The Exchange Teacher - Welcome to Dyntril Academy

Krill sat down and cleared his throat. "Continuing on, please check the printout in front of you. That is the bracket for your years. The circled numbers are the match numbers. So, one is the first group, two is the second, and so on and so forth."

Expecting the worst, Basque flipped his sheet over.

He sighed. He knew the bracket would have to be unbalanced, as there wasn't a power-of-two number of students participating, but he hadn't expected it to be this unbalanced. Not only were Class A students supposedly the strongest, but they got an advantage by taking on someone who'd fought previously.

Not that it mattered, his students weren't going to win anyway.

After learning about how the classes were made up, Basque wasn't too shocked to see that Harnel's Class D also got the short end of the stick, as two of their students had to start in the first round. The bracket could have been more balanced.

"The morning of, we will pass this out again with the exact matchups. Any questions?"

No one raised a hand. Basque didn't care because he only had control over his own students, and he was already sure of what would happen in their one match.

Krill clapped his hands. "Alright then. Remember, first period is parent observations. If any come, feel free to hold student evaluations with them after class."

Since none of his students' parents were coming, that wasn't a concern for Basque. He hoped that at least one student's parents would come before graduation, but he understood their circumstances.

"Tonight is the festival. Have fun, but not too much fun. Tomorrow, we'll have the match draws ready for you. Headteachers, please hand in your year entrants' lists on your way out. I'll see you all tomorrow. Dismissed."

The teachers filed out of the room. As Basque made his way out in Natt and Harnel's company, some of the other teachers didn't bother to quieten their conversations:

"You wanna take Basque's side on the bet? I'll give you two to one."

"Ha! I'd rather take minus two hundred on a full wipe!"

"If they live with a dismemberment, does that count as a full wipe?"

"I'll give you plus three-fifty on three dead first-year ellies and one maimed."

"I'll take it!"

There were too many people in the way, and Basque couldn't see which teachers were betting on the death of his students. He wanted to maim them.

Natt grabbed Basque's elbow. "Don't mind them."

In his head, he thanked her. While he would never grow numb to their words, he couldn't take the chance of provoking them. As Krill had shown Basque when he'd pulled the nurse after Malcalm had been injured, the people here were bloodthirsty.

"So, ready for the festival?" Harnel asked.

"Not really," Basque said.

"How about you, Natt? Going drinking?"

"I quit."

Harnel stopped in his tracks. "What?! Completely? Since when?" He trotted to catch up.

"Yes, completely. And I quit ever since I quit."

"Wow! I didn't know. Is that why you've been looking so fresh in the mornings?"

"Yeah, I guess I feel that my life has purpose again."

"Well, mine doesn't! There goes my festival drinking buddy."

Natt slapped Basque's shoulder. "Here's one right here for you."

Harnel turned to Basque. "What do you say? It'll be your first Kruamian festival! Let me show you how it's done."

Basque thought about it for a second.

"I'll stay in the hall with the students," Natt said.

Some of the students might want to go. He couldn't keep them locked away, and if he was there, he could watch over the ones who went. "Alright, but nothing too extreme," Basque agreed.

Harnel's grin was massive. "Gotcha! 'Too' is out. 'Extreme' is in."

"Hey!"

"Bahahaha!" Harnel's laugh caused a few of the teachers still around them to jump. Suddenly, Harnel cut his laugh off. "Ah, Yani! I forgot something for class, you two go on ahead."

Stopping in his tracks, Harnel turned around.

"Basque will meet you in the Grand Entrance Hall in front of the Grand Stairs at six!" Natt called after him.

"Great! Bring your drinking robe! Bahaha!" Harnel laughed and ran back to the teachers' room.

Glancing at Natt, Basque opened the door to the stairwell. Their conversation as they walked had slowed them down, and most of the other teachers had rushed ahead. They found themselves unusually alone in the stairwell, and their steps echoed.

"What was that all about?" Basque asked her. He didn't understand why she was forcing Harnel on him. Basque wasn't opposed to going to the festival, he just wanted to do so with her.

"You need to go out with a Kruamian who's not female."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, 'oh.' Isn't that your job? To observe us and report on us?"

"You're making me out to be a spy."

"You basically are," she said and pushed open the door to the classroom hall.

"Hmph. I'd rather go with you."

Natt put her hand on the classroom door. "Too bad. You're going with Harny," she said.

Before Basque could respond, she opened it and stepped into the class. "Morning, all!" she beamed.

"Good Morning, Basque-Shr, Miss Cormick."

