The Exchange Teacher - Welcome to Dyntril Academy

Basque looked at Earl-ess Wendina's body. "What happened?"

"She had a heart attack." Sophia's voice was flat.

Basque looked at her. She wore that expressionless mask. He turned back to the body.

"Then why do you need sugar?"

For the first time ever, Sophia hesitated. "Thirty-two-year-old earl-esses with enough kills to become a marchioness don't have heart attacks."

"This one did."

Sophia glared at him.

"Then I think you're going to have to explain to me how this one did."

She shook her head.

"Sophia."

"Not here."

"Fine. Let's go to the Tinkerers."

"There?! You trust them?!"

"More than I trust you."

Sophia flinched, and her face faltered, showing a bit of hurt. "I understand, Master Gerenet. Yesenia."

"Yes, Headmaid."

"Help me carry it to the bathroom."

"I got it," Basque said and picked up Wendia's corpse. He carried it into his bathroom and laid it on the floor next to his tub.

"When Master Basque and I leave, barricade the doors. Let no one in."

Yesenia nodded.

"Three soft knocks, then one hard, repeated twice. You may open the door then."

"Yes, ma'am."

Basque and Sophia left Yesenia alone in the bathroom with the dead body. The door closed after them, and Sophia tried opening it; it didn't budge.

"Will she be okay alone in there?"

Sophia nodded. "You have a power to attract the capable to you. I will meet you at the shed in five minutes."

Saying that, Sophia vanished into the servants' corridor. Basque was still confused about the situation, but he understood Sophia's caution. If she was asking him to release a Yani to hide the traces of Wendia's death, it could only mean Sophia was responsible for the death.

That led to a whole slew of other questions that tumbled around in Basque's mind as he descended the stairs. How could Sophia, a maid, take down a hunter? Even if their skills weren't to Basque's level, anyone capable of killing a Yani and living shouldn't die to someone not trained.

He pushed through the doors out into the training grounds. Class E, his class, wouldn't be out there as they were taking dance lessons, but the clanging of weapons and yells of students still echoed through the grounds.

Their emblems showed that they were all second-year students, and Basque paid them no mind. He was too concerned about the Sophia problem to divert resources to thinking about students who had no impact on his own.

Sophia's actions and worries lead Basque to believe she'd killed the woman. But a heart attack? None of it made sense. Basque had a world of questions for that woman—questions he'd been putting off for far too long. She seemed to genuinely care for his students, so he'd let them slide, but if she was murdering nobles in their dorm hall, that was a different matter.

Basque's sixth sense kicked in, and he dodged the barbed end of a black whip as it snapped where his ear had been. Spinning around, he faced a woman with cornflower blue hair dressed in form-fitting blue clothes. She glowered at him as she reared her whip back to strike again.

The attack flew at him. Basque reached out and grabbed the whip, making sure to avoid the barbs. The woman let out a little "Oh!" in surprise. Once she recovered her senses, she pulled on the whip. Basque pulled back. She stumbled forward a few steps, almost falling to the ground.

She stood up straight and grinned. Holding on to her whip, she sauntered over to him, swaying her hips. Basque let go of the weapon, and she vanished it into her inventory.

"Hello, Master Basque," the woman said.

"Why did you attack me?"

"I called you several times, but you ignored me. So, I wanted to crack your ear and get attention."

"With a barbed whip?"

"It would heal. Don't be such a baby."

"That's…do you do that to the students?" He needed to go, but his experiences at the school and his sense of duty forced him to ask.

"Class A kids?" She raised an eyebrow. "Yani, no. I prefer living. I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Baronetess Elaina, the Class A teacher for second-years." She held out her hand. Flashbacks of the women from the museum and his first meeting with Julvie rushed through his mind.

Basque's hand crept out and took hers. The instant he put his hand in hers, her fingers wrapped around his hand, and she jerked him forward, lowering his head to her height. Elaina grabbed his hair and whispered in his ear, "Give me back the Yani-loving staff you took from that Yani-loving Yani in my class."

Two quick moves freed Basque from her grasp. The staff appeared in his hands, and after a few twirls, he poked the end into her shoulder. She stumbled backwards a step, and after she regained her balance, she grabbed the end of the staff. Basque didn't let go.

Wendina was dead. Her body wasn't going anywhere, and this woman was a key to getting other students to leave Reianna alone. It wasn't an opportunity Basque had been looking for, but he wasn't going to pass it up.

"Control your students."

"Ha! As if a baronetess could control the children of earls and dukes."

"You are a teacher."

"Yeah, because it's better than fighting Yani or being a servant or commoner!"

"Be a teacher."

"I am!" She jerked on the staff, but it didn't budge.

"No, you're a babysitter. Be. A. Teacher."

She pulled again, and he let it go. "Easy for you to say."

"The best teachers are not always the best hunters. And the best hunters don't always make the best teachers. Someone with innate talent might not be able to explain that talent. Many times, it's those who struggle and understand what they had to learn and go through who make better teachers."

"Says the man who could take down Deputy Headmaster Krill."

Basque raised an eyebrow. "You think that was talent?"

