Retired S-rank father becomes a teacher

Another day at Aethelgard Academy. A monday to be exact. The day after a great weekend spent with his family. He was in his classroom, sitting at his desk. The wood was polished smooth under his fingers, and a laptop sat open before him. The schedule on the screen displayed the day’s agenda.

Silas crossed his arms. A frown tugged at his lips. His daughters weren’t in his first class, or second or his third. He hadn’t seen their adorable faces since they got out of the car this morning. Victoria gave him a quick kiss and Katherine, well Kathy flipped him off; she returned to her usual self.

He tapped on the desk. The sound echoed in the empty room. He still needed to deal with the Lucas problem and Henry was still acting shady.

Ticking every second, the clock on the wall showed it was 9am. His first class started at 10am. He had a whole hour to waste staring at his computer screen. What should he do? The mental image of a pair of glasses and their unnatural frames appeared in his mind.

Henry. He decided to investigate focus on him for the next hour, to learn a bit more about Enchantment magic, to see how a single rune changed the way it behaved.

For that he needed an expert. He pulled out his phone and scrolled down until he found the contact he wanted: Alan. Dailing the number, the ringtone was a generic, cheerful melody.

The call was ignored.

Frowning, Silas tapped his fingers on the desk again, creating a staccato rhythm that seemed to make the room shrink. Ever since Alan was hired by the Hunter Association he became a hermit. Sometimes he’d message him back after a month. Other times a year. But Silas didn’t have time for that now.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, stretching his legs. It was time to break into the Hunter Association HQ and drag Alan out by his balls.

Space magic was useful, it folded the world, bending it around his will. In less than a blink, the classroom vanished. But the building he was about to break into wasn’t so easy. Years of research into protective barriers made it almost as strong as an S-class dungeon.

Those were a pain to teleport in.

He was standing on the roof of a skyscraper in the city, overlooking the headquarters of the Association. It was an impressive building made of reinforced steel and glass. The flag on top waved in the wind, a symbol of humanity’s victory over the dungeons.

“Another upgrade?” he muttered, recognizing the new layers of barrier he had to get through.

“Berlin you old coot, always spending taxpayers money on useless things,” Silas muttered to himself.

He concentrated on the barriers, feeling them out with his magic. They pulsed around the building, thick and stubborn. Bruteforcing wasn’t an option. That would break the entire building and kill everyone inside. At the entrance, the door opened and hunters walked inside.

Silas smirked. That was the biggest security flaw.

Sending his mana to wrap around the last person entering, he locked on his space anchor to them. They passed through the first barrier and the second. Once they were in the main lobby, he folded himself through the dimensions and appeared behind them.

He was now in the lobby. The air was fresh and clean thanks to the air conditioners. The walls were decorated with memorabilia from famous hunts and a large monitor displayed the current dungeon alert level. It was yellow. Moderate. Which meant a C or B-rank hunter could easily clear it.

Walking casually, using space to conceal himself, Silas headed towards the elevators at the back. He got in, pressed the button for the 10th floor, where Alan’s lab was located, and leaned against the wall and waited.

A voice called out, “Hey someone hold the doors!”

Before Silas could react, a woman in a hunter’s uniform slid into the elevator. She wore a badge that read ‘Diana - B-Class.’

“Huh?” She looked around in confusion when she saw no one else inside. “Was someone here...?” she muttered to herself.

The door closed and the elevator started to move.

Diana looked at the panel. She raised an eyebrow. “Did someone press 10? There’s nothing but research labs up there... Weird.”

She reached to press a different button but she hit her finger on an invisible force. She tried again with the same result. Her face twisted in anger.

“Work damn it!” She slapped the button panel. “Ugh, whatever, I’ll just get off at 10.”

Silas silently laughed, invisible in his corner. This was fun.

The elevator dinged. Diana walked out and Silas followed behind her. The hallway was quiet, with white walls and grey carpet. At the end of the hallway was a door that said ‘Laboratory 3 - Alan Jones’.

Waving goodbye to Diana, who couldn’t see him anyway, he walked to the door. Biometric lock and mana seal. Child’s play.

With a touch, he broke it and pushed the door open.

“ALAN!” Silas shouted.

The lab was a mess of machines, books, and artifacts. In the middle of it all, a man with unshaven face and wild hair was hunched over a table, working on something glowing blue.

