Once the school comes into view, I find the outside completely devoid of people. Everyone is probably inside. The five of us look up at the towering brick gate.
“I sense that lady in this building,” says the Time Keeper.
“You do?” I ask.
“Of course. I sent her here. There’s some strange magic imbued into this gate, though. And not just this gate. It seems the entire school grounds are surrounded with some sort of protective spell.”
Just as the gnome says, this school’s security makes use of numerous spells. There are countless spots enchanted to deal with intruders from the outside. The teachers used to tell us we weren’t in danger ourselves, but that we should tell our parents to be careful.
“Alright, leave this to me!” exclaims Satanás in high spirits, rolling up his sleeves.
“What are you planning?” I ask.
“Hey, Principal!”
What?! Why are you calling the most powerful person in the whole school?! That’s just asking for trouble!
“Hey,” says Zenon, “be quiet.”
“But...”
“Keep your voice down!” Nikeh chimes in.
“But he’s right there...”
The principal is, in fact, standing right there. The four of us freeze up, blinking away the shock. Satanás points at the school building.
“Oh, you’re right.”
Despite the fact the entrance ceremony is about to start, the principal is sweeping the school grounds.
✦ ✦ ✦
The principal’s position is the highest post any teacher can earn here. My impression of him is not only that he’s at the top of the food chain relative to everyone else in school, but also that he’s strong, old, and number one in everything. If I remember correctly, when I first saw him at the entrance ceremony, I thought he was a lovable old man with gray hair who didn’t seem very strict. When I achieved first place among girls in that tournament during my fifth year and he summoned me to his office to commend me, our height was practically the same. Rockmann was summoned too, and he had to literally look down on the principal.
The principal always wore an oversized black robe. I don’t know whether the choice of size was intentional or he just didn’t care, but it always dragged behind him as he walked. His hair had lost so much color that people called him “the white magician.”
As a modestly built guy with such long hair, he’d be kind of hard to classify genderwise if not for the voluminous beard—even then, I’m mostly just guessing the principal’s a he.
Weeding the school’s perimeter is his daily routine. It’s possible to do it with magic, yet he did it by hand every day back then. He would often gaze at the students playing outside, though he didn’t come talk to them. When students saw him and waved to him, he only reacted with a smile, and usually just kept watching unless we went to talk to him of our own accord. According to Mr. Bordon, one of my old teachers, the principal refrains from approaching us so he doesn’t spoil our fun.
I had no idea that he was here, sweeping, when the entrance ceremony was about to start. He diligently sweeps the fallen leaves scattered on the ground.
“Mr. Bu!!!” shouts Satanás.
This “Mr. Bu” is like a nickname he’s made up for the principal over the numerous times he got summoned to his office—which is more times than anyone else in the whole school. His full name was Sophocles Burbudo; the nickname’s an egregious and self-explanatory contraction of his surname. Not long after Satanás started using it, it spread to much of the student body. Not that the poor man’s had the chance to go through all of that yet.
“‘Bu’?” the principal responds, in an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice.
He starts searching for the source and locks eyes with us at the gate. He then approaches, broom in hand.
“Are you all entering school today? Oh, is that His Highness Prince Zenon I spot in your ranks?”
He looks surprised at the fact we’re still out here despite the upcoming ceremony.