Stepping into the gymnasium, we were hit by a wall of noise, like a wave at the seashore washing over a sandcastle. In front of our eyes, hundreds of placeholder students were idling on the basketball court taking up the majority of the gym floor. Nobody was organizing them, yet even at a glance, it was obvious that the individual classes tried to stick together, even while being squeezed in like sardines in a box.

Pressing through the crowd, my sisters soon rubbed off our group once they found their class, and by the time we reached the spot where our classmates congregated, the class rep also left us, no doubt to find Lord Grandpa and ask what this was all about. Once we stopped, I could take a better look at the far end of the gymnasium, where a familiar podium was set up under the basketball hoop. It was the same one our principal used to give his last riveting speech before the cultural festival, and while I could see a couple of chairs set down near it, they were currently left unoccupied.

But speaking of the cultural festival, not five seconds after we came to a stop, I was lightly smacked on my back.

"Hey there, Leonard! You're still alive, eh?" a lively voice called out to me, and when I turned to face him, I found Steven Jackson… or was it Jack Stevenson? One of the two.

He was one of our classmates, one of the guys who helped with the assembly of the stage before the concert, and one of the more developed placeholders. The only issue was that, after not seeing them for a couple of weeks, I had a hard time linking their names and faces together. By the looks of it, I would have to start learning them all over again.

In any case, that didn't mean I wouldn't respond, and after the first surprise, I greeted him with a nonchalant, "Morning. Why wouldn't I be alive?"

"I've heard you were pretty sick. Something about being stuck in the hospital for two weeks or whatnot," he answered just as casually and looked me over from head to toe. "You look better than expected."

"It was just a flu," I told him, but then Judy poked me in the side with her elbow and followed me up.

"And it had some complications. Thankfully, the Chief is hardy, so he fully recovered."

"Very hardy!" Elly doubled down on my other side and flashed a smug little smirk. I didn't get it.

"Glad to hear that," the guy whose name I still wasn't entirely sure about responded on autopilot, and after a beat, he craned his neck. "Oh, the old man is here. It should be starting soon."

Following his gaze, the three of us focused on the podium. Just as he said, Lord Grandpa was just about to take the stage. He looked rather dour, even more so than usual, and seeing the people now occupying the chairs behind him made me share his sentiment. For once, he wasn't wearing his robes over his khaki suit, and opted for a much simpler business casual ensemble, as if trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible.

"Good morning, children," the old coot greeted the congregation, his amplified voice, coming from the large speakers in the corners, rising above the noise floor of the student body. It still took several seconds for the murmurs to die down, time which he spent messing with his tie and repeatedly clearing his throat.

At last, once he deemed the level of the chatter 'good enough', he began in earnest.

"I welcome you back with some good news. Some of you might have already heard, but Blue Cherry High applied for a government grant during the winter, and our application was judged favorably."

"Grant?" Josh whispered behind me, just loud enough for me to hear, but before I could respond, Elly beat me to the punch.

"Probably a cover story," she summarized, and we focused on the old man again.

"Along with a generous donation from Feilong Capital International, we now have the funds to finance many of the new developments we have been holding off for years. First and foremost, after consulting the Department of Education, the school board decided to expand our teaching staff. Please welcome Mrs. Talvipäivänseisaus, henceforth in charge of art classes of all grades."

I had to admit, I was pretty impressed by how smoothly he managed to say her name. Also, for the record, that was definitely Lord Taika, although she looked markedly different than usual. Gone were the heavy, fur-trimmed robes and the wide-brimmed witch hat, and in their place, she wore a startlingly sensible business casual ensemble with a knee-length pencil skirt, a silk blouse, and a woollen cardigan. She was still sticking to her theme colours though, with all of them being mostly white, including the rims of her rectangular glasses. I was pretty sure she wasn't wearing those until now, so they were probably just for show.

"Oh, my," a familiar voice sounded nearby, and when I looked over, I found the creepy quartet standing not far away from us.

"Comrades," Mr. Bowl Cut whispered with unnecessary gravitas. "I believe we are witnessing the birth of a new Goddess!"

