The scent of old parchment and cherry blossoms filled the air as a young man stepped into the library-cafe like classroom—though calling it merely a library felt like a sacrilege.
Towering shelves stretched up into the heavens, cradling tomes bound in leather, silk, and time itself.
Warm golden lamplight spilled from ornate sconces and floating orbs, casting long shadows on the intricate parquet flooring. Rich, wooden desks were arranged in perfect symmetry, each paired with crimson-cushioned stools and opened books.
The atmosphere was hushed, reverent, as if knowledge itself held its breath.
At the center of the room, defying logic and gravity alike, a single crimson-petalled blossom tree bloomed in a glass chalice suspended in midair, in front of it a simple artificial rectangularity pond with a red liquid inside, as the crimson petals gently drifted inside.
It pulsed with a quiet magic, ancient and gentle, a heart beating at the core of this literary sanctum.
Above, walkways and balconies curled around the walls like ivy, offering more books, more wonders—accessible only by spiral staircases and ladders that rolled with a whisper. A portrait loomed high on one wall, its eyes following each visitor with a knowing calm.
This was no mere room of study.
This was a sanctuary for seekers. A cathedral for the curious. A realm where stories lived and breathed—where many people grew from their youngest ages to their oldest, learning the art of war.
The click of the young man's boots were evident on the intricate parquet flooring, as the teacher walked towards a certain spot where a dark-wood lectern stood.
He was dressed in the formal regalia of a university professor: long, deep navy robes trimmed with gold, a stiff-angled bachelor's hat perched atop his head at a slight, rebellious slant.
A golden monocle clung to his left, pitch-black eye, glinting unnaturally in the light—never quite syncing with the illumination of the room.
The other eye was snow-white, aloof and colorless. Not even a pupil Unblinking. Too still.
With indifferent eyes scanning the three present figures that sat in their respected seats, his fingers tapped twice on the lecturn before he grabbed hold of a blue alcohol marker, spinning it once in his hand as if contemplating his next action.
His hand suddenly paused in midair.
He walked towards a white board near him, before the tip of the marker made its way onto the plain, white gleaming board, the droplets of blue evident as he began writing.
He smiled—a soft, professional kind of smile as he admired his handy writing.
It was the the kind of smile that librarians wore before kicking you out of the library for whispering some nonsense.
Three students sat at their desks, the teacher observing them one by one, not a single word spoken since he entered the room, their gazes staring at him as if evaluating him.
He cleared his throat gently, a simple smile still adorning his face.
"Good morning, students, ladies and gentlemen" he said. "It seems fate has dragged me to make me your new teacher. I am your new metaphysical doctrine and divine theory instructor. You may refer to me as whatever you like, but I prefer... Teacher."
Clapping his hands twice, Noel looked around the room before he opened his hand and pointed towards a certain girl that sat in the back, her eyes boring holes into his body as if schrunichinzing him to the last detail.
Noel visibly sweated awkwardly, raising an eyebrow at her odd behavior, his voice stable yet a hint of skepticism evident.
He coughed lightly.
"Young miss, please give us the honor of introducing yourself." He remembered something before adding.
"You can also feel free to talk about your hobbies, or anything about you in general as well. So don't feel shy"
The girl that had been chosen blinked once as she crossed her legs, a snort escaping her on purpose. She had skin pale like frostbitten porcelain.
Her eyes were narrow, dark-amber, glinting with deep, devilish heritage. She sat perfectly straight, arms folded, legs crossed, clear elegance displayed, yet arrogance that did not go unnoticed.
She tucked her white-hair that looked like a gleaming divine waterfall, plucking her lips in obvious disinterest.
Her presence weighty despite her stillness.
Noel felt an immense, brain-shattering headache just by thinking how he would have to deal with her for the rest of the year.
The girl didn't react at first to his question.
She blinked, once—slow and mechanical—then shifted her gaze, not to the teacher, but through him, like she was mentally filing him under temporary.
When she spoke, her voice was calm, precise, and eerily quiet. No trace of playfulness—just clinical disinterest, like she was reading out a weather report for the apocalypse.
"Bellatrix" She spoke, her indifferent and emotionless eyes listlessly assessing the young man in front of her.
"Heir to the Ninth Circle, daughter of The Sovereign Below. I specialize in infernal law, soul-binding theory, and unmaking lesser gods." As if pondering over something, she placed a finger on her cheek, before smirking.
"I enjoy torturing other fellow classmates and beings for... educational purposes of course. You'd be surprised how much you can learn from a person when they're screaming, if you get what I mean. I hope to learn... a thing or two from you" She said while looking at a specific young man, as if she had already decided on him being her next target.
The corner of Noel's lips twitched.
