Reborn As The Minor Villain In A Romance Fantasy Novel

Chapter 286: National Research Institute

Bethany dropped her phone on the table as she took a deep breath and looked at the class of students that were muttering among themselves excitedly.

She raised one hand to her chest and a small blush creeped onto her cheeks as her heart raced.

'I actually talked with Lady Luna…' She thought, Luna's voice was as beautiful as it was on stream… there was just something about it that made her heart shiver with excitement.

As the teacher, she had to talk to the parents of both children and resolve the situation that had been settled with a swift apology from both sides…

Initially she wanted to talk to Lucius directly, however Freya didn't give him her number but the number of Luna instead and she had reported what Freya did to the Runenforscher boy… Luna thanked her graciously for settling the matter and even promised her an exclusive drone for herself as a token of appreciation, it made her legs tremble with joy too.

However Bethany cleared her throat and dropped the phone before turning to the class with professional composure.

"All of you… quiet down now." She said as she placed a hand on her waist authoritatively. "Since we've finished Mana Theory for today, pull out your math textbooks. We'll be doing class work today."

There were rustles as all of the students pulled out their math textbooks from their bags, Freya particularly leaned over to where she had kept her backpack and took out a brand new Math textbook, placing it on her table as well as her math set carefully.

Vanessa had gotten all of these for her and she was grateful for her mama… which was why she had studied really hard to ace all the questions, definitely not because she was promised a whole tour of the Grimmaw Guild headquarters if she got everything correct today.

'Still Miss Bethany is very suspicious…' Freya thought, not in that sense but rather, she felt as if the woman just wanted her Papa's number because when Freya had given her Luna's number instead, she had been visibly a little disappointed. 'I better guide Papa away from her carefully.'

Lucius was a good man with many women, however Freya didn't know how she felt having her class teacher as one of her mamas.

She looked over at Shiori, her own textbook was not empty like Freya's. The class had obviously done some class works before she transferred in.

'I see…' Freya thought. 'Shiori doesn't look like she does that good with Math… I'll do what a good best friend would do for her.'

"Shiori." Freya whispered and the shy girl turned to her with wide eyes. "Don't worry, you can come to my house later today and I'll teach you some math properly."

"Teach me…?" Shiori blinked in surprise and then her face turned happy and bright. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Yes, my Mamas can even help out too." Freya added and Shiori smiled happily however her smile died down immediately when Miss Bethany stood over them, glaring at them like a hawk watching its prey.

"Shiori and Freya… Did you hear me? Open to Page 36 on your textbooks." She said sternly and walked off, making Shiori let out a sigh of relief.

Both girls opened to Page 36 on their Math textbooks and there was a topic there clearly written.

Bethany was holding her own version of the textbook and turned to the board with chalk in hand.

"Today we'll be dealing with Mana Word Problems, and study extra hard here too. It'll come out during your tests next week." She said, making several students in the class groan loudly. "Are your books open?"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Good job… remember if you get a high mark on this classwork, I'll give you a gold star. You can show off that gold star to your parents and they'll be sure to buy you whatever you want." She encouraged and their eyes shone with determination.

Freya placed a hand on her chin thoughtfully… If she got that gold star, did that mean her papa would do whatever she wanted to do?

'A gold star from school… Papa would definitely be proud of me.' Freya thought with excitement.

"We'll solve the first problem together as an example…" She said as she wrote it on the board clearly.

Question 1: An awakened's mana core can hold 400 units of mana. After using lightning magic in battle, they have 280 units remaining. What percentage of their mana do they have left?

"Does anyone know how to get it…? It's just like the ones we did yesterday." She said and then glanced at Freya, she wasn't around yesterday so obviously, Bethany would need to explain properly.

One student raised his hand eagerly however Bethany smiled at the Runenforscher boy sympathetically.

"Don't worry, Darren. We'll go through it together so everyone understands." She turned to the whole class. "Alright class, let's work through question 1 together." Miss Bethany said as she wrote on the board clearly. "What's the problem?"

The class replied quickly in unison.

"An awakened's mana core can hold 400 units of mana. After using lightning magic in battle, they have 280 units remaining. What percentage of their mana do they have left?" All the students repeated together.

"Now, when we're finding a percentage, we need to ask ourselves: what portion of the total do we have?" She explained while writing on the board methodically.

"First, let's identify what we know: The Total mana capacity is 400 units and the Mana remaining is 280 units"

She wrote the formula on the board in large letters: Percentage = (Part ÷ Whole) × 100

"In this case, the 'part' is the mana remaining, which is 280 units. The 'whole' is the total capacity, which is 400 units."

