novelraw Chapter 743: Colleague
Chapter 743: Colleague
"Thump, thump, thump~"
The train produced a heavy, rhythmic sound as it rolled over the tracks. Accompanied by this drumbeat-like noise, the relatively uncrowded train swayed slightly.
Fisher widened his eyes slightly, peering through the transparent window behind his seat. He curiously observed the buildings lining the tracks outside. Those unfamiliar skyscrapers and wooden structures with styles vastly different from Naris all served as reminders to Fisher that this was the world of Transferred Persons.
A world with only humans.
"What is Teacher Fisher looking at?"
Beside him, that soft, cotton candy-like voice pulled Fisher's attention back, forcing him to turn his head. He then saw Jasmine sitting next to him, her head slightly tilted up, looking at him with a smile.
"Still a bit unaccustomed to it?"
"Ah, a little bit, I suppose..."
More than a little bit; it was practically unheard of.
But was this the world where Transferred Persons lived?According to Mikhail, his era and Asuka Karasawa's were different, separated by a vast span of time. Yet, even the era Asuka Karasawa lived in, which Mikhail considered somewhat ancient, still appeared extremely advanced to an otherworldly person like Fisher.
No wonder Mikhail could bring something like the Cardinal.
"I see... It's okay, Teacher Fisher. If there's... anything you're not used to, you can tell me. I'll do my best to help Teacher Fisher get used to it."
"Okay."
"Hehe..."
Earlier at the dining table, Fisher hadn't the heart to open his mouth and break the hard-won warmth surrounding her. Although he had inwardly found the excuse that "things are very strange inside the contamination, so one must be cautious," things couldn't just continue like this indefinitely.
Fisher's mind began to churn as his thoughts spun, recalling the state of Gou Wen and Xuan Can just earlier...
Xuan Can had stayed by Jasmine's side. Since Jasmine came into contact with the contamination, it was highly likely Xuan Can hadn't escaped either. And Gou Wen, along with David, had been completely swallowed by the contamination... What perplexed Fisher right now was whether the Xuan Can and Gou Wen he saw earlier were their actual selves affected by the contamination, or completely illusory figures constructed by the contamination?
Fisher leaned towards the former. Since he, a latecomer, was assigned the identity of a "foreign teacher," although he didn't know why he hadn't completely integrated into this world like Xuan Can and Gou Wen did...
If that was the case, then Renee had very likely been assigned an identity just like him.
Thinking of this, Fisher pretended to casually rub the bridge of his nose and spoke to Jasmine,
"Oh right, Jasmine..."
"What's wrong, Teacher Fisher?"
Jasmine turned her head in confusion. Fisher also looked at her and asked,
"Do you know Renee?"
"Renee... um... I think I have a slight impression. She might be a classmate from Class C, but I'm not too sure."
"Classmate?"
Fisher blinked. Hearing this sentence immediately gave him a bottom line.
It seemed just as he guessed, Jasmine's Dream Illusion had assigned an identity to everyone who entered it.
"Yeah, Class C is the International Class. Classmate Renee seems to be a transfer student from abroad. I don't interact with them often, so I'm not very clear. More importantly than that..."
Jasmine pursed her lips. Her initially bright expression suddenly turned somewhat hesitant. She deliberated for a long time before slightly turning her head and asking Fisher quietly,
"Why did Teacher Fisher suddenly ask about a female classmate from Class C? Is she... a classmate from another class Teacher Fisher teaches...?"
"..."
Just as Fisher was about to speak, he suddenly felt a layer of shadow brush across his side profile. He froze slightly and looked out the window, only to suddenly see that the originally clear sky had somehow gathered layers of dark clouds, a sign of impending rain.
It's going to rain.
Fisher slowly withdrew his gaze and saw that Jasmine before him was completely unmoved by the scene outside the window. She merely stared straight at him, insisting on extracting that answer.
The little warning motor in Fisher's heart almost revved to its limit. He didn't doubt in the slightest that the anomaly in the sky outside was connected to the young girl before him. Yet, outwardly, he remained extremely calm, as if he were just talking about a trivial matter,
"I just suddenly remembered some unpleasant incidents during class before, so I wanted to ask you about the corresponding situation or whatever. After all, I'm still not familiar with everything here."
"Really?"
Jasmine tilted her head, but the doubt in her eyes still hasn't faded,
"Did she do something bad in Teacher Fisher's class?"
Fisher opened his mouth. He originally just wanted to spout a random lie to muddle through, but the moment the thought crossed his mind, all the bad things Renee had done before flooded his heart. There was no need to fabricate anything.
"Mischievous, disrupting my work, pulling all sorts of pranks, and stealing bites to eat..."