"We are truly blessed," Mr. Spiky agreed with tears in the corners of his eyes.

Then, as if they rehearsed it ahead of time, all four of them glanced my way, and showed various levels of saltiness, no doubt thanks to the girls still attached to my arms.

"So you're back, huh?" Mr. Crew Cut noted with audible distaste. "Did you enjoy your stay in the hospital?"

"Don't be rude," Mr. Bedhair chided his 'comrade' with a frown. "He was hit by a car, you know?"

"I was?" I blurted out in surprise, but they didn't seem to be paying much attention to me anymore, and instead all eyes were on Lord Grandpa again.

"In the same vein, allow me to introduce Mr. Walker, who shall take over foreign language classes starting today."

That was Lord Barnabas all right, and the man gave a polite bow to the student body. He looked the same as usual, just without the cape over his blazer. But putting that aside, what was that about being hit by a car? I wanted to ask, but the creepy amigos apparently couldn't bear to look at the three of us and sidled away while I wasn't paying attention to them.

"Last, but not least, please welcome Mr. Réchúiseach, who shall henceforth be responsible for your literature classes."

The last of the three sitting on Lord Grandpa's left gave a lazy wave to the group. Lord Gulliver was slightly more presentable than usual, with his face cleanly shaved and his unruly hair tied back into a small ponytail, and I had to admit, he did give off an easygoing literary hipster vibe.

I was just about to wonder where the last arch-mage was when Lord Grandpa made a vague gesture to his left, at someone I couldn't see because of the crowd, and he stated, "I would also like you to familiarize yourself with Mr. Ambrose Aristotle Terach from the Department of Education. While he will not be teaching you, you will have plenty of opportunities to meet him on campus during the coming months."

Oh, okay then. So Lord Ambrose either didn't want to teach, and they couldn't shoehorn him into any subject, so he was given a different cover story. Neat.

"Staying on the topic of the teaching staff, I am pleased to inform you that Ms. Yamako has officially returned from her sick leave, and she is ready and eager to resume her duties as your physical education teacher."

In response, Rinne rose from her seat on the right of Lord Grandpa, and she received a shockingly thunderous applause. The incognito arch-mages also received some customary claps during their introductions, but it was nothing compared to the outright ovation Mountain Girl got. Was she way more popular than I thought, I wondered even as she sat down and the old coot turned an ever-so-slightly sour glance at the man on the last chair.

"Finally, as many of you eagle-eyed youths have no doubt already recognized, our beloved school nurse, Mr. Peabody, was torn between his work here at Blue Cherry High and certain personal obligations during the past several weeks. It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that, unable to reconcile them, he decided to temporarily vacate his position at the school. Until his return, please welcome our substitute school nurse, Mr. Arpachshad." Even though Lord Grandpa gestured to him, Jaakobah, wearing a white coat two sizes too big over a business suit, only nodded at the crowd. "Mr. Arpachshad is a certified medical professional, so if you ever encounter any medical emergencies, you may turn to him with the same trust you have shown to Mr. Peabody."

There was a wave of murmurs running through the crowd, and I thought this would be the end of it, yet the old man remained on the pulpit and waited for everyone to calm down. It took a while.

"Hey, Leo?" Angie got my attention by pulling on the back of my school uniform jacket. "Aren't those the you-know-who from back then? You know? From the banquet?"

She whispered so loudly, in order to be heard over the background noise, that she might as well not even have bothered with it.

"Yes, the arch-mages," I answered in a low voice, just to match her.

"And they're going to teach us?" she muttered, clearly shocked by the development.

"That means now we have…" Josh interjected, only to fall silent and furrow his brows. "Five? Five teachers? Isn't that number kinda low for a high school?"

"You're asking some dangerous questions, buddy," I told him with an approving grin, but he apparently didn't get it, and before we could get anywhere, Lord Grandpa ran out of patience and cleared his throat directly into the microphone.

