"So... he is the one who will be our teacher as well as the vice-principal?" asked Grandpa Jack hesitantly.
The old man narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the figure of the adult man standing before him. The man had messy bright orange hair, wearing strange clothes layered with a pristine white coat. That was the man Arthur had just brought before him to fill the teaching staff position at Avalon School.
"T-That's right, Grandpa Jack. This person... will be a very fitting teacher for our school," Arthur said, forcing a smile. His voice sounded a bit stiff. He glanced at the orange-haired man beside him with a tense expression.
The orange-haired man stepped forward with an overly cheerful, broad smile. He bowed slightly in a somewhat exaggerated manner.
"Nice to meet you, honorable Village Chief of Holy Spirit Village! My name is Romani Archaman!" he greeted in a cheerful tone.
"I am a very, very great medical researcher! Oh, and if you are curious about my hobby... I am a huge fan of virtual idols! That's right, spending money on cute girls who aren't real on the screen is my ninja way and the main goal of my life!"
Hearing that highly irrational introduction, Arthur instantly flinched violently as if he had just been struck by lightning. His face paled. He immediately turned his head and glared sharply at "Romani".
Grandpa Jack looked half-dead with confusion hearing those foreign terms, but he tried to ignore them and return to the core of his question. "A-are you perhaps a Spirit Master?" he asked hesitantly.
Romani nodded casually. "Yes, I am a Soul Saint," he answered.
Right after those words were spoken, slowly, seven spirit rings emitting colorful luminescence began to appear from beneath his feet, revolving around his body and emitting an aura of extraordinary pressure.
"S-Soul Saint?!" Grandpa Jack shouted in absolute shock. His frail body trembled violently seeing the formation of seven spirit rings that symbolized power.
"H-Honorable Sir! O-Our rundown school is absolutely not worthy of receiving a great figure like you! You would definitely be highly respected and get luxurious facilities in a much more prestigious city academy!" Grandpa Jack exclaimed in panic, feeling very reluctant and afraid he couldn't host him properly.
Romani shook his head slowly. In an instant, all of his spirit rings faded and were retracted. "There's no need to hesitate. I have decided to dedicate my entire life to Avalon School. This is a promise I have made to my Master," he said in a serious tone, but his eyes deliberately stole a brief glance toward Arthur.
"Y-Your Master?!" Grandpa Jack parroted, his eyes widening in disbelief. A figure as great as a Soul Saint still served a Master? Just how great was that Master?!
"Yes! My Master is an extraordinarily grand Titled Douluo!" Romani replied while clasping his hands together over his chest, his eyes sparkling like a fanatical sect follower. "He is the figure I idolize so much, the number one existence in this entire world! Let alone being a teaching staff... I would be extremely happy even if I were only made a step carpet for the soles of his noble feet!" he added in an overly dramatic tone filled with praising intonations.
Hearing that cheap bragging, Arthur's face turned sour. He stared at the orange-haired man beside him with an increasingly disgusted expression. A vein popped on his temple holding back anger.
On the contrary, the innocent Grandpa Jack stood frozen in high-level confusion. Even though the words sounded very strange, the old man could only gulp, astounded to see how absolute and terrifying the level of loyalty this man in front of him had toward his "Master".
"I-is it possible... that your grand Master is the one who will be our Principal?" asked Grandpa Jack with a voice that was almost gone due to extreme shock.
Romani nodded firmly with a meaningful smile. "Exactly. He has promised to come personally in another year."
"!!!"
Grandpa Jack's entire body instantly tensed. His heart beat so fast that his chest felt tight. "T-t-that...! A Titled Douluo becoming the Principal in this small village?!" he shouted in panic, almost losing consciousness.
"No refusals," Romani interrupted in a tone that suddenly became very firm and authoritative, as if the command came directly from heaven.
"B-but... why? Why are great people like the two of you willing to go this far for a poor village like ours?" asked Grandpa Jack with teary eyes, still unable to fathom the luck that had befallen his village.
"That is because my Master has realized the extraordinary hidden potential of this village!" Romani answered with an explosive and highly dramatic tone of voice.
He spread his arms wide into the air. "He will turn this village into a great place! Under his guidance, Avalon School will transform into the number one spirit master academy on the entire continent!"
Grandpa Jack fell completely silent. He bowed his head deeply, feeling both deeply moved and burdened by the nobility of that mysterious "Master's" heart. "Alright... since that is the will of the honorable Master, I will accept it wholeheartedly," said Grandpa Jack with a trembling voice.
He was just about to turn around and leave with staggering steps to calm himself down, but suddenly Romani's hand patted his shoulder, holding him in place.