"You can't be serious."

"I've offered to teach Harnel, but he's never taken me up on it. I can help you improve your whip skills and will gladly give you advice on teaching."

She laughed and crossed her arms, sticking the shaft in one of the crooks. "I'm sure Madam Julvie and Cormick would love that."

"Natt would not mind, and I don't see what the Marchioness has to do with anything."

"I'm not looking to be in some perverted harem."

"I'm not looking to start one. Honestly, Madam Elaina, I don't care if you come or not. Just tell your class that if any of them challenge Reianna again, I won't be responsible for the fancy weapons they will lose."

"What do you mean?"

"She will take their weapons from them, and I will not ask her to give them back."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She snorted. "Barely beating a duke's daughter has gone to both of your heads."

"Good day." Basque turned and ran out of the training ground. He didn't have time to spend talking to a woman who was making the minimum effort in everything in her life.

A dozen Yani kills a year was all she needed to stay noble. One kill a month. Twenty-four, just two a month, would elevate her to baroness, the next level, and she couldn't be bothered, just like she couldn't bother to fix the sloppy form of the majority of her class.

On the other hand, Sophia's matter was pressing. Her matter affected the only thing he cared about in this country: his students. She was waiting for him outside the Tinkerer's shed. The usual music polluted the air around it.

In the time it had taken Basque to leave the room and run out to the shed, Sophia had managed to change out of her maid uniform and into a black jumpsuit. Her purple hair was pulled back into a ponytail, like what Natt often wore.

He could only assume the delay on the training grounds had allowed her to beat him there, but at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that even without Elaina's intervention, Sophia would have beaten him there.

"Well?" he asked her.

"Inside."

Basque opened the door and went in. Tink was messing with a horseless carriage. He made no indication that he heard them enter, so Basque ignored him and led Sophia into the living area of the shed, where the music was still deafening, but a tad less loud.

"Biscuit! What are you—?" Sophia's face fell flat. "Headmaid Sophia. It's been a while."

"Symantha. You look well."

"So, pressing common with our Biscuit, are you?"

"I have my reasons to serve him."

"The other heads allow it?"

"What I do in my area of management—I do not need to explain to you." She turned to Basque. "Master Basque, please believe me when I say Earl-ess Wendina's death was an accident."

"Yani-shit!" Symantha cried. "Nothing you do is an accident."

Basque nodded his head. "Aside from the fact that my language doesn't even have an equivalent of 'accident,' you do not strike me as someone who would ever do something by accident."

A syringe appeared in her hand, but not in a manner that calling something from inventory would produce it. Calling it from inventory would have placed the syringe on the flat of the palm of her hand, whereas this needle appeared hidden behind her middle finger.

And by hidden, it was truly hidden. Only slightly shorter and slightly thinner than her middle finger, from the back of her hand, it was invisible. But when she turned her palm over after producing it, Basque saw it there nestled in her loose grip.

The plunger fit into the crook between her finger and palm. When the plunger depressed, a needle shot out from the end of the syringe. Basque took it from her and inspected it.

"It's a neurotoxin that should erase an hour of memories. It's like getting blackout drunk."

Basque handed the needle back to her.

Sophia glared at Symantha and said, "It was my plan to get Wendina out of the way for a bit, until Master Basque returned."

"Why would you need to get her out of the way?"

"She wanted to kill Miss Reianna."

"What?"

"I'm assuming the test went in our favor."

Symantha stormed over to the vivid purple-haired maid. "'Our?' Our?!" Symantha stood with her hands on her hips, glaring up at the other woman.

Sophia looked down at her. "Yes. You might have left, but I continue on."

"Claiming more students than you have the right to!"

"How else are we supposed to achieve our goals?"

"Without using children!"

"I'm not here to rehash old arguments with you, Sym."

Symantha slapped Sophia. "You ended our friendship."

"Becoming one of the heads was my best move!"

"Hey!" Basque yelled and got between the two of them. "Look, I get it, the two of you have a history. Honestly, I don't care about it, and you guys can argue all you want once we figure out what to do with it."

Turning his attention to Sophia, Basque told her, "Using a Yani to destroy her body is out of the question. Having a second one appear would cast too much suspicion on me. Plus, I'd rather not endanger any of my students. Nor look for a new room."

Symantha narrowed her eyes. "What's this about Yani?"

"Exactly what I said."

"That's exactly what I'm asking. How could you guarantee a Yani would attack the body, and why would it make you suspicious?"

"Master Basque released a Yani in the cafeteria to keep his students away from the other kids."

Symantha looked at Basque. "Biscuit? How do you 'release' a Yani?"

"Hianbrun secret. You don't need to worry."

The short, smokey taupe-haired woman looked him up and down. After several long seconds, she sighed. "Tink's got them horselesses. You can use them for your plans. I'm out. You two do your overthrowing or whatever secret outwaller business without me."

She headed out of the room and, without looking back, said, "You're still welcome whenever, Biscuit. Soap, you can go screw a Yani." The door slammed behind her.

