In the middle of the forest road, the car steadily drove along the path. Astrea took her time to interrogate Janus :
"Where are we?"
"Not on Earth in any case." said Janus frivolously. During this travel to her new workplace, she discovered that he was, in reality, a very childish guy who liked to do bad jokes... He completely lost the mysteriousness from the beginning and became a spoiled brat in her eyes. She impassively gazed at him, waiting for him to get serious. He seemed to have understood her and straightened his back.
"Ahem, the truth is we are in another world called Arcadia. It's a unique land where various intelligent lifeforms from different worlds come here to study." Janus expected a reaction from Astrea. However, he was welcomed by her deadpan face. He sighed and continued :
"This planet is entirely dedicated to teaching students on how to control their powers, live in community with other species and it is also the headquarter of Lydos"
"What is Lydos?"
"A neutral organization whose goal is to stop the spreading of the ghosts."
"A group of exorcists then."
"Yeah."
"But from what you said earlier, there exist organisms other than human?"
"Hehehe... indeed. You know about things such as gods, demons, and supernatural beings? Well, they exist."
"..."
"Come on! Show me a reaction! You are no fun..." Janus slumped back on his seat, crossed his arms, and pouted. It was a weird sight for Astrea to see a grown-up man sulk. Astrea who didn't know what to do in this situation just frowned at him. He misunderstood her and turned his head away from her. This scene was seen by Hammond from the rear-view mirror. Even though he wasn't familiar with Astrea, her personality was nearly the same as his little brother so he knew that she wasn't angry but just didn't know how to react to the chairman's antic. Seeing the conversation going nowhere, the capable assistant decided to take over :
"Miss Elysium, what the chairman said is the truth. The universe is so vast, it can't contain only human. If you need proofs, then you just have two specimens right here."
"You mean you two aren't humans?"
"That is indeed so. Let me introduce myself, my name is Hammond Devain, a seraph serving under my Lord Janus Elpidius, a proud member of the god race." he proudly said.
"..."
"Hmph! Are you intimidated now? Two venerable beings took their time some of their precious time to accompany you. So won't you show some appreciation?"
'Chairman... what's wrong with you? Why are you acting like an arrogant prick!? Where has my cool-headed Lord gone!? (T_T) '
'What the heck am I saying right now!? Why do I feel compelled to get her intention!? (／ロ°)／ '
'… Huh? (°_°) '
A moment was needed to let everyone calm down. Janus felt like he needed to apologize for his rude behavior but looking at Astrea's frozen face, he didn't dare to do anything. Astrea was in reality appalled by learning the truth from Hammond. She had more trust in him as he didn't seem like the type to try to make a bad joke, unlike a certain someone... As she reorganized her thought they already arrived in front of a big building. She recognized it was an old manor like those from a thousand years ago. Her mother dreamed about buying such a house with her father. It could have been realized if he didn't die 8 years ago...
As they got out of the car, Janus introduced her to the place :
"This is will be your home for the time you will be teaching here. I hope it is to your taste!"
"Huh? You mean this place is the provided accommodation!?"
"Of course! Why? Are you unsatisfied?"
"It's big for one person."
"Don't worry! It's a dormitory. The female teachers live here. But the janitor should have been here to welcome you?"
"Sorry, I'm late!" A small boy wearing ragged clothes got out of the manor and ran in their direction. He shook hands with Astrea and began to ramble :
"Nice to meet you, you are the new teacher? Oh, and you are also a human! Cecilia will be so happy! She was beginning to get lonely..."
Astrea turned her head to Janus and suspiciously asked :
"Is that how you treat your employee..."
Janus suddenly comprehended what she meant, he was too used to seeing brownies wear dirty clothes.
"That's not what you think it is! Aodh is a brownie. I can't offer him new clothes or he will get upset! Just ask him and he will tell you he is well taken care of!"
"Is that true?" asked Astrea to the small boy.
"Hmm? Yeah! It's great here! Every day the residents give me a bowl of milk. It's really yummy!" he responded energetically. Seeing this, she sighed in relief. Janus then proceeded to introduce the two:
"Astrea, here is Aodh. He is in charge of the housework and the food. Aodh, here is Astrea, the new teacher who is going to teach the purging lesson."
Hearing the final sentence, Aodh immediately took many steps back away from Astrea. Astrea didn't understand why he moved so far away. She looked at Janus in askance. He expected this so he quickly explained :
"Your teacher was quite the daring man. He used the farside students to use as guinea pigs to teach his own."
When she heard this, she remembered he would use little thugs to showcase his skill. For her, she only needed a single glance to reproduce it while her friend Theodore needed Teacher to repeat many time to finally get it. At the end of the lesson, the hooligans couldn't move and they needed to go to the hospitals. No wonder the little boy was so frightened of her. When she glanced back at him, he shook like a leaf. She couldn't help but sigh. Then she noted he used a new term she doesn't know.
"What did you mean by farside students?"
"It refers to all the other beings but the human. Because of a certain event in the past, humans were punished to be separated from us and had to live in an isolated world. Of course, now it's much more relaxed. There even existed situations where groups of humans have been transported to other worlds with farside populations. They managed to adapt and colonized those places."
"Oh, I see." Having received the information she wanted, she fell silent. Then she remembered something.
"Do I only teach human or everyone?"
"It seems to only work on humans."
"Okay."
"But I'm surprised you didn't know of our existence? Is there a reason?"
"In reality, I was kind of forced to be taught under him... so he only taught me the arts of purging and nothing else."
"Oh, so he didn't want you to know... Too bad, now you know." said Janus nonchalantly. "It seems Hammond finished taking out your luggages to your room. Well, I will let you here to explore your new home. Take care!" With that said he and his secretary entered the car and drove away. This happened way too fast that she began to suspect something was wrong. She then heard :
"P- please follow me. I w- will take you to your room!" stuttered the boy. She didn't want him to feel uncomfortable during her stay. She will have to think of something to make him less afraid of her.
After the two of them entered and the door closed, hundreds pair of eyes opened in the shadow. They looked around to see if anyone was around. When they moved, you could see that it was, in reality, a flock of bats. They flew toward another building and then fused together to form the figure of a man. He was quickly surrounded by a group of guys.
"Did you see the new girl!" asked one of the guy.
"Huhu. Yes, I did!"
"So how is she!?"
"You will be surprised but she is a human!"
"Ooooh!!!" exclaimed the group. They then asked :
"Hey! Describe her!" "Yeah! How does she look!?" "Is she as cute as Cecilia" "I prefer the voluptuous kind like Chloe."
"Well, she is more of the glamorous type. Long straight hair the color of the sunset and gray eyes like ash." said the spying guy enamored "she stands around 1,70m of height, has a long pair of legs. Mmmh... She has a good pair of assets too."
"Hmph! It's good and all but what if she has an ugly face." "Yeah, it's the most important!" "I don't mind her face..."
"Do you think I would describe her in such a length if she didn't have a pretty face! I kept the best for last. She has a small heart shaped face, big upturned eyes, luscious lips, and a milky white skin tone!!!"
"Oooh!!" "I prefer smaller girl!" "You must be exaggerating! I don't believe a simple mortal has so much great features!" "Are you sure you aren't describing a goddess?"
"I say, if you don't believe me, just go see for yourself!!" He snorted and angrily left.
The other looked at each other. They shrugged and followed him inside. There was going to be a teacher's reunion tomorrow, they will be able to see her there...