Retired S-rank father becomes a teacher

Spying with space magic was an art of its own. There were various degrees of detail you could achieve based on skill, distance and most importantly mana consumption. His concentration was currently on high, making the image he was looking at very detailed: the mana flowing through Henry’s body, his heartbeat, the sound of the car engine and his breathing.

They were in a forest, near the city, the road empty of other cars, it was the perfect spot to disappear. Henry stopped the car and opened the door to the back seat. He took the cardboard box and got out of the vehicle, leaving the door wide open and the lights on.

Then he started walking into the forest. The trees were thick and tall.

A dungeon entrance appeared ahead of him. It was a D-ranked dungeon, with low mana flow, which meant that it only had to be sporadically culled.

Henry approached the dungeon without hesitation, swiping his card at the scanner next to the gates. It beeped and the gates opened. The Hunter Association had made it very easy to enter a dungeon nowadays. You only needed a license and a good reason to go through.

Just as he was passing the gate, a voice came from the car speakers: ‘Thank you for visiting dungeon D-3271. The Association wishes you a happy hunting. If you have any emergency, please contact us by—’

The message was cut off by Silas. He hated that stupid automated voice and how every time they said ‘happy hunting’, they made it sound like a joke.

Henry ignored it and disappeared into the dungeon, his box in hand. A phone buzzed in Silas’s pocket. Looking at the screen, he saw it was a call from his mom Anna.

“Mom I’m kind of busy here,” he spoke as he walked closer to the dungeon entrance. His spatial magic made no sound as he moved.

“Come on son, don’t tell your mommy you’re busy.” She whined on the other end of the phone. “It is very rude. And I’m not just calling you for no reason, it’s important.” Anna’s voice had a teasing tone to it. She was up to something. He knew it.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath and exhaling.

“Fine. What is it?” Silas leaned against a tree. He needed to open a hole to see inside the dungeon but that required concentration that he wouldn’t have if he kept talking to this silly mother of his.

Anna hummed. “Well you see I’m in Italy at the moment. You know, the boot shaped one? And I’m having a blast with my friends—”

Silas interrupted. “Mom, get to the point.”

A dramatic sigh followed. “I want to eat pasta with my son, you big jerk. It’s been two weeks since our little massage remember? I feel like a piece of meat that has been left on the grill and forgotten about.”

Rolling his eyes, Silas pinched between his brows. That night was still very vivid in his memory and his body reacted, making a certain place in his lower region throb. The things she did to his dick with her hands... No! Stop thinking of his mom that way.

“Mom... I’m at work, can we talk about this later? Also you should know better than to leave meat on the grill.” He scolded her.

Anna chuckled and Silas shivered as her warm breath hit his ear. She used space magic to teleport her voice. It wasn’t new, but his mom still caught him by surprise.

“Work, right. I can feel you are in the forest, doing god knows what. You better not be cheating on your wife, boy.” She warned, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

A bird landed on the branch near him and chirped. Silas shooed it away with a flick.

“You know I won’t. I love Liz too much.” he reassured her.

She hummed again. “So you won’t meet up for pasta and hugs with your young, beautiful mom? Not even if she wears something nice?” He could imagine her pouting right now. She did that every time he refused to see her in person.

“Mom...you know I’d love nothing more, but right now I can’t.”

Anna sighed, defeated, then changed the tone of her voice, getting serious.

“Okay, son I’ll let you play spy or whatever. But don’t forget to visit me soon, or I swear, next time I’ll teleport your underwear off in public. Bye bye!”

The call ended.

Silas groaned, his head resting on the bark of the tree. His mom and spatial magic should never mix; she should’ve awakened something normal, like wind or earth. He would be fine with that.

Shaking his head and refocusing on Henry, he started to make a rift in the fabric of space, careful to stay hidden from anyone inside.

His mana was dense enough that the air crackled, sparks forming. He pushed his hand into the tear and widened it enough to see through.

Inside the dungeon was a cavern that went deeper underground. It was illuminated by luminescent rocks that gave off a faint blue-green glow. Henry was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone lower.

Silas moved the rift further in, following the path down, the walls of the dungeon became more narrow as he progressed until they reached a large open area.

Again he found nothing just a few monsters. Where the hell did Henry go? He searched every nook and cranny with his sight but couldn’t see the man. Then the rift closed.

“What?”

He immediately got into a battle stance. Something cut his magic. That was impossible. His spatial sense expanded to scan his surroundings but he still didn’t find any S-rankers or monster strong enough to do that. Then where was this interference coming from?

