The Isekai Police [Books 1 + 2 Complete!]

Headmistress Sava led Artyom into her office and locked the door behind him. As soon as she turned the latch, he could feel the thrum of magic wash over the wood, as well as the gaps between it and the frame. Some kind of barrier, most likely to prevent eavesdropping.

Her office was about as large as his expansive dorm room, but despite its size, the space felt quite cozy. A worn rug larger than any he'd ever seen covered the rich hardwood floor while still leaving plenty of room for the exotic lumber to shine through and contrast with the faded maroon threads.

Marble pedestals that went up to his chest were placed along the wall, each holding a myriad of objects. And 'objects' was the only way they could be collectively described. There was a beautiful piece of pottery painted onyx that sparkled like the stars with radiant gold filled in between the cracks in the ceramic, a severed head of a gorgon-like creature that exuded hatred as if still living, and a marble sculpture that Artyom swore had to exist in non-euclidean space with the way it shifted as he walked by it.

Paintings covered the walls, a mix of beautiful landscapes and impressionist portraits. Unlike another well-known magical school, the subjects in them didn't move around, but they were still plenty lifelike in a way no mundane artist could ever capture through a non-magical medium.

"I see you have an eye for the decor," said the headmistress as she took a seat at the mahogany desk at the end of the room. A bookshelf took up the entire wall behind it, filled to the brim with texts. "Sadly I can't take credit for it. A previous headmaster from long ago is responsible for the arrangement, and nobody since has had the heart to redecorate. Or rather, they knew they could never compete with this!"

Artyom didn't bother laughing with her. She'd brought him here on a threat, and he found no point in still playing along.

"Very well then, please take a seat," she said with a sigh, waiting for Artyom to sit down in the decrepit chair opposite her, the only piece of furniture that didn't hold up to the rest of the room. "As you may have heard yesterday, our student Fenn dueled our magical combat instructor into the infirmary. He's too injured to teach, but still collects a paycheck."

"And this is my problem, because?" asked Artyom.

"Because the funds we would use to hire a new instructor are coming out of the so-called 'Hero's Scholarship Fund'."

"I see. If you'd like the party to pay tuition, you'll have to talk to the others. I don't hold the purse strings."

"Oh no, I could never ask that of Xerica, especially after promising her to take the poor boy in," said the headmistress, her words coated in honeyed pity. "But I could use a favor to lower the costs we'll have to take on."

Artyom frowned. With a room this richly decorated, the school obviously wasn't as strapped for cash as Sava was making it out to be. But with her vulture-like behavior so far, he wouldn't put it past her to kick Rotte out after they'd all left if Artyom didn't play ball now. She could just blame him for not accommodating the school's financial circumstances and he wouldn't be able to argue against the fact he'd refused to help out when she offered a perfect solution.

But what even was that solution?

"You proved yourself in that duel against Fenn yesterday, you're obviously well versed in magical combat, more so than our previous instructor. I would like you to fill in for him while you're here at Holdbright, and I'll make sure Rotte has a place here for the duration of his schooling."

Artyom leaned forward with narrowed eyes. "Let me get this straight, you want me to be a teacher? You don't even know how good I am with kids, and you haven't even done a background check."

"You've been accepted into the hero's party, that's a good enough test of your character for me. And Rotte seems to take well to you, so I'm sure you'll do fine with a few more under your tutelage."

He wanted to rebut the assumption, but Artyom realized the headmistress was right about that: Rotte was, for all intents and purposes, already his student. He taught him some magic while at the orphanage and even got some of the other kids on track to learning the basics.

But he still wasn't entirely convinced this would work out.

"What if we find the goddess' armor piece tonight? Or soon enough that I won't be able to make up for the cost of hiring another professor until the old one recovers?"

"With how your search is going?" Sava asked with a dismissive snort. "I think I'll take my chances."

Artyom's eyes widened and he slammed his hands on the desk.

The headmistress jumped back in her seat, but Artyom didn't bother to gauge how sincere her worried look was, as his own eyes were locked on the hairband still on his wrist.

"And how is our search going, exactly?" he asked in a harried manner. "And what makes you think that?"

"My my, no need to get so frustrated," she said, trying to put on a cool air. "You all returned late last night acting like you never even went looking for the thing! Perhaps I'm having second thoughts about how patient you'll be with children…"

Artyom sighed and put his hands back by his side. "Sorry. I thought you were hinting at something entirely different."

Sava looked at him carefully before relaxing. "Apology accepted. Meet me in classroom 204 tomorrow at nine in the morning so I can introduce you to your new students."

"Alright," was all Artyom said before getting up to leave the office.

The headmistress didn't say anything to stop him as he unlocked the door and walked out.

Artyom took a deep breath and began to consider what he was getting into. He wasn't against teaching kids, and in fact, he had quite a bit of experience with it even beyond the impromptu lesson at the orphanage. He could spend an hour or two each day teaching some students how to fight while still having time to search for the armor piece or try to figure out this whole anti-meme nonsense.

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He was only worried the headmistress would try to pull a fast one and hoist even more responsibility onto him. That's how it always was with these types; they kick down your door for an inch, and while they're already in your home, they help themselves to a mile. He'd just have to move fast with his goals to get out before things would get out of hand.

"Oh hey, Artyom!" exclaimed Neitra as she ran up to him. "Is that the headmistress' office?"

He nodded, still lost in thought.

"Perfect, I wanted to ask her if I could sit in on some classes, and which ones would help me the most- is that my hairband?"

