I had no idea how to answer her without her finding out that her dream was in fact true. I didn't want to give an answer that would lead her to distrust me. I had only two options, fall into the trap or flee. I looked at Stella as she anxiously waited for my answer and that was when I conceded and gave an answer that's true to my heart.
"Of course."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she tackled me down onto the bed.
"Thank you." She choked into my shirt.
I patted her on the back as she cried. It was always hard to watch someone cry their heart out and all you wanted to do was to give them a hug.
"Feeling better?" I looked down to see the top of her head as her face was pressed against my chest.
She nodded against my chest in affirmation.
"Hey teach, do you think they will send us back home once we helped them?" She whispered barely audible as my shirt muffled her voice. I felt her breathing evening out as she started to calm down.
The king wanted our help to clear a tower that their god's had created. The tower stood around 4,000 feet tall in the middle of a circular lake known as Heaven's Surface. Kingdoms from far and wide had come to conquer the tower in hopes to obtain it's godly treasures. The history about the tower was one of the few things I looked into at the library in my previous life. The gods created the tower to test humanity's might.
One hundred floors to ascend and each floor was filled with monsters with varying types of power and difficulty. Each floor has a boss and each boss has a key, if won, you may use the key to open the door to the next floor. Once all one hundred keys are obtained, all the keys are to be placed in the keyholes on a massive door that will in turn open to the vault. It was what the king had told us and what the gods had told the people of this world. Through pain and suffering, those who made it to the top will have the chance to gain a favor from the gods and choose an item of choice from the gods vault.
King Rokus was the first king who sought out for outside help. Desperate to obtain the godly treasures he needed help from other worlds. Unluckily for him, he had summoned us. We were not warriors or heroes from another world but instead a teacher and his students.
The king had hoped to have summoned strong people to do all his dirty work whilst his people would reap the rewards. I wasn't aware of any of those facts in my previous life... frankly I was oblivious to it. I was weak because I was scared of my skills set even though looking back at it now I knew that was the stupidest thing an otaku like me could think of.
"Honestly, I don't know... But as your teacher, I will do my absolute best to find a way to bring you guys home."
"What if we conquered the tower and find a godly treasure that could bring us back home?" She asked in a hopeful tone.
"We could try but the king's knights would probably be accompanying with us." The knights would only be there to watch as we fought, I knew since that was the one thing I've noticed as I was on the back line.
"Isn't that ideal?"
My first instant response would be 'no' because it was way too unpredictable to have them with us. The reason why they were watching us was to gain information and to plan once we retire back to the kingdom. The king knew our every move and would orchestrate ploys to wear down our awareness. We were already tired from all the floors we conquered. All the bosses on floor fifty and up were increasingly getting stronger. If an opportunity surfaces I knew the king would jump at the chance to put his plan into motion.
"Yes, it would but I just don't trust them."
"You don't trust them?" She asked the question in a curious tone.
"No I don't."
It was getting close to dinner time and I felt my stomach grumble. Stella giggled as she got up and got off me.
"I'm glad we had this talk... I'll see you at dinner." Stella unlocked the door and walked out.
A smile formed on my face, it felt nice to do a little counselling session type thing with my students and better yet she came to me. I never thought about myself as a good listener as most people would tell me. I like to reside myself in my head most of the time, drowned in thought or simply talking to myself. Somehow that flaw of mine didn't work on my students, I listen to them unconditionally.
That's probably also why I never attempted to date anyone. I remember one time I was sitting in the lunchroom in the performing arts building waiting until it was time to teach my next FTV (film and television) class and was thinking on the next film we would analyze. I was so into my thought that I completely wasn't aware that someone was talking to me. When I finally noticed, the woman had a scowl on her face. I asked her what was wrong, to her reply being me.
At that time I thought nothing of it but when I noticed she was giving me a cold shoulder, I finally understood. It seemed like a forever ago now but I've changed since then or so I hoped, I wasn't intentionally ignoring people but it's just that my thoughts was one of the things that gave me comfort. Maybe if I stopped, I might've had a girlfriend already but this habit was something I knew I couldn't break... after all breaking something that was yourself, makes you feel broken.
A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts... yep can't break it. I went over to my door and opened it. Standing outside was the prince and a guard that looked prideful? I wasn't quite sure. I offered for them to come in and have a seat. We sat down and the prince told me what was going on.
"Today, one of your guards was sitting at the lunch table with the rest of the royal guards, when he overheard a conversation from the king's guards that was sitting a table over." The prince looked over to the guard that was standing next to the couch that the prince was sitting at and he nodded to him. "Tell your liege what you told me."
Wait your liege? Since when was I a liege? And it seemed that the prince and the guard are referring to me... I... was it because of the white and red chains, I wondered.
"Yes, my prince. My liege, I overheard a guard by the name of Hansur telling the rest of the King's guards that Faron has chosen two candidates to be folded into our royal guards. One being you and the other being one of your students by the name of Rex."
It was a lot to take in, so that's why Faron was there today, he was looking for potential candidates.
"The guard," the royal guard continued. "Said that the king has assigned some of the king's guards to watch over tomorrow's training and then afterwards take the best candidate."
This was some excellent information, I couldn't believe that a royal guard who overheard a major conversation like this told the prince and they both came to me.
"Why are you telling me this?" I needed to know why and to confirm something.
"Yes! My liege. The important information was related to you and your students and as your royal guard, it's my duty to inform you."
My royal guard? Wait a moment, does that mean he was one of the guards outside of the prince's room? And as soon I thought that his profile appeared in front me. His name is Ronan and beside his name was a white chain icon...
Does that mean all the chains that went into the minds of the guards last night are now mine? And they are reporting to me and the prince? I couldn't believe this, with this I could gain so much information in the kingdom without anyone knowing. It felt like I was in a hive mind, like that of ants and bees and rather the queen having the information, it was me. Now that I think about it, if I got everyone who is currently under my control, to trade or gather information then this would exactly be like... an information network... that's kind of funny.
"Thank you for the information. You did a good job."
"Thank you." The guard beamed at compliment.
I thanked them once more and they told me that if there were more information they could gather, they would come to me. I was elated at the prospect, I could feel my heartbeat racing. I could potentially have a whole network in the kingdom under the king's nose. I would know what was happening and prevent it if I could. These information would also help me protect my students a lot better too.
A huge smile formed on my face as I exited my room to the dinning hall.