Chapter 14: Calm before the storm

Elizabeth Parker was expecting today to be a little more rowdy than usual, but never did she imagine a situation like the one she had the horrible displeasure of being in right now.

Every student, of every class, had passed today's Trials, in both the First and the Seconds Year non the less. Maybe if they were dealing with a regular number of students that wouldn't be such a big deal, but this was the Academy. Every New Year had thousands of new students, sometimes even in the tens of thousands.

This was not a situation that should be taken lightly, as currently, the Library could not, and would not host them all. The teachers in general had to handle a lot of administrative work every day on a regular, but today it was going to be worse, much worse.

'Logging in every single student, with all of their immediate individual needs will be such a damn chore.' Elizabeth thought.

'To top it all off today is also the day that goblin is planning to misbehave.' The frown on her face deepened. Of course, she knew what her student was up to. She didn't know the specifics, but she had picked up that today was the day.

'He kept himself in check for a long time, even got himself a bunch of minions, this will be a headache I will remember for the rest of my life' the old woman mused. Despite all her complaints, she was looking forward to this. She wouldn't be caught dead admitting it, but her student's antics amused her.

Long ago she used to be a creature of chaos as well, slightly less of a liar and with a lot fewer followers, but a lot more destructive. She did not miss those days, but the life of a teacher was so peaceful, one couldn't help but want a little bit of mischief from time to time.

'It's good the boy has a big goal to strive for, even if achieving it would be impossible.'

'That bastard of a Maze probably sensed the tension among my kids, and decided today would be a good day to play one of his pranks'. She made a guess. Not even in her wildest dreams would she consider that the dryad would be a supporter of the little devil. The creature may be the epitome of fickleness, it may hate her personally, but it wouldn't befriend a human child. Or at least, that was what she thought.

'Time to organize the little monkeys, Gods help us all, they will hate us for this'

"Ok children settle down and group up it's time to discuss how we shall proceed in today's activities."

"As you can see, today every one of you has succeeded, and there in lay the problem. The space in the Library is limited; some of you will have to be transferred. "She, like the rest of the teachers was delivering the bad news to her class.

The children did not take the news well, as was expected.

"Why? I passed the damn Maze, I was promised my reading time!"

"What about those of us who wish to go to the other facilities, can we use those, they are bigger, and surely we can fit in there."

"And the garden, every day everyone passes through it, surely we can explore it, no matter how many of us there are."

"I wanted to pet the bunnies! I haven't seen the fluffs in days"

All manner of complaints could be heard all over the place. It was to be expected, but it was no less of a challenge to calm down a whole legion of children, each and every one of them tired and cranky from their latest test. All of them had been promised their reward.

Mrs. Elizabeth Parker's class was no exception, in fact, thanks to a certain someone's goons; they were even more aggressive with their questioning. Their rival gang for once, in their teacher's horror, was on their side. Strangely the two leaders, Ciaran and Clara chose to remain silent.

"For those of you who want to visit the other locations, the good news is that we can fit you in. For those of you who want to go to the Library the quota for each class was twenty-five students." Mrs. Parker said, trying to sound as apologetic as possible.

"There is more than one level to the Library though, why don't you let us explore on up?" suggested Ciaran, with a natural tone, and a calm courteous smile on his face.

The teachers had organized their respective classes in groups, and thanks to all the ruckus, only the members of his own class had heard the boy's suggestion. Nevertheless, it shocked every person who had heard him. He just casually asked for one of the Academy's rules to be broken, one of its most important ones, if their teacher was to be believed.

The members of his gang were speechless. They knew their Boss was fearless, but to just straight up ask their teacher like that was nothing short of reckless.

The regular members of his class were even more shocked, and cursed him inwardly, hoping not to get punished because of him. No one wanted to lose their privileges after all.

In contrast, Clara's girls looked happy; this was surely going to blow up in his face. 'That troll will finally be punished again, been some time.' Some of them thought.

Regardless of their thoughts, everyone looked at him silently, everyone but Clara.

"So you couldn't stay silent anymore could you Ciaran? " She began.

"For so long you controlled yourself, and on the first big opportunity you decide to fuck us all. I apologize for my language, teacher." She said to the boy angrily, then turned and apologized to her teacher, flustered for her lack of control.

"Last time you tried to get to level two, we lost the privilege to the highest stage of level one for a whole week. Before that, we had to do twice as much homework. Before that, Teacher was kind enough to just make us stay a bit late to help with the cleanup." She said enthusiastically.

"My point is, we all suffer because of you, not just me and mine, your boys as well." She said, not acknowledging the girls in his group.

Her girls were used to it. They too were thought to discriminate against monkey sympathizers.

"I simply made a suggestion Clara, no need to get angry."

"Besides, if that's not an option I can always ask the other classes to give us some of their quotas. Money talks after all." He said, not even hiding the fact he would bribe the other children.

Elizabeth didn't know what to say. She had killed monsters less ferocious than these two. She really didn't want to deal with any of this. The one thing she knew was that she couldn't let the little devil do his thing, not with the students from another class. She was in the deep as it was; she didn't need them to have more excuses to give her shit.

She would have loved to just kick the boy out, but that would be impossible. Hell, knowing him, he might give her more trouble in the long run if she didn't let him in the Library.

"Well, I see tensions are high, so let me be clear. No, you will not get access to level two, not until you are at least in Year Three. And thanks to your little debate, I have chosen today's readers. Ciaran, I know you are very enthusiastic about reading so you will go. Clara, you and your girls will go too. You boys will come with me."

She also pointed out three other kids at random from the rest. To everyone present, it was clear she was playing favorites. Some thought that she was favoring the girls because they were more law-abiding. The truth of it was that this was only a decision to keep the peace. The only favoritism she had shown was to Clara and Ciaran. Usually, she only called children by their last names. By breaking the norm, she had unwillingly broken her mask of professionalism. Ironically, only the subjects of her favor noticed this.

There was a lack of fairness in her decision of the split, and she could feel that the boys were about to whine.

"I am Ok with that, but seeing as you are messing up my plan. The one me and my boys were working on for a while now. The same one you have known about since its very inception, I believe its only fair you through us a bone." He said, the smile not leaving his face.

Elizabeth was again left speechless, but against her better judgment, she gestured for him to continue.

"Simple really. They will guard me, and there will be other class reps keeping the peace. Not to mention the guards at the gate. It only seems fair you give me a fighting chance. So why don't you let me keep that handy dandy key of yours? You know so it doesn't get in your way." He said his smile widening.

If before the others were shocked, now they were scared the boy would be directly expelled. What he suggested was border-like criminal, as he basically asked their teacher to be a part of his little scheme.

His minions were the most shocked of all. Before they got into the Maze, he had said he would simply tell her to give him the key. Watch and behold he really did it. 'Truly a man of his word.' Rayon thought.

As for their teacher, she had only one thought running through her head.