Suppressing his irritation, he was about to call to the next girl, before he heard a yelp.
Bellatrix winced, her pale fingers rubbing the back of her skull where the slap had landed.
"..Why... the f*ck would you do that Teg... it hurts..."
His eyes fell on another girl who sat besides her. At her actions, Noel raised his eyebrows in clear interest. It seemed that they had quite the close relationship for a girl to just slap the back of the head of the devil god's daughter.
The girl had a pout on her face, as she glared at Bellatrix. She was a bright-orange eyed girl, copper hair bouncing, sleeves of her academy robe already rolled up, despite the rules. She waved as soon as he entered.
"You can't just threaten the teacher like that! The last time you did, the teacher ran away with before he drenched the room in his disgusting liquid. Who the hell will take responsibility, if this teacher runs away too?" She frowned, as she raised her hands again in the air threantingly.
"B-but Tegmi-"
"No buts! We're not in the bathroom, Bella" She scolded. Bellatrix shrunk under her gaze, and with a resigned sigh, the copper haired girl looked towards the teacher and gave an apologetic look.
"I'm... uhm... s-sorry f-for her actio-"
"Teg, don't you dare apologize to that bastar-"
"Bell!"
Under her angry gaze, Bellatrix lowered her head, and the copper haired girl patted her on the head, before turning back to the teacher nervously, her fingers fidgeting.
Tegmine's hands balled into fists, her copper hair bouncing with every angry word. But when she looked at the teacher again, her expression cracked — lips trembling, voice a brittle whisper
"Um... I-im sor-r-...y for h-her ac-cti... hic.. hic" Tears formed at the side of the eyes of the girl, as if giving a warning that she would burst in tears at any moment.
Noel's thoughts collapsed like a poorly-structured thesis paper.
The only words in his mind is.
'Laddie, wtf is going on'
His mind rebooted into the usual windows 11 version, before he started organizing all his folders, using a few antivirus to scan his mind, and restarted once more.
Once his mind-like pc opened, he snapped back to reality after trying to find out what he did wrong. And... he found nothing?
Why was his mind so useless as usual.
With a sign of tiredness, he tried to calm down the girl.
"It's fine, Its not your fault, and honestly, its not like I mind either. So don't worry about it"
His words earned him a hateful glare from Bellatrix, yet he pretended to ignore it, focusing on the girl. He walked towards her, before kneeling in front of her, taking her hand into his.
"R-really..? Yo..u really m-mean it?" Her face brightened for a moment, and just as he was about to nod his head, her expression darkened and the tears came back.
Inwardly, the man slapped his forehead. The girl was so confident in front of Bellatrix, so, why did she burst into tears whenever she talked to him?
Was he the issue?
Really?
He winced before the small girl could burst into tears, and Bellatrix took the chance to grasp the young girls hand, making her hide behind her.
She shot Noel a meaningful gaze, filled with repulsion and disgust. "Tegmine, get behind me now. The only solution for this fucker is the FBI. I never knew... he was into that stuff, that disgusting pedo"
Noel froze once more, choking on the air, as he stumbled back to his feet.
A girl was crying while trying to talk, the other was a hateful witch that looked at him like a worm, and the other guy... why, I forgot him?
The third boy sat silently and coldly, with blond hair, jaw set like a prince from a holy empire. Eyes sky-blue and skeptical, narrowed at him as if trying to remember where he'd seen this man before.
"If... you would so kindly introduce yourself, lad?" Awkwardly, Noel mustered his willpower to ask the boy the question, the room thrown into chaos.
His headache was becoming worse. The class became a circus.
The young man ignored him, before he looked out of the window at the crimson moon that lingered in the sky.
Sighing, he looked towards everyone in the room ignoring the chaos, before walking towards the whiteboard where he had placed the blue marker at.
"I trust your former instructor explained the nature of this course."
The young man, without removing his gaze from the moon replied back coolly, his voice cold and distant.
"They said he vanished in the middle of a sentence."
"Ah," Teacher remarked, his eyebrows raised. "Then I shall endeavor to finish it."
The boy said nothing, only glared. The daughter of the Devil God tilted her head slightly with narrowed eyes, as if measuring his soul and the other girl.. well.. lets put her aside for now.
Bringing his marker to the whiteboard, he tapped it twice with the end of it to gather everyone's attention.
"Our first lesson will be: How to decimate a country in 32 days. So put on your seatbelts because..." He trailed off, his eye's narrowing dangerously.
"You do not need to know what will happen if you fail this."
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Internal monologue: Ok, lets think slowly. I was here, and then there, and then here, and then... no, seriously, how the f*ck did I end up in this shithole?
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Going back 3 hours ago.....