Prologue

I'm currently sitting in the teacher's room taking a small break after teaching the previous class. Lately, it has been uneventful weeks with nothing interesting happening. But that was about to change.

"Oh, hello Yasmin, are you having a break right now?"

"Hey Mel, yes I am."

Mel Acasia is the zoology teacher at our school, she's actually the teacher that joined most recently. If I recall correctly, it's been a little over three years.

Mel walked to her desk, which was two desks to the left of mine. She put down a stack of papers and sat down.

"By the way, did you hear about the news?" Mel asked while sorting out her bundle of papers.

"What news? Did something happen?"

"You remember how the teacher that taught curse repelling, left last year and we haven't found a replacement for a few months already? Well, it seems the headmaster has found somebody."

"Really? That's good news. So, when will he start then?"

"From what I've heard, he'll be starting next week."

"I can't wait to meet our new colleague then."

I'm curious what kind of person he will be. I guess I'll find out next week.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The teachers are all gathered here in the teachers' room right now because we're getting introduced to our new colleague.

There are quite a lot of teachers at this school, so the room is getting a little cramped. One might think this kind of reception may be over the top, but it has always been a tradition to receive new colleagues with a warm welcome from all the teachers.

After waiting a moment, the headmaster came in the room with a man behind him. He had brown hair and was wearing a suit.

"Everyone, I would like to introduce to you Robin Cilhood, he's going to be the new teacher of 'Curse repelling and protection against dark arts'." said the headmaster.

"Hello everybody, nice to meet you. I would like to make acquaintances with you." Robin then said.

Everybody then proceeded to give a short round of applause.

"Welcome Robin! We would enjoy working together with you and we're certain you'll find it pleasant to work here."

After our introductions, we all got back to our daily routines. Robin wasn't fully familiar with the inner workings of the academy, but he could count on the helpfulness of his colleague teachers.

The first weeks that went by, we slowly got better acquainted with him. He seemed like a nice and hard-working guy, so of course anytime he needed help, we would gladly do so.

But it all changed when I slowly started to notice some things that are off about him. The first thing I noticed was that for some reason he always left the campus grounds to go somewhere else for a whole day during periods when he should be teaching. This seemed suspicious to me, so one day I bumped into him while he was ready to leave again, when I asked him out of curiosity where he always goes to.

For some reason, he looked a bit nervous, like he wasn't so sure what he should reply with. He replied with "it's personal matters that I'd rather not discuss".

This of course made me think. If he had to go meet somebody urgently, but also had courses to teach, why didn't he just use a communication device. There are plenty of them and they're not outrageously expensive. Anybody with a decent income would be able to afford one and I would say being a teacher is a well-paid job.

Another thing I found suspicious was that although he seemed nice on the surface, he didn't try to form better relationships with others. You could say he's just being professional, but I've had over a century of experience dealing with people and I can tell you that his behavior was more cold than anything else.

It seemed like he actively avoided forming better relations with the others, as if he knew he wouldn't be staying here for very long.

To me, his general behavior just seemed odd. Something in me told me that this fellow wasn't up to something good, so I kept a better outlook for him. I'm still hoping that I'm just overthinking things.

More than a year has passed since Robin joined and it seemed like I was indeed overthinking things. He hasn't done much to further raise my suspicions. I guess he is just a cold person, which I'm not a fan of. There are plenty of others that get along with him just fine, so I'll just leave him be.

One day, I was taking a stroll down the area where the main entrance is. I saw Robin help unload a carriage, which had various goods and objects. They all appear to be stuff he needed for his courses.

Although he had somebody helping him, it all seemed like a lot for them to carry all the way to his class and back multiple times. So, I offered to help them.

"Hey, all that stuff looks rather heavy. Do you need help carrying all that?"

"Yes, go ahead. That'll make this take less long."

I went to the largest looking object and got ready to pick it up.

"Wait, that might be too heavy for you to just pick it up like that. We'll help you later with that."

I just ignored what he said and picked up the large object without breaking a sweat.

"Oh, you actually just picked it up like that."

"Don't worry, nothing is too heavy for me."

"Okay, just follow us towards that storage room in my class."

We walked only for a minute before we got to his classroom. He told me to bring it to his storage room, which is the door left of the front desk.

"Do I just put this anywhere in the storage room?" I asked.

"Yeah, just go ahead and place it down. Just be careful not to knock anything else over."

Although he warned me to be careful not to knock anything over, I sadly still hit one of the closets and knocked various things down.

Robin quickly ran towards the storage room to see what happened and instantly got angry when he saw what I did.

"Didn't I just tell you not to knock anything down."

"Sorry, it was an accident."

"Some of these objects are dangerous, so it's really important you are careful around here."

"Again, I'm sorry. I'll help you clean it all up."

I picked up all the boxes and objects on the ground up and put them back where they belonged.

One of the boxes was opened when it fell on the floor and a rather strange looking object was lying next to it. I picked it up to see what it was, as I've never seen something like it before. It seems like it's a device of some sorts.

"This looks interesting. Hey Robin, what is this for?"

The moment he turned around and noticed what I was holding, he quickly took it away from me and put it back in the box.

"Robin? What's wrong? Was I not supposed to touch it?"

"No, it's nothing. Just go get the other things. There is still a lot to carry." he answered quickly.

I was taken aback by the way he reacted to me touching that object. It seemed like he didn't want me to know what it was.

When I thought I was just overthinking his suspicious behavior, I was proven wrong. He really is hiding something, something that he doesn't want anybody to know about.

I still know too little to make a decisive conclusion, so I knew I had to start investigating him for real from here on out.

I also can't bring this up to the headmaster yet because I don't have any hard evidence yet to support my suspicions. He would just think it's one of my antics again.

I don't know what you're planning, but I will find out, Robin. Mark my words.