition background of my nation. My people are happier the more I invest into the military. Although my infrastructure is not as great as Augsutine's I have much more industrial capacity and thereby have a lot of potential in the future, as long as I survive that is" Augustina answered as she also laid out her nation 

"I see, what about you two?" Leilani asked as she glanced a the two blonde students 

"Well....I finally got to finish my industrial build-up and restabilized the Duchy of France after so many turns...I am finally able to shift to military production" Sinece said as she showed her professor her nation 

"And I was able to finish the unification mission of my islands and finish the "Federation" focus mission that grants me more manpower, stability, happiness and more industry, the future of the British Empire is looking bright" Staler said as he looked at Leilani

"Hmmm. Impressive all of you, turning some of the hardest nations to start as into potential powerhouses...but more importantly. It seems you are keeping the population happiness above the required meter I gave...why?" 

The four nobles looked at one another and then at their professor 

"We pondered a lot about the words you gave us Ma'am" Augustine began 

"And we have decided to be nobles who live up to the title. At least start to" Statler added 

"We did a lot of looking back and we can see that we would be nowhere if not for the efforts of the people working for us...and that has been eye opening" Augustine stated

"It has been a driving force for us these past few days to not only master this game but use the lessons we have been reading from the books to apply them when we do return to our homes" Sinece finished 

Leilani had an unreadable expression on her face as she leaned back into a chair as she looked at them. Internally however she was smiling as she was pleased at the change the four of them underwent, they were smart kids since they were all in the second year of college and it was refreshing to her seeing nobles realize their faults and change for the better. She was also impressed that when she read their hearts and minds they were speaking the truth as sometimes nobles speak peachy like this but do not mean it. 

"Very well then..winner of the war gets an additional twenty points in the next quiz. Goodluck and have fun" She told them with a small smirk as she got up from her seat and exited the classroom 

"Thank you Ma'am!" They all shouted in unison while bowing their heads.

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As the days allotted for the Summer Class were winding down, Leilani quickly stepped up the breaking process of the students. This time around she was inside the large forest behind the academy deep within the mountains. She was standing in the midst of heavy foliage while hearing the screams of Smirtina, Liath and Victor in the distance. Considering the time she has on hand, Leilani decided if she was going to teach these bullies a lesson they will never forget, then she was going to do it fast and do it as painful as possible. Hence why she had stripped each of them of their magic and abilities common to their races before letting loose several monsters she made via Carnomancy, these monsters were part of Leilani. as she detached her fingers and turned them into grotesque abominations of flesh that hunted the trio as they fled into the woods, what the trio did not know was that there was tracking magic placed on them by their professor beforehand. 

"Rules are simple, you have thirty minutes to confess every single act of abuse and bullying you performed and to whom while running within the forests, you will be pestered and attacked by your mini-me puppets all the while and they will start off highly aggressive and only by confessing and being genuinely remorseful will they slow down and lower their attack rate. And while that happens you will be hunted down by monsters of my own creation that will try to rip you apart and eat you. Goodluck!" 

"Wait what!-" 

And with a snap of her finger, she sent them running into the wilderness. Of course as they were still in the region where Imperia Academy was, Leilani had a barrier that stopped any actual monsters from entering without her knowledge, and when a monster entered the barrier she killed on site so the kids were still pretty much safe except for the carnomantic monsters she sent after them, while scary and frightening to look at, they were just there to scare them and if the kids had the balls to stand up to one, then it would attack and do some serious damage. Damage that Leilani could repair with a flick of her wrist but she knew that neither of the trio really had the balls to do that or were stupid enough to try it. 

The first one to break was the centaur as Smirtina, while galloping in fear, tripped and flipped over as she snagged herself on some vines and some sharp branches that caused her to lose her balance and fall into a small clearing. She looked up as tears ran down her face as she saw a massive wolf-like creature up on the branches of one of the trees looking down at her. It had no fur but instead flesh and no eyes but instead eyestalks sticking out of the sockets, the spine and limbs of the creature were covered in sharp jagged teeth and the mouth spewed forth tendrils that began making their way to the fallen centaur. 

"I'm sorry! I am sorry for everything I did to my batchmates Melissa, April, Malike and Natasha! I was just jealous of them and so I was the one that spread awful rumors about them and tampered with their class project submissions! I was the one who also made fun of Ristess' familial financial situation which caused her to commit suicide! I was wrong! I was wrong!!!" She shouted as her mini-me puppet landed blows all over her body, nearly breaking her confession, with it stopping its assault after the confession 

Smirtina held her breath as the tendrils hovered near her, small tongues came out and hovered in the air. The tendrils then retracted into the wolf-like creature before it leaped from the tree branch and landed near the centaur. Giving her a growl before it ran into the deep foliage behind her, leaving Smirtina as she broke into a crying fit as she was thankful to be alive. A moment later, Leilani appeared before her and looked down at the crying girl with an unreadable expression 

"Ristess is not dead. She tried to commit suicide that is true, but she did not succeed as I stopped her. You know what to do now no?" Leilani asked her

"Mhmm" Smirtina nodded as she wiped her tears away 

"Whether she forgives you or not is a different story, but for now, as long as you are genuine in your feelings. I will allow you to continue to be in this academy" 

"Thank you" Smirtina voiced as she keeled over and bowed her head to the ground before Leilani

The same story played out for the other two, with Liath confessing bloodied and bruised after he tried to fight the grotesque fleshy troll-like abomination sent after him, with him being beaten by a tree trunk that the abomination picked up. He genuinely confessed with a lot of remorse to beating up a lot of freshmen he was able to name and confessed to forcing his batchmates to pay him for protection money. After the confession, the mini-me puppet stopped hitting him and just like Smiritina, Leilani appeared before him and told him the same thing she told the centaur about being allowed to stay in the academy on the condition of him reforming. The last one to confess was Victor who tried his best to avoid the fleshy abomination of a arachnia that chased him, he made the rookie mistake of punching his mini-me puppet that stunned him and paralyzed him as he hung from a tree branch. He screamed and wailed as he confessed to being the one responsible for forcing his many former friends into doing his work and threatened them with his dragonkin powers if they did not do otherwise. 

Later that night at the balcony of one of the dorms, all three of them were kneeling before her and Leilani had a smirk on her face as she looked at them 

"You all were genuinely remorseful which is good. And you all plan to apologize and reform, which is also good. Now, I shall show you what will happen if you back from those statements and stances" She said as she then flashed images into their minds 

They all screamed in terror as they saw themselves being ripped apart mercilessly by the fleshy abominations that were chasing them, all the while their families, batchmates and Leilani watched with uncaring expressions. By the end, the trio's resolve to do good had hardened and they were all the more determined to actually reform and not be something's food. 

A/N: And here we have Chap 15. We are almost done with the Summer Class Arc and then onto the Tournament Arc before the Expo Arc! I hope you all enjoyed reading this one as much as I had fun writing it and do you wish to see an extra chapter about the 4 nobles playing Europa Diplomacy? I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the rest to come and sorry for the long pause since my equipment was not playing nicely with me for these past few days and if you have any thoughts or comments leave em below! Anyways, Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Day!