"Good morning, class," Basque responded. Natt walked to the back of the room. She leaned against the back wall and winked at him with her eye and mouth. As she only had one eye, she overexaggerated the gesture so he could tell that it was a wink.

Clearing his throat and focusing away from her to the class, Basque gripped the lectern. "I received the tournament bracket today. Unfortunately, we won't know who you're facing until the day of. What we do know is that two of you will be facing Class D students, one of you will be against Class C, and one against Class B."

Reianna raised her hand.

"Yes, Reianna?"

"Even if we don't know who we're up against, do we know who will be competing from the other classes?"

Basque shook his head. "No, I wasn't given that information. Now," Basque turned his focus to the rest of the class, "I'm going to go over our overall strategy. I know only four of you will be participating, but the rest of you will be watching, and we might employ this same strategy again in the future."

Turning around to the board, Basque wrote "60", "3", and "10".

"The battles will consist of two rounds. First, a shielded round of sixty seconds, a reset interval of three seconds, and, last, an unshielded round of ten seconds."

The class didn't react. It wasn't their first time hearing that information, but Basque wanted to be clear on it.

"The sixty-second round can end early if the shield is depleted. The ten-second round will last ten seconds no matter what. Are there any questions on the format?"

No one raised their hands.

"For the shielded round, you can toggle your and your opponent's shield bar up with your interface."

"Umm, Gerenet-Shr," Natt interjected from the back.

Even though she'd only ever called him that in front of the students, Basque didn't like the formality from Natt. He wanted her to only call him Basque. "Yes, Miss Cormick?"

"That's only during training."

"What do you mean?"

Natt cleared her throat, then mimicked Krill, "When we fight Yani, there's no shield meter, now is there?"

Wincing and turning his head to the side so the students couldn't see his lips, Basque muttered, "Yani-loving…"

Dropping the impersonation, Natt said, "There's an announcer who will notify the contestants. The audience can see the levels, though. It's only disabled for the two fighting."

"Well, that makes the next part of our strategy even more important. You take one initial hit, then dodge everything else."

Emilisa raised her hand.

"Yes, Emilisa?"

"Why take the hit at all?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Taraia rolled her eyes. "'Cause there's got to be a winner, Plummy."

Emilisa covered her hair and looked like she was going to cry. The rest of the class looked uncomfortable, except for Reianna, who scowled at the lime-haired girl in front of her.

"Taraia!" he scolded. Basque didn't know if there were prejudices against certain hair colors, but considering how classist Kruamian society was, he wouldn't have been surprised if such a prejudice existed.

"We are a team! Before we are an individual, we are a pod. Before we are a pod, we are halves. Before we are halves, we are a whole team. Insulting a member of your team is the same as insulting yourself."

She sneered. "Shut your hole, Basque! Don't you think—"

*SMACK*

Reianna slapped Taraia, then the clatter of Reianna's chair hitting the floor echoed in the silent room. Basque had been focused on Taraia and didn't see the much smaller, silver-haired girl jump out of her seat.

"Taraia. You will not disrespect Gerenet-Shr," Reianna said. Her voice was ice and sent a chill down Basque's spine.

The kiwi-haired girl put her hand on her now-red cheek. "I'm sorry, Reianna."

Nodding, Reianna turned to Basque. "I'm sorry for the disturbance, Gerenet-Shr."

Not saying anything, Basque stared at the scene. The power Reianna radiated was strong. Too strong. Maybe I should remove her from the tournament?

Picking her chair up, Reianna sat back down. Taraia no longer held her cheek. She stared down at her desk. Tears fell from her cheeks, plopping down on her desk, but she made no sound, nor did her shoulders shake. Her arms stayed down by her side.

Basque stared at Reianna. There was an anger in her that hadn't been in there before. She was losing control. "Reianna, while I appreciate the gesture, we do not hit others.

"And Taraia," he said and paused. He looked at her, then the rest of the class. "We know everyone's names. We will use them. Taraia, Reianna, stay after class. Their pods, go back with the rest of the class. I'll go back with them.

"Now, as Taraia said, damage must be taken, otherwise the match will end in a draw. We know what is happening in the main match, but the tie-breaker is unknown. In this case, what we don't know could literally kill us."

Gripping the lectern, he leaned forward over it. "And that's why we'll take the safe damage. One initial hit to lose, then dodge to stay safe."

Ryleegh raised her hand. Basque kept the surprise off his face.

"Yes, Ryleegh?"

