The Isekai Police [Books 1 + 2 Complete!]

One leisurely stroll later and Artyom found himself at the entrance of the school's dining hall. His eyes were locked on the ceiling as he walked in, still just as mesmerized by the beautiful, morphing canopy as the first time he witnessed the grand work of art.

His wonder was cut short when he saw a familiar pair haranguing the school's wannabe archeologists.

"Your map sucks!" shouted Daisy, holding the worn paper in a tight grip that crumpled it to the point of almost tearing. "Now tell us where it's pointing us!"

Despite the students having already deciphered it, all three of them winced at how it was being handled.

"Why are you even asking?" asked Cane. She was the only one who'd worked up the courage to stand up to the two, but a bead of sweat was visibly forming on the side of her brow. "You already-"

"-Already burned your bridge with these three, they have no reason to tell you anything," said Artyom as he approached the group.

The treasure hunters looked at him with relief, while the pair of party members grimaced.

"Oh, you," said Daisy with the same sneer from yesterday. "What do you want?"

"For you two to get lost. I have business with my students, and last I checked, you're not in my class."

They stared each other down for several seconds before Ecole stepped forward between them.

"You act strong now, but just one mistake, and I will relish the suffering we will finally bring you."

Artyom couldn't help but take half a step backwards and activate an armor spell.

The woman's eyes were wide and intense, staring right through him. He didn't even need an aura ping to feel the bloodlust she felt towards him, but…

Artyom saw a hollow look in her wild eyes. The emotion was there, a desire to cause him unbelievable harm. Yet there was no soul behind it. The echoes of her caustic words rang hollow as he looked deeper into her eyes and stepped forward again.

Artyom continued to stare her down, and soon a crack appeared in her stare, which turned into a blink and a large step back that put her behind Daisy once more.

"You heard her, we've got our eye on you," said the blonde, pointing two of her fingers at her eyes, and then at Artyom's face, before walking away with her now quiet partner in tow.

Everyone at the table remained silent until the pair left the room.

"What was her deal?" asked Cane unsteadily as she wiped her brow. "Going from the bully act to showing her true psycho killer self after one day? And didn't they follow us last time anyway?"

"Let's just say they have a case of short-term memory loss," replied Artyom. "They probably forgot all about yesterday by the looks of things."

"So why did she threaten you so openly like that?" asked Broc. "That's not what happened last time."

"Yeah… that has me confused too," replied Artyom. He shook it off and looked at the three treasure hunters with a smile. "So, are ya ready, kids?"

"For what?" the trio asked in unison.

"I can't hear- wait, what do you mean for what? What do you think?" he asked, his grin growing cockier.

The treasure hunters looked at each other in that way Artyom was familiar with, and turned towards him with excited nods.

"I still can't believe you managed all of this!" said Gula as he munched on a stuffed pastry, some kind of cherry turnover, judging by the smell of it. "Becoming a teacher so you could give us the permission we need!"

"Well, he was…" began Broc.

"He sounded like he got roped into it more than anything. You saw how he was ready to leave when he learned that the redhead was also teaching," said Cane, throwing a disapproving glare at the back of Artyom's neck. It slowly faded into a gentle smile. "But I'm glad he decided to stick around in the end."

"Alright," said Artyom with a clap. "Before we head to the forbidden corridor, I've got to make a quick pit-stop."

"Where to?"

"Right over here," he said, stopping in front of the headmistress' office just two steps to his right. Artyom rapped on the door and waited a moment before it opened.

"Oh, Artyom, what a pleasant surprise! How can I help you? I've heard your new students adore you!"

"That's good to hear!" he exclaimed with a facetious smile. "I'm really shaping up to be quite the teacher, aren't I?"

"Why yes, yes you are! At this rate, we might as well have you working here full time!"

"Now that's quite the idea!" said Artyom back with a grin that was beginning to strain both his cheeks and his very soul. "Say, why don't you register me as one in that case! I'm sure all the teachers carry around a badge or something as proof of them being teachers, no point having me be 'the substitute' when I've already settled into my role here."

