2. Snow White

CHAPTER 2:

'Professor Mortillum is kinda creeping me out' Amelia thought to herself.

Professor Mortillum had just entered the class and informed the students that they have a free period. He told them to get on with their work coldly before he was interrupted by a student who was asking what happened to Professor Howitzer. With an annoyed expression on his face, Professor Mortillum started mentioning something about a conference. Amelia had pulled out her Holotech tablet and was busy going over the maths assignment . She began solving the equations when Professor Mortillum abruptly froze while talking about why Professor Howitzer was not able to take his class. His eyes remained awake while his body stood as still as a stone. Students who were focusing on their work slowly started staring at the professor as he stopped mid-sentence. The students started murmuring amidst themselves.

"Is Professor Mortillum narcoleptic?"

"His eyes need to be closed for him to be sleeping dumbass."

"Did he die standing up mid-sentence?"

"No, he's still breathing."

"That's a shame, it'd be funny if he bored himself to death while talking."

Brutus said as he and his lackeys cackled loudly, making everybody's murmurs turn into loud conversations.

"Why is he standing like that?" Amelia's best friend who sits next to her, Diya asked.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Amelia replied.

The class became even louder at this point, prompting the class assistant Hans Weber, to speak up and tell the class to talk softly but his voice was drowned out by the commotion.

Selene got up from her chair and slapped Brutus's shoulder which Amelia took as a gesture that told him to make the class quite down. Brutus immediately got up from chair and yelled.

"QUIET!"

Everyone turned to look at Selene once they saw that Professor Mortillum had no reaction to Brutus's act of disrespect.

"Everyone should take a page from Snow White's book and focus on their work." Said Selene as she looked at Kayde who continued reading his textbook. It was now everyone's turn to look at Kayde as Kayde remained disinterested in everything that happened around him. Selene was probably still unsatisfied about their sparring session that happened in their first week of class.

Selene got seated once she said everything she wanted to say and everyone else seemed to return to normalcy but Professor Mortillum still remained frozen. The girl who was talking to Professor Mortillum called out to the professor again but this time and he immediately smiled which was something the students had never seen before.

He spoke casually, as if the pause didn't happen and cut the conversation short. What was even weirder was the fact that he kept smiling, especially at Kayde, the honor student who never reacts for anything got weirded out by his smile. Throughout the entire class. The professor's behavior raised a lot of suspicion towards the students but what shocked the students even more was the Professor's smile. He looked like he was beaming. His smile seemed way too unnatural. He looked like a salesman trying to lower your guard down before he rips you off.

At the end of the class, the professor appeared to be shocked by the bell. He had quickly gained composure under the class's eyes and left without saying anything. Once the door had closed behind him, the class erupted.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PROFESSOR MORTILLUM?" Diya yelled at her.

"I don't know, why are you yelling?" Amelia asked.

"Dude, it's been 3 weeks since we've had Professor Mortillum in our class. He's always had this blank look on his face like he doesn't want to be here. Did you even see that creepy forced smile of his?" Diya said.

"People can change you know, maybe he was trying out smiling for the first time in his life and you're just being weird." Amelia responded.

A purple haired girl who sits behind Diya piped up and said

"Maybe he made a deal with the devil halfway through the class."

At the girl's words, the entire class went silent. Even Kayde, who's normally unresponsive turned to look at her.

"Maybe that time where he was frozen, he was making a deal with a devil?" The purple haired girl eagerly said as everyone's attention was on her. She opened her mouth again to say something but she was cut off by the sound of the classroom door open.

-x-x-x-

Why the fuck were the kids looking at me like deer in front of headlights? I feel like I interrupted something but I don't know what. Choosing to seem normal, I do a quick nod.

"Forgot to take my satchel. Go back to your discussion." I say as I head to the teacher's desk and grab it before heading back to the door. The students continued to look at me, their faces lying somewhere between surprise and fear. Maybe the kids were badmouthing me and I walked in at a bad time. Choosing to defuse the tension I jokingly said,

"Don't go around badmouthing me now." With a small smile on my face. I jokingly pointed at one of the students and shut the door behind me. These kids might as well get used to my personality now that I'm their teacher. The file might have said that Professor Mortillum might have been a very serious man but its only been 3 weeks, there's no way he must have given out the impression that he has a stick up his ass in those 3 weeks.

-x-x-x-

The moment the door shut, the students stood still. There was a very thick aura of fear permeating throughout the classroom. The only ones unaffected by the environment was Kayde who seemed to be looking out the window and Selene who looked disinterested at everything around her.

"He pointed at me" The purple haired girl, Samantha said. Her hands trembling. She sat down immediately and started muttering "he knows" over and over again.

Everybody else started talking amidst themselves and started drafting complaints that voiced their worries about Professor Mortillum being a demon. Hans was the only one who remained rational.

"Guys, calm down. There's no way Professor Mortillum is a demon, he would have slaughtered all of us the moment he become a demon."

"Or maybe he's one those rational ones that keep their head on and is scheming." One of the students yelled out.

Other students nodded and agreed.

"Demons exhibit a unique mana signature which would have been noticed by me" Kayde says out loud which kills the conversation in the classroom. He stares at the classroom coldly.

Selene gets up from her seat and makes her way to Kayde.

"Is that so Snow White?"

She reaches Kayde's seat and stares down at him. Brutus and his lackeys follow behind her and stare down at Kayde along with her.

Hans speaks up. "He's right, all of us would've noticed it."

