As expected, the moment Neo entered the classroom, he felt the gaze of each and every student pinned onto him with burning intensities. Under the weight of such stares, it was rather hard for him to not shrink into himself and bolt for the door--no, no, no. Neo squeezes his hand into a fist and relaxes it. It would do him no good if he doesn't face this.
He held his head high, not exactly as proud as he once was, but the angle was, at the very least, respectable and mannerly.
On his left and right, Tybalt and Finneas followed closely. It suddenly occurred to him that the formation they happen to be walking in was rather similar to a certain trio of children consisting of two goons and a blonde brat from a book he read about some wizard boy going to a wizard school. He remembered not liking the part where the author made irresponsible adults being abounding and child soldiers aplenty.
Whispers filled the room, but Neo didn't acknowledge them. It's better to not react. If he was still Nazareth, perhaps he might have done something to escalate the situation, but now? Neo just wants to sit down.
"-His hair? He must have gone crazy-"
"-A new appearance won't change anything-"
"-Don't look. You know what happened to poor Elliot last week-"
"-The girl was in tears after her shoes went missing-"
Neo cringed. So he stole a girl's shoes. Wonderful. His temperament must have been bad that day.
"-I heard he was the one behind the poisoning incident with the Odum heir. Luckily the poison was discovered before anyone got hurt-"
Okay, that was untrue. Neo was proud to say that back then he was too dumb to go around poisoning Aurelion. He preferred using other people to hurt his brother, either by ganging up on him or beating up the people he cared about. Poison? Never heard of it. Fists, knives, and anything that can bludgeon the body was his favorite form of torment.
In fact, right after the poisoning incident, Nazareth had tracked down the people who caused the whole occurrence and made sure their lives miserable forever. Exiled from their household, stripped of their nobility, and forced to work in the grimiest places within the red light district. He had not taken the news of these... interlopers getting in the way of him and his brother's conflict. No one was allowed to harm his younger brother except him.
Of course, Neo isn't exactly happy with his own former behavior, and he really would like to make amends. Although, by this point in the timeline, the people who were responsible for the poisoning are already out of the way (he still wouldn't forgive them for trying to kill Aurelion), so there's really nothing he can do about it. Other than that, however, he is ready for a new start.
The familiar table at the back of the class right next to the window was his. Having experienced the modern world and, he couldn't help but cringe. It was rather... cliche. The window seats, after all, were always reserved for protagonists, heroes, villains, and any roles alike to those. How did he not notice this?
Taking his seat, Neo saw that Tybalt and Finneas both sat behind him, right next to each other with Tybalt taking the window seat. The situated seating allowed all of them to conspire in the past, and he admits that he and his group conspired a lot against his brother. There is also the empty seat beside himself, specially designated for Royce, his ever-loyal follower who bore Neo's crimes and was sent onto a path of ruins.
Speaking of which, where was Royce today?
Neo was worried that the other boy might have been ill. The last he had heard of the other was from Aurelion during that tea time incident in the western garden.
"Have either of you heard from Royce? Is he sick?"
Neo asked with a bit of worry in his voice.
Tybalt tapped his cheek with thought. "Hmm, last I heard of him was through my oldest brother. Apparently, he had run his mouth wrong and made a fool of himself during a meeting with the crown prince. What say you, Finnie?"
Finneas shook his head and shyly bowed it. "S-same here. Elder brother was also at the meeting and told me what had happened. He says Royce left with a funny expression on his face. Interestingly enough, he went really quiet by the latter half of the meeting and looked like he was thinking very deeply about something."
Royce had also heard about the meeting with the crown prince through Aurelion, although it might have been an accident. Ever since the crown prince entered his first year of Senior High, he had begun holding meetings with the family heirs of all households. Neo imagines that he is assimilating the personalities of his future court to get a better grasp of them.
"-aza... Naza!"
Tybalt shakes him from his thoughts with a shake of his shoulder.
"Pardon?" Neo finally answers, a bit embarrassed that he had zoned out like that.
"What happened to you just now?" The other boy inquires, looking both calculative and confused.
In response, Neo shakes his head lightly. "It's nothing."
However, Tybalt still looked unconvinced, judging by the expression on his face.
"Really," Neo assures. "It was really nothing."
Tybalt raises an eyebrow but finally lets it go. "If you say so." He mutters, turning to Finneas.
The door of the classroom slides open and in storms the professor.
Ah, hello, Professor Rickman, Neo thinks, witnessing as the man of his nightmares appeared once more in front of him, very much alive and well. As Nazareth, he both hated and respected this man, who looked like he would never age a day past mid-thirty. Professor Rickman was a casualty to the last of his ploys.
Thinking back, Neo was rather ashamed of the mental state he had been in by that point, the desperation and the madness had drowned him when both Finneas and Tybalt left him (and not to mention the death of Royce).
One of the most terrible deeds he had done in his lifetime as Nazareth Odum is turning traitor.