She wrote out the steps clearly:

Step 1: Divide the remaining mana by the total capacity 280 ÷ 400 = 0.7

Step 2: Multiply by 100 to convert to a percentage 0.7 × 100 = 70

"So the awakened has 70% of their mana remaining."

Miss Bethany turned to the class with a warm smile. "Does everyone understand the process?"

"Yes ma'am! It's really easy!" Several of the students let out as they nodded their heads and she looked at Freya who had a look on her face.

"Freya, do you understand?" She asked and Freya gave a curt nod confidently.

'Understand? I've solved all the questions in my head already… That gold star is mine.' She thought proudly, wondering how her Papa would react when she showed him the gold star with excitement.

She wanted to see the smile on his face when he saw how smart she was.

"Alright, all of you begin now!" She let out and everyone took out their pencils and began writing diligently.

They had to start from Question 2 to Question 6 since there were only 6 questions on the page… Freya glanced at the question 2 on her page.

Question 2: A Guild receives 1,800 units of mana crystals from clearing a B-rank dungeon. They divide them equally among 6 awakened members. How many mana crystals does each member receive?

'Easy… 300 mana crystals.' She thought and blurred through to Question 6 rapidly. It was a mix of problems like the ones that were on the board and simple division… she finished all of them and dropped her pencil down making Shiori flinch beside her.

'She's… done already?' Shiori thought in shock, she was struggling with question three… and her friend was already finished with everything?

Freya gave Shiori a warm smile as she lifted her book over to the girl and whispered quietly.

"Alright Shiori, copy up before Teach sees us…" Freya whispered and then thought proudly. 'Papa! I hope you'll get me a mountain of gifts for being such a good girl who helps her friends!'

Shiori's face turned red with gratitude as she quickly began copying Freya's answers into her own notebook.

…

Lucius sneezed as he sat in a limousine comfortably.

"I guess someone's thinking about me." He muttered and Ayela rolled her eyes at him.

"Boss, it's just a superstition… Besides, we need to focus on the mission at hand."

The other captains including Cassie in the Limousine nodded as well in agreement.

It was quite an important mission… the Supreme Guild had been commissioned for protecting the President and his wife and his daughter as they were coming to Northcrest for the Grand Opening Of The National Awakened Research Institute.

The place was big and had a lot of space so a lot of regular people could come in as well to watch.

"What was the mission again?" Lucius asked with a yawn while stretching. "Oh and when is the Ice Cream Machine coming to the office?"

He had written an official document with signatures and all to ask the Council to supply an Ice-cream machine to the bland Guild Office.

The reply had come however he didn't even get to see it before he was dragged off for this mission by Ayela.

The purple haired captain, Nadia Korvel cleared her throat professionally.

"It was accepted by a Council member and they're bringing a top-grade Ice-cream machine over to our place after we complete this mission with a respectable grade." She said and Lucius sat up properly while rotating his neck with satisfaction.

"Alright, lay it on me girls."

Ayela chuckled at his sudden enthusiasm.

"The President is coming today for the opening of the National Awakened Research Institute's Grand Opening though he himself has received a lot of death threats from people online and offline too… so he requires us to protect him and his family." Ayela said seriously. "He is an unawakened after all."

Nobody hated him for it though, it showed that even a mundane man could govern a country successfully.

'He is?' Lucius thought skeptically, he really doubted that since the President's body gave off mana, just like the average Awakened.

But did that concern him? No. He just wanted to do his job and get done with it quickly.

The Limousine pulled up to the tall research institute and there were a crowd of people surrounding them immediately with excitement. Some were slowly watching and pressing their cameras against the windows of the Limousine but they couldn't see through the dark tint.

They had a lot of questions to ask Supreme Guild however Lucius was not in the mood of questions so he teleported himself and the girls inside the Institution using his spatial abilities.

"Alright, the plan states that you'll be with the President and his family for close protection. There has been a leak of information about five or so assassins that would be attacking here today so we all have to be on guard." Ayela finished the briefing seriously. "There are about five floors here, including the ground floor so how about all of us split between the floors? There are important artifacts on each floor and I'm sure the assassins would want to target those as well."

"Alright, I agree with the plan. Best of luck to all of you… make sure we get it done properly. I need my Ice cream machine." He said and waved them off before walking up front to wait for the President's arrival.

'Boss didn't even look at the commission details… we're being paid six million royals for this, we couldn't fail even if we tried.' Ayela thought but she wanted to make him proud of their performance.

"You heard him girls." The fourth captain, Iris Flamel who had crimson hair said with authority. "Move out to your assigned positions."

The captains dispersed to their floors: Cassie took the second floor, Nadia took the third floor, Iris took the fourth floor and Ayela took the fifth floor.

Each of them had a communication device in their ear to stay in contact.