"Stealing bites to eat?"
"...Stealing other classmates' food to eat."
"Ah, that's too detestable..."
Apologies, Lady Renee's reputation has suffered.
Jasmine covered her mouth, a look of complete disbelief on her face, yet the wariness in her expression hadn't faded in the slightest.
But why hadn't it completely vanished?
Fisher glanced out the window at the sky where a curtain of rain was about to fall. The dark clouds showed no intention of dispersing. Could it be that he guessed wrong, and the weather in the sky had absolutely nothing to do with Jasmine?
What Fisher didn't know was that whether it was her experiences during Asuka Karasawa's period or Jasmine's period, both told her a stereotype regarding Fisher.
If the woman isn't bad, Fisher won't love her.
Therefore, when Fisher mentioned how mischievous and disruptive the female student named Renee was, she unexpectedly didn't feel relieved at all.
What if?
What if this kind of bad, delinquent girl was more favored by Teacher Fisher?
Aiya, she had read about it in manga before.
The story where the gentle and kind childhood friend is utterly defeated by the bad woman with a terrible personality, dominating, and wicked! Wahhh!
Even though she wasn't the childhood friend, who could guarantee that that whatever Renee wasn't a bad person out to steal love?
"Ding dong..."
"Sakyo, we have arrived at the station."
At this moment, the train finally came to a halt. Jasmine glanced at the platform, hurriedly stood up with her schoolbag, and said to Fisher,
"Teacher Fisher, we've arrived. Let's go quickly... The weather outside isn't very good. Let's hurry to school, or we'll turn into drowned rats..."
Fisher glanced at the still-undispersed dark clouds, nodded, and stood up as well,
"Okay."
"This is my office?"
The faculty office here was quite different from the private office Fisher previously had at Saint-Nazareth University. The teachers all sat together, although when Fisher arrived, there wasn't a single person inside.
Those with early classes had already gone to their respective classrooms, while those without hadn't arrived yet.
Jasmine had already gone to Class B to attend class. Along the way from the station to the school, Fisher hadn't seen a single familiar face. He could only follow Jasmine's directions to the office. Coincidentally, he had a class right now, and it happened to be the class Renee was in, Class C.
Alright, since that was the case, he'd rendezvous with Renee first and talk later.
Fisher made up his mind. Just as he prepared to leave the office, he suddenly remembered something and walked back to his desk.
What was he teaching again?
Fisher lowered his head and picked up the lesson plan he had previously placed on the desk. Written on it in characters Fisher recognized was,
"English"
Fisher blinked, then flipped open the textbook. Sure enough, it was entirely filled with some bird language he didn't understand at all, looking exactly like the text Caleb Uz wrote in the Completion Handbook.
Was this the mother tongue used by Caleb Uz from the Kingdom of Great Britain?
But why would Asuka Karasawa's country learn the language of another nation?
Schools in Naris definitely didn't teach the languages of other countries. Back then, Fisher's mastery of Chevalie Language was entirely self-taught.
And the most terrifying part was that this time, the Dream Illusion no longer provided a convenience for our great Teacher Fisher.
He stared at the text labeled "English" on the textbook for a long time, yet it completely failed to start twisting into characters he recognized like the Japanese text did. If he didn't know it, he didn't know it. If he couldn't read it, he couldn't read it...
If he were outside, it would be fine. The problem was, his identity in this dream was the teacher instructing this subject!
How could he teach others if he didn't even know it himself?
Would he rely on bluffing?
Even Professor Fisher, with all his teaching experience, felt immense pressure at this moment. As luck would have it, the entire teaching building also began to chime bells, signaling the start of early class.
Fisher let out a helpless sigh, picked up all the visible English textbooks on his desk, and walked out of the office. Identifying the sequence of classrooms in the hallway, he found the corresponding class.
Class C...
Yes, Renee was in this class.
Fisher took a deep breath and pushed open the classroom door. Inside sat roughly twenty to thirty students. The moment the door opened, all the blonde-haired, blue-eyed students inside looked towards the entrance.
However, the first familiar face Fisher saw inside wasn't Renee.
"David?"
"Ah? I'm here, Teacher Fisher!"
Just as Fisher spoke in confusion, the previously head-lowered handsome redhead boy stood up with a bewildered look, pointing at himself while looking at Fisher.
Bad.
David's expression, completely harmonious with the surrounding students, caused an ominous premonition to suddenly multiply in Fisher's heart.
He opened his mouth, then softly said,
"My apologies, nothing's wrong. Please take a seat."
"Ah? Oh... okay."
David sat down, completely baffled, rubbing the back of his head.
