The Food Sage - Chapter 14 I Am Sorry That We Are Late

Looking at Jacob and Amelia, Grandpa Galen and Tsubaki both give them a stern gaze and questioned them at the same time, “Do you know what your punishment is?”

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20 minutes later

“Cleeeak.”

“Hello, class!! My name is Jacob, and this isouch, that hurt.” With a sweat-filled forehead and a bloody nose, Jacob opens the door and attempts to introduce himself and Amelia before any unnecessary troubles may arise, again.

Taking a look around the room, Jacob and Amelia are astounded by the sheer size of the classroom; mainly, because of the amount of the students compared to the number of desks available: as Jacob and Amelia into the classroom with bated breaths, the atmosphere tightens as the air visibly thickens with each step they take.

Looking around, Jacob realizes that the designated teacher-in-charge wasn’t on the pedestal and all of the students were grouped into varying sizes before he came; some smaller and others significantly larger. Muttering to himself, he says, “It looks like I didn’t miss much.”

Walking behind Jacob, Amelia stretches her upper body before putting her arm around his neck, “That’s good enough.”

Shocked by the sudden inexplicable action of Amelia, Jacob jerks his body back and hits Amelia in the nose, “I’m so sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to hit you.”

As-if Jacob’s action was entirely reasonable; Amelia lowers her bloodied face and gives a low-nod.

Realizing that the entire classroom’s attention was entirely focused on them, Jacob rushes to check Amelia’s condition. Upon noticing that her face was slightly battered and the blood-stain on the left-most side of her face, along with her bloodied nose, Jacob blankly stares before coming to a sudden realization.

“Oh sh*t, I’m f**ked.”

Rubbing his head in frustration, Jacob gives a loud sigh and paces back-and-forth around Amelia, “What am I gonna do! I think I should go to the nurse with her or something… Wait, I don’t even know where the nurse’s office is in this damned place.”

Finally giving in, Jacob kneels on the floor and starts weeping with tears streaming down his face and snot covering his nose. With a muffled tone of voice, Jacob starts drowning in his own fantasies, “I am so screwed. I’m going to be kicked out of the academy for assault and live in an alleyway at some remote village. I’m going to get assaulted every day… Better yet, I might even go to jail and become a tool for others to vent on.”

‘Whoosh.’

Silently appearing inside the room, a man that looks to be in his early 20’s arrived. He wore an all-black attire in contrast to his long, silvery hair that reached his back. Wearing a pair of boots, long straight pants, and a button-up collar shirt, he walks toward Jacob in an unhurried manner. “Young man, it’s unbecoming of you to drown in your own self-loathing. You need to get up and act like how a student should be: prim and proper, and without the slightest traces of such slovenly mannerism.”

Pausing for a second, the man-in-black glances at Amelia before looking back at Jacob; continuing, he says, “As for this young woman, I care to take it as your fault? Please do me a favor and abstain from such brutish actions again.”

Stopping for a moment, he looks up and around the classroom, glaring at every single student for a couple of seconds; scrutinizing their every action.”Tsk, tsk. I only left the classroom to confirm that I have the schedule for this week and the attendance chart. It hasn’t been more than 5 minutes, but now I have two emotionally distraught and injured latecomers and a couple of cliques.”

“Sigh.”

The man-in-black turns to walk toward Amelia. “Hey, little miss come here. I am going to heal you.”

Patting her gently on the head, the man’s silvery, long hair suddenly turns golden, and his eyes turn light green. Waves of multicolored light burst forth from his body and encapsulate the entirety of Amelia’s body: forming an eggshell, the light releases a hazy golden colored mist inside it.”Relax your body for a moment and let the light enter you. I promise it won’t hurt you.”

Trembling slightly, Amelia does what she’s told and relaxes her body. As the misty light enters her body, her face recovers at a pace visible to the naked eye and the blood seemed to disappear before everyone’s eyes.

A few moments later, the light and the mist disappear from everyone’s view, and the man’s body turns back to normal. Taking a big breath, the man stretches his limbs and then walks to the podium that’s in front of the classroom.

“Hello, class, my name is Mr. Iwaki Shun, and I’m going to be your homeroom teacher for the next six months. I-hello? Anyone?” Watching as only a few students are paying any attention, Mr. Iwaki awkwardly chuckles before waiting for everyone’s attention.

