Heaven's Greatest Professor

Volume III : Twice The Brightest Star

A couple of weeks passed since he got out of the inheritance grounds, and the best thing he managed to get used to was his name. Finally, he had something to clutch to.

In the beginning, he was sceptical about believing whatever Dawn had to say—which turned out to be little, as the girl was too shy to open her lips too often. However, he did feel an obnoxious sense of familiarity with her, as he did with many things of his past. Not to mention, she had given evidence for him to believe her.

And it wasn't limited to his name.

"For how long are you going to keep the act?" Gale asked.

Jenni scratched furiously on her slate before showing it to him.

"So long as I breathe," it read.

"So until Gold rank," he mumbled, looking her up and down. "That'll be a long time, I guess."

She snorted and showed the other side of the slate, where the words "I Hate You!!!" were permanently scratched. Unfortunately, he couldn't take her words seriously. Not to mention her tantrum, how could he take a sentence seriously when there were three exclamation marks?

"If you really hate me," he said, bringing out a tub full of frozen dessert, "then you probably don't want anything I made."

In contrast to her reply, Jenni lunged at the dessert. Sadly, it disappeared from his arm before she could even sniff the foggy air threaded out of it.

"I hate you!" she said aloud this time.

"Yes, everything about your life—how you're not tall enough, or why your father does not treat you like an adult—is all this poor Warden's fault," he snorted.

"You could have helped me suffer through that," she said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I thought I did?" He pursed his lips. "I came over twice this week bringing your favourite foods."

"Twice for half an hour over nine days," Jenni pointed out.

"You didn't speak the first time, and used the slate the next," he returned. "How am I supposed to help you when you showed 'I hate you!!!' every second?"

"That should make it obvious that you needed to come more often," she shouted back, almost throwing her slate at him.

"Sorry, I do not understand your cryptic silence message," he burst out as well. "Do you know why? It may come as a shock to you, but it's because they were silent."

Jenni relented under his explosion of words. While he had acted tough before, he had never shouted at her, which was enough to silence her for now.

After Elder Ming found out about Jenni's involvement in the Inheritance ground, he grounded her thoroughly, wearing her down in all sorts of boring ways. He didn't let anyone meet her, but Gale had sneaked in a couple of times to check on her. He had healed her completely the first time, and the second time he only went to see whether her dark mood had lifted.

As far as he was concerned, she had been doing pretty well. She had scribed her whole room with rune paintings.

"The food you brought didn't even last a day," Jenni said, pouting.

"I didn't want you to overeat in depression." Saying that, he brought out the frozen dessert he had teased her with. Jenni took it with open arms.

"I'm still not allowed to go out," she cried, taking a big scoop of the dessert and stuffing it into her mouth. She closed her eyes and let out a whimper.

"Do you want a friend to spend time with?" he asked.

"Father would lose his mind if he even knew you were here; there's no way he would let—"

"Tell me if you want it," Gale cut in. "I can make it work."

Jenni lifted her head from the tub of dessert to stare at him, cream dripping down from her lips. She nodded heavily.

"Good," he said. "I have this friend, Dawn. She's a little wary about mingling with people..."

"A little" would be a huge understatement, considering she couldn't even act straight when she was with him, someone she was supposed to be familiar with.

"Anyway, this would be good for both of you," he said. "You'll find a good companion who'll listen to everything you say, while she'll grow by interacting with you."

"Wait, you're not talking about yourself?" Jenni's shoulders slumped. She continued, sounding dejected, "I thought I'd spend time with someone I know..."

"It won't take you long to know Dawn," he said. "But if you do not want her to—"

"No-no, bring her as soon as you can," she said. "If I cannot stand her, I'll send her back."

"While I hardly doubt you won't be able to stand her," he said, "I must ask you to refrain from touching her... She doesn't like that."

"Got it." Jenni frowned. "Who is this Dawn to you?"

"She used to work under me, organizing my stuff," he said. "A friend."

"How old is this friend?"

He tilted his head. "I guess about your age, though she looks younger. Also, she's already a silver ranker."

"I'll be silver too in a couple of months," Jenni declared, clenching her jaw.

"Anyway, I'll send her to you soon," he said. "I gotta go and see how Agnes is doing. I haven't seen her for over a week."

After a little more exchange, he exited Elder Ming's compound and made his way to the main camp. No more than a couple of minutes had passed since he stepped foot in the camp, and the emergency signal blared.

Soldiers in identical armour and weapons marched out, cursing the tainted creatures who had no sense of timing.

This had been a frequent event in the last couple of weeks since the inheritance ground merged with the frontlines. Thankfully, most of the attacks were on the temporary camp they had around the inheritance ground, not the main camp, though a few stray packs had found their way here.

He reckoned the residual dark essence circulating around the place was the main reason for tainted creatures turning up there. Before they discovered the subspace, packs of demonic creatures usually tended to flock there.

The Warden hadn't involved himself in any of the skirmishes, even if the attacks were becoming more frightening each day. It wasn't that there was no need for it, just that there was a Transcendent present in the camp. If they really got into a pickle, that person could deal with it easily.

He was about to leave for the main business he came for, but faltered upon finding the familiar figures of Jason and Jessica near his tropical garden.

Technically the garden was military property, but he tended it to make it a real garden, so it was his.

Jason waved his hand upon spotting him. He waved back and decided to greet them. Jessica might have news about some stuff he cared about, so he wasted no time in joining them.

"Yo, Jase and Jess," he called, "how's the world treating you two today?" Your journey continues at m v|l-e'-NovelBin.net

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So begins the third instalment of the story... This one will be a lot more wholesome...

Peace... Thanks for reading...