"She and I—"

"Look, I told Natt, and I'm going to tell you. I don't care about your past. I don't know Yani about your country, and neither do I care to. I'm going to train those twenty-four kids to survive, and then I'm gone, never to come back."

Sophia stared him in the eyes.

Basque sighed and softened his tone. "I thank you for protecting Reianna. I understand doing so has put you and, by association, my class in a predicament. Outside of Yani in the dorms, I'll do what I can to help."

Droping her gaze to the floor, Sophia chewed on her thumb and muttered around it. She nodded a couple of times and shook her head once or twice, then looked up at Basque.

"Just how good of a hunter are you?"

"I soloed three mage Yani at once and lived."

Sophia's eyes went wide. "So, you could stage it to look like Wendina and a Yani killed each other at the same time?"

"Claws in her, knives in it type thing?"

"I guess?"

"Yes, I think I could stage that."

"Okay, I have enough loyal people that I can get the body out of here. We'll take it back to her earldom and make it look like they killed each other there. Nobles often keep animals, hoping they'll turn for training and their yearly quota."

Sophia clapped her hands and spread them wide. "No one would connect her death with the academy, let alone you."

"Last time, it was just you and me, and yet I've been suffering through a month of sugar tea."

"I'm sorry about that. The culinary head isn't in with us, so I wasn't aware of his system. But since the grounds head is with us, there will be no issue or log of the horseless coming and going."

Basque rubbed his chin. It was a good plan—better than his rushed concoction for the cafeteria, for which he was really unfairly blaming the mess up on her. He'd rushed and pressed her, and she'd agreed without hesitation.

Basque frowned. He wished he could agree as readily as she had, but their situations were different. She, a Kruamian, had killed another Kruamian in Kruami. If Basque, a Hianbrun delegate in Kruami, got involved, the consequences were worlds apart. Washing his hands of it and leaving Sophia to herself was the smart move--the only move.

She just admitted to being a revolutionary and having resources. If they couldn't dispose of a body, what were they even doing?

But Wendina would have been seen going to Class E's dorms. That would put his students under scrutiny. His scowl deepened. Basque didn't trust any sort of fairness from his Kruamian hosts when it came to his students. There was no telling what they would do to them in order to find such a high-ranking noble.

Glancing at his vivid violet-haired maid, he softened his expression. She was coming to him. She'd never come to him unless she couldn't avoid raising suspicion around Class E. If she could have done it without him, she would have already done it.

He also couldn't forget that he'd messed up, and Sophia knew too much about him--his language, about storing Yani before they turned. That Reianna was a mage.

Sophia stood looking at him, watching as he debated everything in his mind. She didn't say anything, just stood, biting her lower lip. His heart throbbed.

Doing nothing could harm the only people in Kruami he cared about. He'd all but thrown away his title as a dignitary to don his mantle as a teacher and protect his students. He'd just spent days contemplating war and treason to save those very students; why hesitate now?

If they were caught, everything could go to hell. Negotiations could fall apart. The Kruamians could kick them out. War. Eder, for sure, would throw Basque to the Yani.

No matter how he looked at it, helping out and getting caught by far had the worst outcomes. But could he live with himself if Sophia got caught? Got tortured for saving his student? Even if she succeeded on her own, it would put his class in further danger.

However, if Sophia's plan worked, no one would suspect a thing. The issue would just disappear, and he'd be helping someone who'd helped him when he'd needed it.

No, there was no choice.

"Okay. I'll help. What do you—"

"You just provide and kill the Yani while staging it like a double kill. I'll handle the rest."

The plan was as simple as it could be, but there were way too many parts. Moving the body. Getting it into her training grounds unnoticed. Spawning the Yani. Killing the Yani with Wendina's weapons. Posing them.

The most dangerous part—everything involving the Yani—was ironically the safest. Basque would be the only person there. He trusted himself. It was every other step along the way that made him worry.

"Sophia, I'll help you, but realize I value those children more than I value you."

"Understood, Master Basque. I shall make preparations."

She bowed and left. Once she was gone, Symantha returned to the dining area.

"I reckon you've got some questions for me."

"You seem to know a lot more about Sophia than you let on when I asked about her."

"I used to know a lot about her."

"You knew that she's a revolutionary."

Symantha flinched and looked away. "Aye, that I did."

"Couldn't have brought that up?"

"Well, it's hard knowing with your 'don't care' philosophy and all that."

Basque snorted. Convenient excuse. "I can assume Natt's relationship with her is—"

"Much deeper than we let on."

"Yeah…Just answer me this. Is Natt a revolutionary?"

Symantha shook her head. "Not in the sense you are thinking of. She was working from the inside until they made her fall. That kind of radicalized Sophia, and we all…went our own ways. Tink and I are just trying to carve out a life here. That's all I really want."

Basque nodded. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Sophia. My students come first. If it ever comes down to being between you and them, it's not even a choice."

Symantha swallowed. "Understood."

He smiled at her. "Still good for dinner?"

"Yeah. Is the little Rei of joy joining us?"

Basque shook his head. "Not tonight."

"Okay. See you in a couple of hours then."

"Until then, Sym."