If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Chapter 4 ◊

Previously on Onward...

At the school library, Ian continues his own research on the talisman. But with more dead ends leading to more desperation, the younger Lightfoot begins to wonder if he'll ever find anything out about the mysterious relic. But his search will once again have to wait as his first class of the day is about to begin...

◊◊◊

◊ Mr. Vance ◊

A blue elf carrying a laptop at his side walked through the doorway, then across the classroom all the way over to Ms. Traven's desk. He was tall and youthful, possibly in his late twenties or early thirties. He also had spiky blue hair with dyed streaks of shiny blonde, wore a pair of black rectangular glasses, and a gray collared shirt with its sleeves rolled all the way up past his elbows. Overall, he appeared fairly hip.

After putting his laptop down at the teacher's desk, the bespectacled elf stepped forward and addressed the class.

"Good morning, youngsters!" he said with exuberance. "Sorry to be late, I...I had to take care of something first, but anyway! I'm gonna be your substitute history teacher for, eh...I don't know how long...I'm not quite sure how long your teacher is going to be absent...but in the meantime..." He pointed both thumbs at himself. "I'm the man of this classroom!"

The students all looked at each other in excitement. A substitute teacher? This was gonna be fun!

"We may not get to leave class, but this is almost as good," Gurge whispered to his friends, only for Parthenope to shoot him a glare.

"You may call me Mr. Vance," the teacher continued, introducing himself. "Now, can anyone tell me what you've all been learning?"

Needless to say, Parthenope didn't have to be asked twice. She raised her hand in eagerness and thought perhaps she, her friends, and their classmates would get to go to the Golden Age after all.

"Yes, you, the satyr in the front!" Mr. Vance pointed, acknowledging Parthenope.

With pride, the young pink-haired satyr clasped her hands together and said, "we were just about to learn what New Mushroomton life was like in the Golden Age."

Mr. Vance nodded. "Ah, that sounds very...non-magic-like," he said, then he walked back over to his laptop. "But unfortunately, that's not the lesson I have planned for you guys today."

Parthenope's smile instantly faded again at the sound of that. Then she crossed her arms, sunk into her seat, and frowned as the new teacher continued sharing his plan.

"Instead, I've got a slide presentation describing all the different kinds of magical objects and relics," he added.

Ian's face brightened at the mention of magical objects and relics, and the thought of the talisman returned to his mind once more. The young elf felt like he was never going to get that thing out of his head. But a part of Ian was still all ears for this lecture. Any lesson related to magic—no matter where it came from—was guaranteed to make him attentive. However, it was interesting that out of nowhere they were even getting a lecture on a topic related to magic in the first place. As his satyr friend had just mentioned, the plan was to learn about the Golden Age of New Mushroomton. But even still, this change of plans was certainly making the elf wizard's desire to learn more about magical history come true. For the first time since his quest with Barley, magic was being brought up in their history class again! So for Ian, this was all very exciting—even if the legendary relics this teacher was going to bring up were ones he already knew about from Quests of Yore.