***

Eventually, Tani had settled for walking between him and Milo after they got off the subway, so now she was chirping happily while swinging their arms around. Milo appeared to be quite fond of his sister. Could it be that he intended to marry her once she was of age?

The thought annoyed him. Tani was from a royal house, regardless of her manners that left plenty to be desired. He was still unsure of Milo’s position. He wasn’t a scholar and didn’t appear to have the sternness required by a knight’s education. Asking directly would be considered an affront, so it was another thing he had to figure out on his own.

That wasn’t all. Milo pledged loyalty to him. He belonged to him, Sebastian decided. And as someone who belonged to him, he should have known better than to try to use the attention lavished on him to get to the princess.

Tani’s hand was warm, clammy, and slightly unpleasant, but Sebastian held it tightly. He had never had siblings and not exactly a family either. At least, not one that resembled what everyone else had. He had been born into his role as the protector of the realm, and that left no room for unnecessary sentiments. 

To begin with, sentiments were a bother. They fogged one’s mind and weakened the spirit. For that reason, he had to be careful around this family. They appeared to be prone to excessive emotions. Tani was too loud and joked about everything, and the mother worried too much about his wellbeing. 

At least Milo appeared to be a lustful creature. Lust, he could understand. He saw its uses, and the sensation of elation that came with it succeeded where sentiments couldn’t. It cleared the mind. It strengthened the spirit.

“You’ll have to walk back home by yourself today,” Milo told Tani.

“Why? What are you two going to do?”

“Study,” Milo said in a deadpan voice.

“Study, right.” Tani snickered.

Sebastian couldn’t imagine what could be so funny about studying that his sister had to neigh like a horse at every mentioning of it.

“Yes, we will study,” he said sternly.

Tani disentangled her clammy hand from his and gave him a quick hug. “See you at home.” She dashed to a group of girls her age, dressed in the same fashion. The yard was full of young men and women between Tani’s age and his and Milo’s age. This system of education that involved so many youngsters flabbergasted Sebastian. He couldn’t imagine how someone could learn anything in that clamor. 

Reminding himself that this strange world needed to have its rules obeyed, he followed Milo inside the building. They entered a class, and each one took a seat at an individual desk. Sebastian was all eyes and ears.

***

“Mr. Martin? Mr. Martin?” Someone shook him. He blinked and looked around.

“Dude, wake up,” Milo whispered.

Sebastian straightened up and stared around. Then he remembered that he was there to study. The lesson had been so unexciting, and the teacher’s voice so lulling that he had fallen asleep.

“Mr. Martin!” The teacher’s voice boomed.

She was an elderly woman dressed in clothes that looked fit as a home for moths. 

Finally, he understood that she was calling for him. Her small owlish eyes were also set on him, which was another sign. “Yes?” he replied.

“Will you be so kind and come here?”

He stood up and walked to the blackboard on which symbols were written. Oh, yes, that was math, and he had learned new things last night. Apparently, they were a bit more advanced in the study of that topic in this world.

“Don’t just stand there. Solve the equation.” The teacher pointed at the symbols.

Sebastian turned and looked at them. Yes, he was starting to remember something. “X multiplied by --” he began.

“Here.” The teacher threw a piece of chalk at him. 

Now, he recalled everything.

“For the record, Mr. Martin, if you fail to solve this, your grades are going to suffer quite a bit.”

“Suffer? Do you intend to torture them? How?” he asked, puzzled.

Soft snickers could be heard from the class. 

“Ah, you think yourself smart, on top of everything.”

“I do not think myself smart. I am smart,” Sebastian replied, triggering another bout of laughter from the class.

The teacher’s owlish eyes grew wide. “Then prove it.” She tapped against the table with her knuckles.

He turned toward the blackboard. Yes, he remembered this quite well. His hand began to dance on the surface. Math had been one of the many topics he had been taught while growing up. And he enjoyed a challenge. 

The entire class fell silent, and it appeared that everyone was scribbling on their papers. The teacher tapped her foot while watching him. She looked a bit like a witch. Maybe she was there to test him.

Very well. He would not falter. And it was good that finally, everyone was silent.

He finished and turned toward the teacher. She was staring at him in disbelief. “Where have you been all these years of high school, Mr. Martin?”

Oh, it was a question meant to catch him in a tangle of lies. Maybe she wanted him to deny his true nature. But he had always faced witches without running or hiding. “I’ve been fighting monsters and protecting the land,” he said proudly, squaring his shoulders.

This time, the class erupted. Sebastian couldn’t fathom why they reacted as if he were some jester brought there for their entertainment. 

“Go back to your place!” The teacher yelled, now red in the face. “And stop being a smartass!”

A smartass? What did his behind have to do with his intellect?

“Dude,” Milo whispered at him from his right, “what was that all about?”