"But there is a suspicion and that's enough."

"Enough for what?" Amelia finally asked.

"Let's be honest folks, in a world where demons and beasts can just kill us in a blink of an eye, do we really need to learn how the Monster Meat regulation act of 2084 was passed?"

Seeing how the class was silent, Selene continued.

"Now we are stuck learning history because that's what the Union's Board of Education has deemed as important but why should we, the students of Prism Academy, the next heroes of society be stuck learning history from dreadful Professor Mortillum?"

"Could you just cut to the chase." Amelia said angrily.

"If enough complaints against Professor Mortillum show up to Instructor Jenkins or even Instructor Maeve. We'll be given a new teacher while he's under investigation. We students are a valuable resource so why would they risk endangering us by placing us in a classroom with a potential demon?"

"You want to mess with a man's employment and even his whole career just because you find his classes boring?" Diya asked out loud.

Who said I want to do it? It's the class that wants to do it. "

Diya looks around her and notices that 70% of the class were busy writing official letters that show their suspicions about the history professor. Some had even typed out messages but then they quickly stopped when Selene mentioned that pitiful situations are better expressed by writing on paper so they quickly got to work.

The students who were done with their notices left them on Hans's desk.

"Why are you handing them to me?" Hans asked.

Selene smiled sinisterly.

"You're the class assistant silly. Your duty is to serve your classmates in order to ensure a safe environment to impart knowledge and recieve education."

She also added a cruel joke.

" Fret not Mr. Weber, if you are harmed or murdered during the following week, your sacrifice will not be in vain as we'll have further proof of Professor Mortillum's treacherous ways. Your family will be reimbursed by the Drago Guild as well. Trust me, this is coming from the future guild leader of the Drago Guild after all."

Hans visibly paled and looked at the rest of the classmates in order to receive support however the rest of his classmates had smiles plastered on their faces that seemed out right malicious. Brutus flexed his muscles menacingly while standing behind Selene.

Amelia was about to speak up for Hans but then Kayde got up from his seat and made his way to Hans he grabbed the stack of sheets that were placed on his desk and started walking out. Some of the students rushed to hand them to Kayde before he left the classroom but before they could manage to do that. Kayde ripped all of their complaints up and threw them in the trash.

The students had very strong reactions. Brutus was about to charge at Kayde but Selene held her arm out and stopped him before he could go past her.

"What's disturbed your slumber Snow White?"

Kayde stared her down.

"Why do you keep calling me Snow White? Is it my hair?"

Selene's eyes widen a bit before narrowing.

"You're really dense."

Kayde smiled.

"Do you remember the witch trials?"

Selene looked at Kayde furiously.

"People would accuse people, mostly women of committing witchcraft which resulted in many innocent people being lit on fire. It turns out that people who reported witches would be able to seize the property of the individual they accused so the fires where countless women burnt were lit by greed."

Kayde took his eyes off of Selene and stared at the rest of class. He began to glare coldly at his classmates who still held their complaint notices.

"You're allowed to be greedy. Just know that I'll never see you as heroes. "

It was at the moment that the door swung open and the Dungeon Research Professor had shown up.

"Sit down." A really old lady with a frail sounding voice called out.

Selene and Kayde glared at each other as they made their way back to their seats. The students with their official complaint notices crumpled their notices.

-x-x-x-

The Staffroom for Prism Academy is the third floor of the building that resembles the shape of a prism. The entirety of the 3rd floor consists offices for each of the faculty. The office sizes vary for the professors on the basis of the number of students they have to teach. In that regard, Professor Mortillum has the smallest office, no different from a cubicle that is a few inches bigger than his arm span.

Maeve was the first one to notice Professor Mortillum wander into the staff room. He looked incredibly lost. His hair was ruffled and gone was his usual prim and proper look. Maeve is the combat instructor and is the Professor in charge of the Teal Class. The 3rd floor of the Academy does have a common area where the professors can enjoy meals made by prestigious chefs and have academic discussions amongst themselves. Maeve was currently enjoying a cup of coffee while lamenting how last night's date didn't go well and that was when Mortillum walked in. She saw him look around frantically before finding the door to his office and she saw him rush towards his office.

Professor Mortillum caught her looking at him and that's when he smiled at her. The moment Maeve caught a glimpse of his smile, she tried to deduce the nature of the mana around Mortillum. Concluding that there was no demonic energy, she lowered her guard lightly and nodded back at him in response to his smile. He went into his office and closed the door behind him. Maeve turned and looked at her cup of coffee, blowing into it softly while wondering whether she should report the behavior change to the administrator. She decides to hold off against doing that and chooses to observe.

-x-x-x-

Why does accessing the staffroom require a password? I had taken the elevator and the only way to access the staffroom was through entering a passcode when you pressed the third-floor. I thought it would scan me just like the Holotech tablet did. I had to scour through the file that contained all the information of Marc and finally found it hidden in a small section that told me of Professor Mortillum's skin care routine.

I sighed as I made my way to the chair. Maeve is a lot prettier than I remember writing her. In fact, everybody is a lot hotter than I remember writing. I suppose its to be expected since the body tends to correct itself and become better the more one practices mana circulation.

I settle into my chair, taking notice of the fact that my office is smaller than I thought it would be before diving back into file and absorbing everything it held.

Once it's 5:30, I get up and grab my satchel before leaving the office. I need to prepare for the drive back home because its going to be a difficult one.