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ALLOW ME TO ELABORATE ON this. Good and evil are antagonistic forces that have existed since the dawn of creation. But the fascinating thing about them is not that they are the source of chaos, but their subjective nature. Since there is no universal definition, no absolute standard against which to measure these concepts, the perception of these opposing entities becomes a reflection of the observer rather than an objectively assessable phenomenon itself," Professor Riddle lectured to the hushed class as the words 'Good and Evil' appeared in cursive handwriting on the black board.
He was wearing none of his elegant robes that reeked of money and looked like old aristocrats this class; had opted for a plain, pristine white button-down shirt and black trousers, as if to emphasise once again that he needed no extravagance to exude power and authority.
"What one person sees as evil may be good in the eyes of another. Not all helping is good, and not all lying is evil." His black eyes slid around the sun-drenched room, lingering on Alethea for a second before turning to the brown-haired boy beside her. "Mister Stone, am I overwhelming you already, or why did you raise your hand?"
The class chuckled like applause, like an audience to a successful puppet show, and Riddle crossed his arms over his chest; leant against his desk with the look of a dictator who has yet to reveal his true intentions to the world.
"No, Professor. Just... What does that have to do with 'defence against the Dark Forces'?" Killian Stone asked, visibly confused, and Alethea furrowed her brow at his failure to grasp such obviousness. She had never thought of the troublemaker as stupid; always assumed that he balanced between high intelligence and sufficiency, taking the world in stride and accepting its absurdity.
"A great question to begin with. And what better way to answer it than with a thought experiment? Imagine you find yourself in a situation where you are confronted with a person who has committed a crime in front of your eyes. A murder, for example. What do you do?"
"I run," came Stone's immediate response, and Riddle smiled slightly. "A very natural reaction. Humans avoid dangerous situations because of their survival instinct, and when we encounter someone who has committed murder in front of us, our minds immediately consider that they are capable of doing it again. Nothing is more important to us than our own survival."
The class hung on his every word, and even the girls in the back row, whose conversations were hardly devoted to their lessons, seemed to pay attention to him. Now she knew for certain that he was the night who had enchanted them all with his words and his empyrean beauty.
A night that also passed by day.
"What do you think, Mister Stone, was the man's motive? Say the first thing that comes to mind." Alethea looked over to the boy at the next table, his left eye narrowed more than his right in this moment of contemplation. Stone thought for a moment and then, with a mischievous smile towards his best friend Edmund Credge, as if the latter found his motive equally amusing, said, "He killed the man who was sleeping with his wife."
