Chapter 356: Beating Nobles

Meanwhile, in the amphitheater classroom.

Solomon stood behind the main instructor’s desk, resting his hands on the polished wood. He looked out at the forty-eight noble students sitting on the tiered benches.

"Everyone, stand up one by one and introduce yourselves," Solomon ordered, his voice echoing clearly across the hall. "But instead of your names, I want you to state your innate talent rank."

The noble students immediately murmured in protest. They were hesitant and visibly furious at the blatant disrespect. Nobles prided themselves on their family names and prestigious lineages, not just their talent ranks.

Elizabeth, one of the two actual royals in the room sitting in the very front row, did not hesitate. She stood up straight. "B-rank talent," she announced clearly, before sitting back down.

The second royal, a boy with blonde hair sitting on the opposite end of the front row, stood up next. "A-rank talent," he stated proudly.

Following the royals’ lead, the rest of the class reluctantly complied. On the second row, Arthur pushed his spectacles up and stood. "A-rank talent," he squeaked nervously. Beside him, the towering Vanguard student, Maximus, stood up. "B-rank talent!" he declared loudly.

One by one, every single student in the room stood up and introduced themselves exclusively by their talent ranks.

Ironically, it turned out that the haughty noble boy who had previously mocked Solomon’s achievements and claimed that ’talent rank determined everything’ only possessed a C-rank talent.

Once the final student sat down, Solomon nodded in satisfaction.

"Based on your own logic, I will now divide this class," Solomon announced, crossing his arms. "From this moment forward, I will exclusively only be teaching the students in this room who possess a B-rank talent or higher."

Out of the forty-eight students present, only twenty qualified under that strict parameter.

The proxy professor immediately rushed down the aisle, his face flushed with anger. "What do you think you are doing, Solomon?! This is not the way a proper educator teaches! There should be no discrimination or segregation in an academy classroom!"

Solomon leaned casually against the desk. "The Grandmaster told me that I have total authority over this class and that I can use any teaching method I want. There should not be any problems with my curriculum."

"Every single enrolled student has the equal right to learn!" the professor argued hotly.

"I am not kicking the lower-ranked students out of the hall," Solomon pointed out calmly. "They are more than welcome to stay in their seats and listen. I just will not be paying any direct attention to them or answering their questions although I doubt they would ask any."

He gestured toward the tiered seating arrangement. "And is this not how the academy naturally operates anyway? Look at the seating chart. The royals automatically sit in the first row. The high-ranking nobles sit directly behind them, and the lower-ranking nobles are pushed further toward the back. How is my teaching method doing anything fundamentally different from your own institutional hierarchy?"

The professor scowled, struggling to counter the uncomfortable truth. "That is simply how the academy naturally operates based on status! You are changing the academic structure based on arbitrary talent ranks, which is strictly not allowed! If you do not stop this discriminatory behavior immediately, I will record this blatant insubordination in your final performance and mission report!"

Solomon shrugged his shoulders effortlessly. "Record whatever you want. At least I will win this mission the way I want to."

The theory class continued. Marco took the podium next, followed by Kira, and finally Jax.

By the end of the first hour, the pressure of maintaining a cohesive curriculum proved too much for half the squad. Marco and Kira both gave up and dropped out of the teaching mission. They quickly realized that standing in front of a hostile, arrogant classroom and explaining basic combat theory was not their strong suit.

Now, only Solomon and Jax remained in the running. Surprisingly, Jax was incredibly good at lecturing, pacing the floor and explaining defensive shield mechanics as if he had years of actual teaching experience.

Then, it was finally time for the practical lessons. The class moved out of the amphitheater and gathered in the adjacent indoor training arena.

This time, Jax was instructed to teach first. He organized the students into neat rows and ran them through standard shield-bashing drills and defensive formations.

Once Jax finished his segment, Solomon stepped into the center of the padded arena. He grabbed a standard wooden practice sword from the rack and looked at the crowd of nobles.

"I will not be teaching you the regular, boring way," Solomon announced, twirling the wooden blade. "I am going to give you some actual, real combat experience."

He began pacing around the edge of the ring, offering a few pieces of advice while he walked. "In a real dungeon, monsters do not wait for you to find your perfect stance. They do not care about your noble titles. They will exploit your blind spots, attack your footing, and overwhelm your guard with sheer numbers. If you hesitate to strike, you die. Your primary focus should always be on your opponent’s center of gravity."

Solomon walked back to the center of the arena and planted his boots on the mat. "Your objective for this practical lesson is simple. You just have to land a single, solid hit on me. Whoever manages to strike me first will receive one million academy points."

The proxy professor immediately shouted from the sidelines. "You are acting as an official student instructor today, Solomon! You do not have the administrative authority to distribute academy points from the faculty budget!"

"Tch" Solomon clicked his tongue and corrected himself. "Fine. Whoever lands a hit on me will be officially allowed to take a full day off from this class."

He dropped into a relaxed, defensive stance, holding the wooden sword loosely in his right hand. "If you paid attention to the footwork and the mechanical theories I was teaching earlier, you might actually be able to hit me. All of you should come at me at once."

Although the entire class of forty-eight students was present in the arena, Solomon kept his eyes locked entirely on the twenty ’qualified’ students he had selected earlier.

However, now that Solomon had made himself an open target, the twenty-eight lower-ranked noble students eagerly grabbed their wooden practice swords. They desperately wanted to take out their pent-up anger, vent their frustration, and get revenge on the commoner for humiliating them in the lecture hall.

The entire class surged forward, lunging at him simultaneously from all sides, including Arthur, Maximus, and Elizabeth.

Solomon moved like a phantom. He effortlessly dodged, parried, and blocked every single incoming attack from the twenty ’qualified’ students, gently redirecting their blades without striking back, allowing them to test their offensive footwork exactly as a proper instructor should.

As for the twenty-eight arrogant nobles... he fought back.

He didn’t just block their attacks, but also countered them. Solomon moved through their clumsy formations, stepping inside their wide guards and striking them mercilessly with the flat of his wooden blade.

He hit their wrists, smacked their shins, and delivered bruising blows to their ribs. Several students immediately dropped their weapons and backed away, groaning in pain.

Solomon systematically beat the absolute shit out of the lower-ranked nobles, hitting them everywhere to expose their terrible foundations. He specifically targeted the arrogant C-rank boy who had insulted him earlier, hitting him the hardest and the most frequently, leaving the boy covered in rapidly swelling bruises.

The proxy professor immediately blew his whistle and sprinted onto the mat, waving his arms to halt the spar. "What are you doing, Solomon?! Stop this immediately!"

Solomon casually lowered his practice sword. "I am just giving them the practical combat lesson I promised."

The professor pointed furiously at the shivering, whimpering C-rank noble curled up on the mat. "How on earth is battering a student into submission a training class?!"

Solomon shrugged his shoulders, offering a completely innocent expression. "How is it my fault that this C-rank student cannot defend himself against a basic counterattack? I told them talent rank determines everything."

After some intense back-and-forth arguing with the furious professor, and watching the silver-haired boy effortlessly dismantle forty-eight students simultaneously without breaking a sweat, Jax let out a tired sigh and officially dropped out of the running.

"I cannot continue this."

With no competitors left, Solomon was declared the winner of the teaching mission.

’Well... this was easy and it ended in just one day.’ Solomon thought to himself.