A couple months ago, I got a sudden request to take in two students.
"Hah?"
Alex Fennel stared at the court order in the sealed letter that was stuffed into his mailbox.
It was something unexpected in his relaxing mundane life, and since he couldn't refuse it despite his appeals, it was a small project he planned to forget about in a few years time.
That was, until the pair of boys stood before him.
"..."
They were all silent as they looked at each other, the first meeting being as awkward as one could imagine.
The one on the right had brown hair and black eyes, a totally ordinary appearance of a commoner, and he seemed like just an average chap.
"You're Mr Fennel?" The boy on the left was the one that stood out, however.
Scanning the kid, Alex felt an unusual chill run down his spine as he stared into the emerald colored eyes.
"It was something extremely off putting about his gaze." Was his first thought given to his butler after the lesson.
This was also his conclusion after several weeks of teaching the children.
At first, he chalked it up to past trauma that they might have experienced, they were from a ruined village after all. They were also the only survivors from their hometown, which was hit particularly hard.
One day, while helping Elva, the more normal one of the other, Fennel was already expecting what questions they might have had, learning a new subject like advanced math.
"Any questions, Vivillian?" Fennel glanced over.
The kid with lightish brown hair looked up from his paper, his pencil idly writing in the empty margins.
"No."
"Let me see."
Lazily, Vivillian handed over the paper, and Fennel controlled his expression as he saw the work.
"It seems you got it." Fennel took the paper and left it onto his desk, along with Elva's.
Later that night, Fennel started to grade the papers oh how accurate their answers were, and looked at the flawless paper before him.
"..Hm?" Alex felt his finger rub against the corner, a page coming loose which was stuck to the original sheet.
"..."
Alex looked at the paper with a same, calm expression, and took a deep breath from his cigar.
A genius?
Leaning thoughtfully back on his chair, Fennel looked at the series of numbers written in all sorts of strange and various patterns.
It seemed his unambitious student had been writing his own math problems and solving them correctly in his own original ways when he had finished his work.
Even though he knew of Vivillian's true capabilities, Alex still taught as normal, which seemed to not bother Viv, who only was interested in magic and world history.
For a little while, it seemed that the kid was turning more human as time passed, showing more willingness to cooperate and interact with things.
That was until one day, Viv came in the door as usual with Elva, but his eyes were anything but ordinary.
"..." Looking at the boy before him that day, his inner voice began to speak.
The truth is, despite being born into a noble family and having a silver spoon, I dabbled around in risky things because of curiosity.
And the only reason why I live long enough to tell the tale is because of intuition and gut.
Alex Fennel still held the same lazy smile as he taught, still smoking the same cigars and still lounging around like usual.
However, inside his mind it felt like alarm bells blaring loudly, as his heartbeat began to erratically pump.
Whatever it was, Vivillian Ambrosia is dangerous, whether physical or mental, Alex couldn't know.
But despite knowing this, the only thing Alex Fennel could do was continue on, acting like an average bum and doing his best to teach Elva things.
There was a day when Viv had stayed back, asking questions about certain books and wanting to borrow a copy he had seen from Alex's library.
It was night time by the time Alex had actually located the book in his vast library, as the moonlight began to shine through the window.
When handing him the book, Alex didn't know if it were an illusion, but in the dim candle light, Vivillian's image began to flicker.
A person similar in height as him, features blurry and its visage only appearing for milliseconds before disappearing like a shadow in bright light, as if everything was a hallucination.
Still, he could only continue on.
The days passed by like this, and soon the students that he had taught for so long would venture out and go to the academy that he despised.
When he heard that both had been accepted, he breathed a sigh of relief and ignored all reporters who wanted comments of how he had taught Vivillian, the unknown number 1 student at Einsvul, but Alex knew better then to take credit for something he barely had a part in.
Relaxing in some shady nightbar was how he began to spend his days, smoking cigars, listening to classical music, frolicking with beautiful women...such was the life.
That was until one of the regulars came with an unexpected guest.
"..." Alex silently took another drag from his cigar, as he stared at the blond boy behind some guy who regularly drank at the bar with him.
Similarly, the boy stared back.
That's definitely him, isn't it?
Alex Fennel looked at the boy's appearance.
Did he seriously use magic to sneak out of the academy and visit shady places..?
As Fennel started to get nostalgia of his past, Viv unimpressively scanned Fennel, holding the urge to scrunch his eyebrows.
What was this guy doing here?
Vivillian's image of Fennel was a lazy yet smart bum that only lounged around and read books and news all day.
He somewhat appreciated the guy, who didn't make a fuss of his obvious intelligence gap that a child wouldn't have.
