Vita Non Est Vivere Sed Valere Vita Est

aecorus:

Vivian has finally finished all of the Christmas cookies. There’s hundreds. 

She looks so proud.

They then set the cookies on fire. No happiness for anyone but themselves.

That was very true. It isn’t uncommon for teachers to ask Battler about info on the semester schedule instead of going for Reiku directly. Guess he’s gotten that running for him too.

“I see. In that case, I suppose that once I take office, my first measure shall be convocating an extraordinary reunion to discuss the issue.” Let’s see, that’d be Ozpin, Daylen, El-Melloi, Sypha and a couple other teachers whose names he can’t recall now. At the very least, it should go more peacefully than a reunion of his family’s.

“Is that everything, Reiku-san? Or is there yet another bombshell you wanna drop at me?”

“That’s pretty much it, I believe. All that’s left is to pack my house and go.” Given the dangerous experiments and artifacts he had been creating in that place (which also explodes on a daily basis), it would be wise to take it along.

Battler is… not quite sure if that’s how it works. At the very least, he doesn’t think that Reiku has as much control over those ‘escapades’ as he imagines. Heck, if Bernkastel can’t just escape as she wishes, then it’s likely that the scientists were just feeling like playing with Reiku.

He chooses to keep those thoughts for himself, however. They wouldn’t do well for this moment. “I see… I… guess I can’t rearrange my schedule to fit that. At the very least I wouldn’t be able to assist the other teachers anymore.”

Speaking of that- “By the way, did you warn Ozpin-sensei and the teachers from the Magic Wing about this? There might be some among them far more experienced than I, you know?!”

It took him a year, actually, to figure out that the reason he had holes in his memory were to prevent conflict from meeting people in the city that he had met before. Some sort of continuity fix and all that. After that, well, when he got his own residence, experiments were easy (and some were successful).

“I never really did get close to the other staff members. I really just did what I want then. And even then, you can probably assign someone else if you want. Classes only happen once a week usually anyway.”

“Well, in that case, think of this as a good chance to learn as well. In between a teacher and a student, it’s not only one side that learns, after all.” Learning is a never-ending process. There is always something new to learn every day.

“Battler is, uu!! He’s the head of Maria’s family! He’s kinda reckless and has issues thinking things through, uu. But Maria thinks that might just be when it comes to personal things, and not things like teaching. If he ever gets too foolish with classes, Maria will bop him on the head with a staff, promise!”

A hankie was produced and the little one blew her nose into it.

“Maybe Maria and Mr. Reiku  will meet again one day. Maybe one day you’ll come back to the Hive and have lots and lots of stories to tell Maria of all your wonderful travels, uu.”

Eh? They’re related, huh? Ah, well, that should make things easier. He couldn’t help but laugh at the image of Maria bonking Battler on the head with a staff. “Aha, try not to be too hard on him. I’m really just pushing things onto him at this point.”

“Perhaps. In that case, I’ll also bring more books so make sure to study hard, alright?” He did leave books up to the advanced classes that he was planning to start.

“Uh, what?” Battler blinked once, then twice, at Reiku’s words. “R-Reiku-san, why are you talking a-as if you’re going to leave Hive City all of a sudden?” Even if that’s the scientists’ intent, there’s no way that the other would know that, right?

“A-And you’re serious? Me, of all people, as the Head of the Magic Wing?!” He doesn’t even have that much teaching experience. Okay, that’s not true, he’s been working as a teachers’ assistant for a long time and has been giving classes to a small group at Umbra’s Shadow. But that does not a master of pedagogy makes!

“How about your current classes? You gonna leave those vague too?!”

“Hm? What are you talking about? I’ve been coming in and out of this city sometimes when I get bored. It does leave some holes in my memory when I return but I regain those when I exit the city...” Oh yeah, that’s right. That’s kind of a secret. Well, not like they can confine him now anyway. Since he had free reign with his abilities, it’s not like they’d get a chance to do that now.

“But, well, yeah, I have places to go, promises to keep, and probably promises to remember. You can probably handle things from here. I’ve left all my lecture notes and the books I’ve been using as a reference.” There was a little girl that was very interested in books so he did give her a key. Though, it was accessible by the public during open hours anyway.

“Oh, and the classes are fairly easy. One is pretty much the basics. You know, Classification of magic, how to harness magic energy, all that jazz. The other one is really practical application. You can teach that according to your own style.” His style was duels to the death so maybe there were a couple of students that would be relieved that he would be gone.