Prolepsis 2

As Eyna was putting the incident with the godly creature aside she neared her destination. The academy wasn't far from her estate. It took her only about ten minutes on foot to commute between these two locations so Eyna rarely used the carriage to get there. Furthermore, with all the traffic during the rush hour, traveling by carriage sometimes was even slower.

Eyna was some sort of teacher and division director in the school. One part of the academy focused on blind people and she was the head of this fraction. As this was one of the only schools with such an offer many nobles and aristocrats with similar disabilities were drawn to this city.

Eyna herself had come to Eichstädt in order to attend this school five years ago. Now she worked as the director of the blind division.

However, she knew that it wasn't really her own competence that gave her this position, but much more her financial background that the academy didn't want to lose. It was a plain fact that Eyna, being only blind for five years, couldn't compare at all with the abilities of people who had been in this state since birth.

Despite that Eyna didn't reject her position as it was a good pastime in her life. As Eyna had more than enough money and, in her own opinion, was pretty intelligent, she technically did not need to go to work or do some sort of labor.

Eyna reached the entrance of the academy indicated by a large gate embedded in the high iron fence surrounding the whole area.

The academy was a huge stone building with tall decorated columns supporting the structure. Many beautifully carved copper statues were presented on marbled sockets all around the architectural complex. Its walls were intricately garnished with golden ornaments and gorgeous wall paintings, depicting the grand origin story of this place. The ceiling high above her head was supported by perfectly round arcs and in between the magnificent supporting pillars windows were placed in the sizes of a golden ratio. Each and every part of the building was another feast for the eyes where one would need his whole determination just to manage to avert his gaze.

That was at least what the head director had told Eyna when he had tried to persuade her into joining the academy's staff. And it was true that Eyna couldn't verify his descriptions because she was only able to perceive what was in her arm's reach. Everything above two meters of height she would never be able to attest that it even existed without a third party's help.

However, the head director seemed to have one misunderstanding. Being blind wasn't the same as being stupid. If the academy was really as grand as he had described it to be, he wouldn't be so obsessed with employing Eyna to obtain her financial backing.

And it was easy to get a realistic picture of the appearance by asking impartial bypassers. While the descriptions of the head director were clearly exaggerated it apparently still was one of the main attractions of the city even if it had aged a little.

Eyna had strategically overlooked the scams of the head director thinking it was better to be underestimated by hiding her unachievable intellect than to start a useless dispute.

Additionally, from his elaborate and overly glorified descriptions, Eyna had been able to further increase her vocabulary of flowered words even though most of them had already been forgotten by her.

As Eyna was entering the school complex, one of the two soldiers guarding the entrance greeted her politely.

"Good morning, Miss Van Proles. May the divine court bless you."

"May the divine court bless you," she answered with a short nod and a light smile. This phrase was often used as a prayer or as a polite greeting with people one wasn't really associated with.

Ever since the one true God had disappeared the divine court was the highest ruling instance in the angel's territory. In the past, the divine court was referred to as the great Last Judgement who had determined the sins of mortals and consequently punished them at the end of their lives.

Four hundred and twenty years ago, the omnipotent and omnipresent creator of the universe vanished without a trace. Thus, the demon race, which was forcedly banished into the underworld, utilized this opportunity to initiate a coup against the heavenly forces. The angels, having lost their almighty backing, descended from their city in the sky to respond to these evil creatures and thereby, the never-ending war started.

Because the human realm was the space separating heaven and hell, the battle of the divine was fought on these lands. What this would mean to the mere mortal human race one could imagine without much of a thought.

Eyna entered the grand foyer which was already filled with many students searching their way to their classes. She herself steered to her own office, a classroom-sized apartment located on the second floor.

・・・

With a sigh, she fell into the comfortable chair behind her desk. Apparently, the sturdy wooden table was carved and assembled by a famous carpenter. It now had only a pen, a needle, and a few stacks of paper placed on it. Each one of them had earned their own sector on the wooden surface so Eyna could quickly find her object of desire.

Her white cane, always in her arm's reach, leaned against one of the expensive table's legs.

She heard a knock. After straightening herself up in the chair Eyna audibly indicated the person to come in.

"Yes? Come in."

The door creaked and footsteps could be heard. From the walking speed and the sound level of the steps, Eyna concluded that she faced a man, probably below his twenties and a little haltingly.

"Miss Van Proles. I was told to deliver the monthly administration report," a young male voice said, which verified the preliminary assessment she had gotten from his footsteps.

"Thank you. Please lay it onto the desk," she responded and indicated with her hand where to put it. The man quickly followed her order, placed the documents, and then stepped back again.

Eyna let her fingers run over the paper. She sighed.

The man stood indecisively a few meters away, probably asking himself if he was allowed to leave the room without her confirmation.

"Are you new here?" She asked, staring with her artificial eyes in his direction. She knew pretty much every voice of the people she normally talked with at the academy.

"Y-Yes. I'm Neal Porrum and I started working here just today morning," he answered, unsure why she had asked this question.

"So, do you notice anything unfitting in this situation?" Eyna queried, not averting her non-existent gaze.

"U-Ummm…" The man stuttered. He seemed to be actively trying to rack his brain of what he could have done wrong.

"You do know in which division's head office you are, right?" Eyna elaborated on her earlier posed question.

"I-I am in the blind-" Neal's sentence broke off in the middle of his speech. He seemed to have found the inconsistency.

"Can I ask you why you bring a few flat sheets of paper into the office of a blind person?" With the third question, Eyna uncovered what had been bothering her. The young man didn't answer, floored speechless by her assessment of the situation. It took around fifteen seconds before Eyna could audibly hear the closing of an agaped moth and then a delayed response.

"S-Sorry. I-I will correct my mistake," the newcomer was now sweating profoundly and his blabbering was nearly impossible to understand.

"Yes. Please do that," she held up the page he had delivered, indicating him to take them back. The man named Neal quickly reached out for them and left the room as fast as he could.

Eyna sighted again. Good personnel was truly difficult to find, nowadays. From the information he had given in the beginning he had probably been set up by a senior employee as some sort of joke.

However, it shouldn't have been so difficult to notice the strangeness of being told to deliver flat sheets of paper into a blind person's office.

・・・

It took another half an hour for Neal to return, this time bringing sheets of paper filled with an uncountable number of tiny holes. These dents let Eyna decipher the content by running over it with her finger. It was a written language specifically designed for blind people. However, as it was only standardized a few years ago the invention hadn't spread to all the edges of the angel's territory.

Satisfied with the result she nodded approvingly to the newcomer.

"Would you like a cup of water?" He asked, seemingly relieved to have done something right today. Concluding from his movements when he had handed over the stack of paper he probably already held a cup in his hands.

"Sure. Next time though, I would prefer a glass of wine," Eyna answered.

"I understand," Neal swiftly placed the water on the desk, likely made a short bow, and quickly left the room. This time, he hadn't even thought of needing her approval to exit her office.

Eyna sighted again. The youth these days is really exhausting, she thought even if she was probably only about one or two years older than Neal.

Taking the cup with the odorless liquid, she stood up and went to the window. The window was facing eastwards and a normal human would most likely be dazzled by the bright sun. However, Eyna herself starred with her lifeless eyes into the distance. She could hear the noise of the street below her even through the closed window. It came from the ignorant people who were just living their monotonous lives without ever even hoping to make the smallest impact on this world's history.

"Having an incompetent subordinate isn't the worst thing if one wanted to hide a secret", Eyna said in thought. She then elevated her cup and took a sip of wine.