Chapter 29: Unshakeable

Finn swallowed, keeping his gaze forward. The origin of the soul masses was a mystery even to him. And the strength that he had seen of the Storm Prowler Wolf in that memory…

“You should be grateful to the headmaster. He’s a very principled man, more so than the heads of other schools. And that was why I chose to bring you here. The other schools will soon learn of your existence… that is if they haven’t already. But now that you’re under the headmaster’s wings, they cannot do anything to you,” Micah assured.

“For now, just learn as much as possible within these few months so you can catch up to others your age,” Micah smiled with his usual exuberance returned. “I’ll be cheering you on!”

As they walked out of the corridor and down the stairways, they saw a figure leaning against the rails on the floor below, waiting.

“Well, if it isn’t my very own student! The lovely Miss Isis!!” Micah started to clap, but Isis was having none of it.

“Micah!” She snapped immediately when she saw him. “You made me a teacher?! In this school?! Without my consent?!”

“C—Calm down Isis!” Micah yelled in fright, raising his hands up in surrender to pacify the charging woman.

“Finn needs a personal teacher to take him through the basics, and none in the school were free for such a task, so I nominated you instead. And since the headmaster cannot allow just anyone to teach, I needed to sign you up as a temporary teacher!” he rapidly spoke without catching a breath.

Thankfully it was enough to make Isis stop just in time as she prepared a mean fist to sucker punch him. “And what is wrong with you being his teacher, huh?!”

“Y—Y’know I have a lot of things to do…” he rubbed his nose anxiously, backing away slowly. “Don’t worry, it’ll fly by in the blink of an eye. I will come check on you guys once in a while—”

“Once in a while…?” Isis seethed in a whisper.

“Why’s he backing away slowly?” Finn asked amusedly.

“He’s pulling another disappearing act! Who knows when we’re gonna see him again!” Isis replied scathingly without regard for Micah.

“C’mon. I will actually check up once in a while… Besides, this place is not as dreary as you make it sound,” Micah’s voice grew increasingly distant as he backed his way down the stairs slowly, with Isis and Finn watching with unimpressed expressions.

“Oh, yeah! Isn’t that Seneschal girl still here? I forget her name, but she was your junior when you were still here. You guys are friends, right? She can keep you company and all…”

Isis snorted at that, finally having enough of Micah’s theatrics. “Finn. Forget about this weird guy and let’s go.”

Finn followed after her unhesitatingly, leaving Micah calling playful pained words of betrayal till they disappeared down the corridor.

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The next day, Finn woke up a bit sore from the activities of the previous day.

After they had left Micah behind, their next agenda had been to get Finn a room and settle his student identification.

Isis had helped him with sorting the student identification, but only showed him to his new room afterwards. It was situated in a relatively secluded and unused part of one of the four large school buildings. One that seemed unopened to the other student’s use.

The perk to that was that Finn had checked out a whole corridor of rooms — about twenty rooms — free to select whichever he wanted.

He guessed this was a move by the headmaster as he still saw him as a potential risk to the other students. Who knew, maybe as he proved his stability in the long run, he’d be allowed into the real, student-filled dorms.

But if Finn had to choose, he rather liked this setup more. Based off memories of his previous university life, he’d choose being secluded over the banging walls and noise that came with a dorm full of hormonal youths any day.

Also, he wasn’t truly alone. Isis had also chosen to leave the room she currently resided somewhere in the vast school-estate and come stay close-by.

They were neighbours now. While he chose a room at the end of the corridor, she chose one right at the mouth of it, right next to the stairwell, both had views of the vast field below, though.

His current body pains came from clearing out the room for the rest of the previous day, cleaning out all the dirt and dust, and bringing it up to a liveable standard.

He groaned and stood up with a stretch, running a quick bath after and preparing as quickly as he could for the class Isis had scheduled for this morning.

Finn found his way down a few floors, winding through mostly empty corridors, save for the few cleaning crew he saw cleaning the public spaces here and there. And a few people Finn didn’t recognize at all. They were also staff, but they weren’t teachers.

They had offices in this empty building, so Finn knew he’d be seeing them regularly. But at least they seemed to mind their business. They hadn’t even spared him a glance more than once.

Finn located the classroom Isis had designated for their classes, and pushed the door open.

“Oh. You’re here early…” Finn raised a brow, surprised to see Isis already inside, reading a book by the window side.

She looked up from her book as he entered, sighing wistfully. “Yeahh. I had woken up earlier anyway, so what was the point in waiting…”

“Oh, yeah? You mean that bell thing?” Finn snapped his fingers. Earlier in the night, he’d been awoken by an ungodly loud bell that kept ringing, reminding him of church bells on earth. It kept him awake for the most part of the night.

“I saw some people file out onto the fields below at the dead of the night to go through some sword motions,” Finn narrated with excitement. “It was really cool actually.”

Isis sighed deeper at Finn’s words, putting on a tired face. “Yeahh. I was one of them too.”

“Really?”

“Well, I was a student of this school once. Hearing that bell ring and immediately getting up to go practice is already ingrained in my bones… I guess I haven’t changed in that regard…”

“Oh?”

“Yeah… it’s a Seneschal family tradition. Apparently, that bell has been ringing at the exact same time for the last 1500 years. And without fail, generations upon generations of the Seneschals, along with volunteers in their school — like me — have woken up every single night to perform the Seneschal sword dance.”

“Damn…” Finn was genuinely amazed. “1500 years?”

“It’s amazing right? There’s something noble about knowing you are continuing a streak that has never once been broken. The sword dance has become so ingrained into the Seneschals, that no matter if they are weary or tired, the fact that they will break the long running streak their ancestors have held for more than a thousand years would force them onto their feet at night.”

Finn whistled in genuine appreciation. They reminded him of monks from earth. The kind of dedication that could not be substituted for any single thing.

“And this is just a branch of the true Seneschal family…”

“Really?” Finn’s attention was drawn back to their conversation.

“I heard that in the main branch, they have a streak that has been running for nearly 10,000 years.”

“What the—”

“I know, right? The Ossuarist world is full of people like that…” Isis sighed, before clapping her hands. “Anyway. Shall we get started?”

Since she and Finn had a whole empty class to themselves, and because of their nearly similar ages, it was more like a discussion rather than a strict lecture.

“First, what do you know about Ossuarists?” Isis started.

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