Artyom lifted up his hand and nodded again, this time a little more sheepishly.

"How did you even get that? Are you somehow an even better rogue than me, because I don't remember giving it to you yesterday."

"Speaking of which, what do you remember from yesterday?" asked Artyom.

Neitra scratched her head with a single index finger. "After we got here and the headmistress gave us a tour, you dueled that one guy and won. We ate dinner afterwards, and then… huh."

"You too then," said Artyom with a frown. "Meet me in my room after you talk to the headmistress, there's something important I want to talk to you about."

Neitra's eyes widened for a second before steeling herself and returning a single, resolute nod.

The two parted and Artyom made his way back to his room. He thankfully didn't run into any other interruptions along the way, but that was because every corridor he passed through was completely devoid of life. Even the dorm hallway, which had students walking around yesterday, was deserted. He figured it was the equivalent of the weekend and everyone was sleeping in. This was a school after all, and he would be a hypocrite to begrudge them that.

Once inside, it didn't take too long for Neitra to knock.

"Wait, am I even allowed in here?" she asked, standing in front of the open door and hesitating to take the first step inside. "This is the boy's dorm after all, and I'm like, a girl."

Artyom blinked. "I doubt there are any actual rules against it, and even if there are, I doubt any of the other students actually care about upholding it themselves. Besides, you're a rogue. Isn't sneaking into places you shouldn't be part of your job description?"

She squirmed for a second before finally coming inside, but only after she heard nearby footsteps.

Artyom closed the door while casting a sound ward over it and motioned her to take a seat at the desk while he sat on his bed.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Neitra.

"Have you ever heard of an anti-meme?" he replied, showing off her hair band on his wrist. "Otherwise known as self-erasing information."

"Self-erasing? Like a message that self-destructs?"

"Think more like information that forces you to forget about it."

She took a long moment to think before replying. "There are some rogue Skills that work like that. Usually high level ones, but they make you invisible in a way that anti-invisibility spells and Skills won't work on."

Artyom snapped a finger and stood up. "Yes! That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Great!" said Netira with a bright smile, which quickly faded into confusion. "Why are you asking about that?"

"Because that's what we're under right now."

"But those Skills just hide where you are, they don't make you forget half a day. This has to be some kind of memory spell or something."

"Then tell me what's on here," said Artyom, holding out the note he'd written himself.

"Well, it says you're under the effects of an anti-meme, that's what you called this forgetting ability, and then- oh."

"Can you tell what's written after that? Specifically, I mean."

"Nope. I'm pretty sure it's a location on campus, but the actual information… so this is what people feel when I use my Skills on them. But how did you even get this written down? Whatever made us forget yesterday is a lot stronger than even my Skills, and those are air-tight!"

"Eh…" Artyom made the sound while waving his hand.

"What do you mean 'eh'?" Neitra pouted. "Can you see where I am when I do this?"

The brown haired woman stood up and disappeared.

Artyom rolled his eyes and cast Eagle's Sight on himself. He looked at the carpet in front of the chair to see if it had shifted by her movement, but he frowned when he saw its strands were as upright as the rest of the room's.

"Nice try, but my Skill makes my invisibility extend to my effect on the surroundings!" came her disembodied voice from… somewhere? Was it even from the room? "And you're only hearing me now because I want you to. I can also block my presence on all of your major senses!"

Artyom had to hand it to her, she was right about that last part. He activated Bat's Hearing but couldn't hear her move around. Judging by her character, she was probably waving a hand right in front of his face while laughing out loud right now. Or maybe that was what he would be doing in her shoes?

There was one more ace up his sleeve, however.

"Detect Life", Artyom cast on himself, and the world around him shifted in color.

A bright blue splotch appeared in front of him, floating in the air and shaking an outstretched appendage right in front of his face.

"I knew it!" he shouted, knocking the hand out of his way that he couldn't even feel and pointing right at her.

"How did you do that?!" Neitra demanded, reappearing with an accusing glare. "You cheated!"

"I sure did," said Artyom. "That's the only way you can bypass anti-memes, by cheating."

"Really?" she asked, taking a seat. "I was just joking about that, what do you mean you actually cheated?"

"The whole thing about anti-memes is that they enchant information to erase itself, right?"

"Right," Neitra slowly nodded.

"But that enchantment isn't always that broad in what it affects. Yours works on hiding your physical presence and its effects on the world from other peoples' major senses."

"Also right."

"I cast Detect Life, which works by drawing a colored blob around your lifeforce and feeding it right into my sense of sight. Your Skill breaks down somewhere along that process because it doesn't enchant something. It could be your life force it forgot to hide, or it might just not hide you from magical detection. Either way, I still 'saw' you with that spell despite you being completely hidden from me otherwise."

"Huh. I never knew that could happen," said Neitra as she looked off to the side, deep in thought. "The rest of the party could never find me while I used it, so I thought it was perfect."

"They can't? Are you sure?"

Neitra nodded. "They even get especially angry when I reappear right behind them," she said with a smug grin.

"If the Fatewatchers are blind to a localized anti-meme like yours, then how do you think the one we're all dealing with is affecting them?"

Neitra thought for a second before shrugging. "Either way, at least it's one weapon we can use against them."

Artyom couldn't help but smile. She was learning fast!

"So what are we going to do about all of this?" asked Neitra.

"If it works against those three, we have to figure out what it is and how to use it ourselves," said Artyom, taking a deep breath to center himself and smiling on the exhale. "I'm going to tell you about what me and my friends call 'anti-memetic protocol'."