The hibiscus-colored girl looked over to her platinum-haired roommate. Saevi shook her head, held her palm up, and waved her hand from Ryleegh to Basque and back.

Her voice was barely above a whisper, "What if we can't dodge?"

"You have nothing to worry about. I've watched them, and all are capable of avoiding getting hit unless you want it to happen."

"But—"

"Ryleegh. By the time you graduate, there won't be a single other person in this country who will be able to touch you. You are already past the first-year's abilities."

Kyre blurted out, "Umm, mages exist."

Basque nodded. "That they do, Kyre. But as strong as they are, mages aren't all-powerful," he glanced at Reianna. "They have their limits." He directed that line to her.

"While you all might not be able to handle a mage now, by the time you all graduate, you will be able to face even a mage Yani by yourself and escape unharmed."

Checking the time, Basque said, "That's all for now. Reianna, Taraia stay. The rest of you are dismissed."

The class stood. "Wait!" Natt called out. The students paused.

"Reianna, Taraia, go back. I need to talk with your teacher."

Basque hadn't been paying attention to Natt. She looked angry.

The two girls glanced at Natt, but looked at Basque for his final word. "Go back with the class," he told them.

They nodded and left the room. Once they were alone, Natt put her hands on her hips and glared at him. Then, she ripped her eye patch off and pointed at it. Her missing eye and the scars seemed to rage at Basque.

"Take on a mage Yani alone?! What sort of crap are you spouting?! Look at my face! I was in a squad, Basque. A squad!"

Basque kept himself calm. "I'm sorry about your eye, Natt, but I've seen your countrymen fight a minute Yani."

"You've gone up against me at archery. You know how good I am, and this still happened to me when I had two eyes."

Basque nodded. "Natt, you are skilled, probably the most skilled Kruamian I've seen fight."

"Yeah, and so what makes you think you can put some inflated idea into those children's heads about soloing a mage Yani?!"

"Because they will be able to." Basque kept his voice even. Nothing good would come from rising to her anger.

"Basque—"

"Natt, look at me. Do you think I could solo a mage Yani?" That didn't mean he wanted to be pelted by her anger.

"Ha! As if. I know you're insanely strong, but we're talking about a mage Yani."

"Three."

"What?"

"I've soloed three—"

"Yani shit."

"Look, you don't have to believe me now, but in five years, when they graduate, you'll see it then. I honestly have never had such a talented class."

Natt put her eye patch back on. "Enjoy your date with Harnel." She stormed off through the door, and Basque rubbed his face.

Letting out a long sigh, Basque sat on the corner of Saevi's desk. Losing her eye had cost her her rank, which made her helpless when she tried to protect the commoner students. He understood her anger, but there were no lies in his words.

After taking one last look around the classroom, making sure none of the students had forgotten anything, Basque closed the door and walked out into the hallway, bumping into Harnel.

"Oof! Harn, are you a man or a mountain?"

"Bahaha! Yes! I am."

There was still a spattering of students lingering in the hall, but not a single parent. Basque looked around. He thought maybe all the parents who came to observe had already gone.

"Hey, Harn, have all the parents gone back to their rooms already?"

"Gone back? Nah, they're all probably still in the Grand Ballroom getting plastered."

"What?"

"Oh, umm, plastered means to get drunk."

Basque shook his head. "No, I know that, but wasn't today observation day?"

"Yeah, they're observing each other get plastered and playing their Yani political games."

"I thought it was class observations."

Harnel nodded. "Yeah, it is, but no parents ever do. They've 'already been through it' and missing out on the party could get them 'dumped from a good hunting squad'."

"Do parents here not care about their children?"

Scratching his chin, Harnel looked up at the ceiling. "It's not that they don't care, it's just…they're not the priority, if that makes sense." Harnel stuck his hand out. "But, that doesn't mean it's always the case."

"It doesn't really."

"Everything is a tool in the social society here. The founding king wanted to encourage people to hunt Yani. Peerage is, for the most part, determined by the number of Yani a person hunts in a year and in their lifetime."

"If killing Yani is the determining factor in someone's rank, then how does that mean drinking with each other is more important than checking on your child's education?"

"I said for the most part. There are other ways to move up, but the most respected is hunting. If you are in a better hunting group, you hunt more Yani, thus you increase your chances of increasing rank and maintaining your current rank.

"So, men throw themselves at someone like Marchioness Julvie not just because she's otherworldly beautiful, but because she's also one of the most skilled hunters. Wining and dining someone like her would do more to help your child succeed than standing around and watching that same kid get taught."

