Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Wood creaked, the day of learning had ended hours ago, each and all students had lost without being able to fight back much, the headmaster had observed everything from his window, despite the sorry performances, the old fossil felt rather pleased with the results, after all, it was not like they had stood a chance even with twice the strength and experience.

Stroking his beard that reached all the way to the floor, he put on glasses, an act that was of no longer use, that hadn't been any useful ever since his youth, but the habit had stuck, whenever he wished to inspect something more profoundly, he would do it, and this time, he focused on a few people.

Standing in his office, hidden behind the window that allowed those on the inside to gaze out, but not the opposite, here, he was all alone, and had been for years, rarely any visitors came to him, it had been long since he had ever invited anyone in, his relationships with everyone he knew had deteriorated, particularly because of what he was currently doing.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The entire academy grounds were under his refined surveillance, whenever he felt like something was off, that somewhere, there was wrong festering, he would begin examining each and every person within the building, except of course for Rosemary, the witch would notice his gaze and come to kick his feeble butt.

Not that he disliked it, but the broken bones and burns were a hassle to mend, he chuckled to himself, in all of his years as headmaster of Toordefer, never had the discovery of something truly insidious occurred through his astute watching of even the tiniest corners, of every second what was going on inside rooms, he was well aware that it was not proper to peek inside of there, but it was not like he enjoyed peeking on people with such poor magic capacities.

His depraved attention was only reserved for the best mages, but that was of no importance at the moment, the person that worried him wouldn't even be enticing even if possessing the best magical skills this world had to offer, because Osworth was a man.

The masked man was suspicious, there was no way around it, an unknown man enters the capital, and then the academy, clad in long, ample flowing robes, his body completely concealed, an iron mask tightly secured on his face, the design of which had never graced the headmaster's mind, despite being in possession of an emblem of one of the talent holders, and hanging around her and Gelter without being called out, the decrepit mage could not ignore the feeling in his withered guts.

"What is your problem… What do you want with this academy?"

"Little Antieeld is very smart, an intelligent young woman, but she is still just a child at heart, believing that her talent is more powerful than it truly is, you conniving bastard surely is feinting allegiance… But to what end? To what end indeed…" he muttered aloud in the tranquillity of his office, no sound could escape from inside of here.

He found it particularly relaxing and insightful to speak aloud when inside of here.

He quickly found the position of Osworth, scouring the library as always, this man did nothing but read and incessantly flirt with the volcano witch, the headmaster could not wrap his head around the why that the ironically frigid mage would be so smitten by this outrageously fishy individual.

The robed man was rarely sleeping, and when he did, he did not take off anything, simply laying there, as though he had been paralysed.

The headmaster had observed him for a little while now, noticing weird behaviours but nothing that could be held against him, he was weird, but not criminal.

"This fucker does not even oggle anyone, he keeps sticking to Rosemary but does not show any attraction to her body, that's not how this works… Maybe it's just me" he scratched his forehead, watching intently as the subject of his attention read through two books simultaneously.

The elder did not like him very much, but he had to admit that his skills were impressive, even if he hadn't shown any magical talent yet, the headmaster could only approve of his thirst for knowledge.

After all, knowledge was the only yearning above that of fleshy pleasures.

"Ah, is he trying to get close to her to get her to spill some of her stacked up discoveries and knowledge? Nice try, but she won't say anything inside of the academy" he felt like he cracked the case, but did not immediately assume that it was the only reason for his presence.

He turned his attention to Gelter, the knight was an actual follower of Antieeld, the headmaster was certain, but perhaps the mystery of Osworth could be cracked by taking a look at his colleague.

But it was no use, this man did nothing but guard his lady at all times, impossible to tell whether he was slumbering whilst standing or actually awake, he pretty much stood in front of her room, blocking the way with his own body all night.

"Both of them are oddballs" he shook his head, refraining himself from peeking inside of the room, he had to stay focused.

Turning back to Osworth, the headmaster jumped back for a moment, finding his suspicious guest to be staring right at him, or so it seemed, the masked man's head continued on turning without pause, reaching for a new book higher on the shelf.

"Mmh"

As an ancient man, the headmaster knew very well of each and every factions that stood in opposition to the crown in some capacity, they were small, minor aches that could be ignored for the most part, but this guy was really starting to unnerve him, the more he observed Osworth, the more his presence felt sordid, like each movement he made was going to be aggressive, as though this man was going to one day turn directly toward his invisible gaze and speak up.

"Fuck this, if I can't find out anything, I'll just get rid of you"