Helmholtz Academy was one of the five major schools for training the continent's most talented youth. Each of these five schools were politically independent, they lay in a neutral territory that belonged to no country but the schools themselves. The countries that bordered the schools would spend countless resources to find the university in the hopes of raising a genius for their country.
Although the schools themselves weren't under the direct jurisdiction of any kingdom, they were heavily influenced by the neighbouring nations because of their source of funds, resources and students. Over time, the continent's major alliances had formed around these five big schools and even named after them. The locations of the schools ensured that no country was a neighbour to more than a single school. There were also several countries that didn't border these prestigious schools, but the next tier of schools. These were the minor alliances.
Helmholtz in particular was a school with one of the largest territories under its belt. It was a neighbor to six kingdoms - Mainz, Münster, the Livonian Order, Tuscany, Bavaria and Venice. Excluding The Livonian Order, which was a religious hegemony, and Venice which was a merchant republic, the others were all traditional monarchies under a king. Bavaria was the biggest power amongst these kingdoms and along with Venice one of the biggest monetary contributors to Helmholtz Academy.
So when the managing director of Helmholtz Academy received an urgently delivered secret letter from the Monarch of Bavaria himself, he was perplexed. Political isolationism of the academy was one of the major jobs he had to handle, but with the substantial contributions the kingdoms made in helping run the territory, it was difficult to maintain this neutrality. Wiping the sweat on his forehead, the dean carefully opened the letter.
****
My dear friend Karl,
It is my belief that over the past few decades the Helmholtz Academy has been overemphasizing on combat training and magic research with a singular focus that has churned out very capable generals and princes for our kingdoms raising our pride.
There is however, a dearth in teachers in the fine arts at Helmholtz. We need to teach our youth the finesse of living aristocratically, being able to appreciate fine arts and display talents in a multitude of directions.
After discussing with all our members of the Helmholtz alliance, we each decided to propose a tutor of fine arts,in the hope that Helmholtz can offer these lessons as electives for the youth of our alliance.
I have personally recommended a music teacher after the personal recommendation of His Graciousness the Keeper himself. The teacher may appear to be ordinary, but considering how the Keeper seems to appreciate his talent in music, he can't be so simple.
I hope you will accept him as a professor at the academy and allow him to teach music.
Your good friend,
Wilhelm Gottfried III.
****
Dean Karl had a unique expression on his face. On the one hand he was relieved that the request the alliance had made was relatively light, while also respecting the neutrality of the Academy. But at the same time he was perplexed. King Wilhelm was the antithesis of a fine arts connoisseur. He was a the prototype of a perfect muscle brained king. Even the Keeper was involved. He wondered if they were to act as spies, but it wasn't as if the Academy wasn't full of spies already.
However, he had little choice on the matter. He had to simply announce the creation of new fine arts electives courses. This music teacher, he was looking forward to see what he had that could impress the Keeper himself. He wasn't sure about the reasoning behind this sudden policy direction, but he could only play the waiting game to find the threads playing behind the scenes.
The next day a new circular had spread out across the entire Helmholtz campus. The sudden introduction of new courses made instant waves among the students. But when they saw that they were fine arts courses, their faces crumpled.
"What the heck? Who wants to study these garbage courses?"
"I cannot fathom what the director is thinking. Six new fine arts courses? Did I come here to sing and dance? Who has time to read poems?"
"History seems like the only course that seems worthwhile in this list of garbage. We could learn about war tactics and the like. Thankfully these courses are all electives, or I would have truly revolted!"
"Shut it dumbass. As if the academy would give a shit if you rebelled?"
Conversations of these kinds were echoing through all the dorms. In an upscale girls dorm in the academy, two girls were sitting on a sofa. One was reading the notification flyer with a smile.
"Are you planning to join any of these courses?"
"Perhaps..perhaps not. It all depends on the tutor after all. Even if I like the subject, a terrible tutor will just make me hate it."
"Hmm, I think history can be quite an important subject, especially to learn from the mistakes of our predecessors. But is it worth spending time listening to some old man instead of reading a book from the library?"
"A good teacher would condense the most important bits into a short period. It might be worth checking these electives out. I wonder how the art and music instructors would be?"
"I hope there is a hottie amongst them!"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"I don't think that is likely. After all, one can't exactly become an expert at a young age can they?"
"What a travesty!"
****
While the academy was in a vibrant mood, five people stood in front the academy gates. The guards respectfully greeted these five people who had a scholarly erudite air about them.
"Dear Sirs and Madams, would you be the new fine arts professors?" A guard cautiously asked.
"I don't know about the others, I'm the new history teacher." A burly gigantic man overflowing with muscles gruffly spoke. His gruff voice made it quite difficult to understand what he said. He exuded powerful martial energy, a violent fiery energy birthed in fire, frightening the guard.
"Can you escort us to meet the dean?" An old interjected. She exuded a frosty power that dropped the temperature in her immediate surroundings.
"Indeed! Please follow me!" One of the flustered guards immediately led them to the dean's office who immediately greeted them. As they sat on a round table, the seat for the sixth professor was conspicuously absent.
"Dear professors, it would be great if you could introduce yourselves so I can address yourselves." The Dean calmly said. He appeared old and wrinkly, but his eyes held power and made the teachers gulp hesitatingly.
"I'm the history teacher. Name's Phillip." Said the burly man.
