Heaven's Greatest Professor

Jenni rested her runic stylus and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She stretched her fingers, clasping her palms together. She had been doing regular runesmith work for about six hours straight.

Agnes had forbidden her from entering any Individual trials. While Jenni still wanted to, she didn't have it in her to go against the captain's wishes. Perhaps she might have survived the trial and gained something out of it, possibly something to regain her lost power. However, Jenni would have lost a friend in the process if she were to enter the Individual trial without her wishes.

Besides, she only needed essence to regain her lost power—something the Essence Vein could solve in time. So Jenni didn't take unnecessary trouble. Instead, she entered a group trial with the woman from Azalea Garden.

While group trials had their own set of dangers as well, the percentage of people coming out alive from them was easily double that of the Individual test. Still, she had to explain herself a lot to Agnes to let her go.

They had merely spent a couple of weeks in the subspace and had known each other for only a month or so, yet she had grown so close to her through all the danger and threats they had to overcome. Honestly, she had become more dependent on the captain. But knowing her more from close by only made Jenni respect her more.

On that matter, Jenni had failed to find the person who was the main string that connected her with Agnes. She didn't think he had fallen. Even if this place was filled with insidious threats on top of the forsaken problem, she believed Warden was skilful and crafty enough to advance unhindered. He was a Master Runesmith, for God's sake, irrespective of his rank.

Jenni did not fault admitting that she hated the guy since the day of their first meeting, mostly because of how full of himself he was and how hellishly demanding he was. Later, she learned he had the skill to be full of himself, being a Master Runesmith and all.

In no time, he had been growing on her. Well, most of it was because of his cooking skills, and those heavenly delicious desserts, and how he defended her a couple of times. She didn't know how, but the guy exuded an aura of confidence and dependence that you could count on, and put you at ease.

She had not seen him among the crowds that entered the subspace, nor had he joined them in the second layer if he had entered later. When Jenni asked Agnes about him, the captain smiled softly to reply that he would be there when she needed him.

"Well, I need him now," she mumbled. "Where's that masochist?"

She lay flat on the ground with all the instruments and finished constructs for a few minutes before Lady Cassandra came to check on her.

"Jenni, are you feeling alright?" the woman asked as she came near to check on her.

"Not as bad as I hoped," Jenni said, sitting upright. "I'm done with this batch of work."

Cassandra studied her face and nodded. "Good," she said. "I'll call up some soldiers to carry them to the wall."

It had been a week since they entered the Group trial, six of them—four from the original Azalea group with the addition of Jenni and May—the half-elven healer. They had been short on healers after a couple of members of Azalea Garden perished. Thankfully, May presented herself after completing her Individual trial in no time.

Honestly, it was all Lady Cassandra's charisma. She simply asked Marcus—the leader of the team May was part of—too endearingly that he even presented himself to come up with them. Unfortunately for the poor fool, they lacked a healer, not a muscular brute.

They had another healer in their team—the janitor guy, who had healed her after the dark essence inflicted on her. His healing power was likely not as rounded as May's, but still good enough to heal any of the team. Marcus had been planning to send him to them instead of May, who was the permanent member of his crew. Unfortunately, the guy hadn't been coming out of his trial.

After discussing and gathering information from everyone's trial, they had found the time dilation could stretch to 36 days to one inside the Subspace, which was more than one day for over a year outside the rift.

They had waited for him for a day, but the Janitor hadn't emerged from his trial. Cassandra seemed to have some connection with him as well. They grew closer when they forced their way into the second layer against overwhelming odds. Something told her that Lady Cassandra wanted him in their team more than May.

Honestly, Jenni too, for some reason. Well, she had a familiarity with him. He had healed her, and seemed to have a good relationship with Agnes, and...

A frown crept to her brows. Why did it feel like she was describing the same person twice?

Confused, Jenni closed her eyes and refreshed her memory to imagine both of the faces side by side in her mind's eye. First came the smiling face of the master runesmith, his shoulder-length grey hair left clumsily, his purple eyes gazing intensely.

Then there was the common-looking exterior of the healer, who had no unique feature other than his rich healing power to stand him out. Weirdly, it was hard for her to remember his face, and Jenni had never been weak in this aspect. She couldn't even visualise his hair colour, was it common dirty black, or...

"Jenni, is something wrong?" Lady Cassandra asked, but she paid no mind to it.

Jenni reviewed the two illusory images in her mind's eye. The healer was a little shorter compared to Warden, but not by a lot in her memory. However, she visualised him to be as tall as Warden. Both of the men stood shoulder to shoulder; the aura they exuded became similar. The hair colour of the healer turned to dirty white, or rather grey, as her eyes widened.

"What in the actual fuck!" she couldn't help but shout.

"Jenni?" Cassandra came to stand by her, but she stood up in anger.

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She remembered the same cloth wrapped around both of the men's left arms. Now there was no confusion in her mind. She had been played; there weren't two men, but just a man playing two roles... The cloth wrapped around his left arm proved it because Warden used to hide the runic patterns on his arm.

"Fuck," she muttered. "Was I blind or what?"

Of course, it wasn't so simple... She was sure the mysterious master runesmith did something to make it seem so.

Anger surged through her. Not just at the man, but at her inability to see through the illusion that was laid before her eyes.

"But why did he play me like that?" she mumbled, her feelings getting worse with each moment. But the worst of all was that without confronting the man in question, she couldn't come up with the right answer.

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Prolly going to move update time to this...