"But how would they know their child is being taught properly?"

"Because the parents all graduated from here. They know what the lessons and classes are like."

"But that was a generation ago! Things change. Teachers change. Knowledge changes."

"Yeah, and while you're gone, your group changes. They have faith in the school, and if something happens to the kid, then the kid was at fault."

Basque clenched his fists. "Like that Yani-loving Viscount Fluloyd."

"Who?"

"Merk's dad, the boy Tann killed." Basque struggled to keep the anger from his voice. "He cared about everything but his son's death."

"Oh, hmm, how can I explain this? Ranks aren't hereditary. If Fluloyd wants to continue to live as a viscount after he retires, he needs a child to become a viscount."

"Are there some sort of perks to higher ranks?"

Harnel's eyes narrowed. "Yes."

Basque waited for Harnel to expand on it, but he didn't. "What sort of perks?"

"Everything." Again, Harnel didn't extrapolate. He just continued walking while staring straight ahead.

"Care to be more exact?"

Harnel tilted his head. "Not really. Maybe you should speak to the deputy headmaster to get a supplementary teacher who teaches civics, and you can hang out in the class and learn along with them, cause I don't really feel like explaining everything while we walk down a hallway."

Startled by Harnel's sudden, uncharacteristically cold tone, Basque let it drop, but mulled over the implications. The short of it was that fighting Yani led to more privileges. That was why they fought Yani.

Basque shook his head. The founding philosophy was wrong. People hunted in Hianbru because it was the right thing to do—the heroic thing to do, not because they got some increase in a nebulous title and real or perceived benefits.

"Basky, just know, however many of those kids you graduate, you will forever change their lives for the better, them and their parents."

"All of them."

"What?"

"All of my students will graduate."

Harnel gave his gregarious laugh. "You do that! You do that! That's something I dream of seeing. Anyway, see you on the stairs at 18:00."

"Sure, see you then."

Harnel continued up the stairs to his floor while Basque went into the dorm hall. He hoped Natt would still watch the students, even though she was mad at him. He knew her well enough. He knew that no matter how angry she got with him, she would never make the students suffer for it.

Maybe he should have brought up the surgery Rakelle could perform. Or perhaps surgeries of that sort were "privileges" reserved for higher ranks. He didn't know what rank she had been before that fall. He could only assume, based on her skill, that it had to have been pretty high, but it might not have been high enough to fix her eye.

He wanted to go talk to her, but she didn't want to see him. Rakelle would have chided him for being obstinate, but Basque had soloed a group of three mage Yani. He wasn't humble about his own skills and knew that it was a feat that most people couldn't do. And there was also no doubt in his mind that when they graduated, every single student in his class would be able to solo a mage Yani.

As Basque ate his forgettable lunch in silence in his room, there was a knock at the door. "Enter."

Avae and her roommate Emilisa came in. Basque hid his surprise by wiping his mouth with his napkin. It was the first time either of them had come into his room since he'd called in the entire class the first day.

"Good afternoon, girls, what can I do for you?"

Emilisa nudged Avae. The hibiscus-haired girl shot a look back at Emilisa.

"It's okay, you guys don't need to be nervous."

"Umm," Avae said. "We were wondering about tonight and uhh..." Avae fidgeted with her hands as she trailed off.

Avae's plum-haired roommate whispered something in her ear. Avae turned back and whispered back, only she was loud enough for Basque to hear her. "No, we should have asked Reianna to ask."

Emilisa whispered back. "We can't always put everything on her, you know, with what's…Just ask."

Avae stood straight and cleared her throat. "We want to go to the festival tonight."

Basque smiled. "I think you guys will be alright, but you must stay in pods. No separating or getting lost. Hold hands if you need to. I'll also be there, so if anything happens, you can come find me."

The two girls' faces lit up. "Thank you, Gerenet-Shr!" Avae said.

"Umm, Gerenet-Shr?" Emilisa continued. "Would it be okay if we don't go in our normal pods?"

"Oh, sure. Just make sure it's still four. I want a written list of who is going and the makeup of each group."

"Understood, Gerenet-Shr," they said in unison.

They left Basque be, and once again, he was alone. He pondered on what the girls had said about Reianna. He was hoping that they were referencing her extra training with Natt and his mage lessons, but there was a little voice in the back of his mind that said everyone was hiding something from him.

Emilisa's concern didn't seem like Reianna was just tired, not to mention that Basque had a sense that Reianna was still avoiding him, even though he'd found out about the extra lessons.

He rubbed his face. Why can't life just be simple?