"I have one last announcement to make." He waited until the gymnasium was mostly quiet again, and then made a beckoning gesture to his left, then to his right. After a few short seconds, a group of familiar faces, if currently dressed in unfamiliar getups, walked out of the crowd and lined up in front of the podium. "Part of the government grant the school received was allocated to increasing the security of the campus. As such, the school board negotiated a long-term contract with Praetorian Guards Inc., a well-known international security firm, to safeguard you, as well as the properties of the school."

In unison, the eight people in the front stood with their legs apart and did a Celestial salute. It was pretty sure this was rehearsed ahead of time, because there was no way they could ad-lib something like that. More importantly though, they looked very different from usual, wearing dark blue overalls with tactical vests, as well as matching baseball caps with 'security' emblazoned on them in bright yellow letters.

However, while they were a bit more uniform, they somehow still managed to retain their individual quirks. Midriff-woman, for example, wore loose trousers and a sports top instead of an overall, showing off both her shoulders and her belly, while armour guy wore a black face mask and a pair of large, mirrored sunglasses you would see on a stereotypical 80s cop, effectively hiding his face as usual. Together with the tactical vests and all the handcuffs, pepper spray, and other related paraphernalia hanging off them, they gave a distinct, 'overcompensating mall cop' vibe.

Even more bafflingly though, they weren't the only group. On the other side of the podium, a group of Squires, led by the unmistakable bulk of Duncan, stood ramrod straight. They were all wearing third-generation, mass-produced Uniformers, and their black-and-white military dress uniforms contrasted hard with the outfits of the Celestial guards.

"We have also contracted Constable LLC, and they will be responsible for patrolling the neighborhood around Blue Cherry High. Both security firms are here to ensure your protection so that you can continue your studies in peace and safety."

Once they were introduced, Lord Grandpa launched into a long speech, but by this point, most of the students already tuned out. Including myself, as I was busy listening to the weird gossip coming from our left. It was where one of the other classes congregated, and while I didn't know any of them, they apparently knew me.

"Isn't this a bit too much?" a greenish-haired girl asked without even attempting to keep her voice low, and a guy standing near him mechanically shrugged. Apparently, they still weren't completely developed yet, because that was peak placeholder behaviour.

"It was only a question of time. Haven't you heard what happened to Leonard Dunning?"

"He was in the hospital, wasn't he?" another guy answered without even waiting for the guy to finish.

"I've heard that he was in a car accident," the first girl said, and another girl joined the conversation.

"From what I've heard, it wasn't an accident, but someone purposefully sabotaged his car."

"Oooh…!" the other three let out an impressed sound, while I couldn't help but scratch my head.

However, as tempted as I was to walk over and ask them, the morning assembly wasn't over yet, and I had to wait for Lord Grandpa to finish. By the time he did, the small group moved out of sight, and as soon as he said the last word, the student body started to move as one, like when an avalanche starts with a whole snow sheet sliding down the mountain at once, and it carried us with it before we could even protest.

"Did you know about this?" Josh, now in front of us due to the way the crowd turned around as everyone headed to the exit, asked over his shoulder.

"No. I gave Jaakobah and Rinne free reins, but I didn't expect they would cook up something like this overnight," I admitted, and my friend let out a vexed groan.

"Man, we'll be constantly under surveillance, won't we?"

"The surprising thing is that we weren't until now," Elly pointed out, and looked baffled by everyone else's reactions. "What? Everyone here is very important."

"True, but I think Joshua will need some time to get used to the attention," Judy noted, and my friend responded with yet another, somehow even more displeased groan.

"It's less about the attention and more about the Praetorian Guard looking at me like I'm a criminal if I'm as much as holding hands with Angie."

"Well, they'll just have to deal with it," his girlfriend declared, and for emphasis, she grabbed hold of his arm in a mirror image of how Judy and Elly were holding onto me.

"I'm also a bit worried about these rumours," I spoke absently, and my lovely assistant glanced up at me.

"About the car accident?"

"What else?"

"Don't worry about it," Elly told me with a giggle. "People are always going to gossip, and the more popular you are, the more they'll gossip about you."