As he was about to send another rift in the dungeon, the entrance opened up again and out came Henry. But this time he wasn’t alone, there was a group behind him, all wearing the same glasses all teenager or at least not adults. There were six, no seven, of them all looking around, checking for anyone. Henry was the leader and the one with the highest amount of mana among the rest, which wasn’t saying much. Just A-rank. The others were B or below.

Silas frowned as he watched them from his cover. There wasn’t any other person in that dungeon, only monster yet seven new people came out of it, where could they have—no, no way. Henry had used space magic?

Impossible, Silas confirmed he had enchantment magic, not spatial or teleportation magic and he didn’t have a spatial artifact.

The group got into the car and drove off. He followed them from afar all the way until they entered the city, entered the Everheart residence and parked the car in the driveway.

A man with slicked-back hair and a smug face walked outside of the house to welcome them. An S-ranker with light magic. It was Lucas Everhearts’s father.

He greeted Henry and shook his hand, then looked at the teenagers.

“I trust you found what I needed?” He asked Henry as they started walking into the house and a maid took the car keys.

But Silas vision cut their. Any further and that guy would feel his magic. And he decided to first learn his name, which he didn’t know since he didn’t care enough. Eve was out of his life so why care about some second gen S-ranker?

Going back to the academy, Silas sat alone in his desk. The class had been long over and students and staff were going home. He was staring out of his window at the setting sun, trying to make sense of the severing of his magic. That was the biggest threat to his family. And it happened today. What if it happened again when it mattered? Fuck. His hands clenched on the wooden desk, cracks spreading through it. Enough tiptoeing around this bullshit.

Picking up his phone, he dialed Eve.

“Hello?” she picked up on the first ring.

“The Mariana Trench. Now.” He hung up and opened a portal under his feet. The next second he was under the sea. The dark abyss stretched all around him. A space bubble kept the crushing pressure and water at bay as he waited for a familiar presence.

A few minutes later, a bubble of water appeared near him, it burst and there she was Eve Everheart. Her long blond hair flowing around her in the ocean like a mermaid. Which wasn’t far off since at peak strength her body turned into water.

“Eve, tell me what your family is up to?” His voice was cold. There was no playful teasing or flirting today.

She raised an eyebrow, looking him up and down, her eyes stopping on his ring finger with the wedding band.

“What do you mean? You’re going to have to be more specific, old friend of mine that I never see anymore.” She swam to the bubble he was in and passed through.

“Rune glasses, dungeons and a bunch of kids coming out of nowhere, Eve you know what I mean so spill it. And what did you do to my space magic in that dungeon?” Silas glared at her, his eyes glowing in anger.

Tilting her head, she put a hand to her chin. “Are you going crazy? You sound crazy. Maybe retirement wasn’t a good decision for you, Silas dear.”

Slow, even breaths. Don’t kill her, don’t kill. She would use the entire ocean to fight him but... his other side won.

In an instant, his hand was around the throat of the S-ranker. Her eyes widened, she tried to pull back to get into a safer distance and turn into liquid. But he was not holding back anymore, his entire mana locked her in place and kept her from using her own magic.

She gasped.

He pulled her closer.

“Eve... if I don’t get an answer in the next three seconds, I’ll kill you,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.

A gulp escaped her, her eyes darting to the side, water magic pooling around the bubble.

“I don’t know!” she finally said as she saw the black hole form in his hand. The mana in that orb was insane.

He let go of her neck but kept his space magic on her body.

Eve coughed and touched where his hand had been, a red mark forming.

“For fucks sake I have no idea what you are talking about. I’ve been away on a dungeon expedition for a month.”

She was rubbing the mark, glaring. Her eyes were red and a tear formed. He was a monster.

Silas looked her in the eyes, searching for any hint of a lie but found none.

“Fuck,” he let out a breath as he let his mana fall, releasing her. She quickly jumped away from him, putting a wall of water between them.

“You’re insane, you know that. You’re a psycho.” She spat on the floor.

“And? You knew that years ago.” Turning around, Silas made a portal back to his classroom, “I’ll give you a week to find out what your husband and son are playing at, Eve. If not... well you know.”

Then he stepped through his rift.

She was alone under the sea with tears flowing down her cheek in anger. That jerk! Why does he always have to go straight to violence? Can’t he be subtle? And why does he think she knows what her idiot of a husband does?