“Phew… We are finally done,” Nathan exclaimed in exasperation. It was almost time for Ms. Lexie’s class to start, and he was still stuck sorting out books with the librarian. With a smirk surfacing on her face, the old librarian looked smugly at Nathan. “What’s wrong? You tired, kiddo?” She asked, well knowing what was going through his mind.
“I am not going to lie, I never thought sorting out books could get this tiring.” Just pulling the cart around the library was enough to make Nathan reconsider his choice to leave the seven tomes for the old lady to handle. “Of course, do you know how many books punks like you leave behind for me to deal with every day?” Snorting in annoyance, the old lady reprimanded Nathan in a roundabout way, making him feel even more guilty than he already was.
Seeing Nathan’s guilt-ridden expression made it hard for the old lady to keep up the cold exterior. Her expression mellowing out somewhat, she nodded while saying, “Well, at least you know now. So, what brought you so early to the library? You forgot anything?”
Nathan’s spirits were reignited as he answered. “Actually…” He quickly recounted the previous day’s events, how one of his papers went missing when Professor Corwell showed up and how terrible he felt for leaving all those tomes for her to deal with.
“I get it kiddo. Don’t worry, you already helped me enough with the books. And, besides,” pausing slightly to take a breath, the librarian added, “I did say we would be even if you helped me out. So, about that paper, consider yourself lucky.” The old lady said as a grin formed on her complexion, “I haven’t thrown the trash out yet, so it may just be in the note pile.”
Her last words played like music to Nathan’s ears, giving him a little bit of hope. If anything, at the very least this would confirm whether Professor Corwell had the note or not. Eager to start searching, Nathan told her to show him to the pile.
However, when she was ready to do just that, a cold, withered, and grumpy voice called from behind. “I’ve been searching all over the place for you, lad.” The familiar sound of a cane hitting the ground resounded loudly behind him. Now, Nathan knew of only one person who carried a cane and referred to students as ‘lad’, and that was…
‘Professor Corwell,’ with cold sweat forming on his forehead, Nathan turned around like a robot, his expression frozen in time. “Are you perhaps looking for this?” With a childlike smile on his face, the professor waved around the one thing Nathan came looking for. ‘Perfect, just perfect…’ Nathan saw the rosy university life flashing right before his eyes as Professor Corwell made an appearance.
“Meet me at my office in fifteen minutes. I have quite a few things I would like to discuss with you.” Professor Corwell wasn’t one to fool around; he came over, disturbed the waters, and was ready to leave like the wind.
“But I have a lecture to attend in five minutes…” Nathan uttered hesitantly, hoping to weasel his way out of it.
“Whose lecture?” Corwell said with an eyebrow raised, to which Nathan answered.
“Ms. Le…” Stopping halfway through, he corrected himself. After all, it was disrespectful to call professors by their first name. “Professor Keller’s…” Mumbling through gritted teeth, Nathan recalled how Professor Michael Corwell wasn’t on good terms with Ms. Lexie. Their teaching methods were pretty much polar opposites, with Corwell taking a more old-school approach.
“Lexie? Hmph! That lass already has one too many students on her plate, one less won’t really matter. Besides, we have more important matters to discuss, don’t we?” he intoned while waving the note back and forth.
“Meet me at my office in fifteen minutes. I don’t like to repeat myself.” Just like that, Professor Corwell stormed his way out of the library with one of his legs limping along.
‘I am doomed… Officially,’ Nathan shuddered as he scavenged for something to support himself with. At this moment, it felt like he was the one in need of a cane…
“I don’t know what you did kiddo, but it’s been ages since I last saw that moving mass of grumpiness get this motivated.” The librarian, whom Nathan never even bothered to ask for her name, commented while looking at Professor Corwell’s receding figure.
“Motivated?” Nathan repeated while turning to regard the librarian. “Yes, motivated. That man acts like a child whenever he discovers something new related to history. I don’t know what you were researching for but, now that it drew the old man’s attention, you had better be prepared… He can be quite persistent at times.”