The old woman then volunteered her name. "This woman is the dance tutor. I am known as Dante."
An old scholarly man then rose and speak elegantly. "Good morning Dean. I have been asked to handle the Literature elective under the request from the Kingdom of Mainz."
Following him was another scholarly man rose and spoke with a very royal air. "Greetings sir. I am Gunter, the etiquette tutor from the inner palace of Münster."
Finally the last person stood up and spoke gently, but with an air of aloof coldness in her voice. "I am Camelia. I am here to instruct willing students in the intricacies of painting art."
"Thank you professors. I warmly welcome you to our Academy. As you can imagine, Helmholtz is primarily a military and research academy. Although it does have a wide variety of courses, it has focussed fairly narrowly on the military foci. The director decided to expand our focus by announcing electives for the fine arts. I hope you enjoy interacting with our students, and I hope that they learn the ways of the nobility and aristocracy."
"Unfortunately, it seems the music teacher is late. What a farce, has he already dug his grave?" The litterateur snidely commented. The dean shook his head wondering where the music tutor was.
****
At the entrance, a young man with silver hair and pale skin was strolling without regard for the gates. He was wearing a white t shirt and black shorts, smoking a cleanly rolled spiral leaf. Thick sunglasses covered a large part of his upper face that wasn't already hidden by his unkempt but mysterious silvery hair that glowed.
Seeing this queer looking fellow, the guard was slack jawed. What the fuck was this douche doing walking into the gate?
"Sir, do you have some work at the Helmholtz Academy?" He cautiously asked. The guard knew that appearances can often deceive and took no chances.
"Oh? I've already arrived? Not bad, looks like a nice place. Tell me bro, how are the women here?"
"Fuck! You dare slander the students of our prestigious academy at its gates? You want to die?" The other guard who was looking from afar was enraged and started bellowing.
"Damn bro, you lost your screw? Why are you shouting? Was just a simple question!"
"You...!" Before the enraged guard exploded, the first guard stopped him and looked towards this mysterious youth.
"Sir, we are simply doing our job here. Can you tell us what work you have at the academy?"
Hearing the guard, the mysterious kid nodded, then replied.
"I'm here to rent a house. I was kicked out by my previous landlord, I heard they wanted a music teacher here and would offer a place to live. So I was like, damn! That's perfect for me!"
"What the fuck? You are the music teacher? I REFUSE to believe!" The enraged guard lost all semblance of rationality. Looking at his outburst the silver haired man simply smiled.
He took out a red letter with the seal of the Bavarian monarch himself. Seeing that, the first guard who had remained calm throughout had a trace of panic.
"Dear professor, you are already late! Please let me guide you to the Dean's office to be introduced!"
The man nodded and replied. "As you command brother. I'm looking for some tips to enchant some hot women here too! Don't be stingy!"
The guard was perplexed. He wondered how this ruffian became a professor at an elite academy like Helmholtz. Without saying a word further, he led him to the dean's office. The young man entered just as the other tutors had decided to take their leave. The guard quickly disappeared.
Just as the fine arts professors were impatiently beginning to take their leave, they saw the queerly dressed young man who barely looked 20 enter with a swagger. The room suddenly became pin drop silent. All the teachers and the dean were flabbergasted at the scene. However, the dean was the dean. He had seen many things over the years. He was the first to regain his wits.
"Dear young man, are you perhaps our music teacher?"
"As long as I get food and lodging for free!" The young man gleefully nodded and replied.
"Insult! An insult to the teaching profession!" The burly man lost his mind and began enforcing his aura to dominate the carefree young man. An enormous fiery energy suddenly tensed the room as it directed towards the silver haired guy, who simply acted scared.
"Woah! Muscle head calm down! Why are you attacking me?"
The history teacher Phillip stopped himself and retorted. "Hmph! A puny mortal like you is going to teach music? What a disgrace! You don't even have a shred of battle qi?"
Everyone looked at the silver haired man with disgust or shock with the exception of two people. The Dean's eyes sparkled. Those eyes had seen many things over the years, and wasn't surprised easily. *Qi Decomposition! How deeply has he hidden his ability? I cannot sense a shred of energy from him!* Along with him was the old dance teacher, who smiled wryly.
"Dear professor, can you introduce yourself to us?" The dean ventured. He realised that this young man was not ordinary. But the ability the dean noticed couldn't correlate with the young man's age!
"Umm, I'm a 23 year old guy. My previous landlord threw me out because I kept forgetting to pay the rent. Then I heard about your school hiring a musician as a teacher in return I could get food and a house! So I came!"
The young woman who was of a similar age chuckled at the response. She realised that he was play acting to test their patience on purpose. She ventured a question.
"Music teacher, how do we address you? Could you tell us your name?"
"My name? Hmm..." The silver haired man thought deeply about the question for a moment before clapping his right fist into his left palm energetically. "Right! You can call me Cinderella!"
"Ppfff.. Haha!" The woman couldn't control her laughter. The litterateur adjusted his glasses before commenting.
"Cinderella was a woman from a famous children's folktale. If you don't want to tell us your name at least make up a better one!"
"But I like Cinderella!.. Damn, choosing a name is so hard, I understand how parents feel when they try to name their babies nows. Hmm.. Okay, you can call me John Doe."
The dean nodded. Okay Professor Doe, let me introduce you to your colleagues.