Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure (Part 1)

(17) TCT: Be Patient is Very Good Advice

In Night Raven College, even though you share the same homeroom, it's only for formalities. You will share the same class, the same teacher, but at different times according to the assigned dorm. The first period for the first years of Heartslabyul is alchemy, together with Diasomnia. The two students of Ramshackle are purposely joined with Heartslabyul merely because of the connection between the members of the two dorms.

The laboratory was filled with various bottles of potions, cauldrons on each table, and students wearing lab coats and goggles. Jonah decided he didn't like the goggles so put them on his forehead instead until they were needed. He sat between Ace and Grim. Since this wasn't their classroom, they didn't have to sit on their assigned seat.

At the center of the classroom, in front of a giant cauldron, stood a man. His hair was parted at the side, with the longer section colored white and the shorter section black. He had narrow grey eyes and wore silver studs in his ears. Beneath a thick, black-and-white furry coat with several tail-like appendages hanging from the bottom of it, he wore a tuxedo - consisting of a black dress shirt, red tie, and black-and-white vest. He also wore red gloves, red socks, and a pair of black-and-white shoes. Deuce mentioned that he's also 1-A's homeroom teacher.

"I see you're the fresh new faces who will be joining my class today," he said, walking toward a boy with light green hair. "Hm~ There are some rare hair colors. Not bad at all, I say," he chuckled, "be careful not to take too long to finish, understood?"

The boy gave the teacher a too serious sharp nod. The man, satisfied with the answer, walked back to the center of the classroom. "My name is Divus Crewel. You shall refer to me as Master Crewel if you please." He tapped the cigarette holder with a red collar attached to the end of it he was holding to the other palm of his hand. "Now. Let's begin."

After a shuffling of looking for notebooks and pencils, Crewel continued, "First off, the basic. I shall have your tiny brains remember hundreds of names of medicinal herbs and poisonous plants. And fungi are a whole different topic. I'll have you remember them so that you don't accidentally poison yourself if you eat some when you go for a walk. Dogs love to eat anything they see, after all. I don't want to see anyone getting a failing mark during the exam, so I shall be as strict as I can."

"I see..." Deuce, who sat on Ace's other side, looked up from his opened textbook that has a table filled with foreign names. "By the way, what are 'fungi'?" he muttered as he flipped more pages.

"Blegh..." Ace rested his chin on his palm and his elbow on the table. "I'm pretty bad with memorization."

"At least you know the basic," Jonah groaned, running his hand through his face, "I don't even know that we can eat random leaves."

"If it's grass, we just have to figure out if it's delicious or not, yanno?" said Grim, which earned some disgusted looks from the other three boys. Grim looked at them with a confused look. "What?"

-----

"I am Mozun Trein, the professor in charge of history of magic," said the tall elderly man with small grey eyes and greying, neatly combed-back hair. He wore a standard black suit beneath long maroon robes and a pair of black shoes. Attached to his collar was a white jabot, which was tied off with a turquoise-colored pendant.

"And this is my familiar, Lucius." The cat in the professor's hand was a chubby, black long-hair with a white muzzle and golden eyes. He had white patches of fur at his chest and the tip of his tail. It meowed when its name was called.

The word 'familiar' caught Jonah's attention and he glanced at Grim who sat beside him. Everybody thought that Grim was his familiar. What is exactly a familiar? And what connection do they have with their magician owner?