Headmistress Cava's face fell in an instant. The scowl she gave Artyom was uglier than her sickly sweet smiles, and he almost preferred that over the truth. But it was soon covered back up with a more nervous grin, half as wide, as she replied. "That's… too much effort to take."

"Oh nonsense, better to get it over with now than later after all," replied Artyom. His own smile went from self-soul crushing to predatory.

"Well it's not something that can be done on such short notice, you understand. And I happen to be incredibly busy at the moment, so you'll have to ask again when I have the time to."

"That's fine, I can wait out here for you, I've got the whole day ahead of me after all."

The headmistress' careful smile held together as well as sugar glass; it wouldn't take much to make it shatter. But as much as Artyom enjoyed finally having the chance to push her buttons after everything she'd done to him, he was here for something more important. The man's expression, as much as it tried to force itself into a shit-eating grin, was schooled into a gentle and patient smile.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Check back with me at the end of the school year," said the headmistress, as she stepped back into her office and slammed the door shut in his face.

Artyom could only blink. Sure, he'd been a little pushy, but for something that would have bound him to this place even more. Wasn't that what Cava had wanted in the first place? Why the sudden change?

"Uh, Professor Artyom?" asked Broc. "What was that all about?"

He let out a sigh. "Follow me, I'll tell you on the way. But first, we need to make one more detour."

"What now?" asked Cane, who was beginning to look visibly annoyed. "Why can't we just head over to the-"

"Shh!" said Artyom in a harsh whisper while motioning his eyes towards the back of the group.

"What?" asked Gula. "Is something th-" but he stopped as Artyom made the same motion as before.

Artyom gathered everyone close around him and whispered, "Don't you remember that little encore you got from those two in the dining hall? If they don't remember a thing about yesterday, then they're likely going to attempt the same stunt they did back then."

"So they're following us?" asked Broc in a soft whisper.

Artyom nodded back. "And seeing as how Gula's leaving a trail of crumbs for them to follow-"

The student blanched.

"-we should stop somewhere very far away and wash up before circling back to our real destination. Know anywhere that loops where we can lose them?"

The kids were quiet for a second before Broc spoke up. "Well, there is one hallway known for looping around a lot and being easy to get lost in. And there's even a bathroom somewhere there!"

"So it's settled, lead the way."

Broc took the lead, somehow leading the others up a flight of stairs and across the length of the academy despite a bird's nest of hair blocking their eyes the whole way. But after a few minutes and several winding corridors later, they reached their second pitstop.

Gula got himself washed up there before they all continued forward.

"Hey, are you sure this is the way out?" asked Artyom, his voice starting to sound a little concerned as his eyes darted across the vaguely familiar hallway. Had they passed by here on their way in? There weren't any crumbs on the floor…

"Oh yeah, it's a little shortcut I know!" exclaimed Broc. "It only ever seems to work when coming in the way we did, which is annoying because I have some classes it would be a lot easier to get to if it were the other way around."

"Wonderful, another school mystery," replied Artyom with a roll of his eyes.

Everyone else's eyes lit up at his statement.

"How about we save it for after we've solved the current one?"

The other three happily nodded and continued in silence.

As the gang of junior archeologists made their way to their true destination, Artyom activated Detect Life and found two far away dots walking in circles around the ring of crumbs they'd left. He let out a silent chuckle.

Soon after, the group arrived at the fenced-off corridor. The familiar shoulder-height bars still held an intimidating presence to the students, but this time around they held greater courage in their hearts and approached closer than they ever had before.

"Before we go through, I need to tell you about the trap," began Artyom.

The other three, about to get closer, stopped where they were and turned to stare at their teacher with rapt attention.

"When you turn the corner, you'll be affected by some kind of mental spell that will slow your thoughts and actions down to a standstill while everything still seems normal. If you try to walk down the corridor normally, you'll blink and realize you haven't even taken a single step despite four hours having passed."

