King's Academy for the Prodigious

Hmmm, yes, indeed that shall be your plan of action! The students needed you, so you shall answer. As a teacher it was your duty and obligation to help out the wayward young ones and set them straight.

You silently nodded to yourself as you prepared for you afternoon classes. The school day was about to be over, you thought to yourself that you did a pretty good job on your first day.

Speaking of that, there were a couple of new hires that you should get acquainted with one of these days. A day was when the sun came down, but according to the calendars humans have many days in what they call a year. So yes, you have many days to make acquaintances of your fellow new teachers.

But right now, you had a more pressing matter to attend to.

It was the last period of the day, so you had to act soon.

At the corner of the abyss in the place of your eye, you spotted the easily-frightened white-haired boy, Zeke. Coincidentally, he happened to have your class for the last period of school. For some reason, whenever you glanced his way, he seized up and began shaking. Like one of those fluffy animal thing, those hippity-hoppity furballs. What were they called again? Mice?

Ah yes, he reminded you of a mouse, those white furry creatures you saw in several of the school's laboratories.

He was even shaking like one too, exactly like how those lab rats shook when Miss Maxwell was preparing one for her arcane demonstration.

You never knew that Nexus' animals' bodies were easily as malleable as your own.

As the last bell rang, you began your plan of action. You called the boy over to you.

"W-What did you need, Miss Gigi?" Zeke stuttered. He seemed to find the board behind you much more interesting to look at.

"I've talked with Zon regarding the entrance exam earlier today." You stated. "He told me of the relationship you, him, Tycho and the others had."

"Oh, did he? It's not like we did anything bad." The boy said, hand scratching the back of his head. "I mean, what we did was in the school's rules. Tycho made sure to find out if it was legal and everything!"

"The entrance exam? Oh no, no, no, that wasn't the part I wanted to talk about." You clarified, shaking your manipulators side to side to signify that wasn't what you wanted to talk about. "I want to talk to you about why Zon wanted to, as he would put it, do everyone a favor by punching Tycho in the face."

"I-I don't know about that! Why would I know about that." The scratching intensified. "I have nothing to do with that. We were just people that knew each other during the exam, that's all!"

You tilted your head.

Curious, he seemed to be perspiring more than a normal teenager of his species and age would.

"But according to Zon's story, it was your eyes that led Tycho, Yu and you to Aodinia and him." You said.

"Yes, that is uhh true." He answered, eyes still wandering all over your classroom but you. "But what would that have to do with why those two are fighting. I was just using my eyes to get an advantage on the test. Like all the other people who were in that exam."

You nodded your head, that was in line with what Zon had shared with you. However, there was something that made you curious.

"Of course, Headmaster King encouraged the younglings to prove themselves with whatever methods they could think of, in a way that wouldn't break the rule at least." You stated, paraphrasing the rules. "But with those eyes, you could have find other people to team up with."

"No one would have teamed up with Yu and me…" A look of sorrow came to the boy. "We were lucky when Tycho found us."

"Oh, it was Tycho who approached you?" You asked.

"I-I mean, I found him and asked him to join Yu and me. Yeah, that was it!" The boy nodded his head vigorously. Any harder and his head would have flown off its atlas and axis vertebrae.

"But now, you just said Tycho found you guys." You said, pointing his immediate contradiction.

"I uhhh. Yes, I mean no! I found him and convinced him to join us by telling him about my [eyes]. Yeah, that was it. Ehehehe…" Zeke laughed weakly.

You leaned in and stare.

He jumped away with a squeak.

"Please, Miss Gigi, don't do that! You're kinda-I mean, I don't like being stared at like that. It's uncomfortable." Zeke said, his voice hitching up.

"Sorry, it's a coaxing method that I have found to be effective in getting my students to talk lately." You answered, turning your facial area a bruised, vibrant red to simulate a blush to demonstrate your embarrassment. You backed off correspondingly.

"However, your scent." You circled around him, mimicking the facsimile of olfactory organs. "It smells of a scared animal. Are you afraid of something?"

The boy jumped back, turning his head from side to side, looking like he was caught in a corner like a rat.

"I'm not! And I approached Tycho of my own free will and recruited him!" The boy fumbled on his words, refusing to budge on this issue anymore. "I totally did. You can ask Yu about it too!"

You nodded your head, crossing your fleshy appendages together. You had a feeling that he will beat around the bush, as they say.

"I see, that will be all. You can go now, Zeke. Stay safe." You waved farewell.

"O-Okay? I mean, see you tomorrow too, Miss Gigi." The boy let out a breath and quickly absconded from your classroom with the speed of an average human male his age whose epinephrine was circulating vigorously in his veins.