"One more thing," Romani whispered. "It is best if this conversation is kept strictly secret from anyone. Just pretend this meeting never happened until my Master arrives next year. Not a single soul is allowed to know about the contents of this conversation besides the three of us. Understand?"
Grandpa Jack gulped. "Y-yes, Sir! I understand!" he answered with a respectful attitude, and then Grandpa Jack walked out.
The wooden door was shut tight, leaving Arthur and "Romani" in the silence of the room.
Arthur massaged the bridge of his nose which suddenly felt dizzy, then glared sharply at the orange-haired man. "Out of the many forms of people in this world, why did you choose to disguise yourself as him instead?" he asked tiredly.
A crisp laugh was heard in reply. Suddenly, Romani's entire body was swallowed by a swirling vortex of blooming flower petals.
"Hehehe~ Just consider it me doing a little preparation," said a melodious voice from behind the storm of flowers. As the petals scattered and disappeared, the graceful figure of Lady Avalon had perfectly materialized once again.
Arthur let out another long sigh seeing his witch's behavior. "You really destroyed the Doctor's good name, just so you know," he reprimanded.
He then folded his arms across his chest, looking at Lady Avalon with a curious expression. "Then, how did you do it? The spirit rings and the spirit level pressure you emitted earlier... how could you fake this world's power system so perfectly?"
"Fufu~ Have you started to forget the grand title you yourself gave me?" Lady Avalon smiled haughtily.
She puffed out her chest, just about to open her mouth to declaim her epic magical titles, but Arthur immediately interrupted with a deadpan face.
"Troll Witch?" Arthur guessed mercilessly.
Lady Avalon's movements instantly stopped stiffly. The corner of her lips twitched. "Hey! That's only one of them, you know!" she protested indignantly.
"So you aren't rejecting that nickname at all," Arthur countered sharply.
Lady Avalon snorted elegantly, trying to restore her recently dropped authority. "Listen carefully. I am the Magus of Paradise from Camelot and Avalon! I am the grand genius magus who holds two candidate titles at once—"
Lady Avalon's words suddenly stopped at that last part. She shut her mouth tightly.
Arthur, who noticed the strange pause, instantly raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked with a confusedly furrowed brow.
Realizing that she had almost let something slip, Lady Avalon hurriedly changed the subject. She stepped lightly, dancing around Arthur cheerfully.
"The point is! As the person who knows me best, you must know exactly how terrifying my level of intelligence is, right? Manipulating light and engineering illusions to look like this world's spirit rings is merely child's play for Onee-san~" she babbled at length.
Seeing the Magus of Flowers acting like that, Arthur could only roll his eyes in resignation, realizing that interrogating Lady Avalon was a futile task.
"For me, everything on this Douluo Continent is very easy to master. The power system in this world is too linear and straightforward," said Lady Avalon in a bored tone. She then raised her hand in the air, spreading her fingers as if calculating a trivial matter.
"First, awaken your Martial Soul. Second, accumulate Spirit Power until you reach the level cap. Third, hunt Spirit Beasts and absorb their Spirit Rings to gain new skills. And if you are lucky, you can also absorb Spirit Bones or consume rare spiritual plants," she explained while shaking her head dramatically, openly underestimating the laws of that world.
"Those steps are too rigid and predictable. For a Grand Magus from Camelot like me, hacking and analyzing the system in this world is like a quantum physics professor being asked to do a middle school student's math homework."
Lady Avalon waved her hand casually, her smile widening. "Just compare it to our original world. You know yourself, right, how chaotic the legal system is there? Everything is overlapping and very difficult to outsmart."
Those amethyst-like beautiful eyes were now sparkling full of cunning and dangerous enthusiasm. "There are no restraints in this place. There is no Counter Force, no Counter Guardian who suddenly appears to kill you, no Beast, no The Root, and most importantly... that annoying old troll wizard who rules the Kaleidoscope isn't here!"
Lady Avalon spread her arms wide with a joyful laugh. "In short, this world is like a vacation paradise for me! A playground where I can unleash all my magic and do absolutely anything without needing to fear the consequences from the world!"
Hearing that overly enthusiastic and megalomanic-sounding declaration, Arthur instantly furrowed his brow deeply. His face paled as he stared at Lady Avalon.
"Hearing your behavior... it seems letting you roam free without supervision here will actually put this entire world in danger, Merlin," Arthur hissed in horror.
Unconsciously, he immediately stepped back, slowly but surely creating a safe distance from the white-cloaked witch in front of him.
"Oh, do you intend to restrain me? Have you forgotten that right now you cannot summon the holy sword Excalibur?" Lady Avalon teased with an annoying, playful smile. "Calm down, my King. I promise you, I will absolutely not put this world in danger."