"Since when was I that popular?" I blurted out, just as the flow of the crowd funnelled us into the entrance hall with the shoe lockers.

"It would be more accurate to say that your portfolio is closely linked to some of the best-performing stocks on the school market," Judy told me with a straight face.

"… Are you making a stock-market spoof?"

"It's not a spoof, it's an analogy," Judy retorted and gently pinched my cheek.

"Fine, fine. Analogy it is. So, how are my stocks?"

"Doing mighty fine," she declared and let go of my face. "Your recent acquisition of the Elly conglomerate, as well as the hostile takeover of the Yamako corporation both raised interest, and many are invested to see how high your shares could go."

"Oh, that sounds nice," I noted with a smile, playing along. "What about these two?"

Gesturing at Josh and Angie, the girls blinked in unison, but Judy soon came up with an answer.

"Angeline Holdings has been generating bullish sentiment for a long time, and now that she entered a mutually beneficial partnership with Joshua Industries, it successfully reined in the bearishness associated with his previously fly-by-night attitude on the market. Overall, associating with their stocks is unlikely to damage your portfolio."

Honestly speaking, I was getting a bit lost in her jargon, and while I could roughly figure out what 'bearish' and 'bullish' meant in context, it still left me a bit unbalanced. Did she learn about the stock market during her stay at the Dracis mansion, I wondered?

"What about my shares in the Dormouse firm?" I said the first thing that came to mind, just to keep things rolling.

"Ever since the Christmas concert, Judy's stocks are on the rise," the princess cut in, finding our discussion amusing.

"However, our subsidiaries suffered a downturn due to the disappearance of Leonard S. Dunning Incorporated," Judy continued, and just the fact that she bothered to use my non-existent middle name told me she was in a good mood. "I believe the best way to stop any further decline is by a capital injection from the holding company."

"Which is me," I noted, and then after a pause, I asked, "Was that an innuendo?"

"Wow, Chief. You have such a dirty mind."

"… That doesn't sound very convincing when it comes from you of all people," I pointed out, earning me a giggle from the princess. However, before we could continue, I was suddenly addressed out of the blue.

"Hello, Dunning."

We just reached the first floor, and it took me a second to find the person who called out to me in the mass of students. However, there weren't many people who called me by my surname, and since it wasn't Pascal this time, by process of elimination, it had to be the tall, black-haired girl with the same red arm-band around her upper arm. By the looks of it, she was part of the disciplinary committee, and I could vaguely remember her from the 'The Gathering' incident with the four creepers and their stupid auction.

"Hi?" I greeted her back, unsure about her name. I was always bad with names, but in her case, I wasn't even sure we'd been introduced, in the first place. It didn't stop her from approaching us though.

"I see that you have been discharged from the hospital," she noted as she looked me over. "To think that you would get caught up in a car chase. It must have been terrifying. The public morals of Timaeus are truly in the dumps." She sighed, and before I could get a word in, she turned on her heels and added, over her shoulder, "It's a good thing the principal hired all that security. Hopefully, it will stop anything like that ever happening to one of our students."

As if her whole goal was to deliver those lines, she turned away and walked down the crowded corridor without waiting for us to respond.

"What the heck was that?" Josh blurted out, and it was only at this point that I realized that during the shuffle through the corridors, he and Angie somehow ended up behind us again.

"Wow, Leo… You were in a car chase, and you didn't tell us about it?" Angie… well, I hoped she was only teasing me, but the way she was looking at me, I couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

"I wasn't, and this rumour thing is getting out of hand," I grumbled, and we headed upstairs. However, one thing that this unknown committee member said struck an idea in my head. "Speaking of the security though; I know I gave a carte blanche and everything, but… why Duncan?"

"Do you mean, 'Why is Duncan the one who got sent here as an Ordo Draconis liaison?'" Judy corrected me, and I nodded with a grunt.

"Probably because he's the least busy," Elly guessed, and on second thought, she was probably right.