Returning from his reverie, Jacob notices the situation and hurriedly helps to earn some brownie points from the new teacher. Flailing and yelling with all his might, Jacob says, “Everyone, the teacher is talking right now. You should quiet down and listen.”

Not expecting someone to actually help out, Mr. Iwaki looks at Jacob and smiles at him. “Thanks for the help.”

Now that everyone finally noticed him, Mr. Iwaki continued with his introduction, ” As I’ve said before, My name is Mr. Iwaki and I’ll be your teacher for the next six months. I hope that this semester will thoroughly grind all of you down and let you all shine.”

“Cough, cough.”

“Now that I’m back and everyone has had a chance to talk to someone else. Let’s get down to business. We are going to be doing an activity. The point of this activity is to let everyone have a chance to see a glimpse of your true skills. You’re all going to perform one of your specialty dishes, but you will all need to make enough so everyone can have a full one-person portion of the food without any leftovers.”

“Wait a minute!!!! Hold up.” Flailing his arms from the side, Jacob yells in protest, “You haven’t even gone through any of the things that a normal teacher should be going through. Did you even check the attendance properly?”

Stunned, Mr. Iwaki soon breaks into mad laughter. As his laughter resonates across the entire room, all of the students suddenly feel like a massive mountain had appeared in front of them, firm and immovable. “I completely forgot. My bad.”

Not expecting that to be his answer, Jacob suddenly becomes speechless, “I-I-I… I really… Dang, I don’t know what to say anymore.”

Nodding her head, Amelia walks up to Jacob and whispers into his hear. “We should find a seat soon. It’s awkward being in front of the class for so long, and besides, I feel uncomfortable.”

Turning to face her, Jacob realizes that her face seems to be younger than what it originally was. Not knowing what to say at a time like this he decides to just wing it and lets his other brain do the talking for him, “I didn’t know your period had an effect like this. It’s okay though; I can-.”

“OUCH.”

Seeing the look of despair and pain on Jacob’s face, Mr. Iwaki glances at Amelia and smirks before looking back at the class, “I hope everyone can take a seat. I’m going to formally introduce some of our lesson plans for the upcoming week and some more rules that the representatives didn’t speak of. These rules are more specific, so they didn’t need to go over it. This is our job.”

Walking up the stairs and taking a seat, the duo stops and listens attentively to Mr. Iwaki and these new set of rules.

“There are 62 classes, and the classes are split into three main grades: they are graded A, B, and C. The Highest is grade A, and the lowest is grade C. You guys are in-between in grade B. The majority of the classes are in grade C while the minority are graded as A… Let me see. Okay, the next thing I want to talk to you guys about is the credentials and the requirements to move on to the next grade…”

Several minutes later

Raising a hand, one of the students quietly waits to get picked.

“You don’t need to raise your hand, just voice out your concerns in an orderly manner. I will try my best to answer all of your questions.”
for visiting.

Not expecting that response, the girl slowly lowers her hand in embarrassment but continues to ask, “Hello, my name is Jessica, and I was wondering if it’s possible to advance to grade A. Like get a promotion or an advancement of rank before the semester’s over.”

Slowly waving his hand up and down leisurely, Mr. Iwaki sighs. “I said stop with the formalities, I already know who you are, and to answer your question: yes, you can. All of you can advance to grade A before the semester’s over but it’s extremely hard, and you would have to get a team to do that. The team has to consist of 5-6 people in the same grade as you.”

“Any other questions?” Waiting for any additional questions, Mr. Iwaki leans lazily on the podium with his with right arm.

Raising his hand, a male student that looks older than his actual age asks, “I have a question.”

Looking at the student, Mr. Iwaki says, “Go ahead, Jason. Ask away.”

Coughing lightly, Jason gets ready to speak. “Can you go more in-depth with the teams and what we have to do?”

“Ah!!! How stupid of me. Okay, I’ll explain it properly.” Standing upright, Mr. Iwaki’s leisurely mood slowly becomes serious, “According to the procedures that the esteemed Grandmasters have initiated, you first need to acquire a team of 5-6 people that are in the same grade and year as you. After you have done that, you can challenge any teacher that is teaching about food. You cannot challenge any teacher that is teaching something else because that is considered an offense and you can get punished for it. The punishment can be as heavy as expulsion for a misdemeanor, so be careful.”

