William stood up and stretched. "I dealt with military officers and nobles for years who thought they knew more than me."
"You learn pretty quickly that people aren't really concerned about results or education. What they really cared about are their status and their ego."
"Tell them a story about how their kids are special and how smart they are for backing you, and they'll believe anything."
Catherine put her glasses back on and looked at him with a look that was definitely different from the one she had when they first came in. Her professional mask had faded, and there was real interest mixed with something else in her eyes.
"You're not what I thought you were, Instructor Wade," she said softly. "The reports all said you were incompetent and unmotivated, but what I just saw was someone who had a lot of experience in leadership and politics."
William shrugged and said, "I take that as a compliment, maybe...? But, yeah, people can change."
He would rather not tell the whole reincarnation thing. "Or maybe I was just using a convenient excuse to avoid responsibility to hide my potential."
"No matter what, I'm trying now, and that's what matters."
"I see..." Catherine also got up and picked up her briefcase and tablet, but she seemed hesitant to leave, as if there was something else she wanted to say but couldn't figure out how to mention it.
"Is everything okay, Vice Headmaster?" William asked.
She automatically corrected herself and said, "Catherine," then looked a little embarrassed that she had made the offer so quickly. "You should call me Catherine if we're going to work together to run this program. After a while, the formality gets old..."
"Okay, Catherine," William said, and he could tell she relaxed a little when he said her name. "Did you want to talk about something else?"
She thought about it for a little longer before making a choice. "Word will get out about how well you're doing with high-profile students, and your class will get harder."
"To help you manage your workload and do administrative tasks, you'll need an assistant instructor. I'd like to volunteer for that job."
William blinked in shock. "You are the vice headmaster. Isn't it a little bit of a step down to be an assistant instructor?"
"I'm the vice headmaster, and most of my time is spent dealing with paperwork and complaints from parents instead of actually teaching," Catherine said, and there was real anger in her voice now. "I became an instructor because I wanted to help students learn and grow."
"Instead, I was promoted to an administrative job that keeps me chained to a desk dealing with politics and red tape."
She looked him straight in the eye, and William could see how worn out and lonely she was. "I want to teach again."
"From what I just saw, it looks like you could use someone who knows how to deal with academy politics and keep the administrative side of things running smoothly."
"It would be good for both of us."
William looked at her closely and saw things he hadn't seen before. Her hands had calluses from sword training, her posture suggested she had fought before, and the way she moved showed that she had spent a lot of time working out before becoming stuck behind a desk.
There was no warning when the system turned on.
[Possible Student Found: Catherine Blackwood, Rank A]
[Specialization: Swordsmanship, Administrative Combat Theory, Strategic Planning]
[Main Problem: her skills are deteriorating due to administrative work, she is losing confidence in combat, and she is forgetting her identity as a warrior]
[High-Value Training Opportunity Found]
That cleared up many things because Catherine wasn't just tired of doing paperwork. She had lost touch with the warrior she used to be and was looking for a way to get back to that person.
William said, "You're really going to do this?"
"You really want to be an assistant instructor instead of staying in your comfortable administrative job."
"Comfort is overrated when you're miserable," Catherine said, her voice getting a little stronger. "I didn't spend years of my life learning how to fight just to spend the rest of my career writing reports and keeping track of budgets."
"I can assist you with the political aspects while I rediscover what it means to be a warrior, rather than merely managing those who are warriors."
William thought about this a lot. It would be very helpful to have someone who knew how to deal with parents and school officials and understood how school politics worked. And if she was as talented as the system said, she could help with real teaching once she got used to not working at a desk for years.
"Okay," William said, holding out his hand.
"Welcome to the team, Assistant Instructor Blackwood. I should warn you that my teaching style is different, and I tend to get into trouble a lot."
Catherine shook his hand firmly, and William noticed that her grip was strong, which made him think that her muscle memory hadn't completely faded. "I knew. But any day of the week, complicated situations are better than boring paperwork."
William couldn't shake the feeling that he had just signed up for even more chaos in a life that was already getting more complicated than he had thought it would be as they left the meeting room together. Four smart students were vying for his attention, a plot was brewing in the academy's halls, elite families were putting political pressure on him, and now a vice headmaster wanted to become his assistant to find her warrior identity again.
As they walked through the administrative wing, William said to himself, "This is fine."
"Everything is totally under control and not going to turn into a giant mess."
Catherine looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Did you say something?"
William lied smoothly, "I'm just thinking about tomorrow's lesson plans."
"Of course," Catherine said, but her small smile made it clear that she didn't believe him at all.
They said goodbye at the intersection that led to their separate rooms. Catherine promised to take care of the paperwork for her new job, and William went back to his tiny basement room to think about how his life had become so crazy in less than forty-eight hours.
As he flopped onto his bed, the system helpfully sent him one more message:
[Warning: Managing many high-profile students while also getting attention from the administration makes things a lot more dangerous. Be careful in all future interactions.]
William said to the empty room, "Yeah, no shit."
"Thanks for the warning that didn't help at all after I've already made all my plans."
He'd have to figure out how to train Catherine tomorrow without it being weird that the vice headmaster was getting instructions from someone who was technically her boss. He'd have to keep an eye on four students, each of whom was very talented in their own way and getting more and more competitive with each other.
And he'd have to do all of this while people in the academy, like parents and administrators, and maybe even people who were against him, were watching. But for now, William shut his eyes and tried to get some sleep before the next unavoidable problem came knocking on his door.
At this point, he couldn't be sure if he meant it literally or figuratively. It seemed like both were equally likely.