Roland and Arnwald were pretty much running the organization in my absence, while Morgana and Agrawain were in charge of keeping an eye on Sir Percival's prison. Penny was… well, Penny, but also already a student here, so by process of elimination, Duncan was the only one without any prior responsibilities who could be dispatched on a mission like this. It all made perfect se—"

"Hey, Leonard!"

My train of thought was interrupted by Sahi and Armband Guy. The two of them were camping out in front of our classroom, apparently waiting for us. The incognito arch-mage made her way over to me, practically knocking over everyone in her way. By the way, calling her the 'incognito arch-mage' was no longer descriptive enough, considering now we had four more of them in school. Should I call her the 'rejuvenated arch-mage', I pondered? Or just go with 'ex-arch-mage'?

In any case, I couldn't come to a decision during the short time she was approaching me, and once she stood in front of me, she declared, "Endy wants to meet you!"

"… Right now?"

"What she meant to say was that the Lord is requesting your presence after school hours to discuss School security," Pascal reiterated, and the brown girl nodded with a satisfied smile as if she did it herself.

"Like, now we delivered the message, right?" She crossed her arms, and after a beat, she raised a brow and asked, "Hey, Leonard? Like, what were you doing on a cruise ship?"

"What was I doing on a what?" I blurted out, but she remained poker-faced, despite my obvious confusion.

"Like, that's totally what I've heard. That you were, like, on a cruise ship that totally sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and you were like, totally wicked and tried to save the passengers, but then you totally fell into the water and, like, you suffered from hypothermia and you were in intensive care in a hospital for, like, weeks." Pausing, she raised a brow and whispered. "Was that your cover story? Isn't that, like, a bit too bogus? Like, why didn't you go with something simpler?"

"I did! I have no idea where all of this is coming from!"

"Really?" Losing interest, she shrugged and grabbed Armband Guy. "Oh well, good luck with that. We totally have places to be, so, like, buh-by!"

With that, the two of them walked down the stairs the way we came, leaving me completely befuddled, and judging by the expression of the girls and the childhood friend couple, I wasn't the only one. Nevertheless, I did my best to shake it off and power my way to the classroom. It was right there, and once I was back in my usual seat, I figured I'd have all the time necessary to digest all of this.

Once we were inside, Judy detached herself from us first, along with Angie. The two of them were sitting at the front, while the rest of us were near the back of the class, and once I found my desk and sat down, I immediately let out a lung-rattling groan, much to my draconic girlfriend's amusement in the seat in front of mine.

So, just to summarize: the number of teachers in Blue Cherry High tripled overnight, and we'd have the arch-mages in the school, probably to keep an eye on us. Similarly, the Praetorian Guards and our Squires (or should I call them 'Constables' now?) were on security duty, and I could already see all the shenanigans that would cause in front of my mind's eyes. Disagreements in authority, stepping on each others' toes, nobody being able to understand Duncan and thinking he was taunting them… the new vectors for drama were endless!

And then, Jaakobah somehow supplanted Peabody as our school nurse. For some reason, out of everything, that was the thing that annoyed me the most. Adding to and complicating our school lives was one thing, but removing one of the first people I've ever met in school? It was like taking a column out of the Parthenon; sure, it wouldn't collapse, but it just felt like something was fundamentally lost. Though again, I was partially to blame, I imagined. It was my secret project that keept the portly nurse busy, but while I rationally understood that, it still left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.

All in all, I had a feeling our school lives would be considerably more eventful than they used to be, and it was a feeling I couldn't shake even when Mrs. Applebottom, in her one set of clothes and her usual hairdo walked in, bringing a sense of stability into the classroom both in a literal and the psychological sense.

"Good morning, children," she greeted the class with a smile, and once everyone quieted down, her eyes landed on me. "Let's all welcome Leonard back from his long absence. It's good to have you back."

I flashed a modest smile, and while I wasn't happy about being in the middle of attention, sitting here, in class, on a sunny Monday morning still made me feel—

"It must have been scary, being the only survivor of a plane crash, but I want you to know that I'm glad that you are back with us!"

— more confused than ever…