You cleaned up your workstation, carefully putting your lesson plans and gradebooks in your desk. The invisible magic sigil briefly revealed itself as it locked your desk from curious passersby. Assistant Headmaster Amet had assured you that the magic lock was more or less impossible to crack by the students, and he had never been wrong before so you were inclined to believe him.

You slithered out of your classroom, and began your journey.

The student directory.

Indeed, while the students were leaving to go home, or go back to their rented apartment complexes in the nearby. However, some students decided to live on campus for the duration of their study.

You had questioned Zeke, but Yu and Aodinia were still out there. You don't know about their living situation, but it was within your right as a teacher to know of it if it was for the sake of your student's welfare.

Which this case of yours certainly was.

You waved your manipulator to anyone passing by you in the hallway. Being friendly was the first step to integrate yourself in normal society after all.

It was a couple of stairways and a few moment of aimless wandering that you finally found the student directory in the school's archive. That nice little dwarven lady managed to point you in the right direction when you were lost. That janitor was mean, giving you false directions like that and complaining about how you made his job harder by crashing through the window.

You shuffled through those very big books of records, skimming each cover for the relevant school year.

No...That one was four years ago. Not that one either, that was just the school's budget. Where was it...Ah! There was it, this year's student's directory.

You sifted through the pages, finding your homeroom and looking for names of relevant students.

Your manipulator gently slid down and across each page, treating the book with reverence. Amet would be very angry if it was destroyed. Even Headmaster King warned you not to get on the normally calm and gentle Assistant Headmaster's bad side.

Let's see… Yu Jianyi and Aodinia Yoyorio.

Unfortunately, they did not live in the campus' dormitories.

They lived in the nearby town of Pleasant Grove. Yu with his parents, and Aodinia renting an apartment.

You thought of going to town and have a nice chat with the both of them, but Amet warned you not to go anywhere near it.

Your Aura of Terror would cause a massive panic attack, or even worse, incite a riot. The majority of the townspeople would lose their minds from looking at you.

You closed the book with a huff and placed it back neatly on its shelf.

Coincidentally, you also found out that Tycho and Zon lived on campus. You've already talked with those two, so you would let them be. For now.

You slithered out of the room and began making your way back to your assigned living quarter within the school's basement.

However, on the way there, in a dimly lit hallway, you saw something interesting.

It was Kei and his three friends talking with what you assumed to be a couple of upperclassmen. You noticed that Kei was perspiring more than usual, but ultimately pay it no heed when you saw him locked arms with the senior students. They seemed to be having a good time laughing and cracking jokes.

Although, Kei's older looking friend, Ro'Weinn, seemed to notice your presence and quickly averted his eyes from yours.

Strange.

The group passed a corner and you never saw them again. For the day that is.

After that, you found your ways to your room. It was a sparse stony room, filled with empty shelves and a personalized sleeping pod smack dab in the center. However, in the corner sat a bookshelf that was filled with various books, chief among them were the school's manuals and rule books. You could see the various bookmarks you placed within each and every one of them.

You idly drifted toward your sleeping pod, letting the circuitry and magic sigils lulled you into slumber. You had a lot to do for the morrow, so it was best to rest for now...

----

Day 2 Starts

The birds were singing, trees swaying, leaves drifting, today was a rather windy day. But you wouldn't know, since the first thing you did getting out of your sleeping pod was to make way to your classroom and begin preparation.

Students filtered in, you caught a glimpse of Zeke skittering under your gaze. You looked at Yu, and he did the exact same thing as his friend. You looked at Aodinia, and she quirked an eyebrow at you. Zon stuffed his hands in his pockets, walking with a hunched back to his seat, while Tycho glided across the room with a spring in his step.

Strangely, you felt a gaze from the doorway. Catala's singular clouded eye stares intensely at you. You curiously tilted your head, but then she blinked and walked into class like a normal student. Well, as normal as she could be, what with all those modifications on her uniform.

You went over attendance, noticing how your class seemed much quieter this time around. Steffina and Kei weren't trying to munch each other's face off, although you spotted Kei with his face down on his desk. The others seemed to be staring straight at you wordlessly.

Of course, that must meant that they were paying respect to you! According to the Teacher's manual 'Second Chapter, Annotation 2f, on respect. It is important for the teachers to connect to their student, doubly so for the homeroom teacher and their class. In many cases, you are the first or second person a student will confide in. More broadly, a teacher is like a captain of a ship, responsible for her crew.' Captains are tasty, you idly noted. Gamey like jerkied jerk meat, all trying to steal your stuff or stab at you. '—for her crew. A ship a feared is mutinous, a ship pampered is craven. Beware small rebellions like inattentiveness and small gratuity like sloppiness in equal measure.'

Things went relatively well, they seem more willing to pay attention to you.

