The day of the entrance ceremony was here.
I had made enough preparations for the entrance test and was looking forward to it quite a bit, but just like the students, even we professors had a test waiting for us.
It was quite simple. I had an office in the Black Rose building, and a common staff room for teachers was in the Auditorium building.
That meant this was my time to meet with the other teachers, my colleagues, and coworkers.
That’s right, I had to make a great first impression. Not just with the first-year teachers, but also with the other ones.
After all, not every hostage—I mean, not every student was going to be in the first year. Some were older, some were even joining the graduate school, but all of them were going to stay in the Black Rose dormitory and were, by extension, my responsibility.
I looked down at the hamper in my hands, it was filled with confectionaries taken from the best shops in all of Glorenstein City.
“This should be enough.”
I placed my hand on the door and smiled. New friends, this was going to be exciting.
“Good morning!”
The door creaked open and quite a few heads turned my way. Multiple desks were laid out in the place dividing the office by departments, then by dorms, and finally by the years they were in.
“Morning.”
“Oh, are you the new teacher for Black Rose? Over here.”
A few greetings returned as I placed the sweets on the center table.
The Black Rose dorm had only one teacher for now, which meant my desk had been joined with the Dahlia department’s desks.
I lowered my head, greeted everyone I met on the way, and took a seat next to the person who had beckoned me over.
It was another professor with long blonde hair tied in neat braids. She wore a soft smile and acknowledged me with a light nod.
That was usually how these interactions went. The first meetings were fairly awkward.
It was worse because this was likely the first for me and only about a few other professors who had been replaced by Gladwin.
The desk was one I wouldn’t be using frequently, but it was still mine. I adjusted the items on it, made the layout more symmetrical. Then, pulled out the documents about my class and started reading through them.
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I had to be in charge of a class of twenty-five. Including the students in grad school and other years, we had a total of 34 students in the Black Rose dormitory.
I had already memorized their names, backgrounds, and scores before they had joined. The documents also highlighted some of their weak points.
Despite them being hostages, this place was still an academy. Treating them like students was only natural.
That said… I had read through this dozens of times.
This place was fairly quiet and awkward.
No one really talked with anyone else, except for official conversations related to work.
Those too were at a minimum since the Entrance Ceremony was just about to start.
The atmosphere was tense, not at all like the chirpy place I had imagined. The scale of the academy was going to kick up massively since the war had just ended. It was quite a big thing.
Hmm…
This atmosphere wasn’t good.
If it went on, I would be bored. A staffroom like this would be the end of me!
I slowly reached my hand into my suitcase and found my deck of playing cards.
With my hand stretched to the blonde professor next to me, I smiled.
“Ethan,” I said. “Ethan Kalenice. It’s an honor to be working with you.”
Time left till the entrance ceremony was about an hour.
***
Stomps rang out in the hallway as a young man made his way to the staff room right next to the auditorium.
A giant, enormous room that was made to gather and accommodate all the professors before big events.
And for some reason, all of them were absent from the ‘big event.’
Half ready to tear the door down and break into a fit, Vice Principal Richard Bennett made his way to the staff room and shoved the door open.
“Why are ALL of you—”
His words got stuck in his tongue when he saw the sight of the staffroom.
Half the professors had gathered in a circle around the table, chewing down on different confectionaries with a sharp gaze.
The other half of them were seated on the table, chewing down on the confectionaries with even sharper gazes. In their hands were different playing cards.
And at the center of them all, playing the role of the dealer, was Richard’s friend and object of slight fear, the new professor Ethan Kalenice.
Ethan’s eyes fell on Richard and he waved him over.
“Vice Principal, a very good morning!” He called out, using his title.
“Good morning.”
“Morning, VP.”
“Isn’t that used for Vice President?”
“It’s flexible. Morning, by the way.”
Most of the stuck-up professors who were usually too full of pride were greeting Richard with bright smiles instead of their wannabe noble stone faces.
It wasn’t all of them. Quite a few of them were still on their desks with looks of dissatisfaction, but this was very different from what Richard expected.
“What in the world are all of you doing? There are only thirty minutes for the ceremony to begin.”
“Oh, we were playing poker to lighten the mood. It’s just the last round.”
Richard was slightly flabbergasted. So many of them? All of them had started playing or observing. Was it one hell of a match or something?
Young Richard decided to walk closer to the table out of curiosity. Unfortunately, his youth didn’t bring him wisdom. Little did he know, curiosity killed the cat.
The time left till the entrance ceremony began was thirty minutes.
***
The principal of the academy pushed the doors of the staff room and stormed straight in.
“What are all of you doing!? The entrance ceremony is about to begin!”
From the Vice Principal to the newest professor, everyone had to hear an earful on the very first day of the new academic year.
But it wasn’t off to a bad start.