And not just any traitor, but a treacherous traitor against the crown.
Those against the noble, the common people who decidedly made the choice to start a rebellion, became a group of terrorists silently hiding in the shadows.
Nazareth had approached them and made a deal. His younger brother's life in exchange for access into the Noble Academy, where little young lords and ladies run amok, about to serve the country once they're out of there.
Professor Rickman fought well and protected his students. Truly a brave man. When those terrorists broke into the school, he was at the forefront of the fight. His downfall was by a knife to the back and a few arrows to the chest.
You would think that bullying and kidnapping Sutton Graham is what ultimately sealed his fate, but Neo had been a dead man walking the moment he made the decision to let those terrorists into the school. He would have been caught and executed the moment he graduated from the academy anyway. Kidnapping Sutton only sped up his death. In the end, his choices were what killed him.
He is a sinner through and through, and nothing can change that. His hands are stained with blood, and no matter if there is a third or fourth chance after this, he will keep on taking them in order to repent. Repent forever, if he must.
The smooth drawl of Professor Rickman's voice drew him from his self-wallowing.
"Take out the book that I assigned the day before, quietly--that means you, Marcellus, keep your mouth shut, lest you wish for me to sew it up. I hope you all had a chance to flip through the book, as I have instructed the day earlier--No, Edinburgh, I said flip through it, not read the entire thing. No, I do not want to see your notes or opinions on how you feel about the book, I don't care. If any of you have not noticed the obvious standard playwriting format of the content, then surprise, you will all be reading the Tragedy of Ohmlet. A classic, truly. None of you mindless half-wits will appreciate the finery of this literary piece, but I could care less."
There were a few groans, but a glare from the professor silenced them.
"Now," Professor Rickman gazed at all of them with his piercing stare. After all these years, Neo still felt himself taking a gulp. The hair on the back of his neck arisen with apprehension. "We shall be reading this book aloud for the next few weeks. I will assign roles based on the quiz I am about to give you in the next three minutes. That is all. Chamberlain, pass these papers to your classmates."
"Yes, sir."
It came to Neo's notice that the paper that was passed out happened to be a quiz on the periodic table.
He rolled his eyes, because of course Professor Rickman would pull something like this. The man not only taught literature, but he was also the alchemy professor! Neo had always thought the professor preferred alchemy over literature. Despite his taste for fine literature, his personality isn't all that poetic. Rickman is a man who is stone cold and factual.
It's been a long time since Neo has gone to class at the Noble Academy. He doesn't remember going over the periodic table. He can hardly remember the days that went by, nevermind the class and curriculum of the school. This is probably the second time he's heard of the Tragedy of Ohmlet and he doesn't even remember the content of the story. His head was always filled with schemes against Aurelion. Who cares about grades? Pshh. Obviously, not him!
But to focus on a more positive matter, the quiz is quite simple.
It had blank squares placed in the formation of the periodic table and required him to write down where everything happened to be. Luckily for Neo, in the modern world, he had memorized the periodic table due to his career as a medical researcher. Of course, he could have simply memorized the medical periodic table, but Neo was dedicated to his work and never wanted to leave anything out.
The quiz was a breeze. Neo was confident in his answers, though he felt rather guilty for cheating. Is it considered cheating if he already learned the materials in his last life?
It was a bit too late to think about that since Professor Rickman called time and collected everyone's papers.
As he passed him, Neo could feel the man's burning stare boring into him. It automatically made him straighten up with a shiver crawling up his spine.
When the professor finished gathering the papers, he stood in front of the class once more, looking every inch of an intimidating figure.
With a hawkish glare, he spoke. "I expect none of you to do well on this quiz. However, I do expect that at the very least, you all get a forty-five percent. I have gone over the chemical reactions of each element a week ago and it was demanded of all of you to at least retain at least some information from that particular lesson. Depending on your scores, I will be assigning you all to a role in the play. Expect the... "cast list"--as your fine arts professor might call it--to be put out by tomorrow morning. And no, Mcgregor, I don't expect any of you to be able to act your way out of a paper bag. You are all nobles, not thespians. It will only end terribly if any of you try."
Neo cringed. As always, Professor Rickman is still as sharp as he remembered him to be. At mandatory parent meetings, he was always the one making the parents cry. Obviously, no consideration was taken of the fact that those parents happen to be of noble status. The man didn't give two lards about other's opinions and he was truly a no-nonsense type of man.
Truly, he was both a terrifying and brilliant teacher.
Rickman pulled out his own copy of the Tragedy of Ohmlet. The class followed along, bringing their books out from their tables.
Neo shuffled through his desk and found his own book, lying beneath messy pieces of paper and other unidentifiable objects he desperately wants to cleanout. Thinking back to his past behavior, he might as well have treated his table as an impractical trashcan.
"Open your books to the preface. We will be going over the history of the author and some background on this story. Margo, read the first paragraph."
"Yes, sir."