But before that, you needed to continue your investigation! However, unfortunately for you, Catala was making a ruckus about how you were a creature from beyond the fifth dimension that wanted to eat everyone's brain, and bombarded you with weird questions regarding your origin. You corrected her at every turn, first that you came from the gaping abyss of the Dimensional Cracks, that you didn't want to eat people's brain, you don't really derive nutrients from that, and so on.

Luckily, as the bell rang, you managed to get a word to Yu and Aodinia to meet you before they went home.

Other than that, your other classes went smoothly as yesterday. Now that you knew that platypi were indeed a thing, your head was no longer distracted by the thoughts of its impossibility.

The two students came as you asked, the evening sun outside the class casting a beautiful shade of red.

"What do you need, Miss Gigi?" Yu timidly asked. Aodinia stared at you with curiosity.

"About the Zon versus Tycho Incident." You rolled the capitalized I in your mouth-analogue receptacle, relishing in the word. Real True Crime detectives are mustachoid and gravelly voiced; you're internally disappointed no one has commented on your updated appearance.

They nodded, both looking rather uneasy. Yu looked this way and that, muttering Zeke's name under his breath. Aodinia glanced at the doorway before sighing, gesturing for Yu to go first.

He jumped, vibrating in place for long seconds, before relating what happened to you. It is much the same as what Zeke said.

Aodinia told her story. "I came from a small village called Glade. The caravan has just arrived the day before the exam and, um, I was really intimidated by the school. Over thirty minutes I saw a pretty masked lady in an elaborate dress, a skeleton in gaudy gold, a very tired-looking upperclassman, a man wearing a strange treasure chest hat and a Monster watering the flowers." She made sure to enunciates the specific terms properly, giving you an apologetic smile before faltering and awawawawawawa bowing repeatedly. Apologies not accepted. Probably. You don't know if Monster is offensive like monster, you'll surely maybe get her back for this slight.

You waved your appendage for her to continue, the nubs along its length cooing softly in an assuredly comforting manner.

With a gulp, she continued. "Then I met Zon, standing still like a statue. His aura reminded me of Potash, an ornery bear that lives near my village. He would come into our village at night and smashed our apiary, gorging himself on honey until he fell asleep." Aodinia said with a fond smile. At your quizzical look, she blushed slightly.

"Anyway, he reminded me of home. I tagged along with him and we teamed up with Yu, Zeke and Tycho. During the physical segment, I sensed no magic from Tycho, no enchantment on Zon. He just seemed to be really good with a knife.

"I'm surprised that Zon got angry about his scores. I thought he did really well too, but that's no reason to accuse Tycho. I saw Zon talking with the TAs, a large man and a small man with horn, this morning in a secluded area in the garden. Unless they were planning a secret assignation—awawawawawawa"

She blushed at her own words. What a strange girl.

Surprisingly, Yu spoke up. "Karlo!? He must have been trying to get permission for an Engagement!"

At your full attention, his voice quavered slightly.

"A-an Engagement is a formal duel between seniors to settle serious disputes, like rights to join the Tournament, ambiguous results for the Student President election and gasp—" He actually said 'gasp'. "—accusation of cheating! It was a very dumb and violent way of resolving conflicts but Headmaster Ace introduced it to his school and Headmaster King was like, well of course we'd need to do that too."

Aodinia gave him an unimpressed look. "That's dumb." "Hey, don't look at me. I didn't make the rule."

"Usually, it's only the teachers that can grant permission for an Engagement. I didn't know a TA can do that too."

The pair debated some unimportant minutiae as you searched your mind for an important deta—

"When is the earliest time the Engagement can be scheduled?"

Yu and Aodinia looked at each other, sharing your realization.

"Tomorrow."

[] Tell Tycho about this development. As a teacher, it was your duty to make sure that your students are sufficiently prepared for all kinds of troubles and obstacles life threw their way. You felt obligated to tell Tycho about the upcoming fight so that he can better prepared himself.

[] Convince Zon to rescind the challenge. As a teacher, you valued students cooperation and harmony above all else. In fighting between classmates will dissolve class unity. You didn't want that to happen simply because you were their teacher. You wanted Zon to not act too eagerly about this.

[] Investigate the TAs, getting them to retract the permission. As a teacher, when this sort of things happened, students should have come to you and not the TAs. You knew that TAs were given many responsibilities to better prepare them for the future. You were quite sure that they shouldn't have this much power though. Plus, Zon didn't seem the type to overlook you.

-----

AN: Thank you to my secret Beta for getting this update out on time, also a message from that secret Beta.

https://i.imgur.com/5loPj6v.jpg

That is all.

P.S: Gonna be updating about once per week, due to exams rearing their head. Hopefully, I don't lose too much steam by then.