The king and his queen

Chapter 55: Class is in Session

At a guild library, sat a lonely man clad in dark clothing. Clothing that was worn by beast hunters. Other residents of this solitude recognized the attire and carefully kept their distance. Beast hunters were notoriously grim fellows. And this one was particularly grim. As a glare of warm sunlight massaged the shoulders of his tattered coat, Isaac scoured all manner of texts: ancient tomes, tattered scrolls, and modern ramblings lay at his dusty desk. While the library offered a silent, drowsy atmosphere, Isaac's mind screamed and raced through pages and paragraphs. Isaac's mission? To research necromancy, and reverse the state he was in. 

Isaac's head was covered by a stylishly victorian hat, and his face a dark bandana. The only thing left was his eyes, a piercing grey that crept a chill up the spines of passerby's. Isaac sighed deeply and jotted down another piece of info into his notebook. "That should be enough leads for today" he mumbled, closing the texts and placing them back into their shelves.

Isaac walked out of the library, wishing to get back to work as quickly as possible. He needed to use his time between hunts wisely. Yet as he left the dust-covered desks of the library and met the thunderous halls of the entrance, two familiar faces approached him.

"Isaac! It's good to see you!" called out Chloe

"Oh, Isaac? I didn't think you'd be here..." said Valerie

"Chloe, Valerie" Isaac nodded his head to greet them. "I did some research revolving around our...'case'." 

"Ah, yes. Well, I hope it's going well" croaked Valerie. Her smile felt plastered on, even to Chloe. 

"Are you ok Valerie?" she asked.

"I'm fine. I just...the 'case' we're working on is a bit upsetting to me." replied Valerie.

"Upsetting to you is it?" grumbled Isaac.

"Isaac, please-"

"Look, never mind that. What are you two doing here anyway?"

"Well, Chloe here wants to learn magic. And apparently, so do a lot of people. Ever since the 'other world' was brought to the eyes of the public, a lot of people want to learn more about it, including magic. So, for the next few months, I will be teaching a class about it!"

"Yeah! It's going to be so cool!" cheered an excited Chloe, jumping in the air.

"Well, I hope it goes well for you - for both of you. I'll see you two at another time." Isaac nodded his head once more and left without another word. 

"Valerie, is everything alright with you and Isaac?"

Valerie sighed solemnly. "Things aren't going...particularly well. I'm just trying to ignore it for the most part."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"...Not really..."

"Well, that's fine. Perhaps, if you can though, try to look at things in a positive way?" suggested Chloe.

"What do you mean?" asked Valerie, confused.

"See the silver lining. Be optimistic. Think of the good that could come from it, if that's even possible of course.

Valerie chuckled and shook her head. "I'll think about it." Her eyes stared off into space for a moment, searching for something beyond the horizon. She blinked, and the horizon returned back to reality. "Come on, let's go get class started shall we?"

Valerie and Chloe made their way across halls lit by a warm orange. Red plastering aligned the walls, with oil paintings and gothic lamps sprouting from the walls. Valerie knocked firmly onto an oak door of healthy colour, wrapped in iron chains and a golden handle. The click of a lock was heard, and the door opened gently. A collective of "wows" and "woahs" was heard from the students sitting attentively at their seats.