Nathan was lost for words. There wasn’t much he could say but, if there was one thing... ‘Let’s see which of us is more persistent, old man!’ He was also a tough nut to crack.
He had heard a lot of things about that particular professor but, now that the cat was out of the bag, he might as well try his hardest to fight back. Not that he was entirely sure what he was fighting back against. Regardless of the reason, Nathan made his way to Professor Corwell’s study in time; it’s not proper to leave a professor waiting.
~~~
A good hour later,
Nathan softly turned the auditorium’s doorknob. He was already late for Ms. Lexie’s lecture and the last thing he wanted was to make a noisy entrance. Sadly for him, the auditorium was the spaciest building on campus, and the door opening echoed throughout its entirety.
With a jolt of surprise coursing through their bodies, several students had their heads briefly turned in Nathan’s direction; they quickly lost interest, however, and turned around so they could focus on the lesson again. Some even clicked their tongues to display their annoyance at Nathan’s entrance, while others didn’t even bother turning around to take a peek.
Ms. Lexie, on the other hand, didn’t bother to pause her lecture. There were hundreds of students inside the auditorium and if she stopped every time someone decided to enter or exit, she wouldn’t get anywhere with her lesson.
Taking a quick glance at the podium, Nathan’s gaze landed momentarily on Ms. Lexie’s enchanting figure, as she spoke on what he believed to be a matter pertaining to one of the five major perspectives of psychology. He could be wrong though, so he let it be and searched for an empty seat.
Turning his stare at the auditorium’s upper row of desks, Nathan discovered a waving Roger in the distance. And, even though Nathan was already quite late, the rowdy fellow had saved a seat for him. “Thanks, Roger.” he mumbled softly as he got closer, and received a ‘no problem’ in return. He then let his bag fall soundlessly on the ground and took a seat.
“What happened? The Nathan I know is never late.” Roger whispered with one hand covering a small part of his mouth. “Well… Professor Corwell and I had a talk,” Letting out a tired sigh, Nathan briefly answered. “YOU HAD A WHAT?!” Roger jumped in surprise, incurring not only the other students’ attention, but even Ms. Lexie’s wrath. With a burning stare landing on them, her cold words carried over from the other end of the auditorium.
“The cafeteria is a perfect place for chatter. If you are not interested in my lecture, feel free to leave.” A few muffled giggles echoed as Roger bowed in apology to the professor, influenced by the games he played all day long. Sitting down again, he waited for the commotion to settle down a bit and returned to whispering.
“Feel free to e-la-bo-ra-te,” he said one syllable at a time, glaring at Nathan’s countenance while the man in question was humbly copying his notes. Just like someone he knew of, Nathan’s head was buried in his scribbles, ignoring the outside world as he wrote down things unceasingly. ‘Should I accept Professor Corwell’s offer?’ Even as his mind revolved around the talk he had with Michael Corwell, his hand never stopped moving.
“Hey Nathan, are you even listening?” Roger repeated from the side, drawing him out his musings. “Sorry, what did you say? I wasn’t paying attention…” With an apologetic expression showing on his face, Nathan finally looked up. “What did you talk about with that grumpy old man?”
Thinking back to the encounter, Nathan closed his eyes and recalled part of their conversation.
~~~
“Join my department!” Professor Corwell uttered loudly to which Nathan replied, “For the thousandth time Professor, NO!” Letting out a loud sigh escape his mouth, he continued. “As I said many times before, I want to major in psychology. What would I join the History department for?”
“You are one persistent lad,” Corwell scratched the back of his head in irritation. “Then what is this?!” He said while tapping twice on the piece of paper that Nathan had copied from Chayum. “If you aren’t interested in history, then how do you explain this? No, where did you get it in the first place?”