Raising his finger, Mr. Iwaki continues, “The team can only challenge a teacher once. One challenge per teacher, and one teacher per semester. That’s how it goes. Basically, you have only one chance. However, the heavens are always fair. Since you are challenging a teacher in the first place, it’s already an unfair advantage for us. We let you guys pick the challenge in question, and we will tone it down. For fairness, two elders or one grandmaster will always preside over the challenge.”

Awkwardly rubbing his face, Jason says, “I actually have another question.”

Mr. Iwaki, as-if already knowing what the question is, answers with an affirmative gaze, “Yes, you can challenge girl teachers, and we won’t say anything.”

Stunned, Jason gawks at Mr. Iwaki.

With a victorious smile, Mr. Iwaki continues, “I’m right, right?”

Quickly breaking out of his stupor, Jason can only awkwardly smile at everyone and clear up the misunderstanding. “I-I’m not thinking that. I was going to ask when the deadline for the challenge is for both student and teacher, and ask if we can challenge any elders or grandmasters.”

“…”

“…”

Complete silence enshrouds the entire class as an awkward tension builds up.

Completely lost, Jacob whispers, “Why is everyone so quiet. I was only daydreaming for a couple of minutes.”

“HAHAHAHAHA.”

Laughing, Mr. Iwaki rubs his right eye. “Kid, you have one hell of a way with words. I commend you.”

Looking at Jason, Mr. Iwaki sighs and says, “Looks like comical relief isn’t the best solution after all. But to answer your question, the deadline is the last day of the semester, and you cannot challenge any elders and grandmasters because they are too high of a rank. A teacher can challenge an elder, and an elder can challenge a grandmaster, but a teacher cannot challenge a grandmaster; vice versa, if an elder were to challenge a teacher, then that would be dishonorable on the elders part. I hope that this helped answer your question.”

Nodding his head, Jason breaths a sigh of relief.

Now knowing that he properly helped, Mr. Iwaki continues on, “Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about introducing each and every one of you to the class. You can prepare a specialty dish and give everyone a good sized portion… Please make something edible. I had people last year make bok choy covered in creamy cheese and liquified red radish sauce puree.”

Covering his mouth, Mr. Iwaki suddenly became pale, “I really don’t want to recall that disgusting taste. The combination was utterly horrific, but the food by themselves wasn’t that bad.”

Trying to recover his demeanor, Mr. Iwaki inhales and repeatedly exhales with his eyes closed and his hands clasped together between his chest.

A few moments later

Looking at his class, Mr. Iwaki apologizes and proceeds to give further instructions while letting his students ask a couple of questions.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Pointing at Mr. Iwaki secretly, Amelia looks taps Jacob on the should and asks.

Shaking his head, Jacob firmly refuses to believe that he is in the right mind to teach.

Finishing up, Mr. Iwaki coughs lightly and walks away from the podium. “Okay, class. Follow me. We are going to go to and have some fun now.”

Standing up, all of the students follow Mr. Iwaki dubiously. Not knowing where they are going, the students start talking about what they had just experienced.

“Who is this guy anyway? He acts like such a bigshot.”

“I heard this guy used to be a student not too long ago but graduated at the top of his class.”

“Really? I heard that he graduated early and then came back to work after traveling the world.”

“That can’t be true; I heard that he’s a reincarnation of an immortal. He’s probably a deity but is trying to lay low.”

Listening to all of these, Jacob couldn’t help but chime in. Whispering, he says, “I heard that he’s an undercover grandmaster that is on the verge of becoming a sage. He might already be a sage and has transcended all of his worldly desires.”

With wide eyes, Jason says too, “That can explain a lot, Mr. Iwaki is so smart, looks so handsome and young but is so down to earth. There must be more than meets the eye. I second Jacob’s hypothesis.”

Amid the chaos, Amelia sneaks a glance at Mr. Iwaki and whispers to herself, “I hope we aren’t late. It wasn’t my fault, I blame Jacob.”

Twitching his ears, Jacob replies in a muffled voice, “I can hear you and I’m sorry, okay. Geez”

Listening to all of these rumors, Mr. Iwaki couldn’t help but falter in the face of adversity, “They really think that I traveled across the world and was an immortal’s reincarnation? I must’ve done something terrible in my past life to have such mean students.”