Chapter 777: The Unseen Curriculum
The crypt’s stone doors rattled behind Adam. Torches burned along cracked walls, revealing overgrown spiderwebs. They glistened silver in the dim light, natural tapestries in a classroom that felt better suited for the dead than the living.
It smelled of dust and old corpses. Stone desks, carved like coffins, formed neat rows in front of a blackboard whose timber rim had been softened by decades of dampness. Drawn with chalk was a magic circle, the complete version of the half-finished one he had seen on the ground.
A cold wind crept from the stairwell—perhaps to where necromancy students raised the dead. In any case, Marcellus Noct Virein was in no mind to entertain curiosity. With a casual wave of his hand, he directed the darkness shrouding Adam to drift over one desk. Cold stones met Adam’s battered back. His organs were reforming, his bones healing thanks to whatever potion the teacher had thrown at him. But the wounds left by Grimhilde still hurt enough to tear a groan out of his lips.
Marcellus Noct Virein snorted, "Do you know why respecting teachers is an unbreakable rule, young lady?"
Only incomprehensible gurgles escaped Adam’s bloodied mouth when he tried to answer.
"It’s not a question." Marcellus Noct Virein curled a bone-thin finger, darkness dissipating.
Adam could finally see the teacher. He was a bald man, wrinkles almost drawing fractal patterns on his cheeks. His somber robes were broader than any other teacher’s, yet they clung to his body, as if searching to cover flesh, but only finding bones. His pale green eyes spoke for him, glinting with sharp wisdom, millennia of amassed knowledge, and a hint of something else.
What? Adam couldn’t figure it out before the teacher continued in an impatient voice. And the unexpected answer caused his brow to crease.
"Not because of seniority or status. Not even because we want obedience." Marcellus Noct Virein glanced at Quintella, still unconscious on Sarah’s back. Then, he scoffed. "Because we have better things to do than argue with children. A single thought is enough for us to kill before you even know you’ve died. Respect is your shield only against our wrath. Do you understand?"
Adam’s eyes widened, and for a moment, the stone desk felt colder against his mangled back.
Before he could think, the teacher continued.
"Losing point is our first warning: you’ve crossed a line, but we still tolerate you. Then comes the moment when we no longer do." His sneer echoed against cracked walls, his knowing glance making Adam press his lips into a thin line. "Grimhilde showed you just that, but I’m not as sadistic. I would never kill a student. No, bodies have worth when alive—" He let his words linger, a knowing grin stretching across his weathered face.
Then, he waved his hand dismissively at the noise of approaching footsteps. Voices carried through the stone doors, eager and youthful. He had wasted more than enough time. His class would begin.
"Leave, but don’t forget what you’ve learned. Sarah, help them out." He crouched, chalk in hand, and began to complete the half-finished circle on the ground. "The time I’ve wasted and the potion I used cost you another five hundred points."
His gaze lingered on Quintella a second too long. He shook his head, refocusing on drawing the circle. "Never mind. Forget about the points. Go, but don’t let me catch you again."
Wounds closing, pain receding, Adam limped to his feet. Sarah nodded, ready to guide him out, but he took a deep breath, the crypt’s smells filling his nose before he shook his head.
He had understood it loud and clear—what lies between Marcellus Noct Virein’s explanation. Points weren’t just a thing of competition between the three Houses. It was a benchmark, a method to gauge if students subjected to the same rules could live together. And when someone proved unfit one time too many... Marcellus’ threats wouldn’t be just threats anymore.
The explanation of Magna, the dorm’s manager, now made sense. ’Anything that feels logically wrong is forbidden, which includes annoying us,’ he had said. It felt like a trap, in which abusing rules wouldn’t work, not when teachers could rewrite them in real time.
"Thank you," he said, voice raspy from his healing windpipe. Limping toward the doors, he muttered low enough that no one heard him. "I’ll rise over this system using its own rules. Just wait."
When he stepped out, the first thing he saw was a dozen students bearing the House of Exorcism emblem on their chests. They saw him, too, eager conversation turning into mocking sneers. One of them pointed at his wounds through the rags of his uniform, laughing with his friends. Another growled about the two thousand and a hundred points lost in less than half a day.
He ignored them all, his attention on Quintella. He gently brushed aside her blonde hair, though his hand still trembled.
"Was it worth it?" Sarah asked as she tucked Quintella in his arms. "Not a single student ever escaped Grimhilde’s whips. I mean, we hate it, but that’s how she has been teaching for centuries."
"It doesn’t make it normal." Adam pursed his lips, a vein throbbing in his neck. He ultimately sighed. "I won’t let anyone hurt her."
"Because she’s your sister?" Sarah tilted her head, her dark eyes sparkling in genuine curiosity, and a blush creeping onto her cheeks from something more.
But he just grumbled as he began to walk toward the dormitory. "Because I promised her better."
She watched his bloodied back, the corner of her lips curving. "I wasn’t wrong. You’re really different." Her gaze lingered on Quintella, and she absentmindedly bit her thumbnail. "So lucky. A weak, naive girl like you doesn’t deserve such a good brother."
With one last glance over her shoulder, she returned to the classroom along with the other students.
Meanwhile, Adam reached the boys’ floor of the dorms. He placed Quintella on his soft bed, opting against waking her up yet. After all, he looked anything but stylish right now. Dried blood covered his skin more than his shredded uniform. His face was a mess, not to mention his hair. No. First, he had to clean up, then figure out a solution to protect her from Grimhilde’s sadism.