"So you'll get stuck inside if you don't realize it, or keep trying to go through," said Cane.

"Correct. So no brute forcing it, unless you don't need to eat or sleep and have all the time in the world. But for normal people like us, we need to bypass it."

"How do you do that? Turn off the magic?" asked Gula.

"I couldn't do anything about the source of the spell, so I did the next best thing: turn off the magic from hitting me. This spell affects you through your senses, namely sight and sound. So if you cut those off from the outside world while you go down the corridor, you won't be affected. Let me show you what I did, come on!"

Artyom jumped the fence and motioned for the others to follow.

"Wait a minute, you're a teacher now, don't you have a key?" asked Cane, with a judgemental glare.

"You saw how the headmistress didn't even want to make my teacher position official, why would she give me the key?"

Cane's glare shifted as her eyes, still filled with annoyance, turned to the ground as she mumbled out something that sounded quite rude about Cava. "Fine, let's go everyone!" she exclaimed as she ran up to the fence and jumped over.

The other two, slightly more hesitant, slowly followed her lead. Gula eased himself up and above slowly while Broc ended up needing a little help to get over it completely.

"Now follow me," said Artyom once the others helped Broc up. "Once we reach the bend, do what I do to get across."

It didn't take long to get there, and as soon as they did, Artyom closed his eyes, plugged his ears, and began to shout "lalalalala" as he walked through the trapped hallway. Once he was across, he turned around and couldn't help but frown.

"We are not doing that!" shouted Cane, with her arms crossed.

"Why not?!" Artyom shouted back. "It's how you get through the trap!"

"It's embarrassing," replied Broc.

It was Artyom's turn to glare at them now. "Do you want to uncover the secrets of the school or not?"

The trio looked amongst themselves with expressions varying between discomfort and exasperation. But eventually, they collectively nodded and did as Artyom had.

"Lalalalala!" they all shouted as they made their way across.

Artyom was sure to stop them from bumping into the far wall once they were safely through. Except for Cane, who he was regrettably too far away from. Yup.

"You're all through, now follow me," he said, leading them down the final corridor to the three doors.

"Students, teachers, and soldiers," the trio read out loud.

"So this is why you wanted proof of being a teacher!" exclaimed Gula. "So you can open the second door!"

"That's right," said Artyom with a nod. "But since you three are here, we should at least be able to get one of them open in the meantime."

In unison, all three of them exposed a small, metal pin attached to their robes, but none of them made towards the door.

"So, uh… who wants to go first?" asked Cane in a low, almost reverent whisper.

Artyom blinked at the sudden shift in her personality.

The others realized it too, and began to take in the solemn air. They all entered their non-magical mind-link and stared at each other for several seconds before Broc hesitantly stepped forward.

The others flashed them proud smiles as they slowly walked over, hand on the pin and eyes most likely on the door. Once they were in front, the pin began to glow, and the door opened.

"It works! Come on, last one in's a rotten egg!" she shouted, her previous change in temperament completely forgotten.

Artyom couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he took his time to follow them in. He wasn't worried about them accidentally destroying or stealing everything before he could take a look, or being called a rotten egg. His own smile matched the laughs of the others as he crossed the threshold and took in a row of massive shelves extending a dozen feet in height. They were all filled with books, thick and worn, though in only a few varieties of their covers. Maybe they were mostly copies?

A red light filled the room as Artyom's right foot stepped down and a klaxon began to screech.

"Intruder detected," came a mechanical voice as several metal tubes attached to steel domes began to rise out of the floor.

A blast of magic came out of the first of them and rushed past Artyom, who'd barely managed to step out of the way.

"Everyone, get down!" he shouted while activating a full suite of combat spells.

The other students didn't delay, and ran to the back of the room before jumping behind any sort of furniture or sturdy object they could find.

Artyom shook his head. "I just know this all could've been avoided if Cava had given me what I wanted."