He jumped at Silas’s voice, his hand slipping and the glowing object falling on the floor. It cracked and exploded in a puff of smoke.

Alan turned to face Silas, glaring. “You fucker! Do you know how long it took me to make that mana stabilizer?” he shouted, waving his arms around. His lab coat was stained with who knows what.

“Hi Alan, good to see you too,” Silas replied, leaning against the door frame with a smirk. “Maybe answer your damn phone next time.”

The scientist rubbed his face and sighed.

“I’m busy okay? I’m doing important work here. Not playing house like you are.”

Silas chuckled and teleported over to him, appearing right in front of his face. Alan didn’t flinch. He was used to Silas’s tricks.

“Care to help out an old friend? I need to know more about enchantments that break the rune rules.” Silas sat down on a chair. He swiped some papers from the table, they fell to the floor with a flutter. Alan huffed.

“You’re always asking for favors, you leech. What do I get in return?” Alan sat on his stool and crossed his arms.

Silas looked at him with a grin. “My friendship? That’s not enough?”

Alan rolled his eyes. He picked up a piece research and looked at it for a moment before tossing it aside again. Then he placed his hand on his chin and looked at the ceiling. After thinking for a few minutes he said, “I want to visit Sulena.”

Silas breath hitched. Not that place.

“Why? That dungeon is sealed off for a reason,” He stood up from his chair, and grabbed a weird looking rock from a shelf. It had perfect holes in the shape of triangles.

“I know. Berlin won’t let anyone in without his permission. But you can teleport in there, can’t you?” Alan stood up too. “Just a peek okay? I just want to collect some samples for my research.” There was a glimmer in his eyes.

Pulling his head back, Silas scowled.

“Alan, we lost Beatrice there. I don’t want to go near that place ever again.” His voice was low, his mood soured.

Silence fell over them as they both remembered the events of that day. The screams and blood. He felt a phantom pain in his chest where Beatrice had ripped out his arm. If Elizabeth had not been there...

Alan’s expression turned vacant. He looked at Silas with an almost pleading look. He loved her even when she rejected him.

Silas ran a hand through his hair, sighed. He still cared about this fool. And he didn’t want him to die trying to sneak into a S-rank dungeon alone.

“Fine. But first this.” He handed Alan his phone. The picture on it was of Henry and his glasses.

Squinting his eyes, he took the device and stared at it, muttering under his breath and cursing before he started typing something on his computer. He pulled up all kinds of files on runes and magical artifacts, comparing them to the image.

“Where did you get this?” He asked as he chewed on a blue pen.

Silas walked over to a nearby vending machine and pressed a button, making a chocolate bar fall out. Handy. He ate the snack and replied. “Aethelgard Academy, he’s a professor there. A professor of enchantments no less. Henry Smith.”

Alan froze, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. He slowly turned his head to look at Silas. “That’s not possible. Henry doesn’t have access to runes like this. He was my worse student.”

That got Silas interested. He swallowed his bite of chocolate. “And why was he your worse student?”

Alan leaned back in his seat and rubbed his eyes. His voice was heavy with fatigue.

“He couldn’t cast A-rank enchantments. The highest he ever got was B and that was when I held his hand. I told him he’d never make it as a pioneer and to find another career.” The pen between his teeth made a snapping sound.

The air was cold. Both men were lost in their own thoughts. Alan had no reason to lie about this, he was many things but not a liar to Silas. An alarm from his phone rang.

Silas cursed. Class started in five minutes.

“Someone gave him access to this rune then,” Silas said.

Alan nodded. “Yeah. A higher up maybe. But the question is why? This rune is powerful. It allows you to alter your physical appearance at will. Completely changing how people perceive you. Even you, with your spatial senses.” He tapped his chin.

Quickly putting in another dollar, Silas got himself a can of soda and chugged it. His throat felt parched.

“Thanks Alan. I’ll just kill him now,” he said, crumpling the can.

“Uh... maybe there’s a better use for him alive. You can lure out whoever is giving him orders. But do what you want,” Alan said as he went back to his work.

Silas nodded. He would do that. He opened the door, “I’ll text you when to meet up for that dungeon. Answer your phone,” he said before vanishing.

This time he didn’t bother with stealth and teleported straight to his classroom, leaving Alan behind as an alarm started to beep in the entire Hunter Association building and hunters burst into his lab.