…

It took ten minutes for the president to arrive in his motorcade, and there was a whole crowd of people waiting eagerly… both Mundane citizens and the news people with cameras. Everyone seemed very excited for this historic moment.

The President stood in front of the red ribbon that was officially opening the place with a big ceremonial scissors in his hand.

Lucius stood behind him to the left, scanning the crowd carefully for any threats. His spatial awareness was spread out across the entire area, monitoring for any hostile intent or unusual mana signatures.

The President cleared his throat and began his address.

"Good afternoon, citizens of Aurelia. Today marks a momentous occasion in our nation's history."

He gestured to the building behind him proudly.

"Hundreds of years ago, the first dungeon gate appeared in our world. Hundreds of years ago, the first human awakened to mana. In those centuries, our world has changed in ways our ancestors could never have imagined."

He paused, looking out over the crowd with sincerity.

"We've faced threats that would have destroyed civilization completely. Dungeon breaks that killed thousands in mere hours. Monsters that we had no weapons to fight against. But humanity adapted. We awakened. We formed guilds to protect ourselves. We learned to fight back against the darkness."

His voice grew stronger with conviction.

"But for too long, we've treated awakening as a mystery. Something that just... happens to the lucky few. We've accepted that only one in a hundred people will awaken. We've accepted that we don't know why some awaken at eighteen while others never do. We've accepted that we don't understand the very power that protects our world from annihilation."

He leaned forward slightly toward the microphone.

"That ends today."

The crowd murmured with anticipation.

"The National Awakened Research Institute represents our commitment to understanding the unknown. To progress. To ensuring that the gift of awakening can be studied, refined, and perhaps one day, shared more broadly with humanity."

He raised a hand as some protesters in the back began shouting angrily.

"I know there are concerns. Ethical questions about studying something so fundamental to human nature and existence. Fears about what we might discover about ourselves. Questions about who controls this knowledge and how it will be used."

His voice became firm and authoritative.

"But I ask you this: would you rather we remain ignorant forever? Would you rather we never understand why dungeons exist or where they come from? Never learn how to predict dungeon breaks before they kill thousands? Never discover if there's a way to awaken more people to defend our cities and protect our loved ones?"

He let that sink in as the crowd quieted.

"This institute will operate under strict governmental oversight and international scrutiny. Every discovery will be made public and transparent. Every experiment will follow international ethical guidelines. This is not about creating super-soldiers or government control over awakening. This is about survival. About progress. About ensuring our children inherit a world where they don't have to fear the next S-rank dungeon break wiping out entire cities."

He gestured to the building again proudly.

"Inside these walls, the brightest minds in awakened science will work to answer the questions that keep us up at night. Why do dungeons appear? What is mana? How does awakening work? Can we predict who will awaken? Can we prevent dungeon breaks before they happen?"

His voice rose with passion and determination.

"Some say we shouldn't question these things. That we should accept the world as it is and not disturb the natural order, but humanity has never been content with ignorance. We explored the oceans when they seemed endless. We reached for the stars when they seemed unreachable. And now, we will understand the very power that flows through our awakened defenders and protects our civilization from extinction."

He looked directly at the cameras with intensity.

"To those who fear this research… I understand your concerns completely. Change is frightening. But remember: every healing potion, every mana crystal, every piece of awakened equipment we use today came from someone asking 'why' and 'how.' This institute is simply the next step in that journey of discovery."

He smiled warmly at the crowd.

"To the scientists who will work here… you carry the hopes of millions on your shoulders. Your research will save lives. Will protect families. Will ensure that the next generation of awakened is even stronger than this one."

He picked up the ceremonial scissors with both hands carefully.

"So today, as I cut this ribbon, I do so with hope. Hope that the answers we find here will make our world safer. That the knowledge we gain will protect our children. That the research conducted in these halls will ensure humanity's future."

He positioned the scissors at the red ribbon carefully.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to declare the National Awakened Research Institute officially open!"

He cut the ribbon, and the crowd erupted in applause and cheers however the next moment there was a loud boom sound as a mana-enhanced bullet soared through the air with incredible speed, it moved instantly with the massive force of mana behind it and soared directly to the President's head with lethal intent.

He could only widen his eyes in shock as the bullet was about to collide with his skull however Lucius reached out casually and grabbed the bullet mid-flight with his bare hand, it continued spinning violently in his palm however it didn't break through his grip and then it stopped completely making Lucius flick it back to the sniper in the distance with enhanced spatial force, destroying his head in one go brutally.

Blood splattered across a rooftop a kilometer away.

The crowd gasped in horror and confusion at the sudden attack.

"Alright Old man… let's continue with the ceremony as originally planned." He said with a calm confident smile to the President, as if nothing unusual or dangerous had happened at all.