Professor Corwell’s questions were all things Nathan was unable to answer. What would he say? He just happened to find a strange book called Chayum in another world while sleeping? Or, explain how he could travel through the world of Erion each night? All that Nathan could say was the following, “I already told you multiple times, I found…”
“Yes, yes, you found it on a post online and decided to decipher it, even the stones are laughing at your jokes.” Professor Corwell said, sniffing in disbelief. “I can tell you are lying with just a glance.” His gaze was sharp and steady as he glared at Nathan’s figure, but so was Nathan’s. Neither of them backed out; they were both as stubborn as an ox.
“Sigh,” finally, professor Corwell caved in and mumbled tiredly. “Okay, fine! I don’t know why you don’t want to tell me and I can’t force you. So instead, I’ll propose a deal.” With his eyebrows tilted up, Nathan parroted in question. “A deal?”
“Yes, a deal. What do you say?” Lost for words, Nathan blatantly asked. “I am all ears, I guess.”
“Cheeky brat,” the Professor scoffed and continued. “You want to translate that piece of writing, correct?” Nathan was keener on understanding the language, but translating Chayum’s contents would pretty much be the same thing. Therefore, with that thought in mind, he nodded lightly. “Good, then wouldn’t it be great having someone like me assist you with that?” Corwell added coyly as a small grin surfaced on his wrinkled face.
Looking at Professor Corwell’s expression irked Nathan into retorting, but he instead decided to stay quiet as Michael raised a finger to hush him. “Hear me out till the end first.” Taking a deep breath, he looked Nathan in the eye and continued. “First of all, I will no longer question where you found that,” he said and tapped the paper again. “Or any new notes you bring to me for translating.”
“Second, correct me if I have it wrong, but the main reason why you want to major in psychology is for its future prospects, right? If that is really the case, then I can tell you now that majoring in history will be no different on that part.” Having talked for the greater part of an hour with him, Professor Corwell had quite a good grasp on not only Nathan’s character, but his true nature as well. From the way he talked and moved about, he understood that Nathan wasn’t a psychology junkie like that lass Lexie Keller was, he was here to get his future set straight. And that gave the professor hope in rolling Nathan into his own department.
“I’ll take your silence as affirmation, so I’ll continue.” The professor said without pause. “Instead of wasting your time with her long-winded lectures, I will hire you as a junior research assistant and teach you personally all you need to know about history, while you help me with my research.” Looking intently at Nathan’s expression, Professor Corwell waited for him to reply.
“You can do that?” He asked in surprise, wondering how much time he could save if he didn’t have to attend lectures. So far, Nathan’s day was mostly spent at the university, studying for exams, leaving him little to no time for other things. If he could save some time on lectures, a lot of opportunities would open up for him. For example, he could get some proper work and escape that hell of living on the edge of bankruptcy.
“Of course I can do that! Who do you take me for? I am the head professor of the history department.” He said matter of factly before adding. “Research assistants have a salary too. Just so you know,” Professor Corwell threw the final bait, awaiting Nathan's answer.
Lost and deep in thought, Nathan couldn’t find any good reason to outright refuse him. It was indeed a great deal, but all deals had a drawback right? “What do you want in return?” He asked hesitantly as he hooked gazes with Professor Corwell.
“Nothing much, all I need is for you to join my department, otherwise I can’t have you acting as my assistant,” he said and chuckled, leaving Nathan baffled. “Well, you can give me your answer tomorrow. If you submit the department registration form for the history department, I will know you accepted my offer and will act accordingly. There is nothing else I can do until then.” Having thrown out the bait, all Corwell could do was wait for the fish to bite.
~~~
Nathan’s mind was drawn back to reality as Roger questioned for the third time, “Dude, seriously, are you even paying any attention to what I say?” Nathan’s head was turned as he simply said.
“Roger…”
“Ye- Yes?” Roger tilted his head in surprise.
“I think I will be joining the history department.”
“YOU WILL JOIN WHAT?!” Roger exclaimed loudly, once again drawing the ire of everyone in the room.