Maybe his decision to answer honestly had been wrong. “I just said it in jest,” he told Milo, also in a whisper. 

“In what?” Milo leaned toward him more, unable to hear him over the commotion in the room.

“Mr. Bennett, stop talking to Mr. Martin! Quiet, everyone!”

She slammed her palm against her desk. Everyone fell silent.

So, Sebastian found himself saying out loud, “What a witch!”, rightfully impressed by her ability to steal everyone’s ability to speak.

“That’s it, Mr. Martin! I don’t care that you appear to have turned into a math genius overnight! You’re going straight to detention after classes!”

“Am I to be jailed?” he asked, utterly flabbergasted and forgetting that he was speaking in a too formal manner for a high school student. “What for?”

“For being a smartass!” the teacher yelled again.

Sebastian fell quiet. He didn’t have his magic, and this witch was sending him to jail. For the moment, he would accept his fate only so he could have a deeper understanding of what the curse wanted from him.

***

The ring of the bell announced the recess, and the witch left the room. Sebastian had a mind to go after her and provoke her, but he felt that he was too weak in this world to emerge victorious from such an encounter. 

“Dude,” Milo started. “What the hell, man? You don’t just provoke Mrs. Marwin like that.”

If only he had realized that before ending up in jail. “Is she going to send guards after me?”

Any moment now, that would happen.

“No, man.” Milo snickered. “But it’s a bummer that you got detention. You won’t see me practice.”

“Or sweaty, and then naked, taking a shower,” Sebastian said matter-of-factly.

Milo blushed and punched him in the shoulder. “Dude, what the hell?” he mumbled.

Someone brushed his hair forcefully from the back to his face. Sebastian turned, in righteous outrage, only to be met by an ugly, pig-like face. The young man was large and smelled of grease. He pushed himself into Sebastian’s face. “Am I to be jailed?” he mocked in a high-pitched voice.

“I beg your pardon?” Sebastian ran his hands through his hair.

“Chet, cut it out, man,” Milo intervened.

“What?” the pig-faced young man asked. “I didn’t do anything. Stop protecting your girlfriend so much. What, he can’t defend himself or something?”

Sebastian noted the presence of two other boys, relatively as ugly as Chet, right behind him. He was about to open his mouth when Milo spoke again. “Chet, beat it. Or we’ll have a problem.”

“All right, man. Whatever.” Chet brushed by him on his way out, followed closely by the other two. “Fucking nerd,” he whispered.

What was that, a nerd? He had so many other questions to ask his phone. He took it out of his pocket, decided to learn the meaning of that word right away.

“Don’t mind them,” Milo said. “They’re just douchebags.”

“Who is your girlfriend?” Sebastian asked while typing quickly on his phone. 

“Are you kidding me now? They’ve been teasing us since forever.”

“I’m not kidding,” Sebastian protested. 

“You’re such a weirdo,” Milo said with affection, “but you’re my weirdo.” He took him by the shoulders. “Come, let’s stretch our legs a little.”

***

During the last period, Sebastian began to understand that he appeared to be doing a lot better in school than Kai Martin had used to. However, the curse seemed to involve graduating, and there was only one way to secure that, according to the teachers: study hard.

He was overly conscious of the curious eyes staring at him from all directions as the French words rolled off his tongue with ease. This teacher, unlike Mrs. Marwin, was much younger and had a pleasant demeanor. She appeared engrossed with him as they conversed, and for the entire duration of the class, she didn’t care about the other students. Maybe she was a good witch, and it would be advisable to have her on his side.

The dreaded time had come to be escorted to his cell. Milo had kindly informed him that he would only be in detention for two hours, so it wasn’t that hard a sentence. Of course, Sebastian had feared to ask him if any torture was involved, but he was bracing himself for the worse. As an enforcer of the law in his position as a prince, he understood that obeying the law was essential for his survival in this world.

He walked into a classroom not much different from the one he had just been in. Other boys and girls were there, apparently for the same reason. So far, this detention didn’t appear so bad.

He took place at a desk and waited patiently for the jailer to speak. The jailer was a man in his forties dressed up quite unconventionally. From what Sebastian could gather, he looked like a Physical Education teacher.

“All right,” he said. “Everyone, surrender your phones.”

Sebastian stood there, in stunned silence, as the others shuffled around and placed their phones inside a crate. No, that couldn’t be. “That’s not fair,” he said out loud. “My life depends on it!”

“Martin, it’s not often that I see your face in here. But now, please, hurry up, before you make your situation worse.”

Worse? Sebastian didn’t want to know what that meant. What could be worse than having his phone taken away from him?

With wooden moves, he walked over to the teacher’s desk and gave up his phone. He dragged his feet back. What would he do without his phone? It was his only way of understanding this strange world!

He sank into his seat and covered his face with his hands. He would have to find another way.

What a cruel and unusual punishment!

TBC