Fisher also stepped onto the podium. His falcon-like gaze swept across the entire classroom. Then, his eyes suddenly locked violently onto a person sitting perfectly in the very last row.
His throat moved slightly, and then he suddenly spoke with some uncertainty,
"Renee?"
"Pop!"
Following Fisher's words, the sound of pink chewing gum popping echoed. The black-haired, older-sister-like woman sitting in the back row wearing a school uniform shifted her gaze away from the flip phone in her hand.
She chewed the gum in her mouth, raising her eyes. Seemingly not caring at all, she asked in confusion,
"Hm? What is it?"
Just as she finished speaking, as if provoking him, she blew another bubble with the gum.
"..."
Ah no, I only falsely accused (bushi) you a few times in front of Jasmine, how did you really turn into this bad student persona?
Fisher's mouth hung slightly open, then he covered his face even more helplessly, suddenly unsure of what to say.
This was bad, Renee got hit too...
No, rather, it seemed like everyone except him got hit.
It was as if everyone completely became the truest part of this Dream Illusion...
Fisher's eyes flickered slightly. Before entering this contamination, he had placed the vast majority of his attention on Helaire, who was scheming and plotting. But looking at it now, the Dream Illusion formed by this contamination itself could not be underestimated either.
Although it hadn't posed any threat to Fisher thus far, even an existence at the True God level like Renee had fallen victim, now taking on the appearance of a delinquent high school girl. Fisher really didn't know what to say.
"..."
Fisher weakly waved his hand at Renee, whose aura looked unimaginably younger now, indicating that nothing was wrong. Ignoring the whispering students below, he sat down on the chair behind the podium, using the newly acquired English textbook to cover his face, obscuring his current expression.
Just as a few studious students below took their textbooks out of their desks, Fisher's voice echoed again,
"Self-study for this period. Keep quiet, and everyone manage your own time."
"Eh?"
Fisher waved his hand, leaving the students below looking at each other in blank dismay and confusion. However, without much questioning, they merely went about their own business.
What Fisher failed to notice, however, was that after he covered his face with the textbook, Renee below, who previously had an expression of disdain while blowing bubbles, suddenly clutched her heart and slumped over her desk.
Looking closer, one could see that her face, turned towards the windowsill, had become completely flushed red at some unknown moment.
"Thump... thump... thump..."
My heart is beating so fast...
Our Classmate Renee, thoroughly immersed in the Dream Illusion, certainly didn't remember the past events and only pretended not to know just to tease Fisher.
She truly liked Fisher, just like she did outside the Dream Illusion. It was just that in the Dream Illusion of this time and place, her affection manifested as an extremely timid secret crush.
Sorry, Teacher Fisher, I didn't mean it...
Did the previous look of disdain and nonchalance make you angry? Is that why you called for a self-study period?
Renee clutched her burning red face, conflicted like a shy little fawn.
But, but Teacher Fisher seems to get along really well with Classmate Jasmine from the next class over...
If my rival in love is that Jasmine, I have absolutely zero chance of winning...
At the thought of this, Renee's originally flushed face turned ashen. She seemed to feel inadequate before the powerful rival Jasmine, completely unable to muster any fighting spirit, as pitiful as bowing her head in surrender.
Fortunately, this defeated dog mentality only bloomed in Renee's heart at this moment. If Fisher on the podium were to hear it, his eyeballs would probably pop right out of his sockets.
Yet, at the exact same moment, precisely while Fisher was trapped isolated and without help on the podium, needing to contemplate his next move, two classrooms down from this one, the classroom door simultaneously opened. The students inside gazed expectantly towards the doorway, watching a stunning blonde-haired woman in a black and white teacher's suit slowly walk in.
The woman arrived traveling light, carrying only a few textbooks also labeled "English". Beneath her curly blonde hair, on her cream-like fair skin, a pair of blue-gold curved eyes were adorned with a honey-like smile.
This teacher, just like Fisher, possessed a three-dimensional facial structure from a foreign land, seemingly Teacher Fisher's colleague at this very moment.
The teacher smiled and closed the door behind her, providing an excellent soundproofing effect.
At the same time, she slowly stepped up to the podium, speaking somewhat apologetically to the students below,
"I'm so sorry, everyone. I'm late."
"It's okay..."
"Oh, thank you all so much..."
The blonde woman placed the textbooks on the podium, her blue-gold eyes narrowing slightly with the smile.
However, those eyes were distinctly not looking at the students below, but rather at the wall at the back of the classroom. It was as if she wanted to pierce through that wall and see the classroom next door, or perhaps... two classrooms down,
"Since that's the case, without further ado, let's begin class right now."
"Okay! Teacher Helaire!"