"See someone you know?" John hummed, looking proud as he stood in the center of the bar. "Actually, I'm a pretty cool guy around these parts. Truth is, I rule over this pub..."
"...?" Doubt flooded Viv's face.
"Oi guys! That bastard John is telling some kid that he's the owner again!" A nosy bystander overheard the conversation and yelled at busy crowd.
A silence was heard in the once jostling pub, before a roar of laughter erupted.
"Owner?! More like glamorized janitor!"
"Kid, don't listen to anything this worthless bastard says, haha!"
Viv blankly nodded at the words directed towards him, as he turned to John, who seemed unfazed.
"Glamorized or not, I still have the power to kick any one of you out!" Was his sassy reply.
"You need justifiable cause, dimwit!"
"Kick me out and I'll show you what a real kick feels like."
As John argued with the other people in the establishment, Viv took a seat at the bar, right next to his teacher, Mr Fennel.
".." Fennel took a sip of his drink.
"Is this really a pub associated with the black market?" Asking bluntly, Viv had no caution in speaking with his former teacher. After all, he should have a pretty good idea on his character, and he was also curious why Fennel was here.
"..Kid, you're not supposed to say that out loud." Awkwardly clearing his throat, Fennel ordered another glass to hopefully distract him from the situation.
"Oh? Then what should I do?" Vivillian tilted his head.
"Keep your head down and don't attract attention." Keeping his voice gruff, Fennel turned away.
Despite Vivillian's further attempts to bother him, Fennel stubbornly looked forward, sipping his drink and ignoring the kid.
Vivillian watched Fennel's cold sweat run down his cheek, unamused.
This guy is definitely trying to act tough, isn't he?
Shrugging, Viv felt it was in line with his teacher's character. He probably was trying to scare off some kid who was trying to dabble in shady business.
Meanwhile, Fennel was hoping in his mind Viv wouldn't notice his back drenched in cold sweat.
He totally knows I'm trying to push him off, doesn't he?
—-
After a while, John finally returned from being mocked by the pub, saving Fennel from the awkward situation that he found himself in.
"Ah, you talking to my buddy Fennel?" John wrapped his arm around Fennel, which earned him a dirty stare.
"I'm not your buddy." Fennel brushed him off, his face darkening. "Piss off while you still have teeth."
"Yikes, kid, you shouldn't talk to this grumpy old man, he has a temper for someone one foot in the grave." Shrugging, John motioned towards Viv. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the black market."
Before Viv could follow along, Fennel's hand shot forward and grabbed onto John's wrist.
"He's just a kid."
"Since when were you to care about the ages of our clients?" John seemed slightly taken aback, but he let out a scoff. "You're no saint, Fennel."
"..." Fennel frowned, and muttered under his breath, before his hand loosened and let John's hand go.
Fixing his sleeve, John was aggrieved, muttering unhappily as he led Viv to the back of the pub.
"Don't worry, everyone in this pub likes to bully me because they know they can get away with it..." A silent tear shed from John's eyes, as he made crying motions with his hands.
"..." Viv felt his time was running out.
Seeing how Viv was apathetic, John quickly cleared his throat and opened a black curtain in the pub.
"Remember kid, keep what you see today to yourself..." John made his way forward, looking at Viv to warn him. "Once you enter the black market, you're bound to keep it a secret onto death."
"Mm."
"...What a boring reaction and answer." Sighing, John pushed open the curtain and grabbed Viv by the hand, and they slowly entered...
Viv felt his surroundings change, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as he felt a cool wind blow on him.
The pitch black inside of the tent slowly faded, as soon. John and Viv found themselves in a marketplace in the outdoors. In the stalls, you would see all sorts of items, from rare to plain illegal.
"Ah." Not able to hold back his gasp, Viv stared at his surroundings.
It was a perfect replica of the marketplace he had passed on the way here, but this place was much more starry and somewhat mystical. The feeling of magic filled the air thickly as they walked through.
"This place is what we call, The Eternal Night." John grinned slightly at Viv's reaction. "It's a very special magic array that mimics the outside marketplace and makes it so that people could only enter through the entrance."
"Does everyone come through the pub to get here...?" Viv questioned, passing by a strange array of medicinal roots.
"Haha, goodness no."
The mood was carefree as John effortlessly led Viv through the market, breezing past dirty faced vendors and people with suspicious look
But as they reached the center of the magical black market, John slowly turned around, his face smiling slightly.
However, his eyes seemed to glow red under the fake moon as he coldly scanned him.
"So tell me, what are you really here for?"