Before Us [Wriolette]

Chapter 3: Clamor

Neuvillette took the papers in his hands and swiftly sorted through them, taking great care to not rearrange them. He had a very thorough system with his organization, keeping everything in alphabetical order. His next lecture should start in about half an hour, and he only had two more assignments to finish grading. Because of his alphabetical system, the final essays that needed to be graded were those written by Wriothesley and Yancey. 'Wriothesley,' he pondered, 'the poor gentleman had quite the day,' examining the assignment efficiently, he found no factual errors, but a few mechanical mishaps. He placed the document on the table and scribbled an "A" on the paper in red ink. By the time he had done so, he had already picked up the next assignment only to soon place it where it had been and etch a "B+."

Although a renowned professor, Neuvillette was only 29, around the same age as the majority of his class. Most of the students were far from young, so it was not strange to meet one who was his age or older. Neuvillette in his youth had been quite the prodigy, winning awards and earning the nickname, "Iudex." Of course, as soon as he became a professor, the title disappeared. In his days as a student his house, which he has already saved enough to buy with a small loan, was decked in certificates and trophies. Nowadays, they were most likely to be found in his garage that housed no car. The most notable of these awards must have been the "Loi Sur Les Tribunaux," which was a simulation court case. Neuvillette had come to the same exact conclusion as was made in the real trial, earning him a trophy and a scholarship. Most of the others were for identifying which laws were real, and which were made by frauds.

The "Iudex" had never taken too much pride in his awards, but one of his peers insisted he kept them.

Having adeptly reorganized the documents once more, Neuvillette gulped down multiple cups of his two-gallon water bottle. As he set it down, the hollow sound of it hitting the floor signaled to him that it was about time to refill it. Unfortunately, the man had a slideshow to prepare, "I'll stop by Mondstadt for more later," he concluded, booting up his far too old laptop to check the details of his presentation.

It was 20 minutes before the beginning of class that someone entered the room, "Neuvillette! You work too hard. I thought I told you to take this week off!" the woman demanded in a pouty tone. His boss, the headmaster, Furina, seemed to take great joy in checking in on his classes. At the very least, she wasn't interrupting one. Unlike last time. Two weeks ago, during his review lesson on copyright infringement, the small woman burst through the door. The extravagance of her entrance would have startled the professor's students had they not been used to the occurrence. The sound of the doorknob hit the wall on her entrance seemed not only enough to break the student's eardrums, but the wall. Upon hearing the crack sound, she physically flinched, "so, uh," she tossed Neuvillette a book that had fallen off a shelf, "that's a really ugly slideshow, 'Professor,'" she punctuated her statement with a few giggles and proceeded to skip to the front of the class and sit through the rest of the lecture. Of course, she was painfully bored the whole time and went out of her way to make sure the class knew. So bored, in fact, she would start an argument with any student who raised their hand to answer a question.

This alone set their class behind a day of work.

Back in the present, the headmaster tossed a short stack of papers onto Neuvillette's desk, "I was planning on giving these to you next Monday, but since your'e so adamant on working yourself to death, I'll give them to you now," Picking up the stack of papers, the professor placed it in a corner of his desk. "I will be sure to look through it after my lesson," he offered, pushing his glasses higher onto his nose. This was not a lie, but he did have some paperwork to file and planned on bringing it home and reading it there.

As Furina turned to leave, she added, "You'll want to read that as soon as possible." She turned away and shut the door, leaving in her midst a heavy sense of confusion.

...

That was vague

Either way, he had no time to worry about it now as his students slowly began to arrive. Greeting them with the usual "good mornings," the white haired man handed them their graded essays back. One by one, they took their papers, gave either a defeated or relieved look, and headed to their seats. However, Neuvillette noticed something strange. Why was Wriothesley wearing a different outfit? See as it was none of his business, he didn't ask, but it remained on his mind for multiple minutes. Another curious thing about Wriothesley that he had noticed for quite a while now was his motivation, or lack thereof. The gray-haired man was one of the brightest in the class, don't get him wrong, but he never seemed to care about his grades. Unlike the rest of his peers, he went about the lesson as if he was forced to be there. (and happened to be extremely talented)

Today, as Wriothesley received his paper, he avoided eye contact as much as humanly possible and scurried past his professor so tense that the density of his shoulders might cause an explosion. In Neuvillette's opinion, this was quite a strong reaction, even considering the earlier situation. Watching the other, Neuvillette observed how the man stumbled his way to a seat and how his hands shook as he took out his book. This situation was most definitely concerning, but he would have to inquire later. He had more tests to hand back, of course.

**So, uh, irregular updates, as you can tell. However, I sacrificed my sleep to write this chapter and I hope you like it. I promise the plot is going to get super interesting later on**