"I have never forgotten a single one of your teachings," Arthur replied in a threateningly cold tone. "And one of the lessons I remember most from your own mouth is: never make a pact with a fairy. They might keep their promise, but the price they ask for in the end will be enormous. Therefore, I will never trust the promise of a fairy like you."
Without hesitation, Arthur grabbed a worn wooden stick leaning in the corner of the room. The moment his hand grasped its handle, the ordinary stick instantly vibrated and emitted a dazzling golden light luminescence, coated by dense pure energy.
"Even though I cannot summon my sword yet, I can still use my raw energy to attack you," hissed Arthur, taking a fighting stance like an elite Knight.
"Hehe~ You are indeed a very great student. I really didn't expect you could already perform energy manipulation of that level at your current age," Lady Avalon laughed, not intimidated at all by the luminescence of the wooden sword. "But, you know yourself that it won't be enough to hold me back, right? Calm down, my King. I really won't do anything reckless."
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind crashed in from outside, slamming the window shutters wide open and blowing thousands of illusory flower petals into the room.
Realizing the witch was about to escape, Arthur immediately took action. He dashed at lightning speed and jumped, lunging straight into the center of the flower storm.
However, when the swing of his yellow-glowing stick struck the spot where Lady Avalon stood, he only slashed empty air. The witch's body had completely faded away, blown away with the wind.
"Fufu~ Alright. I will wait for you in my class tomorrow, my King," whispered Lady Avalon's melodious voice echoing in the air before finally disappearing completely, carried away by the night wind.
Arthur slowly lowered his wooden stick which dimmed once again. He furrowed his brow deeply, letting out a long sigh that felt very heavy.
"It seems... I just made the biggest mistake of my life," Arthur muttered in resignation, staring blankly toward the window frame where the flower-scented wind left the room.
(Transition)
That morning marked the first day of the opening of Avalon School.
Unlike the children who looked very enthusiastic, the parents were actually quite pessimistic. They doubted whether sacrificing precious time in the fields just to learn to read and write was a wise decision.
However, thanks to Arthur's persuasion and charisma, the villagers finally gave in.
Almost all the villagers who were not busy harvesting attended, filling the room.
Even Grandpa Jack, Mama Mia, and Mei Qin also sat on the wooden benches to learn.
"Hello, everyone! Let me introduce myself, my name is Romani. You can call me Doctor Roman or Romani, it's up to you. At this school, I will serve as a teacher as well as the vice-principal!" greeted the orange-haired man with a wide, cheerful smile.
Lady Avalon deliberately only introduced her short disguise name so it would be easier for the villagers' tongues to remember.
"Now, before we start our first lesson today, are there any of you who want to ask a question first?" Romani offered.
A little child shyly raised his hand. "Teacher, I want to ask... what does the name 'Avalon' actually mean?"
"Hoho, a very good question, Kid! 'You can't love what you don't know', right? Before we start learning, we really should get to know the meaning of our school's name first," Romani praised.
He took a piece of chalk and wrote the word "AVALON" in capital letters on the blackboard. Romani then turned around, spreading his arms like a master storyteller.
"Avalon... or better known as the Distant Utopia. In a legend, this place is a magical world filled with miracles and eternal dreams. A place where various mythical creatures and magical plants live side by side in peace. And most importantly... this place is the sacred home of the fairies."
Hearing the word "fairies", the entire room immediately buzzed with excitement.
"Fairies?! Do you mean... immortal beings or heavenly spirits who obtained magical powers through self-cultivation until they broke through mortal limits?!" exclaimed an adult man with sparkling eyes.
"You mean those Immortal Goddesses who possess peerless, extraordinary beauty?!" chimed in another man enthusiastically.
"Oh my! Does that mean Avalon is the name of the Heavenly Realm?! The place where the immortals live?!" guessed an old man.
"Oh, so the name of our school is taken from the name of that sacred heavenly realm, huh..." murmured a mother in a tone of awe and respect.
"Teacher! Is it possible that one day we can fly and go to Avalon?!" the children exclaimed in unison with hopeful faces.
The classroom was instantly filled with amazed whispers and excited conversations. Seeing the villagers' enthusiasm—which was misguided yet very advantageous—Romani smiled full of cunning.
"Hehe~ If you want to know more, then you have to diligently come to this class every day," Romani teased, utilizing their curiosity as an effective learning motivation. "I will tell you more about Avalon and other extraordinary things! I have so many stories... in fact, there is an epic tale about a King who is very, very great."
When saying his last sentence, Romani's gaze deliberately stole a mischievous glance toward Arthur sitting in the corner of the room. Arthur just looked away, unable to fathom his witch's behavior.
Romani clapped his hands once, breaking up the commotion. "Alright! Let's end the storytelling session for now. Come on, prepare your writing utensils, we will start today's lesson!"