"Am I hearing this right?" Matthias questioned me, sitting in his seat in the headmaster's office.
A lavish room with golden art ornaments and an expensive fragrance of wood. Unlike my own office, this one had a light and luxurious vibe.
'Does he have nothing better to do?' I thought, looking at Matthias, who was rubbing his temples with his fingers, trying to calm himself.
'I can't believe a guy like this is a clearance six mage,' I thought.
"I don't know what this is about, but I did settle the matters with the kids. They're calm now, perpetrators did face punishment for unauthorised duel-" I said, leaning back, yawning with my mouth covered with palm.
"You know that's not what I'm talking about, Marcus," Matthias said.
"I let you be the professor because you had talents, not just because your father and I were friends. Sure, you became a head professor with your own wits, but this attitude of leniency…it needs to halt," Matthias spoke.
"They're just children-"
"They were GAMBLING on a duel, Marcus, and that is not acceptable," Matthias didn't let me speak.
'What a nag!' I thought.
"And you? A head professor, instead of putting a stop to the act, or stopping the whole duel and gambling culture, you go there, and place bets instead?"
"Technically, it wasn't me who placed bets, it was my students," I replied.
"They placed a bet on your advice." Matthias countered.
'Did they snitch?' I thought.
"No, they didn't, I have my ways to know what's happening in my academy," Matthias continued, as if he read my mind.
"Principal Matthias, you make it sound like I'm running a casino. It was a duel, not a war." I said, leaning in to look him in the eyes.
"You're seeing rot, not motivation. Children gamble because they care who wins, they care enough to risk something."
"Isn't that better than apathy? Better than them sitting in their dorms, pretending to study,"
"According to me, discipline without spirit is just obedience."
"And obedience without thought? That's slavery. I'd rather have them thinking, scheming, even better, because that would mean they're engaged, and isn't that engagement, that growth, that spirit, what we're supposed to cultivate?"
"Marcus, don't play word games with me," Matthias spoke.
"You're clever, Marcus. You're too clever. You hide behind wit, behind that casual shrug, but I know you." He continued, pointing at me.
"Wit is just a higher form of sarcasm, and I don't think being humorous should be an issue…" I replied.
"Oh, I'm loving your sarcasm..." Matthias spoke, though his expression suggested he was anything but amused.
"You know what? I have a present just for you... since you entertain me so much with your wit," he continued.
"Wait..." I whispered, sensing a trap.
"Effective immediately," Matthias ignored my plea, a black file manifesting on the desk before me. "You are taking full responsibility for the Vanguard Expedition."
"Vanguard Expedition? Why me?" I asked.
This wasn't just a field trip. The Vanguard was where the elite third-year cadets were sent to explore the Rifts, unstable cracks in reality that bled into the borders of Hell. Lower-ranked demons crawled through those cracks, driven by a primal hunger for human flesh.
The people of this world classified them as 'D to S-Rank' terrors. They didn't realise that in the true hierarchy of Hell, these were mere bottom-feeders. They couldn't know, because no one had ever survived long enough to pass the Threshold. And with Heaven sealing itself off, the Rifts only ever led to Hell.
"Why you?" Matthias stepped toward me, tapping a finger on my shoulder. "Because you value 'spirit' and 'risk' so much. Besides, it'll put the cadets at ease. They'd rather have a professor they 'trust', one who isn't a 'mean man' leading them into a death trap."
He gave me a final, mocking pat on the shoulder and walked out of his own office, leaving me with the black file.
"So..." I murmured to the empty, gold-trimmed room. "Am I being disciplined for not disciplining my students? Or for helping them gamble?"
.-.-.-.-.-.
Back in my office, I poured myself a glass of wine and opened the black file, reading the details and names of the students who are going to be a part of the expedition the coming weekend.
'Most of them are from my batch, the one I'm homeroom teacher of,' I thought, because almost everyone in the expedition was a student council member.
'I guess that's why they hold a strong influence among cadets,' I thought.
Time passed as I read the details of the mercenaries hired for protection. Even church Knights, and the fact that there's a signature of Violet, the new saintess, that she'd look at the children who come back after an expedition for any traces of persistent curses or powers.
"You really don't live a normal life even in disguise, don't you?" I heard a familiar voice from the couch that was in the corner of my room.
"Orochi~" I murmured his name. His golden lizard-like eyes were gleaming in the dark corner of the room as he observed me.
"I wonder where you disappear to, time to time." I said, leaning back.
"You know where I go," He said.
"Right…A man in love, I forgot," I replied.
"You know what they say- Love and Shame, the shackles of Slaves," He said, closing his eyes and resting his head on the couch.
"Guess you're a slave to someone then," I said.
"Maybe," he replied.
"I see you've made quite some progress with your training," he said. "But you're still not able to manifest a shape with your aura,"
"Well, thanks to you, I feel like I'm starting from square one." I said, sipping the wine as it hit my tongue with a sharp taste, then softened into a faint warmth that lingered at the back of my throat.
"It's time for the next lesson, disciple!" Orochi emphasised that word deliberately.
'Oh, how I pity those who think that being in a fantasy world would be fun…' I thought and nodded. "After you~"